#if anyone would like to hand me some new neopronouns? by chance ...

[neopronouns-in-action]

033: Customer Service

Neopronouns: xiy/rik/ix/sirav which follow the same rules as he/him

Replace he with xiy

Replace him with rik

Replace his with ix

Replace himself with sirav

EX:

"He is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as he gets a fence set up around his yard so the puppy can go outside without him having to walk it. His uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting him use, since he lost his. He's going to buy toys and train the puppy himself.”

Becomes:

"Xiy is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as xiy gets a fence set up around ix yard so the puppy can go outside without rik having to walk it. Ix uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting rik use, since xiy lost ix. Xiy's going to buy toys and train the puppy sirav.”

= = = =

“Excuse me, /what/?”

Cloud knew better than to expect anything except this sort of reaction. Tiffany wouldn't be Tiffany if she reacted any other way.

Xiy resisted the urge to sigh, and repeated with irritation that was difficult to conceal, “I don't hate it. Why should I?”

Tiffany stared at rik, her blue eyes wide and shocked.

Her red mask with strawberries on it thankfully hid her mouth from view, because xiy had flat out refused to even touch any of her items until she put her mask on properly, but xiy could only assume it was dropped open to match the rest of her scandalized expression. “But- -” She seemed at a loss for words. Her white skin turned slightly red as she got worked up. “But it's a nightmare! You're turning into a monster!”

Yeah, this was why Cloud tried to avoid Tiffany whenever xiy could. Unfortunately xiy couldn't do anything about it this time. Tiffany had probably sought rik out, knowing xiy couldn't escape this time.

Xiy said, slowly and clearly so there was no chance of Tiffany- -or anyone else listening in on the conversation- - pretending not to understand, “No, I'm not turning into a monster. There is nothing monstrous or nightmarish about it, it's still literally just me, plus some fur and claws and stuff. I'm still me when I change form.”

“But Patricia told me you turned feral!” Tiffany exclaimed, “She said you went completely out of control, and slaughtered a poor, sweet, innocent deer! No one in their right mind would do such a terrible thing!” She put her hand over her heart to emphasize her distress. “I know you're a good person, Jordan, you wouldn't have done that if you were in control of yourself!”

Xiy resisted the urge to growl. As it was, xiy bared ix fangs behind ix mask, and managed to say /almost/ evenly, “My name is Cloud, Tiffany, not Jordan. It's right here on my name tag so you don't forget again.” Xiy tapped ix free hand on the nametag pinned to the front of ix uniform shirt.

Tiffany widened her eyes comically, like this was brand new information, like she hadn't already been told more than a dozen times. She stared down at ix nametag, then clapped a hand to her forehead. “Oh, silly me!” She exclaimed, throwing her other hand into the air and waving it in a circle, “I forgot again!”

At the back of the line, which was now over seven people long, someone called out, “Hurry the hell up, Tiffany, some of us have got places to be!”

Tiffany turned to glare, even more scandalized than before. “How rude!”

“No,” the same voice called back, “What's rude is making all of us waste time standing around here. I got in this line specifically because I know Cloud's the fastest cashier here, but thanks to you I've been standing here for ten minutes now! Go the hell home already! You already paid and all your shit's bagged, and xiy literally put it in your damn cart for you to give you the hint to get out of the line, now will you please take the damn receipt and go home already? Or at least get out of the damn way so the next person can check out? My leg is killing me and I didn't bring my rollator because I didn't think I'd be standing around this long.”

Glad for the mask that stopped ix grin at the reinforcements from being visible to Tiffany, xiy pressed the receipt xiy held forward even further, so that Tiffany couldn't help but have her attention drawn back to it.

Tiffany blinked, then finally took the receipt. She reached up towards her face with her other hand as though to instinctively pull her mask down, then aborted the motion abruptly.

Seemingly getting over her confusion, she shoved the receipt into her purse in the top of her cart, and glared poisonously back at the rest of the line, which was now nine people long.

“Well forgive me for wanting to have a friendly chat!” She snapped.

Cloud resisted the urge to sigh. This was not what anyone would call a friendly chat. A friendly chat was actually being nice to your cashier while they rang up your purchase, and then getting out of the way once you were done paying. Cloud was not here to make friends, xiy was here to do ix job, which xiy couldn't do if obnoxious customers like Tiffany insisted upon holding up the entire line by refusing to get out of it when they were done.

Especially if, like Tiffany, they insisted upon deadnaming and misgendering you while they wasted everyone else's time. Or being obnoxious about you becoming the town's first confirmed case of lycanthropy.

Despite the fact that everyone who watched the local news or talked to literally anyone who knew rik knew that Cloud wouldn't be dangerous or out of control when xiy transformed, Tiffany and her clique of other obnoxious friends still wanted to act like they had no idea how therianthropy worked, even though it had existed now for at least half their lifetime. There wasn't any excuse to not know how it worked in the year 2069.

Thankfully for everyone, Tiffany decided not to argue anymore or cause an even bigger scene. She just huffed, turned haughtily away from the line, which was now stretching back into the aisle, and left without another word.

The voice from the middle of the line from before called out, “Well it's about time!”

Cloud resisted the urge to laugh out loud, and settled for the next customer's items on the conveyor belt.

To ix surprise, though, the man - -whose hair seemed to cycle through every color of the rainbow every few weeks, this time bright, fire-engine red- -held out one hand to block rik and said, “Actually, just one moment, Xr. Cloud, if it's okay with you, I think I'd like to let Charley go before me, just so it can get off that leg of its. I already cleared it with everyone else behind me, so, as long as you don't mind?”

He looked at Cloud, and xiy nodded quickly, surprised but happy. “Yes, that's fine!” Xiy said, turning the belt off so it wouldn't move forward by itself, “I don't mind at all.” Xiy used the flat of ix arm to gently shove the groceries on the belt backwards a little, then place the next divider in front so that there would be space in front of them for Charley's stuff.

“Charley, come on forward so you can get off that leg.” The man said, and there was a short shuffle as Cloud watched everyone else behind him scooting to the side to let the person past. This was the person who'd told Tiffany off for taking so long.

It put up a slight protest as it was herded forward, saying embarassedly, “Well, no, no, I'm fine waiting my turn, you've been here longer than I am! Really, I'm fine, you don't need to wait on my account- -”

The man with the dyed hair just smiled and shook his head, and some of the other people in the line made various comments along the lines of, “No, please, I insist!” or “Go ahead of me, I'm in no rush!”

Finally the person was in front of Cloud, holding its small collection of groceries in one arm, the other holding its white cane.

It was wearing a blue mask with white checkers, and its grey and blue eyes (which up until now had been the only way for Cloud to remember ever meeting it before now, since xiy always forgot everyone's names) were staring slightly off to the side of where Cloud was.

“I really am sorry for cutting ahead,” It said, setting its few items down carefully on the belt- - A box of sandwich crackers, cupcakes, a box of water flavoring packets, a loaf of bread, and a bag of grapes - - “And I hope I didn't cause you any trouble, telling off Tiffany like that.”

Cloud had to resist the urge to laugh again, but this time in shock. “No, no,” Xiy assured hastily, “Don't apologize, you said what I wanted to. Thank /you/. And it's no problem at all! Do you want your groceries all in one bag again?”

Cloud rarely remembered customer's names, but xiy remembered what they looked like after enough times of seeing them, and Charley always wanted as few bags as possible, since it walked to the store.

“Yes, yes that's fine. Thank you again, Cloud.” It said, moving over to the payment reader and holding its wrist up to the screen. The reader chirped, and began reading off the name and price of the items as Cloud scanned them.

There was just its bag of grapes and a loaf of bread left to scan, so Cloud scanned the bread first, then put the grapes on the scale, oh so casually setting it “crookedly” while pretending not to notice, so that most of the weight wasn't registered.

If Charley or the man with the dyed hair noticed anything odd about how cheaply the grapes rang up, neither of them said anything.

Cloud smiled behind ix mask.

“Your total's $102.71” Xiy said automatically, a moment before Charley's reader repeated the exact same thing in a high, cheerful electronic voice.

“Thank you.” Charley said. The reader chirped again, and announced, “Payment transferred. Have a nice day.”

“Receipt in the bag?” Cloud asked, just to make sure.

“Yes please.” Charley replied.

Cloud stuck the receipt in the bag, then pulled the bag off the wheel and held it out to Charley, saying, “Here's your bag.” and making sure to let the plastic crinkle so Charley would be able to hear where it was.

Charley accepted the bag, and though its mouth was hidden, Cloud was pretty sure from the way its eyebrows were crinkling that it was smiling.

“Have a nice day, and try to stay cool out there!” Xiy said cheerfully.

“Thank you, and you too!” Charley turned to look over its shoulder one more time at the long line, and said, “Thank you again, Michael, thank you, everyone.”

There was a chorus of “you're welcome”s and “it's no problem”s and “have a nice day”s and one “I'll see you at book club on Thursday!” from all along the line.

Charley left, and now that it was his turn, the man with the bright red hair sat a five hundred dollar bill down on the counter while Cloud reached for the first of his items.

“I'll be paying with my reader,” He said, “This is for you. I don't want this to sound weird, and maybe I'm being impudent, but is there any chance I could pay you to bite me on the next full moon?”

This was just going to be the new normal, apparently. “I can't accept that while I'm on the clock.” Xiy said, making sure to stress the words 'on the clock' for emphasis, “But leave me your Hawire name and we can discuss it later. There is a waiting list, I've already promised a bite to eighteen people ahead you, so I probably won't be able to bite you until December. Three's the maximum number I can transmit it to per full moon so far.”

He literally clapped his hands in excitement, then put the five hundred dollar bill back in his wallet. “That's fine by me!” He said cheerfully, “I've been waiting my whole life, I can handle waiting six more months! You're the best, Cloud!”

The rest of the line went just as smoothly, with all the customers being nice and patient and several of them commenting that they didn't mind waiting at all, because they knew xiy was the best cashier ever to work there. “Tell that to my boss.” Xiy replied every time, and was met with variations upon, “Oh, I will, believe me.”

The irritation with Tiffany aside, it had been a good day.

When xiy got off from work later that night, it was to three dozen notifications on ix phone, informing rik that almost forty people had given rik a tip for ix excellent customer service, adding up to three and a half thousand dollars total.

That was more than twice ix official wages for the day.

Company policy banned and harshly punished accepting tips from customers, but that didn't stop the customers who were determined enough from tipping rik through ix Hawire account.

What the company didn't know about, they couldn't punish you for.

And the full moon was next week, so there was something to look forward to.

[omgkalyppso]

Soft asks: Fae: 29, 23

Sawyer: 31

(ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ Thank you so much for the ask!!! <333

29. What makes your muse smile?

Lots of sadly stereotypical things. Like surprises — like when a cake turns out better than expected, little gifts that required thought or investment, or a letter bearing good news. Or things that are aesthetically pleasant — like a rainbow, or a landscape, or a frilly, layered outfit. Or when people are authentic — like Leonie's passion, Alois' puns, or Zoran's singing. And of course expressions of trust and romance from their partners.

23. How is your muse with children?

Fae loves children. I'm not sure how good they'd be with them initially because they don't have a lot of opportunities to interact with infants and kids before they start having their own in my post-canon stuff I've written, but, like Claude, they'd read and ask questions to be as well equipped as they could be. Generally, they have a quieter disposition and I think they'd be fine interacting with children in short bouts though they might have a hard time with rowdier displays of misbehavior.

31. What makes your muse blush?

I've been trying to start a fic for Sawyer and I've come up short a few times because I'm trying to establish what their polyam relationships look like; and whether I want to tack on an additional OC to act as a friend and interpreter for them, and to maybe ship with some of the characters. All this to say that I think people who are forward make Sawyer blush — and that includes both sexually and simply people who are able to articulate their emotions well on the fly. I think they get flustered when trying to sign more serious feelings, in the same way that some people who speak two languages have a hard time saying 'I love you' in their mother tongue. Sawyer would much rather write things down, taking hours or days to artfully select words and presentation. So to hear Haurchefant's direct advances and confessions, and Aymeric's heartfelt expressions of interest, would certainly result in rosy cheeks and their hands over their mouth or eyes depending on the setting.

372 words below the cut as a wip but also more rambling and a screenshot of Sybille.

I remade Sybille a bit and have been toying with using fleur/fleurs/fleurself pronouns for fleur, but I'm not sure I'm settled on the idea. I just really like oc's and frienships and wanted to try writing neopronouns.

Sawyer would be a Monk and Weaver (at least) and might be entangled with Haurchefant, Aymeric, Estinien, Y'shtola and Emet (who I still haven't met but I've been reading and observing and (eyes emoji)).

Sybille would be a Scholar and Culinarian (at least) and might be entangled with Thancred, Urianger and maybe Ysayle.

And part of what's holding me back is fear of being too self indulgent, and that the hero's journey might already be explored to hell and back. I want to have fun, but I worry about being annoying. asjdfgasj

EVEN SO. Have some words that might evolve into Something but also might need to be scrapped for me to try this a fourth time. Just after the Vault for Haurche; dialogue with Aymeric and Sawyer:

~

Sawyer was weeping when Aymeric found them. It was a soft, wheezing sound, scarcely audible over the hush of his own breath, or the cries yet swirling in his mind. Edmont was beside himself as surely as he was beside Haurchefant, as the chirurgeons struggled desperately to stay the corruption of his deep magical and physical injuries.

Aymeric knew not the man from any other elezen who had fallen to the recent calamities*, and if he had not cried for them, then it felt inappropriate to weep for Greystone. Yet the Warrior of Light was another matter entirely. That they were heartbroken so honestly over the elezen that had taken them into his home spoke further of the values that they'd outlined and proven time and again.

He sat by their side and wrapped large hand around their far shoulder. There was much to do, but broken as he was, and grief stricken as they were, there seemed little chance of catching up to his father so soon.

Sawyer curled towards and away from the embrace in a swaying motion, and Aymeric guiltily wished they had stayed, head to his chest, a safe weight in his arms.

Sawyer was signing to him, and Aymeric faltered. He was learning, but these were not signs he knew. Estinien would know. Haurchefant would know.

"I'm sorry, I..."

With a shake of their head, Sawyer simply whimpered, the noise so quiet it was nearly drowned out by the gasp they sucked in to worry at their bottom lip.

"No," Aymeric insisted. He would not allow them to go unheard. He signed as he asked, "Again please?"

Slower this time, Sawyer did not tell Aymeric their problem. They instead signed out the spelling of a single word.

"L, T, Y... Guilty?" Aymeric said, surprised. "My friend, if anyone is at fault for the state of our companion tis I. Haurchefant is a man of Ishgard born, who marched knowingly towards our battle. He did as all good knights do, protecting that which is worth protecting. While my father..." He faltered, realizing how much his father had hurt, beyond the man just down the hall. "Suffice it to say, Greystone would not blame you, and neither do I."

*Is this even true? I have no recollection.