A story of three friends (draft)

There was once a boy named Steven. This boy was happy being a boy, but he always felt something was missing, that there was another part of him. While part of him wanted to be a dad, another part wanted to be a mom. While one part wanted to be a fighter pilot like his dad, the other wanted to be a kindergarten teacher like her mom. While one wanted to play sports with the boys, the other wanted to place dolls with the girls. Because he was born a boy, he thought being a girl wasn’t an option, just like staying up passed eight to watch Nick At Nite wasn’t an option.

When he turned 12, he started puberty. He was excited to be growing up, to have facial hair, and to speak with a deeper voice. He quickly learned that most of the other boys didn’t have a part of them that wasn’t a boy, and he learned if he talked about that part, he’d be ostracised. He waved goodbye to his girl part, and thought that this was just a part of growing up. As the girl part faded away, he was surprised to see another part leave him: his child-like curiosity: his part that wasn’t afraid to be goofy, ask silly questions, cry at movies, and tell his friends that he loved them.

He started becoming more involved with the Evangelical Church his parents took him to. He decided that he wanted to be a minister, or a missionary. He realized he was attracted to girls and boys, but he quickly learned not to tell anyone, lest he be reproved. She wore feminine costumes for Halloween, the one day of the year that she could come out. He went to Bible college. He decided to be celibate, so that they didn’t have to worry about their sexuality.

Then, he became an atheist, and left the Bible college. She pushed them to study nursing, but they couldn’t pass anatomy, so he studied computers instead. He fell in love with a boy. His dad stopped talking to him in protest. She faded into the depths. Steven, now Thomas, was a software engineer. He told himself, that he didn’t need to talk to the others. He was successful in his career.

He moved to San Francisco, and started dating a someone who matched his vibe perfectly. They both grew weary, angry, and disappointed in their country, and moved to Canada. One night, his partner confided in him that they were trans agender, and as he watched his partner transition, the other parts demanded to be heard. “If they can do it, we can do it too.” He ignored them.

Then the whole Earth was stricken with a terrible pandemic, and he had to stay at home, where he had nowhere to hide from his other parts. The part that was a woman cried on his shoulders. Sad that she was trapped inside while he was able to live a life. His heart shattered and he relented, “we will transition; you will lead and I will follow.”

It was hard for her at first. She had never led the system before. She had never been to the front for more than a few hours on an odd Halloween. She struggled to build the muscles, so Tom tried to help. He started the transition, feeling very awkward in feminine clothes in feminine spaces. He got their first bra fitting. He put their first make-up on. He started taking testosterone blockers and estrogen. He watched their body go through a second puberty. He had his beard removed permanently with lasers.

Slowly but surely, his feminine counterpart, who called herself Stef, was able to come to the front. She made friends. She had a slut era. She felt a profound freedom that she had never felt before. She trained her voice to be higher. She grew boobs and a bigger butt. She was incredibly happy.

But something was wrong. Tom, who had at first been at peace with taking the back seat and retiring began to feel trapped in the background. The system was confused. “Isn’t this what we wanted?” While in the depths, Tom found the part they had forgotten. The fearless child-like wonder, was stuck playing by herself without any friends or even someone to talk to. She didn’t have a name, but Tom named her Anie (the second half of Stefanie). Stef was scared to talk to either of them because she was afraid she’d lose her spot at the front and have to go back to the depths.

Then one day, she befriended someone, who told her that they also had many parts, and that they’d learned to share and cooperate. They took turns at the front, and actively helped out when they were in the back. They said that they didn’t fully understand it themselves, but that they were happy. Stef found this odd at first. On one hand this resonated with the system to the core, and on the other hand, she was afraid that her friends and family wouldn’t understand and reject her or think she was going insane. Somehow this was more scary than transitioning. But something had cracked, the wall between those in the front and those in the back began to crumble.

They started talking. They didn’t know what was happening at first, or what this meant for them.They told their partners, before they even fully understood for themselves what was going on. Stef, Anie, and Tom: three people in one body, with no instructions on how to run a human together. It took them a while to figure out how to cooperate effectively. The took turns in the front. They restocked on masculine clothes and bought a binder to compress the breasts they grew, and then they learned to take turns. Sometimes one of them would only want to be at the front for a couple of hours. Anie had not been in the front since they were children, and had a hard time driving the ship. But Tom and Stef helped her, and soon, they were doing it. They were steering the ship together.

Names are hard. Stef had legally changed their name to “Stef”, and that’s what people called her. But it made her uncomfortable for her name to be the name of the system. It was easier to change her name in the system then the legal name of the whole system. She chose the name Rebecca (or Becca for short) for no other reason than it felt right. Anie, who had her name given to her by Tom, took the opportunity to pick her own name: Kat (or Kat for short). Tom was content with his name. They decided that they would all answer to Stef. They wanted to make it easy for others to engage with them. They also started calling their system “Co-op” because that’s what it finally felt like.

That brings us to the present. For Rebecca, Kat, and Tom, it feels like they’re just starting to get the hang of working together. They make mistakes. They discover new parts of themselves. They befriend their inner voices. They cooperate. They love each other. They love themselves.