Yaniel Ayala Velez
October 07, 2023 8:36 PM
Crazy idea? (tag Cole) by Yaniel Ayala Velez
Yaniel swung, smacking the practise bludger into a moving target. As usual, there were a million thoughts running through his head, but the one that made it out of his mouth was "Do you think telling Oz would be a completely terrible idea? Y'know, about me." He raked a hand through his short hair. That never stopped feeling satisfying.
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
Crazy idea? (tag Cole)
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Cole Pierce
October 07, 2023 9:04 PM
Maybe? by Cole Pierce
Cole scrambled to recover the bludger and hit back in Yaniel’s direction. “Terrible?” He repeated, “No. Potentially risky and terrifying, I’m sure. I don’t think it will go horribly but it may not go perfectly.”
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Cole Pierce
Maybe?
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
October 07, 2023 9:45 PM
I think I'm by Yaniel Ayala Velez
Risky. Terrifying. Not perfect. These were all things Yaniel could cope with because it sounded like... Well, basically everything he did right now."Yeah. Probably." He was glad of the pause that smacking the bludger gave him to gather his thoughts. "But not telling him is risky too. It risks that he leaves without me ever getting back to training with him- not that you don't do a good job passing it on. Or it risks that we get to the ball and if I want to go as myself but no one else knows..." Then that was A Big Deal. It also put an unfair amount of pressure on Cole to have his back when he probably wanted to be on a date with Piper or Levi. "I feel like that's the biggest thing I lost and I guess the rest... Doing all this," he gestured vaguely around but mostly at himself and his hair, "I still don't really know how or what order to do things but it makes it make more sense if I'm working towards getting that back."
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
I think I'm
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Cole Pierce
October 07, 2023 10:28 PM
Okay then by Cole Pierce
Cole nodded, and collected the bludger again. Everything Yaniel said made sense, and staying as things were was not going to make anything easier. “You should do it then,” he said even though it sounded like Yaniel had already decided that and just needed some support. “I can back you up if you want?”
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Cole Pierce
Okay then
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
October 08, 2023 7:45 AM
Okay... by Yaniel Ayala Velez
“Yes please,” Yaniel said, as quickly as he scrambled and swung for the high ball that was coming his way. He didn’t know how to boy without help. What to wear, how to talk about himself… The only thing he’d done by himself was cut his hair, but then he’d still needed Cole’s help to tidy it up. Well, and choose a name, but he’d needed Cole’s help to own it and use it. Which was why he needed some other people around to share the load. Not that he thought Oz would be a great insight into how to come out or navigate any of the processes that might be available to him (again, Cole knew way more than he did about that subject).“I figured I’d ask him to come along to practise with us, and then we can sort of explain what we do here?” This room was was where Yaniel did the most existing. So if he was going to get introduced to other people, here was the place that made the most sense.
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
Okay...
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Cole Pierce
October 08, 2023 8:14 AM
On to the crazy idea then! by Cole Pierce
“Sounds like a good plan,” Cole agreed to Yaniel’s ideas. Here was where Yaniel felt safest and most confident in himself so it was a good place to introduce Yaniel to someone new. “On our next regularly scheduled meet-up, or do you want to do it sooner than that and get it done?”
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Cole Pierce
On to the crazy idea then!
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
October 08, 2023 8:30 AM
Let's do it by Yaniel Ayala Velez
"Next one. If he's free. I'll ask him."
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
Let's do it
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
October 08, 2023 8:51 AM
Skipping ahead...
by Yaniel Ayala Velez
Co-written With: Oz Spellman
Oz wasn’t totally sure what he was doing here. His ex-player had asked him to come to a random training session. Said training sessions were taking place because of the reasons why said player was an ex (or ‘on hiatus’) player, but could only be explained here, even though the younger beater had caught Oz solo during lunch to ask him to come.
Was there like… some kind of super powered training machine in the MARS rooms? But that didn’t line up with quitting the team.
Oz really didn’t have spare time right now. But he wanted the team strong when he left, so he was making time.
He wasn’t at all sure what was behind the door, but the answer turned out to be… the two junior beaters in a basically normal training room?
“Hey…. Sup?” he asked.
Asking Oz to meet them had been way more super awkward than Yaniel had thought it would be (and he tended to think most things were awkward). Of course, Oz didn’t want to just quietly come along to a training session for ‘mysterious reasons’ and just asked for them then and there. But Cole hadn’t been there, and there had been a hall full of people, and Yaniel was pretty sure that what he’d done qualified as begging but hopefully Oz was going to show up today.
And then Yaniel actually had to explain to him.
He had rehearsed the conversation a million different ways in his head, but without knowing what response he was going to get from Oz, it was hard to work out a full script. That didn’t really give him an excuse for not being able to settle on opening lines but… But, well, he was going to have to pick some because Oz had kept his word and made time.
And wanted to know what was sup.
“I’ve been training with Cole.” Oz kind of already knew that. “Cos I didn’t want to leave the team. But I… I didn’t feel good being on it. Because I didn’t like being a girl, and being on the team I-it was-I….”
“Was someone making you feel bad about it? Cos I will sort them the heck out.”
“No!”
“Seriously. I will. You’re better than all of them. And even if you weren’t, that’s not the point. Bullies are the lowest of the low and there is no space for them on my team.”
“No. It was… only me making me feel like that. I just… Cole lets me be a boy. And that’s what I want.” Some of the literature he’d read said he shouldn’t talk about it in terms of ‘wanting’ to be—that he unequivocally ‘was.’ But it still felt like a dream he was reaching towards rather than a concrete reality.
“You don’t have to be a boy to be good at Quidditch. Seriously, you were always awesome.”
“I know! I mean, I know you don’t have to be a boy.” He was not going to agree to the fact he was ‘awesome,’ that was just embarrassing. “But… But I am. Or want to be. Or am.”
Oz stared, a little frown creasing between his brows, like what Yaniel had just said was stupid or horrible or—
“So you’re like… trans?” Oz asked.
“You know what that is?” Yaniel hadn’t used the word much. He wasn’t sure he would have used it even if he’d known that Oz would know what it mean.
My ex runs the queer cafe and I’m bi. “My best friend runs that cafe thing. I at least learned the letters. Yeah.”
“Yeah. And I didn’t feel like I could be myself on the team, but I didn’t want not be myself either and it was just… hard and… You don’t mind?”
“Do you still have that wicked good backhand?” Oz asked. “Sorry. That’s probably a dumb response and not the point or whatever but like… It is to me.” He glanced between them, still feeling a little like he wasn’t getting it. “And you’ve been keeping up with our drills? Let’s see them?”
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
Skipping ahead...
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Oz Spellman
Cole Pierce
October 08, 2023 9:15 PM
Hello, future us by Cole Pierce
"Hey," Cole had said when Oz first walked in and greeted them with a 'sup?' but since then, he'd left the talking to Yaniel. There was one point where it had been tough to hold his silence, when Yaniel seemed to be floundering in the explanation of why being a girl in Quidditch had bothered him so much, but Cole held his tongue and . . . Oz got it without being prompted further. Cole assumed that had to be Xavier's doing. Which Oz confirmed a moment later.And Oz didn't care. All his questions were about how when Yaniel had kept up with Beating. Which was probably the best response he could have had.
Cole looked over to see if Yaniel thought the same, but he went to get the Beating gear so they could actually do what Yaniel had told Oz they were going to do when they invited him to join them.
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Cole Pierce
Hello, future us
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