IFF. Identify Friend/Foe

Pronoun buttons. Fandom Patches. Campaign Ribbons. Con Badges. Anyone remember fandom codes, or are all you too young for that shit?

Who's side are YOU on?

I know me and my friends are on the same side, we got our badges done by the same artist on a group buy and we picked them up at our last con together before Kitty had kids and Husky got sick and Dragon became a hashtag, and Foxy had to move back in with her parent cause she lost her job.

My work buddies are on the same team, we all have the same shirt, given to us by Uncle Jeff, and whenever we feel insolent and mistreated by work, its not surprising to see more than one of us in a gray t-sirt that brands us "Essential" on our chests, right where our hearts are supposed to be while our badges hang like yokes around our necks.

You're not on my side, your Fallout patch isn't in the first row on your chest, right where everyone looks first because who looks at faces anymore?

You're not on their side, I don't see a badge, or a flag pin on your lapel, and nothing about you screams Security. Or Immigration. Or racist, or sexist, or rapist, or President*cough*Donald*cough*all 3*cough*Trump*cough*

I can't judge you by your clothes I don't want to know enough about them to be able to. Fuck those people that do.

_I_,

don't judge you by the color of your skin. I listen closely to your voice so I can parse your words, not place your accent, and I beg your patience if I have to ask you to repeat yourself. Your words are lovely and I only wanted to hear them again so I could understand you better. Doesn't matter where it came from, it's beautiful and yours and FUCK any one who tells you otherwise! I have problems hearing through some, but that's not on you, that's on me and my triflin' ears.

This person likes the same game I like. That person is wearing a shirt with the logo on it of a show I fell in love with when I was 5. I'm looking at all you fake-ass Voltron-shirt-at-Target fans only liking shit cause its retro and ironic. Some of us had to pay the Blockbuster for a new VHS when they wore out the VHS tape!

I was so glad when I figured out what actually made someone different. When I figured out the things I could start sorting people by.

Useful delimiters that smooth my anxiety over, gives my socially akward ass common ground, and just, something to talk about, and connect with my fellow human on.

If your colors are Mass Effect Paragon Blue, Steven Universe Pink, Progress Pride and its United Nations-technicolor--rainbow of individual battalions of variations. Queer Villian Pride, Trans Pride, Honda Motorcycles, French Silk Pie. If you rock LP Underground, Torrid, Toonami, #SAYHERNAME,#BLACKGIRLMAGIC,#NOTTODAY. IF YOU WEAR EARS AND A TAIL.

Then I am happy to see you and change your marker on my mini map from Unknown Yellow to friendly Green

When I walk down the street, and my sensors pick up a hostile, I know how to adjust my flight path, and how to cover my own codes so that I don't end up on the MIA list.

Because those white sheets, and red hats, and precinct badges, and red ties, and flag pins on lapels, and Stars&Bars booty shorts on your gay cousin Cletus that actually look cute on his inbred ass but you can't say anything outloud at the swamper's family reunion cause you can't make things awkward in front of your Uncle Vlad the grand wizard from Moscow, Mississippi.

Didn't walk out of the house on their own.