Lyssa Fitzgerald
February 04, 2021 1:01 PM
We need to talk about something... (tag Ness) by Lyssa Fitzgerald
Lyssa was fidgeting with her shirt as she sat in the Library waiting for Ness. There was nothing remarkable about her shirt persay, nor was there anything wrong with it. It was just the only thing she could pick at really as she stood waiting for Ness to arrive. She’d been trying to figure out how to have this conversation with Ness for a while. Lyssa knew she needed to have it soon because in the end her entire summer might be subsumed by it.It had started back during winter break when her father had mentioned that he’d still never met Lyssa’s partner. Actually Mr. Fitzgerald had said Lyssa’s girlfriend and though her mother had gotten the hang of they/their pronouns, her father was hit or miss. So sometimes Lyssa just let it slide. Still, he’d brought up a good point. Lyssa had experienced the joys of Ness’ home and family, but Ness hadn’t come over to her place yet. In part, this was because of Tess. Not that Lyssa would have said it outloud, but she didn’t trust Tess. There was something about her she didn’t like.
Parker had brushed this off, saying that she’d made JR palatable, which was true, but still, there was something in the way Tess looked at Lyssa and asked questions to both her and Parker about their schooling that made Lyssa hesitant and protective of Ness. It didn’t help that their names sounded a tad too close for comfort either.
Still, her parents wanted to meet Ness, which was nice and positive. They’d met Cleo, they’d basically allowed Tess to move into their house has she and JR got situated in Nevada, why shouldn’t they meet Ness?
When Lyssa looked up she saw Ness walking towards her. Something about Ness always made Lyssa smile slightly and this time was no expectation, even with her nervousness.
“Hi Ness,” Lyssa said standing up and giving them a hug. She then looked down at her toes, “ummm look, there’s something I want to talk to you about…” Lyssa’s voice went a bit soft at the end. She’d written this invitation out, she’d even rehearsed it, but it wasn’t going as well as she’d hoped. She took a deep breath to continue.
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Lyssa Fitzgerald
We need to talk about something... (tag Ness)
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Ness McLeod
February 04, 2021 7:42 PM
...other than smashing the patriarchy? by Ness McLeod
Ness had a Lyssa. Lyssa used she/her pronouns, so Lyssa could be Ness’ girlfriend, and there was something Ness quite liked about that word in that the non-gender-neutrality of it made everyone know how super gay this was. Though any or all relationships with Ness in would have been kinda queer by default, this one was like queer with extra sprikles on top. ‘Partner’ sounded very serious and grown up and a bit like they lived together or something. Ness was fine with other people choosing that word if they chose to but it felt weird when Ness tried to say it. More often than not, Ness just verbed Lyssa. Ness was dating Lyssa. Or articled or possessived her. She was Ness’s Lyssa, and Ness had a Lyssa, in as much as anyone could have or possess another fully independent and awesome human being.Ness walked into the library with a springy step, having arranged to meet Lyssa. Even if they just did homework, they could hold hands or be a snuggle pile, and there might be time for developing plans to smash the patriarchy on the side, or to bring patriarchy smashing into their assignments. Library time was always a good time. Lyssa time was always a good time. Library-Lyssa time was a doubly good time. A gay old time.
Except as Ness approached, Lyssa looked serious. That in itself wasn’t a red flag, because there were a whole bunch of things in the world to be serious about, like anti-trans legislation and campus assault and voter suppression in minority groups. The world was basically not at all sorted. Which did suck, but also meant there were a whole bunch of things for them to sort and fix and get humanitarian awards for. Except Lyssa didn’t seem to be serious about any of that right now. It seemed more like the problem Lyssa wanted to talk to Ness about was… Ness. Did she want to break up? Was she doing the math on the head student ballot and realising that Ness had two votes and three people to vote for? Not that Lyssa would outright ask who Ness was voting for or try to pressure Ness to go a certain way because that was unconstitutional and that was not how good relationships worked. But something was wrong.
Ness meant to clearly and articulately ask what it was, but what came out instead was a definitely inquisitive but mostly just startled strangled sound.
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Ness McLeod
...other than smashing the patriarchy?
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Lyssa Fitzgerald
February 05, 2021 8:30 AM
Traditional models deserve to be destroyed... except for family by Lyssa Fitzgerald
The sound that came from their throat could charitably be called a cough, maybe more akin to choking really. Still, it made Lyssa look up from her shoes and look at Ness in startled worry. Oh god, Lyssa had done something. She’d started this all wrong, now Ness was worried maybe scared, and that was the last thing she wanted. She suddenly saw a whole list of actions that Ness might take if their relationship would end. Lyssa realized, not for the first time, how much Ness truly cared for her and it filled her with a warm heart, but also worry.“Wait no, that came out wrong. See my brothers girlfriend, sorry, fiancee, Tess, is giving me strange looks…” No no no. That wasn’t important. Well it was important it was just not what she wanted. She shook her head and brought her hands up to her face. She could do this. Concentrate, what was important. Ness. Ness was important. Family. Family was important. Having these two important parts meet. That was what was important.
“Gah, I am messing this all up," she took a breath to collect herself. She hadn’t realized just how worried she was about these two important parts of her life meeting each other. After all, Parker knew Ness, he’d known them longer than Lyssa had actually, both because of Quidditch and DnD. Still, meeting her parents was a big step, and no matter how welcoming they could be, meeting them as well as her other brother and his girlfriend, no fiancee, was also going to be hard.
Lyssa let go of the breath and let her voice go. She found that she was talking fast just to get it all out.
“Ok. My parents want to meet you. Actually, my dad specifically asked why he’d not met you and wanted you to come visit over the summer. That being said, my dad isn’t great with pronouns, he tends to use she/her and call you my girlfriend, I am not sure why or where he got the idea, even after I've corrected him 100 times. Also my brother and his fiancee don’t really know about the wizarding world, I think and more… traditional in their thinking, they are both in the army. But my brother's fiancee, Tess, is odd. I feel like she’s dissecting me every time she looks at me, and not in the normal sexualized male gaze sort of way I am used to at this point in society, but like I’m a lab rat and she’s running an experiment on me. Anyways, I wanted to let you know all of this because I want you to meet my family, but I also want you to know that it could be… difficult or weird or awkward or hard or traumatizing and I don’t want you to associate any of those feelings with me and I just…. Well I guess, do you want to come visit me at home this summer and meet my family? I mean, besides the family member you’ve already met.”
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Lyssa Fitzgerald
Traditional models deserve to be destroyed... except for family
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Ness McLeod
February 05, 2021 6:53 PM
Depends on the family by Ness McLeod
Okay, so Ness needed to go beat someone up? The problem was this Tess person, the Other Brother’s fiancee, and she was giving Lyssa stink eye all the time? Someone needed pamphlets throwing aggressively in her face about how to be a not trash human being then!“Hey, it’s okay,” Ness reassured when Lyssa worried she was messing this all up. Whatever it was, it was obviously stressing Lyssa out a lot, and Ness reached out a hand that could be held if that would help. Anxiety and guilt twisted in the Aladren’s stomach. Was something really wrong for Lyssa at home? Had Ness missed some kind of sign? Was something horrible happening again?
But when the actual situation was revealed, it was much less scary. Okay, it was a little scary, because it involved Big Relationship Steps, but that also only felt like sort of because Ness already knew Parker, and Lyssa had already met Ness’ family so this just felt like a balancing of the scales. Lyssa’s family sounded harder work, but it was pretty hard to be as cool as Ness’ family so that wasn’t a total shock.
“Yes, I want to meet them. If it’s important to you, and they want to meet me, then yes,” Ness confirmed the important bit first. The other worries… Well, those just needed logic applying to them. “So, whilst referring to me as your “girlfriend” is your dad entirely cool with that concept? Cos that’s a pretty good start,” Ness offered. It was weird. In the abstract some Old White Guy who could not Get With The Program did not get participation cookie for just not being homophobic. But now that it was an actual old white guy who mattered to Lyssa… He could maybe have one cookie for trying, but then he would have to try harder for the next one. That was fair, right?
“I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna get traumatised unless Tess actually straps me to a lab table, and I promise not to hold anything they do against you. Like, your mom and dad turned out you and Parker, so unless you’re both rebelling hard against the values you were raised with, they’ve gotta be pretty good people. And uh… Cleo?” she just let the fact that Lyssa was not the first person to bring home a weird one. “Do they know she’s… y’know?” It still felt borderline rude to say ‘not entirely human’ but it was technically true. Still, Ness didn’t know Cleo well enough to know what words she was comfortable having used about her. But she was pretty sure that if she’d survived being introduced to the family, Ness would have no trouble.
“Also, I can meet them at the concert right? You know they can come even if you’re not in it, and loads of families do just so they can get a look around. Though I guess they got that chance last time with Parker. But we can say hi and check we don’t totally hate each other or something,” Ness reassured Lyssa. “Kir met Zev’s parents for the first time at the last concert, so it’s kinda traditional,” Ness added, enjoying the parallel. And Ness had spent it dealing with Evelyn trauma and pulling Marijke away from meeting the Iveses to deal with the same, and it had overall been a super scary and not fun time. So, Ness was pretty sure that at this point, whatever went down with family drama could not be worse than last time, although the Aladren tried not to think that too loudly in case The Fates were listening.
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Ness McLeod
Depends on the family
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