One of my female cis characters meets a childhood friend and, after years of long-distance correspondence and seeing their friend in person, she gets a feeling her friend no longer uses she/her pronouns. What would be the right way to go about asking her friend, if asking is ok?
Asking is definitely okay! Doing so in a one-on-one setting where other people shouldn’t be able to overhear is ideal. Just, “hey, I wanted to check in to ask if you still go by the same pronouns.”
If the pronouns are no longer she/her, then follow-ups should ask where to use the new pronouns around and what the friend is comfortable with in terms of correcting other people, etc.
“Haunt me” with Sara watching over Five as a ghost :,)
Thanks @lucidii, this is cruel and I’m hurting!
I will, of course, never turn down an opportunity to write about Sara. Evidenced by the fact that I turned this into a companion piece from of lovely Sara’s point of view.
I hope you enjoy it! :)
Sara watches quietly as Five moves towards the showers like a marionette pulled forwards by strings, separating from the others arriving at the gates of Abel without a word. Each step of Five is the first in a somber march, and Sam’s calls for her are ignored. ”I know this is hard, darling, I truly do,” Sara says to deaf ears as Five enters her small room and quickly snatches clean clothes. ”Funerals are never pleasant.”
No one dares speak to the brooding figure as Five stalks across the quad followed by a shadow and drowns out the world underneath a gurgling shower head.
”But I’m so proud you didn’t let me down, even though I know couldn’t have been easy for you.” Sara looks down at the tiles, and listens to the cold water falling down onto Five’s motionless shoulders. ”Sorry for putting the fight against... everything on your shoulders, but this way, I’ll be with you. Take me in your hand, and I will show you the way.”
The water must be very cold after the minutes trickling by, but Five remains still. Not that Sara would have wished for hulking tears, but the harsh reality of watching Five slowly slip into a silent void is disheartening. Maybe she wasn’t yet strong enough to stand on her own.
When Five finally exits the shower, the soles of her trainers carry her towards the gardens. There are so many good memories the two of them have shared together here. The great lion teaching the timid little mouse how to properly care for tomato plants. Speaking their own little language through the vegetables and herbs of the earth to each other. Taking comfort in the closeness of another, and the feeling of unshakable ground in a chaotic world beneath scuffed knees.
These memories likely warm Sara’s heart the very same way it tears through Five’s. She reverently lays her hands flat on the soil, careful not to disturb the vegetation and closes her eyes.
”Like I said, I was raised a good Catholic girl. I though I can’t say this is exactly what I meant when I said this before, but no one is ever truly gone. I’ll be here with you,” Sara says, feeling her stomach clench painfully at the reminder that Five will certainly not ever be forgetting her. If she could, Sara would gift her peace instead.
One of the clouds in the sky moves to let a ray of sun dance across the garden for a short moment.
”You’ll be alright darling,” Sara whispers softly as she kneels down behind Five to put an arm around quivering shoulders. ”It’ll just take a while.”
