#btab

Using the other two transneutral flags, mixing the (C)AMAB/DMAB with (C)AFAB/DFAB ones. Check the first ones and (C)AGAB/DSAB/DGAB-free.

BTN(B)/B2N(B)/B2X/BTX: a transneutral or otherwise non-binary individual who considers emself as transitioning from binary to non-binary. Encompassing M2N(B)/M2X, F2X/F2N(B) and BtA(b)/B2A(b) (FtA(b)/MtA(b)/M2A(b)/F2A(b)) experiences.

The Adventure Continues

Some time later Taako transmuted some of Magnus’s clothes to be child-sized and the crew gathered around to watch him with varying expressions of concern, confusion and awe at his adorableness. Magus was happily preoccupied with trying and failing to tie his shoelaces.

“So.” Davenport broke the silence. “Did you get a good look at the person who cursed him?”

“Just briefly,” Lucretia explained. “Lup agrees with me that it was an elf, but they were camouflaged. I didn’t see them at first and they gave me a fright. I don’t think they meant any harm though.”

“They seemed pretty frightened, actually,” Lup volunteered. “I think we scared them and they lashed out. I want to go out and look for them – if we can talk, they might be able to undo whatever spell they hit Magnus with. Plus, maybe they have a clue about where the light is. It’s worth a shot.”

“If this person is an elf, they might trust Taako and Lup the most.” Davenport suggested. “The rest of us should be okay here if you two want to go look for them.”

“Nuh uh!” Merle piped up. “I wanna see the plant elf thing! Plants are my speciality. I’m coming too.”

“Sure.” Davenport nodded, glancing around at the team. “Merle, Lup and Taako, you’re out looking for information. Lucretia, I’ll need your held checking the bond engine is working at full capacity. We took a couple hard hits from the Hunger in the last cycle. And someone’s gonna have to watch Magnus for a couple hours. Barry?”

“Sure, I can do that.” Barry did not look sure. In fact, he looked rather unsure, but he squared his shoulders. Davenport nodded.

“Good. We’ll reconvene at noon. Merle, Lup and Taako, keep your stones of farspeech on at all times and update us if you find anything.”

The group split to go off on their various assignments. Lup brushed Barry’s shoulder and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“No worries, Care-Bear, you’re gonna do great. Enjoy babysitting duty.”

Barry snorted. “I’ll try. Be careful out there, okay?”

“Sure thing babe.”

Lup jogged out to join her teammates.

 Leaving Barry to stare at a rather confused-looking Magnus. The child glanced around before asking, “Where did everyone go?”

Magus was a kid now. They’d faced weirder stuff. And Barry and Magnus were friends, they hung out all the time. There was no reason this should be any different.

Barry hadn’t been around kids enough to know if he was good with them. Gods, he hoped he was good with them.

Magnus was still looking at him.

“They all had work to do, so it’s just us for a while.” Barry dropped down into a crouch because it felt weird to talk down to Magnus. “Looks like we have some time on our hands. What do you want to do?”

Magnus tipped his head, looking uncharacteristically shy. “Can… can we play?”

“Play, huh?” They didn’t exactly have any toys on the Starblaster, but Barry could improvise. There was all sorts of stuff lying around in his lab. “Sure, buddy, we can play. Do you wanna go see what toys we can find?”

Magnus brightened. “Yeah! I mean, um, yes please.”

Luckily Magnus was not a picky kid. He was happy to roam around Barry’s lab, ooing and aahing while Barry sifted through all his junk. Did a thousand-piece three-dimensional puzzle of the Starblaster count as a toy? Or was Magnus too young to not swallow the pieces? Probably better to be safe than sorry. He set it carefully in a drawer.

“What’s this?” Magnus called from across the room. Barry glanced around to see him puzzling at a chalk circle drawn on the ground.

“Oh, that’s a summoning circle. I can do all sorts of necromancy with that.”

“Cool!”

Maybe Magnus would enjoy looking at rock samples? Gods, Barry really should have asked someone what age Magnus seemed to be. And what things kids of that age liked doing.

He really had no idea what he was doing.

Magnus made a cooing sound. Barry glanced around to see him lifting a vial of colourful liquid. He shrugged and turned back to his drawers before it hit him.

Oh shit, that was the flesh-eating acid he’d gotten from cycle eight.

Barry lunged across the room and snatched the vial from Magnus’s hands before the kid could pop open the cork.

“No nonono, hey, kiddo, maybe we should do something else? Do you like drawing?”

Magnus, who had flinched at the sudden movement and shouting, paused to peer up Barry.

“Mm hmm.”

“Well,” Barry looked around desperately. Where were his pencils? Could kids at Magnus’s age draw things, or just colour? Did he even have coloured pencils???

Barry’s gaze landed on the set of paints he’d purchased during cycle nineteen, and then at his collection of various animal and humanoid skulls he used as paperweights.

“How do you feel about decorating?”

 Magnus took to painting like a duck to water. Barry spread out a couple rags to catch the drips as they smeared paint on skulls and a particularly large femur they’d found under a table. They’d started with brushes but when an overly enthusiastic Magnus dunked his hands straight into the paint, Barry had shrugged and joined him in finger-painting. While decorating each skull they came up with fun stories for the original owners, who they’d been and how they died. Barry had an unreasonable amount of fun doing the voices.

And Lucretia had called his bone collection morbid. Barry chuckled as he watched Magnus happily painting a human skull in bright pinks and yellows. Magnus paused for a moment to consider his handiwork.

“That looks great, Magnus.” Barry encouraged. Magnus turned to him with a beaming smile. There was paint splattered across his face.

“Hey, Bare?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“Where did this one come from?”

Hmm. Maybe the truth was a bit morbid for a kid? Barry really didn’t want to be responsible for traumatizing the little guy. But Magnus didn’t seem upset, so he spoke slowly and carefully, considering each word.

“Well, Magnus, do you know what happens on this ship every year? How everything resets and the people who are hurt get better?”

Magnus nodded.

“It’s like we get new bodies every year. This,” He gestured to the skull, “is a part of one of my old bodies.” He very carefully did not say that it was from the cycle where he’d fallen and impaled himself on a stalagmite, and his final words were asking if they could keep the skull because it’d be pretty fucking cool to have his own skull sitting on his desk. In his defense, it was so cool. The next time Lup died she’d asked to have hers kept too, so they’d have matching couples skulls. Of course, the pair of matching ones sat together on Barry’s desk, not thrown together with the rest. He wasn’t a heathen.

He just had a couple extra Barry skulls lying around in his bone paperweight collection, prime candidates for painting.

“So this is yours?” Magnus asked curiously. He didn’t look like he was about to burst into tears, so Barry nodded.

“Yup.”

“Oh.” Magnus frowned for a moment. “Well, cool.” His eyes widened excitedly. “Is one of mine here?”

“Why, do you want to paint it?”

“Uh huh!”

Hmm. Giving a kid a skull from a dead version of his future self to play with?

…                                                

Yeah, seems fine.

“Sure, just let me find it, I’ve got one somewhere next to the seal bones. Hey, I think I’ve got some glitter back here too if you want it.”