#juniper johnson

[marauders4evr]

I had to lead four discussions on eugenics, today, while making sure that the students didn't do The Thing. You know The Thing? Here's an excerpt based on The Defectives Trilogy to showcase The Thing:

"Should we kill disabled superheroes?"

Juniper gaped at Professor Matthews. He unrepentantly stared her down, until the teenager grabbed her wheelchair handrims, lest she needed to retreat. She tried to reason that if she could survive fights with Ace City's supervillains, she could probably survive a single lesson. Then again, she had befriended most of those supervillains.

It was Blue who raised a wing and asked, "Why would anyone want to kill disabled superheroes? Isn't institutionalizing us enough?"

"Well, that's what we're going to be debating!" Professor Matthews' smile slid across his slimy face. "This side of the room is going to prepare an argument for why disabled superheroes should be killed."

"Having died before," Juniper spoke up, "I can say that I'd much rather be alive. I can't drink chocolate milk if I'm dead."

"Your side isn't advocating for life," snapped the man. "You're supposed to be advocating for disabled superheroes to die."

"Yeah, but, see, I'm not going to do that, since that goes against everything I metaphorically stand for."

"Think of it as being the devil's advocate."

"Hey, why does the devil get advocates, but disabled people don't?" Juniper wondered. At that moment, she noticed Ryder wheeling past the door. "Speak of the devil."

Raising her hand, she telekinetically brought her mentor's wheelchair into the room. "Hey, Ryder, should we kill disabled superheroes?"

Not missing a beat, the elderly man said, "'Can't drink chocolate milk if you're dead."

She pointed at him in vindication, only for the other professor to say, "We're debating whether disabled superheroes should be killed, for educational purposes."

"What the hell kind of education is that? Most of these students are disabled superheroes, themselves, or surrounded by disabled superheroes. You can't make 'em debate the value of their own lives. Are you really going to make them listen to their classmates discuss why they should die? Are you going to make them say that?"

"It's for edu-"

"You want an educational debate?" He raised his hand, telekinetically lifting the man and Juniper's mood. "Let's debate the ethics of throwing a eugenicist through the window."

---

I can't be Ryder (mostly for annoying ethical reasons) but I can make sure that no student has to do The Thing.

[writingdollworlds]

I finally got all my dolls in new clothes, I've been getting side tracked and haven't had time to put them in the display but here's the new outfits!

So pretty! I love Kirstens new dress so much. Also I put Sam and Saige like so there hair would dry better ^^

[marauders4evr]

The exact dynamic of my wheelchair-using super'hero' characters:

Ryder: Look at me, kid.

Juniper: Stop calling me that!

Minnie: There we go!

Jack: Minnie, you're not helping.

Minnie: Good.

[marauders4evr]

I'm emotional from JH's Memorial Service, it's International Women's Day, and I don't actually need a reason to write these characters interacting, so have an excerpt from The Defectives 3 that crosses over with The Antagonists series:

[Juniper's a wheelchair-using, telekinetic, teenager, living at an academy for students with superabilities and disabilities in the AU-1950s. Ryder's her elderly, wheelchair-using, telekinetic, mentor / father-figure. Minnie's a wheelchair-using woman from the AU-Present with her own story. She's time-traveling, here, as one does.]

"This is the obstacle course!" Juniper said, excitedly bouncing in her chair. "Ryder has me wheel through this every morning and evening. He sets the barriers up in different formations and I have to try to avoid them or telekinetically move them."

Minnie contemplatively stared at the maze. "So, in a world where you're already facing barriers, Ryder makes you face even more?"

"It's empowering," said the teenager. "If I can navigate the barriers, here, I can navigate the barriers in the rest of my life, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess it's good that he's teaching you to ... navigate them."

Juniper beamed. "Can I show you?"

"Go for it," Minnie said, grinning at the younger Super's enthusiasm.

The blonde girl zoomed forward, her wheelchair spinning around and around, as she weaved in and out of the different barriers. Minnie proudly looked on as Juniper reached the center, whooping with pride, before making her way back to the edge. At the last second, a barrier hit her wheel, causing her chair to tip. Minnie reached forward but Juniper telekinetically caught herself, pushing the chair back into its rightful position. She made it to the end, taking a bow.

"That was amazing," Minnie cried, causing Juniper to sit tall, "but can I show you how disabled people face barriers in the 21st century?"

"Um, sure?"

Minnie raised her palm and a blast of brown light shattered the nearest barrier; her sword slashed the remaining pieces into minuscule fragments of their former selves. The splinters fell to the floor alongside Juniper's jaw.

"Oh...oh!"

The student wasted no time in becoming the master, steel balls springing up around her as she charged back through the course. This time, she struck, she fought, she brought the barriers down. She ripped them right from their sockets, using her weights and fists to send others to the ground, all while shrieking with absolute euphoria.

Minnie watched from the sidelines, her smile touching either ear. She occasionally sent out a blast of magic, or swung her sword, to keep the flying debris from striking her. She gave Ryder no such protection, causing him to telekinetically deflect the flying pieces, as he wheeled over. "What the shite is going on out here?"

"I'm teaching Juniper how to navigate a world filled with obstacles," Minnie said. "You stick with your teaching style, I'll stick with mine."

Ryder stared at his mentee before saying, "No, no, I'll stick with your teaching style. Let's tear these barriers down!"

---

Let's.

[marauders4evr]

One of the best life hacks I found was that my campus bike hub can repair my wheelchair, though admittedly, I still prefer Ryder's method of wheelchair-fixing! [An excerpt from The Defectives 3]

 “Somebody needs to buy you kids better booze," Ryder said, wheeling into the kitchen. "You didn’t drink anything, did you?”

Juniper miserably shook her head. 

Ryder paused, taking in the sight of his mentee sitting on a linoleum floor, her eyes wet, her face blotchy, her dress covered with dirt, her hair a tangled mess. At last, he said, “Well, that’s good, that booze is terrible. You deserve some quality stuff, the first time you drink.”

Her lips twitched. "I can always steal your booze.”

“Try it and I’ll steal your wheelchair out from underneath ‘ya.” She knew that he wasn’t bluffing. “Speaking of wheelchairs, let me see yours. Eesh, yeah, it's broken. Downright defective. Fortunately, I know how to deal with defective things.”

She smirked at that.

“I also know the perfect guests to invite to a teenage party,” Ryder said, gesturing to the doorway. “The mob.”

Squid and Rocco happily entered. Juniper enthusiastically said their names, well aware that her nondisabled friends had pressed up against the wall, Deborah muttering, “What? What? Why? What?”

Juniper merely grinned as Ace City's mob fixed her wheelchair.

---

Bike Hubs 🤝 The Mob Repairing Wheelchairs

[marauders4evr]

Have an excerpt based on The Defectives Trilogy, which is an unabashed example of me projecting onto my characters:

"Are you two all right?" Professor Hakim asked.

Juniper's response was muffled since her face was planted on top of her mentor's desk: "Are we ever?"

Down on the floor, Ryder snorted, before giving his partner a more thorough answer: "We're crippled, we're existential, we might also be sick, who's to say? It's raining, the fire alarm went off at 2:00 AM, and we've been through one life-changing experience after another, for several nonstop years. No, we ain't all right, and I ain't moving from this floor, unless the academy is under attack. Even then, I might just stay here; nothing says we have to be superheroes."

"Except for the whole 'being superheroes' thing." Juniper let out a jaw-cracking yawn. "Is the academy under attack?"

"No, no," Professor Hakim quickly said. "Juniper, sweetheart, if you're so tired, why are you working on your assignment?"

"It's due tomorrow."

"Well, why don't you wait until tomorrow?"

Despite the reverence that Juniper had for the elderly woman, she couldn't help but give Professor Hakim a look of pure incredulity. Ryder lifted his head, mirroring his mentee's expression, their replies in near-perfect-sync: "In case I'm worse." / "In case she's worse."

"See, us cripples are constantly dancing with time," Ryder said, the back of his head thumping against his dusty floorboards. "Sometimes, it leads, sometimes, we lead. Either way, we're tired."

"But even though I'm tired, and I am so, so, tired," said Juniper, "I know that it's dangerous to put things off when you're crippled."

"Otherwise, you might not get that chance, again," Ryder mumbled.

"Mmhm." Professor Hakim was skeptical. "If you two acknowledge the dangers of putting things off, why have you both been putting off the conversation on how you view one another as family?"

Said family spoke as one: "We're preserving energy."

---

Crip time is an actual concept. I am Not A Fan but I am a dancer.

[marauders4evr]

An excerpt from Reputation (that also crosses over with characters from The Antagonists / The Defectives, because of course it does):

"Do you remember what I said, moments before I used medical tape to swing my wheelchair off the hospital roof?" Jack asked. "I do, since memory is my superability and all. I said, verbatim, 'Cattie, Lucy, don't you ever try this at home.'"

"Yeah, I remember," Cattie huffed. "I told you that I didn't have a home 'cause my foster parents abandoned me at the hospital."

"And then I told you to not try it at the hospital. And what did you do? You tried wheeling off the roof of the goddamn hospital!"

Cattie helplessly glanced at the other adults in the room, all of whom were sympathetic, neither of whom were going to stop Jack's righteous rant. It was up to her to try: "Yeah, but, that was your fault."

"Oh, no, I already went through my guilt-ridden existential crisis. Now, it's your turn. Well, don't have an existential crisis, 0/10 recommend, but at least realize that falling off roofs is a Bad Thing."

"Yeah, you've mentioned that," said one wheelchair-user to another, "but, like, you also mentioned that you wanted to be someone with a disability and a superability. So do I. If you can wheel your chair off of rooftops, then why can't I? And don't say 'cause I'm weaker than you!"

It was Jack's turn to seek help from the others. Unfortunately, Hari didn't seem to know what to say, nor did Al. Surprisingly, the one who wheeled forward was Ryder, his raspy voice only adding to the pain of his words: "You are weaker than him."

"Ryder!" Juniper said. "Cattie, you're not...weaker, you're..."

"Defective?" Ryder suggested, causing Juniper to sigh.

"Jack is jacked," Minnie said, affectionately bumping her wheelchair into Cattie's. "He can accommodate himself by using his upper-body strength to swing his wheelchair through the city. If you want to be a superhero, you're going to have to find your own accommodations."

Jack gave Minnie an appreciative smile, knowing that she had said the right thing, even before Cattie's face lit up. "My own accommodations! But how will I know what those are?"

"Well, when I was your age," said Juniper slyly, "I had a mentor who showed me how to be a disabled superhero."

All eyes turned to Jack. He instinctively started to protest, wondering how they could all assume the best of him, when he had only ever been the worst. Then, he took in Al's encouraging nod, then Hari's loving smile, then Cattie's trembling jaw. It was this that prompted Jack to relent: "Of course, I'll be your mentor, sweetie. If I'm allowed—I think I'm still legally a supervillain."

"I think I'm still legally a supervillain," Minnie said with a shrug.

Jack's retort was cut off as Cattie squeezed every last inch of air out of his queer crippled body. Thus, it was a moment before he had filled his lungs to the capacity whereupon he could shout: "But if you ever fly without my help, again, I will throw you off the roof, myself!"

"Oh, yeah." Ryder grinned. "You're definitely a mentor."

---

Yeah, he is!

[marauders4evr]

So, I've always grappled with a certain plot twist for the end of The Defectives Trilogy (in fact, I've grappled with it for so long that there have been times when, due to disability-related memory issues, I've forgotten all about it, and it's hit me like a brick in the face). Anywho, the simplest way to allude to this plot twist is obviously by having a character from a separate series travel back in time to discuss it with Juniper and Ryder, so have an excerpt:

"There's one thing I don't understand," Juniper said, handing Minnie a bottle of chocolate milk while drinking liberally from her own. "You said that I was going to grow up to be this amazing wheelchair-using superhero, who would inspire you to want to be a wheelchair-using superhero***. That's incredible but why me? What about Ryder?"

Minnie ended up spraying the duo with the drink. "Sorry."

"Eh, it wouldn't be the first time these wheelchairs were covered with chocolate milk," Ryder said, matching Juniper's smirk with a glare. "When you're done choking, answer the kid's question, carefully."

"You don't intimidate me, Ryder," Minnie said. "The fabric of the universe on the other hand? Well, it doesn't really intimidate me, either. Still, for all I know, telling you more than I should may alter something important, like the way coffee tastes in my time."

"I don't see how it would be universe-or-coffee-shattering?" Juniper asked. "I mean, Ryder's a wheelchair-user and a superhero, so wouldn't you have grown up hearing about him, too?"

"Yep, that would make sense," Minnie said. "I guess I must have just forgotten about him. I've also forgotten that I'm supposed to be living in the twenty-first century, so I'm going to go back to my time-"

"No, no, no, you crashed the car, now feel the impact on your spine," Ryder said, ignoring his mentee's pointed look at his indisputably unproblematic metaphor. "You need to explain yourself, Banks-Flamel, 'cause it seems that there's no record of me being a superhero, in your time, which makes no sense, unless-oh. Oh. Shite."

Minnie stared at him.

"How?" Ryder demanded.

"I don't know," Minnie admitted. "I guess time will tell?"

She easily ducked as a steel weight flew at her. And still, she stared at Ryder, all while a nervous Juniper looked back and forth, not understanding. The teenager eventually said their names, but try as she might, she couldn't get either one to so much as glance at her.

Instead, Minnie said Ryder's name, to which Ryder said: "Okay."

"Okay?" Minnie repeated. "Just like that?"

"Aye, just like that."

---

***Juniper (her story taking place in the 1950s) inspiring Minnie (her story taking place in modernity) is absolutely a retcon because The Antagonists came first, but it's honestly my favorite retcon, because it fits their characters so well. It's all about the characterization! *Glancing at the plot twist* Isn't that right, Ryder? Haha, all right!