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Not Your Average Teen Pop Star (DarkDreamer9110 x MsBloom)

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"Why not," Leon said with a shrug.
"Who decided that only females of any kind, trans or cis, get to wear certain clothes?" he asked and looked at the camera.
"And also, Male does not mean not-feminine. People are so stuck on traditional gender expressions. Wearing clothes like these ..."
He stood up and turned around to let the camera see his outfit from every angle.
"... does not in itself make me female, or mean that I want to be female. I am still 100% secure as a male, maybe more so than most cishet men who would perhaps feel feminised or sissified if wearing an outfit like this. For me it is mainly about the aesthetics, and comfort as well."
He sat down again.
"And isn't that what is important? That you look good in what you wear and that you are comfortable in what you wear?"
He smiled and looked around the table and the camera followed his eyes until they settled on Ellie.
"What so many people don't understand is that presentation does not equal gender identity. If that was the case then why don't you ask Ellie, for instance, why she is dressed in such a masculine way with her jeans and t-shirt if she is a woman. There is when you think about it nothing specifically feminine in her outfit."
It was not Ellie's turn to stand up and show that Leon was in fact right. She wore nothing that was specifically feminine, at least nothing that was visible.
"And I am as far as I know, as cis as he is," she said.
"Not even if I cut my hair short people would question my gender because of this outfit."
She paused and looked first at Dusty and then at her partner before continuing.
"I mean as you our drummer here knows as well as yourself Adri (who was off camera of course ... It is easier for an AFAB to get away with presenting male than it is the other way around because in the end ... trousers and a shirt are mostly considered unisex. No one raises an eyebrow at an AFAB NOT wearing a skirt or a dress while and AMAB does draw attention if they are wearing anything other than trousers, and it can't be any trousers either, they cannot be too feminine."
She made air quotes around too feminine to indicate that perhaps there was no such thing.
 
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Cassie smiled as Léon and Ellie spoke to emphasize that gender presentation didn't equate to gender identity. She nodded as Ellie mentioned that no one would question her identity despite her dressing masculine. And then Ellie went further, emphasizing that even trans and non-binary AFABs were generally not mocked for dressing in clothing that wasn't explicitly feminine-coded.

"And on the flip side, you have me. I dress high femme. I am all about the feminine look. I am the girliest girl in this band. And yet the people who wouldn't bat an eye at Ellie or Dusty or Adri dressing in "masculine" clothing are the same people who would call Léon things like "sissy,' or 'girly,' or homophobic slurs, or insist that I must be a dude just because I was born with the wrong factory default hardware. It's a whole double standard of BS." She said.

"It's honestly just misogyny. Because what's actually so bad about someone born with a penis wanting to dress in clothes that aren't conventionally masculine? Why aren't cis women berated for dressing masculine? It's because of course a woman would want to be seen as less feminine because femininity is punished, looked down upon, treated as lesser. And conversely, for a man or AMAB to intentionally give up that masculine presentation, to choose to dress as the "lesser" gender, is seen as some kind of mental illness or perversion because why would anyone want to go down the rungs of the ladder of socially imposed gender hierarchy." She added, then looked at André.

"Look at André here. It's agender, and yet because it prefers to dress in conventionally masculine attire, which also happens to align with its AGAB, most people are just gonna accept that it presents masculine."

André nodded. "And just like my twin brother chooses to dress feminine because he likes it despite being very cis, I choose to dress more conventionally masculine because I like it despite being agender. It's comfortable to me. And I'd say that, while Léon brought up both looking good and feeling comfortable in what you're wearing as being important, I'd contend that the latter is actually more important. It doesn't matter if someone else thinks you look bad in something that you feel really comfortable in, that you feel good in. As long as you feel good, as long as you like how you look, that dipshit judging you can get fucked."

Ember nodded. "That all makes a great deal of sense. Thank you all for your perspectives about it." She said. "So you're a very queer band. Three of the five of you are gender-expansive, at least two of you, Cassie and Ellie, aren't straight. I say at least, but I'm not gonna ask any of you who might not be out to out yourselves unless you want to."

André chuckled. "I'm not straight, either. Even if I'm into women, I'm not straight, because I'm not a dude."

Dusty nodded, glancing at Léon. "And I, uh, I'm into men. I may be AFAB, but I'm a trans man. And a guy exclusively into guys is gay. I'm gay. So that's four of us, at least."

Ember chuckled. "Damn. Léon, are you gonna come out and make it unanimous that all five of you aren't straight?" She said, then quickly added, "That was rhetorical."

After giving Léon a chance to respond, however he chose to, Ember nodded. "So my point is, how does a band like that happen? So much queerness in one group."

At that point, Andi walked by, and Cassie waved her over. "Honestly, thank Andi here. She actually approached me and Ellie after our last livestream Q&A, wanting to give us the chance to do some studio work. And the rest went from there."

Adri nodded, glancing at Andi. "So, Andi, you "discovered" Funhouse Sweethearts. But at that time, there were only the two girls. I know Dusty came along not long after, but how did André and Léon happen to get involved?"
 
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It was of course no coincidence that Andi happened to be walking by as the band did their presentation stream. She had been invited to appear and to talk about the band and her involvement with them. Not only was there a point in it that related to her importance to their success but also in the question Ember actually asked, about how she thought of suggesting André and Léon join Cassie, Ellie and Dusty.
"As a record producer I am always on the look out for new talent and when I stumbled onto Funhouse Sweetheart's YouTube channel I knew I had hit gold. The first thing I heard was Heart of a Dreamer and it immediately had me thinking of Blondie."
Andi now smiled at the camera and elaborated.
"To those of you out there who don't know Blondie they were this little outfit from New York back in the late 70s early 80s who managed to combine sweet pop music with the energy of punk, just the same way Ellie and Cassie did. They have of course evolved and grown a lot since then, musically speaking. Partly because Ellie has had more freedom to experiment with her ideas in my studio but also through the addition of first Dusty on drums and percussion and then André and Léon, whom I discovered at about the same time when they were the driving mechanism of a band called Rats in a Can, a rocky outfit that were absolutely brilliant live and could have been so much bigger than they, sadly, are now."

She paused briefly and looked over at the twins.
"Even sadder is the reason the band fell apart," she continued.
"I will let André and Léon elaborate further on what happened but I will say that the reason why Rats in a Can fell apart is also to a very large extent the reason I thought of presenting André and Léon to Funhouse Sweethearts. It was of course not the main reason, that was because I could see the potential of what they could add to the band, and from what has been released so far and from what I know they are working on I would say it couldn't be a better match. Léon and André really pushed the limits of what was possible for Funhouse sweethearts and also opened up for Ellie to put her creativity into sixth gear."
 
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André nodded at Andi's statement about why Rats In A Can fell apart.

When Andi finished her statement about how André and Léon had added to Funhouse Sweethearts, Ember nodded. "I've been in those sessions, and yeah, it's really amazing how the two groups synergized so well. Absolutely cranked their music up to eleven. That was a great call." She said.

Adri looked at André. "So, would you and Léon like to elaborate on what happened to Rats In A Can?"

André nodded. "So, yeah, basically what had happened is, I had been working on figuring out my identity, y'know. Since Léon was always dressing in a more feminine style, I was always getting called more manly, more masculine, "more of a man than Léon," and that wasn't sitting right with me. I didn't feel manhood fit me. But neither did femininity or womanhood. But anyways, what happened is I stumbled upon being agender, and I just ... It felt right. There was a creator on TikTok I followed who used they and it pronouns, and the it part resonated with me.

"I came out to Léon and Ember, who were both naturally accepting, and then to the rest of the band. And, uh, apparently being a bedicked individual who didn't identify as a dude was a bridge too far. Nevermind that Léon was showing up in outfits that would make Ziggy Fuckin' Stardust look masculine. Apparently dudes can dress genderfuck, but someone who was AMAB denouncing manhood while dressing in conventionally masculine clothes was their line. Our lead singer, Clay, he basically told me that if I was too scared to consider myself a man then I should "dress like a fucking twink so real men knew they could fuck me." Nevermind that I'm only really into more fem-aligned people." It said, then glanced at Léon. "You want to take it from there?"
 
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"Sure," Léon said and nodded.
"I think one of the issues Clay had with André's gender identity or lack thereof, as I am sure he saw it, was that André didn't present femme or at least non-masc. I mean like it said I was walking around in outfits that would make Ziggy Fucking Stardust look masculine ..."
(And as if this explanation was following a manuscript ... which to some extent it was ... he took out his phone and held up an image of David Bowie from the mid seventies as he stood up to show off his own outfit once again. Before sitting back down he swiped to another image of Bowie from the same era.)
"... but apparently a male-presenting person rejecting its masculinity without showing any hint of femininity was a step too far for Clay and even if he didn't really say much I think also for Jake, our drummer, who was actually openly gay but totally cis. I think they both would have had a much easier time accepting me coming out as trans-femme than they did with André rejecting gender identity altogether. So ... well ... before Clay had the chance to throw us out of the band we basically told him to go fuck himself, or rather you did Ember, and that's when Andi approached us about what she called queerest band in town."
He paused and looked around the people gathered at the table with a smile before concluding.
"And well ... here we all are, the queerest band in town. And this being LA that says a lot."
 
Ember chuckled. "Hey, he fucked with my peeps. Y'all are like my kid siblings. Course I'm gonna look out for you. Clay was a sack of shit, and Jake was your typical cis white gay guy, looking down on the -TQIA+ crowd. Honestly, I hope those two haven't had any luck finding replacements. And if anyone watching is a musician they've approached, just know, if you're outside acceptable bounds of queerness, they're gonna treat you like shit and you're worth more than that."

Cassie nodded. "The fact is, cis white gay men are in a position of relative privilege and a significant amount of them have this sense of superiority and entitlement about it. They join in the discrimination and persecution of more marginalized parts of the Alphabet Mafia as a way to sort of "buddy up" with the cishet white men. They protect their privilege by witch hunt rules, stoking the fire against more vulnerable targets to keep the leopards from eating their faces. "Oh, we're not the problem, it's all these people trying to break down gender norms and sexuality entirely. They're too queer for us. We're trying to live our lives without rocking your boat, but these people, they're trying to capsize the entire thing." That kind of bullshit." She said.

Ember nodded. "So, as everyone who's been following you for any amount of time already knows, you and Ellie are a couple. The classic childhood best friends turned lovers. But as anyone who knows anything about band dynamics knows, a relationship between band members could tear the whole band apart if it went south in a bad way. Are there any other intra-band relationships going on that might have people placing bets on Funhouse Sweethearts breaking up because of a nasty breakup?"

Cassie chuckled. "Ellie and I have a very strong, very stable relationship, with plenty of support. It's not gonna be our relationship that tanks the band. As for other relationships going on in the band, that's not my place to say."

Dusty nodded, sharing a questioning glance with Léon before speaking. "Drums and bass are the two main rhythmic throughlines of a band, the beating hearts that pump the songs forward. So is it really any surprise that those two hearts are drawn together, beating in tandem, their own rhythmic love story?" He said, taking one of Léon's hands and leaning in to kiss him, getting gasps and whoops of celebration from the audience.
 
After the kiss, that drew out for a while, Léon looked up, still holding Dusty's hand.
"I don't know about the whole bass and drums thing really, I mean sure it is the pulse and heartbeat of the music, and I did feel a connection the very first time we played together but ... for me it was more like I understood for the first time what André and it's partner had, that connection that just defies everything and creates a sort of world within itself. That's how I felt when I first saw Dusty ... and sure, I suppose the music played a part because we really clicked as musicians right off the first bar."
"And they are so cute together," Ellie said with a giggle and winked at the couple.
"Who knows maybe in a year or so we'll have a big double wedding, with perhaps a few additional, complimentary ceremonies on the side."
She said nothing more about but the smiles she presented to both Adri and Ember might perhaps have been clues to what she meant to anyone who knew that the romantic relationships within the band was a bit more complex than they had so far indicated.
"And well ... Unless there is anything else you want to ask I think it is about time we got ready for the musical treat we have in store for you ..."
 
Dusty blushed as Léon spoke. "Yeah. The chemistry was ... Undeniable. Things just clicked. It's our own amazing love story. And Léon is really just ... An amazing boyfriend. I can't imagine anyone else measuring up. I am so blessed to have him." He said.

Cassie chuckled at the double wedding idea. "Maybe. Hell, maybe a triple wedding. André, you gonna put a ring on your girlfriend's finger?"

Mel, who was sitting in a table off to the side, chuckled. "The only ring it puts on me doesn't go on a finger!" She called out with a smirk.

Cassie snorted a laugh, and André smirked. "Yeah, it goes on something a bit lower. And sometimes she puts that ring on me." It said casually. "And let me tell you, if it gets stuck or difficult to remove, lube. All the lube. Ice cubes and cold water, too. Helps shrink things enough to slip it off."

After the round of laughter subsided, Cassie spoke. "So yeah, I think that's everything, and we do have quite the musical treat planned to end the evening off. You're about to witness the first live performance of the Coming Out EP." She said as the band got out of the booth and headed towards where their instruments had been set up in the performance area.
 
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Most of the band chuckled, giggled or outright laughed at Mel's comment and André's reply and then they all got up and walked out of the camera's view for a moment. Before following them the camera focused on Andi who was now sitting all along in the booth.
"It has been a joy and a trip to ride along on this first leg of the second part of Funhouse Sweethearts' journey towards I don't know what heights they might eventually reach but the buzz is on and it is getting louder with each day, hour, minute ... So to all of you newcomers out there ... if you want to be able to say you were there, and a fan, at the beginning tonight might be your last chance to ge onboard the train because it is about to take off like a rocket. This is the first time the play live as a full band and I for one cannot wait for them to get started."

The camera now panned around the restaurant until the stage, and on it the band, came into view. They were all set up with Cassie front and centre, Ellie on her left side, Léon on her right with André and Dusty slightly in the background behind their instruments. The camera zoomed in on them one by one as they were still preparing, Ellie was fine-tuning her guitar, Léon was plucking random notes, Dusty had already begun a steady beat by tapping his right stick against the rim of the snare. It was an image of a band full of nerves but also of expectation who didn't quite know how their new material would be received live. It had of course had quite a few unique listeners on Spotify but still. It was very different from what they had previously done.

"... 3 ... 4," Ellie whispered and the band began.
 
Of course, the band got their "Funhouse Sweethearts forever" ritual out of the way as Andi spoke, and were in position in time for the camera to focus on them

Cassie's own zoom in would show her at the mic, clenching and unclenching her fist around it as her eyes scanned the crowd, forcing herself to breathe normally as her other hand tapped the mic to check it was on.

Ellie counted them in, and the band started.

It was an experience to be performing the songs live as a full band, for multiple reasons, not the least of which was that this was the fulfillment of a long-held dream of Cassie's, a major milestone on a long road that still stretched ahead of them. Their futures would hopefully be bright.

As they played, Cassie's inner performer kicked in, and soon she was dancing around the stage, moving between and around the other band members, the passion in her voice and the others' performances evident.

While Not Your Average Teen Girl was arguably the true passion project of the songs, Out Of The Closet, written as it was directly based on the experience of Cassie's public coming out at school and that entire day's drama, was where Cassie truly got into the zone. It was like the rest of the world disappeared, the band, the stage, and their music the only things that mattered. Her voice shifted tone as each emotional transition occurred in the song, bringing the emotions out in her voice as well a sthe lyrics. Her mind flashed through each moment of the day, from the moment of terror when Keith slammed her into the locker, to the relief as she escaped, to the moment before the assembled school as she spoke about who she was, through the events of the rest of the day. Her heart and soul bared through her music, as the last notes rang out, Cassie returned to the present, staring out at the crowd, which remained silent for a moment.

And then cheers and applause erupted through the restaurant, and Cassie smiled.
 
Ellie could barely be happier once the nerves faded as she began her first solo of NYATG and though she still remained mostly in the background on stage she took a few beats to lift her right hand from the neck of the guitar and let it touch Cassie's hair as she danced by. Léon was much more extrovert on stage, dancing around with Cassie when she passed him, taking the front stage by her side to help excite the audience and even if it was Ellie, from her background position who was leading the band musically, it was Léon and Cassie who were driving them forward with their energy. She did join the group at the front of the stage for the middle section, and so did the main composer/lyricist of that section, having kept herself perhaps even more in the background than Ellie usually did. She quickly withdrew again as the bridging solo into Out of the Closet began, and with it the performance seemed to lift to an even higher level. Everything just flowed and the intensity grew, even in the softer parts of the song there was so much energy, so much pure joy of performing and by the time of the last burst of energy with every instrument just making as much noise as possible with Cassie wailing like a banshee over it Ellie was exhausted, blissful but exhausted (and sweating as if she had run a mile as fast as she could).

All she really wanted when they walked off stage was to go back to the dressing room, shower and just close her eyes, but suddenly a reminder of what stardom would be like, now that they were on the verge of a breakthrough, presented itself in the form of a very androgynous kid in the early to mid teens ho came up to Cassie as the band were still hanging around the stage, not wanting to seem like they were rushing off.
"Can I..." the kid began and looked really shy.
"... take a selfie with you ... or more like ... if one of my dads could take a picture of us, like the whole band but ..."
The kid looked up at Cassie with starstruck eyes.
 
It was quite interesting to see Léon taking a more extroverted role in the performance, dancing and using his stage presence much as Cassie was. As the songs progressed, their movements would periodically bring them closer, and Cassie couldn't help but appreciate the passion and energy, catching herself staring at him more than once as he played his bass. Their eyes caught a couple of times, the energy between them undeniable, both pouring their hearts into their craft, Cassie's words weaving an image as Léon's bass drove the feelings home.

As they finished up the performance, Cassie smiled at her other bandmates, holding Léon's gaze for a moment longer than the others'. "That was incredible." She said.

And then the kid was there, excited but nervous, going on about wanting a picture with the band. Cassie smiled, glancing at the others before nodding. "Sure thing, kid." She said happily, looking around to see if she could spot the kid's parents. "Tell you what. We'll take the picture, then your parents can text or email me a copy, and we'll print that off, sign it, and mail it to you. So that way you get an autographed picture with us. Sound good?"
 
After a few pictures had been taken with the band in different poses and one or two with just Cassie Ellie decided that enough was enough and politely explained that the band was tired and needed a bit of time to themself.
"As much as I do love the attention the band is starting to get it can be really exhausting at times," she said almost apologetically in the back room before walking into one of the two smaller shower rooms, undressed and showered for at least fifteen minutes with smile on her face. She was happy not only that the performance had been good, better than good if she was honest, but also that with the way Léon had so naturally taken to the front Cassie now had a partner live that she could feed off and bounce her stage presence off. Ellie had never been able to fill that role, nor had she ever had any desire to. She wanted to focus on the music.
"I'm not going to go all Brian Wilson on you but that was such a relief to see you perform like an actual pop star," she said to Léon as she came back out still drying her hair.
"And I don't know about everyone else but I could eat two of Dad's lasagnas all by myself."

That said she walked over to Cassie and gave her a kiss.
"Great show babe. See you outside."
She walked back out of the dressing room and sat down with Adri, a blissful smile on her face from the gig.
"That was unexpected," Adri said and then leaned in for a kiss.
"Yea maybe I did come off a bit ... I dunno ... bitchy?
"Not the kid, they were fine and got more than they expected," Adri said.
"I meant Léon."
"Maybe. I too tired and too happy to think," Ellie said and called for one of the waitresses to order a small snack while waiting for the rest of the band to join them for dinner.
"And a Mojito."
"I'll just have water," Adri said.
"I'll take the same as Ellie," said Andi and joined them.
"Look L," she continued as she sat down at the table.
"What happened back there is part of the job y'know. Soon I expect you might actually need some sort of ... I dunno ... guards to handle a growing crowd of fans just like that kid. I think you will learn in time. Cassie probably last among you. She is so free and generous with her love for the fans. Perhaps a bit too much."
 
Cassie had smiled bashfully at Ellie when the guitarist had chivvied the band towards getting cleaned up and settling down from the performance. It had been such an experience to actually be engaging with fans, and Cassie had gotten a bit carried away and wrapped up in making the experience fun and enjoyable for the kid, who's name, it turned out, was Kai, and they were non-binary and had, like Dusty, been inspired to come out because of Cassie.

André had pulled Cassie aside while Ellie was in the shower. Apparently it, like Ellie and probably almost everyone else, had noticed the way Léon and Cassie had meshed onstage. "Seriously, the two of you ... If I didn't know you were a lesbian, I'd think there was sexual tension between you two. As is, there was definitely chemistry. You two, you're born performers. And you synergize really well."

Cassie shrugged. "I mean, I guess. It really was neat to have someone I could play off of more. Ellie ... Ellie's never really been the frontperson type. She just wants to make music. Me ... It's about the performance. It's about the attention, about showing the world who I am. I thrive in the limelight. And Ellie ... She'd rather be like Ember was in the performance, showing up to do her bit and then fading out of view. And even when she's out there, she's not interested in the attention. Léon ... I mean, it felt like I was performing with David Bowie or Freddie Mercury. It ... It was strange. I liked it."

When Ellie returned, Cassie took her turn to get showered, and then as the other bandmates cycled through, Cassie found her Mom and pulled her aside to talk.

When they found privacy in Eric's office, Madison looked at her daughter. "Okay, honey, what is it?" She asked.

Cassie sighed. "I liked getting to meet that kid, Kai. It's ... Strange to have fans that I'm directly interacting with. But in a good way. It just ... I have to be a good role model. I have to be someone people like me can look up to with pride. I'm on the verge of potentially becoming a household name, one of the big trans people. That's a lot of responsibility. I have to be someone worth looking up to, someone who deserves that trust."

Madison nodded. "Cassie, you were terrified of coming out to your dad and I when you were a kid. But you faced that challenge with your head held high. Unashamed. It took strength to do what you did. You have only grown stronger as a woman since. You have never backed down from a challenge, you have always risen to the occasion. You have never stopped fighting for what's right. You are going to be a light for so many people like you. You are going to fight for them with everything you have. I know you will, because that's who you've shown yourself to be." She said, pulling Cassie into an embrace. "And I know your dad would tell you the same."

Cassie nodded. "Thanks, Mom, I needed to hear that."

Madison nodded. "Now, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Cassie blinked. "Uh, sure. What it is, Mom?"

Madison chuckled. "Your bassist, Léon."

Cassie groaned. "God, does everyone think that he and I are together now? We work well together onstage. That's it. There's respect, yeah. Admiration, sure. Chemistry, definitely. But it's entirely platonic. We are not fucking!" She said exasperatedly.

Madison smiled. "Honey, I know. You're a lesbian, and quite uninterested in him that way. But you two should definitely consider coordinating your choreography for concerts and stuff. The energy you two bring together, the way you work with each other ... The performance you can give would be elevated by it significantly."

Cassie blushed. "Sorry. You're not the first one to point that out. André had a talk with me about him. It feels like everyone's going out of their way to tell me how amazing Léon and I are onstage together. I just ... It's weird. I've got some thinking to do. I'll talk to people about it when I'm ready, whether that's you or dad or Joan or Sabrina or all of you."

"I know, dear. And we'll be here to listen about it." Madison said. "No go hang out with your band."

One perk of her dad owning the restaurant was that they always got peak service, and when Cassie joined the others, the last one to do so, she smiled as one of the waitresses came over immediately to get her order.

André, who had made it a point to keep an eye on the band's social media stuff, smiled. "That livestream did pretty good. A lot of comments about the performance, lots of praise for Cassie and Léon, and more than a few about the "mystery guest vocalist" we had on backing vocals and during the Come Out segment. Seems Ember got quite a lot of people's attention."
 
That evening as the restaurant was about to close and the rest of the band was getting ready to leave Ellie hung around wanting some time alone to talk to Eric about something that had bothered her since the barbecue incident as she had begun to refer to it as in her head. She wanted to make a point, to the world and to Luke and Gloria, that what they had done was in no way shape or form ok. She wanted to make a personal statement, a very public but personal statement and in what little alone time she had since Adri moved in with her and Cassie she had written long random texts about the experience, her feelings of being disowned by a man she no longer had any form of respect for, nor any desire to have any further contact with. At the top of one of the pages she had written #EricIsMyDad. Within this there was also a lot of thoughts about Alice and her situation (growing up as a closeted lesbian in a bigoted family that would almost certainly reject her the moment she came out. At first the idea had perhaps been to let Cassie rewrite it all into a song or two but it had grown beyond that and she was starting to lose perspective on her notes.
"I just don't really know what to do with it all," she said as she sat across from Eric nursing a large cup of coffee after having told him all about what she had written, read him some passages and talked at length about her worries for Alice's imminent future.
"I mean I know there will be consequences if I go public with this but the world needs to know. I need the world to know, and don't tell me to talk to my moms about it because of the potential legal issues for slander and what not. I'll talk to them once I know what to do with all this."
 
Eric wasn't surprised that Ellie wanted to talk to him. Aside from the fact that Eric had always been a father figure and surrogate dad to her, he had always made a point to make himself a safe person for her to talk to, and the two had, courtesy of the unorthodox family dynamics of the Spencer-Clayton clan, had many conversations over the years about how Ellie felt about having basically been raised by her best friend's dad. In fact, on more than one occasion the idea of trying to talk Luke into surrendering his parental rights so Eric could formally adopt Ellie had been raised. That was, of course, a moot point now that Ellie was legally an adult.

As they spoke, Ellie talking at length about her feelings around Luke and Gloria and the entire ugly mess around all of that, Eric listened intently.

When Ellie finally asked him for advice, he smiled, reaching out to take her hand before speaking. "Ellie, you know I have been there for you your entire life. Even before Luke left, even before the rift between you two started, I was always there for you. I first held you in my arms the very day you were born. I changed your diapers. I watched your first steps. I heard your first words. I have loved you as my own daughter, as the daughter I never thought I'd have before Cassie came out to us. I helped raise you from day one. I am going to be there for you now, whatever you decide. If you have to do this, you have to do it. I will back you up. I will support you. I love you, Ellie, as much as I love Cassie. Unconditionally, unfailingly, unashamedly. You are my daughter in all the ways that matter to me. I am your dad in all the ways that matter. I am honoured to have you in my life, to help you with whatever you need. You are my daughter. You always have been."

"I know you like music, instrumentals moreso than lyrics. What is important to you about this statement you want to make? Do you want to convey the specifics, or do you want to convey vibes? Maybe an instrumental track that sounds like what you feel, with a single powerful declaration at the end, either denouncing him as your father or proclaiming you aren't his daughter? And I can do a counterpart track where I claim you as my daughter?"
 
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