#trans!bronte

[bronte-deserves-better]

sophie should be a little transgender. as a treat.

[mellifloraa]

i talked about it on my alt but there is a nonzero chance my english professor this semester may be a terf and i kinda wanna die about it a bit

[eternal-everblaze]

trans bronte inspired by this fanfic (bronte wasnt transitioned in it but whatever i had to draw it) (None of my friends thought it was as funny as I did 😔)

meme included

[erosdoceamargo]

dreamstat x louis: wuthering heights, emily bronte // interview with the vampire // wuthering heights, emily bronte // antigonick, sophocles trans. anne carson // achilles searching for the shade of patroclus, johann heirich // crimson peak, guillermo del toro // interview with the vampire series // carmilla, sheridan le fanu // the night we met, lord huron

[gatheringbones]

best books of 2022 rec list:

fiction:

chouette by claire oshetsky

forty thousand in gehenna by cj cherryh

fierce femmes and notorious liars by kai cheng thom

sula by toni morrison

everyone in this room will someday be dead by emily r. austin

jane eyre by charlotte bronte

villette by charlotte bronte

non-fiction:

gay spirit by mark thompson

we too: stories on sex work and survival by natalie west

transgender history by susan stryker

blood marriage wine & glitter by s bear bergman

love and rage: the path to liberation through anger by lama rod owens

gay soul by mark thompson

between certain death and a possible future: queer writing on growing up in the AIDS crisis by mattilda bernstein sycamore

the man they wanted me to be: toxic masculinity and a crisis of our own making by jared yates sexton

nobody passes: rejecting the rules of gender and conformity by mattilda bernstein sycamore

cruising: an intimate history of a radical pastime by alex espinoza

gay body by mark thompson

what my bones know: a memoir of healing from complex trauma by stephanie foo

the child catchers: rescue, trafficking, and the new gospel of adoption by kathryn joyce

the opium wars: the addiction of one empire and the corruption of another by w. travis hanes III

a queer history of the united states by michael bronski

the trouble with white women by kyla schuller

what we don't talk about when we talk about fat by aubrey gordon

the feminist porn book by tristan taormino

administrations of lunacy: a story of racism and psychiatry at the midgeville asylum by mab segrest

the women's house of detention by hugh ryan

angela davis: an autobiography by angela davis

ten steps to nanette by hannah gadsby

neuroqueer heresies by nick walker

the remedy: queer and trans voices on health and healthcare by zena sharman

brilliant imperfection by eli clare

the dawn of everything: a new history of humanity by david graeber and david wengrow

tomorrow sex will be good again by katherine angel

all our trials: prisons, policing, and the feminist fight to end violence by emily l. thuma

if this is a man by primo levi

bi any other name: bisexual people speak out by lorraine hutchins

white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide by carol anderson

public sex: the culture of radical sex by pat califa

I'm glad my mom died by jenette mccurdy

care of: letters, connections and cures by ivan coyote

the gentrification of the mind: witness to a lost imagination by sarah schulman

skid road: on the frontier of health and homelessness in an american city, by josephine ensign

the origins of totalitarianism by hannah arendt

nice racism: how progressive white people perpetuate racial harm by robin diangelo

corrections in ink by keri blakinger

sexed up: how society sexualizes us and how we can fight back by julia serano

smash the church, smash the state! the early years of gay liberation by tommi avicolli mecca

no more police: a case for abolition by mariame kaba

until we reckon: violence, mass incarceration, and a road to repair by danielle sered

the care we dream of: liberatory & transformative justice approaches to LGBTQ+ health by zena sharman

reclaiming two-spirits: sexuality, spiritual renewal and sovereignty in native america by gregory d. smithers

the sentences that create us: crafting a writer's life in prison by Caits Meissner

[cosmxc-ars3hol3]

bronte for character asks!!!

post/ask game in reference 

Sexuality Headcanon: queer in a way that he knows he likes men but doesn’t give much of shit right now because hes a councillor…

Gender Headcanon: hes just a guy (pick your own adventure whether you say cis or trans my guys)

A ship I have with said character: fintante <3 but in rhe way they are bitter exes, in canon time line they aren’t dating.

A BROTP I have with said character: him and oralie are besties! i love that part of legacy, shannon needs to put more of their friendship into the story

A NOTP I have with said character: i cant really think of any but there are probably some…

A random headcanon:

cat dad (at least 2 cats) he seems like a cat person.

he cut his hair shorter when him and fintan became exes…

General Opinion over said character: i love him so much <3 hes a piece of shit in books 1-2 (maybe 3?) but i love him later on!

[the-way-astray]

if you were the author of kotlc, what would be different? (besides keefe)

i'm so sorry this is so late, anon, but every time i feel like i'm done and up to posting i feel the urge to add something else. here's a (long) list:

representation/diversity stuff

it would be completely normal to be queer in the lost cities. you tell the matchmakers what your sexuality is and if you don't know then they just assume you're pan and are cool with any gender. also, they don’t care if you’re trans and there are plenty of elixirs (temporary and permanent) to help with transitions and dysphoria. the elves are still scared of blood and sharp things though, so instead of top/bottom surgery, there’s permanent elixirs that can change . . . what you’ve got down there. recovery time is also zero

fitz and dex becomes canon. but don't you ship keefitz- yes, sir, i do indeed. but the sad truth (for me) is that fidex is more suitable for canon and keefitz is more of a fanon daydream. it brings both fitz's arc about learning the world isn't perfect and dex's arc about not judging vackers just for being vackers to a satisfying close

stina is non-binary and goes by they/them

sophie is a (straight) trans girl, mostly because it would be funny as hell. alden and fitz spend twelve years looking for a boy, but sophie’s on puberty blockers and goes by sophie, so they miss her completely. forkle has to send alden the article on sophie three times before alden realizes the “boy” they’ve been searching for might be a girl. sophie’s transness was the best defense against being found by the neverseen all along. sophie’s also alienated by her senior class’s transphobic thoughts towards her. when she goes to the lost cities, they treat it like it’s completely normal and della gives her a gender-affirming elixir with her birth fund. this is never brought up again and is completely irrelevant to the rest of the story

talked about this a tiny bit in my keefe rant but the sexism in the supposedly un-sexist world really grates on me. i would take it all out. sophie wouldn't be forced into wearing girly clothes all the time, either by herself or by anyone else. women frequently do/wear "masculine" things and vice versa. oh, and alden wears a dress at one point. also, foxfire uniforms are unisex. definitely no weird sexist comments made by keefe or anyone else. the lost cities are truly and really gender-equal

alden and della are t4t

the women aren't all housewives that get like one over-the-top girlboss-y moment because shannon realized she was being unintentionally sexist

female characters are allowed to be angry instead of sad more and are allowed to yell instead of cry more

della is a more prominent character. edaline is a more prominent character. juline is a more prominent character

cut down on poc stereotypes (like quinlin and livvy's crumbling marriage, prentice being in jail for his son's entire teenagehood, tiger parent songs, comparing tam and linh to both k-pop idols and anime . . . )

the main vacker family are all poc

the main heks family are all poc

bronte is a poc

tiergan is a poc

the elves have normal-colored eyes and the thing that makes sophie different visually is that she's the only elf not to have pointed ears (and i would erase the whole “elves only get pointy ears as they age” thing). all the poc have brown eyes, including the vackers (i'm so sorry, fitz). sophie tries to cover her non-pointed ears with her hair as a sign of insecurity, which could be related to the way she used to hide behind her hair in her high school senior class

the poc don’t all have dyed hair (tam, linh, maruca) and are allowed to keep their natural hair color

despite the lost cities’ progressiveness when it comes to gender and sexuality, polyamory is not socially acceptable because it is considered “imperfect”. sophie learns about this and campaigns against it

there's two polyam relationships: alden, della, grady, and edaline, and tiergan, prentice and cyrah

vacker stuff

alden and della's trust issues and generally fucked up relationship are explored (but minus the forced gender roles because i took out the sexism)

alvar is closer emotionally to sophie (kind of like alden), making his betrayal feel less cheap

the pressure for vackers to be perfect in every way is explored more

fitz is not demonized just because he and sophie didn’t work out

fitz and biana are twins, actually. alden and della just hid it really, really well

alvar knew that fitz and biana were twins and tried to use this as blackmail to get them to join the neverseen because he genuinely loved his little siblings and hated betraying them (his gripes were with his parents and the immense pressure put on him because he was a vacker). when they refuse, he makes good on his threat, leading to actual repercussions that affect the story (alden and della are kicked out of the nobility)

brant is a vacker and that's why his name is redacted (could still happen) and alden and della know his parents

tiergan and alden used to be best friends canon for real for real (could still happen, i guess)

biana's scars arc is given the time it needs to feel like a full arc and not a half-baked two-scene wonder. also she has scars on her face, too

fitz actually kills alvar (could still happen, i suppose)

biana's feelings with regards to alvar are explored more

keefe and alvar lore is expanded upon

ruewen/dizznee stuff

more stories of jolie. we don't really get to know her for her. maybe from brant, or grady and edaline, or someone. stories of mundane things, like her worst subject and her hobbies and her ex-friends and her conjuring classes and what she got her friends for midterms and how she got in trouble and grady and edaline's parties and how she picked a fight with anyone that put brant down

grady and edaline's parties are talked about more when people bring up how different they used to be

the fact that jolie died in an everblaze fire is actually acknowledged

the ruewens are just as prominent a family as the vackers because on the original council, just like fallon vacker was a member, there was also a ruewen

ruewen is juline and edaline's name, which is why grady took edaline's and also why juline took kesler's because that is a sign that she's literally forsaking her incredibly prominent noble family for a life of scorn. it's also why edaline and grady hoped jolie and brant would end up together (because a vacker and a ruewen together is like. the ultimate noble couple)

juline's struggles with adjusting to a life of scorn are acknowledged because it couldn't have been easy to be the top of the top falling all the way to the bottom of the hierarchy. she beats herself up about this, too, thinking it means she doesn't actually love kesler. he reassures her that he understands but she still feels guilty

the triplets act like actual twelve-year-olds instead of six

dex's family is more relevant, as the primary bad match couple and an example of the lost cities’ injustices (the main point of the story)

the lost cities inequalities/other worldbuilding stuff

sophie campaigns for rights for pyrokinetics, shades, talentless people, twins, bad matches, polyamorous people like the moonlark she's supposed to be and the entire point of the story isn't forgotten

the fact that councillors are the only ones allowed to elect and impeach other councillors is called out and fixed (could still happen, i guess)

the elvin justice system is fixed (vackers are not let off easier just because they're vackers, the council's say isn't what decides a person's fate) (could still happen, maybe)

exile is made out to be the horrendous prison it is and in the end, is banned. sophie heals the minds of everyone with a broken mind in the end (i honestly don't think shannon's going to do this. but hey. she might)

controversial: the elves' relative beauty is emphasized more. i think it should be immediately obvious to humans that something's off when an elf is around. they look too beautiful, almost ethereal, and it makes humans uneasy, but they can't quite put a finger on why that is. this is also why sophie had no friends and even her family felt strange around her. that scene in nightfall where the girls are staring at tam and fitz? well actually, they’re trying their hardest to avoid the group. humans are fleeing left and right at the sign of the group, but they can’t really put a finger on why they feel so off

shades are not allowed to take the elite levels. the ability isn't banned or anything, but they are barred from the elite levels anyway. sophie and co call this out

vanishing and flashing is one ability. hydrokinetic and cyrokinetic is one ability. mesmering and beguiling is one ability. empathy and inflicting is one ability. also there's an earth ability and it's not just given to the dwarves because man, that's cheap

the dwarves and gnomes are one species that can control plants and are really good with minerals. they are still in charge of exile, though, because plants roots can go that far deep or something. this means there are no gnomish slaves servants

there is confirmed to be a third school where you go if you aren't a noble and also not a criminal

the segregation that happens between the classes with regards to mysterium and atlantis is acknowledged

other types of couples are explored, such as talentless-talentless matched couples and talented-talented bad matches. nuance is acknowledged

that rule about councillors not being allowed to be married is challenged. i don't care whether it actually gets revoked or not, but i want it to be challenged (could still happen, i suppose)

if it does get revoked, councillor fitz! (could still happen, maybe)

at the end of the series, a multispecial council with two representatives from each species is formed with the goal of promoting equality among all species. this is different from the actual rulers of each species (could still happen)

talentless people are allowed to serve in the nobility at the end (probably will happen, would be weird if shannon didn't do that. but just saying in case)

controversial: cognates are erased. i don't like the concept of cognates very much. i find it makes telepathy too overpowered compared to other abilities. i'm so sorry, keepblr

the council are called out publicly for their unfair treatment of talentless people, pyrokinetics, shades, twins, bad matches, and polyamorous relationships by the neverseen. this leads to the sophie and the black swan being conflicted

black swan/neverseen stuff

gethen is kenric and oralie’s secret child. this gives gethen an interesting motive, makes us question kenric and oralie, characters we are supposed to like, makes sophie have to grapple with the fact that her half-brother by blood is a neverseen member, and gives oralie an internal conflict

glimmer is keefe's twin sister and lady gisela's daughter, explaining why she's so loyal and how she ended up with the neverseen (she was kicked out by cassius, who didn't want the shame of twins). keefe is forced to grapple with this

. . . or maybe glimmer just. wouldn't exist. i don't know

brant, vespera, umber, and possibly alvar wouldn't have died such anti-climatic deaths

vespera and biana face-off. brant and edaline face-off. umber gets a proper backstory (which still might happen). umber and trix are a bad match (which still might happen)

cut the keefe’s legacy plotline. fintan stays the main villain the entire series instead of randomly being hijacked by gisela halfway through

cut the forkle twin reveal

cut the trolls and everglen plotline. fitz kills alvar a different way

cut the timeline to extinction plotline and silveny/greyfell. i'm sorry, but it adds nothing to the overall story besides "the neverseen are evil and want to control the council"

cut the lodestar symbol plotline. it was interesting, but took too much page time for a plotline that effectively ended up changing nothing about the overall story

cut the criterion plotline. it's never brought up again anyway and takes too much time for something that goes nowhere

cut the gnomish plague plotline. it didn't have much of an impact on the overall plot. all it proves is "the neverseen are evil", which is kind of the point of the story. also dimitar's project is never brought up again

cut team valiant. it never should've happened

cut the lodestar initiative plotline. It’s too vague and hasn’t affected anything important to the overall story in a while

cut the boy who disappeared plotline. it added nothing except "alvar is evil". also, don’t have fintan purposefully spill the beans about alvar. the black swan find out he's part of the neverseen a different way

cut the unmatchable sophie plotline. instead have the elves do matchmaking by dna. the point of this plotline is to show why matchmaking is unfair, but the system targets talentless people and pyrokinetics more than anyone else, so it feels forced to try to have sophie be a victim of it. sophie has a (non-pyrokinetic) ability, so she can’t be oppressed by the matchmaking system. sophie isn't affected by the matchmaking system in the way that it's supposed to target its victims, so the plotline fails to showcase the real reason matchmaking is unfair

instead, have the black swan and sophie actually listen to the povs of characters who are directly affected by matchmaking and fix it

marella's dad pushed marella's mom off the balcony (he’s not trix, though) (could still happen, i suppose)

fintan ends up being sophie's biological father (could still happen. pretty likely actually. but just in case)

the black swan are actually competent and don't throw away the entire point of their organization by working with the council

the black swan actually fight for change instead of hiding in the shadows

sophie realizes that forkle sucks over the course of the series and never talks to him again after the end

fintan is confirmed to have long hair and a flat ass from the start

fintan and vespera are confirmed to be childhood friends and fintan is confirmed to be the councillor that threw her in the dungeon. this means that there is tension between them when fintan breaks vespera out

the black swan learn about this and sophie comes up with a plan to divide and conquer by taking advantage of this rift and worsening it. this gives sophie a chance to actually use her brain to fight the neverseen instead of her abilities. the black swan hatch a plan to subtly worsen fintan and vespera's relationship: through the use of a double agent, keefe

this leads to the keefe double agent storyline, where keefe learns to listen to other people and consult them on his plans, and actually works toward a very specific goal (try to split the neverseen into two neverseens: fintan’s neverseen and vespera’s neverseen by subtly turning them against each other). the plan actually ends up working, but there are serious repercussions that actually affect the story (in the process, keefe is slightly indoctrinated by the neverseen and starts to sympathize with them and even bonds with fintan a little bit, which alarms sophie and co)

the neverseen actually act like a found family (with the exception of fintan and vespera)

the collective hire people to throw the council off their scent

bronte and fintan are confirmed to have had a thing that didn't work out

fintan is thrown in jail by a heartbroken bronte at the end of the story

after fintan’s captured, he still trains marella in pyrokinesis

livvy opens up a medical school

instead of dying, vespera is locked up again. this is her worst fear, and a fate worse than death for her

the neverseen are not a large group, like shannon implies. it's no more then twenty people. this actually makes them more terrifying than not, because if such a small group can cause such large scale damage, then that is alarming and the council looks extra incompetent

writing stuff

multiple perspectives. but not evenly. like 80% of the story would still be sophie's pov, but here and there there are chapters sprinkled in from other characters' perspectives as a break

a few chapters from the adults' povs that go into stuff they got up to before the series

a few chapters from the neverseen members’ povs

a few chapters from sophie and co's povs

the love triangle takes a backseat to the actual plot

keefe and fitz actually act like best friends

the cast is cut down significantly to just sophie, fitz, keefe, biana, dex, marella, stina, and wylie (i’m so sorry tam, linh, maruca, and jensi). there are just too many characters. instead of tam and linh being from exillium, have marella manifest earlier and get kicked out to exillium, highlighting the injustice against pyrokinetics through someone in sophie’s own friend group and making the injustice much more jarring and in-your-face. sophie, biana, fitz, dex, and keefe go to exillium later as well and meet marella there

stina's arc would not have been undone. instead, there would be a conversation between her and dex about how stina apologizes for bullying him and we learn that the reason she did that was to deflect attention off of herself and her own parents' shaky match status by pretending she was better than dex, a "real" bad match's child (the book would be multiple povs, so this would be possible)

dex and sophie never kiss and remain purely platonic friends for the entire series. erase dex's crush on sophie entirely. because we need a single purely platonic male-female relationship goddammit

sophie ends up single, but takes away something from both her relationship with keefe and her relationship with fitz

prentice and sophie's first conversation after prentice wakes up is actually meaningful

the series is only four books long because please shannon i can't handle this anymore

move the lumenaria-collapse climax to the second-to-last (third) book. that plotline slapped so hard and shannon had no business losing it in the middle of the series like it was just some random neverseen plan. it needs to be given the proper weight, so it needs to be the climax that truly showcases the neverseen's might and wit that finally kicks sophie and co into gear and motivates them to knock out the neverseen for good in the last book

i don't know where shannon's going with this yet, so this is tentative, but: move the elysian/ability-to-strip-elves-of-their-abilities plotline to the third-to-last (second) book's climax, so that sophie and co can have a proper reason to not rely entirely on their abilities all the time and actually use their brains for the rest of the series (like the divide-and-conquer-the-neverseen plan)

first book's climax is still the kidnapping

last book's climax is they take the neverseen down for good and fix the lost cities' problems (i assume this will still happen)

miscellaneous stuff

terik is talentless. i'm going to be so honest: i don't think shannon's going to do it. the series isn't done but i feel like i know shannon's style well enough to be able to tell how far she's willing to go with regards to plot twists

keefe is adopted by elwin (could still happen)

the great gulon incident was such a great triumph that it actually made alina quit. she's elected to the council a few years later

whatever stina's parents did to get matched is finally revealed and they fall out of favor with the public. stina gets character development and a reason to help sophie fix the world

alden and della and grady and edaline actually all act like friends (partners?) with inside jokes and not coworkers that only come to each other with problems. sophie wakes up and comes downstairs for breakfast and della and grady are chatting about dinosaurs. she goes into grady and edaline's room and alden's there, helping them pick a new wallpaper. she goes to everglen after school to play with fitz and biana and goes inside and edaline and alden are chilling on the couch talking about how that team got absolutely crushed at the latest bramble match. she goes outside and sees della getting thrown around by verdi and grady, edaline, and alden are laughing at her. and this is like. normal stuff. they're the kinds of friends where they can just show up to each other's houses and it's not a big deal. edaline and grady's dna is on everglen's gate

everglen's gate is explicitly said to also have security measures protecting it from levitators, because that is currently a plot hole

alden is not a century older than della. this is not because i think it's toxic. this is because i want alden, della, edaline, grady, tiergan, prentice, cadence, and quinlin to have all been foxfire friends and that's kind of not possible if alden and della are a century apart

grady, edaline, della and alden's blind spots with regards to the way society is laid out is acknowledged and actually a major part of the story. they are prominent nobles, after all. at the end they all become more aware of the lost cities' problems and are at the forefront of change

timkin and kesler end up best friends by the end of the story somehow. they realize they are in the same situation in different lightings. timkin (and vika) help out at slurps and burps by the end of the story as an apology

that's all for now, but there's probably something else that'll come up that'll make me go "oh, shannon should've done this instead!!!" so. there may be a part two, i don't know

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Weirdo Seeking Friend

hello fabulous stranger i am lonesome and isolated due to Life so here's my reach out for friends

I have a lil doggo sister.

he/him but gender is a wibble wobble fluid jelly

I like musicals, Hamilton, SIX, Legally Blonde, In the Heights, 21 Chump Street... and screaming the lyrics while intensely emoting.

I love stickers gimme all the stickers.

I am an artist, musician and writer. I wanna dance but I don't know how. Money earning to fund the stickers wise, I am a designer.

I'm slightly obsessed with fanon Draco Malfoy. And drarry fanfiction. And am a fan of Ginny. But not JK Rowling. Nope. Trans rights are human rights.

I want to see italy's art and architecture.

I love the Bronte sisters and their writing as well as family history. To visit Haworth village omg would be a dream.

Taylor Swift, Lana del Rey, Lin Manuel Miranda.

Chomp chomp I like food and sleeping Im not in education rn so I sleep through life I have three naps a day. Why am I making this post, I am so sleepy.

I like bullet journaling and internet aesthetics and crack videos.

wheeeeeeeeeeeee

[lady-eda]

Okay, so, this is my first time writing something here. So, I will give some of my personal head cannons for ~Bronte~

He's 90% gay, sometimes he slips into the realms of straightism.

He is trans. He transitioned after the everblaze incident. He doesn't really care for his gender.

He was married twice. Divorced the first, the second died. Yes, in the everblaze.

Filtan is his older brother whom he loves-hates a lot.

Brony for the win! Clearly a thing.

He has ADHD.

He's besties with Oralie.

He is clearly the bottom, no questions asked.

[bronte-deserves-better]

happy pride month i'm transgender and so is bronte

[calicohyde]

Jack Hyde All-Character Tournament: Quarterfinals, Seed 4

Milo Bronte (Not Just Us)

Milo is a "demon" - that is, a human who happens to have some demon-like qualities, such as reddish skin, horns, and claws. Unlike a lot of people like him, Milo doesn't bother to alter or hide these aspects of his appearance. He doesn't wear makeup or file down his horns. More relevantly to his story, Milo is also what is known in his futuristic dystopia as a "financial terrorist", i.e. a thief. He robs the rich and gives to the poor, many of whom live in an underground extra-societal community. He doesn't just steal money, though - he also finds and liberates information on the corporations and CEOs that own everything and everyone. He is considered a supervillain due to his "demonic" strength and the severity of his crimes. He has a fun little homoerotic nemesis-ship going with Kenshin Mechado, happily playing the flirtatious Catwoman to Ken's snarky Batman, until such time as he can fully seduce Ken to the right side.

Genre: Political Comedy Designation: Anti-Hero and Love Interest Quick Facts: 8ft tall including the horns, Autistic, tourist chic

VERSUS

Asher Adam (Any Publicity Is Good Publicity)

Asher is the frontman of the punk duo ION. He is forthright and blunt to a fault, in part because he's autistic and in part because he's just kind of a cunt - and proud of it. He is the lead vocalist and guitar player for ION, but he also plays flute and violin, which he and his other band member and brother Jordan sometimes creatively incorporate into their music. Ash is also the primary lyricist for the band. He writes a scathing and very direct track lambasting politician Gwaine Hinata, which quickly makes news and brings Gwaine himself to a show. When he spots Gwaine in the audience, Asher gets off stage to perform the song right in Gwaine's face. Ash has a typical Tragic Backstory. He is a double amputee from surviving a terrible car crash. His right arm and leg were irreparably crushed by debris when he crawled back into the wreckage to rescue Jordan. Now, he uses avant garde fashion prostheses to announce ION's new albums and match his body to the cover art.

Genre: Romantic Comedy Designation: Main Character Quick Facts: trans, gay, Jewish, Alabaman with the accent to prove it

Quarterfinals Poll Masterpost

[aphelea]

a look into the waters

Read on Ao3

Summary: A look into the pressures of Nobility, the confusion of identity, and the search for escape. AKA the trans Tiergan fic.

Warning for lots of internalized transphobia. It's an angst fic.

@gay-otlc @cogaytes @bronte-deserves-better @axels-corner

If an easy escape existed, Tiergan would have found it by now—if there were a way for him to leave this tightrope life of Nobility behind, he would have left in a heartbeat; but instead, here he is, staring at his reflection in one of Foxfire’s crystal walls, crest pinned firmly to his chest.

There is no easy way out of this life, Tiergan knows. He’ll pass his Elite Levels, graduate an average Telepath, and work as an Emissary for the rest of his life like every other miserable member of his family has done for centuries. He’ll marry his number one match—a man who will likely be a stranger—and he’ll have two children, and teach them the same, beaten path. He’ll tell them that there is no way off this tightrope. He’ll remind them that they are born balancing precariously.

If he were to change—if he were to take these shards of glass that litter his bedroom floor and slice through his hair like smooth butter—what would the family say? His mother watches from every doorway, every mirror, every window, and she cries for the loss of her child. She cries for what she thinks is her own failure; a child that cannot quite be hers, so fixated on leaving that his present goes ignored. 

(Tiergan knows he isn’t an average Telepath. But he can’t quite bring himself to try his best in Telepathy classes, no matter how exceptional he may be.)

Opportunities to escape dance around him as he grows, and he longs to grasp them though he knows they aren’t real. There is no way to maintain who he is now and to be free. The world simply cannot give him everything.

He finds friends, eventually, who understand at least some of his plight. That he is not what he once seemed to be; that the world he grew up in constricts him, chokes him, wrenches his heart out through his throat and throws it in the fire pit. That these parts of him are far too big for simple words. He is drowning in himself; he longs for a chance to breathe. 

His friends are kind, though some cannot understand why he does not just run. Livvy, particularly, looks at him with tired eyes and asks him what would happen if he were to simply leave. Drop it all and become what he wants. 

What is it that you want, Tiergan? 

He turns away from her, but he tells her part of the truth. That some strange part of him is attached to the typical way of things. That maybe some part of him is his parents’ child, his family’s dream and a normal elf with no purpose in the grand scheme of things. He doesn’t want to be different, sometimes. But it seems he doesn’t have that choice to make. 

Livvy, to her credit, understands his mess of words, though not without a pitying sigh and a kind squeeze of the hand. She is better than he is, in many ways. She runs without hesitation, jumps without looking. It is her greatest strength and yet still her weakness. 

She is silent, about the issue, for many years as they grow. 

And then Tiergan discovers his ability. 

He has known what he was for years now, manifested at thirteen and immediately scowled at the mirror—his ability became a distant friend, a reminder that he was a child of the Nobility. He had seen no use in loving his Telepathy, what with how little he understood his own mind. 

And then he is in Level 7, and his Mentor is a kind elf who understands him, he thinks, who teaches him that his mind is not something to fear, anymore. His powers need not mean anything he does not want them to mean. 

And Tiergan falls in love with Telepathy. 

He loves the pull of thoughts, loves the rush of cracking minds open and taking information and sending secret messages.  He unlocks a small part of his own mystery, and he is thrilled. 

But it does not make him feel whole. He is still running, and drowning, and trapped on a never-ending tightrope that he was born wobbling across. 

But he is powerful—on his own, now—and he feels slightly more balanced. 

So Livvy appears with her new offer. 

Escape. 

He’s certain, for a moment, that he’s living in a dream—how can this be real? That he can keep his life, his family’s approval, and be the man he’s always wished for in the mirror? That he can fight all of the battles he’s been itching to fight, acknowledge every way that their world has failed, and never face that deadly pull of guilt? 

The Black Swan, they call themselves. An organisation of rebels, lurking beneath the surface of the Lost Cities. And they want him as an agent—him, Tiergan, for his talent at Telepathy and his skills of deception. 

(Tiergan wonders, sometimes, whether he is so good at deception that he has managed to deceive himself.) 

He agrees, perhaps too eagerly, too readily—Livvy looks at him with concern in her eyes, as she nods. “You need a name,” she says, “a new one. One that fits you.” 

“Tiergan,” immediately spills off his lips, too fast, too quick—he recoils at his own words. That is the name he has fantasized, the name he has become in the darkest depths of his deepest imagination, but never, never has he spoken it aloud before. 

If Livvy is fazed by his quick response, she does not show it. “That’s too much like a real name,” she tells him. “Like something you would go by in real life.” 

I would, I want to, he yearns to tell her. He cannot. 

“You need an alias, something that really hides your identity.” 

He pauses, an old thought coming to mind; the origins of a name, many long years ago. “How about Granite?” 

She raises an eyebrow. “I guess that works, yeah, though it’s a bit random.” She considers it, for a moment. “It does throw people off the scent of your ability, though.”

“Right,” Tiergan agrees. “That’s why I picked it. It was the first random word that came to mind.” Tiergan lies, as he has always lied; Livvy accepts, as she has always accepted, and pretends she does not see what is blatantly in front of her. 

Tiergan thanks her endlessly, for that—though it is a thanks that, by necessity, must go unspoken. 

After his original acceptance, his life is somehow both a flurry of action and deceptively mundane. He attends his Foxfire classes during the day, as per usual, preparing for his upcoming graduation. But at night, he attends training sessions in the forest, wrapped in a cloak to conceal his identity from his fellow trainees.

There’s not many of them—he and Livvy, of course, who could recognise each other through any disguise, and two others, whose identities are hidden behind cloth masks and long capes. One of them—Tiergan’s sparring partner—calls himself Keeper, and he lives and breathes and radiates passion for the cause. He often finds himself on the ground, facing the point of Tiergan’s sword. And he grins, wide and bright, and something about it haunts Tiergan like a long-forgotten memory. 

Livvy frowns, when he mentions it. He takes that to mean it is beyond even her knowledge. 

Tinker is the other new trainee, though xe seems to be a few years older than Tiergan. But even those few years are enough to encase xem in gold, in Tiergan’s eyes. He’s not sure why (of course he knows, it’s been tugging at him since the day they met), but Tinker is the first elf who he has ever truly looked up to. This is what he wants from his future—eccentricity, authenticity, and courage. 

Oh, how Tiergan longs for courage. 

But he cannot keep following Tinker around like a lost puppy forever, and so once their training is complete they are all sent their separate ways, in accordance with their skills. Livvy is a medic, her dream. Tinker deals in xer only love—Technopathy. And Keeper and Tiergan are thrown into the dangerous realm of spies. 

(As partners, Forkle tells them, so they must learn to trust one another.)

Tiergan enjoys this, cautiously. As Granite, he is freer than he could ever be as an Alenefar, even if he can’t quite bring himself to say the words yet. But the sole benefit of indurite powder is that it builds the rock around him like a man, lowers his voice to a gravelly tone—and who is Tiergan to correct his fellow rebels when they assume he is a man?

Keeper is the first one who asks about it—other than Livvy, who sends him appraising glances behind her glittering mask. “You don’t talk much about your real life.” 

Tiergan wonders about the phrase, about their different attitudes toward secrets, because this life as Granite is as real as his life as a noble child. “No,” he agrees. “There isn’t much reason to.”

Keeper shrugs. “I suppose that’s true. I mean, I would trust you with my life regardless of how much I knew about you.” 

“Would you?” Tiergan asks, though he knows that he’s meant to reciprocate; meant to admit that he, too, would let down his many guards for his partner. His best friend, who knows both nothing and everything about him. “I could secretly be a murderer, or a Councillor.” 

“Stars forbid.” Keeper laughs. “You’re such a…” he waves his hands in the air, as if searching for the phrase. “A master of deception.” 

At that even Tiergan has to laugh, because it’s true far beyond what Keeper intends it to be. “Sure. And what are you, oh keeper of secrets?”

“I don’t deceive. I only hide. There’s a difference.” Keeper shrugs.

“I’m sure.” 

They sit in silence, for a moment, before Keeper’s eyes light up. “You know, you should’ve named yourself Probe. Then we would match.” 

“People would think we’re Cognates,” Tiergan replies, with a laugh—though he doesn’t quite hate the idea. And then he squashes that thought down and sweeps it away to deal with later, because what does that say about him and his feelings for Keeper? “And I like my name, anyway.”

Keeper only hums thoughtfully at the statement. Tiergan crushes any semblance of hope that arises at the sound. “Where did you get your name, anyway?” Keeper asks, after a long moment. “If you’re willing to tell, I mean.” 

Tiergan pauses—this is more than he has ever admitted about himself to anyone, besides Livvy, and even she does not know the origin of his name. “I grew up around gnomes,” he says, recalling the old, earthy scents. “My family—my parents—never really had time to look at me, or to make sure I was really attending my tutoring. The gnomes didn’t mind if I helped them during the day, so long as I got some of my work done.” 

“And they gave you the name Granite?” Keeper cuts in. 

Tiergan shrugs. “In a sense. I was always fascinated by rocks, so when I admitted that I didn’t quite like the name my parents gave me, they suggested I name myself Granite. Which I loved, in its own way, but I couldn’t see myself using it in my everyday life. So here we are.” 

Keeper is quiet for a moment, before saying, “My name is Prentice.”

“What?”

Keeper—Prentice—laughs. “We were sharing personal information, so I figured I’d reciprocate.”

“Ah.” Tiergan tests the name, rolls it around his mouth— Prentice. Prentice, Prentice, Prentice. “It’s beautiful.” 

Prentice raises an eyebrow. “Me, or my name?” 

Tiergan stares at him. “Well, both.” And then he realizes what he’s said, and that stomach-churning, haunting feeling rises again, and he has to turn away. 

Prentice hums, and Tiergan has to marvel at how completely at ease he seems, even after his revelation. Is he not afraid, revealing such a large part of his identity? Is he not afraid of what Tiergan will discover?

Tiergan scrambles to his feet, thoughts suddenly too loud for his mind and pounding against his skull like hailstones. This uncontrollable, irrational fear has risen from the depths once again and stolen his comfort cruelly. “Sorry,” he tells Prentice, “I have to—I need—”

Prentice only nods solemnly, looking silently out into the distance as if he had expected this all along. 

And Tiergan runs, as fast and as far as he can on foot, ignoring his leaping crystal hitting his chest with each move—he needs to leave, but some strange, desperate part of him does not truly want distance. This—this short, futile sprint—is nothing but show, an attempt to convince himself that he does not want that which pulls at him, that which grabs him by the wrist and begs him to confess his secrets at an altar of truth. 

He runs until his legs can only shake, and then he finally raises his crystal to the light, stepping into the lavishly decorated room that is his other life—a life that is merely a never-ending stack of lies. 

He does not let himself think about his partner’s true identity for weeks, afterward—until he is faced with his mother, one morning, shoving a scroll in front of his face with a raised eyebrow. 

Match List, is the first thing he reads, and he immediately winces. But she stares at him until he opens the scroll further, all the while describing all the further events that will need to happen before his eventual wedding. 

“You know,” she says, in that tone that Tiergan knows is a warning that he won’t like what he’s about to hear, “the Vacker boy apparently isn’t holding a Winnowing Gala or entertaining any matches, even though we’ve all seen the photos of him receiving his match list. I can’t imagine why Lord and Lady Vacker would agree to such a thing—it suggests that there’s something wrong with the boy, if you understand my meaning.”

Tiergan does not understand her meaning, but he understands that her speech is both a threat and an order: he must hold a Winnowing Gala, or she will chase him and mold him into the perfect, obedient daughter. 

He opens the scroll further and sucks in a breath. Six: Prentice Endal. 

Surely there can only be so many men named Prentice in this world. 

He snaps the scroll shut and practically shoves it back into his mother’s hands, mind recoiling. He runs a hand through his hair—recently cut with a spare knife, much to his mother’s chagrin. 

You look so much like a little boy, darling, she had said, wiping away tears of mascara. What will everyone think? 

Now he looks in the mirror and examines the jagged edges, falling just above his shoulders. What will Prentice think?  

He forces himself to kill the thought—he can’t possibly entertain a relationship with his partner, not without revealing his identity. And even then. he would be revealing a false identity.

He can’t bring himself to tell Prentice another lie, not after all that he has given up for Tiergan. 

So he does what he has always done best, and he runs, and he lifts the dam that he has kept on his oceans of guilt and shame for so long. Shame, cries the voice of his mother and his ancestors, watching his every move. Guilt, cries the voice of his young self, eavesdropping on conversations he shouldn’t be hearing—his mother, sobbing in his parents’ bedroom, crying to his father that she is just so sick of keeping up appearances, why can’t our daughter be considerate and make things easy for us? Why can’t she just try to be normal? 

Tiergan runs, and he does not know he is crying until salt mixes with the blood from his bitten lips. You fool, his mind shouts, you thought you could play at freedom? You thought you were something other than your family name? You’ve cursed your family forever, now. You’ve tainted your future.  

The same words, same scathing insults repeat in his mind, caught in a never-ending loop. He is not Tiergan, he has always been someone else. He is not Tiergan, he has always been someone else. He is not—

“Tiergan?” falls from Livvy’s lips, a name he has never heard out loud from another. But his addled brain cannot take note of it, his recursive loop of guilt having consumed him in an endless ferris wheel of hell. He thinks he is babbling nonsense, when he rings Livvy’s doorbell; he is uttering her name like a blessing as he trips on the first step and falls into her open arms. 

(Only afterward does he realize that he had been muttering his own name, between bouts of incoherent sobbing.) 

He cries, and she lets him cry into her jacket. Maybe she has been waiting for this, for all these years. Tiergan is twenty and still he can’t fix himself, can’t make a choice between his life and his guilt. He tells Livvy as much, and she nods, holding him tighter. 

“I know,” he starts, and sniffles, “I know which one I have to choose. For my sanity.” 

Livvy pulls away and smiles, gently, brushing the wet hairs away from his eyes. “I’m glad. I’m proud of you, you know?” 

He knows what she is thinking, and he shakes his head. “No. No, I have to go home. I’ll even buy some hair serum in Mysterium and grow it all back out; I’ll attend my stupid Winnowing Gala, maybe that’ll get her off my back—”

“Stop,” Livvy cuts in, dropping her hands altogether. 

He blinks. “What?”

Livvy steps away, examining him like he’s one of her patients. He wonders whether his ailment can be cured.

“You’re a coward,” she tells him, like it’s news. “You’re too afraid to do something you want, and yet you still crave the whole world beneath your fingertips; you still want every single fucking person’s good opinion!”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry if I actually care about things like family and love,” he retorts, and immediately regrets it as he watches her face fall. 

“You are my family, Tiergan.” The name hangs in the air, thick and heavy. “And I’ll never make you do something you don’t want to do. But I’ve spent far too long watching you split yourself into a million pieces just to make sure everybody’s pleased.”

“I joined the Black Swan,” Tiergan says. “That would hardly please anyone in the Nobility.” 

“No,” she agrees, “but it’s not like they know about it. Much like your father knows nothing about your old Telepathy grades and Prentice knows nothing about—well, about you.” She shakes her head. “I’m worried about you, okay? And don’t say you’re fine, because you showed up at my doorstep at midnight babbling about ‘endless guilt.’ I really thought you were going to break, right there, and I’d be helpless to stop it.”

Tiergan can only stand there, stunned. Had he been talking about guilt? Is that what the painful, fiery thread in the back of his mind is, the one that calls to him, tempts him with false comfort?

Maybe it would be easier, if he were broken, he thinks, and then immediately kills that thought because truly, what has he become? Has this guilt been festering for so long that it has already stolen some part of him? 

“I’m losing my ,” he admits, softly. “I can’t keep living like this.” 

Livvy pulls him in, once more, and hugs him tighter once the tears resume and leave marks on the leather of her jacket. He clutches her like a final lifeline, because that is what she is, now. Now that Tiergan has confessed to the air, there is no way of turning back. 

“I’m sorry,” he tells Livvy, because she deserves it. after all these years. 

“I know,” is all she says. “I know, darling.”

She hesitates before darling , as if trying to determine what to call him, now. So he pulls away, and readies himself for one, final confession. “My name is Tiergan Alenefar.”

Livvy smiles, gentle and genuine and kind. “Thank you for telling me.” 

And it’s like somewhere, deep inside his lungs, the air is set free from its cage. Now, for the first time in years, Tiergan breathes.

[marukrawler]

reading through the new vestroia handbook and giving my thoughts™️as i go. note that im using my current knowledge of s2 as a reference + the small jpn descriptions from the official s2 website:

"wilda is a massive creature made of metal and iron, and she uses her mighty strength to pound opponents into the ground."

wilda is referred to with female pronouns both here and in his character bio, which is incorrect according to the show (but ig trans wilda ftw lolol)

"baron tried to help out by working as a waiter in runo's family restaurant, but he broke too many dishes!"

is that what mr. misaki told you

gus' character bio makes no mention of his devotion to spectra or their ambition to take over vestal, which is interesting considering it's mentioned in gus' jpn bio which is like, 3-4 sentences long.

"like his sometime battle partner lync, volt uses a mechanical bakugan created by professor clay [brontes.]"

straight up not true?? brontes is an organic bakugan. how else can he evolve??

the descriptions of the six attributes are pretty cool and varied but i feel like subterra and darkus didn't get as much in depth description compared to the other attributes rip

again, in brontes' character page, he's described as a mechanical bakguan created by professor clay, which is not true.

"brontes has no fear. he will use forbidden abilities, which may destroy his own body, and will challenge even the strongest opponents."

the forbidden abilities was used on brontes by gus against his will and again, the forced evolution wouldn't have worked on him if he had been a machine.

"dynamos is a bakugan trap, another mechanical bakugan created by professor clay."

well. . .technically, bakugan traps are ancient bakugan brought back to life by the vexos, so i'd say they're organic, too. plus, since the resistance has such qualms about the existance of mechanical bakugan, there's no way they'd use ones themselves if bakugan traps were mechanical.

"to overcome his short lifespan, the powerful helios became a cyborg — and now reigns as the supreme mechanical bakugan."

dunno about this short lifespan of helios' that they're talking about but helios became a cyborg so he could compete with the power of the perfect core.

"[about nemus] an egyptian king in gold and blue armor."

the japanese wikipedia says nemus resembles kanon, the east asian representation of avalokiteśvara, a bodhisattva associated with compassion. im more inclined to believe the jpn wiki rather than the handbook because so far, there's been a lot of inaccuracies and i wouldn't be surprised if this was yet another one of them.

the last paragraph of alpha hydranoid's character page is. definitely something.

"alpha hydranoid is the third step in the evolution of hydranoid, a one-headed dragonoid. alpha hydranoid evolved when he battled with dan and drago to help save vestroia from destruction. later, he became the guardian bakugan of masquerade."

🗿🗿🗿🗿🗿what

lars lion and oberus are referred to with male pronouns.

[quasieli]

[ID copied from alt text: A digital drawing of my D&D character Sparks (she/he) and her familiar, Bronte, running together, set against a geometric floral patterned magenta and dark purple background. Sparks is a young, thin, gray Drow/Half-Orc with short undercut hair dyed in three sections the colors of the bi flag, a small set of orc tusks, and stretched lobes with black plugs in them. She is wearing a sleeveless rainbow progress flag jumpsuit with a cutout from below her chest to the bottom of her stomach, and has four bandanas tied around her arms; two on her bicep in the colors of the pan and trans flags, and two around her wrists in the colors of the gay male and non binary flags. He is running off to the left, smiling brightly as he holds up the genderfluid flag, letting it flow behind him. Running beside him is Bronte, a gray and white pitbull puppy, wearing a tie dyed rainbow bandana, looking happy and excited. End description.]

A few days early, but time for some pride month art!!!

[bookwyrminspiration]

i demand more bookworm sophie. if i as a child had to escape through literature then so did she. sophie that still loves all his human books. sophie that cannot get along with bronte until they start talking about books. tam and sophie bonding over what books they like. sophie reading human poetry and ugly crying in the middle of the night bc "he just like me fr" (but the poetry equivalent. you know the one.) sophie.

(i just realized i did in fact use he/him for sophie up there but you know what. im claiming that. that was on purpose. trans sophie ftw.)

+ have a doodle to go with it

This is the Hey Cowboy poem referenced in that last panel for anyone unaware:

You are so correct, I know Sophie's got a lot going on in his life right now and so books' priority has dropped. But also. Every day I am haunted by the knowledge that he is a bookworm, that he's a reader and lived his childhood between the pages of stories.

I know in the beginning of his story and in moving to the elven world he left his books behind (piled on every available surface!), that later on he called them "a bit ridiculous now with their wizards and dragons and demigods on the covers" (Exile, p. 421), and that was part of his mindset to help him with this huge, traumatizing transition. And I can understand that.

But also. I would love for him to rediscover that part of himself--although likely not with the same stories and literature--once his life calms down. And for him to turn to stories and creation as part of his processing. To poems and tales and people like him.

And!! Tam too! I personally see Tam as a reader, I've got two fics where it's mentioned off-handed that the reason he was up at midnight/2am is because he couldn't sleep and turned to books. To poetry. And while he might seem like someone who'd brush that off on the outside, I think he'd be an excellent analytic partner who can really get to the meaning behind the writing.

I want to see Sophie come back to it and find himself outside of the Black Swan. Also that doodle is phenomenal! Love love love sketches and you can see exactly what the scene is and the effect the poem has on Sophie, the way it captures how it feels when you find something so poignant and resonating out of nowhere and you don't know what to do with it. 10000/10 tenderly tucking these doodles into my pocket to carry with me everywhere

[artemismatchalatte]

"You can only keep 20 books out of all the books you own" tag

I saw this originally on @theinquisitxor 's page. I thought I'd do my own version of their tag.

Hypothetically, you are only able to keep 20 of your books. Only one book per author/series. So what books are you keeping?

This was hard. I only picked from books I've read all the way through. This list also includes two honorable mentions (because I couldn't limit myself :/). I'll list the titles and authors at the end.

Frankenstein (1818 edition) by Mary Shelley

Mary's Monster by Lita Judge

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Take Courage: Anne Bronte and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn

Byron in Love by Edna O' Brien

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me by Ellen Forney

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Female Husbands: A Trans History by Jen Manion

Persuasion by Jane Austen

My Plain Jane by Cythnia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

Literary Theory by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Nagata Kabi

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

(Honorable mentions)

Abigail by Magda Szabo

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love by bell hooks (not pictured here- but I do own a copy, I just couldn't find it in time for this post).

I tag: @paperbackpropensity, @thatwritererinoriordan, @godzilla-reads, and anyone else who wants to do this! :)

Because of how long my post already is, please make a new post for your own version of the tag. Feel free to tag me back, if you want, but also credit @theinquisitxor for making the original tag.

Thank you and have fun, everyone! :D