But what if your childhood was shitty and traumatizing and you were meek and quiet as a kid so get a sweet little kitten and eventually as you grow and realize your worth and become more confident that kitten slowly grows into a lion.
Usually, when I bring kids their Companions, it’s a happy day.
Most parents like to throw parties for their children. Make it a big ‘lifetime milestone’ type deal. Sometimes, if there are a lot of birthdays on the same day, they do events at the local schools. I never really have to call ahead – people know I’m coming. The roster at the head offices keeps a running record, and Deliverers like me pack up the Untouched Eggs (wearing gloves, of course), and set out to cover their area for the day. I work six days a week, and sometimes I take emergency runs if I’m nearby and another district is overwhelmed. Overtime is common, but so are short days, when only a small number of kids are hitting ten.
It’s a job that has me travelling a lot. i go wherever there’s the most need for Deliverers. We don’t like to be late; tenth birthdays are an important matter. But I like being on the road. It lets me see a lot of the country.
It’s always such a pleasure to read a short story that so clearly, cleverly, and magically creates a whole different universe. I would read a seven book series of this, from any perspective. Thank you @feynites for writing this and posting it on here! This really made my day something special.
when people defend the “Cis white guy is default” thing like “He’s meant to be an everyman we can all relate to and project on!” kindly remind them the largest ethnic group in the WORLD is Han Chinese and the highest gender percentage fluctuates so if you want an ACTUAL “default” you want a 40 year old chinese person whose gender changes from year to year.
Nobody is arguing that the character is supposed to represent the majority, or the statistical average. They’re saying that if you’re making an ‘everyman’ character, you cannot allow who/what they start their journey as to be the focus of the audience. And if writers made the protagonist black, or chinese, or gay, or trans, or even just female then people would act as if that was the sum total of the character and nothing else mattered.
Nathan Drake and Laura Croft do the exact same thing in the exact same circumstances, but in a conversation about Uncharted gender never comes up at all while in a conversation about Tomb Raider the first topic, for good or ill, is always going to be the fact that Laura is female. Guybrush Threepwood is allowed to be a moron who lucks his way through the hero business, but if he was anything other than a cis white man you’d be up in arms about how racist/misogynistic/transphobic the Monkey Island games are. Arthur Dent, Bilbo Baggins, Doctor Watson… none of them could ever be ‘just some guy’ in the mind of the reader if they started out with a single character trait outside of what is expected.
Don’t get me wrong, diverse characters and especially diverse protagonists and POV characters are super important and a good idea under most circumstances, but to put somebody under the “default” heading you actually have to meet incredibly strict requirements to avoid standing out at all.
The largest ethnic group in the world is Han Chinese, but that doesn’t mean much because the nonsense I write in english is not actually aimed at a GLOBAL audience.
Seriously? That argument has always been the WORST one I’ve ever fucking heard, because if ‘Oh you might as well make them an everyman on any global scale’ then guess what fucko, the ‘everyman/woman’ will NEVER be gay.
EVER.
But if I’m fucking well writing for a queer corner of tumblr nobody’s gonna fucking question my bi female protagonist because I’m writing for THAT SELECT AREA.
I am really goddamn tired of people going ‘well this wasn’t made for ME so I should have a right to complain!’ Because jesus fuck Rocky Horror said it best.
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