The Enby has escaped the Basement~

[CallMeJuli]

"Can I really do this?" she thought, nervously drumming her fingers on the wall, "I don't know any of these people! How could I talk to them? I wouldn't know what to say! I..."

 

Feeling the anxiety welling up in her throat, she took a moment to steady herself, ceding her screaming mind to her inner monologue, "Deep breaths, Juli. Eight in, five out. You're fine. You're fine. You'll be fine. They're not evil! I think. If you don't do this, if you don't ever try to talk to them, then you'll miss out on so much. It's fine! You'll meet so many good people!"

 

Gripping the doorknob with a shaky hand and turning it just a little too quickly, she threw herself out the door to join the people that were just like her.

 

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So uh, yeah! Hi! I'm Juli! I'm 23! I use she / they pronouns! Forgive me for the overdramatic blurb above me here, but I really wanted to try doing something unique for my introduction! Here's to hoping it captured your attention. Where do I start though? Is there a script I could follow for these things? I'm good at scripts!... Ah fuck it, that's boring. Let's start with the basement metaphor.

 

I've been lurking around this community for a long time. I mean, a stupidly long period of time without saying a word about how much I enjoy Pokémon Reborn and how it's shaped my life in very subtle ways. I started waaaaay back in late middle school / early high school, before Field Effects were even a thing, before Reborn City got a makeover. Haha no, I'm not referring to what Adrienn spearheads in the story. I've been stuck in the basement for a long-ass time. Would you believe that I've never actually made it past Agate Circus? Yeah. I've played through early-game like 12 times though because I really enjoy that part of the game  ^{and also because adult life has tightly restricted the amount of free time I have in my life and I'm slowly coming to the unfortunate conclusion that I'll also never be able to finish those 50 games on my Steam backlog while also running two D&D campaigns and also attending my game store's Friday Night Magic because that's also another hobby that I really enjoy that I also don't have time for!}

 

Also doesn't look like a word to me anymore, and that got a little real for a sec there. Let's go to the other part of the basement metaphor. I'm trans! Thanks Reborn. I think Adrienn was the first gender non-conforming character that I'd ever encountered in any story ever? Unless you count the fact that I accidentally chose one of the non-binary protagonists and during that very same playthrough I met Adrienn and Cain was like, "Hey, you don't look much like a girl or a guy either!" and I definitely didn't get euphoria from that because I was definitely cis. Totally. For sure. Uh huh. Seriously though, I'm very thankful that the seed was planted there, so to say. Thankful that the first trans character I'd ever met was cool and mysterious and just a good-ass person. It only took me until like, last October, to finally figure things out!

 

Anyways. Um. I've spent like two hours on this introduction. Apologies for rambling a bit. If you want to find me, I'm writing and maintaining the wiki with a few other folks, which means that I'll be in #reborn-wiki-project on the Discord a lot! Come in and help out! The folks there seem pretty chill.

 

also this is where I'm going to put my hobbies because I couldn't find a spot to put them

• Tabletop RPGs! I've only done D&D 5e. I'm in the planning stages for two different D&D campaigns ("Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden" and "Strixhaven but it's queer as fuck") and am playing as my rogue Finch in another campaign!
• Magic: the Gathering! I play waaaaay too much Commander.
• Pokémon. Yeah, go figure right?
  • I've actually been trying some Nuzlockes of Reborn, but they're haaaard and I get lost in making Google Sheets and pouring over data for hours instead of actually playing the game haha whoops. I think I might make a thread for it in the discord whenever I work up the nerves to do so.
  • I've also played Rejuv, I beat Valerie's gym fight!...and then Reborn's e19 beta came out and I dropped it and haven't played it since.
  • My second favorite game of all time is Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. Yeah, y'know? The game where you, the player, are reborn as a whole new entity? Yeah, real cis there Juli.
• Indie Games! There's a lot, but I usually end up playing them because they're cheaper, easier on the PC, and the communities are cooler.
  • My actual favorite game of all time is Celeste! Yeah, y'know? The game wher- yeah i already used this joke, huh? go play it, it cracked my egg a bit further open for sure.
  • Uhhh just gonna list a few off that I also like: Crosscode, Chicory, Outer Wilds (holy shit, I played Outer Wilds in one big 17-hour sitting and it was so cool), Haven, basically anything Supergiant Games makes, Everhood, Deep Rock Galactic (Driller main :D), Unsighted, Everhood, basically anything Toby Fox makes, and the occasional Friday Night Funkin' mod (soft is my favorite).
• Books! I've really only just gotten back into reading again though.
  • Recently, I finished Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey! Imagine a down-to-earth queer fantasy noir book where a non-magical private investigator digs into a murder at a high school for mages where her sister works.
  • I'm also a big fan of the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson! vin has some trans allegories don't @ me

 

Oh whoops that took me another hour, and if I don't hit "Submit Topic" now then I'll write a fucking book. Nice to meet y'all though! :D

Edited May 22, 2022 by CallMeJuli