miss-pan-ac

Genetics:

Like bruh, genetics don’t work like that??? And cultures definitely don’t either. Which seems like an odd thing to connect to that but let me explain. When people suddenly gained powers, it was small percentage initially. You’re really going to tell me that in hyper-religious and/or very discriminatory regions these people weren’t killed before they could even be reported? Societies have killed people for FAR less before. Which is one way that this should have culled the rise of quirk users in the population. Only way for it have spread this far this fast is if a massive selective breeding mentality was adopted by the world.

The international community simultaneously agreeing on something AND that something is breeding? Yeah, fuck off. These assholes can’t even agree to fucking, like, be anti-femicide and do effective work to end it. Yeah, absolutely not.

The other is genetics. First off, I refuse to believe that this was a “mark of evolution”. Both the evolution theory and the disease theory are just dripping in eugenics-type shit. Besides, with what we know about human genetics, mental-based powers, elemental-based powers, and inorganic mutations are just a flat out no. I can see super speed, strength, hearing, vision, etc. because that can be excused by abnormal genetic mutation that’s likely the result of radiation. Which is still pushing it tbh.

And yeah I understand that it’s sci-fi but these are my thoughts so leave me alone lol. Like, genetics don’t work like that.

Especially because it’s presumed that the time between the first emergence of quirks and Midoriya’s story is about 100-120 years.

80% of the population…in just or a little over a century…riiiight, right.

Now you know what this does smell like to me as someone who does enjoy fantasy shit? Magic.

Magic, Myths, and Spiritualism

Now I’m a spiritual person, so my theory that I like to play around with is that a lot of these powers is an intersection of magic and biology. So while genuine magic users of the past wouldn’t have many limits in what they could do (and I’m talking a LONG time ago) and the backlash they’d receive from doing so, quirk users absolutely do. And I think it’d be fun if what powers specifically spawned dominantly in certain regions were tied to the ancient and present myths and such. For example, I feel like there would be a lot more mutation based quirks in East Asia because they have dominant myths regarding humans turning into different entities (which, I will fully admit my knlowedge of myths and folklore in African and Asian regions is MUCH more limited than my knowledge of the stuff in European and American (the whole continent) regions).

Europe and Africa I think would have a lot more mental based and elemental based powers. And the Americas? That shit is a complete mixed bag. First off, the continent in terms of how much of the land is populated before and after colonialism is huge. Like, yes Asia is the biggest continent, but its land is nowhere close to populated as the Americas. Which don’t get it confused. I am not saying that the Americas has a larger population or land area, they don’t. But if you look at how much of the land was populated in the Americas vs Asia pre- and post-European colonialism, the Americas was and is being utilized much more in comparison due to how much of its land is habitable.

So why is it a mixed bag? Firstly, before European colonialism the civilizations there already had a varied belief system with people having mental powers, elemental powers, and mutations/humans turning into something else. After European colonialism, the continent gained very strong European and African influences in its myths and absolutely impacted and created new spiritual practices throughout the entire continent (which, yes, this does include the Caribbean, Hawai’i, and other surround islands).

Establishing a (Literal) Timeline:

Now for a general timeline for the story. First off, the dawn of quirks happens about 25 years after the 2020s, so around the mid 2040s. Following canons time jump, that places the story around mid 2140s to 2160s. There’s expected to be 3-4 generations in the 21st century (smaller compared to previous centuries which would have 4-5). Assume that, although living standards improve globally (though in varied ways and successes), people keep with the trend of waiting to have children till their late 20s-early 30s, then the 22nd century should see a similar 3-4 generations. So between the 2020s and 2160s, there’s about 4-6 generations: the 21st likely will only have 3 and we’re only halfway the 22nd in the story so that really only adds 1-1.5, thus 4-6.

Mind you I’m talking biological generations. Theres about 2-3 social generations (millennials, gen z, boomers, etc.) in each biological generation. So for 4 bio gens, that’s about 8-12 social gens. For 6 bio gens, that’ll be 12-18 social gens. Though due to how societies would likely react to (and did react tbh) to the dawn of quirks, it’s like between 8-12 as there was likely a lag in people willing to have children and such. And most likely, most of those gens have a higher Quirkless population than Quirked.

Population Numbers

And now we get to the Quirkless vs Quirked population numbers. So I’m flat out ignoring the statement that 80% of the human population has a quirk while only 20% are Quirkless. Its genuinely not believable to me, and I refuse to project it as something like a highly infectious disease because that's just a fucking pipeline to eugenics and shit and just--no.

So, a compromise: Japan's Quirked vs Quirkless population numbers is 80:20 (simplified its 4:1, so for every 1 Quirkless Japanese citizen, there's 4 Quirked Japanese citizens).

Population on a global scale: between 40:60 and 50:50 Quirked to Quirkless. Significantly lower than canon, but still more plausible if you consider the quirk genetic mutation to be magic+bio-based rather than just bio-based.

"But this will change all the dynamics we see presently in the show with different types of quirks and quirked vs quirkless!"

Well yes, but also no.

Q vs Q: Yes, Japan is Still Quirkist as Fuck

Listen, globalization has been around for a very long time but its only become as pronounced as it has very recently. And most of it has not been peaceful (unfortunately). Now I can give you a bunch of made up scenarios of different countries and what their societies would look like and their social norms and so on, but I'm going to focus on the two main locations in the story I'm thinking up: Japan and the United States.

Specifically South Florida, but we'll get there in a bit.

Thanks to social media, access to communication with and knowledge of other countries, cultures, and communities has expanded and improved dramatically.

And yes, I'm talking about our world.

That said there seems to be this idea that now that all these cultures have access to one another and are able to express their ideas and stuff with each other with ease, that we are all very impressionable and easily influenced by one another and as such our established cultures can and do fluctuate. This idea I think is very strong in developed countries in particular, but most of them I think have a limit as to how much they think their own country and culture can influence other countries and cultures and be influenced in turn.

Except, the US.

I'll be very honest, as an American I am very aware of the American ego, okay. That said, I do believe that the States do have a very strong cultural (meaning fashion, music, trends, etc.) influence internationally (especially with Western countries) (and different types of influences can be debated as well such as economic and political influences, but again that's much more up to debate).

This statement is not implying that the US is better than anyone or the best at anything. I am not claiming superiority in any way. But despite popular belief, something or someone does not need to be superior, better, or the best at anything in order to be influential.

And before anyone tries to argue about this, I'm going to need you to take a very hard look into the massive global influences the Black-American and Latin communities have been while being very unpopular in the eyes of the many.

In turn, however, I personally feel like the US is indeed extremely impressionable and easily influenced culturally by other countries. The most notable examples of this is the influence of Latin American (yes, including the Caribbean, the CaribbEAN IS PART OF LATIN AMERICA OH MY GOD) culture in the US and most recently the rise of Asian cultural influences as well. Not to say they're the only ones but they're the most predominant ones in my opinion.

So why do I say all this? Because the dynamic we see in canon Japan will be the same in this story. Just because most of the world has mostly balanced Quirked to Quirkless population numbers, and likely have their own social norms and dilemmas surrounding their own stuff, does not mean that Japan's current dynamic wouldn't exist as it is. Let's be clear, the US is not the standard in regards to healthy work-like, school-life, and relationship balances but Japan is worse.

At least, that's what I've read thus far.

From what I've read, Japan puts a heavy emphasis on social harmony, respect of the hierarchy (like respecting your elders, teachers, bosses ,etc.), and conformity. Listen, none of this is bad in and of itself. I do genuinely see how these things are beneficial in keeping things smoothly going. But any social norm and traditions can become harmful when they're taken to their extremes.

So let's tie this back to why AU-Japan would be the same with canon-Japan despite the change in global population stats.

Because Japan still has a significantly higher Quirked to Quirkless ratio thus making having a Quirk the social norm and being Quirkless a deviancy. Add onto the fact that, although All Might is very much an international figure, he is still first and foremost a Japanese hero and a very strong cultural influence on his home country, in both intentional and unintentional ways. In fact, thanks to how influential All Might is, and being a representative of Japan as a whole, I wouldn't be surprised if a strong(er) patriotic ego was developed, lessening any impact other countries would have on them.

So: Japan is still going to have huge Quirkist discriminatory issues.

The US, of course, will have them too but, honestly? At a far lesser extent.

Treatment of Different Categories of Quirked People and the Quirkless + Some Extra Stuff (Generally, Because This Post is Getting Way Too Long)

Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, I feel like I can honestly just bullet point this part since I'd hope that anyone reading this (you) will have a general understanding as to why I'm saying what I'm saying.

Mutations are fetishized to hell and back on a global scale.

While I will be including racial issues, gender issues, LGBTQIA+ issues and the like in this story because they do, to an extent, have an impact on the characters and different storylines, the actual presence of these issues in the societies of this AU is significantly diminished because I don't see the necessity in its continued dominant presence in this world. It existed and still exists, but nowhere near how it was and its existence will vary depending on what location we're in.

Quirkless people are also fetishized to hell on a global scale.

There's a large market in the underground for quirkless and mutations, specifically in the sex trade.

Quirkless people are discriminated against in both Japan and the States, however, the discrimination in Japan is significantly more violent (in every way violence presents) in comparison to the US.

Highly volatile quirks (bright and powerful ones) are very well liked in Japan but are looked at more warily in the States.

In addition to that, people with quirks like these (think Endeavor and All Might, anything that can potentially cause significant damage to property and/or people, even the ones they're fighting) are expected to have very good control over their powers and know how to properly minimize any damage they cause if they're in a career that requires them to use it extensively (like hero work) in the States. It's highly frowned upon to not have that control. In Japan, while no one likes excessive damage, heroism is significantly more performative in the sense that people enjoy "watching a good fight", so big, powerful, flashy quirks are very liked and not as much emphasis is put in control over them.

Mental quirks are very well liked, or at the very least fearfully-respected, in the States but are villainized in Japan.

Mutations is discriminated in both the States and Japan, but how they're discriminated against and how much is a toss up depending on what it is and where they are (some places in the US is far more accepting than others)

In South Florida (one of the main locations), there's a slightly higher percentage of quirkless to quirked but its relatively even. It also remains very diverse racially & ethnically. Both of these will be important.

The presence of dominant gangs reappeared across the US, including South Florida, however the behaviors of most of these gangs is radically different to how they used to be. They act more so like vigilante groups rather than organized criminals. Not to say those don't exist or that different gangs don't have issues with one another, but they're not harassing their communities and causing needless violence either. This is also important.

Meet the OFMC

Valeria Chavez.

She's Latina (of course, what with how much I've put a focus on the community in this post) of Central American origin and lives in South Miami, born and raised. Leo Sun, Virgo Moon, and Libra Rising :3. Bday is Aug 15. Parents are loving and lovely but distant since they're out of the country more often than not so she lives with her Tia Juana.

⁽ᵇᵉᶠᵒʳᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ᵃˢᵏ, ᵗʰⁱˢ ⁱˢ ᵃᵇˢᵒˡᵘᵗᵉˡʸ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵃ ˢᵉˡᶠ⁻ⁱⁿˢᵉʳᵗ, ᵗʰⁱˢ ᵍⁱʳˡ ᶜᵒᵘˡᵈ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵇᵉ ᵐᵒʳᵉ ᵈⁱᶠᶠᵉʳᵉⁿᵗ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵐᵉ ˡᵒˡ. ⁱ ˢⁱᵐᵖˡʸ ᵖʳᵉᶠᵉʳ ᵐʸ ᵒᶜˢ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ˡᵃᵗⁱⁿᵃ ᵒʳ ˡᵃᵗⁱⁿ⁻ᵃᵈʲᵃᶜᵉⁿᵗ ˢⁱⁿᶜᵉ ⁱ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᵇᵉˢᵗ ᵘⁿᵈᵉʳˢᵗᵃⁿᵈⁱⁿᵍ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᶜᵘˡᵗᵘʳᵃˡ ᵇᵃᶜᵏᵍʳᵒᵘⁿᵈ. ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵒᵘᵗʰ ᵐⁱᵃᵐⁱ ˢᵗᵘᶠᶠ ⁱˢ, ʰᵒʷᵉᵛᵉʳ, ᵇᵃˢᵉᵈ ᵒᶠᶠ ᵐʸ ᵒʷⁿ ᵉˣᵖᵉʳⁱᵉⁿᶜᵉˢ.⁾

She's best (virtual) friends with Izuku initially. They met on one of the forums for a specific hero. Let's call the hero VI. VI, a Latin-American hero, had partnered up with All Might in a case. Valeria was a fan of hers and Izuku is a giant her nerd that is obsessed with All Might, and he found a pretty popular forum for her online. While scrolling through the comments, he starts to see discourse regarding some quirkist statements some douchebag made (because of course someone like that is doing something like that) and was going to ignore it initially because he saw that they had insulted quirkless people; however, he comes across 12 year old Valeria's response to the idiot.

She cusses him out and starts to go off, finishing it off with some statement about how anyone can be a hero, quirk or no quirk (because somehow the conversation got there). Izuku, dewy eyed message her privately to ask if she was actually serious about her statement to which she responds "yeah, and?". Boom, the rest is history. They begin to chat, she introduces him to some US based quirkless and anti-quirkist servers and they begin to chat back and forth.

Listen, 11 year old Izuku is very aware of internet safety rules and such, but it's been a long day, Kacchan and co. were dicks, his wounds hurt, and he was feeling soul-crushingly lonely. He'll take what he can get even if it ends up being fools gold. Eventually, they both build up the nerve to video chat. Both wanted to see who exactly they were dealing with and lo and behold they were who they implied they were! No creeps! Yay!

It's during the same video chat that Valeria introduces her friend group (because no way was she doing this shit alone). Next thing you know they have a regular groupchat and they're facetiming, and Izuku is helping them learn Japanese while they in turn help him with Englissh and Spanish, and Izuku introduces them to his mom and Inko is crying because my baby has finally made healthy friendships after which she introduces them to her Tia and look at that! Inko has made a new friend! And then Valeria is asking, "Hey Zuzu," which oh my god, I have friends! and we have nicknames! "what do you think about coming over to Miami for your break? Meet up in person?" and Izuku is like omgomgomgomgomg and when he asks his mom she doesn't even hesitate to say yes. Now they're on their way to Miami and they finally meet at the airport and when Valeria sees Izuku for real in person she breaks into a sprint with a giant grin on her face, screeching "Zuzu!" and tackling him into a bear hug which her responds to in kind. And, oh Inko is crying again.

Now we're taking regular trips and then the it happened when Valeria was 13 and now she's 14 and oh my god, make it stop it hurts what's happening and now Izuku is spending his whole break in the States which, where this money is coming from who knows (let's be for real now, Inko is absolutely making fucking bank in order to buy Izuku all the All Might stuff that he wants) and he flies over as much as he can afterwards.

Its okay though she went to therapy and has self-help books (which therapy only works if you're ready and willing to be completely honest in the first place which considering what happened--) and she's honestly doing so much better now! She's going to parties and having fun and now she's 15 and she's dating this really sweet guy now too.

Now Izuku is 14 and he's suddenly talking about how actually, quirkless people can't be heroes, he almost died trying to save Kacchan and actually made things worse (he didn't) and "what he told me on the roof---" "Roof?! What roof?! Who's he?! What did he tell you???" And now ohshitohshit I wasn't supposed to telland now Valeria is glaring at him through the camera and he panics and tells him that he got saved by some guy from his first fight with the sludge villain "The FIRST time!!???" and he recognized him as a heroe and he asked him if someone quirkless could be a hero and he said no. Now Valeria's pissed demanding to know who the ever loving fuck is telling him these bullshit lies and Izuku is avoiding the question until he eventually caves and tells her that she met All Might in his civilian form.

"...Fuck All Might. Who cares what this asshole says? With his fake ass." Queue Izuku losing his mind. She prods at him some more, but he's really not budging now and now seems to firm in his belief that quirkless people can't be heroes so she takes a minute and she says "You know what. I'm going to prove you wrong. I'm going to become a hero just to show you that we can be. In fact...I'll go to Japan and join UA." "...WHAT?!"

He can't talk her out of it, she's dead set on this now.

Valeria, his quirkless pseudo-older sister, has decided to become a hero.

Valeria, who has never shown any interest in the career outside of being a fan of a handful of heroes and only really if they're a part-time artist of some kind or an activist.

Valeria, who enjoys spending her time dancing and partying and painting and cooking and singing and laying out in the sun at the beach.

Valeria, who will never say otherwise but those closest to her know that she is terrified of going too far from her home, her safe haven.

Valeria, who, yeah, she knows how to fight, took it upon herself to learn after what happened and does so well but not because she wanted to do it long term.

Valeria, who despite their long-term friendship has never ventured to Japan due to the discrimination levels there, has decided she is moving to Japan and joining UA.

Valeria, who is wrapping up the 9th grade soon and has decided to pause going to school so she can apply to UA and join Izuku there ("How do you know I'm going to UA?" "Izuku, come on. One, you're 100% doing this with me and two, even if you weren't going for the heroes course you would totally be applying for the support, business, or general course." ..."You know you're doing this with me right? I figured this was implied." "...Yeah, I'm doing it with you. Always will."). Inko is ecstatic to host the girl she's come to view as a niece if not a daughter. And Valeria goes.

Then again, maybe this shouldn't be that much of a surprise either. Because this is still her.

Valeria, who is an absolute crash out when it comes to racists, misogynists, and quirkists.

Valeria, who endeared herself to some dangerous people.

Valeria, who has fought off several creeps and made that pain last.

Valeria, who takes absolute no shit from fucking anyone.

Valeria, who slaps the living shit out Yagi Toshinori upon meeting him because they dumbass revealed himself to be All MIght.

("Valeria! What are you doing!?" "Teaching a lesson. Are you insane!? Telling a young boy that he could never be a hero due to his quirk status and the leaving him on a fucking roof!? And then you back out of that for whatever reason and decide to train him? Did you even apologize for what you said? Do you realize the impact of your words? Do you even care!?")

Valeria, who, after slapping him and then slapping him again after finding out that he intended to give Izuku a quirk and told this random kid his backstory which is "so fucking dumb, are you out of your mind?! You have no idea who we are, for all you know we could be trying to kill you or something.", and then getting into an argument with him yelling at him about how "since you've decided to take on the role of mentor and train Izuku to fight, then you need to teach him how not to die. And maybe you're just really out of fucking touch with reality but news. flash. that's not exclusive to quirked people only. How is it that you can come to the conclusion that even the most powerful, perfect quirk can't stop you from dying. That it doesn't change your status as a mortal, human being, and not be able to connect it to the fact that in the end it doesn't. fucking. matter. That the only thing that's going to be able to determine your ability to survive is to know how to not die. Quirks are a tool, they are not an all deciding factor for life! I'm not saying that we wouldn't be at a disadvantage, but its not the end of the fucking world either." and ending it with slapping some sense into him and offering him an ultimatum, "How about this, hm? You wanna train Izuku? You're gonna have to train me too."

Valeria, who after all that, endeared herself to the man she slapped thrice and became his pseudo daughter/really annoying little sister (trolling and rage baiting is sibling behavior, sorry not sorry). And listen, he had a plan for Izuku: make him gain muscle and then give him his quirk. But now that Valeria is part of this, he realizes he's going to need to go further than this. He's gonna have to channel what he's learned from his mentors but is worried about becoming too harsh...up until Valeria tells him that "I know now that you're training us like this because you're genuinely like this, but we really need you to toughen it up. Normally I would never suggest that, especially because this is exhausting as is but I'm in this now and if I want to succeed, then I need you to push me, push the both of us, to our absolute limits. Especially in combat."

So now we have Toshinori, who is very good at hand to hand combat actually and, in the face of his fear of either of these two kids dying, is an absolute drill sergeant when he's teaching them hand to hand. School is back in session again for Izuku, he needs to finish up the 9th grade, so now he can prioritize training Valeria during the week and prioritize Izuku during the weekend. Which is good because although both of them need to learn combat and keep up with strength training, Valeria will be the one who is gonna remain quirkless and is going to need as much training as she can get.

But hand to hand combat can only go so far, and really, Valeria already has a pretty solid grasp on it. They have about half a year before admission exams begin, so he begins to look around to find her a weapons instructor. Valeria mentions that she's had some training with knives, street fighting stuff and knows how to wield a gun. Toshinori blanches at that and firmly shuts down the guns. And knives are good but she should learn something that she can use to fight long distance ("No, guns are not an option. They're not even legal here, the licensing and paperwork to get one is extremely difficult to get through and approved, and they're definitely not going to allow one to be in the hands of a minor").

Turns out, there is someone that can teach her but they're back in the states. Valeria glares, getting defensive at the idea that he's trying to send her away in order to get her to stop from applying, but her firmly shuts that down and tells her that he simply didn't know how to teach her weapons combat because he didn't wield any. Besides, ("I thought you liked VI?" ... "I GET TO TRAIN WITH VI!?"). Turns out VI and him kept in touch after that last case, or rather she and Yagi kept in touch. He mentioned that he had a protege that he was training but needed someone to teach her something with weapons and thought she'd be the best for it (or at least finding someone who can).

So Valeria goes home for the time being, and trains. She develops a love for blades and, surprisingly, the rope dart. She already had a basis with knife fighting and she wanted something flexible that she could move around with, like a whip. It was fun, felt kinda similar to ribbon dancing. But while VI allowed her to keep those as her favorites, she made it a point to make sure that she knows how to use a variety of other weapons and how to turn rubble into weapons ("You'd be surprised by how similar a pipe is to a bo staff. Similarly effective too.") It helps that Izuku, Toshinori, and occasionally Inko visit during breaks too. She turns 16 as she trains and prepares for entrance exams.

April hits and now its go time.