Room 216, Saturday evening

[voiceoverdue]

Cecil wasn't actually hiding. He even had the door open! But he hadn't really had any plans tonight, except for calling ♥Carlos♥, which was not going to happen now. And he wasn't really inclined to make any new ones when he wasn't even really sure how to move in this body.

So he was in his room, curled up with Foucault (he still couldn't tell if his/her gender had changed or not), and reading a book. He didn't even care if it was municipally approved, so there! He was in an awkward mood.

Comments

[tigerundercover]

Raven was certainly not about to ignore a somewhat panicked voicemail from a friend. She headed over to Cecil's room, armed with a spare bra and lots of chocolate.

"Cecil?" she called as she came in, not wanting to startle him. "You okay?"

[voiceoverdue]

"Raven!" He jumped up and went to hug her, then wasn't sure, and then... "Oh, boobs!" He sat back on his bed grumpily. "I have no idea how any of this works!"

[tigerundercover]

"In my experience," Raven said with a smile. "Boobs don't actually get in the way of hugs. They squish and shift pretty well."

[voiceoverdue]

"They feel weird!" Cecil complained, scrunching his face up. "I'm not used to being squishy." He tried again, managing an only-slightly-awkward hug. "Thank you for coming."

[tigerundercover]

"It's kind of disconcerting, huh?" Raven said. "This might help." She held up the bra. "If it fits, anyway." She'd had no idea what his size might be, after all. "And moving around and trying new things, too." She tipped her head. "This happened to the girls last semester. We woke up as boys. I thought I'd managed to shapeshift in my sleep again."

[voiceoverdue]

"It really is." Cecil sighed. "I mean, I don't even date girls or have sisters or anything. Just walking was hard!" He pulled off his shirt and took the bra to try it on. "Does that happen a lot?" He asked curiously. "Shapeshifting in your sleep, I mean."

[tigerundercover]

"Not any more," Raven said. "It happened a lot when I was younger. I'd dream I was a bird or something and wake up with feathers. Being a blue boy was different, but I could still shapeshift, so I just turned into this and everything was fine."

[voiceoverdue]

"That would be wonderful," Cecil answered mournfully. "I mean, I guess I should just see this as a learning experience and all, but I like being a boy! Well, I'd rather be a man, but...you know." He shrugged.

He tried to settle the bra on without getting hopelessly tangled.

[tigerundercover]

"Do you need help?" Raven asked, faintly amused. "It's just for a couple of days. Try to have fun with it."

She actually couldn't entirely understand his objections. Sure, she'd always identified as a girl, but she'd also always been able to change into anything else she might think of, so her gender was a less important part of her identity that for someone whose biology was more fixed.

"Think of it as an experiment. You'll have lots of new observations to give Carlos about the affects of involuntary gender conversion." Or something equally sciencey sounding.

[voiceoverdue]

But she'd still changed back into female, hadn't she?

"I'm not telling Carlos!" he protested. He fidgeted a little. "He already doesn't want me because of the whole teenage thing." He sighed and gave up on the bra. "And yes, please."

[tigerundercover]

Raven stepped up to help adjust the bra. "I'm sure he's not objecting to you," she said. "Once you're all grown up again, you guys will be totally fine. I wouldn't want to date an eight year old, even if they were someone I really loved."

[voiceoverdue]

"Oh, I understand," he assured her. "That doesn't mean I like it!" He shrugged, then stilled and let her help. "I don't need to give him any other reason, though. Besides, it's weird enough."

[tigerundercover]

"You don't think he'd see you as less of a man, do you?" Raven asked. "Because that'd be kind of dumb. What you are on the outside doesn't change who you are on the inside."

Easy to say, when your outside could change in the blink of an eye.

[voiceoverdue]

"Oh, I don't know." Cecil sighed. "Probably not. Am I just being silly?"

[tigerundercover]

"Maybe a little," Raven said. "But if you're really scared, you don't have to tell him."

[voiceoverdue]

"I'm not scared exactly, I just..." He sighed. "Oh, I don't know. I suppose I don't want him wondering what I'll turn into next all my life." He squirmed a little to feel how the bra sat. "Hm. Oh, that's much better!"

[tigerundercover]

"Isn't it? One of the wonders of the modern world," Raven said. "And, well. I mean, your home town does weird stuff, too, doesn't it?"

[voiceoverdue]

Cecil looked a little guilty. "Well...yeeeees. But it hasn't turned me into anything else when ♥Carlos♥ has been around."

[tigerundercover]

"That doesn't mean it never will," Raven pointed out. "If he's going to freak out when it happens, wouldn't it be better to find out now?"

She was much better at offering that sort of advice than taking it herself.

[voiceoverdue]

"Maybe? I don't know." Cecil sighed. "Maybe I'll say something when I'm more used to it. I mean, my shoes and clothes don't even fit right! It's very disorienting."

[tigerundercover]

"Well . . . we could always go shopping for ones that do fit."