Kir McLeod
July 17, 2020 10:52 PM
Life's a drag by Kir McLeod
Kir looked at the assembled company in his living room. The arrivals and parental introductions and offering of snacks and so on had all been done, and now they had been left to get down to business.It was really cool having the old gang back together. Well, sort of… Connor wasn’t around, and a few of the other faces had changed since Kir’s day, plus Lyssa Fitzgerald had joined the party but not the ranks of the DnD group. Apparently, she was more than willing to come to a drag show, and Ness was more than a little bit keen on inviting her. He had noticed that his sibling’s sulky teenage mood, which had been a prevailing force of the holidays, had lifted considerably with the arrival of more friends, but with Lyssa in particular. He wasn’t trying to read into the fact that this had also coincided with CJ being banished to their aunts’ house for the afternoon. Not that drag and dressing up were unsuitable for someone CJ’s age – drag queen story hour was an absolute force of brilliance – but it just had seemed like it would be easier not to juggle those responsibilities.
He was super excited to play D&D again tomorrow, but also for that evening’s event. It was semi a fundraiser, but the cost was ‘pay by donation’ because the real goal was a space that was safe and accessible for anyone who needed it. The holidays could be rough, and it was nice to spread a little cheer. It was also a good chance to give out McLeod Foundation business cards, specially imbued with Floo powder and easy to keep in a pocket for anyone who decided home was not the place they wanted to spend the holidays. It could suck really badly if you spend too long thinking about the underlying reasons why they did what they did but it made his heart happy that his friends were all coming out to support what his family did – not that that might have been their main motivation, he knew, but they were here, willing to embrace this crazy world, and to do this too. He felt a little bad by how surprised he was at Parker, Gary and (possibly) Heinrich’s willingness to don drag (he had the impression that the latter was still on the fence but the former two were absolutely up for it).
“It’s good to see you all again,” he beamed, even though he’d said to all of them at least once already, but it really was, “Okay, so just in case you don’t know… Tonight’s party is a drag party. That means there’s a performance, which my friend James and I will be taking part in, and the audience is also welcome to dress up – but they don’t have to. We want a space where everyone gets to feel happy and relaxed, which means different things for different people. If you choose to dress up, you won’t be the only one. If you choose not to, you won’t be the only one. If you choose to just experiment with a little bit of glitter and a feather boa, you won’t be the only one. There’s going to be a broad range. The most important part is that you’re happy in what you wear.
“It’s an under eighteens party, so the only thing we ask is that outfits are not sexually explicit – maybe more ballgowns than bon- er, other things,” he rephrased. “There’s a few pictures from past parties up here if you want to come and see what kind of things people wear.
I’ve brought some stuff for you all to borrow – more on the Queening side of things, though I think there’s a general dress up box with hats and suspenders and things for Kings.
“Drag safety, please, please, please do not try to Transfigure anything more than nails or hair. You can do yourself a lot of damage. We’ve got plenty of padding,” he could also teach them to tuck if they really wanted, but he was probably going to wait to be asked on that front. He was pretty sure there was nothing that would put the guys in the room off drag quite so fast as learning what that involved. “Also, as drag queen hair tends to be pretty big, styled and outlandish, you may be better off using a wig rather than trying to extend and then style your own hair, especially if you’re not familiar with how to get style and volume.
“Everything here, you can go to town on, in terms of changing the colours, adjusting the fit or style. This my drag file,” he held up a pink glittery ring binder. “It has sections on pretty much everything – hair, make-up, body, clothes – and has my notes on spells I’ve found useful as well as tutorials from different magazines. I’m also more than happy to help – sometimes it’s easier to learn by seeing than by reading.
“Okay, let’s get cracking!” he grinned.
OOC – I’m setting this up like a class thread so that people can post and break into smaller conversations. You may god-mod Kir lightly, saying he gave you advice or tag him if you want more in depth discussions. Thinking it will work like DnD with one main thread but the option to branch of. As you wish, princesses.
Subthreads: What have I gotten myself into? [Ness] by Gary Harper with Ness McLeod, Kir McLeod, Lyssa Fitzgerald
Um, so I'm going to do this a little differently (Evelyn) by Heinrich Hexenmeister with Evelyn Stones
Making a friend? I hope? (Tag Evelyn) by Lyssa Fitzgerald with Evelyn Stones
Life is never a drag... but I am looking forward to being closer to loved ones (specifically one) by Parker Fitzgerald with Gary Harper
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Kir McLeod
Life's a drag
366
1
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Gary Harper
July 18, 2020 6:09 AM
What have I gotten myself into? [Ness] by Gary Harper
Well, here he was. The big get-together had arrived. He was looking forward to a lot of it, hanging out and relaxing, seeing Kir and Zev again, playing some more D&D with them again. He had a fun, fairly light-hearted, traditional Christmasy D&D adventure planned out for everyone. Rumor was that Zev might be prepping an adventure as well, so he had kept his fairly short with plenty of room for expansion depending on how things worked out. It was going to be a fun little crossover game as well. He'd managed to dig up some old character sheets. Erevan, Amber and possibly Nefrig were going to be meeting up with 217, Trym, Kathra, Siegmund and maybe Teifler. Parker had been in both games, so he got to choose which he wanted to use. Gary hoped he'd pick Nefrig just to balance out the groups a bit, but it didn't really matter. He had also made a few extra character sheets in case anyone else wanted to join in that hadn't played before.After all, he'd also heard a rumor that Lyssa may be there as well. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. On the one hand, he hadn't had a lot of success talking to her the previous term, and that was key to getting to know her better and see what she thought of attempting some courtship rituals. However, Ness was going to be dressing him up like... well, he didn't really know what and he didn't know what sort of impression that would make on the girl.
Which brought him back around to 'the show'. Kir and Ness both seemed very excited about it. He was less certain on the subject, but he had made a promise and he was going to go through with it. He also was going to be pleasant about it, they were having fun and he wasn't going to ruin that by whining and complaining. He was immensely relieved when Kir made the rule of no sexually explicit outfits. That would have been... really awkward.
So, after Kir had released them to get ready, he immediately scanned the room to locate Ness. Upon spotting the one who would control his fate, he put on a brave smile and made his way over there. "Okay," he started, "Gary Harper, reporting for duty. I guess it's time you had your way with me." he paused and flushed just a bit. That sentence maybe hadn't been the right one. "I mean... what nefarious plans do you have for me?"
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Gary Harper
What have I gotten myself into? [Ness]
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Ness McLeod
July 19, 2020 7:33 AM
Fun! by Ness McLeod
Ness. Was. Psyched. This was going to be the best two days basically in the history of ever. The fifth year had been feeling that way about it even before arriving home and finding out exactly what it was like having a kid sibling. It was annoying. Ness was not going to resent CJ living there, because ‘resent’ was a strong word and Matthias Stones was… an even stronger set of words. But that didn’t mean Ness particularly had to like it. Four years olds were annoying and their conversation was circular and repetitive, and CJ needed attention like… all the time, and often from Kir.But here was a whole two days of fun. Drag time and D&D and friends and Lyssa. And the fact that it was a CJ free period was just the icing on what had already been set to be a pretty tasty cake.
It was sort of funny watching Kir get up and give an intro speech like he was their teacher, especially about drag. Ness was curious to see how far they’d all take it and what looks they’d pull together. Speaking of which, Gary was already asking for help. In rather suggestive terms. Ness’ eyebrows quirked up in amusement, although it seemed obvious that there wasn’t anything to read into that except in terms of drag. Bawdy humour was totally on theme though, and Ness appreciated Gary getting right into the role. Ness probably shouldn’t have expected anything less from their DM, of course.
“Hmm, costume seems like an obvious place to start?” Ness suggested, opening one of the boxes of clothes Kir had brought down. “Hmm, this is at least Aladren blue?” Ness suggested, holding up a very sequined garment, “Though I guess as we can change the colours that’s maybe not-” Ness stopped as pulling out the sequined top had revealed it not to be a long shimmering dress but a leotard.
“Geez, Kir, these are your non-explicit outfits?” Ness challenged, waving the leotard, wondering whether it was weird to try and picture Kir (or his alter ego) actually wearing this. It was sort of like a potions accident - you knew it was wrong to look but there was something morbidly fascinating about it.
“I mean, I’d imagine you would want to wear a skirt or something else over the top,” Kir shrugged. “But it’s pretty. Tempted?” he asked Gary, mostly teasing.
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Ness McLeod
Fun!
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0
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Gary Harper
July 19, 2020 8:56 AM
Oh I hope so. by Gary Harper
Gary grinned nervously at Ness. The quirked eyebrow at his comment made him just a little unsettled. What had he gotten himself into? This may take some special level of mental detachment to survive. He could only manage a nod as Ness commented about starting with a costume. That seemed logical. Then after a moment a shiny blue something came out of Kir's one box. Oh dear... admittedly, it was Aladren blue.... and not a dress.He had been prepared for some sort of dress, not something that was that shiny and... tight. He just stared at it. Ness shouted something over at Kir, but he didn't really hear what. What was he going to do if Ness decided he needed to wear something like that? Well.. he'd wear it. He'd promised he would. He just didn't want to be a wet blanket, Ness was clearly reveling in this atmosphere and he desperately did not want to ruin it.
A skirt? Sweet Shelyn, he'd never thought he'd be so glad to be offered a skirt to wear. "I'm not sure 'tempted' is the right word..." he paused, "but you're in charge here." Looking around the room and glancing over the contents of Kir's box, he sighed. "I don't know much about this particular subculture... fill me in on the details, then this might go better." He gave his friend a hopeful smile.
2
Gary Harper
Oh I hope so.
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0
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Kir McLeod
July 20, 2020 7:51 AM
Keep it safe, sane, and consensual by Kir McLeod
Ness was in charge? Kir was about to warn Gary that that was a risky move but held his tongue. Admittedly, Ness probably knew more about drag than Gary, but Kir was guessing from his remarks so far that that was a pretty low bar. In practical terms, Kir was not sure he trusted Ness to know one end of a make-up brush from the other, much less how to wield one, or how to apply mascara without poking someone's eye out. For health, safety and aesthetics he was pretty sure he ought to intervene at certain points.Ness could also be... Kir hesitated on the edge of the word 'bossy' aware that it was a very gendered word to use for behaviour which, in AMAB people, was usually praised as assertiveness, and that in spite of Ness' current lack of an obvious gender beyond ‘screw the patriarchy’, he had grown up regarding Ness as female. For all that had been allowed to mean whatever the heck anyone, and especially Ness, wanted it to mean, it didn't mean that he hadn't also absorbed certain subconscious prejudices. Speaking as a woke twenty first century person, calling Ness bossy was probably not on. Speaking as Ness' older sibling, urrrgh the Aladren was a bossy little pain in the butt sometimes. Given the upbringing they had both had, Kir was sure Ness didn’t mean to push people’s buttons or their comfort zones, but once the Aladren got an idea of How to Do Things, there was often very little leeway. That could come off as just annoying when it was a group project but could be problematic in this kind of situation, and Kir felt vaguely compelled to keep an eye on it.
He refrained from telling Ness to ‘play nice’ because that was likely to be seen as a challenge, and lines that Kir set were Ness’ favourite kind to test the limits with. So far, Ness didn’t show any signs of not playing nicely so far. And hey, maybe Gary didn’t want Ness to. Maybe Gary was into being bossed around. Far be it from him to police that situation if that was what it was. Of course, he’d feel better about that if he knew some rules and boundaries had been established but even if this was a sex positive household where they talked openly about things, he could recognise that ‘Hey, are you being my sibling’s play thing in a way you both find fun and have you discussed ‘hard no’s or got a safeword in case this gets out of hand?’ was maybe not a sentence anyone was going to let him get to the end of without imploding from embarrassment/hexing him/kicking him. Especially with someone else he thought his sibling wanted to date also in earshot. Not that that necessarily ruled out anything with Gary… But said other person was someone Kir didn’t know for sure was over sixteen, and even if they all were, Kir was really not sure he wanted to talk kink rules with people who were still in school.
“If Ness goes overboard, just throw down Sarah’s speech from the end of Labyrinth. No one can resist the power of that.” He thought that was a pretty good translation into nerd of ‘keep it safe, sane and consensual.’ And he thought Ness, as a role-player, would be willing to back down for that.
“That reminds me, I have some clothes and know some pretty good spells for whipping up a Goblin King,” he grinned. That had been a Hallowe’en outfit, and Zev had dressed as Sarah. He was sort of tempted to make it an ongoing theme that he dressed as a different era David Bowies every Hallowe’en, not least because that let him think about having years and years of Hallowe’ens with Zevalyn, even if there wasn’t always a corresponding outfit for her. Also, he liked that she had compared him (favourably) to Bowie, and he was pretty sure she hadn’t had any objections to the Goblin King look... Maybe, in future, they could take an era each, or be pairs of same-era David Bowies. Or they could stick to being Sarah and the Goblin King on a semi-regular basis, “We should find an excuse to do that again. Maybe swap roles,” he grinned, leaving Gary and Ness to it and crossing over to Zevalyn. And then when they had a kid, they could dress it up in little stripy tights to be the stolen babe, or if they had more than one, they could dress them all up as goblins… His grin turned into a slightly smushier smile, one that said ‘I want to play dress up with you forever and raise a tiny goblin army together.’
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Kir McLeod
Keep it safe, sane, and consensual
366
0
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Ness McLeod
July 21, 2020 5:11 AM
I'm being good! by Ness McLeod
Ness would have given an eye roll and some firm advice for Kir to butt the heck out but something he’d said was pretty attention grabbing. Ness weighed up the tantalising promise of the Goblin King outfit, both wanting to wear it and see a certain someone else wearing it...“That would look so cool on you,” Ness declared, making a decision and turning to Lyssa. The Aladren couldn’t help but grin, both at Lyssa being here and being Lyssa, but also the mental image of her dressed up as the Goblin King. Ness’ eyes were sparkling just thinking about it.
“Alright,” Ness returned to the task at hand, suppressing a Lyssa-induced smile and surveying Gary’s options. “I mean, as far as I can tell, the goal of drag is looking as ridiculous as possible. Like… The clothes are deliberately heinous and you roll with it for a laugh.” That was perhaps a very Ness take on the whole situation, and one that would have had drag queens clutching at their pearls in utter horror, but Ness was basically allergic to sequined fabric and glitter and found it challenging to embrace them beyond the ironic.
“Does anything here at least… amsue you, or seem like it would be fun to wear?” Ness asked. “It’s silly. So, you have a license to do as you please,” the Aladren added, hoping that helped. “Like… imagine you’re in a carnival or going to a costume party.”
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Ness McLeod
I'm being good!
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Lyssa Fitzgerald
July 21, 2020 10:45 AM
Sane is a matter of perspective though right? by Lyssa Fitzgerald
Lyssa was surprised when both she and Parker were invited to the McLeod household. Excited, but surprised. The invitation seemed genuine and Lyssa realized there would probably be DnD at some point. She was interested in seeing how it was done. Or was it played? Considering that two of the important people in her life played it, she felt she should at least learn more about it right?Still, it was the part that was going to happen before DnD that made Lyssa surprised. Apparently Parker knew about this part. Not only knew, but had said yes a while ago to it. He seemed excited by the idea even. Maybe it was his curiosity at how one of these would look in the Wizarding world, or maybe that most of his friends were doing it. Lyssa wondered if Cleo knew about this, and what she would say. Parker was fairly open for a white CIS male, but there is only so much you can tell someone via owl. Then again, Lyssa had thought, maybe Cleo was also invited. The way their mom’s questioning went, the thought was also in her mind. Mom was more concerned about the fact that it wasn't an all one gender sleepover. She was talking to Parker about… things, but never talking to Lyssa. Lyssa was glad on that front. She hadn’t talked about her date with Ness with her mom. To be honest, she wasn’t sure what her mother would really say or how she would react. Lyssa was pretty sure it’d be positive, but still, she wasn’t going to say anything until after the sleep over was over. And Parker said nothing. Though at one point when his mom was talking about not doing anything inappropriate he looked over their mom's shoulder at Lyssa and cocked a half smile. Lyssa could feel her blush for days leading up to the party.
Lyssa liked the McLeod house almost immediately. It was inviting. If there was some sort of charm doing it then it was doing it in spades. Lyssa figured though that the owners of the house were what actually made it that way. She listened to Ness’s brother as he spoke about drag show etiquette and stifled a laugh when he almost slipped into using a word he didn’t mean to. Still, when the boxes came out she was uncertain where to begin.
Then she saw Gary walk up straight up to Ness and a small pang of jealousy ran through her body. She walked over and it seemed Ness was picking out his outfit, and he was really uncomfortable. Lyssa had hoped she and Ness would pick out each others outfits together. Then Kir walked up and talked about some 80s movie Lyssa remembered watching at some point a few summers. As Lyssa was trying to remember the speech that Kir was referring to, Ness turned to her. Lyssa couldn’t help but smile off of their excitement. They were just so cute and bouncy. She wanted to grab them by their cheeks and give them a squeeze. Apparently Ness was going to help her find an outfit. Lyssa cocked her head to the side and thought about the outfit of the Goblin King that she could remember. It would be a good outfit. She’d need some sort of binding though and a sock.
She turned back to what Ness was saying. Lyssa raised her eyebrows at “do as you please”. Were they hitting on Gary? Had Lyssa misread their seeming interest in her? Or was Ness polyamorous? Lyssa could still feel some jealousy, but had to commend Ness on taste if that was the case.
“Or like you are going to a Con, but as a feminine character,” Lyssa added. She felt this might be more like something Gary had attended. “Like umm…” There was an anime that was on the tip of her mind that Lyssa knew had a main character to went from male to female, “Oh. Like the character in Rama ½!” Lyssa said, her excitement over remembering the name of the anime and comic coming through a little too strongly.
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Lyssa Fitzgerald
Sane is a matter of perspective though right?
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Gary Harper
July 21, 2020 6:43 PM
It is, and I may need to shift mine. by Gary Harper
Kir swung over to see how things were going and Gary gave him something of an embarrassed grin. This was not how things were supposed to be going. He was supposed to be helping Ness have a good time here. Now Kir was coming over to tell him to tell Ness to behave. "It's okay," he responded, "I'm just trying to figure this all out. Everyone starts as a newbie, I'll yell for you if things get out of hand." He looked around at the room of people, social events, not high on his list of favorite things. That wasn't helping him relax and get into the event at all.By the time he'd turned back around to Ness, he saw that Lyssa had been summoned. Oh. Well... okay. This could work... wait. Ness looked really happy all the sudden and talking about looking ridiculous and having fun. He smiled, now he knew what Ness was up to. Evelyn had talked to Ness after things had calmed down. She told Ness about their talk and how she thought Lyssa could be a potential match for Gary if they got to know each other better. So now Evelyn and Ness had carefully engineered a situation to make that happen. What else would makes sense? Sure Lyssa was in their class and they were friends, but nearly everyone else here was from the D&D group. That is where this whole idea started. Lyssa hadn't joined, so why else was she here? They had all set him up on the oddest 'get to know you date' ever. He wondered if Lyssa was in on it.
"Crossplaying" He responded to Lyssa's Con comment with a friendly smile. Cosplay was dressing up as a character, so naturally 'crossplay' had been invented to describe dressing up as a character of the opposite gender. "Yeah," that fit in his brain a little better, it wasn't something he'd done before, but it was a little closer to his own subculture. Was she one for nerd themed conventions? That was pretty cool.
He grinned wide when Lyssa brought up Ranma. "Yes!" Gary exclaimed, matching Lyssa's excitement output. "That one was great, still one of my favorites. That won't turn this into a martial arts drag show completion, will it?" He asked with a playful grin. That series had turned everything into a martial arts tournament, from rhythmic gymnastics to skiing to ramen take-out delivery. Well, if Ness and Evelyn had worked to get them together, he wasn't about to let the opportunity go to waste. "Do you get to a lot of cons? I haven't been to one in ages. Maybe after graduation I'll have to find one to get to again."
Back to business though. "Alright Ness," he directed back towards his fellow Aladren, "You know the deal, if that's what you want me to wear, I'll wear it. You're calling the shots here, but..." he glanced knowingly towards Lyssa, "I'm fine if you want to make it a group project."
Then he indicating the blue, sparkly... garment, "But just remember, you'll be the one that needs to look at it on me." He gave Ness a grin and a wink. Ness was being awesome, he had to return the favor.
2
Gary Harper
It is, and I may need to shift mine.
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Ness McLeod
July 24, 2020 12:50 AM
Letting me choose makes perfect sense by Ness McLeod
Lyssa came over and Ness felt Shroedinger's butterflies both flapping and settling at the same time. All the worries that built up in Lyssa's absence, the idea that Ness was building this into something this wasn't or that Ness was just the world's biggest doofus, some of those calmed down because it was just good when Lyssa was around but it was also flutter-inducing and there was still the continued challenge of thinking of awesome things to say and working how to go from getting flutters to getting kisses.This wasn't helped when Lyssa started speaking only a vaguely familiar language to Gary. Cons made them sound vaguely criminal, even if Ness had hears that word in Nerd before. They were a thing Zev had mentioned and were on the Aladren's ever expanding list of things to get around to sometime. But Rama Half was new. It sounded cool. Ness would have totally watched it. Apparently Gary had though, so now he was able to jump enthusiastically on everything Lyssa was saying, whilst Ness was left floundering.
"That sounds cool," Ness butted firmly into the conversation. It wasn't really a detailed opinion but Ness didn't want to be left out or left behind. Lyssa also seemed to have translated drag into Gary and he was happy and beaming at her, even though Ness was meant to be his guide, and Lyssa was meant to be Ness'... um.... Well, Gary wasn't allowed to smile at her. It was just rude.
Finally, Gary managed to remember Ness existed. He was asking about the top, which... how was Ness supposed to know what this Rama thingy wore? Gary seemed to want to do what Lyssa wanted. Ness would have been very tempted to stomp off and leave them to it but that was incompatible with the desire to have more of their attention than they gave each other.
"So, something like real life D&D?" Ness suggested, trying to keep in the conversation.'Crossplaying' at least made sense as a word to Ness too, more than 'con' did. "Like maybe one of the characters or like your funhouse mirror self - you looked pretty happy and badass as her," Ness suggested.
"Are you gonna be Goblin Royalty?" Ness checked with Lyssa, as she hadn't responded to that idea, and Ness wanted to check everyone wasn't going to go off and dress as things from something Ness had never seen.
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Ness McLeod
Letting me choose makes perfect sense
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0
5
