i will show you fear in a handful of dust

Leon finds himself down on his knees, blinking away the tears from the flashbang. His whole body aches, and he can’t tell if it’s from the recent trauma of trading blows with Chris, crashing the damn plane, or god knows what else.

The hands on his shoulders are Helena’s and it takes a moment too long for him to focus on her face. Why’s she so worried? It was just a flashbang. The plane was worse. But the touch of her hand on his face is too hesitant, too gentle.

‘Gone soft on me already?’ He wants to voice the question, but it gets caught in his throat and he shakes, a full body cough wracking him.

His own hand shakes as he reaches up to feel for himself what has her so concerned.

It comes away wet and glistening in the dim neon light.

Oh.

Bile or blood? Either way, it’s thick and cloying, sticking to his fingers and he can feel it gumming up his nose, gluing his lips together. Maybe it’s even in his head too, his thoughts sluggish, all the fun of a concussion without the headache.

But that’s not important now. He’s got to make sure Chris doesn’t make a mistake. It’s not just about him, but Helena too. He rasps out, “It’s not… her.” Everything feels so far away, but this is one fact is still crystal clear and he has to laugh, short and sharp, because how can they not see it?

“It’s not her. That’s not, not Ada.” He retches, bile and blood both spilling from his lips as his insides melt and he bursts into flames.

isn’t it enough that you’ve been infected and turned into the creatures you swore you would protect people from?

Patriarchal Misogyny: Men and Women are fundamentally different for reasons beyond one's control, and given this, each end of this strict binary are and should remain beholden to different and distinct presentations and expectations. The two are and should remain physically and socially distinct and defined despite natural expressions which indicate this is an artificial standard imposed by society. Obviously men are just naturally suited to being good leaders and women are naturally suited to be subservient caregivers. At the end of the day, it is every man's responsibility to be a good and fair caretaker to women. This is a traditional position passed down by my noble ancestors and is as such an honorable and chivalrous stance.

Progressive Feminism: Men and Women are two ends of a human spectrum but are not fundamentally different as people. We share the same potential, the same depth, the same capacity for good and evil and kindness and caring and cruelty, with broad enough overlap in physical structure and ability that dividing the two into a strict and disparate binary in all physical arenas makes very little sense. Obviously men and women are raised with seperate roles in our patriarchal society, and men at large are statistically more likely to be aggressive and women are statistically more likely to be the victim of violent and sexual crimes, but this does not reflect a strict rule that can be applied to each individual one encounters nor an immutable fact of character. At the end of the day, each individual has the capacity and responsibility to be a good and fair person. This is a movement which was developed by an oppressed class to obtain normal and unexceptional human rights already afforded to half of our existing society and is therefore a reasonable stance.

Radical Feminism: Men and Women are fundamentally different for reasons beyond one's control, and given this, each end of this strict binary are programmed to think and perform to different and distinct presentations and expectations. The two are physically and socially distinct and defined despite natural expressions which indicate this is an artificial standard imposed by society. Obviously men are wholesale trained and socialized from birth to oppress and prey on women, so it is safe to assume that and transgression is either malicious or an inescapable truth of man's nature. At the end of the day, men as a whole area statistically more likely than women to be physically or sexually violent, and so each individual man is individually more violent or sexually aggressive than any given woman. The definition for "man" and "woman" in this case includes Trans Men and is therefore a ~progressive~ stance.