9th of September 2019
Gilbert Michael Novak, known to everyone as Gil was a model of healthy masculinity at Saints College. Well, that was debatable, but he certainly stood out. It was rather amusing to see a computer sciences student with an explosive blonde perm, stylishly garish full face, and sexy shirt, tie, and scks combo straight out of a Top of the Pops episode. He was that guy, friends with everyone, especially the girls, handsome, charming, surprisingly intelligent too, and very very obviously gay (actually bi, but that was distinction without difference for his friends). His instagram account had 10,000 followers, chronicling his regur DJ gigs, computer homebrew projects, vish 80s fashion and occasional queer rights activism. He was 8 months off from dumping his shitty boyfriend, and ready to go cruising again. Gil had always been on top of it, but this year in particur he felt it. Great things would happen and he’d be there for them. As it turns out, he wouldn’t have to wait long; he walked into the lecture hall for his first ethics in technology css, and ended up sitting next to Pippa GreenShe was gorgeous; blonde pixie cut, business suit with a skirt, and a sort of awkward confidence. Gil introduced himself:
“Hey, I’m Gil, nice to meet you.”
“Pippa, nice to meet you too.”
“I just want to say I adore your hair, it suits you wonderfully.”
She blushed very prominently. “Oh, uhm, thank you, sometimes I feel insecure about it because it’s different, so I’m happy when others like it. Yours is quite something too.”
Before long, they agreed to do school work together. He was charming, one of the girls, and though still a bit awkward, Pippa easily took to him. End of the lecture, they walk out together. She stops him.
"To pn this out, do you have a Consensus account?"
He was a CompSci student, of course he had a Consensus account. Not that he used it much. Despite his appearances, he was pretty up to date on trends, but it wasn't his prerogative to follow them. He pulled up the app forgotten in a corner of his phone, to be greeted by one server, two friends, and his handle: SeagullHairdo #2871.
"Nice name"
His embarrassment was palpable, "I'll probably change it, I don't ever use this thing."
She giggled a bit "Well we don't need to chat there if you don't want to, just keeping up on our schedules is fine. Tomorrow at 13:00 at the library work?”
He agreed, and waved her off as she headed to wherever she was going. Gil smiled. She was a pretty woman, very pretty. He didn’t find her pretty in a romantic way or anything, rather he admired how great she looked in that unique way. He'd never had a transfem friend before.
***
He hung out with his friends from the graphic design department right near the entrance of the visual arts building, and asked about this Pippa Green. He knew enough of the Saints student popution first-hand to know the entire popution second-hand. Today it was Sandra who had the scoop.
“Oh yes, Pippa, seen her in my esthetics css, seems like a nice girl.”
Lena, who’d never met a look too tacky for her to pull off reasonably well, couldn’t resist the opportunity to tease him “Are you into her Gilbert Novak? Of all people?”
“Lena darling, you know I very well could be even if I wasn’t out of my loveless rut. She merely has an allure, a je-ne-sais-quoi? What can I say, she’s a fascinating girl.”
Lena’s bronze eyebrows raised in excitement. “She must be quite the mysterious girl to make you speak like that Gil--”
Sabrina stepped back in “I don’t think she’s mysterious in the way you imagine Len, from what I’ve seen of her I think she’s a Dorley girl.”
“Right… right.”
Dorley girl? He thought he’d gotten the whole picture but there was one more facet of Saints social life Gil wasn’t privy to, bloody girls and their secrets.
“Dorley, as in the posh residence at the edge of campus?”
Lena responded, “Oh Gil, sweety, being posh is the least remarkable thing about Dorley.”
The other girls took turns excitedly sharing their anecdotes.
“It’s a residence for disenfranchised girls, so they all have a mysterious tragic backstory of some kind.”
“And yet the whole lot of them look like high street models!”
“Must be like the X Factor where that’s the only two things you need to qualify.”
“The whole building’s locked down like the government runs it!”
“There’s rumours they used to conduct medical experiments in the basement back in the day.”
“And they all shag each other with impunity!”
“Okay, you made that st one up.”
Sonia snapped back. “I will let you know that I’ve heard some very credible reports of girl-on-girl snogging at the very least. From trusted sources!”
Gil tried to bring the conversation back on track.
“So, should I be worried about this girl, or will there be a government-sponsored, X Factor-auditioned, medical experiment-conducting lesbian sorority on my back if I get too close to her?”
“Gil, don’t be silly, just assume she’s into girls and has lived through more trauma than any of us combined and you’ll be golden, Dorley girls are just one of the many delightful things that make studying at Saints a pleasure.”
“So if she’s nice, would any of you mind if I brought her along for lunch or something?”
Lena did not ease up on the mocking tone one second, “Of course, we’d never discourage you from bringing a fellow lesbian to this group--”
“Lena!”
“I jest of course, I’m sure she’s wonderful. I have to catch my bus however, so I’ll be seeing you lovelies--”
Her waving was enhanced by her massive nail extensions, leaving the rest of the group to disperse. As he was walking to his car, Gil was internally amazed at the gall. Frost and her cronies were hags, that went without saying, but to make up transphobic nonsense like this, to the point it reached his friends? He wanted nothing but to apologise to Pippa on behalf of all of cisdom for their sins.
This was the first year Gil was living outside campus, in the same sort of generic terraced house every other off-campus Saints student rented, with two wonderful roommates whose only shared trait among them was being some form of gay. Isaac was an English lit major who spent enough time with friends and lovers as to be completely unseen by Gil, while still paying for his share of the bills and groceries without a fuss. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Colin was an accounting major who spent every waking moment not occupied by school pying EVE Online. He had a nice guitar, and Gil had managed to py with him a few times, but it was futile, interstelr trading or whatever you did in that game was his true calling. He probably didn't realise Gil was home anymore than he could've noticed burgrs entering and getting into a gunfight over who would take their cat-scratched pavement-salvaged sofa. Gil liked to think he was the responsible one, his only faults being his too-loud speakers and monopoly on the main washroom. Tonight though, he would use neither of these things. He would finish the leftover take out from the fridge and get to work, his main priority to correct that moronic handle.
***
At Dorley Hall, things were as chaotic as any September. Third years were equally delighted and mortified to be heading out into the real world again, second years with miscelneous facial bandages were still getting used to their new names, and the basement had already invited its first intake. Pippa could not wait to begin her sponsoring duty proper, which would be put into practice when Harmony approached her.
"Hey, Pippa, can you send me an invite to the new server? I got skipped somehow."
Aunt Bea had made them start a new Consensus server after one too many Taylor Swift concert scam bot had gotten into the old one. As with anything IT at Dorley, it was gloriously messy.
"Sure, what's your name again?"
"50Harmony"
Cute. A terrible handle, but cute.
Names, names. If there was one thing Gil couldn't do, it was coming up with a name. Ughhhhh... Whatever, anything was better than SeagullHairdo. A few types and voilà, 80Harmony.
"Harmony, Harmony, aha, there we go."
"Sorry, I’m not seeing anything."
"Oh, hang on, looks like that was a bot, try it now…"
"Perfect, I'm in."
Okay, even he had to admit 80Harmony sucks, he should’ve kept it simple. How about NeonLights? Yeah, that's better. Oh hey, looks like Pippa's invited him to a server, how sweet.
Pippa moved to report the bot, but she couldn't find it, damn things. At least it didn’t seem to have gotten in, there's only one Harmony in the sea of girls rejoining. Nothing out of order.
Well this server was, for ck of a better term, odd. From what Gil could gather, this was Dorley Hall’s server, and confirming what he suspected, there seemed to be a rather important number of trans girls residing there. If the words and memes that were scrolling down his monitor were transfem culture, Gil was fascinated. He went to the #first-floor general chat channel, and was immediately greeted with a lovely exchange.
Faye
Ugh, this is agony, when can these things off, my face just feels so painfullll
Bex
It’s okay sweetie, I’m here if you need it~
Mia
I mean, consider this Faye, it’s not the most painful thing we’ve been through this year, physically or psychologically :wink:
Bex
Oh my god Mia do you mind?
Mia
I can’t help it if my morning tea always reminds me that my balls have been cut off?
Irene
Young dy, if you keep this up I am not going to help you with your eyeliner tomorrow.
Mia
Fine mum…
Irene
I’m not your mum, I'm your Sister. Your mum gave birth to you whereas I was complicit in kidnapping you off the street and giving you the beautiful face you have now
Mia
…and cutting off my balls
Irene
:facepalm:
And it kept going like that, wild swings between normal girl talk, intense traumadumps, and persistent jokes about kidnappings and castrations. From what Gil could tell, not every girl at Dorley was trans, but this didn’t stop them from joining in the comedy. If his friends thought the Dorley girls were a special lot, they had only seen the tip of the iceberg. Even the server's name, "the Mug Society" was odd. It was like stepping into an alien world. Gil knew his presence was a mistake, he should not have been privy to this. He was spying, a man invading women's spaces, even worse, vulnerable trans women’s spaces, and yet. For all the pride disco nights and gay rights associations he'd mingled with, he knew so little about trans women. They fascinated him in a sense; he could understand cis gays, cis lesbians, and even trans men to an extent, but trans women were just so alluring, so hermetic. He was just so damn curious as to what they were like from the inside, what made them tick. It’d be okay, he would only lurk to get a better understanding, to be able to help everyone equally, to walk a mile in their shows so to speak. Plus, he wouldn't touch the locked administrative stuff he definitely wasn't meant to see with a ten-foot pole. The secret would be safe with him, he just had to cover his tracks. He deleted the yet to be started conversation with Pippa, and made a new account. He then sent her a message to expin the whole switch around.
GilNova
Hey, this is Gil. With my luck, my account got hacked the day I started using it for real lol.
PippaLongstockings
Don't get me started, they had to make a new server for my residence to curtail a pgue of scam Taylor ticket bots, and even now some of the buggers are still lingering, I love the internet sometimes.
GilNova
I could lend you my ZX Spectrum if you'd like, no scam ticket sellers there.
PippaLongstockings
I am intrigued.
GilNova
Only downside is it takes 3 straight minutes to load anything
PippaLongstockings
Shame, you almost had me there with your sales pitch.
GilNova
Anytime love~
PippaLongstockings
Well, maybe you can show me at a ter time, goodnight Gil, I'll see you tomorrow
GilNova
Good night Pippa
Before voiding the Neonlights account into being nothing but his key into the Dorley server, Gil checked that one disco community he’d joined months ago and had since neglected. It was a shame he’d done so, the conversation was rather interesting.
PattyBunny
Look, I'm serious, there's documentation and everything
MarinaLux
Maybe there was something there, but I'm not about to misgender the dead on hearsay
PattyBunny
So gay disco icon Sylvester could've been a trans woman, and you deny that?
MarinaLux
It just seems too... obvious. The camp gay queen was actually a girl, that's just not how these things work out. These kinds of people just aren't women. Show me evidence of the contrary.
PattyBunny
Just because there's little evidence doesn't mean it can't happen, Sylvester was as justified being a girl if she felt that way as anyone else
Marina Lux
Hmmpf...
Gil promptly left the server and turned off his PC, the real snooping on the Mug Society could begin tomorrow. Right now he just wanted to spin some Sylvester and get homework done before pying some bass again. Maybe even practice a few new makeup looks if it wasn't too te. Hopefully he’d get some good advice from that server, those Dorley girls seemed rather keen on helping each other out. He had a feeling he’d learn a lot from them.
