#long? yes

[teaspoonofdragons]

A Claire's and a Hot Topic Walk Into a Bar (They Leave Immediately Because They're Both Underage)

Summary: The new kid's all sorts of confusing, to Amitie. They're perfectly capable of a normal conversation, hell, he's even usually rather nice, if a little prone to spacing out and, incidentally, ignoring people. But he's also got a tendency to start fights, and he's always trying to goad Amitie into one. She can't understand why he's sending her all these mixed signals-

-And he just can't understand why she won't play with him.

(made for the au in this post)

Characters: Red!Sig, Amitie, Raffina, Klug, Arle Nadja(mentioned)

Warnings: Swearing, implied past bullying and manipulation, miscommunication

Word count: 3321

Amitie's not completely sure she believes Raffina when she claims that Sig's not really all that mean. She trusts her friend's judgement, of course! It's just, well, personal experience claims otherwise.

By no means does she hate him! Amitie finds it... Difficult, to really find enough anger towards any one person to hate anyone. But he sends her an awful lot of mixed messages and she feels like he's toying with her at this point.

He's plenty nice- when he feels like it. It's not like Raffina where all her insults are made either in jest or because she's trying to get her to do... whatever rivals are supposed to do. He'll be nice, and then he'll get mean, and then he'll ask her if she "wants to take this outside," and Amitie's dumb but she's not stupid. She knows he's looking for a fight.

And she'll tell him no, thanks, they can Puyo battle inside just fine, and he'll grumble because that's not the kind of fight he wanted, but he'll do it anyways. If nothing else, he calms down a little afterward whether he wins or loses, but he still seems irritated over something regardless.

Well, admittedly, she's pretty sure that's just his face. Even when he's doing something he actively enjoys he manages to look a little annoyed. So, she can't actually be too sure on that front.

Either way! Would it kill the guy to be a little consistent?

Raffina doesn't seem to see the issue. Amitie's seen them trading blows- physically, not with words or Puyo- but they seem to be on friendly terms. More than that, really. If Raffina doesn't sit with Amitie over lunch she's sitting with Sig, and if Amitie ever wants to know something about him but doesn't want to go through the hassle of asking him to face, well, Raffina will probably do just as well.

She has learned through this method many things. Primarily that despite his very... Red appearance, he's actually rather fond of the color blue. Who'd have thought?

Arle doesn't really see the problem either. Says he's just got an "interesting" way of making friends.

Yeah, interesting is certainly a word choice alright. Amitie can't see what either of them see in him.

"What's the deal with you two anyways," Raffina asks.

"He's mean! I swear, he has it out for me!"

"He's no worse than Klug."

"Yeah, but Klug's not good at it," Amitie counters. "He usually just comes off as silly."

"And Sig is?"

When they'd first met, and Amitie had come with her boundless excitement to say hi to the new kid and introduce herself to him, he'd given her a quick once-over and asked, after she'd finished talking, if she was the reincarnation of a Claire's.

As in the store, Claire's.

And wow, that should not have hurt as much as it did, but Amitie had never felt more shot down before in her life. She tells Raffina this much, and to her dismay Raffina laughs.

"I'm so sorry," she squeaks between laughter, "you're right, that's so cruel. I'm going to have to give him a stern talking to, next we meet."

Amitie groans, looking up at the sky. After a moment Raffina manages to add, "You two could be an item. Claire's and Hot Topic."

The look of complete and utter dismay Amitie shoots her sends Raffina into another giggling fit, and Amitie is so upset by her statement that she demands a Puyo battle. Raffina loses because she keeps breaking concentration and laughing again, and Amitie can no longer show her face around her for the rest of the day, she decides.

Sig's back and forth indecision over whether to be nice to Amitie or to attempt demolishing her in a fight comes to a head on a really, really bad day for Amitie. It's not uncommon for her to wake up late, but she also forgot her homework, and her lunch, and worst of all they were practicing aiming their magic. Most of the time this was generally all good fun, a break from the monotony of normal, boring schoolwork, but not today.

Not for Amitie, who was already in a pretty piss-poor mood, who can't aim for shit, and who has a gnat in her ear goading her for every shot she manages to fire 2 feet away from the intended target.

"I'm sure Glasses would let you borrow his spectacles if you asked," Sig passively throws at her before muttering "cardinal," at his own target.

Amitie huffs and doesn't answer him. She fires off another shot- how the hell did she get it to land there?

"Careful," Sig drones, "you might hit The Tower."

Amitie has to think about that one for a second, but she does come to the correct conclusion that the joke is that The Tower is quite literally opposite of where they're currently aiming. She growls under her breath this time, and tries again. She actually gets a bullseye, and she points at Sig with a "ha!"

He lets out a low whistle. "Wow," he drawls.

Amitie can't tell if it's sarcastic. Everything sounds sarcastic coming from him.

Nothing else is said between the two of them for a few more spells, but then just as Amitie casts one-

"Miss."

And miss she does. She cringes as she watches her flare only barely singe the edge of the target. She buries her face in her hands for a second, then turns to face Sig.

"What is your problem!"

"I've got a few. Like, my arm's always too warm and it's really annoying."

"That's not what I'm talking about, and you know it!"

He tilts his head at her like he doesn't know, actually.

"Quit insulting me!" She demands. "You're not helping!"

"'M not supposed to be."

"Well you could at least not make it worse!"

"What're you gonna do?" He bares teeth and raises his right arm, flexing his clawed fingers at her. "You gonna cry about it?"

"I might!!"

"Oh."

He lowers his hand with a frown. "Well, maybe, you'd feel better about it. If we fought."

Amitie groans. "I'm not going to fight you! I'm not going to get detention because you're being incomprehensible!"

He stares at her.

"Incorporeal!"

She is met with further silence. She sighs, turns around, and calmly asks the classmate on the other side of her, "Klug, what's the word for when someone's being stubborn, and it starts with 'in,' and has a c and an r in it, I think?"

Klug blinks at her and thinks for a moment. "Incorrigible?"

Amitie turns back to Sig and gestures to Klug. "That!"

Sig opens his mouth.

"Shut up!" Amitie interrupts. "No! No, I'm not gonna let you walk all over me anymore! Stop talking and leave me alone!"

He lets it click shut again. They stare at each other for a tense few seconds.

And then he leaves.

Just up and walks off the school grounds entirely. Of course, Klug being Klug, he shouts after Sig, and when the other doesn't turn around he tells Ms. Accord he's gone off to who knows where. She says she'll take care of it, and Amitie doesn't see him for the rest of the day.

Or the next.

He does come the day after that, and he very resolutely does not talk to her. Refuses to look in her direction, even. Amitie doesn't say anything to him either, except for some reason his silence is giving her anxiety. Maybe he's just trying to give her space after her outburst.

A lot of it.

Multiple days' worth.

Okay. Okay now she's definitely more than a little bit anxious.

She knows, realistically, she should be overjoyed! He's finally leaving her alone! But those few times that she manages to catch his eye he's quick to look away and he always looks...

Sad. Dejected? She's not sure. It's hard to read his expression on a good day, let alone when he's clearly having a bad one. Or, many. But he sure doesn't look like his normal, slightly-annoyed-by-everything self.

She's watching him eat from the far side of the school grounds, which is probably really weird and she'd be super embarrassed if he caught her, but she can't help it.

"You'd think you're worried about him or something," Raffina points out, checking out her nails in faux-disinterest.

"Is he okay?" Amitie blurts out.

Raffina snorts, lowering her hand and bringing her gaze to Amitie's. "No."

Amitie watches him flump forward onto the dirt. Now the only thing she can really see of him is a mass of varying shades of red and two little horns poking out from it. She frowns.

"I mean- I know I was a little harsh," Amitie mumbles sheepishly, and Raffina looks at her like harsh isn't the word she'd use but she remains quiet, "but it wasn't that bad, right?"

Raffina sighs, turning her eyes toward the sky. "Normally, I'd say it couldn't even be considered bad in the first place. But for him, it was bad enough."

"You'd think someone as nonchalant as he is wouldn't be bothered by it..." Amitie grumbles.

"Yes, well, from you, it meant something."

"Why?"

Raffina blinks and goes quiet. "I think... Perhaps that's something you should ask him yourself."

Amitie looks a little horrified at the idea but she knows if Raffina won't tell her the first time she's not going to spill at all, unless maybe she bribes her. She swallows, and resolutely stands up. Right. Okay. She's going to figure this out one way, or another. And by that, she means only one way, actually.

Sig has found that fighting someone is one of the best ways to get to know them.

That's what the kids at his old school would tell him, anyways, and they were right. After his right arm and eye had turned red and he'd started inexplicably growing horns under his mess of hair, he'd gotten a lot more friends.

A lot more bruises, too. A broken nose, once.

They were a little on the aggressive side, sure, but he'd found that at some point he'd started matching them in temperament. He's not sure when that happened.

He's not sure why his parents decided to move him to a different school, either. He'd spent so long without any friends and of course, it's only when people actually start playing with him that his parents decide to move. Go figure, huh.

But he's got new friends here, at Primp. Not as many, and they act a little differently, but they're friends regardless.

Raffina was very, very easy to make friends with. He knows a lot about her. She's confident, practiced, she knows what she's doing- it's not the kind of practice where she learned everything on the fly and has been working on it since, like Sig, it's the kind that's purposeful.

She's also hotheaded, though, and prone to making more mistakes if she thinks she's losing. This carries through most of the things she does, her competitiveness a constant in her personality.

Arle's another one he made pretty quick friends with. She's a little on the looser side, more in it for the fun than the glory. But sometimes, when she's cornered, she's like a wild animal. Unpredictable. Violent. She's been in tight spots before, and it's clear how she got out of them.

(She apologized for the burn on his arm, and he waved her off and said if it was anything like the others it'd go away within the day. She didn't ask what that meant.)

He tried to be friends with Klug. He seems fun. Unfortunately, while Sig had managed to convince him to take an argument to the back of the school, when he lifted his fist to throw the first punch Klug flinched and screamed and curled up on the ground.

It wasn't even his right hand. He was using his normal human one to test the waters. Unfortunately, it seems these particular waters have the depth of a puddle. Shame.

Amitie, though. He can't understand Amitie. He's not very good at reading people as it is, but she's sending him so many mixed signals and he can't seem to interpret them correctly. She follows through with the lead up just fine, huffing and puffing the whole way through, but then he tries to actually play with her and she always refuses, and she's absolutely unbending in this decision. She'll Puyo battle with him, but it's not quite the same.

He guesses he's learned some things about her that way. She's smarter than she acts, and than other people tend to make her out to be. She's just smart in a very particular area. But she's prone to picking at her own mistakes. She notices one, and the entire thing breaks down.

And, yeah, that's pretty significant. But he bets he'd learn more if she really fought him. She was the first person to really approach him, to say hi rather than lean over to her friends and ask "what's wrong with his arm?" Of course he'd want to get to know her.

"You could always just tell her you want to be friends," Raffina'd suggested to him. "That might be, I don't know, easier?"

And yeah, he could. But that's not being close. That's just saying "let's be friends." That's not genuine- there's something different, something vulnerable about biting without bark. Bits and pieces of the other person bleed through. He wonders what Raffina and Arle see, when they play with him.

The way they play feels different from the way his friends at his old school do. They're not gentler on him, necessarily, but it hurts way less. He wants to know if Amitie is the same.

But he could never tell if she felt that way too.

Guess he has his answer now.

He's laying in the grass and watching ants crawl towards the food he'd lain down for them. He couldn't stomach it. Why waste it when he could feed a colony for days.

He hears someone approach, but he doesn't bother looking up. They stop not even a full foot behind him, and seem to shift a little awkwardly.

"... Sig?"

He looks up to glare at Amitie (he doesn't even mean to glare, that's just how he looks), but it doesn't last long. He decides craning his neck over his shoulder like that is too much work, so he lets it drop back onto the grass and tracks an ant grabbing a crumb of his lain down food.

"Sig," she tries again, slowly sitting down next to him. He huffs, flipping over on his side to face her all the way. Despite this, he still doesn't really look at her. She fidgets, trying to figure out what to say, and then settles for, "Are you... Okay...?"

He looks up at her with a look she can't really decipher, and this time she's the one directing her gaze away. "Um. Yeah. I guess that's kind of a dumb question," she laughs nervously. She looks down at him again. "But, um, could I ask what it is? That's bothering you, I mean."

He lets the question permeate a little and then responds, "Why would you tell me to leave you alone if you were just gonna come over n' talk to me yourself."

"So it is that," Amitie mumbles. Sig brings his focus to the grass. Wow. It sure is green, down here.

"Why would that bother you, though?" She asks, and when he stays silent she continues, "I mean, you're all! Bitey, and snappy and bored by everything all the time, and I know I should probably be glad you're not talking to me anymore," she watches his expression change again, and this time she can take a guess at what it is.

Hurt. She cringes at the thought.

She takes a breath and keeps going. "But now you're being all weird about it so what-" she furrows her brows, watching him curl his fingers into a fist and pull out a few blades of grass. "What changed?"

"Nothing," he responds, honestly. "Nothing changed. You just..." His eyes unfocus and his tone goes distant, "You just never want to play with me."

Wah-huh?

"I never what?"

"You never play with me," he repeats. "You act like you might, maybe, but whenever I ask you to you always say no."

"Wait wait wait, back up. Fighting... Is playing to you?"

His attention snaps back to her. "Is it not for you?"

"No! No," Amitie denies, "I mean, Puyo battles are totally normal, but fighting? Why would you want to do that?"

He rolls onto his back, staring up at the sky. "Wanna be close to you."

WAH-HUH x2?

"I want to get to know you," he admits, closing his eyes, "I've never been good at talking. It's easier to understand a fight."

Amitie's not completely sure she really gets that feeling. She doesn't really know how fighting someone would help you understand them better.

"But, I mean, I get it," Sig murmers, keeping his eyes shut. "I get it if you don't wanna be friends with me. Freak, n' all."

"NononoNONONO!" Amitie exclaims, quieting down when Sig looks up at her with a squint. "That's not it. It's not- I don't- I thought you hated me!"

He scowls at her, which very much contradicts his next statement of, "I don't hate you."

She chooses to believe his words, instead of his face. "So, then, you- you were just-!"

She buries her face into her hands and screams. "Ohhhhhh my god. Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

Sig sits up in a lackadaisical manner, but he keeps his attention on her.

"This entire time I thought you were just being a, a uh," she snaps her fingers a few times. "What's a word Arle would use?"

"Asshole."

"An asshole!" She nods. "But that's just how you play? You were trying to play with me? Because you wanted to be friends?!"

He blinks at her. "Yeah," he responds. He sounds irritated, but Amitie chooses to ignore it.

"Ohhhhhh nooooo," she whines, and now she's the one laying on her back. "I'm sorry! Oh my god, and I hurt you! You just wanted to be friends, and I hurt you!"

"'S fine," he mutters, "You didn't know. Sorry for... Not communicating. Or whatever."

Amitie grumbles about how that's probably not a healthy way to form relationships and they should discuss this later. She sits up and gives him an awkward smile. "Can we start over? Please?"

Sig tilts his head at her. "Uh. Sure?"

Her smile brightens and she excitedly throws her hand out. "Hiya! My name's Amitie I heard we were getting a new kid are you the new kid? You look like the new kid I've never seen you before you look super cool is your hair dyed or is it just like that sorry I'm talking so much I should let you go huh so what's your name?"

Wow. Did she seriously memorize that entire run-off? He looks her up and down, then smirks. "Are you the reincarnation of a Claire's?"

She punches his shoulder with a disbelieving laugh and an indignant "Sig!" then responds, "No, but I get my earrings from there!"

Further off, Raffina watches the two laugh with a feeling of relief. Finally, that's one headache removed.

Unfortunately for her she pretty soon realizes that this would merely cause a different headache to later form. But it's better than Amitie complaining about Sig's hot and cold demeanor, and Sig moping about how Amitie, who definitely wants to be friends with him, doesn't want to be friends with him. Honestly, as long as they're not going back to that? Raffina thinks she can deal with this particular headache.

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[afniel]

This is the magic lucky word count. Reblog for creativity juice. It might even work, who knows.

[smokiedokie]

I opened my copy of The Tale of the Body Thief & immediately had to close it again because of this silly little annotation

[tpwrtrmnky]

hindsight

[ID: A two-panel comic with crudely drawn stick figures.

Panel 1: The lime green person is talking to the leaf green person and the moss green person.

Lime: "I... have a confession to make."

Leaf: "Go ahead."

Lime: "I want to rewatch the Wizard Child movies."

Leaf: "Didn't the wizard author get incredibly chromophobic?"

Lime: "Yeah I just... It's nostalgia you know? They meant a lot to me when I was a kid."

Panel 2: The three are on the couch.

Lime: "All right, let's go."

Leaf: "It's so weird how the wizard author just turned chromophobic though. Like I remember this series being pretty good for its time. It'll be weird seeing their work contrasting with their views now."

Moss: "I'm just glad we got the movies for free through normal and legal means. Heh."

End ID.]

[ID 2: Scenes from three Wizard Child movies.

Wizard Child and the Simplistic Morality: A slightly round child with a propeller hat is talking to a child with no hat.

Round child: "I am so fucking fat and greedy I am textually shown to be fat because I am greedy and also evil."

Hatless child: "You are to infer my moral purity from juxtaposition with this fat child. Woe is me for our shared parent has deprived me of a propeller hat."

Wizard Child and the Goodness of Wealth: An adult wizard is talking to the child, who now has a wizard hat.

Wizard Adult: "Wizard child you are secretly extremely rich."

Wizard Child: "I will form biases regarding the bankers all being triangular for some reason!"

Wizard Adult: "Your wealth is deserved because your true parent was Good and therefore you are also Good."

Wizard Child: "Now we should acquire consumer goods. Buy consumer goods!"

Wizard Child and the Dark Family History: A blue-grey horse person is talking to the wizard child.

Blue-grey: "No, wizard child. You don't understand. I am one of the good ones, because unlike the bad ones I don't try to spread my curse that makes you a blue-grey horselike creature to others!"

Wizard child: "Wow uncle blue-grey you are one of the good ones! I forgive you for being a horse because I am so good I would even forgive horses. I sure hope you don't conspicuously get killed off later in this movie!"

End ID 2.]

[ID 3: Oh hell no there are even more of these.

Wizard Youth and the Tokenistic Relationship Dynamics: A square headed wizard youth is talking to the former wizard child, now a wizard youth.

Square Wizard Youth: "Wizard child, as the only person with a square head in this entire series it is my duty to inform you that you are the savior of all people with square heads, too. Let us build a one-sided relationship that only furthers your character development, after which I will immediately lose all plot relevance."

Wizard Youth: "I will do this because I am a maturing wizard youth and need disposable relationships that don't threaten the endgame!"

Wizard Youth and the Escalation of Stakes: The Dark Wizard, a sort of grey-green person with a cloak, is pointing at Wizard Youth.

Dark Wizard: "Wizard Youth, I have returned!"

Wizard Youth: "Dark Wizard! Why are you green now?"

Dark Wizard: "Evil magic made me green! I am green with envy towards all who are good!"

Wizard Youth: "I will not engage with how you are clearly based on fascist ideologies and yet this narrative plays into fascist aesthetic sensibilities!"

Wizard Youth and the Post-Hoc Revelations: The Wizard Youth is leaning over their Wizard Mentor, who is laying in a pool of blood.

Wizard Youth: "Wizard Mentor no! You can't die!"

Wizard Mentor: "It is fine, wizard youth. My death will further your character development into a wizard adult. Also, I was secretly a very very dark purple this entire time. I never brought it up so I could retain narrative approval.

End ID 3.]

[ID 4: Wizard Adult and the Overdue Conclusion. Three panels. I am sorry.

Panel 1: The dark wizard is dueling the Wizard Adult with magic beams.

Dark Wizard: "Evil green beam!"

Wizard Adult: "Good red beam! Despite the enormous variety of magic in this series this is what our final battle looks like!"

Panel 2: Wizard Adult stands victorious over the dark wizard, who is dying on the ground.

Wizard Adult: "In the end, dark wizard, you were defeated because I am morally superior to you."

Dark Wizard: "I was a product of systemic failures. There will be someone like me again someday!"

Panel 3: Zoom in on wizard adult, who says:

"Not if I can help it. Because I am going to be a wizard cop now. The moral of this story is that all systemic issues can be solved by finding a bad guy to beat."

End ID 4.]

[ID 5: Four panels.

Panel 1: Return to the green trio on their couch, watching the TV say "The End." All are are silent.

Panel 2: They are sitting on the couch. Moss is looking at their phone.

Lime: "Yeah so there were maybe a few signs we missed because we were children."

Leaf: "Yeah. A few. Some."

Panel 3: Continue conversation.

Lime: "So what did you think, Moss?"

Panel 4: Zoom in on Moss, who says: "I've been zoned out on my phone since the second movie. They lost me at the magic stuff. Wizards aren't real."

End ID 5.]

Start - Previous - Next

[kensatou]

make men slutty again.

HEAT STROKE | GQ CHINA Photographer: Wintam; Editor & Image: Shawn Gao Ding; Makeup: Lucas; Hair: Tao Liu; Art: Grade 2 & Lei Min; Art Assistant: Jiang Mi; Models: Kim; Ye Hao, Yu Hang, Ho Jun; Fashion Assistant: Yiyi, Coco; Photography Assistant: Li Zhenxi; Song Luanyi

bonus as rightfully added by @polyabathtub:

[pigswithwings]

the angel staying over at my house asked for a nightlight in their room and i told them buddy, don't you produce your own light? what're you gonna do with more? and they said they wanted to see why people like it so much. and also that the nightlight i own is blue and they've been trying to understand color. anyways i think they've stared at it for an hour now

[ashoss]

patrol is fun :DD

[buzzrds]

here's my wonderful isopod child, handcrafted in leather

[toshootforthestars]

(source)

[myiliterallyhavenolifegoals]

I love the dramatic, triumphant reveal that wolverine and deadpool survived the time ripper, mainly because i'm 1000% sure wade heard paradox monologuing™️ and was like "nonono hold on we have to wait for the Right Moment" and logan, who is 7 different kinds of exhausted at this point, was like "....yeah ok lol"

which leads to 2 grown ass men hiding behind a corner just waiting to ruin this british man's afternoon? logan really went from “i'll kill u with my teeth” to “yea sure i'll commit to your stupid bit” in like 2 days, honestly what a lad

[bunabi]

They're done: the Forbidden Halftone Brush Pack of your dreams.

Nine free halftone brushes for Clip Studio Paint. I will not be making another set of these so grab 'em now or never. Upload instructions are included in the folder! Thanks for your support! 😭

Past Freebie Brushes | Subscriber Brushes | And My Brush Tag

[bowl-o-nudel]

Man can't enjoy nothing without that damn nosey jealous bitch ruining it 🙄

[endusviolence]

Rowling isn't denying holocaust. She just pointed out that burning of transgender health books is a lie as that form of cosmetic surgery didn't exist. But of course you knew that already, didn't you?

I was thinking I'd probably see one of you! You're wrong :) Let's review the history a bit, shall we?

In this case, what we're talking about is the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or in English, The Institute of Sexology. This Institute was founded and headed by a gay Jewish sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. It was founded in July of 1919 as the first sexology research clinic in the world, and was run as a private, non-profit clinic. Hirschfeld and the researchers who worked there would give out consultations, medical advice, and even treatments for free to their poorer clientele, as well as give thousands of lectures and build a unique library full of books on gender, sexuality, and eroticism. Of course, being a gay man, Hirschfeld focused a lot on the gay community and proving that homosexuality was natural and could not be "cured".

Hirschfeld was unique in his time because he believed that nobody's gender was either one or the other. Rather, he contended that everyone is a mixture of both male and female, with every individual having their own unique mix of traits.

This leads into the Institute's work with transgender patients. Hirschfeld was actually the one to coin the term "transsexual" in 1923, though this word didn't become popular phrasing until 30 years later when Harry Benjamin began expanding his research (I'll just be shortening it to trans for this brief overview.) For the Institute, their revolutionary work with gay men eventually began to attract other members of the LGBTA+, including of course trans people.

Contrary to what Anon says, sex reassignment surgery was first tested in 1912. It'd already being used on humans throughout Europe during the 1920's by the time a doctor at the Institute named Ludwig Levy-Lenz began performing it on patients in 1931. Hirschfeld was at first opposed, but he came around quickly because it lowered the rate of suicide among their trans patients. Not only was reassignment performed at the Institute, but both facial feminization and facial masculization surgery were also done.

The Institute employed some of these patients, gave them therapy to help with other issues, even gave some of the mentioned surgeries for free to this who could not afford it! They spoke out on their behalf to the public, even getting Berlin police to help them create "transvestite passes" to allow people to dress however they wanted without the threat of being arrested. They worked together to fight the law, including trying to strike down Paragraph 175, which made it illegal to be homosexual. The picture below is from their holiday party, Magnus Hirschfeld being the gentleman on the right with the fabulous mustache. Many of the other people in this photo are transgender.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of a group of people. Some are smiling at the camera, others have serious expressions. Either way, they all seem to be happy. On the right side, an older gentleman in glasses- Magnus Hirschfeld- is sitting. He has short hair and a bushy mustache. He is resting one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him. His other hand is being held by a person to his left. Another person to his right is holding his shoulder.]

There was always push back against the Institute, especially from conservatives who saw all of this as a bad thing. But conservatism can't stop progress without destroying it. They weren't willing to go that far for a good while. It all ended in March of 1933, when a new Chancellor was elected. The Nazis did not like homosexuals for several reasons. Chief among them, we break the boundaries of "normal" society. Shortly after the election, on May 6th, the book burnings began. The Jewish, gay, and obviously liberal Magnus Hirschfeld and his library of boundary-breaking literature was one of the very first targets. Thankfully, Hirschfeld was spared by virtue of being in Paris at the time (he would die in 1935, before the Nazis were able to invade France). His library wasn't so lucky.

This famous picture of the book burnings was taken after the Institute of Sexology had been raided. That's their books. Literature on so much about sexuality, eroticism, and gender, yes including their new work on trans people. This is the trans community's Alexandria. We're incredibly lucky that enough of it survived for Harry Benjamin and everyone who came after him was able to build on the Institute's work.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of the May Nazi book burning of the Institute of Sexology's library. A soldier, back facing the camera, is throwing a stack of books into the fire. In the background of the right side, a crowd is watching.]

As the Holocaust went on, the homosexuals of Germany became a targeted group. This did include transgender people, no matter what you say. To deny this reality is Holocaust denial. JK Rowling and everyone else who tries to pretend like this isn't reality is participating in that evil. You're agreeing with the Nazis.

But of course, you knew that already, didn't you?

Edit: Added image IDs. I apologize to those using screen readers for forgetting them. Please reblog this version instead.

[goldsnek]

No Mercy.

[squadron-of-damned]