Why do we have hands? To pick up cool rocks

young trans woman estranged from her family. partially bc they didnt really acknowledge her as a woman, partially bc their political views were so radically different she found it impossible to get along with them, mostly bc they didnt agree with her attempted career choices (various artistic endeavors - graphic design, illustration, etc) and eventually stopped supporting her because she wouldnt try to get a better job

young and idealistic but simultaneously kinda lost and hopeless. doesnt feel like she really has any kind of direction rn. her dream jobs include painter, poet, person who names colors, ornamental hermit, dragon farmer,

knows she should be trying to get into a field that will support her financially but also really wants to find some kind of success in a field shes happy in so she can come home and show her family she made it. currently working as a waitress at a nicer local restaurant that pays enough to live on but she hates it

has a fantasy dream of saying fuck it and moving to france because why not. she has nothing left here, may as well live out some wild dream and start a new life somewhere else. being a failure in france at least sounds more romantic than being a failure in America. doesnt speak a lick of french. taking informal lessons from artie [<-older disabled guy], helping him with various things in exchange since she cant afford proper lessons. gets attached to him and enjoys their days together & also learns a lot of general life skills she never learned at home

celeste feels frustrated & embarrassed bc she was never taught a number of "basic" life skills & cookin is one of them. artie likes cookin. theyll go shopping together bc between his impaired vision & his back pain he has a hard time managing a Complete Shopping Trip (as opposed to like, just gettin a few things as needed) without help & then theyll make dinner together & he'll teach her how to cook Swagful Style. whilst learning french bc he turns everything into a french lesson

she doesnt tell him shes trans for a while bc he doesnt strike her as the type of guy who would be cool about it. she doesnt really pass but he cant see her well enough to know that. he probably suspected from her voice (& maybe her height, but its not unusual for even women to be taller than him) but eventually it comes up & hes cool & its such a weight off her shoulders. hes like I Got Plenty Of Legitimate Reasons To Dislike People I Dont Need To Make Up More

i think celeste is prone to Moods. sometimes shes really optimistic & confident & motivated and sometimes she feels like everything is just pointless. she daydreams a lot she spends a lot of time lost in thought. kinda disorganized. overthinks a lot & gets anxious. generally sweet & nice if a little awkward

she also hates for things to look Boring she needs things to look cute. cant have a plain phone case its gotta at LEAST be a fun color. some sparkles. some pattern. i think she likes pastels she has sort of a pastel instagram girlie thing goin on. she Wants to have like a cute instagram girlie living space but shes not all that good at keeping it tidy. she loves the look of like pretty lights & cute decor & stuff but when she applies it to her messy room it just adds more clutter & shes like 🤬😭

artie loves talkin on the phone (& also its easier for him since he doesnt have to see anything) & celeste Hates phonecalls she prefers texting or even emailing but he loves callin her up to Chat & shes like 😩😩😩 she comes to not mind so much at least with him but she still hates having to talk to anybody else on the phone. but hes familiar enough & she can just put him on speaker & keep doin whatever shes doin

pondering their Differing Behaviors. artie likes to joke around, celeste tends to be more serious. artie has a sailor mouth, celeste doesnt swear very often. artie can be a little bit of a loose cannon (although not always), celeste prefers to play it safe. artie can come off as rude & blunt, celeste tries to be as polite as possible. part of her being more reserved is just her personality but part of it is her as a trans woman feeling like she has to make herself smaller & softer

she has a habit of trying to make herself small & being kind of a pushover and i think sometimes she feels kinda invisible within her friend group. & she knows they would probably give her more attention or reassurance if she asked but she could never do that bc 1. surely it isnt warranted, theyre probably already giving her plenty of attention & appreciation that she just isnt noticing, and she cant possibly be important enough to ask anyway, and 2. if she did say something & they started treating her different she would feel so bad for making them feel bad & she would never be able to trust that its genuine

Off-The-Top-Of-My-Head Details On Sam:

he wrote horror/mystery stories

he kinda got mummified bc it was a long winter and he was hidden under the snow in a remote area for a while & wasnt found

he mostly retained his mental capabilities but his physical state is not as good. mobility is pretty rough. cant really speak. stiff & sore all the time

had a wife & young kid who were A Little Alarmed when he came back

Off-The-Top-Of-My-Head Details On Shep:

he is nice enough to his coworkers bc his situation isnt their fault but he is a huge pain to his higher ups. super rude and unhelpful. what are they gonna do? kill him again?

He Does Not Want To Be Here. if his bosses want him here they can deal with maintaining his body. he will often just Not Perform Any Of The Maintenance and let them scramble to fix him when he starts failing

Ponderings On Ned copy-pasted & lightly edited from discord:

re: tabby & her ex boyfriend [<-this is ned] she is So confused about how shes supposed to feel when sally randomly busts him out. bc she dumped him for being a mediocre boyfriend, and then her attitude toward him was "that loser," & then he went missing, & she felt a little bad for leaving their status on bad terms, and then suddenly sally has him, & shes like oh hes back. That Loser. but then its like clearly he was not fine, so maybe she was right to feel bad? & maybe she shouldnt be like That Loser? but also hes fine now, so That Loser (& they make up & become friends and then a couple again but until that point shes just like 🤨❓Loser❓)

[ned & tabby] had Yuckyyy vermin nicknames for each other. bc she started calling him Nedbug Like Bedbug. and he was like Thats Disgustinggggg Im Going To Call You Tabby Rat. Like A Tabby Cat But In The Garbage. and she was like Thats DUMB. and that was the kind of vibe they had going on [silly] [not actual mean intent] anyways once they become friends again they still call each other their Pest-Themed Nicknames

what went wrong☝️ was that he was not giving her enough time & attention. there was always something higher priority than her even when he probably could have set it aside. & it was only after she dumped him that he realized he was more passionate about schoolwork & stuff (they were together in college) than maintaining a relationship, but even then it took a while to realize she wasnt just asking too much of him or being unreasonable

she was smart enough to know she deserved better & shes always been a confident person so she had no qualms about walking away🤷 but she cannot lie [<-editors note: she can lie] she does kinda miss him. course she would not ever say that to him or anyone else or herself. he has also missed her this whole time and he does not want to tell her but he Has talked & cried about it to sally, who will casually tell tabby all that right in front of him like its nothing while hes like 🫥 [<-you cant tell secrets to sally]

[what happened to him] a few of his more questionable friends talked him into going along on a hunting trip with them which isnt his thing At All and they werent really his first choice of people to spend time with but he was like Whatever i wanna get out and hang out with someone how bad can it be. well it can be bad. on account of he accidentally got shot in the leg. fell & knocked himself out during this event. friends freaked out and, knowing he had a friend with medical expertise & not wanting to get in trouble, quick hauled him off to sally in the hopes that she would take care of him without anyone finding out what happened. which she happily agreed to. he bled out in the back of their car on the way there but they didnt notice bc he was already unconscious & they were too clueless to check. sally fixed up his leg & got him some new blood but was unaware of the head injury so she didnt look too closely into that before waking him up & only realized something was up when he started having terrible dizzy spells, so figuring out how to fix that has been on her to do list

i dont think the friends ever checked up on him after that. they were more worried about getting in trouble and they figured whatever happened was in sallys hands now, and of course she never said anything to them, and they never asked. they knew he was considered missing after that. ned finds out some of this from sally & her friends and pieces together the rest. he has no intentions of trying to get his dumbass colleagues in trouble or anything but he is pretty pissed off. if he sees them again it will be Incredibly Awkward. as of right now theyve been wondering all this time what the fuck sally did with the body but they are not about to try & find out

tabby has many stupid names for ned including but not limited to nedbug nedward nedwin neodore nedison neddybear nedbeat nedhead etc. & all ned has is tabby rat (vermin-based retaliation for nedbug), taxi cab, & Tab (most common)