#and her recognizing how stupid it was that she continued to deadname me for so long

[nereb-and-dungalef]

Hate getting deadnamed hate getting snarky comments about my name hate it hate it I literally factored "is a family name" into my choice criteria and everyone's STILL like "you have to go by your deadname or you're breaking tradition!!!" FOR FUCK'S SAKE

[icerats]

TW: Deadnaming/incorrect use of pronouns on a trans character, violence, and fear.

G/T 100 Prompts Master Post

The Forest: Chapter 1

(1. Giant)

This was a giant that lived in the forest. Or at least there were rumors of one. Rumors of strange things happening in the forest. Hikers disappearing, trees getting knocked over with no wind, giant footprints. Most people didn’t believe the rumors, believing them to be just as likely as Bigfoot. Chloe believed all of them through. That’s why she never wanted to step foot in this forest. Unfortunately, at the moment, she didn’t have much of a choice. The angry mob was gaining ground closer behind her.

“Burn the werewolf!” One of them screamed. Though it was dark, the torch he was holding perfectly illuminated his face. His face was red with anger, his eyes gleaming with malice. Even if Chloe couldn’t see his face behind her, she would have recognized that voice from anywhere. Who wouldn’t recognize the voice of their own father?

“Please father!” she pleaded as she ran, “I’m still me! How could you do this to your own family!?”

“You are no family of mine, beast!” he growled. “Not since you infected my son and took over the mind of him!”

“I’m still me!” she cried, praying for him to understand. “And I was never your son!”

Part of her mind wanted to slap her, was correcting her dad’s misgendering of her really important when her life was on the line? But the other part of her mind argued back. Her dad would never accept her anyway, now that she was a werewolf, if she was the gender he wanted her to be or not. It may have sounded stupid, but if she was going to die, she didn’t want to die pretending to be someone she wasn’t.

Her father ignored her last words, just continuing to glare angrily as he ran toward her. It didn’t matter however, the rest of the mob took over speaking for him.

“Quiet beast!”

“We won’t have mercy on you!”

“We won’t let you terrorize our home!”

Hearing the words made Chloe want to cry, but she didn’t have time for that now. She had to lose them now, she would have time to cry later. She weaved through the trees hoping desperately she would lose them. She looked behind her as she ran, sighing with some relief as she realized her plan was working. But it wasn’t enough, some of the mob was gone now, but the smarter of them were able to still follow her. She couldn’t run much longer, but she wasn’t willing to give up.

Her luck was running out however, she realized as she started to trip and stumble, her body lethargic from exhaustion. The last of her luck ran try when her foot got caught in a mole hole. She faceplanted into the dirt. Not ready to die, Chloe quickly scrambled to get back up but found a weight on her back preventing her from doing so.

She strained her head to see who was stopping her and regretted her decision immediately. Chloe almost cried when she realized that her last memories were going to be the murderous eyes of her own father. He was holding her down, his right hand grasping a silver blade that found its way against her neck.

“Hurry up!” she could hear him yelling, “Get over here! I’m going to need your help carrying his body!”

Chloe cried.

~

Evelyn woke up to the sound of screaming. She yawned groggily, as she slowly opened her eyes. It wouldn’t be the first time she woke up to screaming, that tended to happen when humans saw her, but it didn’t make it any less annoying. But something was different this time. The humans weren’t screaming at her, they couldn’t be, they weren’t even close enough for her to see them yet.

Intrigued, she crept closer to the voices. But as the voices became louder and more coherent, Evelyn’s curiosity quickly turned to horror.

She heard a gruff voice yelling and loud sobs.

“Hurry up! Get over here! I’m going to need your help carrying his body!”

Ice filled Evelyn’s veins. No, humans weren’t out murdering their own right? Not out here!?

But the sight she saw, filled her heart with horror and dread. There was a crowd of humans surrounding someone. That person was pinned down by a much larger man, who was holding something sharp and gleaming against their neck. Was that a dagger!?

“Please dad, don’t do this!” The sobbing person pleaded, tears streaming down their face.

Evelyn finally snapped. She knew she shouldn’t reveal herself, but what other choice did she have? How horrible would you have to be to take your own child’s life?

“STOP!” she screamed much louder than she intended to.

All of the humans in the mob snapped their heads up to look at her with surprise, their bodies shaking with fear when their eyes landed on her. They screamed and ran, leaving their victim alone at the mercy of the giantess.

Said victim immediately tried to stand up when they realized they weren’t being held down anymore. They let out a strangled gasp as they fell over, one foot still stuck in a small hole in the ground. The person looked up at Evelyn with so much fear, it made her feel sick.

As soon as they made eye contact, the person immediately looked away and desperately tugged at their leg fruitlessly. Evelyn looked down at them with guilt, she didn’t mean to scare them.

“Hey,” she said as softly as she could. “Please don’t cry, I’m not going to harm you. I promise.”

Speaking seemed to be the wrong decision, as for the second she spoke the human whimpered and pulled at their leg harder.

Evelyn bit her lip, trying to decide the best thing to do. She tried slowly backing away. The human flinched when she moved but looked up at her with confusion when they realized that the giantess was moving farther away instead of closer.

Evelyn decided to try and speak again. This time the human flinched but stopped trying to get their leg out of the hole.

“Hey, my name is Evelyn, what’s yours?”

Part 2

[master-thief-gray-shadow]

So, something kinda wild happened at work today.

Let’s backpedal about a month ago. I was just doing my job like usual, bagging groceries and tolerating the customers, when this old lady comes along with a cart. Now, she has someone with her, presumably a caretaker, so it wasn’t hard to guess that she wasn’t exactly aging well. I bag her groceries like normal, all the while thinking about how I’m going to finally be able to go home in an hour and a half. When I finish up the job, I notice my nametag has gone crooked.

It’s worth mentioning that my nametag has my deadname on it. I have never liked my deadname, but for a long time I would always tell people that it was what I wanted to be called. This was because back at camp the summer before I went into 8th grade I had introduced myself as Gray to my cabinmates and said that only family was allowed to use my real name. Little did they know that that was bullshit and I had just wanted people to call me the name I really wanted to be called, and it ended up being very embarrassing, As a result, I never asked to be called Gray in real life until I came out as trans.

But anyway, back to the story. I reach up to adjust the nametag, and the motion catches the old lady’s attention. She leans in to read the tag, then looks me in the eye. “You don’t look like a [deadname],” she says, “you look like a boy.”

Now, I want to say that yes, that is somewhat of an inappropriate comment to make to someone. You just...you don’t say that kind of thing. But for this short little pre-T transboy it was like wandering lost in the desert and coming across a caravan. This old lady...she just told me I was passing.

I had a big grin for the rest of my shift and for the entirety of the ride home. Uncalled for as they were, her words made my day, and my day had already been going excellently. So there goes the story of a very good day about a month ago.

Today, I was out in the lot pushing carts. Normal stuff. I go into the corral to get some carts, and some lady hands one off to me. I didn’t think anything of it because that’s normal, customers hand me carts all the time. But this woman, she gets a glimpse of my face. She seems to recognize me.

“Oh, you might not remember this, but I’d like to apologize for some things my mother said to you,” She says. I scowl in confusion, and she notices. “It was about a month ago.”

“What did she say?” I ask. I had my suspicions, but I felt the need to confirm.

“She saw your nametag and said you looked like a boy.” I give a small shout of recognition, and the lady continues. “She’s been saying a lot of stuff like that, so we’ve had to apologize to a lot of people. She has Alzheimer's and we’re moving her to a home.”

“Oh, there’s no need to apologize,” I say. What I don’t say is “I’m trans, so what she said felt really validating”. You can’t just out yourself to strangers, that’s dangerous and stupid. Regardless, it’s definitely what I’m thinking.

“Well, I just wanted to apologize anyway. Have a nice day!” And off she goes. And that’s the story of how some crazy old lady made me feel Valid™.