Constellation Word Meanings

Iovi: Jupiter in Latin. I added a J to it to change the pronunciation: Jiovi.

stupidi: Stupid, plural, in Italian

Sette Minuti in Paradiso: Seven Minutes in Heaven

Chiara's Star Episode I Finale

In mid primary school, at lunch time every kid in the class would leave school to hang out on Frons street, spending allowance to get a bagel or a pizza slice or tacos. In a week Chiara had each at least once, following the lead of whatever group her crush Song Xia was in.

Even though she didn't like coffee that much at fifteen, sometimes she would go along to Cafe on Frons and eat an unhealthy pastry for lunch, drink a caffeinated drink that made her feel all jittery inside and out, and sit in the window next to Song.

He was cool. He had an acoustic guitar he was learning to play. He didn't make an ass of himself catcalling when a pretty girl walked by the way other boys did.

He liked to read too and when Chiara was jacked up enough on caffeine to get the confidence to start a conversation with him, she liked to talk about the books he read; imagining Constellation going to the moon, or meeting alien beings, colonizing other planets or blowing up this one while the surviving immortals watch from a space barca, that kind of thing.

Lots of pretty girls did walk by, lots of competition. Transitioning had started trending. It had been on Chiara's mind a lot. After Chiara took up the company on a free transition spell, over the next few years the streets filled up with pretty women and girly girls. Soon a man walking down Frons almost became a rare sight.

Chiara only confided in her friend Saory, who had always been a girl so she would understand.

"It's like everyone wants to see what it would be like to be a woman," she said as they sat at the little patio in the street outside the taco shop. It was not easy to get a table there and usually they would eat sitting on the curb. Today, Saory and Chiara had fought for and won a table for two. From which Chiara watched Song order, admiring the part of his neck by his ear from afar.

Saory laughed and replied, "I know right? They all wanna know what it's like to be a girl now. Didn't used to be that way. What happened to no girls allowed, boys rule girls drool — boys go to college to get more knowledge, girls go to Venus to get more—"

Chiara snorted her pop out of her nose and laughed so loud she didn't know whether Saory finished the sentence, because Saory laughed hard too.

Then Saory started shouting, "Boys go to planet Jiovi to get more stupidi!"

The students around her first gave her a stunned look, and then the quarrels of the sexes broke out. "If all the boys are on Jiovi, how can the girls get it on on Venus?"

"Boys are rotten, made outta cotton."

"Girls go to planet Mars to get candy bars. Boys go to Candais to get their lies."

"Boys rule, girls drool!"

"What are girls going to Venus for?"

"Boys lie, let's make them cry!"

"Hey Chiara, why are blonde jokes always one liners?"

"So boys can remember them," Chiara fired off, and she clapped Saory's high five.

As the battle raged on, rhymes getting worse, thoughts of what she had been going to say resurfaced as women in skirts and heels passed by, lots of older primary students too, and adults, and not all of them could have been born female. Everyone wanted to see what it's like, it turned out. To be pretty, to be seen and watched, to wiggle hips, to walk in heels. You couldn't tell who was who anymore unless you caught one checking herself out with excessive admiration in the reflection of a storefront. Or if you overheard them talking about it. "Yes, I took them up on the free transition spell," she overheard a passing woman say. "I thought I'd try it out, why not?"

Chiara didn't quite know how why but it hurt a little, or maybe it scared her. She didn't quite know what to think or how to feel about the whole world becoming female with her.

Like, not all of them were like her. Not all of them had wanted this their whole lives. They were day trippers trying it on, playing dress up, taking a temporary glimpse, a trip, a dip. Making a small stopover.

How many of them had dreamed their whole lives for this? Had lived the need to be in a different body, had felt trapped in the ill-fitting shell that had contained them for so long? Had grown curtains of hair out to hide within and at the same time to be truly seen? Had shed tears at the clothes that were 'not for you' and sneaked away toys to play with that were 'not for you' and had stolen stellar lipstick from mamma's vanity table only to be looked at like nu uh, that's not for you.

A lot of people were trying it out for a day or a century or half a millennia. Not Chiara. For her, this was forever.

Yet they would give it a try. With a proton glow of a wand and no money down, why not experiment? It was a desire as old as the written word, older, a desire imagined in a verbal tradition of fables and ballads, maybe as old as the people of this world, stories passed through speech. Tales and myths of seers who became women to see what it's like, to see who had it better.

Now the women and girly girls paraded the streets dressed in every color, 🌈 blue and purple to red orange and yellow🌈, trying it out, and would it stay that way? Would they stay with her? Would her choice always be safe? Safe in these numbers?

Or would they leave her?

The years passed and now you never saw babies in the streets, because few could risk or pay for an animus. Children became a rarity. The population stayed stable, families went without, which was smart, because a population of immortals could actually explode. And because a natural pregnancy could result in the baby draining the mother's life force. Just as la mamma's had been drained when she and Chiara's father had made a baby, Chiara's sister Kailasa.

No one knew why a parens can't transition back to female, and lose her fertility, until she has a child. No one knows why the gender transition spells don't work on parens. It's as if the stars wanted to say, No, you won't get out of this so easy. If you wanted immortality, you will need to face the fallout. No, you won't get away with stealing immortality without paying a price. As if the stars wanted a cut in blood.

Kailasa came into the world, growing into a strong and healthy baby, as la mamma grew small and gray and pale. Within a year she became a crone and passed away.

In Chiara's adolescent years, most all students underwent puberty blocking spells to prevent pregnancy. When transitions to female became free, Chiara had been the only one in he class to become a girl, but as the years went by, boys decided to try it too. Why not experiment? If their parents had the solidae to change them back, why not try it out? One day Chiara came to class and her crush, that cute boy in front, Song, had transitioned to female. Chiara rushed to the bathroom to let out the overflowing flood of tears in private.

Song threw a party one weekend. The girl had the place to herself, her parents had gone away on a diplomatic trip to the Atalata Empire. Truth or dare (obbligo o verità), spin the bottle (gira la bottiglia), much of the circle made up of girls now, trying it out. Good way to prevent underage pregnancy.

There should be such a foolproof method to prevent underage drinking, but the empty wine bottle was a testament to the fact that there wasn't.

Song did look so pretty with her black hair getting past her shoulders now, her lashes blackened and curled. Song stopped the bottle on Chiara on purpose.

It was a little scary kissing her in the middle of the circle, but after the first touch of her lips all Chiara wanted to do was win Sette Minuti in Paradiso and pick Song.

The friend who knew her forever.

This all girl thing might turn out fine.

Thank you for reading Chiara's Star Episode I. If you enjoyed this story, please leave me a star. Feel free to drop honest feedback on this one, as I feel it's a little rough and it could use some workshopping. All your support (and your stars) is so much appreciated.