TRUTH OR DARE

[cactusy]

1) Post your characters, one per comment.
2) Comment around ICly asking other characters "truth or dare?"
3) Truth is self-explanatory; dares should involve tagging out to another character's top level somehow ("Insult someone you find terrifying", "Tell someone you think is hot one thing you find sexy about them", "Strike up a conversation using the most awkward non-sequitur you can come up with", etc.)

Comments

[somethingintangible]

Maybe. I don't know if I know anybody who's totally straight or totally gay, though. I feel like most people are on a spectrum, anyway.

[cactusy]

Maybe there's just something in the water at your high school.

-- Or, I dunno, a generational thing. I'm only, what, fifteen years older than you, but I was still in the military when Don't Ask, Don't Tell was a thing.

[somethingintangible]

[ She opens her mouth, but whatever she was about to say, she gets side-tracked. Pauses. Starts again.

Completely seriously: ]

What's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"?

[cactusy]

Ugh, seriously? It was repealed like four years ago, don't you watch the news?

Technically only straight people were allowed in the service, but as long as you stayed in the closet you wouldn't get hounded or kicked out. As long as you didn't tell, they wouldn't ask.

[somethingintangible]

No. I get my news from Twitter. And besides, I was like fourteen four years ago. ...I'm pretty sure gay people could go in the army four years ago, though. Are you sure it wasn't longer ago?

Oh. That's stupid.

[cactusy]

Yeah, it was really stupid. And it got repealed in 2011, but by then I was in special ops, and they didn't care if I slept with women to begin with.

[somethingintangible]

[ Something clicks. ]

Miss Shaw, what year is it for you? At home. For you.

[cactusy]

2015. Oh, let me guess; it's like 2148 for you?

[somethingintangible]

I mean, not exactly but yeah. It's 2019.

Truth or dare?

[cactusy]

So it was still less than a decade ago, they should really teach you this crap in school-- and quit getting your news from Twitter. For god's sake.

Anyway. Yeah, okay, truth.

[somethingintangible]

The news is boring. I'm not watching that shit.

How did you know you weren't straight? Like, what was your first clue?

[cactusy]

I didn't do the whole "long journey of self-discovery, internal struggle" thing. Not my style. In sixth grade I kind of wanted to kiss Jessie Dovey in my class and Michael Choy from next door, but I already knew my brain was weird by then, so I figured it was just part of... that. I didn't realize that some other people felt the same way and that there was a word for it until a few years later. Wasn't something that got talked about when I was growing up.

Looking back, I also really liked watching the cheerleaders when my dad and I watched football together, so I guess that was a clue too.

[somethingintangible]

That makes sense. I feel like... I don't know. I guess it's better for people my age. Like, we know more now. Some people are still homophobic though. And transphobic. And... a lot of stuff. My friends Kat and Jules could probably tell you more about that than me, though. [ Jules is trans and Kat is Very Online, soooo... ]

I'm a cheerleader!

[cactusy]

Cheerleaders are only hot if they're out of high school now.

I got lucky; my mom was pretty okay about it. I think being a refugee who came from a place where people got stoned to death for that stuff helped her appreciate people having the freedom to be themselves.

[somethingintangible]

Rude.

That's fucked up. The stoning thing. My mom's an immigrant too, though, so it's like, I get it. Kinda. I mean, it's not the same, but like... the cultural stuff... I'm not sure how my mom would be about it. I don't think she'd disown me or anything, but she'd probably say it was just a phase.

[cactusy]

I think my mom thought it was a phase, too - but she already knew I wasn't the type of daughter who was going to pop out two-point-five grandkids for her and she was okay with that, and it didn't interfere with anything else she wanted for me. First and foremost she wanted me to have a good education, and then a job that I found fulfilling. Being bi doesn't preempt that.

Where's your mom from?

[somethingintangible]

Ugh. I don't think I'll ever find any job fulfilling. Work is so bullshit. So is school. [ :P ] It's all so pointless. I just want to marry a rich man so I don't have to think about any of it, and I can just do what I want to do. My mom doesn't get it. She just keeps talking about how she struggled to get here so I could have more opportunities, but it's like, she does nails, and when I was little, I would watch rich people treat her like shit all day. I don't want to end up like that.

Mexico. What about yours?

[cactusy]

Are you kidding me? Don't be some rich dude's trophy wife, listen to your damn mom. Or join the military; the Marines would sort you out. That cheerleading stuff's more applicable than you think; athleticism and flexibility will get you far in a lot of careers.

My mom's from Iran. The government there really went to hell in the seventies.