madimpossibledreamer

After that lovely transphobic post on AO3’s reddit (during Pride month no less) I’ve done a self-analysis and found something interesting. Now, I don’t write anything explicit, so I will never fall on that side of things, but I do write trans characters. Some of whom are dysphoric. Some of whom are not. And what I’ve found is that the characters that tend to be otherwise insecure I tend to write as dysphoric, whereas the more confident ones I don’t. (Mostly: Jotaro. And, oddly enough, partly Yagami in Pigeon and Crane; I did have him get top surgery but I realize that I not once actually refer to him having gotten bottom surgery. And he’s only partly dysphoric: he hates others seeing him as feminine, and having breasts bugged him, but I don’t think he gets dysphoric about anything else, so he probably didn’t.) It sucked having to read so many people be transphobic in Pride month (or, for some of them, gatekeeping, like ‘you’re not a real queer if you x’ which it’s 2024 this needs to stop 10 years ago let alone today), but it was cool seeing so many trans people pop up and force people to articulate their transphobia and stick up for each other and it actually made me think about my own writing, so. Something positive came out of that at least.

pre-transition Alexandria (so some misgendering, not that anyone knows that)

         “I am the daughter of nobodies. I am nobody. What do you people want from me?” She’s scared, Jenna thinks, before the reality of that fact hits her. She’s scared. She’s a young girl who’s been kidnapped, as far as she knows, by enemies who want who knows what from her, and Marsh is hardly helping, as intimidating as he is and glaring at her.
         So she kneels in front of the young lady, trying not to crowd her. “You are what some might call a bastard, but Harris was not your father. We have been seeking you to execute your father’s will for a long time.”
         She looks a little less scared, a little more thoughtful, as she stares at her hands.
         “I know it’s hard to believe you are probably the case of adultery…” Marsh begins, and she shakes her head.
         “That’s...actually the least surprising thing here,” she corrects. She smiles and straightens up a little. It’s not as if she actually trusts them, though Marsh is acting as if she is. But then, maybe this is a good thing—this kind of watchful, wary frame of mind can only keep her alive. “I, um. I’ve got friends, here. Can you…?”
         “I’ll order a few teams to keep a discreet eye on them,” Jenna assures her, and she nods and stands.
         “Willow Rosenberg, Jesse McNally. Thanks.” They already know those names from the surveillance, but then, she probably knows that. Knows that if they mean ill, there’s little she can do.
         “We should get going,” Marsh growls, and she just...raises an eyebrow at Jenna. She’ll fit right in.

The idea here for the title is that Yosuke in this universe is a law nerd and has done a decent number of civil cases—so he’d know debt terms. The debt remains the same; i.e. he doesn’t think he’s paid it off or that the terms of the contract should change and no amount of ‘you’re not at fault’ judgments from others will make him believe it. I also considered some ‘representing yourself’ terms, since he’s essentially the one putting himself on trial, but.
I don’t know what it is about this specific song that makes me go ‘this is the Verdict reasoning/putting together the pieces/thinking song’, but. It is what it is.
he's not kidding about Kanji's fashion, btw, man's one of the most well-dressed yakuza around.  Unlike his counterpart he doesn't have a full gold suit and switches it up, but if you see one of the most eye-catching shirts particularly if it's got some sort of metallic pattern on it it's probably Kanji.  (Honestly, he might be making one-of-a-kind shirts himself because he's awesome.)  Not over the top, not gaudy, but he absolutely would fit right in at a nightclub.

( to be fair there's a lot on his mind )

( caring for those in pain )