DIY (Part 1)

Originally posted on April 25, 2025.

I recently turned this into a comic on DeviartArt, but here is the original caption series!

It was in one of those places where you'd go see a band to say you saw them WAY before they were famous. But most of the time you'd go and see bands that will never, ever be known at all. The walls were covered in graffiti, the floors had never been cleaned, and the bathrooms were barely useable. We all knew the place was probably illegal, and the city would probably shut it down if it ever actually attracted enough people for them to care.

I was slated to be the opening act on the bill that night. I ran my beats through a laptop and screamed into a microphone, it was like an abrasive form of hyperpop but without any real hooks. There was actually some buzz surroudning the headlining act due to some influencer post about the show earlier in the day. This never really caused a huge draw, but it often brought in some more normal people. On most nights, I knew everyone in the 'crowd' -- if you could call it that -- which was usually around only two dozen people at most. It was filled with the weirdos, myself incldued, who just wanted a place to do our strange music.

I had set up all my gear and was ready to go. There was about ten people in the crowd -- three freinds, the members of the other bands, and some random girl in the back. She looked so out of place, as if she thought this was some kind of hip dance club instead of some dirty DIY space. I could only imagine she came out becaue of the influencer's post -- though we did also get the occasional off person showing up who had been told this was the "cool" place to be.

And with moments to go before my set, the Great Shift happened. It's probably not hard to figure out which body I ended up inside of as a result. I would've been fine being anyone else -- one of my friends, the promoter, one of the people in the other bands -- but her? There was nothing wrong with the fact that I was now a woman, but I immediately felt like a poser. I snapped a pic in the dirty mirror on the back wall. It helped me detach, I'd rather look at a photo on her phone to process this as opposed to a hands on exploration.