Charlie lived through a fair bit of LGBTQ history. They were there when therapists no longer classified trans people as mentally ill, when gay people could marry on the federal level and when recognition of nonbinary people had become more commonplace. Of course, they were nonbinary themselves and were a pillar of Westville’s community, so they kept a close eye on developments. They were also fairly well versed in pluralities and the otherkin communities, but even they weren’t ready for the newest thing around.
Therian HRT- A dream come true for a lot of people, and a looming societal collapse for others. Charlie had no idea just yet how it could even happen, but it appeared that a miraculous advance in science had allowed people to change the way their bodies work. Clinical trials were kept under wraps, and they could only wonder how things ended up this way.
Regardless of whether they would be able to read the journal soon, they could always be an ally and make their “general nerdom” store, Six Gem Republic, into a beacon of tolerance for therians.
But first things first, they had to look for new workers- their best workers now staffed the Chicago branch now. Another went to college in another state, and yet another is now a truck driver and makes sure Charlie, among other people, get their store shipments on time. Regardless of the circumstances, they were out of workers, which was a rare thing in such an economy.
And so, they were ready to handle this fine morning.
“Excuse me, are you still looking for workers?” A young woman had asked Charlie, who was making sure that the absence of workers wasn’t felt as much by customers. They had high standards for the workers in this store, and a lot of people just didn’t manage here- they found the work too physically demanding, they couldn’t let go of their intolerance or it was just clear that they found the nerdy environment not to their liking.
“I still do. Do you have a C.V in hand?” Charlie asked, reasoning that there’s no harm in learning about the person. The young woman had procured a slightly crumpled copy, and Charlie opted to give it a glance right away while the store was still quiet. Regardless, Charlie noticed a smile forming on the lips of the young woman- the new sign of “Therians welcome” that Charlie had put on the counter was not unappreciated, after all.
“According to your C.V you’ve studied computer science in Redwood Community College and know three programming languages, among other things I’m probably a bit too technologically illiterate to understand. What made you look for a job in a comic book store, of all places? You could make a killing as a programmer.”
“I’m, uh… I honestly love BattleAxe 30M and fantasy literature. I also ran a campaign and I’ve been here a time or two and I kinda need to find a job soon because my parents really want me gone now.”
Charlie had to admit that although the “I’m desperate” comment wouldn’t fly anywhere else, their soft spot for people in a situation like the woman in front of them would actually make it a boon- but they still had to make sure that she got what it takes, as Charlie is still running a business.
“I see. Now, can I have your name and age? I feel like we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves.”
“Marie Alexander, age 23.” The young woman said with a bit of nervousness.
“I see.” Charlie replied. “I’m Charlie Steele, age 33, and my pronouns are they/them. What are your pronouns?”
“She/her will do, thank you.” Marie replied with a smile. She felt much more at ease with Charlie now that things like pronouns were disclosed. “So, uh… you’ll call me if you want to hire me, right?”
“I will need to conduct an interview, but as long as you can stand up for your shift’s duration and keep positive interactions with our customers and patrons, you should be alright. I do have some time for an official interview tomorrow at 9AM. Are you available?”
“I will be. Thank you for the chance, Charlie.”
“No problem, Marie.”
==
After a few days of post-interview consideration, Charlie was able to reach a conclusion for who they’ll hire, and Marie was going to become an employee. She seemed happy about it, and Charlie had a name tag made for her, complete with her pronouns.
Charlie looked out for all of their employees, but Marie striked them as someone who might need a bit more guidance than the others, judging by previous work experience and personality. And of course, there was that one incident when she was fascinated when a Dragon therian (who probably was early in his transition, judging by the rather sporadic scales and the bandages around his head) arrived at the store and was overjoyed to see a place that explicitly welcomed him.
As the first day of work for Marie had come to an end, Charlie wondered how she was doing. Charlie wasn’t so sure where to begin the questions, so they started with the one subject they knew a conversation would stem from.
“So… dragons, eh? I never imagined we’d live in these bountiful, prosperous times.”
“I agree.” Marie smiled happily when she realized that Charlie was a real ally. “I was a bit reluctant to talk about it when we were initially talking about it, but I am saving for my own draconic medication.”
Charlie found this level of trust rather surprising. They knew they had that effect on people, but not many people come out to you on their first day of work. Trying to play it cool, Charlie offered an understanding smile and a rather seemingly banal question. “Ah, so you’re a therian?”
“I am a dragon therian, yes.” Marie said with pride, which swiftly became a bittersweet set of expressions as thoughts raced across Marie's mind. “And I am glad this store is here for me, too.”
Charlie’s efforts bore fruit, and they were proud of it.
“This place is for everyone, and that includes you.”
Marie just had to hug Charlie. She realized that it was inappropriate, but she hardly cared as they’ve offered nothing but kindness to her, a rare commodity in her life nowadays. And even if she struggled following her shift, she was determined to pay this kingly gift she was offered tenfold.
“I’ll do my best here.”
After releasing Charlie from the hug, Marie looked almost regretful- she was hugging her boss without consent. But Charlie offered nothing but a kind smile.
“Hugs are good, just ask me first.” Charlie nonchalantly said. “And I’m happy to hear that. And if anyone gives you a hard time for being who you are then tell me and I’ll help you handle it- it’ll solve a lot of headaches, okay?.”
The evening shift was arriving, and as they would start their introductions and work, Charlie couldn’t shake the resemblance of Marie and Jack, wondering if a third branch of Six Gem Republic would open with a dragon in charge.
==
“I seriously don’t get it. Charlie has a sweet spot for you just because you’re a therian?” Justin asked his draconic co-worker. He was the only cis-straight person in the shop as far as he knew, and he seriously had no beef with anyone when it came to sexuality or gender identity. But therians are a whole new thing he never had to confront.
Marie was a bit confused by this accusation- Charlie was kind and accepting, but there was no special treatment for her. After all, they didn’t run a business for years by playing favorites. In fact, despite being a woman she was lifting as much as her male co-workers.
“I still toss the same garbage as you. If anything, you got catered for by running most of the tournaments.”
“I’ll admit I do enjoy them, yes. But you got more sick days than most of us.”
“Mike gets sick days when “Shark Week” hits him the worst. Why can’t I go and see the New York Therian Committee in peace?”
“Because when Mike gets them everyone knows those are actual things going. But this “Therian Committee” absolutely sounds like people just said “sure, let’s make people into animals, that won’t backfire on us”.”
Marie was infuriated- she really wanted to scream at him or call Charlie and ask them to chew Justin out. But rather, she ended up taking a deep breath- they wouldn’t allow her to access HRT if she wasn’t under control and “proven of a sound mind”.
“This is not something you can just get people to accept, I get it. But this process is a bureaucratic nightmare I have to do because I can’t take it anymore.”
“So you’re equating it to being trans?”
“Sort of, I suppose. Does Mike have an opinion about it? Unlike us, he’s an actual trans person. Transgender, I mean.”
“Never asked, to be honest.” Justin shrugged as he began cleaning a window. “I suppose it’s all new so you get gatekept by people.”
“48 months of identifying as a dragon, along with monthly checkups. And that’s AFTER I had three meetups with them.” Marie vented her anger. “I get it, they don’t want to have detransitioners with horns suing them because they made things “too open”, but I thought we were done with it.”
Mike and Carrie, the night shift crew, had arrived. Charlie was in the office and had some calls to make sure Jack got his comic books for the month and that the new girl Jack hired to run the store’s website got the memo, so they were more or less left to run the shop.
“How are things?” Carrie asked the morning shift. It was the middle of the week so the morning shift was mostly making sure things were sorted.
“Not a lot to do aside from tossing the garbage and making sure Charlie knows you’re around, actually.” Justin told his co-worker. Things were pretty nice here. “But before that, y’all got a minute, right?”
“Sure thing fellas, just let me put my bag and clock in.” Mike said, followed by Carrie. Now that everyone was on the clock, they had a few minutes to spare thanks for the efforts of the morning shift.
“Now, what did you want to ask us?”
“So you know how Marie wants to be a dragon, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard.” Mike said nonchalantly.
“It’s weird.” Carrie added, much to the frustration of Marie, who heard it again and again.
“Wait Mike, you don’t think that’s weird?” Justin wondered. Carrie, in the meanwhile, decided to see if the person next to the display needed anything.
“Fella, I’m chronically online. Therians aren’t new to me.”
“So what do you think about this Dragon HRT thing?”
“That I don’t like how people are all pissy about it. People wishing to become bats or dragons didn’t stop society from monitoring my genitals and calling me a misguided lesbian.”
“Amen.” Marie approved. “You’d expect people to “go for the next target”, but they’re still saying the same bullshit.”
“So what you’re saying is that being trans and being therian is the same thing?” Justin wondered.
“Sorta. It’s not exactly 1:1, but your average “Human rights” bullshit is reusing anti trans propaganda from five years ago, just replace “men in dresses” with “naked hairy people with collars” and you got the same statement. But like, I do have a question for Marie.”
“Yeah?”
“Chairs.”
“Chairs?” Marie wondered what Mike meant.
“Yeah. Say you got a nice tail and wings. How do you sit on a chair?”
“There are special chairs for therians, I suppose. They’ll get more normalized the more our society strays from being homo-centric… no offense, Mike. I wish there was a better term than homo-sapiens.”
Mike shrugged. “All good. I just hope you’ll be able to get your hormones properly.”
“For which she needs to live as a dragon for 4 years.” Justin added. “How do you even live as a dragon? There are no race-roles for that. What, she needs to wear horns and wings and sleep on a pile of gold?”
“Arbitrary guidelines ahoy.” Marie answered, defeated. “Just do me a favor and if anyone from the Therian Committee asks, I’m vocally dysphoric over not breathing fire and sleeping 20 hours a day.”
“Mood.” Mike added.
==
Mike’s muscles were still sore from a couple of days ago when the Six Gem Republic had a bonding mission that involved bringing Marie’s belongings before the midnight ultimatum hit. Marie’s parents weren’t too dissimilar to his, and he took comfort in that maybe, just maybe, they’ll come around. They did give them the same glare Mike’s parents gave him when they kicked him out, after all.
If there was a silver lining to this tragedy, however, it was that the crew’s morale was at all times high when it was clear that they could cover for each other in a situation like this. In fact, Mike found that his shift with Justin was really going well- they struggled with the new shipment, but were synchronized enough to finish things by the time the night shift had arrived. And now that it was a Saturday and customers were commonplace the crew really appreciated their past efforts. Of course, Charlie wanted to hire someone else now that the crew got the hang of everything- they were a skeleton crew right now, and Charlie still manned the front desk a lot. There was money for one more person here.
He did notice there was that dragon boy from a couple of weeks ago. His wraps were no longer hiding the horns and face looked more pronounced, for a lack of a better word. He wore a baggy pair of pants and sunglasses that he didn’t hide at the store. Mike admitted that going freeform in terms of fashion was pretty cool and that Marie would gush over things.
“Say, therian, what’s your name?” Mike asked without a lot of tact. It wasn’t that he liked being rude, but he rather enjoyed being friendly to people he vibed with.
“I’m Tristan. And you’re Mike, right?” The dragon boy replied, curious about where the conversation would go.
“That’s me. I gotta ask you a favor, by the way”
“Shoot.”
“So a good friend of mine is also a Dragon therian and she has to wait those 48 months before the doctors will allow her to start HRT. I don’t want to assume stuff, but I’m pretty sure medication wasn’t available four years ago. Yet you seem to already develop the cool parts. How did you manage?”
“Clinical trials. I mean, they’re a mostly safe way to get your dragon hormones. For your friend, of course. I can see if there’s a spot available where I did my tests.”
“Neat, want her phone number?”
Although a bit surprised Mike wasn’t the so-called friend, Tristan didn’t show it.
“Sure thing. When will she arrive at the store?”
“She’s recovering from a family disaster, but if I tell her there’s someone to talk to she’ll still make it within an hour. Can I ask a few questions for her sake? Might also be for myself, to be honest.”
“I don’t mind. I mean, you of all people probably know how not to ask the stupid ones.”
Mike chuckled. After sending Marie the info about Tristan (and his phone number, just in case she would rather text him than just come and meet), Mike had to sate his own curiosity.
“So you have a special chair in your house? I mean, for the tail and stuff.”
Tristan had to admit that he did not really expect this question, but if nothing else it was more creative than other ones.
“I actually do.” Tristan admitted. “Getting one is a hassle, though, and they’re more temporary than anything.”
“Uh… why so?”
“Because I won’t be human sized forever. I don’t know if it’s a constant thing, new field and everything, but I know that many dragons keep on growing up to the size of, well, an adult dragon.”
“I shudder to imagine your food bill.” Mike said before he even digested the information in front of him. “I mean, I discovered I’m very hungry often after I went on Testosterone, but I’m not going to be the size of a house in ten years.”
“Which is why I enjoy human-sized comforts for as long as I can. It’s a worthy sacrifice, but I’m probably going to end up changing my diet to goats and sheep and I’ll develop an unnatural desire for treasure to sleep on.”
“You’re not serious, right?” Mike was surprised. Yeah, he found his emotions changing and he developed cold tolerance, but even for him that was a lot.
“Probably not.” Tristan admitted with a chuckle. “From what I’ve actually gathered, Therian HRT is not going to make you the size of a house. I’ll still find human sized places uncomfortable, unfortunately.”
“Shucks.”
Mike had no comeback and returned to his duties after a few minutes, Marie did arrive at the comic store eventually. She was now bunking with a good friend and meeting a dragon who’s earning his wings sounded like a dream come true. She was wearing her prosthetic horns to get comfortable with them (and to “prove that she lives as a dragon”).
“I came as fast as I could. Is he here? The therian, I mean.” Marie asked her co-worker.
“Yes, I am here.” Tristan said, checking his deck of Sorcery. “You’re Marie, right?”
“And you’re Tristan.”
“Correct . And I heard you want to know how I’ve managed to acquire my medication?”
The people at the store gave a few stares. However, these stares didn’t linger- as Tristan and other therians became regulars, people weren’t as surprised as they used to. That is not to say a particular therian wasn’t very happy about it. Sensing Marie wanted to know everything as fast as possible, Tristan took her excitement as a yes.
“I think there should be a clinical trial for a new strain of dragon HRT. To be quite honest with you, I don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, but if you think the potential side effects can be better than waiting until you’re old and gray for your medication then I’ll see what I can do to help you with.”
“Only if you’re 100% sure about it.” Mike added with concern. “Don’t rush into things just because you want to be yourself, you could suffer from poisoning and conditions that will screw you over for life.”
“I get your fears, but don’t worry. The Therian Committee of New York has oversight over the trials here. As far as a scientific committee is concerned, they’re as good as it currently gets, considering New York is one of the best cities for dragons after Shanghai and San Francisco.”
“How come Shanghai is such a good city for dragons?” Mike was puzzled.
“Because not all dragons breathe fire and reign in terror. Some bring luck and prosperity wherever they go. There are no recorded eastern dragon HRT users just yet, but I suspect we’ll see them coming in the next several years, too.”
“So it’s all about them being good luck symbols?”
“They’ve built Dragon Holes into their architecture. I suspect you’ll have companies begging those dragons to pass through them every so often.”
The trio were rather happy about the exchange. Marie and Tristan had a lot to talk about, including about the trials.
==
Marie checked her computer again- clinical trials for therians seemed to run out like crazy. She had checked for trials about reinforcing bone density for flights and thirty minutes later she was informed they were running out. She had another for fire tolerance and it was the same story. Size control, strength mitigation, bipedal versus quadrupedal… she was running out of trials at this rate!
Her phone rang. With great anticipation, Marie answered.
"Miss Alexander?” A woman’s voice was heard.
“It’s me, who’s calling?” Marie asked with a smile on her face. It might have just been a miracle.
“I’m Janice from the New York Therian Committee. I’m here for the clinical test you’ve asked to be a subject of, which would be the Wingspan test.”
“That is correct.”
“Very well. I’ll ask you several questions just to confirm your identity and make sure you understand the meaning of becoming a dragon in the eyes of society and how things will likely affect your biology. Next, I will also inform you about the test itself, and said explanation will also be sent to your mail.”
The conversation lasted for around fifteen minutes, after which Marie would have to sign several documents and head to the place in Philadelphia within 48 hours. And although she would need a lot of effort to make this work, Marie knew one thing.
It was her time to become a dragon.
