#I've been dithering about it but reblogs are off 'cos there's stuff here I don't know how to handle and I want to be cautious

[wolves-in-the-world]

hi

so i have been having a thought about this lately, feel free to ignore, if it doesn't fit for you:

anyway, same situation, but trans. (closeted or out (before this situation at least), one or both, any combination, i just think it could add an interesting twist)

i think my favourite version (least angst) is they're both already out, or at least eliot was previously already out but would prefer not to be quite THAT out about it, thank you very much, and quinn doesn't mind either way and is just enjoying the chaos of a good fight and good hitter solidarity (and also does eventually help eliot cover up once the improvised-weapon-instincts stop preventing this from happening)

OH MAN

oh man

okay I have made… so many runs at this in an attempt to either put my Serious Thoughts together in a way that wasn't horrific to read, or focus on the fun stuff only, and friend I'm not sure my brain is playing ball here

(the concept of trans man eliot unfortunately fills my brain with bees - he comes into canon so steeped in The Right Kind Of Masculinity and only softens a little, and reading that as a sort of trans defence mechanism, it's a bit too ouch for me to deal with - and hitters as people who already suffer challenges to their autonomy, imprisonment, Unspecified Horrors... it's just a lot if not handled very lightly and I think there's a reason I haven't played much with transmasc!quinn either.*)

(bees. the reason is bees.)

(ppl who saw my previous occasional trans dick jokes (obligatory why am I like this) may notice they were around all Safe Characters; i don't want to make ppl feel unsafe for the characters in a trans way, at least without warning that I'm delving into that stuff, and for me at least, that's a tricky line to walk.)

I do thank you for the thoughts - it's set cogs spinning in my brain, it's been a while, it's nice - and leave you with the stuff I jotted down before my brain fizzled out and returned to the whirlpool of horrors. it's a little off from what you said, but I hope it's fun anyway:

— so we have the sauna situation. let's assume eliot's there on a job. he's been making friends with some rich asshole and they're either in the sauna or they're headed that way - it depends on how sweaty you want him to be - and, trans or no, there's nothing much downstairs that sets him apart (there are a whole host of bottom surgery options now, not sure how common they were at the time) (I can't believe how dick-focused my past hour has been), and all hell breaks loose in the lobby.

— and, well, shit. what's he gonna do except take someone down with his towel?

— at which point quinn's run in from where he was discreetly standing guard, skidded to a stop when he saw eliot was handling himself fine, and ducked around a corner to see to his own clothes safely. eliot's half on the floor and choking someone out when he hears quinn's call of "here," automatically catches the shirt before it thwaps against his face and bolases around his neck, and has the next goon trussed up with it before he registers that a) that was a lifeline, thanks quinn and b) quinn is now FULLY in the buff and knocking out the security guard who was finally getting his shit together enough to call the cops.

— (I haven't done much with the image of transmasc quinn who started young and baby-faced, wearing ill-fitting suits to his first job, but that doesn't mean I don't love him. here as in your message, "quinn doesn't mind either way and is just enjoying the chaos of a good fight and good hitter solidarity.")

— cue a yelled conversation over the various unconscious and/or restrained bodies as they're tidying up, eliot gesturing frantically at the people gawking from the balcony as though quinn has ever felt even an ounce of shame, and quinn eventually standing there with his eyebrows raised while eliot - beet red - shoves quinn's own clothes at him in an attempt to give him his privacy back.

— I like to think that quinn's tying his tie and eliot's only gotten as far as buttoning his own jeans by the time the others turn up. nate hurries them all along before anyone can comment much, but you bet they're getting looks.