My pronouns are He and Him, but you can call me pretty because that's what I'm going for on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Ellie Alperton

February 22, 2022 2:20 AM

LGBTQIA+ Cafe by Ellie Alperton

Ellie made her way to MARS, a large basket of snacks and drinks floating in front of her, and a folder tucked under her arm. Thank goodness for magic! She always had so much to carry for cafe meetings, and she didn't think she could have managed easily without. In that situation, she could have asked for help, and Freddie said he was always willing, and had helped her set up a few times but... Well, she was an Aladren for more than just her study habits. It was nice to be self-sufficient.

The room did a lot of helping, in that it was fully decorated when she stepped inside, with the same assortment of beanbags, chairs, and colourful abstract artworks that they'd had for their first meeting, though currently the furniture was arranged in a circle, rather than scattered all around. There was a table, edged with rainbow flag bunting, where she began laying out the stickers (optional identity flags and pronoun stickers) and snacks (chips in a rainbow bowl, brownies with rainbow sprinkles, and a choice of juices with rainbow cups - there was a definite theme).

Ellie took one of the chairs, sipping her juice as people arrived, letting them get stickers and refreshments, directing them to sit and explaining that they would have general free time later but they would have a group chat first.

"Hello," she smiled, once all the regulars were there, and they'd allowed a little extra time for anyone else to trickle in. "Welcome or welcome back to Sonora's LGBTQIA+ cafe. Let's start with introductions and a share out. Please give your name, pronouns, and feel free to share something. It can be LGBTQIA+ related, like why you're interested in joining us, or a favourite book or something with a queer character that you like. Or just something unrelated."

They went around the circle, with people taking turns to speak, until everyone had shared.

"Great!" Ellie smiled when they were done. "So, traditionally this has been a space for socialising, but I also wanted us to talk about what other actions we might take as a group. I prepared some ideas over the summer." She waved her wand, levitating a large flipchart pad.

"We do really well at being a social space, but this is a list of things groups like ours often do. Some of these may be more achievable than others, but I think it's good to have all the options available. Groups sometimes invite speakers in, engage in activism, which could be starting petitions or making posters about issues we see in school, or making educational displays to teach ourselves and others about LGBTQIA+ history and issues. I also talked to Mr. Fox-Reynolds, and he's tried really hard to make sure there are LGBTQIA+ books in the library. We could have a book club, or make a book display in the library. We could also use some of these, or other fun activities, to celebrate Pride.

"I'm very happy to add more suggestions if anyone has them, and to spend time talking about these ideas to anyone who wants to discuss them in more detail. Before the end of the meeting, I'd like you to all take a slip of paper, write your top three picks for activities on it, and put it in the box." She held up a rainbow, wooden ballot box. She had been pretty pleased with that bit of transfiguration skill.

"For now, if there's no more questions, we can rearrange the seats and socialise."

Subthreads:

My pronouns are He and Him, but you can call me pretty because that's what I'm going for by Lenny Pierce with Ellie Alperton

Ask a wise queer elder by Xavier Lundstrom with Anya Delachene

I'm here! by Valentine Duell

13 Ellie Alperton LGBTQIA+ Cafe 1456 1 5

Lenny Pierce

February 22, 2022 7:31 AM

My pronouns are He and Him, but you can call me pretty because that's what I'm going for by Lenny Pierce

Lenny was enjoying his classes, but days without them were a welcome relief, not just for the free time, but also for the freedom to wear something other than the drab uniform robes that everyone had to wear. He had to resort to his most glittery hair clips and most intricate hair styles (which, depending on how late he slept in, he didn't always have time for) to look adequately beautiful. He'd also begun wearing sparkly clear nail polish and lip gloss more often, just to offset the boringness of the robes.

Today, though, his robes were lying in a heap on his floor, and Lenny could wear anything he wanted to. In deference to the club he'd been planning to attend, he had chose a shimmery dress with a glittery unicorn on the front and layered rainbow tulle as its skirt. He also wore pink tights and shimmery white dress flats.

He twirled in front of his mirror, pleased to not see green coming at him from every direction, and decided to wear his long brown hair down today. He brushed it out nice and used rainbow shaped clips to keep it out of his face. His nails hadn't chipped or peeled too badly since he last put the polish on, so he left them as they were, and just used his favorite strawberry flavored lip balm (which was not ChapStick, because that was not vegan or cruelty free).

He arrived at the MARS room on time, and went to the table to look over the stickers. He put a "My Pronouns are He/Him" onto his dress, being careful to place it where it didn't cover any of the pretty unicorn. He didn't particularly consider himself to fall under any of the letters represented by the Cafe, as he counted himself as neither trans nor particularly non-binary. He'd been born a boy, and he was happy to remain a boy and count himself strictly as male; he just thought boys should be allowed to be pretty and like unicorns and hearts if they wanted to. He supposed one of the other letters may yet apply to him, and most of his family kind of assumed he'd be gay given his penchant for traditionally feminine clothing, and he was open to that, but so far he was eleven and hadn't made any discoveries one way or another in that respect. He'd had grade school crushes on both boys and girls, so maybe that meant he'd be bi, but he really thought it was too soon to say for sure yet. The only person he'd asked to marry him so far though, had been his mom, and she had turned him down, with the poor excuse that she was already married to his dad. (He'd been five, and he knew better now, of course, but it was still a running joke his parents got a kick out of.)

He left all the flag stickers where they were and instead picked up a handful of chips (which were usually safe while brownies were always suspicious until ingredients were verified), then took a seat in one of the beanbags, being just careful enough not to flash his underwear at anyone as he flopped, but otherwise not being particularly dainty about it.

He'd just finished eating his chips when the leader got things started with some introductions. When it got around to Lenny's turn, he waved at everyone and said, "Hi, I'm Lenny Pierce of the California Pierces, and my pronouns are He and Him. I think toxic masculinity is oppressive to everyone and gender being associated with what you can wear or what you are allowed to like is unfair and limiting. That isn't strictly a LGBTQIA+ issue, but it's in the neighborhood, and I get mistaken for trans or non-binary a lot."

After everyone else introduced themselves, and Ellie explained some ideas she'd had for activities, Lenny raised his hand to ask a question. It wasn't quite on topic, but it was important to him, so when he got called on, he asked, "Are the brownies vegan?" If nothing else, it let Ellie know she had a club member with dietary restrictions so hopefully she'd label in the future.

Once he had the disappointing but expected answer to that, he collected one of the slips of paper and wrote his top three choices on it. As a California Pierce, activism was always close to his heart, so he lead his list with that.

1. Activism (any form)
2. Pride Walk
3. Speakers

As a son of two Pecaris, one of which was barely literate, and being a generally active person who didn't like sitting still for very long, a book club wasn't exactly high on Lenny's list of fun activities, but the other suggestions had all sounded good. Dropping his voting slip into the awesomely decorated ballot box, Lenny smiled at another person who was standing nearby. "It's great Sonora has a club like this!"

OOC: Ellie confirmed it is unlikely she provided vegan brownies without knowing there would be a vegan in attendance.

1 Lenny Pierce My pronouns are He and Him, but you can call me pretty because that's what I'm going for 1547 0 5

Ellie Alperton

February 23, 2022 12:25 AM

Can do? by Ellie Alperton

OOC: Lenny's reasoning and way of identifying are perfectly valid. Ellie is just projecting a little bit. BIC:

Ellie definitely approved of the unicorn dress with rainbow skirt, and was also delighted to see a new first year at the meeting. Sometimes, the club leant towards the older demographic, because some parts of LGBTQIA+ identity were things people were more likely to figure out as they hit their teenage years. However, she had always been very well aware of who she was, and knew that the majority of trans people were like her in that regard. It didn't seem to be just a trans thing though, because the first year she had started the cafe, Xavier had shown up - a loud and proud and very self-assured gay first year.

As they made the introductions though, it seemed that Lenny didn't fit any of those boxes. Her immediate internal response to his declaration was 'Are you sure you're not?' As far as her understanding of nonbinary went (which was mostly Freddie), he definitely qualified. She had read up on it to be a good friend, and it seemed somewhat open to interpretation. The main thing she had taken away from that was that is was valid for someone to identify that way if they wanted to. The reverse hadn't really been covered with the same insistence, and so she was less sure how to take it. Of course, Lenny was young, and he had plenty of time to discover more about his identity. If he did decide he was trans, she really hoped it happened this year, so she could be around to be his trans big sister. She guessed she could be a hair styling, nail painting, and fashion consulting friend even with him being... whatever he currently was, but it wasn't quite the same. Still, she gave him a welcoming smile, glad he had come to join them.

And he had a question! An... unexpected question. And one she couldn't give the correct answer to, which was not her favourite type of question.

"Um. No. Sorry," she said, blushing a bit. How was she supposed to have known there was a vegan coming? She tried to brush aside both feeling bad and feeling annoyed. Not at him for being vegan. But... She pushed it aside, trying to carry on without looking flustered. She managed to get through the rest of the Q&A, and then made a point of working her way towards Lenny, though hung back whilst he completed his ballot. Once he was done, she moved in a bit closer.

And he turned and...complimented the club. She had been feeling better the more distance there was between her and her mistake, and this did the rest to sweep any negative feelings firmly away. It had really been the embarrassment of feeling called out more than anything.

"Thanks," she smiled. "And, uh, sorry again. I should have been more inclusive with my snacks. I can try to get something brought for you if you're hungry, and I can make something else next time. I like your dress."

13 Ellie Alperton Can do? 1456 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

February 23, 2022 2:58 PM

Ask a wise queer elder by Xavier Lundstrom

Xavier wasn't dead. He also hadn't ended up in the hospital wing yet. These were the ways in which he felt his life could currently be said to be going 'well,' and that was clearly a very loose definition of the term. Everything else basically sucked. Intermediate classes were horrible, and the stuff with his family was still not resolved, and now...

He slumped into the cafe meeting, feeling both physically and emotionally awful. He had considered skipping. He liked that the club existed, and in theory it was somewhere he belonged, but there weren't many people his age there, and basically everyone who went was paired up and dating. Still, what he actually needed for once was a wise queer elder. He hated that. This had been the one thing that he had been comfortable with about himself. It had been easy and uncomplicated. Why did there have to be this stupid picture, that had popped into his head and just wouldn't go, and which was ruining everything?

He took some chips and water, and took a seat in the circle. Great. Group time.

"Xavier, he/him," he mumbled, pulling a knee to his chest so he could rest his head on it. "Nothing," he shrugged off his opportunity to make a contribution, although half of him was kicking himself for the attitude. These were supposed to be people he could connect to, and he was being a grump. No one liked a grump. But he wasn't in a sharing mood, and the little voice that said 'no one can make me' got shouted down an awful lot right now, because actually they could, and it seemed to be taking advantage of this rare chance to actually have a say.

By the time they were done, he had drunk most of his water but barely pecked at his chips. Still, instead of going for a refill, he watched as people rearranged themselves, waiting for one of the older students to be on their own. It was possibly rude to jump in. Maybe their other half had just gone to get them snacks so they could have a perfect little date time. Maybe they wouldn't be able to help, seeing as they all clearly didn't have the same problem he did - their lives had all worked out so neatly. He almost bottled it, considering going to a corner to sulk with his anger and his heartache. But he wanted to be heard.

"Hey?" he said, approaching the lone older student. "Any ideas how you stop youself getting doomed, go nowhere crushes on straight people? Or make those feelings go away if you accidentally caught them." He tried to choose fun, silly words to describe it, even as he obviously swallowed against a lump in his throat.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Ask a wise queer elder 1529 0 5

Anya Delachene

February 23, 2022 7:08 PM

I might fit one or two of those criteria, but let's leave off 'wise' alright? by Anya Delachene

Anya had started coming to the LGBTQIA+ Cafe as an ally in general and as a friend of Ellie and Freddie specifically. As the years had passed, particularly last year, with a ball and everything, she was starting to think she might not be as cis straight as she thought she was. Well, she was probably still cis. She was by no means remotely feminine, but she was reasonably sure she was correctly gendered, and she had the long hair, short stature, and the Rainbow Dash t-shirt to prove it, so there was no hesitation in grabbing the sticker to announce her pronouns as She/Her.

There was some hesitation over the flags, most particularly over the gradient one that started with a black line on top, then a gray line, then a white line, and ended with a purple line. She'd been dating Alexander for a little over a year now, and they hadn't yet kissed and she was pretty darn sure at this point that she didn't want to. The closest thing to any of the traditional things people do with dates was she sometimes grabbed his hand as she dragged him from one place to another, but she was as likely to do that to Freddie or Ellie as she was Alexander.

She liked Alexander, but probably not in any way that was any more than regular friendship, and she was starting to feel like she was leading him on, waiting for her apparently non-existent interest in kissing or touching to kick in. She'd figured at first she was just a late bloomer. She did most things later than other people her age. She talked late. She read late. Her first accidental magic hadn't been until she was eight, while Jasmine and Philippe had been three and five respectively. (Though once it did come, she could get it to trigger pretty consistently whenever she needed to not die from reckless climbing or flying accidents.) She'd been two years behind in her school work before she started at Sonora, and even here she was in academic support just to keep up. For anything that wasn't gross motor skills like walking, running, jumping, or flying, she and Philippe had usually been pretty on par with each other, developmentally speaking.

That Philippe had started crushing and kissing first wasn't that big of a deal. Anya had figured her turn would come soon enough. And then Alexander asked her out apropos of nothing at all, and she'd been flattered, so she said yes, and she kept waiting to want to kiss him, and frankly, the idea of pressing her lips against someone else's was only getting more repugnant as she got older.

(That might be influenced a little bit by Theo, but by the depth she felt it in her gut, she was pretty sure she would have thought so even if her best friend wasn't texture sensitive and very vocal about it.)

With the suddenness of a snap decision, Anya grabbed the asexual flag sticker and stuck it next to her pronouns. She was probably going to need to talk to Alexander about this sooner rather than later.

The hard choice behind her, she felt much lighter on her feet as she grabbed a brownie and headed for the circle of chairs and beanbags where people were starting to congregate. She waved at Ellie and Philippe and Freddie as she took a seat on a high stool. The beanbags were tempting, but she liked heights whenever possible, so the stool it was.

First thing was the introductions and she grinned at the group, with some new faces in it, and introduced herself for those who didn't already know who she was. "Hi! I'm Anya, my pronouns are She and Her, and I joined as an ally a few years ago, but I'm starting to think I might be ace."

She stole a look at Philippe to see how her brother took this news, but he looked like she hadn't said anything he hadn't already known for ages, so she figured she was reading her own signs correctly and this had probably been obvious for months. She wished he would have just told her so she hadn't had to figure it out on her own.

Ellie's suggestions for activities this year all sounded pretty cool, if not quite in Anya's range of 'fun activities' but she'd be a good supportive friend and do her best with whatever the club decided to do. She'd try to think of something that might more closely align with her own idea of 'fun' to add to the box, but for now, she was just taking in the group, looking around, trying to find somebody to socialize with. Ellie was talking with the new first year, and Freddie and Philippe were probably together like usual, and oh. Somebody had found her!

She smiled as the younger kid approached. She recognized him as a Pecari who hung out with Oz a bunch. She didn't know Oz that well herself, but Stanley said he was cool, and she'd take Stanley's word for it, and if Oz liked this guy, who she was pretty sure had introduced himself a few minutes ago as Xavier, then Xavier was cool, too, probably, even if he had seemed kinda grumpy.

"Hi," she greeted cheerfully in return to his hey. His question, though, wasn't very cheerful, and she winced sympathetically as he got to the end of what was probably not a theoretical problem and likely accounted for his grumpiness. "Sorry," she apologized. "Can't say I have experience or advice for that." If anything, she had the opposite problem, where she wanted to friendzone the guy she was dating, and needed to find a way to do that without hurting his feelings or making him feel like he wasted a ball year on a - what had Xavier called it? - a doomed go-nowhere crush on an asexual. Maybe she could point Xavier in Alexander's direction in a couple of days.

"Best thing I can suggest is chocolate ice cream and doing something really fun with some friends to take your mind off it. Or maybe . . . do you have a pet? Sometimes having an animal to talk to who won't judge helps. I do that with the horses at home sometimes."

1 Anya Delachene I might fit one or two of those criteria, but let's leave off 'wise' alright? 1453 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

February 24, 2022 12:21 AM

Sure by Xavier Lundstrom

Anya's intro had washed over him like more or less everything else. He wasn't convinced she would have great insights, but he felt that way about everyone here. At least she was kind of familiar, and maybe their shared house meant they'd problem-solve in similar ways.

She had some suggestions, of which... Well, right now he wasn't hungry, but he supposed he might be again at some point. It would more likely be ice cream on his own though, because the one friend he had really, really wasn't going to be much of a distraction from this... He couldn't exactly admit that though. Firstly, he didn't really want to put a spotlight on his lack of friends. Secondly, it would let Anya know exactly who he was crushing on, which was probably a bad plan. Although given that Oz himself knew, he wasn't sure how much worse it could get... Still, if word of Xavier's crush got out, Oz would probably distance himself. That couldn't happen. Xav needed him. He needed him to help with things that were so much bigger and more important than all of this.

He guessed there was Mab. She definitely would not want to hear about his personal problems, and he could just skate until he was too tired to care. He wasn't sure the school delivered ice cream on request, and frankly he didn't want to think about it too much right now because it made his stomach turn. He poked a chip, breaking it into pieces but making no move to eat.

"Got a rat," he replied. His parents had changed their minds over the pet thing in the summer, wanting to make sure they were doing everything they were Supposed to. Magical kids had pets, so now Xavier had one too. "Guess I'll see if he cares. Thanks," he said flatly. He had sort of been under the impression that talking to someone who wouldn't judge was why he'd come here. But whatever.

"You won't say anything about it outside of here, right?" he added. "I mean, everyone knows I'm gay but..." But the rest of it was complicated, which was annoying, and unfair, given that he was meant to just be allowed to fall in love and be happy. Why did the universe have to hate him so utterly and specifically?

13 Xavier Lundstrom Sure 1529 0 5

Anya Delachene

February 24, 2022 8:52 AM

Sometimes I roll well, but let's not count on that. by Anya Delachene

It was the way he talked about his rat that bothered her the most. That was not a beloved pet. She felt a little bad for the rat, but she felt worse for Xavier.

"Of course not," she promised her confidentiality. "This is a safe place." More than that, she was a safe person, to everyone except maybe Philippe, but she couldn't be held responsible for what the memory of herself said in front of other people, and teasing him harmlessly was her sisterly responsibility.

"But, come," she ordered, taking his hand and dragging him back to a group of beanbag chairs. She let go of him, and pointed at the chairs. "We're making you a nice soft blanket fort," she informed him. Then she set to piling bean bags on top of each other, and demanding the room provide her with a nice big blanket, which it kindly obliged because Ellie must have told it to be a safe place that should provide safety and Xavier needed a blanket fort. She found the blanket and a pile of pillows on a shelf nearby, and she dragged them over and lined the floor of their fort with the pillows and draped the blanket over the columns of beanbag chairs. They caved in a little, but that just made it more cozy.

"Inside," she shooed Xavier encouragingly, and followed her own instructions.

"So, do you want to talk about your problems, do you want to talk about my problems, or do you want to forget about real life and play Jumanji?" She paused a moment, then felt the need to clarify, "It's a muggle board game about jungle survival and exploration that's based on a movie; we won't be transported to the middle of a jungle, sadly." She thought that should cover both wizardly confusion and muggle-raised concerns.

1 Anya Delachene Sometimes I roll well, but let's not count on that. 1453 0 5

Lenny Pierce

February 24, 2022 6:14 PM

Great! by Lenny Pierce

"Thanks!" Lenny beamed cheerfully when Ellie complimented his dress.

"And it's totally no problem," Lenny assured her because Ellie still seemed apologetic about not having vegan brownies. "It's pretty normal that I can't eat the baked goods. They almost always have eggs, dairy, or both in them. I was mostly just asking so you'd know for next time. Labels are usually helpful so I know what is or isn't safe, but you don't need to have everything be vegan just for me, as long as something is. Companies need to go way out of their way to make plain potato chips be non-vegan, though, so I figured the chips were okay and I had some of those."

Feeling like that exhausted everything he needed to be known about his vegan needs, he addressed the more club focused issues. "So . . . Sonora seems pretty safe, on the whole?" This club existed, for one thing, and he hadn't missed that two of the professor women teaching here had the same hyphenated name. Also, the two Head Students were non-gendered in their titles, which was pretty awesome. "Is there anything or anyone I need to watch out for?"

While Lenny considered himself a standard boy, albeit one who was more comfortable and open about throwing off the yoke of cultural gender oppression than most, the same could not be said for a number of people who took exception to those under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, and he'd had several encountered with such people that were less than pleasant.

It really baffled him that it was the same people who didn't like transgenders that were the first to enforce gendered stereotypes. Seriously, it didn't even make sense. If being beautiful, for example, was considered A Girl Thing, then anyone who liked being beautiful should be able to call themselves a girl. Alternatively, if Being A Boy was the most important thing about being a boy, then being beautiful should just make them a beautiful boy. But as it was, there was no recourse that was acceptable to that set of people who liked neither transgender people nor gender non-conformists.

He was ready to admit he was a non-conformist. Binary. But so very definitely non-conformist.

1 Lenny Pierce Great! 1547 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

February 25, 2022 5:42 AM

Um, okay, I won't? by Xavier Lundstrom

A blanket fort? Definitely a Pecari way of solving things. Or at least, an Anya’s-version-of-Pecari way. Xavier would have felt patronised (he was over thirteen and a half years old and hadn’t built a blanket fort in years) if he hadn’t seen her do this multiple times in the common room. She seemed to subscribe to the theory that you never had to grow out of them. Xavier was dubious about that fact, but a solution that involved mostly lying on pillows also didn’t sound awful. Currently, it ranked far higher than ice cream.

So, he let her. He let her bring forth blankets, and build a fort, and usher him inside. He found himself almost giggling as he did so.

“Sorry, just thinking… This is probably the only place in the school where a guy and a girl can crawl into a blanket fort together, and it’s absolutely presumed that nothing’s going on.”

And he had to admit it was… nice. It was stupid, feeling like the thin blanket gave them extra privacy, but it somehow did, or at least shut out the world that was doing its best to kick his butt. He was comfortable. The part where he was being looked after probably helped too.

“How long have you got?” He gave a bitter laugh as she asked if they were dealing with his problems, hers, or just playing Jumanji. “And I know what Jumanji is,” he assured her. “As far as this goes…” he gestured, meaning the cafe and the problems that related to cafe identities, “I guess you know mine… It’s just hopeless, and it hurts, and… there’s not a magic way of getting rid of how I’m feeling?” he asked. “What’s yours?” he asked, seeing as she’d suggested she had some. Which, given that she was one of the only senior cafe people not here on a date made sense.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Um, okay, I won't? 1529 0 5

Ellie Alperton

February 25, 2022 5:59 AM

If you're sure by Ellie Alperton

“I’ll get it sorted for next time!” Ellie promised. Just because he seemed pretty chill about it didn’t mean she was going to be, or was going to immediately stop kicking herself. She hoped she could find some vegan recipes somehow. She would probably have to write home, which was super slow and frustrating. Sometimes, magic solved problems in a flash that would have taken her ages in her old life. Sometimes, it couldn’t compete with Google.

“Yes,” Ellie agreed, when he said Sonora seemed pretty safe. “I don’t think there’s any particular namable names,” she mused, when he asked for people to avoid. Jeremy Mordue had graduated, though for the most part commenting on her existence had seemed to have been beneath him. It seemed like he’d had more aggro with his own housemates.

“Obviously, there’s certain demographics that tend to be more conservative… Crotali, it’s basically in their house description, and Purebloods—well, the ones that care about the fact they are Purebloods. I’ve never had any direct conflict with them but I guess they’re more likely to ask offensive things without realising they’re being offensive, or they’re not really interested in changing or challenging the system. Especially the gender roles stuff. Had any difficulties so far?” she checked.

13 Ellie Alperton If you're sure 1456 0 5

Valentine Duell

March 02, 2022 4:36 PM

I'm here! by Valentine Duell

Valentine was an occasional attendee to Ellie's LGBTQIA+ Cafe club. She made it to the events when it fit into her schedule, so it wasn't nearly as often as she'd like. It was a nice comfortable place to just relax and chat, to catch up with some folks she didn't get to see in the normal business of her schedule. It was also early enough that things hadn't gotten out of hand yet, so she figured she'd better get to a few meetings now because she knew she'd miss more and more of them as the year went on. Given the occasion, she had decided to dress appropriately, or at least as near as her wardrobe would allow. She had a bright, rainbow striped blouse and a long, dark purple skirt that would give off rainbow shimmers when the light hit it right.

She entered the room and noticed that she largely matched the room. Then she took one of the 'She/her' stickers from the selection and one of the 'bisexual' ones to go with the first. Ellie had done a wonderful job decorating as always, there were times like this that Val wished she could offer Ellie some more help with doing things, but... she knew she wouldn't be able to, and she didn't want to make any promises she couldn't keep. Ooo! Brownies! She got one and a cup of juice and went to find a seat. With some very delicate maneuvering she situated herself into one of her favorite beanbag without spilling her refreshments. This was the other reason she liked the long skirt for these meetings, getting into a beanbag with a shorter one got... risky.

Judging by the way the seats were arranged, it looked like they were going to have a group chat today. Ellie started off and verified her guess. When her turn came she smiled around at everyone, "I'm Valentine Duell, my pronouns are She and Her, and I've discovered that biological composition isn't a factor when deciding who I like." She let out a little giggle at the statement as she passed the metaphorical introduction baton on to the next person.

Val had to think about Ellie's request, she wasn't really sure what were the best options. She knew that some folks in this group had a very hard time with things, but she really hadn't. The worst she had experienced was trying to get ready for the ball last year, and having people think she was hogging all of the dates because she wanted to go with both Bonabelle and Henry. She and Mama had talked about it over the summer some and things seemed to be okay there, even once they brought Papa into the conversation. She should probably learn more about some of the history and issues, that would let her make decisions better. The slips weren't due until the end of the meeting though, so she held on to hers for the time being. Perhaps talking with some people around here would give her some good thoughts or ideas.

To that end, she helped move the seats about, flopped back into her beanbag and smiled at the person nearby. "So, did you have any thoughts on things to write down for the suggestion box?"

2 Valentine Duell I'm here! 1490 0 5