1.21.8
on April 12, 2023
at 3:00 am
in my ongoing efforts to leave all unnecessarily gendered bs out of my fun fantasy universe I found myself struggling mightily to communicate any sort of shift in young Dainix’s gender presentation, so you’re just gonna have to take his word for it, which is really how this sort of thing should work ANYWAY
Loving this page
Relating *hard* to absolutely everyone on this page
*breathes in*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
*runs out of breath, breathes in again*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
asdkadsjhfglkajlsgladhgad
…I love Dainix so much T_T
On another note, HARD SAME, Falst. Good grief, perfume, the bane of my nose’s existence! And cigarette smoke, which doesn’t dissipate anywhere near as fast as people imagine, oh, and bad engines, and, and, and…! Dear Falst. I understand your pain. Also you are very cute holding your nose.
I hate cigarette smoke so much. And I’ll throw in weed smoke as well, especially that because if I breathe too much of it I get a nasty headache. Of course, I’m at a college now so there’s no escape from it.
It seems that weed smoke is very common in the US. I think I get different headaches depending on the smoke, if going by a certain neighbour is something to judge by… I wasn’t sure what I was smelling, until a friend pointed it out with a sour face.
May Falst never have to suffer that, at least. And you have less of it than expected!
Yeah, strong smells are the WORST. Even “good” smells, but ESPECIALLY bad smells. Smoke and exhaust and perfume and hair spray my beloathed. Even worse when you’re sensitive to smells and have asthma cuz then the smells can trigger capuchins fits.
Eurgh, as if strong smells weren’t enough…! Sorry to hear that >,< "The strong smell is good for you" coming form Dainix might be one of the few things that'd mitigate having that happen, I guess, but in real life… May people who overdose perfume and softener and other icky things have itchy armpits for hours!
Huh, must be hard to have a good sense of smell. I basically don’t have one between sinuses and other colds all throughout my childhood. Its there but it goes away the second I feel even slightly sick. I normally don’t smell anything even when I get smoke blown in my face (not that it makes it pleasant to have something you know is bad for your health blown in your face), can’t imagine what it’d be like to actually have to deal with that.
Oofh, sorry to hear that! Small comfort to have almost no sense of smell, having to have that many infections and colds 🙁 They’re no fun at all, even less so when one is a child!
Imagine if every person and thing had theme music. Not usually loud, but yes sometimes really headachingly loud. Too many different themes clashing can be an unpleasant jumble even if they’re still quiet. And sometimes the music is just an awful song.
I’m lucky, for me there’s a lot fewer /bad/ smells than for most people. I say “it’s just data”, because it doesn’t affect me viscerally. For example, sweat. I don’t mind most sweat smells; stressful work leaves an unpleasant sweat smell, I find many individual sweat smells varyingly attractive(my primary attraction is personality, secondary is scent, and looks are a ways down the list), but for the most part sweat smells are just /there/.
Dainix’s just trying to be nice, but he’s really asking to get his teeth kicked in lmao.
“Well, I TRIED that! I literally met most of these idiots by trying that! But apparently it just isn’t fucking possible (Erin said) and they gave me this whole speech about being myself.”
This is probably going to come up next page, but what Dainix is suggesting seems to be that Falst is experiencing some kind of species dysphoria and might be happier if he could fix that, and I find that very interesting because Falst’s introductory arc was about “fixing that”.
The bit Dainix says that sticks out to me is “It wasn’t about wanting to be something else. I just… was.”. To me, that seems to highlight the profound difference between running away from something you are not and embracing what you are. Falst’s introduction feels more like running away from what you are not, to the point where I am not sure he has even thought about what he is clearly enough to be able to embrace it.
I think we can all agree that we just want Falst to find a solution to his issues that don’t give him horrific cancers in the process. Magic, to that end, is nonviable (unless Alinua gets a hell of a lot more precise than the walking nuke that her god embodies), so another solution is needed.
Maybe some form of genetic treatment, if genetic treatments are even a thing in a world where biological manipulation is done through magic rather than reverse engineering beneficial chemicals and compounds. Other than that, a lot of therapy and maybe religion if he can find one that’s not racist (Kendel knows a few gods, maybe he can help there).
I also deeply love that Dainix doesn’t pretend to have an answer, or even a similar problem. He is *asking* if his read sounds right, not *telling* anyone that it sounds right. I have had so many friends -cis and trans- get this distinction wrong before when trying to be helpful and supportive and it is infuriating.
Dainix is trying to find common ground, but is clearly open to being wrong, and that is a frigging love language if I’ve ever seen one.
THIS! With Dainix we already know that it comes from inside him but Falst has probably gone through so much trauma and never had the time to question if he just internalized all the hate from the outside. And never got any love for who he is.
Also, on the note for a Ferin “cure”: If I had the means and knowledge to invent it, I wouldn’t do so. Mainly because why should I trust the world with the “cure” for Ferin if I can’t trust it with the Ferin themselves. There surely are people that would not be as kind as Dainix to ask if that’s what they want. And while there are surely people that have good intentions in curing the Ferin, they seem to forget that (unless you are an unstable one) most of the suffering Ferin experience is cause by people, and not by the state of being a Ferin itself.
Like, let’s be honest, in another universe in a different situation if a person were to randomly give animal powers to people, it might actually be seen as a blessing. Being a Ferin is neutral in the same way as being a human or elf, it’s just different.
Didn’t want to be something else, just didn’t want to be something they weren’t.
I kinda of think Dainix is reading this wrong, though. At least to me, Falst doesn’t seem to actually dislike his species in isolation; he hates how he gets treated because of his race. It doesn’t read as dysphoria, he doesn’t dislike his body or how it works, he just hates the social implications of being ferin. Which implies that he’d be fine with who he is if he found, say, a town populated entirely by ferin, or a family unit that doesn’t make stupid assumptions about him. Changing his species is just a means to an end of not being treated like a monster.
It seems the boys have found some common ground
In both not liking what they’ve been, that’s profound
fragrances give me headaches even when i can’t smell/don’t notice them (which is often, my nose is kinda fucked) so like imagine if i COULD smell them like MORE than the average person that would be kinda shit i think
Same. I cannot go into certain shops without ruining my day, and sometimes I just have to hold my breath and hope that I can get through without passing out.
Apparently, it might be an autism thing. I can’t say for certain, because I’m not even sure if I’m even on that end of the spectrum, but I’ve noticed it crop up again and again as a symptom sometimes pointed to, and it’s one of the only things I can truly identify as lifelong and not ‘acquired’ from my long-suffering health issues :/
I really need to speak to an expert that doesn’t cost $3000 to see…
I heard Canada has free healthcare. Sounds a little to good to be true, tbh
I am at the wrong end of the world for that, the plane ticket alone is over $3000 😛
I still have options, of course. I just need figure out how long I need to wait to make them work, and if I can afford to wait (and if it’s possible to offload the cost onto my own country’s free healthcare*
*except for adult autism diagnosis because these policies were written in the 90s :/ )
*cough MAiD cough*
I live in Canada, we may have free healthcare but we also have horrible weather. Were I live, winter lasts six months and I’m only in North-East BC, you can go a lot further north. There are people who used to live in Siberia saying that our winters are colder.
Honestly? As someone in the U.S., I’d take free healthcare over warm weather. Easily. (Especially since warm weather gives me wicked insomnia.)
Ditto
Aight, I think my previous attempt at a comment got eaten, so I’ll try to make this short and sweet. As someone who only pursued and got diagnosed as an adult… it’s not necessarily worth it. All I got was paperwork that *might* help me formally request accommodations should I need them, vs. having it on my medical record which opens me up to all sorts of systemic discrimination. IDK what your situation is though. Either way, I recommend learning as much as you can from autistic self-advocates & autistic-led orgs (e.g. Autistic Science Person, Neuroclastic). and also be careful of Autism Bewareness orgs like the not-quite-blue-anymore puzzle piece group
Does anyone else hear the “A New Hope” soundtrack in panel 7 as young Dainix looks out to the desert like Luke watching the twin suns set, or is it just me?
Dainix’s words, here and previously, seem to imply Ferin don’t go into the deserts very often; I’m certain some Ferin could do well in a desert environment, but it appears they’re rare. So much for the scare in extra lore of Ferin replacing mages; I think there will be some fire throwing humans in the desert no matter what happens.
Falst’s rant makes me pity Ferin that live in cities; no matter how good the sanitation is, it can’t be pleasant some days. Maybe that’s another reason why Ferin live in nomadically the wilderness. I’m now picturing a permanent Ferin community, godless or otherwise, that’s very clean with big public baths ancient Rome style.
I’m really interested as to what Falst’s answer might be. He joined the gang because they liked him for who he really is; Kendal’s speech in 1-10-23 is still one of my favourite parts of the comic. Now he’s being asked by someone who knows a thing or two about changing how they were born as if he still wants that, while out of earshot from the rest of the gang. Does he still want to be human, or does he just want to have friends? Or will he just ignore the question entirely?
Also, just to let anyone know, I’m off on holiday on Friday for two weeks and I won’t be bringing my laptop, partly due to weight reasons and partly to get a bit of a break from online stuff and enjoy the holiday itself more.
I’ll still have my phone and internet, so I’ll probably still follow the comic, but I may not comment. So if anyone wonders why I haven’t been commenting for a while, that’s why.
Hope your Holiday goes well!
Enjoy!
Thank you for reminding me of John William’s Soul-full trumpet solo from (A New Hope/Star Wars). The ‘New Hope’ theme is that of the yearning of a young person to be more then just profession their ‘betters’ have set up for them, a being of independent self direction and not ‘type-casted’ by others who want a comfortable conformability. Luke and Dainix and Falst want to be accepted for who they Really are. not what others Think they are. Red is trying to tell that story (Campbell calls it ‘THe Hero’s Journey’) separated from current concerns (sexual importance) by be taking asexual stance.
Oh, so THAT’S what it was; magic aloe vera.
That’s actually a great parallel to Falst’s wish to be human. Like… wow. Well done.
Also, my time zone’s kinda weird right now? I expected the comic to be up at 6pm my time, but it took until like 6:50 for it to update… Weird.
YIPEEEEEEEEEEE YAHOOOOOOOOOO soyry im just incoanrent halwys
And now I identify with Dainix.
Being tumultuously genderfluid (genderfaun, ifn we want to be specific), my gender changes at least a dozen times a day. I have found some personal expressions that make myself feel more comfortable across all the genders I’ve experienced. Long hair and goatee. Stuff like that.
Makes me wonder what Dainix changed.
My sympathies 5007! I haven’t felt that myself so thank you for sharing that painful confusion. You are a brave soul!
Hey I’m genderfluid too :DDDD
Sorry about missing Monday, was busy celebrating my Birthday.
Aurora Question #56: What are the downsides of being a Ferin that people haven’t thought of?
Happy birthday and 2 days.
Cats don’t have sugar receptor, so as a cat Ferin you might not be able to taste sugar.
Happy birthday and thanks for the holiday wishes.
Not all Ferin, but a downside for furry/feathery Ferin comes in one word: Fleas.
Happy belated birthday!
As for the question, lice and maybe fur care in general. Like I can imagine ferin with really long fur having trouble brushing themselves. Also maybe having trouble digesting certain foods based on what animal they are
Instinctual dietary urges that would be considered weird or gross to most people. Taking snake ferin as an example, they might crave swallowing carcasses whole (though they’d probably clean and cook the carcasses beforehand, because nobody wants diseases).
(Disclaimer: This has not been confirmed canon by Red, this is wholly an inference on my part.)
I hope you enjoyed your birthday too! (smile)
Ferins I think would be put off by their own variety and diversity. No Ferin is sure they are going to express the same way as their sires. There is no way Ferin parent can guarantee they will have the Ferin ‘Curse’ express the same way as they do. What happens to Ferin child who appears human but then discover they are a shape-shifter upon puberty? If Ferin always come out random how can they learn adapt if they don’t know how they will change?
i think it’s actually canon that ferin will always be the kind of ferin that their parents are(example: in Vash, there was a community made up entirely of wolf ferin that was generally allowed to be its own thing)
i think it’s actually canon that a ferin is the animal that their parents are (example: in Vash, there was a community entirely made up of wolf ferin that was kinda allowed to just do its own thing)
i saw in one of Red’s sketches where there was a bat ferin fumbling with a cup cuz they had wings instead of arms, so guess it would be pretty inconvenient to not have opposable thumbs or other limb weirdness.
I wonder hypothetically, would a giraffe have a really long nec
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: “bro you got your allegory in my lived experience” “well you got your lived experience in my allegory!”
Image source: happier
I’d like to thank Zero Wolf for generously posting the alt text and image source every time. <3 I read on a monitor, but I respect and appreciate the thought for folks who can't, and the community-building for all readers.
@Amy I second this! Though I am not a mobile user I appreciate @Zer0 W0lf’s dedication!
I third it!
I AM a mobile reader, and I very much appreciate it!
Put Danix on board of FtM icons
As someone with sensory issues…. MOOD.
Also gendered bs sucks.
Danix knew his assigned gender was off, but his fit was on point. And he was right.
TL;DR: Trans icon right here.
Dainix once again is absolutely carrying the entirety of Trans Rep in media
This is gonna be interesting to say the least, cause were does Falst wishing to be human come from? Does he just feel more human like Dainix just feels he is a boy or is it from a desire to be “normal”. Because this is also something trans people struggle with, do you feel like you’re another gender or do you just dislike your AGAB and is that for internal or external reasons. Cause if Falst is feeling this way due to the way Ferins are being treated he might not be trans for lack of a better word, but rather needs to find his own happiness. But if he is trans how will he contrast with Dainix who could change his looks to match his self perception whilst he is stuck ad a Ferin whether he wants to or not.
The most common term for someone with a different species identity than the one they were born into is a therian; “transspecies” does get used sometimes, but it 1) causes confusion, since “transgender” is often shortened to just “trans”, and 2) angers some genderqueer non-therians, who feel that therians are trying to mock them or leech validity off them by comparing the similarities between having divergent gender and species identities. Of course, the people I’ve seen who are both therians and genderqueer don’t seem to mind making that comparison, and feel that the two demographics shouldn’t tear each other down (a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with).
To summarize: “transspecies” is considered slightly confusing and/or risky; “therian” is the more accepted term.
My thoughts exactly! I think you worded the concept better than I could though
@Odinson
Well, that was completely gratuitous.
transmascs stay winning
Between Life, Dainix, and potentially Falst, the last couple chapters have been featuring a few different dysphorias being presented in a neutral, non-judgemental way, and I am here for this validation.
Having both autism and a deviated septum is an… interesting combination. Only some smells are noticeable for me, but the smells I do notice are very potent… and for some reason, it’s only terrible smells. Skunks, cigarettes, gasoline, sh*t… why couldn’t it have been flowers instead?
My sympathy for having an “interesting” mix of disabilities and admiration in defining yourself outside them!
Too potent smells can give me headaches, so Falst is really relatable here. Oddly enough, mint is one of those smells that mess with my head, even though mint it supposed to help with headaches.
The paradox of wanting to write a fantasy universe that both lacks our world’s gender BS but also comments on our world and its gender BS.
The line “it wasn’t about wanting to be something else. i just… was.” is very important here. Dainix is not asking if falst wants to transition out of being a ferin, he’s saying “i was different (trans) and needed some accomodation (transition and support) and it worked out. do you hate being a ferin, or do you just need some accomodation?”
Dude I was wondering how long it would take for this to come up!
Both Dainix’s transition and Falst’s use of the life lacrima could (potentially) be summed up as “my life would be so much better if I used life magic to alter my body”, but in Dainix’s case it was to live as himself, whereas Falst seemed to just want other people to treat him like a human being.
I was confused for a bit why Dainix’s transition was a Good Thing while Falst’s use of the lacrima was a Bad Thing, but I think the problem is like, Ferin racism. Not that Falst has Ferin body dysphoria
Glad that Red opted to have this conversation literally the first moment the two were honest with each other, like they’re sitting in a cave surrounded by things that want to eat them and the boys are chatting about life
Aw, poor Falst.
I really wonder how universal his experiences as a Ferin are. It’s pretty clear that they’re not a popular species, but Falst is one of the few Ferin we’ve seen in the plot thus far, and like it or not he’s the audience’s best window into their circumstances and struggles right now.
Also Dainix is Trans! Go Dainix.
Oh neat! I remember when Dainix offhandedly mentioned his “transition” in an earlier page, I thought that it was a little *too* subtle, and didn’t really clearly convey that he was trans. But this sure as hell does!!!
Also MY GOODNESS Dainix has no idea what land mines he is stepping on here as far as Falst’s angsty backstory goes.
?️⚧️
Between Dainix and Lucas (from High Class Homos), I think I’m noticing a pattern in my favorite characters….
“Do you think you’d be happier if you could be something else” is such a question that hits all the feel good buttons for me as a therapist who regularly works with mental health, I love it so much, this panel made me feel good in ways that surprised me.
I’d be happier if more people would treat me the way they treat everyone else.
Thank you for this panel Red.
I relate to it a little to hard. I’ve thought that way myself a lot, like, a lot. I created a DnD character with a weird sort of body dysphoria who wanted to be an elf, but was a human (it’s complicated), and I had a long period where I pushed those feelings on wanting to be like, a fairy, or a shapeshifter, something fantastical.
I’ve been slowly starting to question my gender and explore that over the past year, and I’ve wondered if some of those feelings of just wishing so hard to be in a different body of sorts could relate to the gendered question you know? But because it never manifested quite so explicitly as wanting to be a particular different gender for me, I’ve had trouble reconciling the two together. But this page really spoke to me and felt extremely validating in that, so thank you again.
I’m predicting that Falst is going to get a little angry at Dainix for comparing their tragic backstories.
Based on my knowledge of this world I’m going to assume his transition was quick, painless, and done with magic, everything a real life transition isn’t
> done with magic
Probably the only part of his transition that you got right.
Probably had to be done over a year or so, so Dainix’s body could adjust to differences in hormone levels. At the same time, his bone structure would shift, causing pain.
Unless by “painless” you meant “without interference from conservative assholes”.
I wonder what the orb thinks of all this
I am so tired and I don’t have the motivation to make predictions, can anyone come up with some please
Possible reactions from Falst:
-gets mad because it’s not like that
-clams right back up
-deflects and gets first aid without further commentary
-is actually touched by the attempt to connect (longshot)
Other possibilities:
-interrupted by monster attack
-orb calls in robot friends because the orange human isn’t good enough at first aid
Love danix’s trans rep. Also, it’s not like a 4-year-old’s going to have massive tits or a beard, so the no change is perfectly accurate
-a trans chick
As a person who doesn’t support LGBTQ but does support OSP, I’m glad Red didn’t make her character’s trans identity the focus of the story. If a character works best trans then fine, but it definitely should NOT be the defining characteristic. Unlike how it’s portrayed in many media. So thank you Red. I appreciate it.
Buddy, you are in the wrong neighbourhood, OSP are ALL asexual
Oh god. I feel Falst so hard on the scents thing (at least when my allergies aren’t trying to suffocate me).
Falst, Dainix grew up in a desert. He knows the smell of sweat, so yes he can imagine what it would be like to smell sweat all the time from everyone, it’s just a matter of scale.
Oh, I finally get it: “It wasn’t about WANTING TO BE something else, I just… [innately] WAS [something else].” Right? For the longest time, I thought that Dainix was supposed to be nongendered, because I misunderstood that line. Then when I found out Dainix transitioned F->M, I wondered why I’d misunderstood.
Probably a part of why I misunderstood was wishful thinking, because I have a pretty big chip on my shoulder about traditional IRL gender roles. So I got excited about a nongendered or gender-fluid character, and missed the correct read.