Literature / A Test Of Fayth

A Test of Fayth is a Web Serial Novel written by cinnamon published on both their blog and on Wattpad.

The series focuses on and is narrated by Fayth Spears, a teenage Transgender girl who is, unfortunately, kicked out of her parent’s house after coming out to them and, while she has a place to stay, has to find a job to keep herself stable. She eventually gets a job at a gay bar, where she has to deal with a lot of complications in both her personal and professional lives.

The story was released in “seasons” with a new chapter every week. Season 1 consisted of 15 main chapters released over the Summer of 2023.

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[A Test of Fayth] contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Zig-zagged with the Spears family. While everything we’ve heard about the father makes him seem like a very deliberate but still very stern and aloof man, we also know that Fayth’s mother is a very good person even despite her dark past. Many of their actions can be considered abusive, but Fayth doesn’t ever see them as such.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: At the end of chapter 15 when Joy kisses and confesses to Fayth. She does it by lamenting that she can’t be with Fayth, rather than directly saying it.
• Armoured Closet Gay: Sean Lorenzo, a priest for the Hesist Seachurch is gay, but in public pretends to be against it.
• As the Good Book Says...: While not the Bible, the fictional religious text, The Seafarer functions as this, with fictional quotes from it being at the start of every chapter, and Fayth referencing it multiple times.
• Asthma Peril: Invoked several times, mostly notably when Fayth runs to catch up with the train Alex is trying to get on.
• Author Tract: Weirdly enough, it’s on public transport. Most things are portrayed in a nuanced manner, but public transport is considered an unquestioned good in the world of Fayth.
• The Bartender: Fayth and Amery.
• Benevolent Boss: Despite his intimidating looks, Delta Manzano, the boss of the bar, is a very nice man who is almost entirely doing what he’s doing out of charity.
• The Big Damn Kiss: At the end of chapter 15 when Joy kisses Fayth on the lips, also confessing her love.
• Bland-Name Product: Diet Papso, wonder what that’s based off of?
• Bouncer: The role of Callum and, briefly, Jonah.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Flora is an honour student with a lot of good grades, is surprisingly well-informed on many topics except religion, and has a knack for movie knowledge. However, she seems to have very little ambitions and is very lazy.
• Broken Pedestal: It’s clear that Fayth feels very highly of her sister. One of the things she most wants to do is see her again. When she does, though, they have a really terrible conversation, and their further interactions prove to be frustrating to Fayth. She does, however, not give up on her.
• But Not Too Bi: While both Fayth and Amery are bisexual, they only ever really show attraction to one of the other genders. Since Fayth’s love interest is a girl and Amery only ever mentions having boyfriends, though she does imply that she’s had sex with the feminine non-binary person Crimson.
• Call-Forward: In chapter 2, Fayth refers to the arcade by saying it smells like “semen and alcohol, mixed with sweat”, she then clarifies she didn’t come up with that. In chapter 12, we discover when she heard that for the first time… it was from Jibby, of course.
• Camp Gay: Completely averted as not a single male character so far falls into this.
• Cast Full of Gay: As the series revolves around LGBT people, this is obviously something that will happen. As far as the main cast goes:
  • Fayth, Amery and Crimson are bisexual.
  • Callum is gay.
  • Rose, Alex, Lily and Jibby are lesbians.
• Closet Key: Multiple examples.
  • Alex herself was this for Lily. Ironically, Alex herself discovered this when she was young by seeing another female stage magician.
  • Jibby watched a film in her youth with an actress that she had a crush on.
  • Fayth read a book that had a transgender character, leading her to discover who she really was.
• Character Narrator: Fayth, the main narrator and the main protagonist.
• Cool Big Sis: Fayth sees Lily as this. When she meets Lily again, though, it’s clear that she’s anything but. If anything, Lily's girlfriend, Alex, seems like much more of one than her girlfriend.
• Coming-Out Story: The story starts with the aftermath of Fayth coming out to her parents. While we never see their interactions that lead to her being kicked out, we know from what Fayth says that this is how it went.
• Connected All Along: Both Rose and Amery already have met and talked to Lily, Fayth’s sister. This is justified as Lily is a lesbian in a big city and helped out at a youth group for young LGBT people, which Rose is and Amery is… kinda.. It also should be noted that Amery is stated to “know everyone” and shows familiarity with most people entering the bar.
• Constructed World: The setting for the series is a unique planet and world created by the author. It’s not Earth, but it has many similarities, with similar cultures appearing to develop. There’s also two moons.
• Covert Pervert: Fayth appears to be this. She insists that she’s not looking at Flora almost naked, running up the stairs, knows the general gameplay loop of a porn game, and may or may not be into feet. It should be noted that she’s almost never direct about it.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The main religious figure, Hestala, appears to be something to this effect. This is because she was said to be God in human form, with Hesism having similarities to conservative Christianity.
• Cure Your Gays: Invoked when Flora talks about her friends raping Rose (with her help) she mentioned that they thought they could cure her with it.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Rose, who is extremely traumatised because of her bullying and rape that happened the previous year.
• Dark Secret: The Spears family is a secretive family for some very good reasons. The mother of the family is an arson-committing terrorist. Or was, anyway.
• Disowned Parent: Lily completely cut contact with all of her immediate family and moved away to Cartier.
• Emo Teen: Downplayed example but Rose fits this with her all black outfits, short hair and frequent smoking.
• Ethical Slut: Crimson and Amery both openly talk about sex around Fayth, something that she absolutely is not used to.
• Eye Scream: While completely off-screen and occurring in the past, Crimson lost their eye when they fell face first into skewers, completely shredding their eye. Ew.
• Everyone Can See It: Downplayed but both Amery and Flora can see that there’s probably something going on between Fayth and Jibby, but it should be noted that Fayth spends most of the chapters very emotionally confused.
• Expy: Several examples.
  • Rose was stated to be inspired by Maria from Rain.
  • Jibby has a lot of similarities with Akira Ono from High Score Girl.
  • The Boss is likely inspired by Yuugo Tennouji from Steins;Gate.
• Interclass Friendship: Downplayed as Fayth and Flora already go to a private school together, but Flora is clearly much richer than Fayth is. Although, Fayth comments that her father wasn’t interested in showing off wealth, so it’s hard to say.
• Extra-Long Episode: Chapter 15 and 16 are twice as long as the regular chapters.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Larata seems remarkably similar to North America, specifically it appears to be based on Canada (as hinted by the fact that the capital is named Cartier).
• Forced from Their Home: This is the plot of the series, with Fayth being kicked from her parent’s house at the very beginning.
• Forced Out of the Closet: This happened to Rose after her ex, Jibby told Flora about her sexuality as revenge for her leaving.
• Formally-Named Pet: Amery’s cat is named “Sir Meowertons the III”. According to her, there are actually a 1st and 2nd as well.
• Gamer Chick: Fayth and Amery to some extent. Funnily enough, Flora even jokes about this to Fayth. Flora is also a gamer herself, but she is more of a PC gamer.
  Flora: “What are you doing playing video games, you girl?! Girls can’t play video games! Their dainty little feminine hands will snap in half! You girly woman!”
• Gay Bar Reveal: Happens to Norman Park, who somehow ends up in a gay bar and doesn’t realise it until way later.
• Genki Girl: Lailah is pretty close to this, being super energetic and enthusiastic, but she’s also an adult who is struggling to find a job.
• Guns in Church: Eddy brings a gun into the bar which Amery chastises him for doing. Judging by her reaction, it somehow isn’t even the first time.
  Fayth: “Hey, Amery… there’s someone here with… I think they said it was a gun. Looks to be a pretty big one, too. Is that allowed?”
  Amery: "It’s a gun! Of course not! Is it Eddy? I swear to god if it’s him, I’ll… I don’t know, kill him? He keeps doing this! And EVERY TIME I keep telling him to STOP BRINGING GUNS HERE!”
• Gun Nut: Eddy, which is actually implied to be very uncommon because there doesn’t exist many states without strict gun laws.
• Hands-Off Parenting: While she’s definitely old enough to live on her own, Flora has been raised by parents who mostly ignore her.
• Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: Amery wears a shirt with a band that has one of these.
• Height Angst: Flora is short and is extremely annoyed by that fact, as seen in chapter 5.
• Heroic B So D: Happens to Fayth after the argument with her sister and what she learns about Flora. She finds it hard to focus for a while and is much more subdued in chapter 14.
• Hero of Another Story: Downplayed because Fayth’s life is pretty interesting and dramatic, especially considering her mother was a famous terrorist and her love interest is a princess. But Fayth is inconsequential, and the main drama of the series so far is between Flora and Rose, with Fayth being a bystander.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Gerald is a CEO of an alcohol company, and is a very normal, kind man who doesn’t seem to have anything untowards about him.
• I Have No Son!: Fayth is completely disowned by her parents at the start of the series.
• Important Hair Accessory: Fayth is given a hairband (because Amery thought it would look cute), becoming a symbol for her finally being able to express her own identity now that she’s… away from her parents.
• Inspiration Nod:
  • As has been directly stated, there’s heavy inspiration from Rain in the series. This has been directly referenced, as Fayth’s aunt is named Jora. The name Jora is of Hebrew origin and means “autumn rain”.
  • The fact that arcade games are still popular, and there appears to be a character based off High Score Girl is a big nod to the inspiration of said series to the story.
• Just Friends: Fayth denies ever wanting to have any kind of relationship with Flora frequently.
• Lazy Alias: For some reason, Joy Ibanescu thought that naming herself “Jibby” would be fine, and that no one would notice the obvious connection.
• Lesbian Jock: Ayumi is a lesbian who used to wrestle.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Most of the lesbians other than Rose fall under this category… even Rose doesn’t present very masculine, all things considered (and she was originally much more of this than butch).
• Lost in Translation: In chapter 16, one of the notes says that an expression used by a character is completely untranslatable. Of course, these characters are speaking a fictional language, so it’s impossible to know what it actually means since the text isn’t truly a translated text. This makes this moment a rare in-universe example of this happening.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Flora is this to a tee. Though. considering what she did to Rose, it might be stretching it a bit.
• Manly Gay: Callum, who is very big and muscular and has no hint of camp whatsoever.
• Mature Younger Sibling: Fayth is 5 years younger than her sister, Lily, but from from Lily’s actions and how she’s noted as being immature in chapter 16, it’s very easy to make the case that Fayth is the far more mature sibling.
• Meaningful Name: Fayth is the daughter of a priest and her religious upbringing is a major part of how she views the world.
• Mentor in Queerness: Amery functions as this, always helping out Fayth, giving her advice, and doing nice things as a fellow trans woman.
• Metaphorically True: Regularly Fayth will twist the truth on what actually happened with her and her parents. She’ll almost never say she was kicked out, just that “she left”. This is usually justified as going into it would probably waste time and she’s more interested in hearing the guests in her bar talk about their own life.
• Mistaken for Gay: In chapter 3 when first meeting Gabby, Fayth assumes that Gabby is a woman and that Lailah is “her” lesbian girlfriend. Of course, Gabby is a guy, and Lailah is a trans woman, so it’s a straight relationship.
• The Movie Buff: As the daughter of a famous horror movie director, Flora knows a lot about films, and specifically she seems to love horror films, knowing a lot about them and always watching them. She seems to love all types of movies - from the arty types to the B-movies.
• My Nayme Is: While a legitimate spelling, Fayth does apply as most people spell the name “Faith” when using it.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Crimson, who is obviously quite strange and has dyed pink hair… which, of course, doesn’t match the colour that their name refers to.
• Noodle Incident: One is mentioned and not expanded on in chapter 11.
  Amery: “Crimson over here is surprisingly an egghead. That time I poured all that beaten egg on their head was also pretty funny.”
  Crimson: “Want another spoon up your ass?”
  Amery: “Do you have to bring that up every time?”
• The Not-Love Interest: It can be argued that Flora is this to Fayth. In many ways she would fit as a love interest to Fayth, but her actions makes this idea completely untenable, as well as her Incompatible Orientation.
• Theme Naming:
  • Most girls in Lome are named after flowers, or something generally floral, in the case of… well, Flora.
  • Countries in Volgon are named after the Knights of the Round Table. For example, there’s Lanc-I (named for Lancelot) and Gowein (named for Gowain).
• Precision F-Strike: While Fayth has a few moments of light swearing when she’s angry, she generally doesn’t swear nearly as much as the other cast. There’s two moments where this happens:
  • Chapter 11, when she’s arguing with Lily. She even admits that it took herself off guard later.
  Lily: “Stop being so selfish.”
  Fayth: ”Bullshit! I’m the one being selfish? You’re… you’re blaming me for shit that I don’t even have control over! What the hell is wrong with you!”
  • Chapter 14, when she’s a little depressed due to all the events that have been happening.
  Fayth: “Life is so complicated… So… fucking complicated.”
• Protagonist Title: The title of the series is “A Test of Fayth”, the main character being, of course, Fayth Spears.
• Pun-Based Title: “A test of faith” is when it becomes much harder to believe in God because of circumstances happening within your own life. Fayth is formerly religious, and is currently going through a very tough situation.
• Really Gets Around: Crimson and Amery make fun of each other for this during chapter 11.
• Really Royalty Reveal: Happens when Jibby is revealed to be Joy, the Princess of the Kingdom of Larata..
• Red Baron: Ayumi Emoto’s nickname when she was a wrestler was “The Wrestling Witch”... currently unknown if she had a witch gimmick or not, though.
• Reformed Bully: Flora is this. As she used to bully Rose relentlessly, though she only really stopped because others went too far.
• Secret Identity: The Princess of the entire country moonlights as Jibby, a masked girl who hangs around arcades.
• Schedule Fanatic: Implied to be Lily. Who seems to insist on always getting to places exactly on time.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jibby once responds to something Fayth says with “That’s rough, buddy.”.
  • Ayumi’s neck injury sounds very similar to the ones suffered by Paige and Edge. She even debates having surgery to fix it as both were eventually able to do.
  • Rose jokingly calls herself a “flaming dyke”. In Rain (2010), there’s a scene where Marie screams that.
  • The film that functions as Jibby’s Closet Key seems to have a lot of similarities with Starman.
  • Chapter 12.5 is named No More Words. While it could be unintentional, the previous references to wrestling makes this less likely on the author’s part.
  • Chapter 12.5 has another one with a Die Hard reference. Flora says “I’m an exceptional liar.” referencing Hans Gruber. Fayth Lampshades this by saying “it sounds like a quote from an old movie”. The irony is that Die Hard never can exist in Fayth’s world, but maybe a similar film does.
  • In chapter 3, Amery says that Fayth can look the way she can with “sit ups, pushups and plenty of hormones.”
• Show Within a Show: Numerous examples.
  • The Seafarer is the holy book of the fictional Hesism religion that exists in Fayth’s world. It is commonly quoted and Fayth knows the book quite well.
  • Possum Fighter is an obvious parody of Street Fighter… though the naming scheme is very The King of Fighters.
  • There's a series of novels called The Bewitchers which has a transgender main character and it's how Fayth discovered that she was trans in universe.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Lailah and Gabby fall into this, but Gabby is much less openly affectionate compared to Lailah.
• Smoking Is Edgy: Rose, who is a very troubled person, is first seen smoking in a blocked off part of school to establish her as some kind of troubled student, which turns out to be true.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Rose, who has an aggressive personality but is hiding the trauma because of her bullying and rape.
• Stacy's Mom: Fayth and Lily’s mom is stated to be extremely attractive, with many characters talking about her. Even the straight Flora does, in a Even the Girls Want Her moment.
• Stage Magician: Alex’s other job.
• Staying with Friends: After being kicked out, Fayth goes to stay with her best (and only friend), Flora. Justified as Fayth had already made plans to do this, expecting coming out to her parents to go poorly.
• Sudden Name Change: Amery’s best friend is originally mentioned as being named “Cosmo”, but when they show up in the bar, it’s revealed that their name is now “Crimson”. Justified as they have been shifting between the two names for years, unable to decide on which one is better for them.
• Sunglasses at Night: Crimson, justified as they’re missing an eye and think that eyepatches look too tacky.
• The Tease: Alex frequently talks about sex, and having sex with her girlfriend, and teases her girlfriend about it constantly.
• Tomato Surprise: Fayth knows that her mother was a terrorist. Most other people seem to suspect it, and it’s something that’s pretty clear to most people who see her. But, while foreshadowed, it is a reveal to the audience.
• Trans Tribulations: While examples of dysphoria are surprisingly downplayed, the main plot revolves around Fayth being kicked out because she’s trans.
• Unabashed B-Movie Fan: Flora appears to be this. Fayth recalls at one point that Flora wanted her to watch some horror movies with her because “they’re so bad”. When they go to see a film in chapter 5, Fayth is surprised at how intelligent and arty the film that she and Flora goes to see is.
• Unknowingly in Love: This happens to Fayth, who is so confused by her feelings towards Jibby that she has to ask someone else to help her understand them. She seems to accept it immediately once she knows, though.
• Vacation Episode: Chapter 16 is this, with Fayth going to her sister’s apartment while off-school.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Flora and Fayth. While Fayth is normally quite calm and reserved, she’ll regularly make negative comments about Flora, and Flora loves teasing her for it.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 9, going over Rose’s backstory.
• Wham Line: From chapter 13:
  Lily: “...why do you have to ruin everything like this?”
• Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: Averted. The gay bar in the series is extremely normal, where it seems the bartenders have the most drama and crazy things happening to them, never the patrons.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Gabby, who dresses very femininely and it becomes hard to judge his gender at a distance, but he still very much identifies as a male.
• Zany Scheme: In chapter 12.5, Flora quite literally tries to push both Jibby and Fayth together as some kind of romantic gesture. It just hurts their heads.