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A Little Vice (Trans Magical Girl fic)

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Shadell said:
Okay, it was nowhere near time for classes to start and, as far as I knew, none of the sports teams had morning practice. That meant Ida would most likely have been at her home if something had happened. I saw no signs of a waiting Inessa as I slipped out of the house. It was a bit early for her, but, still one more piece of evidence to point toward the
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It's been pointed out, but we're missing an object here.

Her mother had it decorated with an array of treasured chotchkies, the artsy white-with-black print interrupted by Ida's brother's scattered toys.
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"Tchotchkies" usually has a T.
Shadell said:
Ida sighed, "This new Beast's Resinners are all… well, nothing will ever be as bad as Fidget Spinner, but they're all weird!"
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It's so sad that we'll never get to see the anime this story is based on.

Temperance as a scheming demon child was, suffice to say, novel. Inessa, on the other hand, I had known at this age. It was plain that both recognized me. But, going by the fact that Inessa was every bit as shy as she'd been back then and that I couldn't imagine Temperance actually biting anyone in a million years, it felt safe to assume that their personalities had changed backwards to some extent.
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So you're telling me that Temperance used to be prone to biting people. Almost like she's hungry. Or a shark.
I considered making a joke about how she also looks like Gawr Gura. But Gura's overalls aren't very boyish, and her hair is straight and mostly white. If we discover Temperance doesn't have bottom teeth, though, I'm not holding back.

Inessa's complaints that really Orion and her evil counterpart Lady Horizon made a better couple than Orion and Prince Sirius were growing increasingly loud by the end of our third episode. In retrospect, I wasn't quite sure how anyone, especially Inessa, could ever have been surprised by the fact that Inessa was gay.
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LGBTQIA+ people do be like that. C.
(Also: Inessa shipped the main heroine with her evil doppelganger? Or at least some kind of evil counterpart? Hm...)

Temperance thought that over for a moment, then shook her head furiously, "Nope! My partner said I can just decide for anyone to be a girl if I want to, so you're a girl."
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Avaricia. I realize you were probably also a child at the time, but you still worded that terribly.
Or Gula deliberately misremembered it.
She nodded, "My co-cons, co-con…" she struggled with the word, "Cocoon spirit bird!"

I managed to parse that more or less, if not as quickly as desired. "Your co-conspirator?"

"Right! My cocoon spirit bird!"
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Okay, the latter possibility looks more likely now.

Obviously it couldn't be that easy. You were trans or you weren't. I might have not known much about what it was like to actually be trans, but wanting wouldn't make you a girl trapped in a man's body.
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"Everyone is valid except me."
...
mood

We managed to make our way to the playground after plying Temperance with a few more treats. I would have been worried we were indulging her too much—particularly after Temperance announced that this was 'revenge on her big-self for being an idiot'—if this wasn't temporary and Temperance wasn't about to return to normal once Ida won her fight.
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Hm. So apparently when C's skill at recognizing magical girls clashes with her inability to recognize villains, the latter wins. A fascinating data point.


Pyro Hawk said:
Honestly, I think you have done a lot to demonstrate that C is absolutely a Magical Girl. It's just, they're one of those Magical Girls which don't believe they deserve the limelight and so stay into the shadows, hiding all that they achieve before finally being convinced to give it a go and exploding all over the scene with a massive triumph.
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I feel like you need to be able to use magic on purpose to be considered a magical girl.


SoulCaptain said:
Actually, come to think of it, the aesop of this episode is arguably that a magical letting the virtue they represent overtake too much of their life can be extremely unhealthy (it's almost like people are complex creatures with many traits to them).
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Temperance, eating her fifth bag of chips: "This guy knows what they're talking about."

Fantastic update. Fantastic character work, both in terms of growth (mainly for C and Ida)
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Even though they're the only characters who didn't get taller by the end of the chapter?


Spoit said:
GreatWyrmGold said:
It tells us that there's a girl named Alberta in this school.
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As totally not wrath, surely she's Canadian
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Presumably from one of the western provinces?


Sterr said:
Ok, she's got to know something's up.
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It feels less like Gula Shark recognizing another Abyssal Beast and more like Temperance not letting the things C said about "his" gender impede her...what's the trans equivalent of gaydar?
 
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C grows closer to Ida and Michael, and gets this close to self-awareness. Self-aware wolves material here. The trans themes are jumping out more onscreen, wonder if the in-universe fans are noticing.
The episode preview implies some sort of division between the heroes. Something beyond Temperance wanting to explore culture alone, if it's a part of the episode's conflict.
Shadell said:
Temperance decides to attend a concert to spend some time alone exploring more of Earth's culture
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Confirmation she was an outsider to society, but whether from merely another world or nonhuman is up in the air.
GreatWyrmGold said:
Also: Inessa shipped the main heroine with her evil doppelganger? Or at least some kind of evil counterpart? Hm...)
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Dream C might end up an specific rival to one of the girls. Inessa was the one she attacked, but that was merely one fight, and they consider each other sisters. Temperance seems interested in her. It's all coming together.
GreatWyrmGold said:
Avaricia. I realize you were probably also a child at the time, but you still worded that terribly.
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Avaritia forced a seed into C because ey decided this was the best for her and ey would get a queer comrade. This is probably worded as intended
GreatWyrmGold said:
what's the trans equivalent of gaydar?
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I think transceiver.
 
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Oh I missed the "doubt her choice" part. D'oh!
Maybe her issues with Avaritia? Or maybe she feels alienated from others.
 
I wonder, they said the resinners that Beast C has been creating are strange, and this resinner led to Ida having to confront her unhealthy trait… Is C unconsciously trying to help their friends by "fighting" them?
 
This kind of...artistically generic* narrative can make it difficult to distinguish between a plot point and a genre staple. But maybe!

*In the sense of being typical of its genre. It's not just a story in the magical girl genre, it's a story that takes stereotypical elements of the magical girl genre and uses them as a foundation.
 
Was Temperance being trans already apparent on the show? Shaddell's comment mentions in-universe people theorizing about a genderbend plot with C rather than a trans plot, so telling Inessa about Avaritia was probably the first mention of trans people in the show, with Temperantia saying anyone can be a girl being probably the most blatant hint about her, and C. And we haven't seen how apparent C's emotions were on her face, only that she blushed. Wonder how she looked during the gender talk.
 
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LampWitch said:
Was Temperance being trans already apparent on the show? Shaddell's comment mentions in-universe people theorizing about a genderbend plot with C rather than a trans plot, so telling Inessa about Avaritia was probably the first mention of trans people in the show, with Temperantia saying anyone can be a girl being probably the most blatant hint about her, and C. And we haven't seen how apparent C's emotions were on her face, only that she blushed. Wonder how she looked during the gender talk.
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"Temperance isn't transgender, this is just femboy erasure"< r/anime probably.
 
Shadell said:
"Temperance isn't transgender, this is just femboy erasure"< r/anime probably.
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Ah, thought things had changed up in that sub? Or was it just r/animemes? Anyway, I imagine the internet areas specific to this show's fandom would be nicer. Considering how pro-LGBT it is, there must be an effort to keep it safe. Maybe memes of Michael with a flaming sword to defend queer rights.
 
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For all that I am laughing at C's increasing leaps of logic surrounding their denile, wow are they relatable.
 
Ten Potions said:
I forgot to mention, the possibility that Temperance is trans seems to have overshadowed the possibility that Temperance looked even more like Gawr Gura as a child
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I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't want to hammer that amusing (to me) accident too often. That said...
GreatWyrmGold said:
I considered making a joke about how she also looks like Gawr Gura. But Gura's overalls aren't very boyish, and her hair is straight and mostly white. If we discover Temperance doesn't have bottom teeth, though, I'm not holding back.
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Riha said:
For all that I am laughing at C's increasing leaps of logic surrounding their denile, wow are they relatable.
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If there's one experience that all LGBTQA+ people have, it's denial that we aren't normal.
 
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I think it's fair to say that there are multiple experiences all LGBTQA+ people have.

But self-image issues are definitely at least one of those.
 
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