ysabetwordsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2017-07-22 09:23 pm
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2017-07-22 09:23 pm
Poem: "Chipped"
This poem came out of the July 4, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from bairnsidhe, readera, alexseanchai, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rix_scaedu. It also fills the "bisexual" square in my 5-29-17 card for the Pride Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Antimatter & Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
Warning: This poem contains some fractious content. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It features crowds, frustration, floundering over cape identity, rude people, obnoxious language, sex/gender bigotry, bigot-baiting, questioning aspects of personal sexuality, and other challenges. But mostly it's fluff. It's also a humor-based choking hazard. Do not read with your mouth full! If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Chipped"
The Shield Wall Summer Bake Sale
was mobbed. It was so crowded that
Stan and Lawrence had to hold hands
the whole time they squeezed through
just to avoid getting separated.
Much to Stan's frustration, they
couldn't get anywhere near the table
selling the emergency services t-shirts.
He had been wanting one of
the We Got Your Back shirts that
appeared in the flyers for the event.
Part of the proceeds would go toward
supporting injured or retired workers.
Beside him, Lawrence's stomach growled.
"Sorry," Lawrence muttered. "Breakfast
is burning off pretty quick today."
"Let's pass on the t-shirts for now and
look for something to eat," Stan said.
"Half the vendors are hawking food, so
we should be able to get in somewhere."
Then he spied Hefty in his battlesuit
standing head-and-shoulders above the crowd.
They made a beeline for that table, because
Roger had taken Friday off of work from
Cow Heaven to bake cookies for today.
Fiddlesticks was working the table,
his Super-Speed a definite asset.
"Start loading up," Stan told Lawrence.
"It's time to support the team."
Lawrence may have started out
as a supervillain, but Stan was
determined to coax him onto
the white side of the cape.
Gently, though, because Stan
didn't want to crush the mischief
that made Lawrence so ... captivating.
"You know, when you boys turn 18,
you could join the team," Hefty said.
"But -- but we're not really --"
Lawrence sputtered, clearly at a loss.
"Since when does anyone call a superhero
and it's not an emergency?" Fiddlesticks said.
"You're doing the work, you're on the team."
"We'll think about it," Stan said diplomatically.
"So what's up with all the quilt cookies?"
The whole front of the table was covered
with patchwork hearts and little mittens
made from differently tinted dough.
There were plates of nine cookies in
a pinwheel design with the initial 'R'
piped into the center square.
"Well, you know how it goes,"
Roger said, blushing a little. "I
started out making Thin Blue Lines,
and then things got a bit crazy."
Stan looked around, and yes,
there they were: heart cookies
decorated as black-blue-white flags,
and patchwork quilts of blue plaid
on vanilla or dark chocolate bases.
"We'll take some of each," he said,
pulling out a cash card. Anything that
he and Lawrence didn't finish here,
Stan's family would happily devour
when he took the leftovers home.
Another couple squeezed through
the crowd to the table. "Hi, Megan,
hi, Tito," said Hefty. "Tell me that
you brought fortified food."
"High-protein jello squares,
homemade gummy vitamins, and
superfood gummies made from sport tea,"
Megan replied, pointing over her shoulder.
"They're on an EMT table back there."
"Stan, Lawrence, make sure you two
try those," said Hefty. "And maybe
trade Megan your buttermint recipe."
"Buttermints?" Megan said.
"I, uh, have a high metabolism,"
Stan admitted. "Fat-soluble vitamins
act like water-soluble ones for me, I can't
keep them on. So I made a recipe for
fortified buttermints instead." He took out
the tin out and offered it to her. "Try one,
just don't eat them by the handful
the way you'll see me doing."
Megan ate one, grinned, and said,
"Sample what I brought, and I'll
swap you the recipe for any of it."
Just then someone else shoved up
to the table, not being very careful.
"Hey," Tito said mildly. "I know
this place is packed, but that's
no excuse for being rude."
"Well, we want more cookies,
the church kids ate all ours,"
said the woman. Stan recognized
her as the GenderCops vendor that
he had seen at the Mall one time,
and edged away from her.
The man beside her wearing
a Straight Pride t-shirt was
still stuffing his face with
a chocolate-chip cookie, so
apparently the kids had not
gotten to all of them.
"We made plenty," Hefty said.
"I thought your wives made these!"
the man choked. "Men don't cook."
"Well, Diamond made some,"
Fiddlesticks said, pointing to rows
of sugar-coated almond cookies and
vanilla ones with Nut-Free stickers
six-packed into folded paper boats.
"My husband made most of these,"
Hefty said, "but I helped. I made
the rainbow chocolate chip cookies
and the fudge-filled ones."
"Yes, men made those cookies,"
Roger said, stretching up to kiss him.
"Handsome gay manhands have been
all over your delicious food."
The man coughed and spat bits
of chocolate chip cookie into his palm.
"Aaand he just did the no-homo butt clench,"
Lawrence murmured, just loud enough
for Stan to hear over the crowd.
"At least I didn't eat any," the woman said.
"Weren't they at our table earlier?"
Tito asked, looking at the couple.
Megan leaned over and whispered,
"I'm bisexual, so if you ate any of
the fortified goodies, then those
had queer cooties too."
Stan laughed, but he wondered
whether being bisexual with
a person of the opposite sex
felt any different than with
a person of the same sex.
Maybe he'd ask her someday.
The bigots leaned back, but couldn't
escape quickly in the heavy crowd.
"Sorry we just cost you some sales,"
Megan told Hefty. "I probably should
not have teased them like that."
"No great loss, and besides,
I started it," Hefty said.
"Hefty and I have chosen
to share the emotional labor and
not divide things like bake sale donations
based on gender expectations," Roger said.
"Besides, I love that he doesn't feel threatened
just because I'm a professional cook -- he puts
his chocolate chips beside my royal icing."
"I love you too," Hefty said,
and kissed his husband again.
"You didn't have to say anything,"
Lawrence pointed out, "or at least,
not until you had the cash in hand."
Roger shook his head. "It's not good
to let people get away with that shit."
Stan couldn't argue with that.
He saw Fiddlesticks rubbing
the little chip that told him where
Hefty was, and suddenly realized that
it might not be a safety feature only for
police work, but for other things too.
"Sexuality is a spectrum, and
attraction can be complicated,
but you aren't obliged to question
where you are if you're happy and
comfortable -- and no-one's getting hurt,"
Megan said. "But if you're hurting people
because you're insecure, that's not okay."
Now Stan really wanted to talk with her
about bisexual identity and experience.
"Yeah, I do some gender education
on that theme, but sometimes I wonder
if it does any good," Lawrence said.
"Well, maybe it chipped away
at their prejudice a little," Stan said.
"We can hope," Lawrence said.
"Should we tell them what we
contributed?" Stan asked.
"Nah," Lawrence purred.
"Let 'em wonder."
* * *
Notes:
Tito Martinez -- He has fair skin that tans well, brown eyes, and short brown hair. When he was ten, his house burned down and he barely made it out alive. He didn't develop superpowers, but he did decide to become a fireman. Tito is the husband of Megan, and they live in Omaha, Nebraska.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Courage, Good (+2) Fireman, Good (+2) Leader, Good (+2) Strength
Poor (-2) Sense of Self-Preservation
Megan Martinez -- She has fair skin, hazel eyes, and shoulder-length hair streaked in shades of lighter and darker blonde. She enjoys finding tasty and creative ways to fortify food. She is the wife of Tito, and they live in Omaha, Nebraska. As an EMT, Megan can keep her balance even in the back of a speeding ambulance.
Qualities: Good (+2) Balance, Good (+2) Bisexual, Good (+2) EMT, Good (+2) Fortified Food, Good (+2) Multitasking
Poor (-2) Overworked
Genesis Smith -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and shoulder-length black hair. She is short and fat. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska. Genesis is the wife of Tobiah Smith. They are both active in their church, but their prejudice causes problems.
Qualities: Good (+2) Baker, Good (+2) Church Volunteer
Poor (-2) Bigot
Tobiah Smith -- He has fair skin, brown eyes, and short brown hair with a beard. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska. He is the husband of Genesis Smith. They are both active in their church, but their prejudice causes problems.
Qualities: Good (+2) Accessibility Driver, Good (+2) Dedicated, Good (+2) Stamina
Poor (-2) Zealot
Genesis and Tobiah first appeared as the GenderCops in "Scrambling for Crumbs," and this poem references some previous events from that one.
* * *
A bake sale is a fundraiser based on food, often combined with other activities. Learn how to plan one.
Emergency services such as police, firefighters, and EMTs often band together. Under the Shield is one organization offering support to all emergency workers. All kinds of swag capitalizes on this theme. We Got Your Back, One Team One Fight, We Stand United, and In This Family are examples.
At this sale, decorated cookies are packaged on paper plates, typically four hearts or nine squares. Cookies are also sold individually in biodegradable bakery bags. Everything is labeled with a tag naming the donor, dish, and ingredients; plus optional labels for things that meet special dietary needs.
Decorated cookies include these patchwork hearts and patchwork mittens. The patchwork pinwheels may be made with a sugar cookie base and royal icing.
Thin Blue Line Cookies come in various styles and symbolize the protective aspect of police work. These hearts have a black-blue-white flag design. These patchwork squares use a regular sugar cookie base as described above, similar to this version on a dark chocolate cookie base.
Undecorated cookies are packaged in these clever holders, each containing six cookies.
Diamond actually made two batches of these diamond cookies, so named for the large-crystal sugar around the edges. One batch has plain vanilla, labeled "nut-free." The other has almond extract and chopped almonds.
Hefty's Rainbow Chocolate Chip Cookies are made with Crazy Sugar Crumbs, a breakfast cereal that resembles Razzle Dazzle Rice Krispies. But really, any rainbow-colored breakfast cereal plus some kind of chocolate bits will work. He also made Fudge-Filled Chocolate Chip Cookies, which is a bit of very subtle mockery at the term "fudge-packer" for gay men.
Home-fortified foods are more popular in Terramagne-America than local-America, especially among soups and other people who need extra nutrition. But I couldn't find much written on the theme of using individual enhancements at home, as a general premise. I did find yummy recipes for these pretty High-Protein Jello Squares, Superfood Gummies made with SPORTea, and Homemade Chewable Gummy Vitamins.
Before you go nuts asking me about these, Stan donated Caramel Apple Pie Cookies and Lawrence brought Checkerboard Cookies.
(These links are sad.)
Homophobia is an unreasoning fear and hatred of queerfolk. It poses a serious threat to gay teens, raising the risk of depression, suicide, and other problems. It's also a grave concern with regard to superpowers, because this is where homophobia leads. Understand how to handle homophobes and how to fight homophobia. Biphobia is similar, but has its own unique issues and ways to fight it.
bairnsidhe, readera, alexseanchai, and rix_scaedu. It also fills the "bisexual" square in my 5-29-17 card for the Pride Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Antimatter & Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.Warning: This poem contains some fractious content. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It features crowds, frustration, floundering over cape identity, rude people, obnoxious language, sex/gender bigotry, bigot-baiting, questioning aspects of personal sexuality, and other challenges. But mostly it's fluff. It's also a humor-based choking hazard. Do not read with your mouth full! If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Chipped"
The Shield Wall Summer Bake Sale
was mobbed. It was so crowded that
Stan and Lawrence had to hold hands
the whole time they squeezed through
just to avoid getting separated.
Much to Stan's frustration, they
couldn't get anywhere near the table
selling the emergency services t-shirts.
He had been wanting one of
the We Got Your Back shirts that
appeared in the flyers for the event.
Part of the proceeds would go toward
supporting injured or retired workers.
Beside him, Lawrence's stomach growled.
"Sorry," Lawrence muttered. "Breakfast
is burning off pretty quick today."
"Let's pass on the t-shirts for now and
look for something to eat," Stan said.
"Half the vendors are hawking food, so
we should be able to get in somewhere."
Then he spied Hefty in his battlesuit
standing head-and-shoulders above the crowd.
They made a beeline for that table, because
Roger had taken Friday off of work from
Cow Heaven to bake cookies for today.
Fiddlesticks was working the table,
his Super-Speed a definite asset.
"Start loading up," Stan told Lawrence.
"It's time to support the team."
Lawrence may have started out
as a supervillain, but Stan was
determined to coax him onto
the white side of the cape.
Gently, though, because Stan
didn't want to crush the mischief
that made Lawrence so ... captivating.
"You know, when you boys turn 18,
you could join the team," Hefty said.
"But -- but we're not really --"
Lawrence sputtered, clearly at a loss.
"Since when does anyone call a superhero
and it's not an emergency?" Fiddlesticks said.
"You're doing the work, you're on the team."
"We'll think about it," Stan said diplomatically.
"So what's up with all the quilt cookies?"
The whole front of the table was covered
with patchwork hearts and little mittens
made from differently tinted dough.
There were plates of nine cookies in
a pinwheel design with the initial 'R'
piped into the center square.
"Well, you know how it goes,"
Roger said, blushing a little. "I
started out making Thin Blue Lines,
and then things got a bit crazy."
Stan looked around, and yes,
there they were: heart cookies
decorated as black-blue-white flags,
and patchwork quilts of blue plaid
on vanilla or dark chocolate bases.
"We'll take some of each," he said,
pulling out a cash card. Anything that
he and Lawrence didn't finish here,
Stan's family would happily devour
when he took the leftovers home.
Another couple squeezed through
the crowd to the table. "Hi, Megan,
hi, Tito," said Hefty. "Tell me that
you brought fortified food."
"High-protein jello squares,
homemade gummy vitamins, and
superfood gummies made from sport tea,"
Megan replied, pointing over her shoulder.
"They're on an EMT table back there."
"Stan, Lawrence, make sure you two
try those," said Hefty. "And maybe
trade Megan your buttermint recipe."
"Buttermints?" Megan said.
"I, uh, have a high metabolism,"
Stan admitted. "Fat-soluble vitamins
act like water-soluble ones for me, I can't
keep them on. So I made a recipe for
fortified buttermints instead." He took out
the tin out and offered it to her. "Try one,
just don't eat them by the handful
the way you'll see me doing."
Megan ate one, grinned, and said,
"Sample what I brought, and I'll
swap you the recipe for any of it."
Just then someone else shoved up
to the table, not being very careful.
"Hey," Tito said mildly. "I know
this place is packed, but that's
no excuse for being rude."
"Well, we want more cookies,
the church kids ate all ours,"
said the woman. Stan recognized
her as the GenderCops vendor that
he had seen at the Mall one time,
and edged away from her.
The man beside her wearing
a Straight Pride t-shirt was
still stuffing his face with
a chocolate-chip cookie, so
apparently the kids had not
gotten to all of them.
"We made plenty," Hefty said.
"I thought your wives made these!"
the man choked. "Men don't cook."
"Well, Diamond made some,"
Fiddlesticks said, pointing to rows
of sugar-coated almond cookies and
vanilla ones with Nut-Free stickers
six-packed into folded paper boats.
"My husband made most of these,"
Hefty said, "but I helped. I made
the rainbow chocolate chip cookies
and the fudge-filled ones."
"Yes, men made those cookies,"
Roger said, stretching up to kiss him.
"Handsome gay manhands have been
all over your delicious food."
The man coughed and spat bits
of chocolate chip cookie into his palm.
"Aaand he just did the no-homo butt clench,"
Lawrence murmured, just loud enough
for Stan to hear over the crowd.
"At least I didn't eat any," the woman said.
"Weren't they at our table earlier?"
Tito asked, looking at the couple.
Megan leaned over and whispered,
"I'm bisexual, so if you ate any of
the fortified goodies, then those
had queer cooties too."
Stan laughed, but he wondered
whether being bisexual with
a person of the opposite sex
felt any different than with
a person of the same sex.
Maybe he'd ask her someday.
The bigots leaned back, but couldn't
escape quickly in the heavy crowd.
"Sorry we just cost you some sales,"
Megan told Hefty. "I probably should
not have teased them like that."
"No great loss, and besides,
I started it," Hefty said.
"Hefty and I have chosen
to share the emotional labor and
not divide things like bake sale donations
based on gender expectations," Roger said.
"Besides, I love that he doesn't feel threatened
just because I'm a professional cook -- he puts
his chocolate chips beside my royal icing."
"I love you too," Hefty said,
and kissed his husband again.
"You didn't have to say anything,"
Lawrence pointed out, "or at least,
not until you had the cash in hand."
Roger shook his head. "It's not good
to let people get away with that shit."
Stan couldn't argue with that.
He saw Fiddlesticks rubbing
the little chip that told him where
Hefty was, and suddenly realized that
it might not be a safety feature only for
police work, but for other things too.
"Sexuality is a spectrum, and
attraction can be complicated,
but you aren't obliged to question
where you are if you're happy and
comfortable -- and no-one's getting hurt,"
Megan said. "But if you're hurting people
because you're insecure, that's not okay."
Now Stan really wanted to talk with her
about bisexual identity and experience.
"Yeah, I do some gender education
on that theme, but sometimes I wonder
if it does any good," Lawrence said.
"Well, maybe it chipped away
at their prejudice a little," Stan said.
"We can hope," Lawrence said.
"Should we tell them what we
contributed?" Stan asked.
"Nah," Lawrence purred.
"Let 'em wonder."
* * *
Notes:
Tito Martinez -- He has fair skin that tans well, brown eyes, and short brown hair. When he was ten, his house burned down and he barely made it out alive. He didn't develop superpowers, but he did decide to become a fireman. Tito is the husband of Megan, and they live in Omaha, Nebraska.
Qualities: Expert (+4) Courage, Good (+2) Fireman, Good (+2) Leader, Good (+2) Strength
Poor (-2) Sense of Self-Preservation
Megan Martinez -- She has fair skin, hazel eyes, and shoulder-length hair streaked in shades of lighter and darker blonde. She enjoys finding tasty and creative ways to fortify food. She is the wife of Tito, and they live in Omaha, Nebraska. As an EMT, Megan can keep her balance even in the back of a speeding ambulance.
Qualities: Good (+2) Balance, Good (+2) Bisexual, Good (+2) EMT, Good (+2) Fortified Food, Good (+2) Multitasking
Poor (-2) Overworked
Genesis Smith -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and shoulder-length black hair. She is short and fat. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska. Genesis is the wife of Tobiah Smith. They are both active in their church, but their prejudice causes problems.
Qualities: Good (+2) Baker, Good (+2) Church Volunteer
Poor (-2) Bigot
Tobiah Smith -- He has fair skin, brown eyes, and short brown hair with a beard. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska. He is the husband of Genesis Smith. They are both active in their church, but their prejudice causes problems.
Qualities: Good (+2) Accessibility Driver, Good (+2) Dedicated, Good (+2) Stamina
Poor (-2) Zealot
Genesis and Tobiah first appeared as the GenderCops in "Scrambling for Crumbs," and this poem references some previous events from that one.
* * *
A bake sale is a fundraiser based on food, often combined with other activities. Learn how to plan one.
Emergency services such as police, firefighters, and EMTs often band together. Under the Shield is one organization offering support to all emergency workers. All kinds of swag capitalizes on this theme. We Got Your Back, One Team One Fight, We Stand United, and In This Family are examples.
At this sale, decorated cookies are packaged on paper plates, typically four hearts or nine squares. Cookies are also sold individually in biodegradable bakery bags. Everything is labeled with a tag naming the donor, dish, and ingredients; plus optional labels for things that meet special dietary needs.
Decorated cookies include these patchwork hearts and patchwork mittens. The patchwork pinwheels may be made with a sugar cookie base and royal icing.
Thin Blue Line Cookies come in various styles and symbolize the protective aspect of police work. These hearts have a black-blue-white flag design. These patchwork squares use a regular sugar cookie base as described above, similar to this version on a dark chocolate cookie base.
Undecorated cookies are packaged in these clever holders, each containing six cookies.
Diamond actually made two batches of these diamond cookies, so named for the large-crystal sugar around the edges. One batch has plain vanilla, labeled "nut-free." The other has almond extract and chopped almonds.
Hefty's Rainbow Chocolate Chip Cookies are made with Crazy Sugar Crumbs, a breakfast cereal that resembles Razzle Dazzle Rice Krispies. But really, any rainbow-colored breakfast cereal plus some kind of chocolate bits will work. He also made Fudge-Filled Chocolate Chip Cookies, which is a bit of very subtle mockery at the term "fudge-packer" for gay men.
Home-fortified foods are more popular in Terramagne-America than local-America, especially among soups and other people who need extra nutrition. But I couldn't find much written on the theme of using individual enhancements at home, as a general premise. I did find yummy recipes for these pretty High-Protein Jello Squares, Superfood Gummies made with SPORTea, and Homemade Chewable Gummy Vitamins.
Before you go nuts asking me about these, Stan donated Caramel Apple Pie Cookies and Lawrence brought Checkerboard Cookies.
(These links are sad.)
Homophobia is an unreasoning fear and hatred of queerfolk. It poses a serious threat to gay teens, raising the risk of depression, suicide, and other problems. It's also a grave concern with regard to superpowers, because this is where homophobia leads. Understand how to handle homophobes and how to fight homophobia. Biphobia is similar, but has its own unique issues and ways to fight it.
no subject
Well...
Stan eats them by the handful for two reasons. One, he can't store nutrients in fat very well because he can't keep the fat on. Two, many superpowers -- and especially the more physical ones -- burn through nutrients other than just calories. Vitamins are used for specific functions in the body, including damage repair. So a superhero needs more than usual.