Page 128 of Nearly Roadkill
He is genuinely confused—what bargain is that?
“Let me spell it out for you, my friend. Registration is tied to advertising, advertising is tied to government. It’s all a partnership. And,” she sputters, “Scratch and Winc are messing up the whole thing! Of course it’s ridiculous, but that’s not the point. We need to get back to real police work. Whatever it takes.”
Lieutenant Budge shuffles back to his office, sits down, and leans way back in the creaky chair.
“Ooh, you don’t look good, Walls,” Shelly murmurs as she quietly steps in to join him. “She was pretty mad?”
“How dumb could I be?” he growls. “I should have known why they were going over my head. They made the ol’ proverbial deal with the devil.”
“Sure looks like it, Walls. I’m so sorry.”
END JABBA NARRATIVE ENTRY
TOOBE ENTRY
FUNNY OF THE DAY
Surgery happy USA
Don’t you think it’s kinda weird that you can just go pay a surgeon to break your nose, suck out fat from your hips, stretch your face tight over your skull, or add dangerous globs of saline to your breasts, but…
If you want to change your genitalia you have to live as the ‘opposite’ sex *before* the change (just a mite dangerous in this culture), go to therapy, and play the nice girl/boy and get *permission*?
I bet if I looked in Big Brother’s closet I’d find stacks of porno magazines… all of it Chicks With Dicks.
—Yer friendly, neighborhood Winc
Was just remembering what Winc told me about the beginning of hir transition. Ze had to “live as a woman” while ze was starting hormones. Ze really looked kind of “in between” for a while there. That’s like going out in drag against your will. Ze had to do that for an entire year before surgery. They told hir to make up a whole childhood as a little girl, so no one would suspect ze was once a guy. Ze said that being in therapy for being a transie (hir word for transsexual, not mine) was the only therapy where they encouraged you to lie.
END TOOBE ENTRY
To:Editor, They/Them magazine
From:D.I. Drew
Subject:Word choice
Hi Asa,
You’re right to ask—I too wondered if “transie” would be offensive, but turns out “transie” was coined by Sandy Stone, that great pioneer of transgender studies. People in her circle on the West Coast used it, but it doesn’t seem to have made it across the country very far. I bet Winc was a friend of hers!
You’re also 1000% on point about the chilling similarities between Registration in 1995, and the algorithm/gatekeeping/data mining we have today. Though the whole idea of Registration failed thanks to our heroes, it was replaced by something more insidious. There’s no need to track people because we freakin provide all our data voluntarily!
Cheers,
Drew
PS: Our two heroes are so frustrating. Apparently, Gwynyth felt the same…
GWYNYTH DIARY ENTRY
Scratch is burying hirself online, having asked me to help hir lurk without being detected.
Winc lights from room to room, never staying long enough to have a real conversation.
I want to shake them both! I’m about to side with the child and tell them they’ve had enough time.
The boy does *not* like that I refer to him as “the child” and has taken to calling me “the old lady” in retaliation. Very well… henceforth, I shall call him “Toobe.” Though now that I think of it, he could call me “the old witch” and he’d be spot on.
