maskormenace | 013 ♍ VIDEO

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013 ♍ VIDEO

[ Kanaya turns on the camera, glancing at a distant point to the side, wearing a great scowl. ]

Have you ever had those days when you've had to empty out your savings to relocate friends whose lives are in active danger?

Well, happy birthday to me.

[ She finally looks at the camera directly, as Ashiah can be seen bumbling across the wall behind her. ] I think it's time to admit I need a new weapon. The Porter recently took the one I've relied upon for years, and this [ She brings her hand up, holding a large knife. ] has proven a feeble replacement. I'd prefer something with more weight and reach, something that can actually deal damage. Motorized, if possible.

So, I'm open to suggestions. If you craft any yourself, sell me on your product. I'm willing to learn something new, but no firearms. They don't agree with my style.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm glad they had you to take care of them. They're really lucky, you know; a lot of other people would have just left them.

Or... not just leave them, I guess. Who would want to hurt them?

This is going to sound fake, like something out of a terrible story, but bear with me.

Werewolves.

...Werewolves. I mean, the werewolf thing is believable, but I thought that that rivalry was just, like, in hokey fantasy novels. Unless the werewolves had a reason for attacking a bunch of innocent vampires?

You and I both! At least, until I found the murder I'd been hunting, and here we are.

It's like living in someone's poorly written joke.

Wait -- was that the only reason? He's a werewolf, and that means he doesn't like vampires? There's gotta be more than that to it.

It was the crux of it. I imagine he has some sort of prejudice inspired by his source world, but the only thing his victims would have to do with any of it is that they had the misfortune of being vampires!

That basically sounds like supernatural racism. Maybe that should be a thing in courts these days, 'cause I'm pretty sure attacking someone 'cause of what they are counts as a hate crime.

I don't know if it counts exactly as racism. Vampires aren't a race, I'm not even the same species as most other vampires I've met.

Still, it's something of a similar principle, an assumption that the mere existence of a condition demands that it must conduct itself in the worst imaginable way. And even then, this isn't exactly the first time I've encountered the attitude, either. I can by all means understand initial wariness, but this is something else.

I know I can think of at least one person who might have done this months ago, had I not been standing in the way.

Yeah, not literally racism, but, like, racismish.

[Congratulations, Jaime; you just summarized the entirety of X-Men.]

The last person who wanted to do this -- did he change his mind, or is he still gunning for them?

[ It's a bit surprising, for as many X-Men as she's met, she only caught a hint at their circumstances from Tony Stark a month ago. But then, maybe they don't feel like preaching it at a gay vampire alien, like she doesn't know how unfriendly humanity can be. ]

I'm not sure I quite understand what you're asking. Do you mean the one who was actually doing this last week, or just the hypotheticals who might've, given the opportunity?

The last person. It sounds like you've taken care of the one who was actually doing it last week. Asking for a new weapon is a big hint.

Those are more hypothetical than concrete. But there was a time when anyone who knew told me I was wrong to let them remain alive.

You'd think that of all people, imPorts would realize how rough it is being different. Especially not-human different.

I'm glad you were there to help them.

You might think, but underneath their conditions, be it vampirism, lycanthrophy, magic, or just interdimensional diaspora, most of them are still human. And yet, you lot still like to draw those lines in the sand, between what counts and what doesn't.

It's all for the sake of making more easily justified targets. They aren't the same as one's own group, therefore they aren't human, and their lives don't matter.

When you already do this to each other, what chance might someone with no relation to humanity stand?

[Maybe Jaime should latch onto and take offense to that you lot, but it's hard to when his own humanity is debatable; oh, he's human all right, but he feels a little less than that and a little more than that when his veins run electric.]

We got reason to want us to be better than that. I mean, I get your point and everything, but there's not that many of us. You'd think that since every single one of us has met someone who's not human, they'd figure out that hating each other based on nothing makes no sense.

But, uh... preaching to the choir, I know.

[ Of course, she'd probably find the debate about his humanity just as dubious as most vampires she's met. But then, he'd have more of an argument. ]

Well, meeting people of other species doesn't preclude hating them. That sort of hatred rarely makes sense, but that does nothing to keep it from happening.

I guess not.

[He feels as though he knows the answer to this question, given how wary everyone's been of Khaji, but he has to ask it anyway.]

Have you really met that many imPorts that hate you because you're not human...?

Well, I don't necessarily mean imPorts exclusively. And hate may be too strong a word.

More often it's a palpable unease.

...yeah. Yeah, that makes more sense. I'm not sure if I can blame the natives -- no offense or anything, but I wouldn't blame 'em for not being sure of any imPort, not only the non-humans.

[Crane, Hisoka, Pan, Lucifer... how could they feel safe amongst that sort of thing? He smiles at her, though it's a weak, twitching sort of thing.]

But most of the guys who've actually caused trouble at least look human. Jury's out on whether or not they are.

[ Kanaya purses her lips as she considers that, ultimately relenting. ]

No, you're right. For that I wouldn't blame them, if it felt less specifically targeted, and more broadly across all imPorts.

But I suppose we have the misfortune of being more visibly imPorted, if that were the case.

Yeah. Exactly. Most of the time, if I'm just walking around, I pretend like I'm not an imPort.

[He shrugs. It's not that he's ashamed, or that he won't step out if the situation calls for it, but he loathes attention. Pretending to be a native is just easier.]

You guys can't really do that.

There was a time I could, but to pretend I'm not an imPort, I would need to pretend I was a human.

[ The look on her face definitely doesn't make that sound like any kind of a prospect she'd care for. Not that she hadn't done it a few times, but she feels embarrassed of them in hindsight. ]

Yeah... I don't think anyone really wants to pretend to be something they're not. It'd be a different story if we didn't all get taken to a different Earth, huh?

[Then they'd be the weird ones! Then again, Jaime's not so sure that he wouldn't just walk around in-uniform all the time if that was considered to be the norm. He dislikes attention enough to go to such lengths.]

We could have been brought to another planet entirely, where we would all be aliens. But then, I can't help but wonder if there wouldn't be a much smaller percentage of humans, were that the case.

[ It would make a kind of sense, bringing human imPorts to Earth, despite all the inexplicable exceptions. On another planet, the same ratios would be much weirder. ]

Probably. There has to be some reason for most of us being human, when the Porter can obviously take people from all over the universe -- and even when they do, most non-humans know that we exist, even if most humans don't think life on other planets exists. Plus, I mean... most of the non-humans are, uh, what's the word?

[He looks up, staring off-screen. He knows they covered this in science class...]

Bipedal! Two eyes, usually a nose and a mouth. I know there's more than people like that out there.

[And yet what ends up here? Humans, or people that look at least somewhat like them. He has, perhaps, had too much time to consider the whims of the Porter.]

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