Magec's Point of View

Forgive me for not introducing you sooner.  Shall I lead you along?  I have many sisters.  Most come and go.  The mass majority of them enjoys doing the things we could not do from the world we came from.  But we always eventually long for something new, outgrowing the situations we have come from.  Most eventually move on into the heavens.  But there are 11 sisters that have managed to stand by me for so long.

Antonia was the first.  I found her on the ancient streets of Rome.  She had been selling herself for years to get by.  The only time Rome was in worse shape was after the fall of the empire.  She was our lovely lady in red.  Red robes, red hair and lips, red nails, and fire in her amber eyes.  We often called her that.  "Red."  The more aggressive type of women often gravitated to her, or the ones that needed a boost in confidence.

Estella came second.  I found her off of the shores of Spain.  She reminded me so much of myself.  She had a knack for finding comforting textures for the individual, and heightening the senses.  Her demeanor was soft, but there was this rock solidness about her that you could easily underestimate.  When her mind was made up for something, there was no stopping her.  She had soft hazel eyes and her light brown hair felt as soft as silk draping over her milk white skin.

Rane was our moody "sister."  He was also a bit more unisex, going in between male and female.  I don't think she liked being confined to just one identity, and was a bit of a chameleon depending on the situation.  She loved things that stimulated her brain more so than things that she could accessorize with, though she did love to accessorize so long as she had plenty of variety.  She would even change her body's colors, her eyes skin and hair, hair type of texture, and even her body shape when she had a mind.  She helped encourage others to try new things.  Her white hair and alabaster skin she wore most of the time contrasted greatly with her coal black eyes in her original form.

Next came Cordelia.  I chose that name for her.  She was almost drowned when we found her.  She is our biggest homebody of all, always keeping warm and soft things close to her skin.  She and Estella both had an affinity for cooking and baking together.  Cordelia was found floating on the water in the middle of the ocean.  None of us are certain how she came there.  Cordelia always kept it a secret, and we allowed her to.

Lenya was our next sister.  She was found in the painted, underground tunnels of France.  She loved to sparkle and shine, and encouraged others to do so as well, inside and out.  It was like once she came out of the shadows, there was no stopping her.

Then came Vivian.  She had her attention to detail.  She took a lot of pride where people came from, and making them look like the people of their past.  Perhaps it's because she had none of her own.  We found her beaten near to death on the Great Wall, nursed her back to health.  She  had a terrible bout of amnesia. Even after spending time with us for many years, she preferred not to look into her past and allow it to remain a mystery.  "It made me who I am today."

Lazuli we found along the Nile River in the ancient ruins of Egypt.  She worked very closely with Vivian a lot of the times, always adding a finishing touch with makeup and jewelry pieces.  She had a knack of knowing what people loved, and what was close to their hearts.

From the mountains of Finland, we found Night Shade.  She had lived alone most of her life.  And she liked it that way.  But we found something in her that she could offer elsewhere.  The knowledge she had of tattooing, of body piercings and such things, she was unafraid of breaking taboos and taking things to the next level.  We were proud to welcome her to our tribe, and she was proud to join us.

Casey was found on the coasts of Southern California.  What was left of it anyway.  The last earthquake had most of the western coast sunk.  Casey had unique ideas on how to make beautiful hair.  She was not afraid to cut, or curl, or comb in a different kind of way. 

Then there was Alex, found in old Toronto.  Alex would be the most masculine of us all, being the only one of us preferred to be called "he."  Alex was not really into "being pretty," and saw clothing more as a functional thing, rather than a way of expressing self.  Alex preferred expression with words, and thoughts, and ideas.  Alex was very tired when we found him, having to fight off men that would try to bed him, sometimes by force.  And many women would take it personally when he would not return their affections.  Alex was a beautiful one, but aromantic, and asexual in nature, in a time where most of humanity had died, and were depending on one another to repopulate.  People judged him terribly for choosing to remain true to self, and having such an air of femininity.  Alex had a way of encouraging everyone, "To thine own self be true," and encouraged us to embrace our own natural beauty, at least from time to time for us sisters, for "You are beautiful just the way you are.

Finally, there was Lilly.  Lilly loved her hair.  All of it.  From her eyelashes, to her rich dark hair, to her bearded face.  That's right.  Lilly loved her beard.  She was always finding a way to experiment with it, braid it, accessorize it.  Then she would grow bored with it, shave it off, and then start again.  Lilly loved to remind people "I'm just as human as you and shouldn't be treated any differently for it."  Lilly was Iranian, and condemned to die, just because she was different.  She encouraged us all to embrace our unique differences, and continue to be different, and be happy for it.

We all had one thing in common that we all enjoyed doing together: make a woman feel beautiful on her wedding day.  Even Alex took a part of this, taking the lead on what made the woman beautiful in the first place, and then the rest of us would accent it while the bride would visit with him, and he would relieve her alter jitters.

Eventually, we found one more sister, but of a different kind.  She was trans, and she was a woman, but not both.  We called her Gem, or Jim.  She was especially close with Rane.  It was like they completed one another.  They loved to be contrary to the norm, and dress oppositely whatever anyone would expect them to wear.  Other days they looked like androgynous twins.  Jim was able to reach out to the occasional woman who was more on the androgynous side and encouraged them to "just be you."  She worked a lot with Alex as well.