Rain
Comic 480 - Token
Author Notes:
I tried to achieve this for Fara more with her hair than anything. I guess it just seems like the easiest way to address the passage of time. But I couldn't have a long-haired Fara. It just does not work for her. So I needed a younger, cuter variation of her typical very short style. It's not exactly a big jump for her, but I think I like it. The flip in back is quite charming.
Vincent's younger "Vivian" presentation was even trickier, because it required more than just a specific design, but a distinct sort of expression. What I knew was that I definitely wanted him to be very feminine-looking. Even exceptionally so. This is a person who really internalized his dysphoria so well, that he blended seamlessly as the gender that society wanted him to be (even if it wasn't what he wanted). But I also wanted to give the impression that he didn't entirely hate who he was back then either. Not in the sense where he could be content with "either or," but in the sense that his old life wasn't actually that bad. He liked to sing and he got to sing. He liked women, and he got to fall for one. So everything is fine and dandy, right? Just a regular cis lesbian woman, right? Obviously not, but that's what he wanted people to think. TL;DR - Trans person that doesn't want to be trans or transition.
And that entire last paragraph had to be packed into this character's design. How'd I do?
This blurb is long enough, but I just want to give special mention to the band name and it's logo. When I was younger, the "toaster on fire" design was like my emblem. In high school (maybe even middle school), I would draw them all over my notebooks. And back when anyone still cared about Guitar Hero, that was always my band name. By extension, it seemed the obvious name for Vincent's band. ^_^
©2004-2014
Rain, all characters and all other aspects of the story are copyright material belonging to me.
At around age 20-21 I played guitar and sang in a heavy metal glam rock band, this was the early 1980s. I was so skinny back then and had a full head of long brown hair down past my shoulders and on stage wore red satin pants that showed off my girly-shaped ass so well. The times were horrible back then for trans people though, any trans girl was referred to as a "female impersonator" (or worse) and outside of stage performances, an object of ridicule and humiliation. I caught so much hell just for presenting as a longhaired male. I so desparately wanted to get both my ears pierced back then, but didn't have the guts to face the barrage of judgement that would have brought, and today I still do not have pierced ears, but my first pair of earrings are on the way... just got the email from Etsy saying they shipped yesterday afternoon.