In which Jys vies for the title of Deadpan Snarker
I was over at my parents' neighbors' dropping off something, and ran into the daughter of a friend of theirs, who I'd seen a bit when I was younger, but hadn't in a few years.
Her: [I see you cut your hair and got another piercing]. It's really nice. But you do look a bit like a lesbian, you know.
Me *as deadpan as possible*: Yes, well, that was the idea.
Her: . . . OH.
Also,
Her mother: Wow, you've lost a lot of weight! What did you do?
Me: Mental hospitals.
Her mother: . . . .
I guess I just don't take very kindly to people remarking on my appearance. The first one was just loltastic (because, seriously, who says that?!?), but the second one really irks me. Okay, I lost about forty pounds in less than a year. It wasn't on purpose, and I kind of feel that if people are going to make remarks about something that I consider impolite to mention, they're going to get the truth. It also weirds me out, because, aside from my newly-pokey hipbones, I don't actually feel very different. I mostly regretted that they were there and the girl's younger brother, who is a really great person, was not.
I was recently told that my general appearance (which, for the record, includes short, unnaturally red hair, three piercings, a lot of jewelry, and a dress sense that veers between "teeshirt and jeans" and "FLORAL SKIRT STRIPED TOP KNEEHIGH SOCKS HI-TOPS") is a sign of insecurity, and... I'm actually okay with that. I am insecure about a lot of things, and looking like this makes me feel better about myself. I have a lot of issues, but I'm not going to be ashamed of being ashamed. It's not like I'm trying to tell the world to fuck off or something. At worst, I just look kooky and obnoxious.
New York made me think about the serial story (hey tuomeo remember that? :D), and how I've been considering moving Finnian and co. up to Boston. New York is really iconic enough that you have to do something real with the setting, and I wasn't really other than using it as a generic big city. Anyway, I know this area better (and can show my general love for it by subjecting it to aerial bombardment), and I can hook them up with Joan and the Boston resistance. (It occurs to me that between Joan, Julie, James, and Jessica, someone's name has got to change). I found some of the future stuff for the main plotline and went "OH GOD MATTHEW" a lot. Look at teenaged Jys write a transman when she has no fucking idea how trans works! At best, I went "A guy, but not a bio guy! Okay!", and this worked out generally okay, and then I went and gave him a backstory brimming with Unfortunate Implications. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that in one of the early drafts he wasn't actually trans, just a woman living as a man (and taking hormones, apparently) because there were fewer restrictions on what a single man could do. Fail, fifteen year old self. Epic fail.
Speaking of The Queer, I figured out how to get Nico and Kimwana together! I wasn't sure if it was going to work. Initially, they started snarking at eachother and I liked the idea of having them hook up in the background, but then I remembered that, oh yes, Kimwana's a psychic and Nico's Nico, which meant that they literally can't touch eachother. And neither of the characters were particularly in a point where they would consider No Hugging No Kissing - Kimwana was busy seeing herself as too independent to rely on anyone else (to the point that she's outright rude to Natalya when she tries to be helpful), and Nico was interested in guns, adrenaline, amphetamines, and sex, in that order. But I ended up with the idea that Kimwana gives em her address and goes, "Look me up if you ever get yourself sorted out," and after the New Africa storyline, ey does. They end up exchanging messages for a while, and then meet up, and realize that they both want this relationship to work out in a way that they haven't before. I don't really know where to go from there, really - I don't know what Nico does now that ey doesn't have the ace card of an unreadable mind, but ey doesn't know what ey's going to do, either. I kind of like the idea of em mending bridges with the rest of CKM Enterprises (since their parting was basically "You're on drugs and going to get yourself or someone else killed," "No I'm not, fuck you, I'm leaving," and Sanjay and Jiangshi at least are good people). Anyway, I think this definitely puts the kibosh on Nico/Ekua - I was kind of leaning away from them anyway, since Nico is such a mess during that story and, honestly, Ekua knows better, but I also did like the idea of em having a stable relationship to be a big part of eir recovery. So I guess I get both. Also, I found a trashy disco song appropriate to a crime-solving psychic and a genderqueer mercenary. Excellent. (I was listening to aforesaid trashy disco music when writing the "CKM go to a club --> coup --> riot control on a space station" scene, and... ended up disturbing myself. Apparently riot control on a space station makes liberal use of the airlocks).
Her: [I see you cut your hair and got another piercing]. It's really nice. But you do look a bit like a lesbian, you know.
Me *as deadpan as possible*: Yes, well, that was the idea.
Her: . . . OH.
Also,
Her mother: Wow, you've lost a lot of weight! What did you do?
Me: Mental hospitals.
Her mother: . . . .
I guess I just don't take very kindly to people remarking on my appearance. The first one was just loltastic (because, seriously, who says that?!?), but the second one really irks me. Okay, I lost about forty pounds in less than a year. It wasn't on purpose, and I kind of feel that if people are going to make remarks about something that I consider impolite to mention, they're going to get the truth. It also weirds me out, because, aside from my newly-pokey hipbones, I don't actually feel very different. I mostly regretted that they were there and the girl's younger brother, who is a really great person, was not.
I was recently told that my general appearance (which, for the record, includes short, unnaturally red hair, three piercings, a lot of jewelry, and a dress sense that veers between "teeshirt and jeans" and "FLORAL SKIRT STRIPED TOP KNEEHIGH SOCKS HI-TOPS") is a sign of insecurity, and... I'm actually okay with that. I am insecure about a lot of things, and looking like this makes me feel better about myself. I have a lot of issues, but I'm not going to be ashamed of being ashamed. It's not like I'm trying to tell the world to fuck off or something. At worst, I just look kooky and obnoxious.
New York made me think about the serial story (hey tuomeo remember that? :D), and how I've been considering moving Finnian and co. up to Boston. New York is really iconic enough that you have to do something real with the setting, and I wasn't really other than using it as a generic big city. Anyway, I know this area better (and can show my general love for it by subjecting it to aerial bombardment), and I can hook them up with Joan and the Boston resistance. (It occurs to me that between Joan, Julie, James, and Jessica, someone's name has got to change). I found some of the future stuff for the main plotline and went "OH GOD MATTHEW" a lot. Look at teenaged Jys write a transman when she has no fucking idea how trans works! At best, I went "A guy, but not a bio guy! Okay!", and this worked out generally okay, and then I went and gave him a backstory brimming with Unfortunate Implications. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that in one of the early drafts he wasn't actually trans, just a woman living as a man (and taking hormones, apparently) because there were fewer restrictions on what a single man could do. Fail, fifteen year old self. Epic fail.
Speaking of The Queer, I figured out how to get Nico and Kimwana together! I wasn't sure if it was going to work. Initially, they started snarking at eachother and I liked the idea of having them hook up in the background, but then I remembered that, oh yes, Kimwana's a psychic and Nico's Nico, which meant that they literally can't touch eachother. And neither of the characters were particularly in a point where they would consider No Hugging No Kissing - Kimwana was busy seeing herself as too independent to rely on anyone else (to the point that she's outright rude to Natalya when she tries to be helpful), and Nico was interested in guns, adrenaline, amphetamines, and sex, in that order. But I ended up with the idea that Kimwana gives em her address and goes, "Look me up if you ever get yourself sorted out," and after the New Africa storyline, ey does. They end up exchanging messages for a while, and then meet up, and realize that they both want this relationship to work out in a way that they haven't before. I don't really know where to go from there, really - I don't know what Nico does now that ey doesn't have the ace card of an unreadable mind, but ey doesn't know what ey's going to do, either. I kind of like the idea of em mending bridges with the rest of CKM Enterprises (since their parting was basically "You're on drugs and going to get yourself or someone else killed," "No I'm not, fuck you, I'm leaving," and Sanjay and Jiangshi at least are good people). Anyway, I think this definitely puts the kibosh on Nico/Ekua - I was kind of leaning away from them anyway, since Nico is such a mess during that story and, honestly, Ekua knows better, but I also did like the idea of em having a stable relationship to be a big part of eir recovery. So I guess I get both. Also, I found a trashy disco song appropriate to a crime-solving psychic and a genderqueer mercenary. Excellent. (I was listening to aforesaid trashy disco music when writing the "CKM go to a club --> coup --> riot control on a space station" scene, and... ended up disturbing myself. Apparently riot control on a space station makes liberal use of the airlocks).