Some things deserve a longer format, and a more...intimate(?) one. But, I need to write at the moment, and I want this to be seen by someone, eventually.
This is the end of the first full week of November, 2024. The United States of America has voted for a second time for Trump to be President, I'll get back to that. The story I want to tell in brief is about two much less notable people for the present, but that doesn't make them less important to each other.
More or less exactly eight years ago, on the first week of November, 2016, these two people found each other. They were separated by distance, but the Internet is the magic of the modern era, and sometimes, people can use hookup sites to find each other. Granted, one catering to furries may or may not add to the mystique. I'll let you decide.
Having met, they talked. She was beginning the steps of transitioning, He was overwhelmed seeing hate online. One should note that if the third Trump campaign was more overt, the first was inspirational for the kind of online hate which could cause offline harm. Well, they talked; he wanted to learn about trans people, and wanted to help - She was feeling ever more isolated. One day that November, she told him obliquely he hadn't told her what he wanted from talking with her, and he misinterpreted what she was asking him to do, so he proposed they be boyfriend and girlfriend.
That started the journey. They continued to talk, by text, by audio, by video, and eventually, by video game - an MMO which at the time was just finding its footing: Final Fantasy 14. He had some troubles in his life, but he had her, and they had a venue she could see herself honestly and without hateful outsiders. So, time passed, including the yule holidays, and he made a plan - he visited her for a week in January. There was a lot of fear, but also a choice was made: he was going to stay as her partner as long as she would have him.
Two months later, life offline was not improving. He was recovering from a surgery, and she was struggling with a family and environment that didn't support her. She was losing hope, and considering desperate, terminal actions. He made a decision, but asked for a month of delay. When that was up, in April 2017, he again came to her in person, and they drove to his home with everything that was hers. That drive was 24 hours paused only for fuel and light eating, driving into the sunset, through a Salt Lake City blizzard, and carrying the purple dawn with them in the Nevada desert.
In California, she was able to show herself honestly. They continued what they had started, and if they struggled, they had the support of his family, even after moving into their own apartment together, and racing to finish her transition goals lest politics make them impossible. They didn't stop playing, laughing, dating, or enjoying life. Even when her surgery came, with all its struggles in a studio apartment and the expenses of life, their love was deep, and mercilessly steeped in the fantastic. There have been many people she has made to the claim to that he saved her life, and he kisses her hair to hide the blush. She kisses him right back.
Time has gone on since then. They're still together, and perhaps have found and strayed from friends in the process. He's learned as much as many trans people about transitioning, and she's found someone who not only saved her from the worst, but helped her realize the best life has to offer. Happily ever after however, is a promissory note to end a story, and this story has not yet ended. Politics may seem bleak, and the two are once again foreseeing great change, but they've looked into the eye of hate, and spit into it each time, before heading off to share a lark with a twitch of the nose in fantasy.
