#very incorrect

Early college applications are due, and everybody expected Julian to submit early applications. They didn’t. They’re hiding a rapidly worsening mental crisis caused by burnout. They tell everyone they just wanted more time to work on their essays to make sure they’re top notch.

Regular college applications are due and Julian missed them. The deadline has passed, and there is nothing they can do. Their parents are pretty fucking mad, Julian is having the freak out of the century, in which a massive identity crisis is included. During this crisis, they confess to their best friend that they’re trans. Bestie is like EW i mean who said yeah that’s cool but I mean you’re still a girl basically what the fuck is wrong with you no that’s cool uhhh funny story i need to go. Bestie tells their parents who in turn tell Julian’s parents.

Julian’s parents are pissed. Not an ounce of acceptance, but plenty of disgust and rage. Get the fuck out of my house, I won’t have you living under my roof. The only not terrible thing is that they have some money. They go to the bank to withdraw all the funds from their UGMA/UTMA account which results in a very angry phone call from their parents even though they can’t do anything about it because the money is legally Julians.

Julian doesn’t know what to do. They stop by their best friend's house. Bestie is home alone and Julian finds out that they told their parents and absolutely blows up on their best friend. They expect an apology, or maybe even an offer for Julian to stay with them. Instead, bestie just looks guilty and mumbles an insincere apology before closing and locking the door.

This is the final straw for Julian. They look around and it feels like the prison that is suburbia is closing in all around them. They cannot be in this fucking town any longer, not this county, not this state, not this time zone. They drive and they don’t stop driving.

At some point, in some random town they’re stopped in for the night, it’s raining really hard and Julian is walking somewhere (to buy some stuff at the grocery store or back to their car maybe) and some stranger gives Julian their massive yellow raincoat.

Julian is a chosen name and there is absolutely a moment of hey this town is called this it’s my name now

Julian arrives in Washington state and then they see the ocean and suddenly, it’s all a little bit more ok. They’re far enough.

Julian ends up in a Town. They’re living out of their car, trying to find work of some sort because, well, they’re an adult now, they have no family or friends, and they need to live. Despite how bad it all is, they NEED to live.

Julian gets work at a nature reserve of some sort. State park, volunteer work at an organization, working with the local native people, something similar. Either way, it leads them to meet somebody, thirty something years old, visibly queer and VERY proud of it.

Julian continues to struggle to survive as they keep getting phone calls and texts from their family and best friend because they can’t muster the strength to block them and as they start to unpack the heaps of internalized transphobia lurking inside them and learn to accept themselves.

This is helped by the new family Julian slowly starts to develop. So far the character concepts I have are the thirty whatever years old one, an older (50 something) couple that’s a Black trans woman and a Two-spirit person who have the most spectacular gardens, and a little kid who thinks Julian is the coolest person ever.