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itsawhumpsideblog · 2 months

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The Safehouse, pt. 15

CW: for institutionalized slavery, mentions of abuse, treatment of people as things, description of injuries

Advice from the Box Boy Liberation Movement

During the rescuee's first days and weeks in a Safehouse, much of the staff's time will be spent helping them with the most basic aspects of their new lives. Rescuees will need to become accustomed to new schedules, the layout of a home, and emerging group norms around eating, chores, how to spend free time, and interpersonal interaction. As they become accustomed to schedules and more comfortable in the presence of other members of the household, rescuees will begin to need additional things to occupy their time. Safehouse staff members are encouraged to find methods of enrichment and entertainment that can help rescuees develop necessary skills, ideally without causing rescuees to feel that they have been given an assignment or are unwelcome to exercise their own will.*

*In the event that rescuees express a desire for more formal education, your BBLM contacts can assist.

After that first busy week, Angie and Tim realized that they would need to find something to do to keep everyone occupied. Nathan was all but confined to bed or the couch, since standing for long and using crutches could be tiring. Francis remained feverish and bore his considerable pain with a sort of quiet dignity, but they reasoned that he must be bored. Worst of all, poor Mikey was still waiting for their contacts to call with a date and time for his medical treatment.

It had been almost two weeks and Tim and Angie were debating the merits of calling their contacts to make a fuss. Without the surgery he needed, Mikey had very limited use of his hands and arms and difficulty doing things for himself. He couldn't eat, dress, or bathe without assistance and it was hard for him to stand up or to kneel (he still would not consent to sit on the furniture, something Francis seemed to be getting accustomed to since learning that they were free.)

Even worse, Nathan reported that Mikey slept fitfully and sometimes had night terrors; this was also how Angie and Tim learned that Francis got out of bed to care for him. It was sweet, they agreed, but they worried that the interrupted rest was harmful to all three of the rescuees, to say nothing of the damage Francis might be doing by standing and walking.

On good days, Mikey held his head up and looked around the room at whatever was going on, smiled, and could look Francis or Nathan in the eye, though he was still shy around Tim and Angie. He even helped with small tasks when he could, like moving pillows to straighten up the living room, or bringing Angie the loaf of bread when she made sandwiches for lunch.

On bad days, however, Mikey dropped to his knees on his pillow, next to Nathan's spot on the couch, and stared at the floor. They could see dark circles under his eyes and he cradled his arms to his chest, holding them protectively. On those days, he could barely eat and they didn't try to force him, beyond making sure that he had enough in his stomach to safely take painkillers. He simply withdrew into himself and rocked back and forth for hours on end, in terrible pain that they were powerless to ease. Sometimes, they could tell that he was crying, noiselessly and without moving, but leaving small wet spots on the front of his shirt.

Angie had her bright idea on a good day, when the painkillers seemed to be helping a little and Mikey knelt on his pillow listening while Francis and Nathan talked quietly. They were discussing the show that was on television- it was the Great British Bake-Off, which Tim and Angie liked to put on to encourage the rescuees to begin having opinions.

It was scary, they had realized, for Francis to tell them what he wanted to eat for breakfast, or for Mikey to pick out his own clothes. But when they put on Bake-Off, it was almost impossible- even for former Pets- not to have an opinion on the bakes. Angie and Tim had gone into the other room to high-five each other the day Francis had observed, very quietly, "Francis doesn't think that Paul Hollywood is going to like that," and then added, very quietly, almost under his breath, "And Francis doesn't like it, either."

Not surprisingly, Nathan was perfectly comfortable being vocal about his opinion on things that didn't really matter and weren't being done by anyone in the house, especially since the bakers would never hear him. Though he also struggled with expressing that he needed something from Tim or Angie specifically, he was happy to share his thoughts on baking and this encouraged the other rescuees. So, Bake-Off became a regular fixture in their routine.

It was during an episode of Bake-Off that Angie noticed Mikey sit up a little straighter and peer curiously at the screen. He turned to Nathan and raised an eyebrow, looking back and forth from the screen to his friend. He cocked his head slightly, the signal that he had a question.

"What are they doing with their hands?" Nathan asked. Mikey nodded.

"That's sign language," he explained. "She's deaf, so that guy is interpreting for her- telling her what everyone else is saying while they say it."

Mikey still looked intrigued. His eyes widened and his eyebrows lifted.

"Yeah, presumably everything," Nathan said. "Are they allowed to leave stuff out?"

"I don't think so," Angie said, without thinking about it. "I think a good interpreter is, like, legally required to interpret everything that's said."

They fell silent again until, after a moment, the idea dawned on Angie like a new day. "Mikey," she exclaimed, forgetting for a moment the calm demeanor she was usually careful to wear in front of the rescuees, so as not to startle them. "You could do that!"

He looked up in her direction, the closest he had come to looking her in the eye.

As the first shock of realization wore off, Angie immediately began to worry that she was being pushy or asking too much, damaged as his own hands were. "I mean, you don't have to. But if we all learned some signs, you might be able to- well, not talk, but..."

Mikey still couldn't look at her, but his eyes were sparkling and there was a definite upward tilt to the corners of his mouth.

"What do you think?" Nathan asked, in case Mikey would be more comfortable having an opinion if it was Nathan he had to communicate with.

Mikey's eyes darted down to his hands, over to the television, and then up to Nathan, one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah," Nathan replied. "Even with your hands. I mean, you could start learning and we'll know what it looks like when you sign something. And then when your hands are better maybe it'll be easier to sign and you'll already know how, a little bit." Mikey thought for a moment, then actually smiled and nodded and Angie could cheerfully have cried.

But she held herself together and they finished the episode- stopping in the middle seemed unkind, as entranced as they all were.

"Think you're ready to start learning?" Angie asked Mikey when the star baker had been announced and the credits had begun to roll. He looked shy and she knew she wasn't going to get a direct response. "Well... let's try it."

It was as simple as searching for a video and picking one that looked like it began at the very beginning. It took them a moment to remember that, of course, there didn't need to be sound in this video, though the enthusiastic young man on camera had provided subtitles for hearing audiences. For Francis' sake, Tim read them aloud while their teacher began the lesson.

By the end of the video, they had all practiced basic greetings and when the next video autoplayed, they let it go. By the time Tim stood up to cook, they had watched the first four videos in the series.

After dinner they didn't go right back to learning, but Mikey continued to practice, moving through his new vocabulary as best he could. When Angie fed him, he signed thank you and when they went upstairs he wished them all good night for the first time.

It was immediately clear that the ability to sign, even painfully and inaccurately, using only his right hand, was important to Mikey. He couldn't seem to get enough of learning and practiced vocabulary as best he could until he was visibly shaking with the effort and they had to turn the videos off to keep him from hurting himself. Even then, he insisted on signing thank you and This pet is grateful whenever anything was done for him.

Angie almost regretted that they had learned the sign "pet" at all, but even though he signed like Francis talked, Mikey almost shone with the pleasure of being able to communicate again. Angie couldn't bring herself to ask what had happened to his voice, knowing that it couldn't be good, and tried to be content instead with the joy that signing brought him.

Not all days were good days, however.

It was a week after they began learning to sign that Mikey tripped- over a spot in the rug, they decided later, nothing that they could have foreseen and fixed. He had simply stepped oddly and lost his balance and went down before Tim or Angie could have gotten across the room to catch him.

He caught himself primarily on his right arm, which was better than the alternative, but he hit the ground full-length and there was a long moment in which all four of his housemates stared at him in horrified shock as he lay stretched across the middle of the room.

Then Angie and Tim finally snapped back to themselves and leapt up to crouch on either side of him. Tim began examining his right arm for signs of additional damage, speaking softly in a voice that he was clearly working to control.

Nathan was almost writhing where he sat, desperate but unable to go to his friend; it was Francis who rose, a little more slowly than Tim and Angie had. His training as a Pet kicked in and he barely winced as he put weight on his feet and walked the few tentative steps to drop to his knees by Mikey's head.

Mikey's eyes were squeezed closed when Francis knelt and smoothed his hand over Mikey's furrowed forehead. Mikey looked like he wanted to cry out, but couldn't. He twisted his head from side to side, cradled in Francis' hands.

"I don't think there's any new damage," Tim said at last. His voice was thin and dry and he looked anxiously across at Angie.

"Good," she said, sounding no better. "But we have to call them. They have to do something."

"Yeah." Tim took a deep breath and turned back to his patient. "But let's get him comfortable. Then you can call and rip somebody a new one." He smiled very thinly at her, with no humor in his face at all.

Their first attempt to help Mikey up failed spectacularly. Tim and Angie slid their arms under his back and began to lift him, as gently as they knew how, but his eyes fluttered and closed and he sagged bonelessly in their arms as he fainted.

The second time, they managed to get him sitting up, propped forward with his legs splayed out in front of him. His eyes were unfocused as if he was very dizzy and he was trembling all over. He had his arms back in that protective position and when he began to rock in his usual self-soothing habit, Francis put a steadying arm around him to keep him from falling over again. Mikey's eyes fluttered as he struggled to stay conscious.

"Straight up to bed, I think," Tim said. "Just get it over with and then let him stay there as long as he needs. It'll be better that way."

On the third attempt, they at last got Mikey swaying to his feet and linked their arms around him to guide him to the stairs. He had his feet under him somewhat by then and although it felt like a longer climb than usual, he was able to support himself.

In the room, Tim and Angie helped Mikey stretch out in bed, propped up with pillows under his elbows to support his arms, which lay across his stomach. They took turns sitting by the bed; they couldn't leave him alone in case there was anything at all he needed. At dinner time, he was unable to eat and simply sat very still, staring blankly across the room. Angie had to make a real effort not to cry; Mikey had been doing so well, even getting a few words back, and now, for the moment, it was as if none of that progress had ever taken place.

She would call someone and make them schedule time for him in the hospital. She would do whatever it took- there had a to be a story they could tell, some lie that would explain why he had no ID and couldn't speak, and the awful injuries they would need to treat...

Later. She would deal with it when Mikey was asleep.

When Francis and Nathan came up to bed, they found Mikey sitting as he had all the rest of that day, looking horribly sick, pale and blank-faced from the suffering he had been trained to endure silently. Nathan limped over to the bed, shuffling as close as he could, and gently ruffled Mikey's hair.

"Sorry, buddy," he whispered. "I'm so sorry." Mikey's eyes flicked in his direction, but his expression did not change and his hands did not move.

Francis, too, was watching Mikey with such sorrow in his eyes that Tim, who was helping him to bed, carried Francis over. Wordlessly, Francis put a hand out and smoothed Mikey's hair, stroking it a few times before nodding to Tim. Tim laid him in bed and pulled the blanket up for him, but all four of them were still watching Mikey.

Once Tim and Angie had done all they could to make Mikey comfortable, he at last closed his eyes and they left the room, pulling the door quietly shut behind them.

"I'm going to make a phone call," Angie said, looking very determined. Tim nodded.

"It's time."

Next time: They finally get the call Mikey has been waiting for, possibly because Angie bullied someone.

Master List

Notes: @whumpsday was kind enough to let me know that a couple of the tags weren't working. Hopefully they're fixed now- at least, when I hover over them, I get the little drop-down that would take me to your blogs, so I'm optimistic? If not and you have any suggestions for what I might be doing wrong, let me know and I'll do my best to correct it!

As Mikey is not d/Deaf, nor is anyone in the Safehouse, he's not familiar with Deaf culture and is more using Signed English than an actual, grammatically correct sign language. His dialogue will be in italics to connote that it's signed, rather than spoken. Pursuant to a little research, this will change as he becomes more fluent and graduates to expressing himself in full sentences. Though cursory research doesn’t turn up total consensus on whether italics are rude, the d/Deaf authors whose advice I found in my google search seem in agreement that ordinary dialogue markers are always fine. To be safe, I’ll go with the option I can most guarantee is polite!

Also, forgetting that signed videos don't need sounds is 100% something that happened in my high school ASL class (not to me). Our teacher said there was someone every year who said they turned the volume all the way up but nothing happened!

Tag list: @pigeonwhumps, @cepheusgalaxy, @i-eat-worlds, @honeycollectswhump @taterswhump, @starfields08000 @whumpsday, @fruitypinapple00, @currentlyinthesprial

#bbu #box boy universe #box boy whump #whump #whumpee #the safehouse #pet whump

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t100fic-for-blm · 3 years

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For Black History Month we're highlighting our talented black creators. This is the wonderful Kara @queenemori. Enjoy part 1 of our interview with her about her creations, her creative process and fandom.

Check out Kara’s AO3!

Wanna Prompt Kara? Click here. 1. How and when did you become involved in t100 fandom?

So I actually started out watching the show more casually in 2017. I binged two seasons with my friend while I was visiting her for a weekend, then put it down for a very long time. Cut to 2019 when I wasn’t really watching anything and I noticed a gifset of Murphy and Emori from 3x05 on Tumblr and I said “That guy’s still alive? And he’s got a girlfriend?” So I started watching again mainly because I was shook he’d survived. I caught up in time to watch season 6 as it aired. As I was catching up, I also started reading fanfic, mainly Bellarke and a couple Murven things since that’s what I came across. And I got the idea for You’re Already Breaking My Heart, my To All the Boys AU, which I thought of before I picked which ship I would do, so fun fact, it was almost Murven! I got a lot of positive feedback on that story, and it even got nominated in that year’s iteration of the Bellarke Fic Awards and I had a few other story ideas so I figured it might be fun to stick around.

2. What is the best part of being a part of t100 fandom?

I’ve met so many amazing writers! I have written for other fandoms before, but I kind of just wrote a couple things and then left, which is honestly what I thought I’d do with this fandom too. But all my writer friends I’ve made have been so supportive and nice, especially as I branch out and write for lots of different ships. And it’s been fun to just talk about our projects and bounce ideas off of each other.

3. What was your favorite episode of t100?

Your favorite season? Fave episode hands down 4x07 Gimme Shelter. And my fave season is season 2!

4. Who is your favorite character on t100?

If it is not already rather obvious, it’s Emori lol. Though, Murphy is like a close second or more like 1.5 because I love them both a great deal and I’m indecisive.

5. What’s your favorite character headcanon?

I like to think of headcanons for Spacekru’s time on the Ring. Emori didn’t used to be much of a hugger before she ended up on the Ring, but I kind of imagine that she and Bellamy used to just hang out and talk to each other, especially when he was sad. And one day as they’re getting up to leave he hugs her and I think the only person she’s ever hugged at this point is Murphy so she doesn’t know what to make of it at first? But then she hugs Raven when Raven seems a little stressed and it seems to calm her down so then she’s like, “Oh is this something that makes people feel better?” So then Emori is known as the person in the group who will give out hugs when people need them. She likes being able to cheer people up.

#black creators #black excellence #black history month #bhm #bblm #the 100 #t100 #the 100 fandom #the 100 writers #t100fic4bhm #t100fic4blm

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