Remove ads

A Little Vice (Trans Magical Girl fic)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
AmberGimlet said:
Also, since I'm currently rereading this for the nth time, I wanted to really quick say how much I absolutely adore Michael as a character. I really enjoy that kind of "not quite in the same frame of human values/perspective, but has the spirit and integrity to make it work" kind of entity, and Michael is a very fun one.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah. Michael, as Chiro noted, has a lot of kindness and experience. She really wants the best for people, but still struggles to communicate even after literally looking into people's souls. She was genuinely awkward and feeling bad about rejecting Chiro.
Guess she'd become a character beloved by neurodivergent fans.
AmberGimlet said:
Also Michael is just very funny with the amount of behind the scenes logistic she handles for the group.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Michael sure can cook the books for the group.
"Michael, where did all this college money come from?"
"Don't worry, it's not tha much, the others I know will get scholarships. I mostly got it for you Inessa, even Saints don't rely on miracles."
Nerdorama said:
Discord keeps "trying" to do other things but at the end of the day it's only really useful for ephemeral text and voice chat, like AIM and (text-wise) IRC before it. And I guess I've seen some people succeed at streaming there but it's going to be inferior to twitch in doing that technically (while arguably being way more viewer friendly, in fairness).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, he discord I frequent has the problem of just losing things, but is the main nexus for the fandom I'm in. All the cool discussions and explanations of mechanics get eventually eaten by discord. And search and the ping list only go so far, lost a lot of things I wanted to check later, or ideas I left there.
 
Discord just never wanted to be used as an image hosting service, they're killing links because people keep using it as an image hosting service and they can't really afford that long term.
 
This is a bit late since the story was finished, but I came across this a few days ago while doomscrolling through TV Tropes. Honestly, I've not binge read anything in a long time but this was just so good. I related to Chiro's self-deprecation and envy so much and this story was just really well done overall. Also, this helped me see a different view of what it is to be trans. Thank you so much Shadell for writing this, I really loved it.
 
baboonalism said:
This is a bit late since the story was finished, but I came across this a few days ago while doomscrolling through TV Tropes. Honestly, I've not binge read anything in a long time but this was just so good. I related to Chiro's self-deprecation and envy so much and this story was just really well done overall. Also, this helped me see a different view of what it is to be trans. Thank you so much Shadell for writing this, I really loved it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Thank you! It always means a lot to get comments like this!




----

Anyway, since someone bumped the thread, I'm aiming to get another (decidedly non-canon) snippet out for Halloween! I also have a 15kish short story drafted that'll either go up on Scribble or, if I can get it done in time, in a scribblehub author fall bundle, then independently on Scribble.

Lastly, if you want more sad trans magical girls, I've recently stumbled on two more off of SV that I've been liking a lot:

First is Thundamoo's Magical Girl Mechanical Heart, which is currently Patreon exclusive but should make Royal Road eventually and is A Lot. Like, the world is bleak, with some eerie Madoka vibes, but the protagonist in particular starts out in a really horrific place and things only very slowly improve. There's a lot to dig into here about autonomy, dehumanization and trauma and I'm really excited to see where it goes.

I'm also liking the (comparatively) lighter Sunspot by Yootie. It's a slowburn egg fic with a lot going on in terms of politics, worldbuilding and well-grounded character dynamics. It's just finished its first arc, but it has a lot of good stuff going on already and, while there's already been a lot of action and tense moments, Yootie has a great sense of how to build anticipation around the protagonist's advancement.
 
Oh? Halloween snippet? Let's guess the costumes.
- Inessa goes for magical girl, obviously. She maybe tries to dress Michael up as another mascot, or places a lil ghost costume since she floats.
- Temperance goes as the Super Bowl Left Shark. I dunno why but I also see her liking Armored Core for some reason, so one of those funny costumes gundam fans do could fit.
- Chiro would obviously go for vampire, and maybe there would be a bunch of vampire costumes due to the likely popularity of her Beast self. Or everyone could be expecting the vampire/bat costume and she gets something out of left field.
- Lupin I just realized Chiro and Lupin had a vampire and werewolf thing going on, damn it brain. Anyway, ey could do a Robin Hood or phantom thief costume too.

I tried to start up the ALV tag in ao3, and ho boy. FIrst the fic was in the wrong language, so I deleted and posted again. Session timed out. Login, try again, session timed out. Clear cache. Gonna try again today. The character name tags can be a bit of a pain to do. Chiro's tag is just the plot itself.
Edit: C | Chiroptera | Invidia Bat | Saint Humanitas
That's it. That's A Little Vice summed up
 
Last edited:
LampWitch said:
Oh? Halloween snippet? Let's guess the costumes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Before I could make predictions, I'd need to know what Halloween the Halloween snippet takes place during. Senior year Halloween, back when Gula was still a shark? Or college-freshman Halloween, after Chiro's had several months to adapt to being a transical girl (among other changes to the status quo)?

That's probably why it's "decidedly non-canon".

Edit: C | Chiroptera | Invidia Bat | Saint Humanitas
That's it. That's A Little Vice summed up
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Interesting that the tag has Chiro's old nickname and her current (mostly) full name.
 
Ao3 likes to include very full tags including all past and future names. Some characters who were in both worm and Ward for instance have Civilian Name | Villain Name | Hero Name | Rebranded Hero name
I guess alv is getting that full treatment now?
 
Also I was really unsure whether to put Chiroptera Dunne or Chiroptera Brandt in the tag. Anyway, that's done. I transferred one of my omakes there, and now I'm thinking of one story focusing on Temperance's relationships with Inessa and Ida. I had other story concepts, but kinda lost them. I had coincidentally considered a halloween one, but it was mostly for jokes with the costumes. Temperance stoically wearing a silly costume in some absurd situation.
GreatWyrmGold said:
Interesting that the tag has Chiro's old nickname and her current (mostly) full name.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I ain't misgendering or deadnaming the poor bat
So the old legal name wasn't included
Here's the tag for A Little Vice. Hopefully it's right.
 
Last edited:
So I've been rereading ALV (I'm in the bit where Avaritia's force is starting to femme C), and I suddenly wondered whether Avaritia knows that Inessa and Castitas are the same person.

On one hand, there's basically no evidence for this, I'm pretty sure some of eir later actions don't make sense if ey know who the Saints' civilian identities are, and I'm pretty sure ey'd blab that to Invidia at some point.

On the other hand, ey definitely know Temperantia is Temperance (because they share a bond as strong as life itself and also her name is Temperance). So it's entirely plausible that Avaritia would pay attention to who Gula hangs out with these days and slowly put two and two together.

More importantly, many of eir earlier actions are a lot funnier if Avaritia knows the girl obviously crushing on em is one of eir greatest foes. Ey're not just casually ignoring Invidia Larva's friend; ey're deliberately snubbing Castitas!
 
GreatWyrmGold said:
So it's entirely plausible that Avaritia would pay attention to who Gula hangs out with these days and slowly put two and two together.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think it's confirmed that the way the magic works is that it's impossible to reason secret identities out without direct observation or being told by someone who knows. Then again, I suppose "Lupin" could have directly observed "Temperance's" friend group if she bothered to.
 
Yo Ha! I finally got around to ordering the physical release of A Little Vice. It will arrive today! I will, in fact, be reading it while cuddling an Eevee Plush. This is going to be super fun!
 
Nerdorama said:
I think it's confirmed that the way the magic works is that it's impossible to reason secret identities out without direct observation or being told by someone who knows. Then again, I suppose "Lupin" could have directly observed "Temperance's" friend group if she bothered to.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't think it was ever explicitly explained how the Identity Magic can be broken, and Temperance either recognized Chiro from her earrings or thought Inessa and Ida would. And the earrings don't know who Chiro is.
 
GreatWyrmGold said:
I don't think it was ever explicitly explained how the Identity Magic can be broken, and Temperance either recognized Chiro from her earrings or thought Inessa and Ida would. And the earrings don't know who Chiro is.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Direct observation in that they're very distinct earrings, same way Chiro figured out Inessa at least in part because only Inessa called her C.

Also Chiro is a unique set of circumstances in that the team knew C=Invidia, and Chiro was a "new" alternate identity for Invidia who looked very different thanks to being made of mimicry magic, but I'm not sure where the magical logic censor ends in this situation and where Inessa and Ida's denial and Tempe's transdar begins.
 
Nerdorama said:
Direct observation in that they're very distinct earrings, same way Chiro figured out Inessa at least in part because only Inessa called her C.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Point A: How distinct are they? Avaritia stole them from Hot Topic.
Point B: If we accept that "recognizing Hot Topic earrings" and "recognizing a friendly nickname" count as "direct observation," your original response doesn't actually respond to my post. Avaritia also observed Castitas and Inessa for a while, probably including the B-Baller fight where Diligentia called her Inessa.

Also Chiro is a unique set of circumstances in that the team knew C=Invidia, and Chiro was a "new" alternate identity for Invidia who looked very different thanks to being made of mimicry magic, but I'm not sure where the magical logic censor ends in this situation and where Inessa and Ida's denial and Tempe's transdar begins.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"Transceiver," I think, or maybe "transponder".

Anyways, I'm not convinced that Chiro's uniqueness matters any more than the uniqueness of every secret identity that was or wasn't revealed. Surely the unique relationship between Inessa and C would matter more than Temperance merely knowing her for a couple months? (Or several months, if we count Gula.)

Or more relevantly for this situation, the relationship between Gula/Temperance and Avaritia (who we know recognizes Temperance, ey all but said so and also her name is Temperance) would surely be significant? The fact that Temperance reliably hangs out with those two girls who always vanish when there's a monster and that guy who keeps getting kidnapped by them is an entirely plausible thing for Avaritia to recognize.

(Especially if Temperance doesn't have other friends. I don't think Chiro ever narrates that she doesn't, but the only other social activity I recall being mentioned was the GSA, which C didn't know about before the Rewinder incident and also Temperance seems to be the first suspect people accuse when one of the members turns into a monster, so her reputation there doesn't sound positive.)
 
GreatWyrmGold said:
I don't think it was ever explicitly explained how the Identity Magic can be broken, and Temperance either recognized Chiro from her earrings or thought Inessa and Ida would. And the earrings don't know who Chiro is.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Reading the physical copy, here. People can't recognize Beasts or Angelic Hearts unless they transform in front of them or know it's them. Except for Chiro. Because, despite her issues, Chiro has always been special.

Speaking of which I just remembered, I think.
Since Chiro very much became more obviously Magical at eighteen isn't she technically a Little Magical Lady? Hm...I'm gonna call her that
 
MercyGrace said:
People can't recognize Beasts or Angelic Hearts unless they transform in front of them or know it's them. Except for Chiro. Because, despite her issues, Chiro has always been special.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

My headcanon on the recognizing is that having the potential to be a magical girl makes it easier to see the people on your side but doesn't help with the opposing side. To me this would explain why C was able to see through the magic for the angelic saints, but not the abyssal beasts. How Temperance was able to see through it pretty quick. Although she was probably on the lookout anyway for the new girl being an abyssal beast. And also play into how Ida joined. I am curious about what she did and also it's mentioned that Michael told her that she was not yet worthy but I'm curious if Ida was the one who brought the whole magical girl thing to Inessa first or if Inessa brought it up to her. If Ida was the one to bring it up after seeing Inessa do some magical girling, it would support my hypothesis that those with potential can more easily see through the glamour.
 
MercyGrace said:
Reading the physical copy, here. People can't recognize Beasts or Angelic Hearts unless they transform in front of them or know it's them. Except for Chiro. Because, despite her issues, Chiro has always been special.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Also, Chiro, as the 'Naru' of this storyline, has really, really had the Saints in front of her a lot.

Suppose that, good as the magic is, there's some upper limit on just how much cognitive dissonance the anti-identification magic can suppress. It can make you not wonder why Inessa keeps rushing off somewhere just before Castitas shows up, but it can only stop you from putting two and two together so many times before you build up some resistance.

Chiro would be very well positioned to be first to hit that limit.
 
MercyGrace said:
Reading the physical copy, here. People can't recognize Beasts or Angelic Hearts unless they transform in front of them or know it's them. Except for Chiro. Because, despite her issues, Chiro has always been special.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Unless there's some Word of God in the physical copy that's not in the thread, I don't believe this is true. It only works because you assert that the rules don't apply to the character where they very obviously break down for no reason you explain.

And I'm not sure the rule works more generally. If Chiro's specialness is that she's bad at hiding, how did she figure out the Saints' identities? None of them transformed in front of C until after she told Inessa she knew. In particular, how did she figure out Temperance's? C claimed that the suspicious timing and her name being Temperance are enough for her to recognize Temperantia, and I don't think any other explanation makes sense.
And if Chiro's specialness is that she's good at seeing, that blows the whole theory apart, because we know for certain that Temperance saw through Chiro's disguise because of earrings, not because she saw C turn into Invidia. After all, Inessa and Ida saw that same transformation.

Also consider Avaritia and Temperance, which no amount of Chiro-based excuses can explain. Lupin talks about Temperance as having the same relationship to Lupin as Gula did to Avaritia. If Avaritia didn't recognize Temperance, ey would have said ey didn't really know Temperance, because she just transferred to school a few weeks ago and she keeps avoiding em for some reason. But ey didn't.

I can't prove Temperance didn't transform into Temperantia where Avaritia could see, but I'd like to see you try to prove that she did. Or contrive a situation where Temperance might transform in front of em despite all three Saints successfully avoiding everyone else while transforming.
 
Just hypothetically, Temperance might have been doing it as some kind of dramatic gesture? A "yes, that's right, I've switched teams" thing?
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top