Even knowing where you were heading, it still was a punch to the gut--especially Mary Beth's story. Thinking about that, and what happens to the families that are left behind is almost physically painful.

Thank you. That was something I'd been thinking about since it was clear kids could be sold by their parents/away from their parents, as early as five years old. Although I first thought of this in terms of what happened to Joe, I was very glad in the end that you already had the backstory and couldn't let me use him, because when I thought about it, in my AU Keptverse, it's inhabited by characters from TV shows/films - and Mary Beth Lacey and her family made an agonising example of a family living close to the edge that could be destroyed by this.

Also, I totally wasn't expecting the end. That was a great touch.

It occurred to me about halfway through that my three network people were being terribly formal and cautious, and I wondered why, and then I thought... because they don't trust the people they're talking to.

That, and the fact that [info]telesilla and I have made a point of not casting any actors of color as slaves. But I liked seeing that acknowledged here.

Well, am I right in saying (I don't know most of these people except by the posts you and telesilla made) that the only actors of colour in your stories are Rachel and Jason - and canonically, he's from Hawai'i? And everyone (I think, again) in poisontaster's stories is white?

Also, rather horrifyingly, historically it made an awful lot of sense, how this system got going without political backlash killing it, because at first it wasn't targeted at the white working class poor at all...