Girls Are Pretty

For some reason yall do not understand that characters who canonicaly have a non comforming gender expression can have femininity and masculinity coexist and even explore gender identity due to that presentation but nooo transfeminity is evil/sarc

Not to mention in the exact same fucking motive he's very obviously purposefully warping the truth and lying to the cast's faces?? Within the 'embarrassing memories' motive Mondo's is a warped version of the truth. "Mondo killed his own brother" but he didn't, and just about everyone is able to grasp that one. He indirectly led to the accident, but Daiya made his own choices. So wouldn't the same logic apply to Chihiro's motive? "He dresses like a girl but actually is a boy" sounds like you're actively warping her own life experience to send her into Despair.... which is Monokuma's primary character motive.... crazy how that works........

And now, a compilation of every line Chihiro delivers in her own backstory, without the narrative padding from Monokuma explaining to you why this is totally her hating being a woman and wanting to be a man

"Now nobody will be able to say anything about 'even though you're a boy'..."

"I'm... weak... Weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak...!"

"Now's my chance..."

"I'm going to get stronger... and accept who I am..."

"Strong enough so that when someone says 'even though you're a boy' it'll be okay. I'll get better!"

"Maybe talking to Mondo about it will help give me some courage..."

So yeah, once you pull out the unreliable narrator. You get like, 6 lines total. 1/3 of which specify that she IS AFRAID of people saying "even though you're a boy". Now, call me crazy, but if we're genuinely arguing that Chihiro is a cisgendered man, why the hell would she say the equivalent of "I need to accept being a boy. Gee, I sure hope no one calls me a boy while I do so!" That's. That's inherently contradictory. More than anything, looking at Chihiro's lines as the most reliable source of Chihiro's thoughts about herself, it starts to look less and less like a man who wants to rise above being gnc and be a true manly man, and more like someone who's about to get fucking outed and mocked by Monokuma and trying to do damage control, steeling herself to be called a man and strengthening her mind and body to prepare for said outing.

Earlier in chapter 2, Chihiro is already thinking of starting to try working out, but is too afraid to enter the lockers because she's well-aware she can only enter the boys' locker rooms. The inference that Makoto comes to is that Chihiro is an individual trapped in a killing game that couldn't defend herself verbally in the library the morning prior, and is visibly the physically weakest in the class. Ergo, perhaps she wants to be able to defend herself better? Well, neither of those facts that lead to said inference magically change after the discovery of her dick, so perchance, the reason she wanted to get stronger was still so she could defend herself both verbally and physically?? The ONLY reason you'd have to come to the conclusion she wants to reconnect with her assigned sex is because she is being actively threatened into it by Monokuma's motive, or if you take Monokuma's story at his word, that he'd speak respectfully of the dead. Just like he did with every other character in that game, right?

Also, it's worth noting that in the actual conversation-turned-spiral between Chihiro and Mondo before Chihiro's death, neither Chihiro nor Mondo actually talk about Chihiro's gender, only her strength and desire to destroy her weakness. Yes, Mondo is using he/him in the voiceover, but the entire class is atp, and again. Using that as genuine evidence falls flat because we see in that very same scene that Mondo WAS NOT completely present for that conversation. He saw Chihiro's willpower and spiraled, conflating Chihiro with his brother and lashing out in a ptsd-induced blackout.

Also also, if you're gonna argue Chihiro has no reason to need to get physically stronger unless it's to be more masculine, A) Sakura exists in the same game, and B) please god look up any statistics on the amount of violence trans teens receive. That alone is a perfectly reasonable justification for a trans woman to want to be able to defend herself, especially when locked in a place where you cannot escape your potential aggressors.

[Plain text caption: Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen as Naim and Ryan

Give me loud wailing and sobbing and clinging to a trusted person. Give me begging to "go home" whether that home is real and reachable or not. Give me crying for parents and siblings and grandparents and *anyone* who feels safer than the present situation.

Give me stress regression. Give me trauma response regression. Give me regression as a result of someone's self-soothing ability completely imploding.

Give me the gross parts of it. In writing, in drawings, in headcanon ramblings. The tantrums with snot and spit and red faces. The potty accidents. The bedwetting. The lashing out and yelling and hitting. The physical symptoms of feeling like you're no longer in full control of your mind and body. Let me see the MISBEHAVIOR that comes with feeling like a child in a body that's too big for you when everything is SCARY. The behavior you REGRET later.

Seeing the cozy, comforting, voluntary end of agere is so important when you're using it to comfort yourself.

But the embarrassment of it goes beyond "I use pacifiers and stuffed animals to self soothe after a hard day." for a lot of people. Acknowledge and accept that, too. Please.

they've seen dennis in a young toddler headspace, sat contentedly on robby as the older man has his arms around his waist, where the boy is quietly driving toy cars and tractors up and down his daddy's arms and making small "brmmmm..." noises. they hear the older man occasionally praise him quietly, calling him a smart boy and promising him a new truck if he keeps up his good behaviour in the meeting.

they've seen teeny tiny baby dennis all swaddled up on robby's chest, eyes closed and pacifier bobbing in his mouth as he sleeps, with robby cuddling him so carefully it's like the little one is made of glass. robby usually doesn't focus on these meetings so much, attention fully on his baby boy and kissing his golden curls, always checking that he's correctly swaddled and his puppy dog toy is tucked in. these scenes always make the other department heads coo to themselves, the caregivers amongst them aching for the same kind of infant to hold and protect.

they've seen baby dennis awake and playing with the same puppy dog toy, but then seen him turn fussy at a moment's notice and start to bawl and sob, which caused robby to mute his screen and get up to soothe his denny. they see him walk too and fro in the open plan kitchen behind him, bouncing the squalling baby in his arms and petting his head, before making him a bottle. when robby returns to the seat at his desk, dennis is laid sideways in his lap and is resting in the crook of one elbow, eyes drooping as he's fed his bottle and calmed by the full belly. it makes the others on the call want to kiss his red little cheeks the way robby gets to.

one noteable occasion had them all see three or four year old dennis start babbling at them, showing off his teddy bear dressed as a doctor while his daddy went to the bathroom. he showed them the stethoscope, and the mini scrubs he wore, and was so enthusiastic he was practically vibrating where he sat, unaware and uncaring of the fact that these were the most senior people in the PTMC that he was chattering to. they'd all encouraged and praised him too, just like robby did. a happy little was a very important thing to ensure, and denny grinned so widely his cheeks must've hurt.

and dennis is a little, but he never declared himself as one or put it on his papers because his family always told him that littles were useless and that they were a drain on resources- so when he drops suddenly in the pitt one day, hiding in a bathroom stall, it takes a while for people to work out what's wrong.

if a registered little disappears for a while, it's assumed that they've dropped and a caregiver is officially sent to look for them to take care of them, but when a neutral disappears, that obviously doesn't happen. so it takes until jesse goes to use the bathroom and finds dennis in one of the stalls, crying silently and terrified, shoving his fist in his mouth to try and muffle the noise and soothe himself, for anyone to work out he's a little.

jesse calls robby in there, since he's the most senior caregiver there and a case of a non-registered little is a serious one, since they have no record of any specific care needs he might have or the age he drops to, and as soon as robby sets eyes on the crying, curled up ball that is his favourite intern, something clicks.

he's on his knees in an instant, coaxing dennis into coming closer until he can gather him up in his arms, and then he hoists the boy up, dennis still sobbing and little, and whisks him off to one of the designated rooms for littles. it's full of soft furnishings and low lighting and toys and supplies, and robby sits them down in a rocking chair so that he can try and soothe the boy that way.

it takes a long time until he settles and falls asleep on robby's chest, but taking one look at the golden curls and red, puffy skin around his eyes from crying so much, and adorable little features for robby to decide he didn't want to let dennis go.

Even just a light breeze on the back of his neck can set him off sometimes, and he ends up curling up in a ball putting his hands on his neck trying to protect it… Rocky and Adrian were very confused when one of those episodes happened the first time, because Grace hadn’t really gone into the details of what got him on the hail mary, so it was confusion and stress for everyone involved :(

Oh goodness yes💔😭

Big Grace is able to compartmentalize, tell himself he's okay, no one is gonna to hurt him, it was just the wind, just an accidental brush over the nape of his neck, it's okay!

But tiny Grace? Oooh that poor baby is SCARED. He remembers the last time anything was near his neck!! He remembers the sharp jab, the screaming, the crying and pleading all falling on deaf ears!

So he's instantly thinking that's happening again!! He's gonna get the scary yucky poke, they're going to hold him down and not care about his cries, they're gonna make him go to sleep for a long time!!!💔💔

Poor Rocky and Adrian, they're bewildered! Grace was happily playing just seconds ago but now he's sobbing and both hands wrapped around his neck and he's crying and begging for something to stop😭

The two Eridian's attempt to console Grace but it's kinda tricky to do so when you don't know what's causing such a reaction! Eventually the two do a gentle thrumming/tone saved for inconsolable hatchlings because it physically relaxes a body.

Grace is still sniffling but at least now he's not fiercely holding his neck. He's pressed against Rocky while Adrian is patting his back, just making small noises of a baby who cried himself into exhaustion

When Grace is big, Rocky and Adrian basically demand that Grace tell them why his smaller side reacted like that!

And oooh Rocky is utterly FUMING when Grace explains his whole neck sensitivity (Grace learns some new swear words, he's pretty sure Rocky made some new ones for earth) 😭😭