Blue Puffer
Paul is 25 years old. He is rather sexless: he has patchy hair, thin limbs, a sharp nose, and curly, dark hair that makes his pale skin look ghostly. He’s extremely boyish and there’s something innately fragile about him, yet his mania obscures this — at first glance, he can seem aggressive and overbearing. His aggression, however, is never violent. His hands are usually fidgeting under his armpits and he struggles to make eye contact, so he poses very little threat. His aggression manifests itself through
his words, his seemingly unending stream of dialogue and his profane vocabulary. He talks as if no one is listening, so when someone begins to listen, he melts into their arms like a soft-serve cone. He has a floppy, puppy-dog smile, but his eyes are rather blackened and tired — they’re the only thing about him that make him look old. He always looks like he’s on the verge of crying, but he hasn’t cried since his father died 15 years ago.
GREY COAT
Wayne is 46 years old and has lived in Detroit since he was nine. He is tall and strong looking but not obviously attractive. He is quiet but not shy; he is the kind of person who has found listening to be of his most formidable tool and has found talking a quick way to get yourself into trouble. He has never identified as anything other than a black man and a sex addict though his addiction is not something he’s spoken about aloud or asked for help with. He has never felt comfortable asking for anything outside of a sexual situation nor has he ever felt comfortable with
talking about himself. He finds religion counterintuitive no matter how hard he’s tried to embrace it, which is ironic to him because he is such a sexual submissive — shouldn’t praying, searching for guidance, asking for permission from God be satisfying? He is kindand good natured but has never had a sense of humor; as a result, he’s found that it’s easier to maintain longterm relationships with women and femme-presenting people. The men he’s loved have never been patient enough with him, which has often led him to love them the most. He is very masculine presenting not for any other reason than that he’s
never given his presentation much thought at all. By strangers he’s described as intimidating, but by those who’ve known him, he’s described as selfishly aloof — as if he has a great wealth of wisdom and beauty to share but chooses to share none of it. He misses driving the bus. He misses driving the bus more than he’s missed anything else before, more than any past love or life. Driving the bus was the only thing that ever made him feel he could disappear without being invisible.