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keyboardthenerd · 2 years

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DMC OC Week 2022: Day 2 - Cast Connections (and more!) Part 2

Go check out part #1 of my response to Day 2 of DMC OC Week.

Please go check out everyone tagged here, they are all very epic poggers people and some of them are also taking part in OC Week! They are all very good friends of mine and yes I am bias go show these people some love. Please. Pretty please.

Now it's time for the (and more!) part.

Roman Eques Laurel: Finder of Family

Raphael | Pampero on Toyhouse

This big loveable idiot is exactly the kind of person Roman is terrified of. Stubborn, a hugger, both an asshole and the best friend you’ve ever had, and he’s taller and wider than they are. Faster and stronger too. There is no escaping this man. Raphael just wants to protect everyone around him, and Roman just wants to self-destruct. There is a lot of yelling and a lot of stubbornness before they work out each other’s differences and come to an agreement. But Raphael loves their rodent younger sibling, who is perfectly at chin-rest height, and Roman appreciates protectiveness and attentiveness, even if that gets them slapped awake in their sleep occasionally from their significantly lower than average body temperature and their significantly lower than average breathing and heart rate.

Kay | @prophetparadox

Kay has provided a much needed emotional release for Roman, someone who’s stubborn enough to keep prodding at them until they finally drop all of their emotional baggage. They have also been told that Kay provides some of the best sweet treats this side of Red Grave City, and having tasted very little home cooking, Roman is curious, although they would never openly admit it. They are also very willing to be there for Kay if she ever needed someone to talk to. Roman was that person for all of their younger siblings, they understand.

Lucanus | @castledvania

Lucan is a surprisingly big idol of Roman’s. Roman had a very sheltered childhood, and exploring their gender is very new to Roman. They see Lucan as an older brother, someone to go to and confide in and seek guidance from. Their initial reactions were probably coerced by other friends as neither are the type to initiate conversation. Roman has also definitely wrongfully info-dumped about The Order of The Sword to Lucan without knowing his history with them.

But, Roman very much idolises Lucan. In Roman's eyes, he's their ideal: calm, collected, in control, a knight! He's everything Roman could ever want to be and also something they won't ever truly achieve, because that isn't who Lucan is. Roman has only latched onto the Order to give themself a different sense of belonging. It's friends like Lucan that help Roman realise the strength within themself, independent from any group or event or weapon.

Kenaz | @wily-beast

Kenaz wasn’t meant to mean a lot to Roman. No one was meant to mean a lot to Roman. They were cold, closed off, self-sabotaging, self-destructive, but still he remained. Constantly aglow with a radiant smile and a plethora of stories to tell to distract Roman from whatever thoughts they were letting consume them. His caliburn is also very cool.

Siena | @shadedshadowmc

Learning they had yet another sibling was quite the mental loop to get thrown through. And Siena definitely initially lived up to Roman’s expectation of someone standoffish and distant. But that behaviour was very quickly revealed to be in response to Roman’s own initial defensiveness. Once reassured by Dante that Siena was no threat, Roman got to know the real Queen of Sass, Nicknames, and Spite that Siena is, and how willing she is to protect her family. They admire that. It feels good to be loved after all this time.

Gray | @tseliius

Most younger people Roman grows attached to get logged away as "younger siblings" in their mind. Gray isn't any different. Now, Gray would not be the first little sister Roman’s ever had, but she’s certainly one of the sweetest. Roman is definitely setting anyone who misgenders them on fire. Their unending kindness warms Roman in a way they didn't know was possible. They... didn't even do anything to deserve this kindness. Roman vows to protect Gray just as they would any of their siblings. Just! Don't look at all the siblings that Roman has killed...

There is... a lot more... but these some of the longer paragraphs I have written out. Please please there are a lot more and I wish to talk about all of them! Maybe I will at some point! I have so many cool cool friends with the coolest OCs and I wish to talk about all of them. Go check out their posts and please please please show them love I love them so much.

Don't forget to check out part #1 for their canon relationships, a specific relationship is very important.

#dmcocweek #dmc oc #dmc

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corpseriot · 3 years

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F.O.K rewrite ch. 1

So one of my platonic wives told me to rewrite a fanfic I wrote like almost 5 years ago so here it is. It’s an oc insert because I didn’t know how to fix it from that. I’m working with a dumpster fire here. Also I was a cis woman then and now I'm a funni gay man SO it’s going to be trans centered lmao. It’s literally titled ‘a shit show’ in my docs so fuck it.

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Today was the first day in my attempt to get back into the ninja world. I’m twenty and only ever tried once, maybe it was laziness or maybe it was the fact I was misgendered half on purpose by some and on accident more often by most. But I believe I've put it off for too long. So here I am, up at 7:30 taking my morning ADHD meds and pounding an energy drink. Desperately trying to ignore my anxiety. I brush my dyed neon green shoulder length faux hawk out, being careful around my matching fox ears and my tail which I also dyed the same green. I stretch a little while tying up my hair in a fluffy ponytail and grab a muffin just in case, and with that leaving my dreary little apartment.

The walk was quiet, just taking in the morning air waving at a couple of people that I recognize. I get to the school and step inside the classroom recognizing most of the kids. It warmed my heart seeing all the kids working hard to become the new generation of ninjas. I know they wouldn't recognize me but that didn’t change how proud it made me feel to see them here. I sit down next to the emo boy, Sasuke Uchiha. “Good morning, how are you?“ I greet. “I’m fine.” He states flatly. “I’m Tatum, Tate for short.” I smile resting my head in my hands. He looks over at me, trying to read in if I was trying something, but I wasn’t so he seemed to untense. “I’m Sasuke.” He says in an almost friendly tone. “Nice to meet you.” I grin. “Nice to meet you too.” He nods.

I lay my head down only to have the nice, peaceful background chatter interrupted by shrill screams from two teenage girls. I look over at the door to see them, Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno, screaming about who got into the door first which decides who sits next to Sasuke. “Oh god.” I mumble hearing loud footsteps hurry towards us. I hear Sasuke snicker probably at me, and it made me put my head up and look at him with a small smile. “Hey Miss, can you move, that's my seat.” Ino says. I look up confused looking around for the woman then it sank in that she meant me. “I should have shaved my head.” I mutter under my breath and see Sasuke look at me with some sympathy. “I don’t know what Miss you’re talking about kid, but this man isn’t moving.” I state looking at her leaning back.

“I don’t know who you are but that’s my seat. Now please move.” Ino retorts. “YOU’RE SEAT? IT’S MINE!” Sakura shouts. They start arguing right next to me and it was hard to ignore the pain that was seeping into my head. “Hey kids can you please take your arguing elsewhere, preferably out of my range of hearing.” I snap. “You think you’re better than us or something?” Ino growls. “No, not at all I’m just mentally ill and have sensitive ears so, I just have thinner patience for trivial teen drama.” I say flicking one ear just for emphasis. Sakura opens her mouth to say something nut is cut off by Iruka coming in with a blond gremlin being dragged behind him. I smile seeing the gremlin, ‘they grow up so fast.’

“Today we’ll be taking the transformation test today because Naruto skipped it.” Iruka says. The class irrupts into groans and cruel words thrown at Naruto, and I can’t help but to subconsciously let my face turn to panic. Sasuke obviously sees and pats my shoulder, possibly trying to comfort me. “Barely remember how to do this one.” I laugh nervously. Sasuke sighs and explains the basic points to me and I nod taking it in. I keep going over it letting it actually set in. “But that’s after we meet the new student.” He adds. I look up quickly and panic. I look at him with pleading eyes to put it off till we finish the test. He shakes his head and motions me up. I sigh audibly and stand up trudging to the front of the class. “Please introduce yourself.” Iruka says. “Okay..well hello I’m Tatum, I go by Tate, I’m a guy, I like industrial metal music and that’s about it, oh and I can control metal sharp things I guess. I use it to help me cook, so it goes by faster because I hate cooking.” I smile fidgeting with my shirt hem, trying to fight my nervous stutter.

“So um any questions?” I ask, taking my ponytails out and running my hands through my hair keeping myself calm. A handful of hands shot up so I choose Ino first. “Do you like anyone?” She questions most likely trying to find out if I'm competition for Sasuke. “Kinda, I rarely see him and it’s always been a very stupid crush, but it’s not anyone here I’m twenty and that would be weird.” I answer. Next I choose a boy with his cute puppy. “Do you know anyone here?” He asks. I nod, “I know almost everyone here just because I’m older and can remember when you all were tiny.” I snicker, smiling.

Most of the remaining hands go down except Sakura so I pick her. “Who do you think you’ll make friends with?” “I don’t know, but I’m just socially awkward so I might not be able to make friends.” I respond maybe too honestly. “Can we move on? This is such a drag.” A boy says. I nod in agreement and sit down next to Sasuke. “Alright class line up for the test.” Iruka ordered. I got behind Sasuke and stood there nervously. Sasuke turns into Iruka and sits down. I’m next. I start to panic and my ADHD brain starts running over every single thing that could go wrong. I take deep breaths to settle myself and I step up. I focus and attempt to turn into someone, anyone. I feel the change happen and I start to panic. ‘Who did I turn into?’ ‘How did I do?’ “Fourth Hokage, very good.” Iruka says. I blink and change back, “Thank you.” I mutter sitting back down.

I put my head down and wait till this is over. My brain won't let me stop thinking about how I did, if I failed, even though Iruka said I did good and if doing that is going to cause questions on why I know what the Fourth Hokage looked like so well. No one needs to be reminded of the past, I don’t want to be reminded of the time when I was scared to be me. “Transformation jutsu!” Naruto shouts and I look up slightly to see a female version of Naruto completely naked and only clouds covering him up. I gag internally and drop my head down again, feeling hugely uncomfortable. “Why... oh god why..” I sigh, running my hands through my hair.

After the test we were allowed to leave and I grabbed my things trying to get out of the room as quickly as possible due to it feeling too stuffy. I feel a small tug on my sleeve, I turn and see Naruto. “Hey what’s up kiddo?” I ask, smiling. “I was wondering if you wanted to hang out after I clean the off the Hokage's faces.” He askes sheepishly. “Ya totally, I could help you too, I don’t have anything to do today.” I say giggling. “Really you want to hang out and help?! That’s awesome! You’re awesome! Believe it!” He shouts happily. I smile knowing this is the start of how I fix the relationship with my adoptive baby brother.

~(Graduation test day)~

I came to class today overly caffeinated and a very excited naruto. We sat down next to each other like we do everyday. I was honestly lucky to have him around, he was overly hyper and I was overly calm, so we balanced each other out well. “Naruto, what do you think we’re gonna get tested on?” I ask. “No clue it’s always a surprise.” He answers leaning back. “Keeping on our toes, alright then.” I chuckle. I grab a muffin from my bag and start snacking on it. “Tate, give me an honest answer, do you think I'll pass?” Naruto questions. I look up from my muffin crumbs around my mouth, I finish my bite and look at him, “You’ve been working so hard for this and I think you’re going to do great.” “You’re right, I’m going to ace this! Believe it!” he cheers. I giggle and continue eating my muffin. Iruka comes in and starts to explain the test off a clipboard. “This will be a cloning test.” He states. Naruto’s face went pale. “That’s my worst jutsu!” He whines. “Believe it...” I sigh, shaking my head. “Tatum, you’re up first.” Iruka announces. I wipe the crumbles of my muffin off my face and stand up, looking over to Naruto. “Good luck Tate.” He grins. “Thanks, good luck to you too.” I smile back leaving to the testing room.

“Alright make at least three clones.” Iruka says. “Okay.” I nod. I take a deep breath and focus my chakra and make four almost perfect water clones. “Good job just make them have your fully dyed hair and not streaked with your natural white. “Ya I’m still working on them.” I smile. “Please pick a headband.” He says opening a drawer. I grin and grab one excitedly and tie it around my neck. “Can you send Naurto in?” He asks. “Mhm, I can indeed.” I nod leaving. I open the door and shout for Naruto. He looks up at me and grins. “Go get em champ.” I chuckle patting his back while he walks out. I look around and realize there are no teachers to stop my caffeine ADHD thoughts.

So as any normal person would do I start drawing mushrooms with eyes. The kids watch quietly as the chalk is dragged across the board in wild morbid and insane designs. “Draw a tree!” One kid shouts out. I pause on the board then start a beautifully macabre tree. More kids start shouting things out until I covered the entire board. I place the remainder of the chalk down and stand back taking in my work. I smile and turn to the class seeing them all amazed by my strange art. I take a chessy bow and sit down at my desk and lay my head down and fall asleep to the sight of my art.

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I wake up later to an empty room where I stand stretching, I look outside to see Naruto sitting on the swing looking rather sad and Mizuki coming over and talking to him. Naruto seems to brighten up a lot and I couldn’t help but get a bad feeling in my gut. I run out of the building in a panic to find them already gone. I bite the inside of my cheek in worry and go to find Iruka. I go through the building and find him at his desk. “Iruka oh my god!” I shout coming into the room. “Hm? What’s wrong?” He asks. “I saw Mizuki talking to Naruto and- and I got a really bad feeling and they're gone and I don’t know what’s going to happen.” I fumble out. “I had a bad feeling too so thank you for informing me. Go home now, I'll take care of it.” He soothes. He stands and gives me a reassuring hug. “Okay, thank you. I think I'll get something to eat to calm down.” I nod assuring myself. “You do that.” He agrees letting me go. I leave and start the walk home staring at my feet and kicking rocks. I pause and go into a little shop and buy myself dinner. I get home and sit down and start on the dinner for two I got for myself.

#kakashi x reader #male reader #oc inset #because that's how I wrote it back then.#trans reader

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unknown-art1st · 3 years

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Hello

Have sum suffering SC and the color gang

Welcome le daniel/danny

This is the "Corruption AU" i (kinda) have a story for dis AU (still W. I. P)

You can make comics out of this or whatever you want to do with it

Daniel/endercat is mine

Daniel is non-binary also daniel is my OC an enderperson simply in this AU The color gang defeated the ender dragon already and daniel saw their queen die (The ender dragon) and followed them ( formed to an enderCat) The color gang thought the ender cat was harmless but in reality the ender cat is out for revenge so they took them in the color gang misgenders them and they went with the ✨flow✨ Daniel fooled them all except for SC, SC tried to warn them but they didn't believed it the color gang told him that geno (what they named the ender cat) was harmless and SC told them that the endercat was corrupting them (only SC saw the corruption happen) the color gang still didnt believe him annddddd still W. I. P. (No ideasss <-n->)

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dysphoric-dumbass · 3 years

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I posted 118 times in 2021

6 posts created (5%)

112 posts reblogged (95%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 18.7 posts.

I added 10 tags in 2021

#i love him - 1 posts

#genderfluid loki - 1 posts

#alignment charts - 1 posts

#ocs - 1 posts

#sorry for the obscene ammount of tags this is the only post ive made that i actually want people to see - 1 posts

#the mcu is bullshit at this point - 1 posts

#fuck marvel - 1 posts

#queer coded villain - 1 posts

#queer coding - 1 posts

#queerbating - 1 posts

Longest Tag: 103 characters

#sorry for the obscene ammount of tags this is the only post ive made that i actually want people to see

My Top Posts in 2021

This is me venting cuz I’m a little upset about something that happened today, do not read if you don’t want to hear me be angry at a 12 year old

Ok so my class did speeches about social issues we are passionate about ( I did the missing and murdered indigenous women) and everyone had some great speeches and made some great points, however there was one girl who talked about how freedom of speech it being replaced with not wanting to hurt people’s feelings. She made one good point of how people shouldn’t lose their jobs over one little mistake, but she made a lot of other points that don’t exactly sit right with me. Here’s a list:

1. She mentioned that people shouldn’t be fined for calling someone the wrong pronouns. This is true, that’s way too extreme, but at the same time no one really wants this. This argument was really popular in 2018 and was mostly used by people trying to make the trans community look bad and say that we are overreacting and that misgendering people isn’t bad. She’s not wrong that people shouldn’t be fined, but that just isn’t relevant

2. Verbal harassment doesn’t exist. That’s something she said. I don’t remember if that’s the exact word for word, but it’s something similar. Somebody had asked about verbal harassment in the sense on girls being cat called and she just said that it’s not a thing. NO! For fucks sake. This when I got truely pissed off. Verbal harassment is very much a thing! It is not just expressing your opinion!! What the fuck?

3. This one isn’t actually wrong, but the implications bother me. She was saying that physically hurting someone is bad, but being told not to say something because it might hurt someone’s feelings it restricting free speech. I have so much to say about this. First, mental trauma. It exists, and it can seriously fuck with someone’s life for years on end. Second, mental trauma that leaves 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘴 on someone’s body. She said that physically hurting someone is bad, but emotionally hurting some is fine because of free speech. Those things can blend quite easily. I was bullied for liking girls in 4th grade. People called me a f*ggot along side many other terrible things, but nothing physical. Nearly 5 years later I’m still dealing with it, which did unfortunately lead me to s*lf h*rm, physical harm. But hey, free speech right?

4. “A heterosexual white man is less likely to get a job than a black trans woman” that one is a direct quote. What the fuck.

The entire class just stared at each other like:🧐😟😡😳😬 the whole time lmao

Nothing against her, she’s entitled to her own opinion, as I am to mine, and it was good to have this debate. I just really needed to get this out of my system.

5 notes • Posted 2021-04-30 23:04:58 GMT

See the full post

14 notes • Posted 2021-08-31 07:04:28 GMT

So a lot of people have been comparing 2021 tik tok to 2014 tumblr, and they’re not exactly wrong.

With that knowledge, here is my list of things I think the tik tok dsmp fandom will do because time is a flat fucking circle. (I’ll put the 2014 tumblr homestuck equivalent in brackets)

Ghostbur sharpie bath (I don’t know which troll this person was cosplaying so :P)

Some poor Shlatt cosplayer is going to superglue horns to their head (that one tavros cosplayer, but probably several others, as the horns were difficult to make)

SOMEONE will unironically ship wilburxphilza or wilburxfundy (stridercest)

The enderman language (alternian alphabet)

The quakity lice song (karkaliqious)

Calling Tubbo short next to Ranboo (calling karkat short next to gamzee)

Tommyinnit (Dave strider)

“Green and blue=dnf” (zodiac signs =trolls)

Dnf (davekat)

Reducing Tubbo to “uwu smol dyslexic bee boy” (reducing karkat to “uwu smol silly voice”)

Doxing people for not shipping tommyxtubbo (doxing people for not shipping JohnDave)

Quakity (Karkat)

AND THE FUCKING LIST GOES ON BUT IM IN THE BATH AND CANT TYPE WELL

16 notes • Posted 2021-05-16 03:15:46 GMT

ṃѧяҡıƿʟıєя ıṡ яєѧʟʟʏ ċȏȏʟ

44 notes • Posted 2021-05-17 11:17:25 GMT

marvel really took the most queercoded charcter in the mcu (WHO IS CANNONICALLY QUEER IN THE COMICS) amd said “hey! were making a show about him! hes going to be genderfluid!!! and bi!!! looks how progressive were being!!” and then make a female version of him from a different timeline, and one line comfirming that hes bi.

now you may be wondering, why did they do that? if they didnt actually care about it then why did they make him queer? (not that people are queer for any specific reason, marvel just has a reason for everything) well, you notice how marvel said that loki was queer before the show came out? that’s because they wanted people to go “oh look! the mcus first explicitly queer character! i want to watch that show!” yknow what that is? literal queerbating. claiming that a character is queer to gain an audience, then not actually acting on it.

now time for me to explain the things from loki’s past (and present i suppose, but the tva is timeless) that i initially read as queercoding because i relate to it for gay reasons.

he flirted with jeff goldblum simply for the fact that he is jeff goldblum

growing up hearing about this horrible thing that everyone says is bad, and then finding out that you are that thing as a teenager

having problems with trusting people because every time you trust someone you lose them, and the only exception to this so far is the people youve met who are like you

i was going to continue that list but i lost my train of thought so yeah, loki is not a cishet man, no way in fuck

94 notes • Posted 2021-07-18 03:34:21 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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aftertheworldends-blog1 · 7 years

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My Two Cents On Writing Trans and Genderqueer Characters Without Focusing On Their Bodies

a.k.a. Upping your game in the sci-fi&fantasy inclusivity challenge

(a tale of a genderqueer author figuring it out zerself)

Let’s start with this: my world has no gender binary assumptions. It is a futuristic speculative version of our reality, so the history of the binary is there; therefore, people have an understanding of man and woman, but also an understanding of bi-, tri-, multigender, genderfluid, etc.

Gender norms have been tossed and nobody gives a damn about them anymore. But most importantly, they have an understanding that the body of a person doesn’t define them.

So, how do you describe FULL gender diversity in a world which doesn’t focus on bodies or gender stereotypes.

Quick answer is: you don’t.

If you are going to be respectful towards the gender of your characters, then you mustn’t fall into the trap of doing the opposite of what you’re advocating for.

The thing is, that in a world like mine, any and every of my characters could be trans and it wouldn’t matter. There are trans characters I have introduced who have not been explicitly outed, unless you have stumbled upon my online list of transgender and genderqueer OCs.

Here are some of the mistakes authors (and most specifically cis authors) could and have made in order to “reveal” a character as trans:

- have them be misgendered or their identity otherwise disrespected

- have them be the object of a hate crime

- have them “play the role” of who they were assigned at birth

- talk about their bodies

Let’s get this question out of the way:

But Rori, I write romance/erotica and I want to describe my character’s bodies!

Here’s an actual trans reader and writer who has a brilliant piece about this topic. (Warning: the author is very straightforward so beware the 18+ content, plus use of the *q-word*.)

Their strongest point is: detailed description of body-parts could jolt a trans or gender-nonconforming reader out of the story. If you intend to cater to trans readers, and intend to be respectful towards trans characters, maybe lay off the genitalia talk.

I guarantee reading trans authors would give you better ideas how to handle this, but here’s a quote from a yet-unpublished story from my world:

“My hotel has excellent room service,” I say.

She just nods and kisses me again. As I press against her, working my hips so my desire would show, I could tell by the similar reactions of her body, that these first minutes of exploring each other have been as good for her as they have for me.

~ ‘I Think I Know What Love Is’ by Rori I

Parts 2&3 of the article above talk more about how to avoid trapping your characters in a box and I think it has something valuable to say about describing a body for SF&F authors as well. (It references “Ancillary Justice” in particular ^^)

Back to topic.

Mine is not a yes or no solution. There have been trans authors who have successfully included negative experiences of being trans in their stories. (A. Sieracki and Austin Chant come to mind.) But they are trans authors – they don’t need my list of things you could do to respect your OCs. Those are their stories.

(Quick thing: I identify as genderqueer yet exclusionary attitudes still have me pausing on saying “our stories” even if it shouldn’t.)

So how do we make space for trans people in writing—or most importantly, how do you represent trans people well—when you shouldn’t be making the mistakes described above.

Well, here’s a thing: you don’t have to have done anything to your body, or to be presenting a certain way, to be trans. Trans people come in all shapes and sizes.

People who use pronouns alternative to “she” or “he” have been by far the easiest.

My solution was to have everybody introduce themselves with their name and pronoun, which supports the idea that there are NO assumptions and no gender norms in my world. This way, I have already introduced a few characters as fluid, and one character who uses “zie” and is multigender.

As for the rest:

Unless you don’t want to focus at all on the character, there are ways to talk about their trans identity without stereotyping.

1. A change of pronoun.

An example from my world would be when a character (Sergeant Sophronia Ulu) decides she will begin using “she/her”; the others acknowledge that change, and then move on to other things. You could write similar off-hand mentions to demonstrate that such a change is addressed but not obsessed over in your world.

Note: you don’t have to have the character be misgendered to show the change. The character can open the conversation with the news of their new pronouns, or you could have in-world signs that a character uses a certain pronoun.

Nowadays, some people use bracelets or buttons. Even in a fantasy universe, there could be a way to represent that – a symbol sewn into the clothes, a certain type of crown or other jewelry.

I warn you though that this method should still not be used to represent the person’s body. Don’t say “this person had sewn a fox symbol on her clothes, meaning she’d used magic to become female”. Say “the fox was a symbol of womanhood” or “the fox on the jacket/tunic/whatever directed me to using feminine pronouns”.

Also, don’t single out your trans characters. If they wear a symbol, have cis characters wear it too!

2. Another way would be to have the character reference their trans-ness in some form themselves.

For contemporary stories, it could be as easy as saying, “I am trans.” If you’re writing SF&F and have chosen to be as ambiguous as I have, here is the way I’ve tried to approach it:

“Well— […] I was supposed to meet my doctor on Tuesday, after this team gathering thing. I missed my last two chances for doctor’s appointment because of work and because I was on a vacation. If this occupation lasts for weeks – which it might – I might miss my next hormone doze. F**k it, I shouldn’t have cancelled my appointments!”

“You can’t miss a dose at all?” Rutherford wondered.

“Well, I could, but I don’t want to, and it makes me nervous. With the implant, I have never skipped one since I was fifteen.”

~ Chapter 27, ‘Blacklight’ by Rori I

This is not ideal and does make the character uncomfortable, but it doesn’t put them in harm’s way. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to show respect towards the trans experience:

[M]odern healthcare was attentive to patient’s needs and everybody with a hormone implant received regular dosage, pre-programmed and regulated by physicians during scheduled check-ups. Nobody had to worry about forgetting to take a hormone pill – the implant was so much part of them that they never had to think it was there, or so Gareth had been told.

“We’re on an Army base, Suarez,” Gareth reminded. “Somebody could have a look at your implant.”

~ Chapter 27, ‘Blacklight’ by Rori I

It gives you the chance to make space for trans and genderqueer individuals, to make them a respected part of your world.

This is perhaps the most important question when you include any diversity in your story: how does my world accommodate this character’s needs and if it doesn’t why shouldn’t it?

And let’s make this clear right now: accommodating the needs of anyone, based on their identity, their ethnicity, their race, their physical or mental health, is not a troublesome burden which authors have had forced upon them because of PC culture.

If you however believe it is, you are simply better off not including diversity in your novel. Any identity must be treated with the respect it deserves or left alone.

Therefore, a world must have tools in place to address the needs of any individual it includes. If it doesn’t, there better be a good reason why.

And here is my last bit of advice:

Talk to trans and genderqueer people. Seek out Beta readers who can help you with representing them correctly. Do your research. Read a lot of literature written by trans authors. Here’s a list of some you can start with.

And when you get all that feedback on your story, don’t take it as “good enough”.

The implant idea you see described in the above excerpt came from a trans acquaintance. This didn’t mean it put a stop on how far I must go to accommodate trans characters.

Finally, one more time, and I hope this helps: if any of these steps, ideas, hints, give you a headache and overwhelm you rather than inspire you to change your story-world, then I am afraid inclusivity might not be for you.

And that’s just how it is.

As always:

Stay readin’!

Ro-ri

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