Octonauts - 1930s | To Whom, With Love?

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In this au, unlike the official Octonauts, everyone is human, and everyone is American (unless stated otherwise), as this takes place in New York City from 1938-1939.

🚨TRIGGER WARNING🚨- This takes in 1938-1939, so topics such as sexism, homophobia, and racism are featured! I want it to be clear: I AM NOT JUSTIFYING RACISM, SEXISM, OR HOMOPHOBIA!! I AM JUST TRYING TO DEPICT THE ERA AS IT WAS ACCURATELY. I absolutely do not tolerate anything of the sort, and I will always show in this fiction that it was wrong and disgusting.

Barnacles is a thirty-two year old cruise captain with traditional masculine values. He stands by his principles and stands for what he thinks is right. He is somewhat sexist and homophobic, not because he is a bad person, but because everyone is at this time. He is simply following the values his father had taught him.

Dashi is Barnacles' sweet twenty-seven year old girlfriend. He has to leave her during the summer periods of the year, thanks to his profession. They do love each other, but she gets a little fed up with his masculine views sometimes. She is a typical young woman of her time- listening to famous singers and artists like Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby, and Fred Astaire on the radio.

Kwazii is a twenty-eight year old New York gangster in the thirties. He is an associate of the Bonanno crime family and has ties to several Italian "made men" of the crime family. He is unhappy in this line of work but is far too deep to go back now. He is a criminal whether he likes it or not.

Peso is a young twenty-five year old Spanish immigrant looking to start a life for himself in America as a doctor. However, he is having a hell of a time finding his place. As an immigrant, he is already treated differently, but he is also secretly homosexual- something frowned upon by society. He finds himself treating a ginger man named Kwazii, with whom he quickly falls in love. He knows the man's crime connections but is too infatuated with him to care.

Shellington is a thirty-one year old scientist at Columbia University in the City of New York in the biology department. He is considered nerdy and weird. Women ignore him and are put off by his hyper-fixation on biology. He pretends all is fine and dandy but is actually very lonely and sad. He buries his feelings in his work and tries to forget his sadness. He and Dashi grew up together and consider each other siblings.

Tweak is a thirty-four year old woman working at her father Marsh's shoe shop. Her father desperately urges her to get married, but she is passionate about women's rights and is very vocal about how she doesn't need a man to live her life. So she has been deemed a spinster who is not worth the trouble of talking to by men. Despite her saying she is glad men pay no attention to her, she is very lonely. She and Barnacles are acquainted with each other because Barnacles buys his shoes at her store.

Inkling is a fifty-seven year old professor teaching biology at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is a mentor to Shellington and helps him get over his loneliness. The professor is madly in love with the Chinese immigrant, forty-three year old Min, whom he had met years ago. He is ashamed because mixed-race couples are frowned upon, but he is driven crazy by his feelings for her. He can't tell anyone as he is supposed to be a respected conservative man to everyone who knows him or takes his class.

The story takes place around Christmas 1938 to the beginning of World War II (September 1st, 1939). The story is about outcasts of the thirties and America learning to judge people for who they are and not for their race, nationality, sexuality, gender, or interests.