LogFAQs > #952476234

The Seventh Door. Lydie and Antonin have a baby girl. The baby has two things out of the ordinary - her coloring, and a great curse. They name her Michelle.

She grows up - plays chess with Didier and frequently whoops him. Georges comes by to chat with them. Georges [artist brother] has to prepare for a swordfighting competition, so Didier [knight brother] offers to help him practice. Michelle must watch from indoors because she's sensitive to the sun. She's also somewhat averse to her girl-only upbringing. She wants to read, and play chess, and make art, and swordfight. But her mother forbids her to do such things, and instead puts great pressure on her being a girl and doing things that will make her a suitable wife someday.

Michelle hears Georges talking about Didier possibly changing the Order from the inside. Michelle requests to be made a knight once Didier has made the necessary internal changes. Didier objects, saying Michelle probably spent too much time with them as her brothers. Michelle's deeply offended, as this is what their mother goes on about. Michelle insists that she could be strong enough one day to swing a sword, that her mind is suited to strategy as evidenced by their chess games. Didier insists that men and women walk different paths. The angrier and more frustrated Michelle looks, the more I can see Michel in her.

Oh dang, we're meeting Aimee!! I love that the character's bluntness hasn't changed at all in Michelle.

Aimee greets Michelle with a kiss and introduces herself as Georges' fiancee. Michelle feels more comfortable around Aimee than she expected, and she's paying special attention to her every move. A party is held in the couple's honor, and Georges introduces some of his friends to Michelle, strangely acting like she was his property moreso than his sister. The friends rave in a weird way about her looks, and it makes her look uncomfortable.

I had no idea there was gonna be a trans-aligned character in this and I am delighted.

Oh goodness, someone wants to kiss her hand. This hesitant face, exactly like Michel when he's thrown off by something. You're not supposed to actually make contact, but the man actually kisses her hand. She slaps his hand away and storms off. He follows her and pins her to the wall, making a hamfisted attempt at wooing her. She wants nothing more than to escape. Georges catches up with the guy, but Michelle has no idea how long it had been or what exactly had happened.

She escapes to her room, lets out a few choice curse words, and tears at her hair. Georges comes in to apologize and insists that even though that guy's a jerk, there are other men and better ones that Michelle could end up with in the future. The idea sickens her. Even the idea that one day there would be a man that liked her that she would like in return... she can't imagine it. She doesn't find men entirely repulsive - she does admire her brothers, what they can do, and their bodies.

Aimee catches up to them, and sends George away, saying it's better for girls to be alone with each other in times like this. Yikes, yikes, five alarm. I have been in 'girls only' scenarios like this, and they always felt like accidentally walking into a locker room. It felt like I was somewhere I shouldn't be...but somehow no one seemed to pick up on it.

Georges had told Michelle to forget it ever happened ASAP, and Aimee told her she would likely not be able to forget it.

Aimee frequently visited Michelle's chambers, and being a very touchy-feely person, she would often play with Michelle's hair. This whole thing is a mood. She doesn't have much in common with Michelle, but that doesn't matter. Michelle feels blessed by her presence, and a little guilty as the feelings and thoughts she has about Aimee are...untoward.

Aimee puts forth the idea that Michelle has spent too much time with her brothers and needs some feminine influence. Aimee teases her about being small up top and Michelle is struck with indecent urges. Ughhhh. This game calls you out. I want y'all to know this is not fiction so much as it is exactly how one feels. I know back massages were quite popular at college and I felt like I was going to die. I felt like just shifting in my seat would give it away, would broadcast how I felt. It was terrifying.

Michelle tries to twist away from the touch, and ends up inches from Aimee's face - then, on impulse, she kisses her on the lips, then scrambles to put some distance between the two of them. Aimee dismisses it as an accident, but Michelle insists it was intentional. Aimee takes it as a teaching moment, like Michelle doesn't know not to be touchy-feely or kiss others. Aimee takes her leave.

Michelle takes a little midnight stroll and hears Aimee talking in the courtyard, saying how the siblings' Mother had asked her to befriend Michelle, and how she didn't expect to 'confuse' the girl. This sucks. There's few things worse than finding out that, instead of making a friend or other connection, that you're just part of someone else's pet project. Aimee could tell from the very beginning that Michelle had those feelings for her, and was disgusted by it. And the man she's speaking to is Didier. How awful.

Heated sighs coming from the courtyard...yuck, is Aimee being unfaithful? Nooo. Boo.

Michelle wakes up the next morning, sicker than she's ever been. Her voice is raspy during the day. She is trying to recover from the flu while her mother is worried sick. She had dreams of being a man. She dreams of being her brothers. She dreams of loving Aimee. But then she remembers Aimee's hurtful words and the dreams turn to nightmares.

The fever clears up, but her voice never recovers. The joint pain stays. Mother refuses to let her out in public or to be seen by others.

Michelle/Michel asks a servant for a mirror. The body had clearly changed as none of the dresses fit anymore. He examines his body and decides he doesn't need the last two letters of the old name. Michel it is. He embraces the name now, as he hated it before. Of course nothing made sense before - he was a man. And now everyone would know it.

See you Wednesday!


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Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself...: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?
-Marcus Aurelius