#trans!riley

[talonsaga-trash]

A glance at Riley's tattoos

[talonsaga-trash]

Trans Riley Things

He knew from a very young age that he wasn’t a dragonelle. Talon didn’t stake much on gender roles in the company, but they did exist, and they did pound human views of them into his head, and he knew that he was not a girl in the draconic or the human sense. And he was very vocal about it. His teachers passed it off for the first six years, until he learned how to shift. He chose a very, very androgynous form, who was taller than most girls his age, had a strong, angular jaw, and crew-cut hair. No six-year-old girl in the Yucatan Peninsula would look like that.

They told him that he had to wait until he was mast his majority before he could make the decision. He had act like he was a girl for sixteen years. If he still felt the same by then, he could fill out the paperwork, be listed as male, and get an official name change.

His birth name was Laelia. He hated it so much. He hated that his teachers would call him it even though he said again and again that he didn’t want it. There were months and years of “I prefer Lael” and “Call me by my surname, please”, so by the time he could finally leave his compound and spend his three months as a sleeper, he was ready to ditch it along with everything else that was supposed to make him ‘womanly’ in the eyes of the humans.

Being said, he did not spend his three months with the popular crowd, like he was supposed to. He spent with the people who let him play soccer on the boys side in ‘girls versus boys’ and offered up possible names that he could change to. He didn’t take any of their suggestions because he wanted a draconic name, but whenever he needed a fake identity, he fell back on the list.

And God, was he was happy when the name Laelia died. He replaced it with Cobalt, because it was a cool metal, and it was a type of blue, which was more fitting, considering that he was a blue dragon. Better than the pink-orchid-bullshit that he was sidled with for sixteen years.

And within a decade, people didn’t see him as Laelia. Some people didn’t even know that Cobalt wasn’t his birthname. He couldn’t medically transition, because Talon’s apathy towards trans people was a double-edged sword, but he built his muscle up, wore binders when not on mission, and kept his hair short. In his human form, he was pretty androgynous. In dragon form, not as much, but no one was going to call him a woman when he’s fifteen feet of fire-breathing power and has explicitly stated that he’s a man, damn you.

Within Talon, it wasn’t a problem.

But when he left Talon...

Well, first off, he didn’t have his binder, because he never wears a binder on missions. Which shouldn’t have been as big a deal as it was, because he had a relatively small chest, but he didn’t like it and now gross humans were staring at him. He couldn’t keep his hair as short, either, because it’s too hard to take the time to cut his own hair while on the run. The first time he was called ma’am by some passing stranger he flinched.

When Wesley Higgins showed up, Cobalt’s entire life on a USB drive, it took two weeks to get up the courage to ask Wes if he had read everything. Wes’ response?

Wes: Yep.

Cobalt: Oh... Okay. Cool.

Wes: You seem nervous. 

Cobalt: Do... do you know about the whole... female, male... complication?

Wes: Yup.

Cobalt: And?

Wes: I don’t know, mate, what do you want me to say? I’m gay, you’re transgender, it’ll be a bloody festival.

Cobalt: You’re gay?

Wes: Yeah.

Cobalt: ... alright, then.

A few days later, after another conversation with Cobalt, Wes set up a chest surgery within the month, so he wouldn’t have to worry about binders again. (That was the first time that Cobalt ever hugged Wes, and the first time that Wes hadn’t flinched at sudden movement.)

[talonsaga-trash]

Anyway, Riley says Trans Rights

[abluehairedpunk]

'Still My Firefly'

Part Two

Riley 'gets' a binder 

“Okay, lift your arms.” Ellie commands. She slips the measuring tape around my waist and pulls it up my back so it can wrap around my chest. “It’ll just take five seconds, babe.” She reassures me.

I fucking hope so… fuck, I feel so uncomfortable right now.

She mutters a number and writes it on a post it note. She continues to measure my upper abdomen and waist.

“Okay, I think we’re good to order your binder.” She says sitting at the desk looking over the numbers as she turns on her computer.

I grab my flannel from the bed and shrug it on. I button it on and walk up behind her. She’s looking at a Tumblr blog.

“Uhhhm, Ellie?” I put a hand on her shoulder, “I think you’re on the wrong website.” I smile and kiss her head.

“This was how I found the binders, firefly boy.” She smiles and types ‘binder’ in the blogs search bar. “They have a few websites but the person that runs the blog-“ She pauses and leans back in the chair. “Recommends this one.”

 “Oh wow.” I take a closer look and there’s this woman that has very large… breast in one picture and almost a completely flat chest in the other. I look down my body. I don’t have anything like that but it looks like that one will help. “Yeah, I think that one will help.” I sigh and tap on the back of the chair. I walk over to the bed and sit with my legs dangling over the edge.

“What’s wrong, Riley?” She asks pushing her chair from the desk and standing to walk over to me. She grabs my hands and squeezes them.

“What will people think when I…” I motion towards myself with my hands still in hers. “Change?”

“I don’t know to be honest.” She answers, “People will have different opinions. Some will be mean to you and-“

I cut her off. “And call me a freak.”

“Hey,” She grabs my chin and tilts it up so our eyes meet. “You’re not a freak. You just know who you want to be.”

And with that I start crying against her, holding her like this is the last time I’ll be able to.