I’d originally been going to title it “Venn-Splitting for Long-Distance Relationships,” but Sophia had come up with a snappier title, “Splitting for Togetherness.”

 Lanterns on Lake Pontchartrain
An Acadiana Transgender Story

-1-
Blue Bayou

Life and Love are far more complicated than we can possibly understand. For one young cop, a journey of self-discovery will teach them that true strength was inside them all along.

Queen Dana of Highwinds the Elf Kingdom inside the Empire has a problem. One that she cannot fix personally. The problem is with a small minority of her population. A problem that has been brought to her attention by the half elf son of a problematic Duke. What is a Queen to do? She calls on help from a friend. The question now is does she realize what she is letting loose on her kingdom?

One day in mid-December, a few days after Meredith came home from UNC Chapel Hill for Christmas, I was taking a break at work and hanging out with Genevieve and Terri for a few minutes. Genevieve was a kind of beetle-bee hybrid, with a bee’s striped fuzzy underbelly and a beetle’s elytra over her wings, and a slightly human-ish face. Terri was a big mushroom with a face and arms and four small feet, apparently based on a fantasy creature from a story she liked, “though the ones in the book are a lot smaller,” she said. I was in one of my more outre dragon-like bodies, slender with silver scales and four smaller wings more like a butterfly or moth than a bat.

I knew very early on that I wasnt like the other boys, I just felt different, I acted different then them. They wanted to wrestle, or play in the mud and I wanted to color pictures of princesses. I would spend hours coloring all the pretty dresses, and long hair, outlining there make up. I would feel jelious of the princesses in my coloring books. They were so soft and pretty, they had curves. I really wanted that. I wanted to be like them.

Part Nine

Sutter threw the bow rope to the deck crew of the submarine. Reynard tossed them the stern rope. The sailors held the small boat steady against the sub's hull while the commando team scampered aboard.

Once on the wet foredeck of the sub the commandos were quietly but enthusiastically welcomed by the crew. They were surprised when their rum runner boat was also pulled aboard, and maneuvered onto the cradle and back into the hangar.

Chapter 2

They spent the day going through the case files. Susan had told them to keep things to themselves. Monday they would discuss the cases and see where they would go next. When she got home, she found Mervyn having a cup of tea in the kitchen.

“Hello, darling, how was the trip?”

Not everyone will approve of you as you go along your own gender journey. You'll change and grow in many ways they may disapprove of. But it's not your job to please them.

Captions:

Panel 1:
Idiot: "This is why I don't like being your friend anymore. You've changed."
Lari: "Do you mean the tits, or the complete shift of my beliefs and worldview?"

Panel 2:
Lari: "It's called growing. I've done both."

Part Eight

"The Nazis have sponsored multiple expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic and several mountain ranges," said The Solution, frowning. "Including the Himalayas. Could they have found something here, closer to home?"

"Viking hacksilver," guessed The Infiltrator. Being pragmatic, or perhaps merely hopeful.

When I tell people that the Sunflower Grocery Store is haunted, people around Benton tend to give me something of a sideways look. But honest to goodness the store is really, bloody haunted. In fact I would go as far as to say it's crawling with ghosts. My name is James Donald Bell, and I'm a part time Courtesy Clerk at Sunflower Grocery store. Before I move on with my story, I should tell you a little about what a Courtesy Clerk is and what they do.