6 with character of choice!
6. Does your oc deal with internalized ableism? How about ableism from peers?
Answer might be long!! Talking about Noriel and Kana I think.
Hrmm when it comes to physical disabilities I don't think any of my physically disabled characters were written to have internalized ableism, at least not prominently. They're mostly just kinda vibing.
Except Wings Kana but only her Wings version, because a lot of her albinism symptoms (the sun burning her skin and eyes, bleeding a lot, bruising easily, prone to sickness, etc) gets interpreted by others around her as a sign that Nature wants her dead. Therefor she ends up believing it too and it does get worse as the story goes on for a bit because of her deteriorating insight of reality.
This shows itself in different ways like denying herself medicine as a form of self punishment(seen in the comic), etc. She has had a bad medical experience growing up too, so she's generally averse to being treated for anything. Specially by strangers, which is why she's giving Loona a hard time and why she got defensive when she *thought* Loona implied she might have to test stuff around to treat Noriel.
Her FA version is just chilling thou, she's had albinism her entire life so like, it's just how her life is idk.
And for those who know or don't know, Kana does eventually go legally blind in every AU for natural causes, and while that causes complications obviously, it's again just a thing that happens. She usually has Loona and Wander around when she goes blind and they make the change pretty comfortable.
I do think the foster home is ableist because of Dawn, thou. Most of the kids go without accomodations because Dawn dgaf. Kana is essentially legally blind outside if the sun is too bright, which it is a lot of times. When playing in the front yard with other kids, she adapted to stay in the shade(and miss out on some stuff) or get guided by Vi and co if she needs to move. That's um, really bad and she SHOULD have a white cane even if she's not blind 24/7 and Wander points this out to her on chapter 4. Kana's responce to this is "It's fine, I got it :3 :thumbsup:" but it's not from internalized ableism, she just doesn't know any better because it was never afforded to her. She would love to have one and have the autonomy and independence that comes with it! It would make moving around outside much easier. But Dawn doesn't want the kids to have autonomy and be able to survive outside, that's the whole point.
This helps me pivot to Noriel who I also do not consider to have internalized ableism and would very much love accomodations but she's the closest kid to Dawn so you know she had it pretty bad in that department. Noriel was not born disabled and Dawn is the cause of all her disabilities. They have a limp from a malunion fracture that causes imbalance and pain if walking for too long because their foot is slightly missaligned. Also high frequency episodic migraines that she eventually took medicine for at the foster, but they arent there anymore so they don't have that medicine rn. They almost become chronic for a bit mid-comic because of that but they get help for it in time.
In the comic, they had this moment:
I know people probably think it's Noriel having some internalized ableism but it's actually not her forcing herself because she hates vulnerability or her disability or something.
She actually, straight up, *doesn't know she's in pain*. That doesn't mean she doesn't feel it, she just doesn't know she's feeling it because she dissociates it. It's a symptom of CPTSD and it's not done on purpose, at least not anymore. Similar to Kana, they just don't know any better because this symptom got them labeled as "strong enough to take it."
They don't know when's the appropriate time to rest before it gets too bad and are learning it on the go now that Dawn's not here.
They end up thinking the pain is "not that bad" yet cus they barely realize they're feeling it so maybe I can push it just a little more and then just a little bit more. And then come the consequences. Because she in fact does feel pain and the pain will become too much if you push it. It will be the bane of her day later once her brain decides the pain is not safe enough to dissociate anymore.
She doesn't want this! They're trying their best. So you will see her attempt to rest when she's become aware of it! They just need somebody to be there for them too in case they don't catch it. Here are some examples to go with it.
As for if any of them have internalized ableism when it comes to mental disabilities then um yes Kana, Kana, Kana, Kana, Kana, Kana, oh god Kana and her OCD, and the people around her are nooooooo better. But that's all I can say about that because that'll be deeply explored in the comic and I dont wanna spoil it. Yippee <3
Not Noriel thou, they have no idea what CPTSD is lmao, they got diagnosed with anxiety once and that's it lol lmao even.
