Tldr kung fu panda au, shapeshifters, master's council housed surviving panda shifters in gongmen, lotus (po) is never seperated from li shan

in this, mei mei is the youngest out of the five surviving children of the genocide. she has the best outlook on life of them all — confident, upbeat, resolute in her purpose within the community. she was born just after the village slaughter and thus can't recall the event, the very one that violently pivoted the course of her life. got the baby sister treatment and well-raised by her spirited mother. she and lotus are best friends, and she continues to be trained under haitao (master rhino) along with Lotus while their peers drifted off to other interests.

fayin (OC) is the oldest of the kids. in start contrast to mei mei (and lotus), she was six when shen attacked and remembers every second of escaping without her parents or older brother. then orphaned, everyone met her needs but no one took full responsibility of her person.

my girlfriend, cheshire grin, ear to ear: ok but have you considered... he's nice? 😁

me: peach

them: he's nice. okay? He's 😆 nice!

me: ... i think there HAD to be casualties

context: I work at a hardware store, im still there part time since being 18 years of age. ended up having a lot of tenure, it kept me stable through really hard times.

it's not been necessarily good. but I had a lot of dread and fear about leaving, as my life hinged on having an income despite being unhappy, disabled, and suicidal for a very long time. although i could quit tomorrow and my fsmily would understand, not having income is non-negotiable, I have too many goals to fund, friends to support, it's my mobility from my abusers.

the store kept things afloat at lesst that way and my experience at the stores i worked at my home state were tolerable. I had Some issues as a trans person of color in a job mainly consisting of conservative leadership, but when they knew what was going on with my home life they'd offer gifts and food.

Despite having the worst art block of my life, deleting and removing accounts, not drawing past once or thrice a year, one would be my secret santa gift to someone.

So you can see my horror when my first set of coworkers in california have been bullying a bi man into not even being out to them because their bullying mentality already targeted him. and upon asking about a confrontation today, he opened up about that and he warned me that no one really likes me. Calls me weird. Asks what "i am" (im visibly nonbinary). I know theres a discord they have that I am not in, and I know my boss giggles at all their jokes and now I know my two-faced experience lines up with the boss's ask to be 'nice to me' for being diligent and 'unproblematic'.