The dominoes were all tumbling now. Just why was I getting so deeply invested in a fictional person who was questioning their gender assignment? Why had I already written Chara as AMAB and given them many of my own traits, my own memories even, in my head? Why had I gotten so invested in imagining myself as Toriel? Why had I played female characters in games? Why were my closest friends, all the people I most admired and wanted to be like, all transwomen?

Why had I hated myself for so long? Why did I always want to hide myself? Why, without any definite cause for it, did I recall my childhood as miserable?