The Rod of Gender Transformation Ch.4

“I’m sorry about Mark,” Brian said.

Lucas shrugged. “Eh, no biggie. We both know what he’s like. Honestly, the whole wand being introduced went better than I expected. I really expected more rod jokes. Didn’t get a chance to fully dig into roleplaying female Willow.”

“Related to that, actually… I was wondering how exactly you were planning to change, uh, her. I’m not really sure that the character needs to change much. Nothing in her backstory or personality is particularly gendered.”

“Yeah, agreed. Honestly, I think the main thing is going to be that other people react to her differently. And, uh, my headcanon now is that maybe she’s trans? So she might be a little more confident in herself now, or speak up more.”

Brian nodded. “I can see how the character behaving the same way might spark a different response in others depending on gender. I think that sounds realistic. If some of our other party members were going to play a trans character I’d be a little concerned they’d turn it into a joke, but I trust you to handle things maturely. Uh, I realize this might not come up, but did you have any ideas about how this affected the character’s sexuality? If it did at all.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s basically the same question I asked on the forum. We basically decided that there wouldn’t be anything about changing a character’s sexuality in the rules because that feels a little weird, you know? It’s not really clear to me how that would work and I don’t want it to, like, force a change in someone’s sexuality. Seemed uncomfortable.”

“I think that’s pretty fair. So, just to check, if I hypothetically had a female character who was interested in your character, should I shelf that? Or would you prefer the potential for a lesbian relationship?”

Lucas thought for a moment. “Probably the second, honestly. As long as it didn’t seem weird or anything. I know men fetishizing lesbians is pretty common and I don’t want to add to that. Oh, although maybe some of the other players would be annoying about it? But I guess they’d also be annoying if Willow dated a guy. And personally, although I’m not one hundred percent confident in my ability to roleplay as a lesbian, I think I might do even worse as a straight woman.”

“Okay. Sounds like we can play it by ear. If it seems like anyone is going to be annoying, I might pull back on the plotline.”

“Sounds good. And honestly, it’ll probably be okay? Mark and Andy make a lot of jokes, but I think they’d stop if it actually upset anyone.”

For a moment, Brian seemed to be staring off into the far distance. “I hope so.”

Lucas frowned and swung himself around on Brian’s couch to better face his friend. “You okay, dude?”

Brian sighed and seemed to collapse inward on himself a little. “Just some personal things I’ve been thinking about. I’m not sure if I’m ready to share it with others yet.”

“Well, let me know if you ever want to talk about it,” Lucas said. “So, uh, what episode were we on again? The last thing I remember is a bunch of characters dying.”

Brian snorted a brief, dry laugh. “That barely narrows things down at all. But I believe we were on episode 13.”

“Alright, cool.” Right before playing the episode, Lucas turned to his friend once more. “Seriously, though, no matter what it is… if the others give you shit? I’ll fight them.” He raised his fists to briefly punch the air.

Brian briefly patted his friend on the arm. “I appreciate it. Now, let’s get to watching this trash.”