#disfigured

I made a small au last night called Sig-Null

It's a small idea where Bendy is adopted by Joey and Henry who actually have a successful art career together.

Henry makes a program for teens with behavioral issues and Bendy gets curious about the group since they're being taught in the second house on their property which was turned into a small school with dorms.

Bendy becomes their friends and understands why Henry made the program to begin with. Originally it was due to Bendy's issues which the schools nearby didn't have any resources for, but most of his new friends had also never had a good home life or had other issues leading to their behavior or needs that a typical school wasn't willing to handle. so this was giving them a chance to learn life skills on top of catching up to their peers in homework.

(I also forgot that Bendy has his own health issues but idk what it would be considered yet....)

It may be just me or my personal bias, because I have a walking disability and a chronical illness. But to me, the creature in Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein" is very much disability-coded: - His whole body is disfigured. - The ways he walks, moves (including the movements of his hands and fingers) and talks seems like he is disabled in one way or another. On the other hand, the creature has supernatural strength. But to me, that is not a paradox at all. We disabled people are not only our disabilities, we have talents and abilities too. Therefor, I very much celebrate this character and how he gets depicted (and for several other reasons too). --- EDIT: In the comments, two people pointed out to me that there are several articles and scholarship about disability (and other marginalization topics) regarding Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and thanks to @atimesfeeler I read this interesting political article: "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Disability, and the Injustice of Misrecognition" by Amber Knight (ca. 35 minutes to read) https://dsq-sds.org/article/id/890/

James Morrison, a twenty-three-year-old British soldier, returned home to England on 12 August 1919, wearing a painted metal mask. Shell fragments during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 had disfigured his face — he no longer had a nose, nor a lower jaw, and scar tissue replaced his facial features. The British Army had asked the sculptor Francis Derwent Wood to create facial masks for wounded soldiers. James received his mask in 1918: a painted metal face, moulded to fit his injuries, painted to match his skin tone, designed to resemble a human face from a distance. Up close, it was obvious that it was a mask, but from a certain distance, James appeared almost normal. Almost human. Almost like the man he was before the war, in 1916.

James's wife, Eleanor, had not seen his real face since 1917. She had visited him in hospital, but James refused to remove the mask. He told her, "You don't want to see what's underneath. The mask is better." Eleanor had seen photographs of wounded soldiers during the war and understood his situation. She replied, "I love you, mask or no mask." James insisted, "You love the man you remember. The man beneath this mask is no longer that man. The mask looks more like the man I used to be. Let me keep it."

James came home wearing the mask, which he never removed in front of Eleanor or their children, Michael, aged seven, and Sarah, aged five. The children only remembered him as a man with a face. Now, they had a father with a painted metal mask. The children were frightened. Michael asked, "Why doesn't daddy take off his mask?" Eleanor replied, "Daddy was hurt in the war. The mask helps him." Michael asked, "And under the mask?" Eleanor replied, "Daddy's face. Different than before. But still daddy."

The photographer who documented the return of the soldiers visited the Morrison home on 20 August 1919. James was sitting in his lounge, wearing his painted metal mask. Eleanor sat beside him, her hand on his arm, trying to maintain some sense of normality. The children — Michael and Sarah — stood on the other side of the room, their eyes fixed on their masked father, their fear visible. This image illustrates the domestic impact of the war, how James came home but did not truly return, how the mask preserved an illusion of normality while making that normality impossible, how his children were frightened of their own father because of the mask.

James lived with the mask for twenty-three years. He never took it off in front of his family. Eleanor never saw his real face after 1917. The children grew up with a masked father. James died in 1942, at the age of 46, still wearing his mask. His funeral was conducted with a closed casket: even after his death, James could not be seen without his mask.

Eleanor lived for another eighteen years after James's death, passing away in 1960, at the age of 68. She had been married to James for 26 years, 10 before the war and 16 after. During those 16 post-war years, she never saw her husband's real face. At her funeral, her daughter Sarah testified: "My father came back from the First World War in 1919. He wore a metal mask to cover his wounds. He never took it off in front of us. My mother never saw his face after 1917. My brother and I grew up with a masked father. We were afraid of him when we were children. We loved him. But we were frightened. He was our father, but he had no face. He had a painted metal mask. He died in 1942. We buried him with his mask. My mother lived for another eighteen years. One day she said to me, 'I was married to your father for 26 years. For 16 of those years, I never saw his face. I saw the mask. I loved him nonetheless. But I did not see him. The war took his face. The mask replaced it. I married a man with a face. I was widowed from a man with a mask. Both were your father. Neither was whole.' My mother died yesterday. She is with your father now. Perhaps he has removed the mask. Perhaps she can finally see him. I hope so. They deserve that. He wore the mask for twenty-three years. She lived with the mask for sixteen years. They are together now. Perhaps they can finally see each other."

Sources:

BBC ("The man who wore a mask after World War I")

Source details and larger version.