#talky

Legos...hmm... ...That's this guy!

"Still rocking the pigtails, huh?" asked Nightshade.

"You can pry my pigtails from my cold, dead hands," said Starfall.

"You're going to be holding onto your pigtails?" asked Nightshade.

"If you're trying to take them from me, yeah," said Starfall.

"I guess not everyone can pull off the dark and sexy look," said Nightshade with a little laugh. She'd made some modifications to her outfit, and it clung to her more than it had a few months ago. Still, it was utilitarian in comparison to Starfall's skirt, and Starfall had some actual cleavage. Plus pigtails, naturally.

"You know, I think at a certain point, pigtails become transgressive," said Starfall.

Nightshade laughed. "Do they now? You're serious? You're seriously opening this line of conversation? You're giving me this gift?"

"I need to warn you," said Starfall. "I prepared."

"God," said Nightshade. "I am quaking. Starfall's full powers on display."

"So, to start," said Starfall. "Pigtails are for little girls."

Nightshade laughed. "And that's the opening!"

Starfall pointed to her chest. "As you can see, I am not a child."

"Alright, okay, I can see where you're going with this one," said Nightshade.

"Can you?" asked Starfall. "Because I worked hard on this."

"You're positioning yourself as not conforming to the gender code," said Nightshade.

"I mean, yeah," said Starfall. "Hair is one of the most legible and tightly policed elements of the gender code."

"Oh my god, you did practice this," said Nightshade.

"In her 1966 book Purity and Danger, Mary Douglas defines —"

Nightshade erupted in laughter, and Starfall started giggling too.

"Is that a real book?" asked Nightshade.

"I'm offended," said Starfall.

"Outraged?" asked Nightshade.

"Besmirched," said Starfall.

"Alright, tell me what Mary Douglas has to say about pigtails," said Nightshade.

"Her book was mostly about dirt," said Starfall.

"Dirt," said Nightshade.

"Well, sort of the boundary between things," said Starfall. "But yeah, dirt, and how there are these systems of categories, and —"

"And you read this whole book?" asked Nightshade.

"..." said Starfall. "I read bits and pieces, and then the Wikipedia page, and I think I got the gist of it, yes."

"And the pigtails, they're dirt?" asked Nightshade.

"If dirt, in the sense of Douglas —"

"Okay, now you're fucking with me," said Nightshade.

"Dear friend, glorious moody gloomy Nightshade, I have been effing with you this whole time," said Starfall. "And somehow, also making a point? That's just how great I am."

"Could you marginally speed up this point?" asked Nightshade.

But they were stopped by an older woman who thanked them for keeping the streets safe, and chatted for a bit, which was the point of community-first superheroing, and the older woman shared that it used to be she didn't feel safe going out at night, but it was thanks to the efforts of powered individuals that she did feel safe. They tried to disengage a few times, and managed it on the third try.

"I think the pigtails put people at ease," said Starfall.

"While being transgressive?" asked Nightshade.

"Yes," nodded Starfall. "They read innocent, childlike. They're transgressive because they're out of place. That was the Douglas thing, 'matter out of place', sort of her definition of taboo."

"Erm," said Nightshade.

"What?" asked Starfall.

"I'm trying to think of a nice way to say it," said Nightshade.

"I can handle the not nice way," said Starfall.

"I think that yes, there are hairstyles that are acceptable for girls, and hair styles that are acceptable for women, and yes, a woman with pigtails is transgressing in some way," said Nightshade. "Like, if you went in to your first day in a law office with pigtails, someone would pull you aside and ask you what the fuck you were doing."

"Good," said Starfall. "I'm liking this so far."

"But, you're sixteen," said Nightshade. "You have them thangs," pointing to Starfall's chest, "this is true, they are enviable, but I think, at sixteen, if your pigtails say one thing and your boobs say another, then the thing you're saying is that you're straddling the line between girl and woman. Which is just like ... true."

"You don't think I've achieved womanhood?" asked Starfall. "Because we're the same age, I'm pretty sure."

"And the other thing," said Nightshade, not answering the question, "Is that this is like, a stock male fantasy?"

"How so?" asked Starfall.

"The whole, 'oh, I'm innocent and naïve, just a little girl, but also? extremely fuckable, very ready for it, please teach me how to do the sex', that kind of thing," said Nightshade.

"Gross," said Starfall. "I've had these pigtails since I was like, ten."

"Yeah, I know," said Nightshade. "You said your mother helped pick your look. And for you to defend it as transgressive is ... I mean, it wasn't transgressive at ten, right?"

"It was a little transgressive," said Starfall. "I mean, I could bench press a thousand pounds. There was a tension there."

"Sure," said Nightshade.

"Mom thinks I should lose them," said Starfall. "That I should 'graduate'."

"Ah," said Nightshade.

"Wow am I not liking how you said that," said Starfall.

"Pigtails as rebellion," said Nightshade. She laughed a little. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't mean that, it's just, it's so you to wear these pigtails to spite your mother, just the tiniest, pettiest rebellion backed up by academic texts."

Starfall frowned, reached up, and undid the ties that were holding the pigtails together. She ran her fingers through her hair, which fell in waves behind her back, and kept walking, face set.

"Aw come on," said Nightshade. "For what it's worth, I did like the pigtails. I just don't find them to be basically at all boundary-pushing."

"It's a refusal to perform adult femininity," said Starfall.

"Yeah, I get that in theory," said Nightshade. "The argument is good. Well-researched."

"You know, Britney Spears got in trouble with the Parents Television Council," said Starfall.

"That is a wonderful fact, I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to use it," said Nightshade.

"Judith Butler says gender is always a performance," said Starfall. "And as a performance, it's always cited and recited, which is where it gets its power from." She looked over at Nightshade. "Do I need to put the pigtails back up?"

"No," said Nightshade.

"I mean, how does it look?" asked Starfall.

Nightshade stopped and looked Starfall over, eyes roaming the other girl's face and the wavy hair. "It's definitely off brand."

Starfall frowned. "You know that's not what I'm asking."

Nightshade leaned closer, eyes going wide, and did a mock inspection like she was a jeweler looking at a diamond through a loupe. She was close enough that Starfall caught the faint scent of jasmine. "Hrm," she said. "Yes, I see."

"Friend, I will punch you," said Starfall. She could feel herself starting to flush. Her heart had started beating faster.

"Yeah," said Nightshade as she backed up. "You're gorgeous."

"Hrmph," said Starfall. She strode forward to continue the patrol, partly to hide the smile that had spread across her face. "Well don't count on this being the new look."

"I wouldn't dream about it," said Nightshade. "And like I said, I found you perfectly attractive with the pigtails."

"'Perfectly'?" asked Starfall.

"You know what I mean," said Nightshade.

"Uh huh," said Starfall. She winked at Nightshade. "Sure."

Nightshade took two skipping steps ahead, then twirled around and started walking backward, facing Starfall. "So, Butler?" asked Nightshade.

"Nah," said Starfall.

"Come on, you skimmed some Wikipedia articles, I don't want that nerdery to go to waste," said Nightshade.

"Gender is performance," Starfall finally said, because she had been thinking about it. "And when we perform gender, there are ways to do that which call attention to it. That's what drag queens are doing. And the pigtails are, or were," she paused.

"What?" asked Nightshade. They looked at each other for a moment. "Oh, I'm going to love this, aren't I?"

"I have reconsidered, and won't say it," said Starfall.

"Please please please, please say it," said Nightshade.

"You've been bullying me, you know that?" asked Starfall.

"Say it," said Nightshade.

"I shan't," said Starfall.

"Saaaaay it," said Nightshade. She clasped her hands together. "Please."

Starfall sighed. "Pigtails," she said slowly, "are microdrag."

Nightshade shrieked in laughter.

"Yeah, I hear it," said Starfall. "It sounded really good in my head though. It sounded insightful like you wouldn't believe. And I do think it's like, very grounded feminist theory. But even before I said it I thought 'oh, no way is she going to let that one slide'."

"I actually am," said Nightshade. She stopped walking backwards with another half-twirl and fell in step beside Starfall. "I'm not a bully."

"You're a little bit of a bully," said Starfall.

"A microbully," said Nightshade.

Starfall giggled. "Yes. You're my microbully."