I've decided that hope is like love -- as a much a choice as an emotion. Sometimes you feel it and sometimes you don't. But you can choose to hope, even when the feeling isn't there. I'm guessing you know a thing or two about that . . . .

I keep telling you, Bru. You and me . . . :)

Last year Joanne posted a couple of stories about a mall cop in Australia dealing with TERF flare-ups. Inconvenience has a similar instance of a TERF getting a taste of what enforcing their bigotry might mean. Up close and personal, as it were.

It all sounds great on paper, and it's as popular as sin in a bordello. But when the rubber meets the road, "if there is not liberty and justice for all, there is liberty and justice for none."

I pray the young girls and men will still have a life by the time all of this blows over. Sometimes it pays to keep expectations low.

Barbie, my surveillance methods are, as you've always suspected, beyond this world. It's amazing what you can buy with a little U235 and the right contacts. :)

I don't think I said we are all apprentices -- at least I hope I didn't! Because some of us? Oh, my. Were there a master's table, they should be there with their silky-smooth prose, their perfect metaphors, their sparkling dialogue and big, beautiful, eye-popping scene setting! The talk at their table would be exalted, witty, and somehow always to the point.

Yeah. That would not be my table. That's okay; I really like the rowdy apprentices. We joke and we swear and our metaphors sometimes collapse from their own weight, but we always have each other's backs!

I keep my hopes modest, but my prayers are more florid. Most of all, I pray for mercy, rather than justice. Were Azrael to sit in judgment on our society, and were justice his guide, I would fear the judgment.

Thank you, Seraph. I echo your prayers.

Thea kind of grew as a character when I wrote the story. Much as I enjoy Zora's swagger and refusal to put up with the shit, I question the utility of her tactics, and Thea grew to be able to articulate those questions. Zora, in turn, grew so that she could challenge Thea's caution.

But don't get me wrong. I don't condemn anyone for trying their best to respond to a set of circumstances that is both unconscionable and beyond their control. Zora and Thea didn't create the laws, or the fear, or the hatred. They didn't "choose" to be trans. Each of us must find our own path, and mine is far from the boldest.

Movements fueled by resentment and division must have enemies to sustain themselves. Eliminate every trans person -- and my, there are those who would love to do just that -- and a new enemy would be found. It is the nature of the beast.

Because somehow, demand is keeping up with the supply, so the cost of being stupid is low. You can say the most idiotic things now, and pay no penalty at all. Indeed, the rewards seem nearly endless . . . .

Thanks, Ricky. I always love your comments. :)

It good to know we’ve got friends out there. :)

For myself, I think being provocative and counting on firearms to get you out of it seems . . . IDK. Irresponsible? But I absolutely understand how she might feel driven to be reckless. Stupidity after stupidity, through law after law . . . it’s enough to make a sweet girl downright ornery.

. . . but more often, I just sits!

Thanks, Suzi. I hope things are a bit more civilized where you are, though at a deeper level Thea is correct: no place is entirely safe for us.

On a brighter note, a happy Hogmanay to you, and let not auld acquaintance be forgot!

. . . something else. I think in South Carolina they would say, “bless their hearts.”

I am so sorry to hear about your sister, Dana. And that your family would work to make a bad situation worse. I have no thoughts. Only prayers, and tears. Be well.

I didn’t have the heart to write a story about how some of my more developed characters are faring with the shifting of political winds here. But mercifully, I can write new ones!

This was a change of pace. Certainly one of my more overtly political stories, but also, one where I’m exploring a bit of an internal monologue about how best to meet the moment we are in, at least in my country. It is not in Zora’s nature to back down from a fight. In fact, she’s willing to throw the first punch. It is not in Thea’s nature to get in people’s faces. She seeks harmony and avoids conflict.

They are both trans and are thus both dropped in a moment where they will be targets regardless of what they do. How do they face it? Well . . . each according to her nature, as you might expect. The key point of the story, in my mind, is that they each afford the other grace to meet the moment in her own way.

Zara didn’t get to pee. I’m not sure she actually needed to use the restroom. ;-)