#looked at it and went “Yoooo! same cape!”

[ncat]

Yo the new guilty gear character has outfit as fuck

[oh-boy-me]

Demon Outfits Discussed

The wait is over :) thank you for your patience and all the lovely comments on the casual discussion!!

I feel like it got longer this time, so I hope it’s all an enjoyable read!  Also, I apologize for the ugly pictures--it was the easiest and fastest way to both have all the design in one image and also prevent it from stretching so far.

Like last time, please don’t take this too seriously; we love these boys and Justin doesn’t know them but has no grudges against them.  We’re just harping on their fashion sense.  Absolutely no hate is intended towards the boys or the design team!

Participants in the discussion were

Jo ( @jodaneko ), our art major with storyboarding/character design experience, who finds they have more in common with Satan each passing day.

Justin ( @justinlester0629 ), our fashion expert, who dressed up and filled a wine glass with water for the occasion.

Noodle (Me), our untrained eye who owns the Barbie as the Island Princess video game on three different platforms.  It’s not even that good.

Featuring emergency guest star Megan ( @maggo77​ ), my sister who is physically near me as we look at the backs of their designs for the first time.

Edit: Distracted by the pretty jacket, we made a mistake when putting in Levi’s silhouette rating.  It’s the worst.  2/10, not 6.

Lucifer:

“Boy looks like he’s about to swing open the doors of an expensive mansion during a debutante party and give some SCATHING NEWS.” —Justin

“Short shoulder cape and a long split butt cape lol” —Jo

Jo has realized that based on both outfits, Lucifer doesn’t want people looking at his butt.  Possible reasons are: he doesn’t have one, or Diavolo someone was getting distracted.

His shoes match his outfit.  After last time that’s all I care about.

A triple popped color, and how many layers is the middle one?  Is that a book?  Dude has like 27 collars.

The forehead diamond is very important and it’s great that there are diamond buttons to match it.  But uh.  How about those red diamonds on his sleeves.  They.  They sure are there.  (I actually like the red accents and that they match his gloves; I just can’t take the diamonds seriously.)

  Lucifer 🤝 Some Horses Diamond on the Forehead

The peacock motif is HERE and we’re all living for it.  HOWEVER, the feathers on the cape and coattails should have matched, OR there should have been more lime green because there’s so little of that color.

The pants have a pleat in the front, which Justin says means he responsibly irons his clothes, and Jo says only heightens the fact that under the capes this is a marching uniform.

Can he fly?  Jo says these are baby wings that can’t support his weight, and his cape has a hole for the top pair but blocks the bottom pair?  Can’t believe Lucifer handicapped himself for the sake of fashion.

The red makes it regal and the wide flowy design makes it imposing.  Good job, Lucifer!  I might actually be intimidated if I saw you.

Definitely the classiest outfit.  You can tell they put care into it.

Mammon:

“BITCH MY BODY CANNOT TAKE THIS KIND OF SEXY, I THINK I AM OVERHEATING!  NO MORE FURTHER COMMENTS, YOUR HONOR.  HAUTE AND HOT.” —Justin

The whole thing does amazing with only three colors.  We’ve noticed the trend of black and white + one color, but I mean hey.  It’s working so far.

Damn those pants sit low.  No wonder literally all of you wear belts.

The leather jacket?  The studs and harness?  Bless.  Justin calls it “the perfect blend of stylish and ‘I’ll see you tonight *wink*’”.

Kind of don’t like how the belts connect to the pants, though.  It looks better in the back.

“He found a really cool jacket, but it didn’t pair with anything so he just didn’t wear anything.” —Jo

Honestly though?  We’ve all made fun of Mammon for having big hoe energy in his outfits, but like, he knew he had wings and planned his outfit to accommodate for that.  He’s the only one who didn’t cut holes in his outfit.  Maybe Mammon was the smallest hoe after all.

Also if there’s a motif it repeats elsewhere, like the studs and diamonds on his jacket and pants.  Did he and Lucifer have a “tastefully putting diamonds on my outfit” battle?  Because Mammon definitely won.

One of the charms broke off the belt loop and he never bothered to replace it, and honestly thank god there isn’t two of those anymore.

Torn between wishing the boots were tighter to match the rest of the outfit and saying “yoooo they’re open in the back!!!”

Ok so so far we’ve said generally only good things, but there is one major issue with the design: Its gravity.  Everything points down, his tattoos, the diamonds, even his wings.  The center of gravity in the image is his shoes.  Bitch loved his shoes so much he made his whole outfit point to them.

Either way this was universally considered the best and I mourn Justin who doesn’t know how far Mammon’s standards are gonna fall from here.

Leviathan:

Diagonal zipper

“Levi what the fuck.” —Megan

He looks like an e-boy.

Honestly it looks like he borrowed something from Justin’s wardrobe for Pride but he didn’t know how to put it on.

APPARENTLY the biggest hoe.  Abs that he shouldn’t have coming through a mesh t-shirt.  I thought Mammon’s pants were low, but Levi’s whole-ass ass is out.  Ok Levi, I see you.

The shirt pattern is good but he probably leaves it partially unzipped because it’d look really dumb fully closed.

Justin loves the funky pants pattern and Jo likes the pants but not with the outfit.  It’s because the devs were too coward to give him a thick tail base so his pants had to fill that role by sharing the pattern.

The shoes are good, and not just because they incited Justin’s deep-set hatred for Christian Louboutin and his uncomfortable red-bottom shoes.

Justin is offended that he’s hiding his suspenders; either show them completely or not at all, no in between.  Jo’s not fully convinced it isn’t just one suspender.  What are his suspenders doing?  What are they attached to?  Are they holding anything up?  Apparently not.

Jo pointed out that if you squint the belt on his waist looks like fangs and the orange dots on his sleeves looks like eyes so it’s like theres a snake head on his outfit.  Cute!

The gloves are throwing us off though.  Why is Levi of all other brothers need gloves?  I bet he has sweaty hands.

Ok really, does his sweater unzip all the way into two pieces?  Or does it hang by that tiny thread underneath the tail hole?  There’s even a button, just in case.

Can’t believe this antler-sporting, suspender-wasting nerd went diagonal zipper on us because we beat him at a trivia game.  Should have just zipped his hood.

Satan:

HONEY.

“I hate everything about this.” —Megan

First of all, he’s straight up wearing Lucifer’s casual shirt.  Does it only button down the back?  Can he take it off?

Then he spilled bleach on his pants.  Like I get what they were going for but with the white on black that is literally just bleach stains.

Incredibly differing opinions on the belt.  He got it in the cowboy department.  Justin adores it.  Jo despises it.

And are those… athletic slip ons?

And now the elephant in the room.  The ribcage made of ribbons.  The ribboncage.  The idea is great!  I love that they gave him a skeletal theme without throwing him into a Hot Topic.

But if you take the ribboncage and feather boa off he’s literally just wearing a dress shirt and some nice jeans.  And that’s the problem with Satan’s demon form.  Not that it looks goofy.  It’s that they took risks but then hid all the risks behind business casual.

Also Megan said that the back of the ribbons look like a rock climbing harness.  Someone (probably Justin) said the front reminds them of the underbelly of a green cockroach.  Ew.

The feather boa would look better if it was over something you wouldn’t literally wear at the office.  (And also didn’t look so much like worm on a string.)

“He is going to Dragcon 2020 and is definitely going to take a picture and ask to lip sync, but accidentally start beef with Acid Betty.” —Justin

On a good note, loving how the tail fades to highly radioactive green.  Feels dangerous.  Megan pointed out that it’s a pretty wimpy tail, though.  Jo enjoys the self-conscious posture it expresses.

That’s basically the only good thing we have to say, though.

I just????

Merry Christmas.

Asmodeus:

The kanji on the picture is just saying that the coattail is the same on both sides.

Ok now with that out of the way, HONEY.

I’m sure he says that to others but I hope he says it to himself too when he looks in the mirror.

Starting with the good.  The wings?  Adorable.  The heart-shaped hole to accommodate them?  Adorable.  One of the only good adjustments.

And I love that the tips of his horns look venomous, like a scorpion tail!

We love a good floral design and a good twin tailcoat.

But once again, the shirt just has too much going on.  The flowers.  The buttons.  The brick-pattern stitching.  The brooch.  The long collar.  The fact that if he closed the last button it’d end in a diamond covering his crotch.  Sometimes less is more, Asmo.

That scorpion brooch is the best thing to ever grace my computer screen and it shouldn’t have to share the spotlight with the rest of his shirt.  It should have wrapped around his arm and been paired with some more jewelry.  Then he could have ditched those giant cuffs.

The bleeding heart tattoos are a really good idea!  But they should have been angled better and not like someone else put them on at the roller rink.  And maybe they shouldn’t have been outlined in pink.  Those aren’t tattoos, those are gaping holes in his arm.  Is he ok.

I’ve been avoiding the pants, but.  The pants.

“Oh dear god. Oh no that’s… I thought you were a designer…” —Jo

One side is buckled the ENTIRE way down, and then the other side is COMPLETELY plain.  It’s too extreme on both ends.  It should have been only half a leg of buckles.  Not whatever this is.  I still don’t think he can bend that leg.

The shoes are ok but they COULD have been a stiletto so.

Jo is DONE with these demons’ inability to wear socks.

We expected better from you, Asmo.  I hope you have to fasten all those buckles every morning as retribution.

Beelzebub:

He said “how many belts can I wear on one outfit.”

Justin said it’s like Barry B. Benson and Post Malone had a beautiful baby boy, and Obey Me! is cancelled for creating a sequence of events that could lead to me hearing that with my own two ears.

The jacket?  Stunning.  “It’s steampunk mixed with Jack Sparrow, mixed with Billie Joe Armstrong,” says Justin.  It’s got puffy sleeves!  And there’s objectively too much going on with the jacket, but since it’s a leather jacket I can forgive it.  Justin and Jo can’t.

I’m not sure why they keep giving him weird jacket collars but I prefer belt number 9 to fur.

“Why is it bucked in the back?  Couldn’t it have just been a jacket?” —Megan

Good that the black tank isn’t only black, but he has so little color on his outfit that it would have been nice for it and the matching pattern on his boots to have been a color besides gray.

I don’t mind the belts down the leg because they’re not too in your face.  Jo wants the white belt to be thinner.  Justin wants him to just pick one and go with it.

Poor Beel, he can’t do his lil thigh pat pose without his right hand being assaulted by studs and that bear trap-shaped buckle.

Justin feels like the cowboy boots are too wide up top and it’s probably because they’re FAKE cowboy boots.  I don’t know why he didn’t just get cowboy boots instead of putting fake coverings over his dress shoes.

Can’t fault the twin belt, though.  And the wing hole isn’t terrible.

Idk I guess.  They knew what they wanted to do at least.  

That seems to be the pattern with Beel: they know what they want to do, but something weird happens in the middle of it.

Belphegor:

“I don’t know which Teletubby let their son go through the it’s just a phase mom phase, but they should be ashamed.” —Justin

A toddler who just learned how to cut holes in paper got a hold of his hoodie.

Is it a hoodie?  A jacket?  A poncho?  The cow print actually isn’t terrible.  At least it had the decency to be unique in its spotting.  And the actual presence of blue is very appreciated.

On the topic of colors, Jo is calling the devs out on their apparent fear of color.  “Put the pink elsewhere, cowards,” they say.

We actually don’t hate the horseshoe, and using it for the belt buckles is actually really clever.  Even if 75% of them are doing literally nothing.  Feel like he didn’t need that many.  Could do without the bottom one, maybe even bottom two.

There’s a teeeeny tiny cowbell on the back?  Megan apparently finds that VERY important.  Why do they go to such great lengths to remind us that Belphie’s a cow?  Beel doesn’t rub his hands together 24/7.  Mammon doesn’t even get bird wings.

Just like Satan spilled bleach, Belphie has tar pants.

It’s nice to see a change in pant style, but.  Am I biased because I hate harem pants?  Maybe.  Are these harem pants too short on him?  Yes.  Maybe they were supposed to be parachute capris?  But it just looks he outgrew them too fast and Lucifer won’t buy him new pants yet.  At least they look comfy.

If he puts his keys in those pockets will his pants fall down?  Probably.  That’s a problem considering his are the only pants that look like they could hold any keys.

The shoes are fine.  I can enjoy a high topped sneaker.  …Is that a security tag?  Did he steal his shoes.  Belphie stole his shoes.

On the tiny tail hole, I appreciate that Belphie went for modesty.  But I hope it’s impossible to wear these outfits outside of demon form because I don’t want him walking around with a tiny hole right above his ass.

Honestly he doesn’t even look like a demon?  He just looks like… a cow.

There’s one more aspect of their demon forms that I didn’t feel comfortable forcing into a smaller space than it deserved: Silhouettes.  Jo puts a lot of weight on silhouettes and their role in character design.  Is it dynamic?  Is it recognizable?  Jo ranked them as such:

1. Lucifer: 9/10.  Care and effort were put into this design and it shows. 2. Mammon: 7/10.  Points deducted for most of it being form fitting but otherwise still manages to get a passing grade. 3 (tied). Beelzebub: 5/10.  His wings have actual mass but his horns being mostly hidden by his head reduce his score. 3 (tied). Belphegor: 5/10.  Evens out since his clothes aren’t as form fitting as the others but they also kind of turn him into a blob. 5. Asmodeus: 4/10, and only because he’s got multiple wings and that his tailcoat breaks up the bottom half. 6. Satan: 3/10, for the fact HIS BOA carries most of the work in altering his silhouette. 7. Leviathan: 2/10.  The tail and horns prevent this from being a total flop.

Our (surprisingly unanimous!) ranking of their outfits (not counting Megan her opinions deviated) were:

Mammon

Lucifer

Leviathan

Belphegor

Beelzebub

Asmodeus

Satan

In conclusion, any M-rated fic that doesn’t have it take demon Satan 20 minutes to take off his shirt is too unrealistic.

[loudlyunladylike]

Yooooo talking about interests??????? Moth time!!!! I love moths so much, they are so good :D, if you have not seen the rosy maple moth search it, it has a high chance of improving ur life! The moth with the widest wing span is the white witch moth which is actually pretty poggers and the one with the largest wing area is the hercules moth but personally I just prefer the attacus which has the 3rd largest wing span and second largest wing area and I just really like it because its wings kinda looks like snakeheads and also I just think its very cool, it also shares the snake wing feature with its cousin the attacus caesar which is actually the moth with the third largest wing span, alot of moths are unable to eat because they dont have the functions so they rely on stored lipids/fats from when they were caterpillars some caterpillars like this include both the attacus as well as the rosy maple moth and they're in a family called saturniidae and theres another family called tineidae that contains all the moths that eat fabric like the common clothes moth and the carpet moth! Due to selective breeding the bombyx mori/domesticated silk moth which is the grown version of the silk worm is so bad that males of the species cant fly, the species cant reproduce without help and they have lost all pigments, they look fluffy tho which is kinda cool? doesnt make up for the inability to fly tho >:( now compare the virgin bombyx mori to the chad bombyx mandarina (they're actually the same species, just different subspecies) which still has full flight ability, can reproduce without help, and still have their natural pigments and it has stronger and tougher silk than the bombyx mori and like something about how its wings look? I'm absolutely obsessed with, they like go over the main body of the mandarina? It looks like wings were draped over them like a cape!!!! The hummingbird hawk-moth is a moth known for its similarities to the hummingbird and the only reason I remember what convergent evolution is, it's literally like if u took everything that's a hummingbird and slapped it on a moth, it hovers it has an audible humming noise and feeds on flowers with a long proboscis, it's also an example of a moth that goes out in the day!!!!!!! which yo poggers! Did you know that a good way to identify if something is a butterfly or a moth is by looking at the attenae? While butterflies typically have club ended antennae moths have typically more feather like antennae and no club end, I totally dont reccomend getting into moths cause all I can find is wikipedias, pictures, and academic articles I dont really understand that well and some of the wikipedias are so short that they're less than five paragraphs and its hell when I'm trying to find info on these pog animals! the white witch has an incredibly pretty white and brown pattern that I love and also has the third largest wing area, also apparently the attacus atlas and the hercules are commonly mixed up?????? they're not even in the same family or look anything alike and I hate it so much sorry if you already knew any of this or arent interested I just saw the opportunity to talk about moths and jumped at it, reminder please go look at the rosy maple moth!!

YOOOOOOO!!!!!! You know so much moths woah!!!! That's so cool!!! Like aaa how do you know so much I'm like incredibly impressed. Like I'm legitimatly gonna reread this over like 20 times there's just so much new info it just makes me !!!!!

Mini speedrun reply to some points because honestly yours can stand alone:

I have seen the maple moth before, they are so incredibly pretty, I love them, very colourful

I've never seen the white witch moth before but they look so cool and nice. And when I googled them I was a little taken aback by how big they were damn, eeee

Yoooo!! Those bits of the wings do look like snake heads bruh that's so cool, they give good vibes

That thing with the bombyx mori is so sad, someone help them please. It's not worth them being fluffy, let them be happy please and thank you

But chad bombyx manadarina!! I had never heard of them before and the look so pretty and cool. Also I agree their bodies do look very cool, like the shape feels unique and does look like a cape, I love them

Now hummingbird hawk moths I had seen pictures of before but I didn't know what they were called and bro I love them. The look so tiny and pretty and they go out in the day?? That's so cool and funky of them, look at them go

But also in general you said so much orher cool info that I don't even know what to add, I just love it all and I appreciate the effort you went through to write all this

like woah

<3

[shslstraws]

Yoooo that dragon au is my is jam, do you have plot for it?

Hey, Anon! Glad you like my dragon au! I DO have a plot for it, so ya’ll better be ready : ))) 

“The Hophia Kingdom is ruled by the Saihara family for many generations. The land to Hophia is vast, consisting of; grassy fields, the darkest of forests, the highest of mountain terrain, the mysterious of caves, the coldest of snow in the North, and the unexplored of the sky. 

There is many unexplored land along with other small kingdoms, but Hophia is the largest population and most known to man. Shuichi Saihara, the prince and the next heir to the throne, grew up with 3 friends in Hophia. Kaede Akamatsu, Kaito Momota, and Maki Harukawa. They were three civilians who met Shuichi during a festival at childhood, in which Kaito just invited himself to talk to Shuichi, as he was sitting in the area only royals can be in. And dragged Maki along and Kaede followed to make sure nothing goes wrong. 

As the years went by and Kaito, Kaede, and Maki wanted to serve prince Saihara as their friendship grew. So they joined in with the ranks of the knights after knight training. Although Kaito wanted to be in a much higher rank, to be with the royal knights, which is hard to do even with such closeness with his highness. Royal knights are meant to be pure at heart and have to be proven of their strength. 

Kaito, Kaede, and Maki, have just recently become knights so it isn’t likely for Kaito to become a royal knight very soon. 

During one of Kaito’s night patrols, he heard some loud noise in an alley and went to go check it out. There, he spotted a dragon; a creature known in all of the land to be fierce and killed on sight if possible. But this dragon was different...smaller than the usual ones and seemed to be trapped under a bunch of junk and nets that the merchants and craftsmen throw behind alleys. At this point, Kaito wasn’t sure if he should kill the beast, but killing it would most definitely get his chances with the royal knights in more quicker. But...something didn’t sit well with Kaito killing a creature who is defenceless and currently weak. Sure, this dragon can kill Kaito, despite it being stuck in all the junk with his breath. But the dragon didn’t seem to bother to attack Kaito at all, only hiss in defence. It felt wrong. 

He didn’t know why he was doing it but the next thing Kaito knew, he was trying to help the dragon. Knowing full well the dragon might attack when freed but Kaito had confidence he can protect himself. It was hard getting to the creature with it’s hisses and threat to bite, but Kaito was able to soothe it by saying the words, “it’s okay” and “im not going to hurt you”. Which surprisingly, he felt the dragon understood and allowed Kaito to help. Once freed, the dragon quickly try to fly away but couldn’t and failed every time he tried fly. Kaito noticed that the dragon’s wing has been injured and was unsure of what to do next, sure, he can let the dragon run away out of the kingdom. But he knew other knights were patrolling around the area. And he just didn’t want this dragon to be killed when it seemed to be doing nothing wrong. 

It took a lot of effort, but Kaito was able to assist the dragon out of the area and returned back to normal life. Or so he thought. When he got reports of a dragon running around the streets and stealing food or other goods. Surely it can’t be the same dragon that Kaito saved, right? When Kaito was set with other knights to go see if this dragon settled nearby, Kaito managed to see the dragon once again. Hiding in a small cave with all the food and materials he have successfully stolen. Along with cuts and scars, assuming from the knights attacking it when the dragon was in the kingdom. It confused Kaito why this dragon didn’t leave far away from Hophia yet, but then noticed that the dragon’s wing was still wounded. Seemed to be a really bad injury for it to not heal at this point, so Kaito used some of the items that the dragon stole, to make medicine. Which he learned when meeting one of the young healers in training; Mikan. But only knew little of how to make 1 or 2 of the medicine. It was convenient the dragon had these items, perhaps he was planning to make this medicine to begin with? But how would a dragon possibly know of these things? Kaito didn’t know or bother to look further into it, as he applied the medicine to the wing and ripping apart of his cape to bandage it. 

It should’ve been the end there. But Kaito just felt the urge to check on the dragon, and eventually came around to bringing food as well. He also bothered to ask Mikan more of medicine and learning how to brew some up. The dragon eventually got closer and closer to Kaito, to the point where the dragon allowed Kaito to even pet it. The dragon was often weird, and would seem to know how to get on Kaito’s nerves with little tricks like waking up Kaito with a roar all of a sudden. To, stealing his cape, etc. And Kaito would often tell stories of his journey in knight training, plus his hopes and ambitions to the creature. It was odd, but he viewed this dragon as a friend. 

One day, the dragon seemed to have gone. And Kaito assumed his wing was healed up and so he flew off, I guess he didn’t expect such a creature to stay with him forever. Until he met a boy, who seemed to be following Kaito around during his daily patrol. Eventually the boy came up and introduced himself, Kokichi Ouma, and claimed to need help from a “big, strong, handsome knight such as Kaito”. And told the knight to meet him at a specific area as soon as night falls. Kaito wanted to ignore this strange gremlin’s invite, but he had a strong feeling that it was important. And so, just like all of his impulse decisions, he did. Kokichi thanked Kaito when he arrived, thanked “Mr. Knight”. And Kaito was confused as to why, he had never met this boy in his life until now. Kokichi cleared that up when he started to transform just his wings to show. And Kaito knew those wings anywhere, it was the same dragon he helped healed. 

At that point, Kaito was just lost and couldn’t believe that this boy was the same as the dragon he grew a connection to. Kokichi just smiled and just stated, “Im a shifter, silly! Most dragons are, woooow, didn’t know humans can be this stupid”. It was then Kaito preferred this boy as a dragon more, didn’t speak words in his dragon form. As Kokichi gave that vague explanation, he said his goodbyes and ran into the night. Leaving Kaito still bewildered at this discovery. 

Kokichi would return, just to bother and pester Kaito in his knight duties. And so, with Kokichi’s human form, they bonded. And Kaito started to even invite Kokichi to stay at his quarters. “Ooooh, Momota-chan wants me to stay in his bed? How rotten his thoughts are to want to do that to lil ol’ me” “Do you want to fucking sleep on a bed or not? Im perfectly fine with you sleeping in the goddamn cold where you normally stay.”  “ 

OKAY, I DIDN’T PLAN TO WRITE THAT MUCH. But over time, they get closer and eventually, Kaito just started dating Kokichi. And Kokichi kinda introduced himself to Shuichi, Kaede and Maki as his boyfriend. So it was “set in stone”, as Kokichi said.  I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING THIS AA. 

HERE’S SOME REFS 

Kokichi’s Dragon Form

Human Form

Kaito’s Ref 

[justmorefandomtrash]

Freak like me

It’s still the 15th somewhere, so enjoy this short oneshot about JJ’s experience before his first pride and before his latest.

Ft: So many headcanons thanks to a friend and a few of my own, including trans!JJ

“Leo, Otabek! Where the hell is my binder?”

There was a quiet thump behind JJ and he turned, only to be hit in the face with a piece of fabric. Lifting it up, he was greeted with Leo giving him a sheepish smile. They rubbed the back of their neck awkwardly as Otabek cackled in the hallway behind them.

“Ah. Thank you for that. I shall remind myself not to leave it in your room again because you have remarkable aim.”

A moment passed before they burst out in rowdy laughter, probably to the annoyance of the neighbours. He wipes a tear from his eye before pulling off his t-shirt, slipping the binder over his head and adjusting it.

“Tucked up at the back again.”

“Always happens.”

He untucks at as the duo wave and close the door behind them. Picking up a shirt he’s laid out earlier, he slips into it, buttoning it up and checking his reflection in the mirror.

“Right… eight hours maximum. Surely we won’t be out that long? We’ll watch the parade, go around a little, get food and go back home.”

Grabbing a sports bra, he threw it into the bag sat on his chair and zipped it up. He slung it over his shoulder and opened his door, jogging down the hall to the kitchen. With a groan, he shouldered it onto the side and began gathering the food he’d stuck in the fridge the night before.

“Pastel blue or purple?”

“Purple!”

“Purple!”

There’s a giggle behind him and he turned, Otabek standing there with their hip cocked to one side to show the flow of their skirt. Leo whistles as they step out of their room, patting

Otabek’s shoulder on the way past.

“Looking gorgeous Beka. Pronouns?”

“She/her please.”

“Got it!”

He pushes the lunchboxes down the slide, one for each of them. The drinks follow, each being placed in one of their bags.

“Food and drink?”

“Check!”

“Sports bra JJ?”

“Got it!”

“Flags?”

“Uh… no?”

It take a moment for him to remember where the hell he’d put his flags the night before and runs into the living room, pulling out the draw in the cabinet behind the door. Pulling them out, he unfolded them and wrapped them around his shoulders. Knotting them in place like a cape, he bursts back through the kitchen door and strikes his trademark pose.

“IT’S JJ STYLE!”

Quiet.

Then…

“Oh my god that is awesome.”

Otabek grabbed her own flags from her bag, knotting them in the same manner before repeating it on Leo, much to their confusion. He yanked out his phone and pulled them into a hug, snapping a quick selfie before uploading it to Instagram.

Pride with the skaters!

#pride #we’realltranshere #we’requeerandwe’rehere

---

Nervously, he jigs from foot to foot as Isabella tried calming him down with whispered words and gentle kisses. She readjusted her pan flag before pulling him into a tight hug, nuzzling against his cheek.

“Listen darling, they’re coming okay? They’re on their way, all of them are. They’d text you if s-”

“JJ, BELLA! YOOOO!”

Guang-Hong and Leo ran over, flags fluttering out behind them. Yuuri and Victor followed, Otabek and Yuri trailing behind them as he gestured wildly about something.

“Phichit and Seung are on their way, the rest are going to meet us there.”

JJ laughs, reaching out to pull Leo and Otabek into the hug, the others following. He sighs in relief as he feels the familiar crinkle of his friend’s flags under his fingers. They pull back with giggles as people trip over each other, stepping on feet and accidentally jabbing each other in the ribs as they wobbled around.

“Let me guess, JJ forgot his flag again when you were getting ready?”

“How’d you know?”

Otabek muffled their giggles, flashing a blue bracelet his way. He/him pronouns then.

“Well, our first pride was certainly interesting and the result was these capes. He left his flags in our apartment living room and went to get them whilst Leo and I packed our bags. The next thing we knew, JJ burst through the door with the flags as a cape yelling his iconic phrase.”

A moment passes before they burst out laughing again, clutching onto each other for support. Although he could be overwhelming at times, especially when nervous, he’d managed to find himself a group of friends who accepted him for who he was and helped him when he couldn’t help himself. Reaching up under his shirt, he unrolled the hem of his binder, smiling at the mirror of his first pride. He was surrounded by similarities; Otabek wearing the same skirt, Leo the same bracelet and the three of them wearing the same flags as they had back then in (perhaps his favourite photo) the Instagram post they’d shared.

“Here come Phichit and Seung!”

Phichit waves, dragging Seung behind him who was nervously tugging at the zip on his jacket. Unlike the rest of them, he didn’t have seem to have a flag anywhere.

Is Seung actually straight?

No, he can’t be. No one straight skates in a rainbow costume like that.

“Hey all! It’s been awhile since I attended pride in the states, and I have to say it’s as extravagant as I remember.”

“Glad you could make it though.”

“Airlines eh? Can never get the times right. Anyway, we ready to go find the others?”

“N-not yet.”

Everyone turned to face Seung who withdrew a little before straightening up and unzipping his jacket, slipping out of it and tying it around his waist.

“Tada!”

A flag unfurls from his shoulders dramatically, in such a way that could only be planned or a once in a lifetime occurrence that just happens. He briefly registers that the flag was familiar before his attention was drawn back to the t-shirt.

Nobody knows I’m trans

Oh.

Oh.

This was his coming out and that was the trans flag settled around his shoulders, fluttering in the gentle breeze.

“That shirt is amazing, where did you get it from?”

“Online, and thank you. I blame my coach for persuading me to get it.”

They gather around, all congratulating him or offering help if needed, much to his delight and relief, evident on his face.

“Selfie?”

“Selfie!”

Pulling out his phone, they all swarm to fit in, Yuuri boosting Victor onto his back whilst Seung jumped into the other’s arms, stretching across to show off his shirt. He crouched in front of them, Bella leaning on his shoulder and pressing her lips to his cheek.

“Say pride!”

“PRIDE!”

#pride #surprisewe’retrans #queerandhere #acceptance