“Order for Kravitz,” calls the barista, and later Kravitz will marvel at the way his name sounds in that voice. But not now. Now, he drags his eyes away from where they had been staring blankly at the napkin dispenser and walks to the counter.
“Oh,” he says, and blinks at the blueberry muffin sitting cheerfully beside the cup of coffee. “Um. Excuse me? I didn’t order—”
The barista turns to him and smiles cheekily and Kravitz feels his heart skip a beat. “My treat,” says the barista. “And I added a little something to the coffee because plain black is boring and also—no offense—you look like you could use that little something, handsome.”
And then he winks, and Kravitz can feel his soul ascend from his body.
“Taako is lovely, and loud, and unabashedly unique. He’s also pressed very close to Kravitz’s chest and spinning them around and humming along to the terrible pop song that’s blasting overhead and smiling with closed lips.
Shit, thinks Kravitz.”
i wanted to play around with coloring style and i decided to do so by illustrating something from...my own fic....again....
“Holy shit,” says Lup as she strolls into the mess hall. The others turn to look at her, faces caught in various stages of bemusement. “Guys, I just realized something.”
“Mm, gonna fill us in on that one, Lulu?” asks Taako.
“Everyone in this fucking crew is gay.”
Or: the seven birds come out in different ways and in different places, to themselves and to others.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fandom: TAZ
Characters: Carey, Killian, Magnus
Relationships: Carey/Killian, Carey & Magnus
Words: 1575
TAZ Pride Week Day 6: Marriage/Proposal
Summary:
The falling was slow at first, and then all at once. It was toeing the edge of a precipice for weeks and weeks and then one day Killian walks into the training room wearing a tank top and grinning widely and Carey thinks, fuck.
There’s something about a woman with biceps as large as your head and thighs as large as your torso that makes a girl go weak at the knees. It’s not her fault; she’s a sensible Dragonborn. It’s just that she happens to be a very, very gay one.
It’s still the 13th in my time zone and so help me god I’m gonna write about trans Duck
day three of @tazprideweek: Sexuality/Gender
also on ao3
Duck Newton hadn’t always been called Duck. He had another name when he was little, something dainty and feminine that always made him feel sick. It didn’t fit him at all, the kind of name you’d hear attached to a ballerina or something, not the kid he was, in muddy jeans running around in the field behind his house.
He was an introverted child. He didn’t join the packs of kids on the playground whenever recess was let out. He preferred to poke around in the woods just at the boundary of the playground until his teachers yelled at him - that name that made his stomach churn, though he did not have the vocabulary to explain why. Even so, he had a few friends here and there.
It was one of those friends that gave him his nickname. He was eleven and rebellious and uncomfortable in his skin. People would say that’s normal for every adolescent, but somehow he knew it was different. Things were changing without his say, so he took control over the one thing he could.
He stole the scissors from his mother’s room when she was out at the store and stood on a stool in front of the mirror. He gathered his long, dark curls in his hand and snip snip snip, they all fell to the floor. He stared into the mirror and found a determined child staring back at him. It was messy and uneven, but it made him smile.
When he walked into class the next day, whispers followed him, and his friend - a lanky boy named Cole - stared at him as he sat down. Cole reached over with a boldness only children possess and ruffled the new haircut. Then he sat back and grinned.
“Y’look cool.” He declared. He pointed to the way the hair flipped up at the back of his neck, unused to being so short. “Kinda looks like a duck’s tail.”
Nicknames spread fast when there are only sixty people in your whole middle school. Soon, everyone was calling him Duck, even more than they called him his birth name. Normally, he’d be annoyed by a nickname like that - it’s so close to teasing, isn’t it? - but something about it relieved the tightness in his chest.
He started to put things together in high school. Kepler was secluded, certainly, but the information was there if you knew where to look. It started to make sense why he hated his name, why he wanted to throw up when people called him “miss”, why he felt uncomfortable in his own skin.
High school is a time to figure out your identity. At this point, his mother had given up trying to force him into dresses, so he wore the baggiest clothes he owned. He forced his voice into a lower octave. He memorized the last names of all his classmates and spoke up before new teachers could call “Newton, -----”, telling them to call him “Duck Newton, it’s a nickname.” It was easier to tell them that than explain his real reasons. He didn’t go to prom, didn’t want to choose between suffering in a dress or getting stares for wearing a suit. He didn’t even go to graduation, asking them to send his diploma to his house instead of having to hear that fucking name called in front of everyone.
Duck kind of dropped off the map after high school. He went to a community college in another county, just far enough away to be able to avoid most people he knew. He told his professors and employers his name was “Duck Newton, it’s a nickname”; at this point, it was a knee jerk response. He found what resources he could. He found a therapist that understood. He found a doctor that would prescribe him testosterone. Minerva appeared during his first year out there and despite how much he dreaded her visits, it was a relief that she never failed to greet him with a joyous “Duck Newton!”
When he finally returned to Kepler, he was applying for a position with the forestry service with the beginnings of a beard on his cheeks. They didn’t recognize him at first, but as soon as they did, he was greeted with cheerful welcome backs. It was a couple months before he came out to them officially, explaining his pronouns and why he’d really rather they not call him by the name on his application. If any of them had a problem with it, they didn’t make it known to him; he was already one of their most dedicated rangers, they weren’t about to turn him away because of something as little as this.
He told his mom soon after. She didn’t understand - it was such a personal thing, no one could completely understand if they had not been through it themselves - but she accepted it. She told him she should’ve seen it coming, but he shrugged. He couldn’t blame her.
Just as it had in middle school, word travelled quickly. Kepler may have been a small town, but it was a kind one. Even if a few of his former classmates were confused, they knew he was still the Duck they’d known since they were little. It wasn’t long before his landlord was calling him Mr. Newton and the campers he came across in the forest referred to him as sir.
If he had to admit it, he’d been worried coming back to Kepler. Everyone knew each other in town; that was a lot of people’s minds to change. But everyone he came across was kind. When he used the vacation time he’d stockpiled to take time off to get his top surgery, his neighbors offered to pick up his groceries and his work encouraged him to stay in the ranger station for a couple weeks instead of walking the trails until he was fully recovered. For the first time… ever, really, he felt comfortable in his skin.
A few things never changed, though. Without fail, he always introduced himself with the same phrase: District Ranger Duck Newton, it’s a nickname. Some habits were hard to break.
It’s TAZ pride week! I don’t have time to participate in the whole week, but today (day 3) is sexuality/gender!
I just have taako so far, but I’m planning to upload a picture like this of Lup to go with it. I should have that up in the next couple days, time allowing!!
Boy howdy i just went wild on this one! In order: Gay/trans Duck, lesbian Lucretia, bi/trans Remy, and gay Dylan
Image descriptions under the cut, click for captions
Image one: This is a drawing of Duck Newton from the waist up. He has pale skin, dark hair that is beginning to gray, a 5 o’clock shadow and heterochromatic eyes (one light blue and one light purple. He is wearing a beige short sleeved button up with a trans flag patch on the left sleeve and a gay flag patch on the left sleeve.
Image two: This is a drawing of Lucretia from the neck up. She has dark skin and dark brown eyes. Her hair is in a gradient of the lesbian flag colours, varying shades of pink and orange.
Image three: This is a full body drawing of Remy. He has dark skin, freckles, a lean build, and short dark dreadlocks that are shaved on the sides. He is wearing a Binder in the colours of the trans flag, dark gray shorts, white socks with stripes of the colours of the bi flag on them, and blue shoes. He is smiling and giving the heavy metal sign with his right hand.
Image four: This is a drawing of a bust of Dylan. He has tan skin, medium brown hair, freckles, the whites of his eyes are black and he has yellow eyes. He has the gay flag painted onto both of his cheeks. He is wearing a pink short-sleeved button up. He is smiling.
