Looked in the mirror and realized I had rockin hips how are you doing

yknow we do a lot of like stevie realising she's transfem bc of a dare or like robin telling her about queer stuff and having a 'you can do that?' moment, but now im thinking of stevie who figures it out entirely on her own and doesn't know how to tell anyone. like she doesn't fully have the words and even with robin it's like. one thing to be gay but gender stuff is a whole other level and she has no idea where she stands on that

but like, stevie who used to play with his mothers makeup as a child, whose parents would laugh at his antics until he got too old to be so childish, time to act like a Real Boy. and every time he's supposed to act like One Of The Boys he thinks of how it felt when his mom would do his hair for him and comment on how alike they looked, and how much better that felt, and he knows that isn't normal, and he has to be normal

but after the upside down that really seems to matter less. nothings fucking normal anymore, why should steve be? so she starts branching out a little. breaks into her mothers closet again, tries on all the clothes she left behind when she went on her latest trip. slowly amasses a decent collection of makeup by going to several different stores over the course of months with the excuse of 'oh my mom/girlfriend sent me to pick up x'. she doesn't do the Whole Deal often, in case nancy comes over or later in case the kids suddenly ask her to drive them somewhere. doesn't do anything that can't be removed in like three seconds. and she's definitely never telling anyone about this. she doesn't know anyone who would understand.

after starcourt, she wonders about telling robin sometimes. like sure, stevie doesn't like men but she's still like. some kind of queer. robins the only other queer person she knows (and yeah, robin turning her down bc she was only into girls did sort of hurt, but it wasn't robins fault bc she didn't know, and also it turned out stevie just didn't understand what actual friendship felt like so it was for the best anyway), so if she can't tell robin who can she tell?

but something always stops her. robins technically never done anything that makes stevie think she'd be mean about it, but there's something like imposter syndrome keeping her mouth closed. like she's not the right kind of queer. like robins being queer the good and honest way and stevies just being some kind of freak. and yeah, she knows it's dumb to think like that and robin would call her a dingus if she said it out loud, but it sits pretty heavy in her heart

so it's not until after vecna, when stevies on the eddie shift in the hospital and eddie says, while high on possibly every drug in the world, 'man i spent all that time trying to grow my tits and bats ate an entire boob in under five minutes' and stevie goes ??? what???? and eddie, still too high to self-censor, makes some comment like yeah they weren't huge but that black market estrogen i got was finally working its magic, definitely had like an a-cup. rest in peace. and stevies like why were you growing boobs?? 'bc girls are supposed to have boobs, man, keep up'

and eddie passes out again like five seconds later, but stevie just sits there watching her snore with her heart about to beat out of her chest because. holy shit. she's not the only one. eddie might understand, might be able to help her, if she was able to grow her own boobs. stevie would love to grow her own boobs. she'd stuffed some socks down a bra once and they looked lumpy as hell but even just the suggestion of a bust had almost brought her to tears.

and suddenly, looking at the sleeping form of the first person stevie has ever met that she's ever had this so intrinsic thing in common with, everything doesn't seem so scary

Victoria's Got Nothing On Her

AO3 Link

Rating: M | Tags: Transfem Stevie Harrington, established relationship, lingerie, kissing, fade-to-black implied sex

Notes: I...have no explanation for this one, other than that I've had half of this fic of Steph trying on new lingerie and getting Eddie all hot and bothered with it just sitting in my word docs for months, so I thought I would finally just flesh it out a bit and post it. Note that Stephanie uses both Steph and Stevie as interchangeable nicknames throughout this fic. Hopefully that isn't too confusing!

So, without further ado, around 1k of these two being cute and horny below the cut.

She's always been–well. Strong, athletic. A good-sized…girl, she guesses.

And the estrogen has been working its magic pretty well. It hasn't been making her any smaller, of course, just–softening what's already there. Stevie's always had a great ass, if she does say so herself, but her hips have gotten wider, rounder.

(Fat-bottomed girlsss, she hears Eddie's voice croon teasingly in her mind, and her cheeks flush in the mirror.)

Weight's been steadily gathering at her chest, too–her tiddy Skittles, as Eddie playfully dubbed them, more than earning their name–filling her out until she can admit, with no small amount of glee, that she's getting busty now.

Still, it's a work in progress. And Steph is fully ready to cop to needing a little bit of help along the way.

Hence the impromptu shopping trip to Victoria's Secret she'd taken earlier that afternoon, and the reason she's modeling the fruits of her labor in her bedroom now.

Stevie's got on the matching lingerie set she had picked up, baby pink lace hugging her ass with just a playful hint of cheek, the push-up bra doing her all the favors that it can.

She frowns, turning this way and that as she eyes herself in the mirror critically. Then, Steph adjusts her bust with her hands a couple more times, trying to maximize her cleavage.

"Well?" she prompts as she turns to her captive audience, trying not to sound too nervous as she bites her bottom lip and thrusts out her hands, a harassed ta-da. "What do you think?"

Eddie blinks up at her owlishly, the bottom half of his face covered by one of the pink, lacy pillows Nancy had happily passed along to Stephanie when she’d been decorating her new room. The small house she, Robin, and Eddie had decided to rent together in West Lafayette, a quick drive to the Purdue campus where Robin was finishing up her degree, was cozy, and Steph had reveled in the possibilities having control of her own space allowed, far, far away from the blue comforter and uniform plaid walls and curtains her mother had dictated for her room in the Harrington house. New room, new life, new me might as well have become her new slogan, thrumming as clearly in her head as the Hawkins High cheer once had when she was out on the basketball court. 

Speaking of the new her, Eddie’s certainly getting his own slack-jawed eyeful. He looks positively hypnotized by her tits, like he's unable to tear his gaze away.

Good sign, Stevie thinks to herself with a smug smirk.

"Christ, Steph, are you trying to kill me?" Eddie groans, the sound muffled as he dramatically flops further down onto her mattress. 

"Nooo," Stevie answers, drawing the syllable out, teasing. 

She crosses the space between them quickly, hopping up onto the bed. With some prompting, she manages to get Eddie to ditch the pillow and sit up again, a position she immediately takes advantage of by wrapping her arms around his neck and climbing into his lap. 

“Make you stupid horny? Maybe. Kill you? Not a chance, Munson."

"Well, you're fucking nailing that first part, Stevie," Eddie says, sounding awed as he reaches up to cup Stevie's breasts in her fancy new underwear, "holy shit. Seriously, I can’t even believe you’re real sometimes."

Steph giggles, coquettish, and, fuck, she loves this part of that whole new life thing she’s got going on more than she could say. Feels giddy with it, getting to flirt and tease and watch Eddie stare up at her with those reverent, lustful dark eyes of his. He makes her feel stupidly beautiful.

“Christ, baby,” he continues to babble, giving her chest a firm squeeze, “your tits, they’re–”

"Yeah? You like them?" Stevie asks, sounding breathless and turned on and shy all at once.

"Like them? I love them. Fuck, they're…ode worthy, sweetheart," he dips down to nuzzle at her cleavage, trailing soft kisses along the curve of her right breast, "I'm gonna start writing songs immortalizing their beauty. 'The Ballad of Stephanie Harrington's Badonkas' will travel throughout this humble land."

"Shut up," Stevie complains, shoving his shoulder, but she's laughing, face flushed a pretty pink. And then she’s tipping Eddie’s face upwards with a firm hand to meet her, pulling him into a kiss even as he continues to touch her, his hands wringing soft, eager little noises from her mouth.

“How the hell did I get this fucking lucky? That my girl’s the prettiest girl to come out of Hawkins–nay, the entire state of Indiana,” he murmurs against her lips, and it sounds almost like he’s saying it more to himself than to her, like he genuinely is that flabbergasted. Happiness bubbles up in her stomach, the same kind she feels every time Eddie calls her his girl.

“We’re both lucky,” she says back easily, tangling her hand in his thick, curling hair as she presses another sweet kiss to his lips, “cuz, somehow, I managed to land the sweetest guy from Hawkins, Indiana.”

Eddie snorts, short and sheepish. 

“Yeah, well, I can think of about a dozen folks from back home who would firmly disagree with you on that one, sweetheart.” 

The statement is enough to mar Stevie’s face with a deep, outraged frown, the way her eyebrows scrunch together angrily only serving to make Eddie’s dimpled smile deepen, his brown eyes impossibly fond. 

“That’s because Hawkins is full of small-minded idiots,” she says dismissively, well aware she sounds just like Robin, or Eddie himself. But it isn’t her fault her best friend and boyfriend are right. There was plenty she had come to love about their small town in her time growing up there–the fact that said best friend and boyfriend also came from Hawkins being a prime example–but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t happy to be far the fuck away from it now. “Who never gave you enough of a chance to see how sweet and funny and amazing you are–not to mention sexy.” 

Steph’s lips twist into a lopsided smile, then, the kind that makes it clear she knows she’s being cute. With a gentle shove, she pushes Eddie back onto the pillows, one hand reaching down to begin tugging at the hem of his Judas Priest crop top. “Even if you are still wearing way too many clothes.”

Eddie laughs, a low sound that sends a shiver up Stevie’s back. “Somebody’s frisky.”

“Damn right I am,” she pouts at him, impatiently sliding the fabric higher and higher up his chest, “now get over here and fuck me.”

“As you wish, princess,” Eddie agrees, voice low and full of promise. 

With a cheeky wink, he pulls Stevie firmly down on top of him, the hot slide of their bodies together exactly what she was looking for. 

And then, ever a man of his word, Eddie proceeds to make good on that promise.

some post-canon munch hc's

undiagnosed autism. full stop

he's not a big fan of music. its too overstimulating & he hasn't heard music for centuries so he's mostly not used to it. he won't freak out if the lyons are like blasting their favorite songs in the car tho bc dot gets him noise-cancelling headphones. in a similar vein he has to sit further away from the TV than everyone else when they watch movies bc it can easily overload him

extremely voracious reader. will devour chunky books within like the span of 48 hours or less

doesn't mind wearing pants but they have to be a few sizes bigger bc he likes the looseness. prefers skirts overall.

a lot stronger than he looks which makes helping out around the house a lot easier. wayne takes some time getting used to this bc munch seems to one-up him all the time (unintentionally) even though he's never been physically strong. another way he one-ups him is that his stomach can handle literally anything on the planet & meanwhile wayne is an ibs warrior with a short list of permitted foods

shadows dot all the time. less so in the house where everyone has their own personal space but when they're in public he's always holding her hand or her sleeve or the hem of her shirt. he teaches her welsh so they can have their own little private communication.

building off of that: extremely physically affectionate with dot. he bunts her like a cat, nuzzles the back of her hand, fiddles with it when he needs to stim a little, etc.

gets a mural tattoo to cover up his back scars some time later. dot does the same with self-harm scars on her arms & thighs

dot decides that his new birthday is the day he came to live with the

cries very easily. not boohoo blubbering but his newfound appreciation for the simple beauty in everything makes him very sniffly & teary most of the time

comes to understand more stuff about his gender over time, especially with scotty's help. dot gets him on a light dosage of estrogen (transdermal gel bc the pills taste weird & he's afraid of needles)

lorraine works her magic to get him a basic ID so he doesn't have trouble picking scotty up from school & other normal ppl things. the name on the ID is Bryn Lyon

he loves fruit!!!! fruit pastries, smoothies, strawberry ice cream, you name it

Goth FTM PSA: Y'all realize activated charcoal does not impact testosterone HRT unless you're taking Jatenzo or another form of oral administration (extremely rare, expensive, and only recently approved for usage) because activated charcoal works to flush out the digestive system specifically, right? It's not, like, magically zapping medication out of your body. Activated charcoal impacting hormones is something those on estrogen need to worry about significantly more because estrogen is very commonly taken as a pill, though even then there's plenty of caveats based in the timeline of when you take the pill versus when you consume the charcoal, and of course not everyone on estrogen takes it orally either. Oral testosterone is still in the early stages of even being approved for human use, I would wager concerns around activated charcoal and testosterone would not apply to a good 99% of trans men.

Every Halloween season I see those PSAs go around talking about activated charcoal and HRT with absolutely no actual medical explanation for what it's doing whatsoever and it is so fearmongery and uninformative. I see trans men assume it applies to them ALL the time. It is VERY good to be careful with activated charcoal, there is a lot of new age-y pseudoscience around its "health benefits" and it really can flush out medications, but it's not, like, Potion Of Detransition either. For many trans people drinking an iced coffee with a hint of charcoal to make it "spooky" is not going to have literally any negative effect whatsoever lol. Bottom line please do your own research and come to your own informed decisions, do not take medical "facts" on Tumblr as wholesale objective truth. It's very often overly simplified or jumping to genuinely unreasonable conclusions.

Legal adults can take whatever meds/get whatever surgeries they want, but can we as an LGBT ~community~ please stop pretending that taking hormones and getting SRS changes your biological sex, though? Being a female taking T just makes you a female with higher T, it doesn’t change you into a biological male who produces the male gamete, and vice versa with males and estrogen. A neo-vagina is nothing like a real vagina: it is a surgically created hole that does not self-lubricate and has to be constantly dilated so it doesn’t close in on itself. Barring biological females with a disorder, 99.9% of women do not have to do that. And to say that a penis constructed of skin grafted from an arm and has to be manually inflated is anything like a real penis is laughable as well.

I’m sorry to trans folks who are deeply invested in the narrative that there’s no difference because I truly do know it’s hard for them to know they can never actually be a bio-man/woman, but those are just the plain scientific facts. Denying provable facts helps no one at all, least of all those with dysphoria. Another fact is that sexual attraction is innate and based on those biological characteristics, both primary *and* secondary, and humans have evolved for a long time to largely be able to tell who has what from a split-second glance.

No amount of misrepresenting the science or insisting a being attracted to a feminine man is basically the same as being attracted to women is going to change any of these facts.

Let’s all live in the real world, please!

Girl nobody said in this conversation, not even ONCE, said that taking meds or going thru surgeries CHANGES UR BIOLOGICAL SEX. Being a female taking T doesnt "just makes u a female with higher T" ajshbdfjhasdvf bruh how can u look at this person and go "hmmm yes a Fellow Femoid with just a bit of extra T" awjhegfhjsdv

It doesnt make him any less "biologically female" either but. Actually u know what, maybe changing ur entire hormone regulation system does make u just a little bit "less female"? I mean, look at this man. Explain this, liberals! Did it make his X chromosome disappear? no. Did it magically dispose of his womb? no. Did it magically grow him an Organic, Cruelty FreeTM dick? no. Did it change the way his brain works, his behavior, his physical appearance, physical abilities, etc? absolutely. I think claiming that HRT and SRS "doesnt change ur biology at all" is as insane as claiming that HRT and SRS literally converts/changes ur biological fucking sex.

Im also not sure where in the conversation anyone claimed that there is NO DIFFERENCE between an Organic Vagina and a Faux Vagina (or dick)?? Like its pretty obvious that one is an imitation/mimicry of the other?? They could visually look the same but the function fucking obviously would not be the same?? y r we inventing things to get mad at??

If you genuinely think that the man in the photo did not have even just a little bit of his biology changed then youre equally batshit insane as the trannies who want to guilt u into sex.

hi Daebelly! I'm a big fan of your work as well as a huge science fiction buff and want to learn more about your world.

So Dae's a fertility goddess, but is she part of a larger species or her own thing?

What are the other inhabitants of this universe? Other species?

hi! ive been staring at this ask in my messages for a bit and ive been trying to work up the motivation to write so here we are! if you have any questions definitely feel free to dm me!

dae is just kind of her own thing! 'what species is dae?' is one or the questions i am asked most commonly so i'm not super shocked to see it here but i would say she fits into a wide variety of categories overall. deities work in a neat way in this universe so i'll write that down below the cut.

so, basically, the thing that distinguishes gods(or nebula-born, if you do not want to call them gods) from mortals is not a power level or anything like that, but the fact that they are composed of mana, not meat. effectively, mana is a dark matter-like substance in that it is not observable in most circumstances and is most common around sources of radiation, especially nebulae. it has rules, though, and can congeal like regular matter and form masses. if a mass grows large enough, it starts to form a sort of boltzmann brain, forming a nascent consciousness that can interface with other nearby mana 'brains.'

eventually, it finds something that interests it or that it has aptitude with, and will explore its relationship with it. over time, while also accumulating more mana to boost its processing power and capacity for intelligence, the nascent consciousness begins to form boundaries with the world around it, defining its sense of self and gaining a physical form, the shape of which is to its choosing. when it is happy with its physical form and the amount of mana--translating to magical power--it has, it becomes corporeal, a fully formed god. this method of formation means that gods rarely have just the one form and can choose several, being shapeshifters in their own right.

now, most gods form with a lot of power and control over their domain. dae is what you get when this process is botched, with a sense of boundaries established and a physical body created before an adequate understanding of ones' domain is acquired, as well as taking less time to accumulate magic before becoming corporeal and ceasing to accumulate it naturally. the result is a goddess that has some control over her domain but has flareups of power, lower general magical ability compared to most gods, and, in many circles, a reputation as a bit of a failgoddess, which she fit pretty well overall given that she's altogether not very outgoing, content to push out litters, get high, nerd out, and cum a concerning amount even for a fertility deity.

as well, because of this method of formation, dae is canonically trans! she had to do the usual transition process before her control over her domain grew such that she could make her testes generate estrogen, with her insisting that they're called estres now. she stopped short of changing her voice because she likes having a deeper, rather husky voice.

as for other species, there are a few, and i'll go over them very briefly.

soterians (so TEAR ee uns); an aquatic race of rather bulky leviathan-like creatures, hailing from a planet that was once a ravaged ecosystem, evolving to gorge themselves almost nonstop on an invasive fish that previously dominated their ecosystem

ozkvin (OSK vin); a species created by stationaryspoon/@eitantree and myself; the descendants--indirectly, through DNA injection-based transformation--of an ancient race wiped out by its star's supernova, prone to random mutations and rapid, extreme pregnancies. eusocial!

sekvanto (sek VON toe); a species created by dae, which started small and gradually grew to be quite numerous due to their inherited fertility. once the default for what she'd birth, but no longer. two head tentacles, a sharp snout similar to dae's, multiple sub-eyes to help with peripheral vision, and tall stilt-like feet. bears the mark of Dae in a random place on their bodies.

gvidanto (gvee DON toe); another species created by dae. far fluffier than the sekvanto, with softer details overall; quite rarer as well. the species of her first and primary worshipper, Sedett. born without eyes, but blessed with magical sigils of sight if they so desire. bears the mark of Dae typically over where their womb would be, but there are exceptions. generally proficient with sigilcraft, the practice of inscribing magically charged sigils personal to each gvidanto to act as enchantments.

yvvs (ihvs); semi-humanoid amphibians with gills, four sexes, an extremely planned civilization, and a wealth of technological knowledge that they rarely find the need to put to use due to their planning. known to be nudists, but largely because clothes were never all that useful underwater for them.

xeiskenn (ZAYS ken); if you've seen my cock transformation content with my sona, it's pretty close to that. a symbiotic intelligent species that supplants your reproductive system and your tail, if you have one, in exchange for access to their inborn magic resistance, as well as their own aptitude with magic. rarely seen, but impossible to miss. how they evolved is a mystery, but some suspect the involvement of a god of promiscuity long ago.

and thats my infodump for tonight!

If ur ok with answering how long have u been on t cus u got a Hella beard going on

mm. about 4 years 9 months? 5 years in february. honestly you were probably hoping for not that long but the beard didn’t come in at all until around 3.5 years. i was on estrogen blockers for a short time before and overlapping with when i first started t, but otherwise from that i haven’t really done anything different. I wasn’t expecting a beard, my father is absolutly not hairy at all and i never met either of my grandfathers so cannot confirm if hairiness is a thing in my family. no facial hair growth products, just t working its magic and some recessive genes.

After my spiritual awakening with my encounter with that crossdressing fairy who exposed me to pixie dust. An extremely potent form of fairy dust with 100% trans mutation effective feminization restoration results. After my first inhale..I could feel the Femininity in my lungs changing me. Rewriting my thoughts..introducing homosexual urges into my brain chemistry that I couldn't help but succumb and give into as i exhale the Femininity trans mutated into my pathetic masculinity by the time i exhale..masculinity is all that leaves my body..as the uncontrollable disire to wear pantyhose and eventually cross-dress consumes my every thought. Berthing my uncontrollable fetishism to wear pantyhose and women's clothes and dress like a sex crazed she-male hypno sissy bimbo sex slave...that was waiting to be triggered and repourpoused in a feminine pre opp sissy fuck toy for the highest bidder for the Black Momba Hell fire club who will sponsoring your trip to pleasure Island. Where weak limp beta males sent to be triggererd surrounded by mirrors and shackled to a rotating table as i am.fed a gas mask as I am all dolled up looking as feminine and sluty as possible. Wig. Makeup pink lipstick. Luscious lashes ripe with mascara and eye shadow that sparkles. Luscious locks of gold reach your hips Encased from head to toe in silky sheer nylons with a whole in the crotch for my head to pop out. A lacy satin bra. Sheer skill layered suntan pantyhose. With a vibrating dildo up my ass and magic wand pressed against the tip of my limp tiny penis underneath the layers of shiny silky sheer suntan pantyhose. My whole body void of hair except what's on my head and lathered in baby oil acting a a Nair causing all the hair to fall out as well as soften up my skin and shink my testicles up into tiny punes never to work again secreting only estrogen. A penis shrinking cream is applied to what's left of your pathetic manhood. Shriveling up inside you. Inverting its self into a new-girl sissy fuck hole repourpoused and trans mutated to quiver, moisten up and dilate at the side of a mans errection. On pleasure Island. We doll up subjects and stap them to a rotating table surrounded by mirrors with a hunge monitor directly in front of you. A gas mas is placed on your face over your mouth and nose thats feeds a steady dose of meth ecstasy and poppers every time the hypno commands you to inhale. There is a dildo covererd in meth sprinkles inserted in your ass as the meth sprinkle vanishing cream makes your crotch flat a magic wand is inserted into you inverted pleasure hole

underneath the 4 layred shiny silky sheer suntan nylon pantyhose. The table turns as the monitor is placed right in front of me. Mirrors reflecting new feminine identity all around me. Making my extremely sluty appearance so hot at first it turn me on until pictures of exploding clocks fill the screen as you are instructed to inhale your Femininity as gas fills your lungs. As you exhale your asshole begins to quiver as you begin to fall in love with pictures of the erect exploding Cocks. Your instructed to inhale again..hold 10 second as the table falls back you exhale looking at your silky pantyhose. Both vibrators activate!

I think my skin is softer

I hope it is actually softer

Like where I shave isn't really, but other parts of my face feel a bit softer

Hello, I'm working on a fantasy story with LGBTQIA+ characters in it, and I was wondering if I could get some advice. One of my main characters is a trans girl, her name is Andie, and I was thinking of writing out her friends and her twin brother being supportive of her in various ways. Like her brother using his allowance to get her vocal training, her friend who works at the potion shop (which in my story is really just a magical pharmacy) getting her estrogen, a giantess who doesn't let anyone dare deadname her, stuff like that.

But, I'm wondering, is that supportive in a good way? Is there a wrong way to show her friends and family supporting her? The story wouldn't just be about Andie transitioning, but since it is part of her character it should come up at points, yes? I'm thinking about doing it subtly, just dropping small hints that she isn't cis, I don't want that "omg she's a guy?!" joke, (cause I hate that) but I don't not want to bring it up, cause it's an important part of who she is, so I'm wondering how to write it right, and show that those around her are supportive an appropriate way. I've watched and read some things on how to write for trans characters, but as far as I know I don't know anyone trans, and I'm not trans, so I'm worried about doing this wrong. Apologies for the ask being so long, and if there's questions about my goals or characters feel free to message me, but any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance ❤

Apologies for the (very) late response, it's been a hectic year.

First and foremost, I'll point you toward some of our older posts addressing the elephant in the room re: navigating transmisogyny while writing transfem characters. (Disclaimer: some of them use outdated and/or provocative language, but this fortunately doesn't take away from the quality of advice.)

Avoiding transmisogynistic stereotypes

Addressing the elephant in the room (via @scriptlgbt)

Back to basics: navigating trans terminology

The 'cis savior' trope and how to escape its clutches (via @milf-harrington)

On flashbacks

Writing gender dysphoria & gender questioning as an outsider

Hopefully these resources will help you gain a better baseline understanding of not only how to write trans characters, but what sort of threats they might be up against and how they'd try to deal with them.

Ideally, you ought to write up a rough draft of a scene where your transfem character comes out or discusses elements of her transness, and then pick through it with a proverbial fine tooth comb looking for words and phrases that set off your 'this is stereotypical' alarm bells. This would be the lowest maintenance method of revision, plus it would help you gage just how likely you are to fall into that trap of regurgitating harmful stereotypes.

From what you've described, I think your sense that something is 'off' stems from recognizing that you haven't decided how your character would deal with the transmisogyny she faces, which is a whole new ballpark.

While it's admirable to put effort into exploring the discrimination your characters might face, I think it's important to ask yourself questions like "does my story need to talk about transphobia?" and "how would the plot be affected if this character's identity was respected by everyone, even the antagonists?"

When in doubt, don't hesitate to play around with the building blocks of your story.

June 15th Manhunt

[Image ID: The cover of Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin. The background is mostly black with a vertical red stripe on the right reading "the end of the world is nuts." The cover features a pair of plums in plastic red netting. The left plum has a bite taken out of it and it is dripping. There are four quotes on the cover. The top one reads "a razor-sharp novel" by Meg Elison, the left one reads "fun as hell" by Torrey Peters, the right one "Brilliant" by Gabino Iglesias, and the bottom one "a modern horror masterpiece" by Carmen Maria Machado. End ID.]

Triggers

Transmisogyny, transphobia (including deadnaming, slurs, and misgendering), TERFS and TERF rhetoric, cannibalism, rape, suicide, hate crimes, self harm, fatphobia, mentions of eating disorders, antisemitism, racism, animal death, just...lots of gore, I'm not sure of the exact phrasing but there are scenes of coerced sex work

I honestly still feel like I'm missing a lot...

Almost all of these are extremely graphic especially the transmisogyny and rape, please please be careful and take breaks if you decide to read this book. I would say it is worth it if you enjoy it, but this book is just a constant wave of triggers, meaningfully deployed, but there all the same.

Summary

Manhunt is a visceral horror and apocalyptic novel, following five point of view characters as they struggle to survive a ravaged world and its burgeoning societies. The world ended years ago, as anyone with a high enough amount of testosterone fell victim to a virus turning them into unthinking monsters. Estrogen becomes a valuable commodity that Indi is valuable for being able to synthesize. Beth and Fran navigate the new world as trans women as TERFS rapidly climb up the coast towards them and assert their power and ideology. Ramona is one of those TERFS and a chaser, high up in the new matriarchy. Robbie is one of the few men left alive as a trans man, unable to continue testosterone and running from himself and everyone else in a haze of dissociation.

Link

No copy on the openlibrary, as the book came out literally months ago, but you can order it from the publisher and read an except here

Gretchen Felker-Martin's Patreon where you can support her and find her other works

Review

Two disclaimers first: one, I am TME or transmisogyny exempt which I feel is important to state considering the subject matter of the novel and sometimes its relation to issues between trans women. And two, I am cheating a little bit because I am 50 odd pages away from actually finishing the novel but unless something changes within those pages I'm still confident in recommending it, although I may miss some triggers in those last few pages.

Anyways! I love this book so much! It's exactly up my alley, considering its another LGBT (emphasis on the T) horror book that's yes, very political with both aspects influencing and strengthening each other. Manhunt is a gender plague novel, a term coined by I want to say Ana Mardoll, which is an apocalyptic/dystopian/sometimes in the more TERFy entries a "utopian" novel where either all men or all women disappear due to a virus, magic, any kind of method. They're usually very focused on biological sex (think men disappearing because of their Y chromosome) and very cisgendered (not even stopping to consider that there are people with Y chromosomes who aren't men). Think Y the Last Man or if you've played it, the Lisa series of games. This genre is usually meant to examine patriarchy or the lack of it, the relationships between men and women, and what happens when you're either the last man or the last woman on Earth.

This is a premise that quickly becomes transmisogynstic, as many novels where all the men disappear focus on presumed inherent biological violence that goes with them and trans women and transfems, if they are acknowledged at all, are considered collateral damage as all the cis women left rejoice in sisterhood. If it sounds like I'm rallying against a specific book, well, maybe I am :). This is the premise Manhunt directly engages with from a trans woman's perspective. This is why I was excited to read this book and it delivers on every front and more.

Felker-Martin is an amazing writer, and shes specifically adept at action scenes and gore and visceral prose. And because of that, this is a hard book to read, and I would only recommend it if you're up for it and if you really enjoy horror. But if you are, it's so worth it.

This is a book horrifying, violent, and shocking for all the right reasons, releasing at the right time. Violence against trans people and especially trans women in reality continues to increase, especially from the government. Manhunt imagines the bloody end of these rhetorical and yes, often physical, attacks, with transmisogynists and TERFs in power given free reign. The specific references towards real people and events may eventually make the novel dated, they also ground the reader to the violence that already exists. That there is horror in existence without monsters, that the violence in the novel is the endgoal for both fictional and non fictional TERFs.

And while this violence is the central conflict of the novel, this is a novel about resistance, about fighting back in a world that feels lost, fighting back because of those losses. About keeping your principles from the old world into the new.

Please read Manhunt.

The Complete History of Eros Bay

Millenia ago, there were the Unknowable Entities. Five powerful beings that walked the Earth. All of them inspired different kinds of lust in the mortals that were in their presence. They had their fair share of followers, cultists that worshipped them. But as humanity grew stronger, they also had their detractors, which they began to find...annoying.

They were never in any danger from their detractors, they were too powerful for that, but as the annoyances grew, they decided to leave the Earth behind them. But the area around the spot where they crossed the veil between dimensions remained...unstable. The last spot to feel their presence remained influenced by their great power.

And, of course, the loyal followers of Cxad-Dian, Kh-Arporo, Ymbarath, Yg Vethon and Sp'kathog remained loyal to them. The coven of witches that worshipped them, whose High Priestess was Clara Bishop by the early 1500s, travelled the world for centuries before eventually settling down in the very land that their patron deities had left their world from. This happened around the year 1600. The coven settled on an island located in the bay, and used magic to make the island imperceptible to mortals. Clara Bishop and Nyx were among the witches in the coven when it settled there, and, over the years, Clara had two daughters in Jade (who went on to become a vampire) and Flora. A fallen angel known as Kayla also eventually joined them.

It wasn't until around 1650 that mortals began to settle around the bay. They named the bay Eros Bay, and the town that popped up there went by the same name. Due to the lingering influence of the Unknowable Entities (and maybe some encouragement from the witch coven), the local culture quickly became very sexual in Eros Bay. Even back in those days, sexual taboos became less taboo in Eros Bay.

Eventually, the town was divided in two. On one side, there was the child-friendly neighbourhood, and on the other, the adults-only neighbourhood, so the locals could fully embrace their sexual sides without having any children around. As the village became a city, the city center was founded in between the two neighbourhoods, and found compromise with a strict curfew: from 8pm to 8am the downtown district was adults-only, and children were only allowed there during the day. Around the same time as the urbanization of Eros Bay, they also started up their own university, known as Eros University. Locals tended to find it difficult to adjust to living elsewhere after growing up in Eros Bay, so being able to stay in Eros Bay for university worked out well for them.

On top of the city's local culture being sexual, the influence of the Unknowable Entities had another effect on it...in that it made the city alive. Literally. The city developed a consciousness of its own. In a sense, it became the sixth member of the pantheon of Elder Gods. Sometimes unexplainable events would happen across the city, doors being locked or unlocked on their own, signs suddenly having different text on them, sometimes a building construction would advance overnight and nobody would take credit for working overtime. That was the only influence that the city's consciousness was capable of for a long time...but eventually it would learn to take human form in the 21st century, going by the name of the Eros Bae.

Perhaps the sentient nature of the city also explained why some people would swear the city was located in the United States, while others would say it's in Canada, and others still would say it was somewhere in Europe. A sentient city didn't necessarily have to stay in one place.

Other oddities of Eros Bay include humans being born with altered biology (such as women being born with penises, and yet having bodies that naturally produce estrogen), and unique plants that have odd effects when consumed, or have pollen that induces arousal. Natives of Eros Bay also tended to have above average penis sizes, and remained in their sexual primes longer than people born elsewhere in the world. Occasionally, there were also people born with...abilities.

As for the more contemporary history of Eros Bay, there is the founding of Eros Industries. The company started out small in the 1970s, run by the Grande family since its creation, changing hands between members of the family every now and then, until Susan Grande took over in the early 2000s. She took the company to new heights, becoming a premiere tech company. It especially grew around 2010 when Nikki Lenz joined the company to work on her inventions. Their creations are mostly sexual, of course, their most popular product being a high-tech dildo that gives one the appearance, and feeling, of having a real penis. Their pleasure bot program that began in the mid-2010s also came to define the company's output, ranging from the high priced Stephie and Stephanie lines, to the much cheaper Peach line, and, eventually, the public-access Parcer line (who integrated themselves out in public, and customers simply need to purchase an app to control them and essentially rent them out) who also doubled as emergency responders to protect the people of the city.

The mayor of Eros Bay, from 2015 to 2019, was Katie Fox. Before that point, and after leaving office, Katie ran the Fox Strip Club & Brothel, a booming business located on the edge of the urban part of the city, in the adults-only section. She'd also been a movie star, and porn star, in her younger days, having left Eros Bay for a few years before deciding to retire from acting to return to the city. When Katie left office, having chosen not to run for mayor again, the next mayor was Casey Smith, after quite the eventful mayoral election.

There is also the story of the Winters Crime Family. Autumn Winters is a woman who always had strong ambitions. Born in Eros Bay, she went on a trip around the world in her early 20s, during which time she met and fell in love with February, the two getting married and settling down in Eros Bay in 2004. Then Autumn began to build her empire, with February's help. Their empire was mostly funded by the sales of drugs, created using the unique plants of Eros Bay. February's sister, Summer, eventually joined them, and took the Winters last name as a reward for her loyalty. Summer would eventually marry April, who would become the fourth leader of the empire. Autumn's sister June would also join the empire...though not of her own free will, Autumn having stolen some tech from Eros Industries to 'upgrade' June into a cyborg, one who was easily controlled. Part of what helped the empire thrive was also Lavender Summers...a woman who had odd reality-altering powers that was brainwashed into servitude by Autumn. But all empires must fall, and eventually, mostly through the efforts of a superhero that went by 'Lady Eros' (some claim Lady Eros was Nikki Lenz, but the two were seen in different locations at the same time, so that couldn't be true...unless Nikki had cloned herself), the Winters Crime Family fell in 2018. Eros Bay strongly believes in redemption, though, and, after rehabilitation, the Winters have become upstanding members of society in the years since. Autumn even became deputy mayor. If, perhaps, stories were to be written about Eros Bay, the time of the Winters Crime Family would comprise Volume 1 of those stories.

In 2017, Mia Madison moved to Eros Bay, and opened up a porn studio. It was truly a wonder that one hadn't been opened in the city before that point, but Mia soon made porn stars of a number of locals...

The mayoral election of 2019 was an eventful one, largely due to Ten Snow, the twin sister of April Winters, having attempted to co-opt it to enact revenge on the Winters for 'corrupting' April (even though they'd already rehabilitated themselves by that point). After that plan was foiled, the race was a close one, Casey Smith barely beating out Autumn Winters, which led to Casey offering the deputy mayor position to Autumn. The events of this mayoral election would, perhaps, make for a Volume 2 of the tales of Eros Bay.

A woman known as Celestia Nova moved into Eros Bay in the early 2020s, but she was not just any other newcomer to the city...she was a newcomer to the planet as a whole, an alien scientist eager to study human biology rather intimately. Luckily, it seemed many people in the city were happy to give her the intimate interactions she craved...

Throughout the history of Eros Bay, the Unknowable Entities, and the witches that followed them, did often appear in the mortal realm, taking the guise of being ordinary humans. Nyx had a fling with a mortal known as Juniper Jones in the summer of 1997, which led to Juniper becoming pregnant with twins (many years later, when this was revealed, Joy started learning to control her magical powers, while it seemed Jane did not inherit them), Susan Grande secretly had made a deal with Yg Vethon to help her company grow (in exchange for giving up control of her body to the Entity for one day every year), rumour has it that Autumn Winters perhaps had made a similar deal with one of the Entities for the sake of her empire's growth. In the 2020s, though, those appearances started to grow more frequent... Perhaps a Volume 3 was beginning...

some thoughts on five years of estrogen

sometimes on days like today when im feeling good about my appearance i look in the mirror and its wild how much my whole shape looks like a woman.

like even with my bones and my height and my shoulders and hands and all the parts of me i dont like, 5 years of estrogen has really done a lot of heavy lifting and its amazing like, hrt really is a form of magic.

exercise and hydration and sleeping better is also helping too. i know it sounds dumb but when i feel like this i can *almost* see and be aware of myself as a woman and not a weird andro gender thing.

my mental divide between myself as a not quite a woman is getting smaller and smaller with time and it feels good. ive kinda settled for a while just being like.... sort of gender neutral by default of hating male presenting but female presenting being difficult and scary. ive been working on my anxiety in general with my therapist for a little bit now and it's helping in other ways like feeling safer to present as a woman and idk im rambling a little now but tl;dr i guess i had forgotten how good it feels to look female and see myself as female and feel the mental connection of "this is right, this was how i was supposed to look"

Book Excerpt: The Divine Me ~ the goddess Eostre - Easter? Estrogen?

The following blog post is a short excerpt from my book, The Divine Me: Embracing Your Inner Goddess, pages 82-85, from the chapter "The Goddess in Every Month".

Available @ Amazon in Print & Kindle

click  HERE

·         March ~ Eostre

Origin: Germanic Influences: spring and dawn, fertility, birth AKA: Ostara Symbols: rabbits, eggs, spring flowers, butterflies

This goddess is all about spring, birth, fertility, and the changing of seasons, the return of spring bringing with it the planting season, the return of warmth and promise and new beginnings.

The oddest myth that follows Eostre is the story of how she saved a bird from freezing to death in the winter.  Its wings were frozen together.  Eostre magically changed the bird into a rabbit, a rabbit which retained its ability to lay eggs. 

I don’t know about you, but this puts a whole new spin on the Easter images I grew up with.

I would imagine, in ancient times, when the rituals of this goddess were regularly practiced among the people, she was looked upon with a sigh of relief, as in another winter has passed and we survived.  Symbolically, it seems, the celebration for this goddess on the spring equinox would herald the return of daylight, as well as preparations for planting and the birthing of farm animals for sustenance.

In other words, it feels like the world is coming out of a dark frigid isolating winter and things are starting to move again, coming to life. 

Hmmm… “Eostre” sounds an awful lot like “estrogen”, just saying.

March’s Magick/Seed Moon A Protection Spell

The main thing about someone who thinks they need a protection spell is that there’s something that’s making them feel threatened in some way. 

Who, or what, are you afraid of; or what is the set of circumstances that makes you feel threatened?  What do you think you need protection from?  Think about it, and then proceed with the following spell, if you still feel that it’s needed:

Let’s create a mojo bag for protection, as this is a very versatile way to create protection for a wide variety of reasons.

v  Start with the bag, a drawstring bag – I would choose black to repel negative people, entities, or circumstances; to banish unwanted things; to neutralize negative energy.  But you choose whatever color makes you feel safe and secure, warm, and fuzzy… protected.

v  Second – write down on a small piece of paper what you want protection from, be specific, be blunt and to the point.  Next, take a red ink pen or marker and with intention, along with much vigor and emotion, maybe a little cursing and spitting, draw a large red X through this list.  It’s okay to get emotional, get angry, get all riled up – what you’re doing is raising energy.

v  Third – let’s add some other “ingredients” to this bag, just so the universe and Spirit get the full picture.  This could be personal effects from an individual, and not just the stereotypical “hair and fingernail clippings”.  It could be the button off a shirt, a coin from their purse or wallet, a photograph, a piece of jewelry (an earring, or ring, or necklace chain), a tube of lipstick, a cigarette butt – you get the idea.  Be creative.

Tie this bag closed, preferably with three knots.  Keep it in a secret safe place and allow it to work undisturbed.  Should the time come when you no longer feel the need for it, you can: 1) toss it in the flame of a fire and let it burn to ash, 2) dismantle the bag and its ingredients and toss them into the trash, or 3) bury it somewhere off your property.

MSB AU

ok so i took like a month break from tumblr because my interests were eh on things, but I'm here to show some concepts for one of m current interests, MSB (magic school bus) FRIZZ:

info posted from discord V

I think a lot of my designing came into terms of a lot of Frizz's wrinkling due to how much she smiled, while "smile marks" are frowned upon i think frizz is utterly joyed by them

I TRIED MY BEST TO BASE IT OFF the little images i had of her from toypatch's doodles that i was given while giving her some twinge of design not shown like frizz's contrasting ginger and grey hair

im considering adding scars around in some areas but not in an edgy sense but the fact that this girl has faced so many mishaps she IS NOT THE UNSCATHED LORD i dont even think they'd be traumatizing she'd patch them up and then see the scar and b like "oh lol" and then go on with her day or something

BONESY V

When I created Bonesy, I had little idea for Bonesy. My main ideas, being that like Frizz, Bonesy had constant smile marks. Within the MSB franchise, its practically canon that Bonesy is trans ("oh its a character change" die), and so I added some features along with some of my hc personality. Bonesy has always had self inserting within me because I resonated with bonesy the first time I watched the episode with bonesy. I always hced Bonesy with AUDHD, with myself having it, Im often forgetful of things, and which I projected Bonesy to have the same lifestyle, almost charmingly forgetful. The idea is that bonesy forgets half of the time to take her estrogen leaving her with this reoccurring mustache that pops up through weeks and months at a time but I don't think Bonesy has the effort to shave it. I also think that Bonesy has kept the same outfit over the years, considering its her work uniform, so that being said bonesy's outfit hasn't changed over the years. Although I think off duty Bonesy wears a lot of more comfortable clothes like Pajama pants or something like that considering they're near retirement. I think she finds herself majority of the time relaxing with Frizz and Molly (next character in my list.) MOLLY V

I had every idea for Molly, its just not as obvious as you're seeing molly. Considering Molly is a singer, I took the mentality that some actors/singers has this effort to constantly look young and pretty and so I put it with Molly's design. I kept everything relatively the same since considering I don't think there's a lot of things Molly would change about herself in 10 or so years, and so molly remains mostly the same, the only change being internal, like plastic surgery or some unhealthy habits.

theyre all gay and kiss eachother btw