tw: brief mentions of the holocaust and slavery

obsessed with the idea of keefe stumbling into an american university and just walking into a us history lecture and finding it interesting so he keeps going. and he learns about how the us government has term limits and a system of checks and balances to prevent one group from becoming too powerful, and thinks about how that could be applied to the council. he learns about how women had to fight for their right to vote and are still fighting for equal rights and thinks about how those with lesser abilities need to work harder to be in the nobility. he learns about slavery, and thinks about how the elves did nothing to stop the enslavement and abuse of thousands upon thousands of humans. he finds a computer and does his own research.

he learns about the ADA, and how it is illegal in the united states to discriminate against someone on the basis of disability, and he connects it to the talentless not getting the chance to be nobility solely because of their lack of ability. in the same vein, he reads about therapists and mental health professionals. about how working with a mental health professional can help someone through their mental and emotion issues. he thinks about how if marella's mom had someone like that in addition to elixirs, maybe she wouldn't go through all that scorn. he comes across cps, and thinks about how if he or tam or linh had a support like that to help stop the verbal abuse they all went through, maybe they would be better off. he reads about the civil rights movement, and how if millions of black americans had not put their foot down and forced action from the people in power, they would not have gotten their rights. and he thinks about how the gnomes had to practically demand the council to say something about the plague. he reads about world war 2 and is horrified at how the elves did nothing to prevent the millions that were killed, and how they instead pulled the human assistance program entirely. he reads about eugenics, and is disgusted with the realization that this is what matchmaking is.

he reads about the horrific loss of life all over the world that could have been prevented. that should have been prevented. by elves. his people. and he thinks about how so many of these events can compare to elvin history. and he can barely stomach being able to call himself an elf anymore.

he thinks about something he's thought about many times. that the lost cities needs to change. but for the first time he seriously considers that they should change like the forbidden cities. that elves have plenty to learn from the people they shut out. he is determined to take what he's learned and to spark that change.

because it's one thing to go from one deeply damaged world to a perceived perfect one. but it's another thing entirely to come from the perfect one and go to the damaged one and be hit with the realization that their awful past is your world's present.