Amy: Good evening, everyone! I hope you’re all having a good night. Some folks mentioned a little bit of confusion because we don’t always have an overlay for our stream, so we’re going to start doing introductions at the beginning of each stream. I’m Amy, the DM. To my left is the party rogue, Daniella, played by Dan. 

Dan: Hey.

Amy: To his left is Jace, playing Katryn the dwarf barbarian. 

Jace: Hello!

Amy: Across from Jace is Michael, playing Miara the Elf Warlock. 

 

Michael: Oh. Yeah. Hello.

 

Amy: Alright. And finally, to my right and Michael’s left is Sean, playing Levari the Tiefling Bard. 

 

Sean: The cutest bard you’ve ever seen. 

 

Amy: Sure. Anyway, onto the session!

 

In the days that followed your time gaining the favor of Commander Esra, things have become almost routine. Levari, Rayla has been more than receptive to your flirting, especially after you all beat her squad in a mock duel. Katryn, most of the guards seem to have more respect for you than anyone else, and Esra even threw out the offer of a job, if you wanted to stay. Miara, Daniella, for the most part you two have been ignored. The women of this fort don’t seem to be a fan of your more sneaky or dark ways of doing things.

But all things must come to an end, and after a week Esra orders your release, along with a letter of recommendation from her. “I trust you, at least not to do anything reckless or stupid. I’ll be sending Rayla and her squad to escort you halfway to what was the city of Rosalis. From there, you’re on your own. Give my letter to Governor Worly, she should be trustworthy. Any questions?”

Katryn nods her head after spitting on the ground. “Yeah, I’ve got a question. What do you mean, was? What happened to the city?” 

“Surely you’ve seen the islands floating in the sky. One-third of Rosalis is currently on one of those islands. Most of the border garrisons have been sending reinforcements to help evacuate the city, just in case the island ever falls.”

Levari’s eyes go wide with fear. She immediately looks to the others, as if to say ‘Are we sure we should go there?’

Daniella merely shrugs. 

Katryn grins. “Sounds dangerous. Can’t wait to see it.”

“Good. Now, get going. You’re about four days’ journey from the city, and the nights here are dangerous. It was good having you all here, and know that my gates shall always be open to you.”

With your goodbyes finished, you’re all finally free to get a good look at this magical world around you. Levari, Miara, you can both tell that magic is everywhere. You both get the sense that, if either of you tried casting spells to sense magic, your senses would probably explode. This is so different from the world you come from, where magic is much more difficult to come by, requiring pacts with powerful beings or years of hard work to really excel at it. 

Katryn, Daniella, for you both things are much less easier to sense. Everything out here feels uneasy, different. It’s like you’re walking sideways at an angle. Everything feels heavier, weighed down by a force neither of you have ever interacted with. 

And, during the first two days of travel, this force only seems to get stronger. As you all head closer and closer to Rosalis, further away from the border and home, the magic in the air feels almost oppressive. Levari and Miara can adjust, easily, even, but Katryn, Daniella, for the two of you this feeling of disjointedness never seems to leave. Both of you, please make me constitution checks.

 

Jace: God, I need to replace my dice. Twelve total.

 

Dan: Eighteen minus one. 

 

Jace: You have a minus one to your constitution? Why?

 

Dan: Why not? There aren’t any skills that need it.

 

Sean: Except, you know, health. That’s kind of important.

 

Dan: Eh, it’s not like anything’s ever going to target me. Katryn looks way more tasty.

 

Jace: For now, yeah. But remember last game? Amy loves hitting us with smart enemies.

 

Amy: Guys.

 

Dan: Which means they’ll target the warlock. I only have one attack. Miara does way more.

 

Amy: Guys. Focus. Michael, you okay? You haven’t been talking much.

 

Maisie: Hm? Yeah. I’m fine.

 

*****

 

Amy was almost glad when the session was done. Sean-as-Levari flirted with Amy-as-Rayla relentlessly. She could barely keep herself together, and spent almost half of her scenes as Rayla blushing up a storm. At least it made getting into that character easier, though Amy had intended for the NPC to be a more up front and confident flirter than she herself was.

More importantly, it was obvious that Michael was, in fact, not fine. He rarely spoke, even when directly spoken to, and during the entire session it seemed like his mind was somewhere else. Even during the combat encounter near the end, he barely paid attention to any turn that wasn’t his own. 

So, when the session ended and Michael ran upstairs to the bathroom, Amy shut off the camera while she gathered the others. This wasn’t a talk she was about to involve the community with, even if they were generally cool folks.

“Does anyone know if Michael is okay?” Amy could have danced around the subject for a few seconds, but no. She needed to get directly to the point.

Jace seemed to immediately pick up on the severity of the conversation, but could only shake his head. “It’s been like this since last session. We had a talk, on our way home, you know, after the game, but I didn’t think it affected him that much.”

“He’s been answering messages kind of curtly, too. And every day at lunch it seemed like he wanted to be somewhere else. Was it because I broke up with Liz? Was Jeff acting weird at all?” Dan piped up as he put away his dice, casually revealing the end to yet another relationship that had begun not even eight days earlier. 

“Dude, already? You’d been on, what, two dates? Was it that bad?” Sean immediately responded to the least important bit of Dan’s statement, which netted him a frustrated look from Amy.

“Guys, focus! And no, Jeff seemed fine. Great, even. If either of them cared about your break-up, I feel like it would have come up after you did it.” Amy sighed. It was a decent line of thinking, but it went nowhere. She didn’t even know if the twins talked to Liz that much, outside of family stuff.  Whatever, that was unimportant. Michael probably wasn’t that broken up over his cousin’s, well, break-up. 

trailed off, leaving nobody with a clue as to what was going on. Amy had a hunch, but she hated dwelling on it. She wanted it to be a coincidence, but if he started acting like this after their previous session…

No. His brother was trans, for fuck’s sake. That revelation had blown Amy away, when he’d told her mere hours after the previous session ended. It had made her feel safe, feel like she could trust Michael that much more. He loved his brother, obviously thought of him as nothing but his brother. There wasn’t much logical consistency in Michael supporting his twin and hating his friend for the same thing.

It had to be something else.

And Amy’s brain pointed her in one direction.

It was wrong, it had to be wrong, but she couldn’t think of another answer to the question of what was wrong with Michael.

But what if?

What if Michael wasn’t actually Michael? Amy had seen signs of ‘egginess’, as it was coined, from her entire group of friends, Michael included. She wrote it off as herself just being over excited and seeing hints of transness in every shadow, but what if, this time, those hints had substance to them?

Did she approach him (them?) about this? No, that was a stupid idea. If her hunch was true, and they were acting the way they were out of envy or what have you, straight up approaching them and forcing the closet door open was wrong. It was better to wait for them to bring it up, rather than anything else.

Just then, after a surprisingly long bathroom break, Michael popped back down the stairs looking worse for wear. Amy really, really wanted to comfort them, but she knew she couldn’t. The two of them had never really been all that physically affectionate like she and Sean were. It would have been weird, or at least off-putting. 

“Sorry about that, had to call my mom and tell her I’d be late for movie night. I didn’t expect the session to take an extra half hour.” Michael explained, sounding almost excited for the first time that day.

Amy raised an eyebrow, but didn’t know what to say. Maybe they had just been looking forward to a movie that much? Must have been one of their favorites. “Sorry about that, I didn’t realize y’all would take so long trying to scare away the wolves instead of fighting them.”

“You don’t kill puppies,” Sean muttered, garnering a nod from Dan. 

“They’re wild animals, and not even real! Ugh.” Amy pouted, not actually all that angry with her friends. She understood, they could be real softies sometimes.

“Do you have to go, Mike? If you’re already late?” Jace sounded a little confused as he spoke up, thankfully changing the subject.

But Michael only smiled and shook their head. “Nope! She said we’ll start when I get home. Leah’ll be annoyed, but she’s Leah so that isn’t a big deal.”

“Wait. Isn’t tonight movie night for your mom and sisters? They invited you?” Jace asked, sounding far more confused and innocent than such an explosive question deserved.

Michael froze. It was like they had gazed into the eyes of Medusa, one second they were lively and upbeat, and the next there was nothing but a look of sheer terror plastered onto their face. Their mouth opened and closed, over and over, like they were trying to speak, but words simply wouldn’t come out. 

Jace rushed to their side, and they immediately responded by collapsing into him. Softly, slowly, he lowered them into a chair. 

“Mi-- uh. Hey. You’re alright. Alright? Camera’s off. Nobody’s here but us. Promise.” Jace knelt down beside his friend and slowly, barely audibly, tried soothing them. It seemed to work, and the expression of fear on their face slowly morphed into something more relaxed. 

Amy felt her own breathing slow; she hadn’t even realized she was nearly hyperventilating herself, but Sean was there, waiting, ready to help in a heartbeat. Fuck, he was too good.

More importantly, after taking a few deep breaths, Michael spoke up. “I uh, was not ready for this. Shit. I’m Maisie, not Michael. She and her, when we’re alone. Please just, please don’t tell anyone else. Only my family knows, and I kind of want to keep it that way until at least after winter break.” 

Not Michael. Maisie, then. Amy tried suppressing the massive grin that wanted to form as she offered a response. “Of course, Maisie. We won’t tell anyone ‘til you’re ready.” 

Dan nodded silently, looking less surprised than Amy figured he would. He did generally have a good eye for people, but did he really figure she was trans before she came out? No, that was silly. He was cis. He probably just looked calm and casual because he almost always did. Thankfully, this time, he didn’t look worried or upset. That response to Amy’s own coming out had been a rather tremendous source of worry, at least until he clarified that he was completely supportive.

“What she said. Thank you for trusting us, Maisie. That’s a really cute name, by the way. I’m almost jealous.” Sean gave a soft chuckle to top off his response, but Amy’s eyes nearly laser focused on him. Internal alarms went off all over her brain, and she made a mental note to talk about that later.

“I’m proud of you, Maisie. Sorry for, uh, outing you like that.” Jace was the last to speak up, looking kind of bashful as he did. He was much more subdued than he had been during Amy’s own coming out, but that was probably because this one started off much more seriously. Panic attacks had a way of making everyone aware of how real something was.

Slowly, ever so slightly, a smile began to form on Maisie’s face. It looked so real, almost limitless compared to the normal expressions that marked her face.  “Thank you. All of you. You don’t know how much this means to me. Well, Amy might, but that’s neither here nor there.”

Following the excitement, things began dying down. Everyone continued packing up, with Amy doing her best to get everything cleaned up so she didn’t have to later. Things were quiet, with everyone sharing just a few words here and there.

Dan, just before he was out the door, broke the silence. “So, um, I know you don’t want to be out to anyone else, but what about the stream? Are you sure you want us to keep calling you your deadname and stuff here?” 

Maisie didn’t have an immediate response, and honestly Amy didn’t, either. That was a hard question. Of their classmates, only Jeff, and maybe Lauren even knew about these streams. And Lauren had been removed from the group before they began, so odds were likely only Jeff knew. There was a low chance it would ever come back to Maisie, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a hard question.

And, giving the question the weight it deserved, Maisie did think about it. It was almost a full minute before her look of contemplation gave way to a response. “I think I’d rather be myself here than not. We can tell them.”

“Alright. Want me to let anyone still in chat know, or do you want to?” Amy asked, having already moved behind her laptop.

“You can. I don’t wanna risk seeing people misgender me or stuff anymore today. Plus, I don’t want to be too much later. Leah’s already going to have a fit.” 

“Alright.Have fun, alright?” Amy shifted through her many, many tabs to the chat, and began typing her message.

 

---

 

> Gifraff: Everyone please stick around for a bit longer

> Gifraff: I just got a message from Amy about an announcement?

> psychedelicTrans: owo?

> Gifraff: Pls hold

> AnonymousReptile: <3 oki

> shrimpbizkit: everything aok?

> BrookeingAndEntering: dunno, that’s probably why we’re holding

> mynameisneo: good to see the drama ramping up

> mynameisneo: my money is on Amy being gay or sth

> shrimpbizkit: <_<

> BiggerLuuke: u better not have a problem w gay

> BiggerLuuke: i will cry

> BiggerLuuke: also my boyfriend will fite u

> PrinceDamien: (ง •̀_•́)ง

> BiggerLuuke: get em babe

> AnonymousReptile: rawr

> mynameisneo: no like as a good thing

> mynameisneo: like

> mynameisneo: ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　Gay　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

> shrimpbizkit: o ok

> AnonymousReptile: <3 !!

> BiggerLuuke: Good

> psychedelicTrans: uwu!

> BrookeingAndEntering: not to get into the shipping thing again

> BrookeingAndEntering: but do you think amy and sean are finally dating?

> AnonymousReptile: I hope so

> AnonymousReptile: cute as heck

> shrimbizkit: definitely eyef***ing

> Gifraff: No speculation, please, it looks like this is serious.

> PrinceDamien: I hope everything’s good

> PrinceDamien: the gang was quiet tonight

> BiggerLuuke: glad that’s not the normal then

> BiggerLuuke: i like mike’s character but jfc is he quiet

> Gifraff: Uh

> Gifraff: Okay, mod powers, activate

> Gifraff: It looks like we’re gonna have a visitor

> shrimpbizkit: ruh roh

> psychedelicTrans: owo!!

> QueenAmy connected (latency: 67)

> AnonymousReptile: \o/

> QueenAmy: Hey y’all

> AnonymousReptile: o captain my captain o7

> Gifraff: Be-have.

> QueenAmy: I always behave

> Gifraff: I

> Gifraff: Not you T_T

> shrimpbizkit: me?

> BiggerLuuke: i think he means us

> PrinceDamien: He means you

> BiggerLuuke: because I’m a brat? :3c

> PrinceDamien: Yes

> Gifraff: This is not behaving.

> AnonymousReptile has quit (Connection forcibly closed by remote host)

> BiggerLuuke: :(

> AnonymousReptile connected (latency: 1449)

> AnonymousReptile: sorry on phone

> BiggerLuuke: :)

> BrookeingAndEntering: is everything okay Amy?

> QueenAmy: So

> QueenAmy: I am going to require absolute discretion, from everyone here

> QueenAmy: Before I say anything more

> AnonymousReptile: ofc <3

> BiggerLuuke: okay

> PrinceDamien: You got it

> Gifraff: Of course.

> shrimpbizkit: roger that

> psychedelicTrans: vwv

> Gifraff: Gonna need an actual confirmation from you, @psychedelicTrans

> Gifraff’s finger hovers over the kick button

> psychedelicTrans: aight chill

> psychedelicTrans: Lips are sealed, cross my butt and hope to die

> QueenAmy: So, from now on

> QueenAmy: … uh

> QueenAmy: Trying to find the words

> Gifraff: No problem.

> AnonymousReptile: take yr time

> QueenAmy: From now on, please refer to Miara’s player as Maisie, please

> AnonymousReptile: oh shit

> AnonymousReptile: aaa <3

> Gifraff: Pronouns?

> QueenAmy: She/her

> BiggerLuuke: fuck

> BiggerLuuke: yes

> psychedelicTrans: !!!! that’s amazing !!!!1!!!

> PrinceDamien: Amy please tell her we’re so proud of her!

> psychedelicTrans: aaaaaa!

> shrimpbizkit: aaa indeed!

> shrimpbizkit: i’m so here for this group 

> AnonymousReptile: \\o o// \o/

> AnonymousReptile dances

> Gifraff: For obvious reasons, if this gets out or any of you are d***heads about this, you’re permabanned. :)

> shrimpbizkit: yessir

> shrimpbizkit: ready to kneecap d***heads sir

> psychedelicTrans: this is so cool

> psychedelicTrans: so glad i found this place omg <3 TTwTT <3

> AnonymousReptile: so are we ^_^ <3 

> QueenAmy: Thanks y’all <3

> QueenAmy: she’s crying

> BiggerLuuke: nooo! :’(

> QueenAmy: Nono

> QueenAmy: Good cry

> PrinceDamien: Well, I *was* going to log off and have spaghetti

> PrinceDamien: But now I’m gonna stay in here and have a congrats party for Maisie!!

> BiggerLuuke: Party!!

> AnonymousReptile hands out party hats

> AnonymousReptile: oontz oontz pontz

> AnonymousReptile dances

> psychedelicTrans raaaves

> Gifraff: Amy, pls let her know we love her? I’ll herd these cats. Thx for letting us know. <3

> QueenAmy: ofc

> QueenAmy: Thanks giffy <3

> shrimpbizkit: omg

> shrimpbizkit: giffy

> shrimpbizkit has been kicked for 7 seconds (reason: no giffy)

> AnonymousReptile: :o

> shrimpbizkit connected (latency: 127)

> shrimpbizkit: ruuuude

> AnonymousReptile: :D

> Gifraff: ;) 

> QueenAmy: G’night y’all

> QueenAmy: I have a friend to hug!

> QueenAmy has quit (Connection quit by host)