everyone going "NONBINARY HELSKNIGHT?" and nobody talking about this

is tanguish trans? pog?

You've activated my trap card

Rns doodles from my sketch book, that I finally got pictures of. (+a Wooly in a comfy sweater and Ex+Ren)

Plus a comic of Tanguish and Helsknight :D

Oh and I got a strange idea of Trans Tanguish, so some doodlie things of that. (+a few other random doodles)

helsknight got his top surgery done by the best top surgeon in hels. Tanguish got his done at Evil Claire's

Helsknight, who always does things the Most Proper way, spoke with a rehabilitation specialist every step of the process, did every stretch and massage and used every medicine religiously as it was prescribed no matter how shit he was feeling at the time. He was back on his feet and working as soon as he was allowed to and had written notes from other Colosseum fighters on their recovery process with reasonable benchmarks placed on what physical exercise he could try and when.

Tanguish got the surgery by the first guy on the street who would accept stolen coins, languished for a few hours, stole a health potion to speed things along, and was back running around by the afternoon.

ngl i suspected Tanguish was a flavor of trans since i began reading rns XD

in order of fairness and curiosity i feel like i must repeat the question... if Tanguish is trans, what abt Tango?

I have given 0 thoughts to Tango gender, which is a crime actually. I think maybe he's cis, but in a "I thought about my gender and I think yeah, cis guy fits," kind of way. A secure in his masculinity kinda way. Which facilitates all his flirting with his friends when they do talk. He comes from a place of "I know exactly where I stand with this." When Tanguish is discovered trans man, I think he kinda raises his eyebrows and goes "Oh hey buddy! Good for you! Man this hels double thing is weird huh? You're ice and sculk and trans? Huh."

Will enby Helsknight/trans Tanguish/top surgery scars/stubborn avoidant Welsknight in a gender crisis make it into the main story of RnS? Like, a full acknowledgment of it? Because yes, us on tumblr are aware (and happily bully RnS Wels for it) but I’m curious to how it may be brought up in the main storyline instead of rambles and drabbles. (Don’t get me wrong, those rambles and drabbles are what get me through the day. But my best friend, who isn’t in the MCYT fandom whatsoever, just caught up with RnS and doesn’t use tumblr, and besides spamming her with tumblr posts I wanna know how much I can revel in the glory of the skrunkles with her!)

That is a great question, actually. And the answer is I don't really know.

So this is one of the downsides to writing things chapter by chapter. If I had gone into this going "oh heck yeah they're trans", this would've come up in the plot way sooner. It's nice information 1) for all the trans folks reading and 2) because it has the potential to inform the themes in the narrative. This whole story is about two chief things I think: death [the inevitability of] and identity [what defines you and why]. Why should you care if literally no one else (including the universe) does? That would be so cool to speak about in terms of a trans allegory! Why do you care about gender when it's just one thing in a world of crazy things? Or at the very least, how does it inform your identity? But this is a change I made on a whim suddenly, and I know Exactly Where I Want This Plot To Go, so trans topics and allegories as Plot Points probably won't happen.

On the more technical side of introducing trans characters -- how do you do that without just dropping "oh btw they're trans" in? Like, how do you make it a relevant thing to talk about, that doesn't feel forced or shoehorned in, especially this late in the story? Probably me overthinking, but I read it done wrong so often. It gets tired. And if I ever work on my original stories, there are trans characters in there! If I can figure out how to Do It Well in a fanfic, then I can figure out how to do it in original fiction someday maybe. So I kinda wanna take the introduction seriously? I've actually been thinking about it so much I've thought about rewriting the intro to the next chapter ahaha [it already needs rewritten in general, there's a lot going on, but the intro was going to be Helsknight waking up from something, and he sleeps shirtless, and not addressing top surgery scars then would be kinda silly I think.]

I can say at the very least, Gender Avoidant Wels probably won't factor in the story much. He is a character, but I don't think he'll become Enough of a character to faithfully address something like a trans self discovery arc. At best his issues with gender might be mentioned in passing.

Sorry! I know you probably want a better answer! My answer is basically: I don't know I'm still working on it. I want it to be there, but the capacity it's there is undecided.

That being said, I've been sitting on this glorious ask since the shenanigans started and the temptation to just Do That grows every time I read it:

Now that we’ve established Tanguish and Helsknight are trans as fuck™️ what about their sexualities 👉👈

[loud shrugging]

I will let you all handle that! As someone who leans fairly ace, I don't normally assign sexuality to characters because I so rarely write it, and when I do write it, it's so heavy handed and obvious it's kind of silly.

Helsknight feels very ace coded to me [the only lust he feels is bloodlust etc etc etc] but also he has so much going on how does he have time for romance? [and what an aroace thing to say!]

Tanguish, he feels like he could probably get joy out of romantic love. Acts of service? Making time? Dates? Cuddling? I can see it. But to who? Under what constraints? No idea. I haven't asked him. Why don't you ask him anon? For me?

DEADNAME! as a hk song? both referring to wels and previous champions? not a perfect fit but it kinda matches his vibe

You are absolutely correct DEADNAME! Is a great song for him, however I cannot put that song on his playlist because it is also on my Nonbinary Jams playlist, and he WILL become nonbinary if I do that, and I cannot switch pronouns mid plot--

As someone who has a trans character in a collection of original short stories, I don't find it a huge deal to address his gender. While yes it does fit the theme of rns, don't pressure yourself or overthink it because of that. Sometimes there's just an offhanded comment or description. Like maybe you do work in the one bed ficlet and that's how Tanguish finds out.

Even if they're close, neither have shared all that much with the other aside from things that affect them currently (fears during their breakdowns, stuff like that). It would make sense for something to come up during Helsknight being shirtless for some reason or another and him to offhandedly explain it because that's how he's done things so far

Hey thank you very much for offering advice! And I definitely feel the whole "needing it to be perfect" thing. That's a pit I've fallen into many times as well.

For me, right now, it's less "it needs to be perfect" and more "its a puzzle that needs solving." I haven't written openly trans characters in a plot before [though I have written a lot of trans flavor into characters definitely!] I'm learning something new, and I'm learning it in a place I find inconvenient for how I normally plot things. I'm spinning my wheels on it for a bit, but not needlessly I don't think. It feels less like chasing compulsion, and more like rearranging puzzle pieces. Though if/when that changes, I'll definitely be circling back to your advice ^_^