#trans prophecy loophole
Recently I’ve been having a fun time thinking about a group of adventurers going up against some sort of kingdom-threatening bad guy that nobody can stop (as one does), only when they finally reach him the bad guy starts monologuing! Yes, he is protected by a Prophecy that No Man of Woman Borne can kill him!
(macbeth is a classic for a reason and if jirt can steal the line so can I. no regrets.)Cue the party huddling up to plan like ‘ok, is this man-as-in-male meaning the ladies can go Éowyn on his ass? or is it Man as in mankind as in human? Do we go get some attack dogs somewhere? An attack cow? What? Cows are way more dangerous than sharks, there’s statistics about it! Whatever, we don’t have time to go get an attack animal! What if it’s about identifying as human? Quick, is anyone in the party a furry? C'mon, don’t be shy, the kingdom is at stake!’
Meanwhile the quiet one (it’s always the quiet ones) sort of hanging in the background of this panicky planning sesh goes 'huh’, and then he just walks straight up to the still-chortling big bad and slays him dead.
Stunned silence.
Then of course there is a lot to do in the aftermath and everybody’s busy, but later the rest of the party is like 'ok, really, how did he do that’. They are trying to figure out what’s up with their bro. Let’s call him Brian. Brian the Baneslayer, that’s got a ring to it.
So the party’s trying to figure out what’s up with Brian and how he managed to kill the big bad despite the prophecy. They’re like 'is Brian a trans woman, have we been misgendering Brian this whole time!? Is Brian somehow secretly not human? We definitely need to ask Brian. What, no! You can’t ask directly, Brian is like the most private person ever! We’ve just got to make sure Brian knows we’re cool and accepting no matter what so Brian can tell us how the flip the prophecy was eluded.’
Mission: We Affirm All Identities is go! Various party members, with various levels of awkwardness, 'casually’ bring up stories of their own queer identities, or that of their beloved friends and family and… Brian smiles and nods and makes quietly supportive noises and that’s it, no sharing of stories. They have semi-staged arguments concluding that 'people are definitely people and deserving of all support even if they were somehow not a human people’ and Brian just sort of nods along and still nothing.
(the quiet ones, man, their secrets are too powerful)
Anyway, this goes on for several weeks before one of the more straighforward of the party members breaks down like 'Brian, Brian, we all love you so much no matter what your whole deal is and how you got around the prophecy. we just love you, ok?’ (yes, alcohol was involved)
And Brian cracks up, as he finally puts together what the team’s been trying to do. “Oh my gods, you nerds. I forgot you didn’t know. I’m not trans or anything, my parents are. I wasn’t borne by a woman. My dad had me!”
Brian’s parents were semi famous loophole-exploiting trans adventurers back in the day. They’re very proud that he’s carrying on the family tradition.
Literally everyone where he grew up knew his parents and their famed exploits. Brian just kinda forgot that having set out to make his own name in the world, separate from his parents, people aren’t automatically going to know about his family situation if he doesn’t tellthem.
Recently I’ve been having a fun time thinking about a group of adventurers going up against some sort of kingdom-threatening bad guy that nobody can stop (as one does), only when they finally reach him the bad guy starts monologuing! Yes, he is protected by a Prophecy that No Man of Woman Borne can kill him! (macbeth is a classic for a reason and if jirt can steal the line so can I. no regrets.)
Cue the party huddling up to plan like ‘ok, is this man-as-in-male meaning the ladies can go Éowyn on his ass? or is it Man as in mankind as in human? Do we go get some attack dogs somewhere? An attack cow? What? Cows are way more dangerous than sharks, there’s statistics about it! Whatever, we don’t have time to go get an attack animal! What if it’s about identifying as human? Quick, is anyone in the party a furry? C'mon, don’t be shy, the kingdom is at stake!’
Meanwhile the quiet one (it’s always the quiet ones) sort of hanging in the background of this panicky planning sesh goes 'huh’, and then he just walks straight up to the still-chortling big bad and slays him dead.
Stunned silence.
Then of course there is a lot to do in the aftermath and everybody’s busy, but later the rest of the party is like 'ok, really, how did he do that’. They are trying to figure out what’s up with their bro. Let’s call him Brian. Brian the Baneslayer, that’s got a ring to it.
So the party’s trying to figure out what’s up with Brian and how he managed to kill the big bad despite the prophecy. They’re like 'is Brian a trans woman, have we been misgendering Brian this whole time!? Is Brian somehow secretly not human? We definitely need to ask Brian. What, no! You can’t ask directly, Brian is like the most private person ever! We’ve just got to make sure Brian knows we’re cool and accepting no matter what so Brian can tell us how the flip the prophecy was eluded.’
Mission: We Affirm All Identities is go! Various party members, with various levels of awkwardness, 'casually’ bring up stories of their own queer identities, or that of their beloved friends and family and… Brian smiles and nods and makes quietly supportive noises and that’s it, no sharing of stories. They have semi-staged arguments concluding that 'people are definitely people and deserving of all support even if they were somehow not a human people’ and Brian just sort of nods along and still nothing.
(the quiet ones, man, their secrets are too powerful)
Anyway, this goes on for several weeks before one of the more straighforward of the party members breaks down like 'Brian, Brian, we all love you so much no matter what your whole deal is and how you got around the prophecy. we just love you, ok?’ (yes, alcohol was involved)
And Brian cracks up, as he finally puts together what the team’s been trying to do. “Oh my gods, you nerds. I forgot you didn’t know. I’m not trans or anything, my parents are. I wasn’t borne by a woman. My dad had me!”
