The Rod of Gender Transformation Ch. 7

“So what makes you say that?” Lucas asked. “Not that I’m disputing it or anything, obviously! I think we should take people at face value when they talk about their identity. I guess, like, I just didn’t see this coming. Honestly, you remind me a lot of myself, and it’s not like I’m trans.” He laughed.

“About that…” Brian said, with an uncomfortable look on… her?... face. “I don’t want to pry unnecessarily, but some things you’ve said have caused me to wonder if you might also be transgender.”

“Huh? Like what?” Lucas asked. “I’m sorry, but I’m really not sure what you mean by that.”

“Well… the fact that you seem to feel increasingly uncomfortable playing a male character in our games is potentially telling.”

“What? Look, I just think girls are good. They’re cute and stuff. Why would I not want to play as one? It’s just funner. Isn’t the whole point of roleplaying to step into a character different from yourself?”

“That may be true, to an extent. But there are many ways you could distinguish a character from yourself other than gender. Before Willow used the Rod, I could see you physically wince when someone referred to them with male pronouns. To be honest, I don’t think that’s normal behavior for a cis guy.”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Lucas said abruptly. “Can we just play Smash?”

“Sure,” Brian said, picking up a controller.

“Oh–is there another name I should start using for you? Or pronouns?” Lucas asked a moment later.

“It’s not the most original, but Brianna will work for now. Uh, she/her.”

“Alright. Cool. I can do that. Now let’s play.”

***

“I can’t believe you got beat by a girl,” Brianna said.

“Shut up!” Lucas said. For some reason, he really didn’t like hearing that. Probably because it was implicitly antifeminist. “There’s no reason your gender would affect your gaming ability. Oh, and you were already a girl before, anyway.” He paused for a moment. “How long have you known?”

“I started to really suspect a few months ago,” Brianna said. “It’s been getting harder and harder to hear people say my old name and stuff. I figured that of my friends, you were the most likely to be decent about things.”

“Huh. So you didn’t know since you were a kid? I thought that was how it worked.”

Brianna sighed. “That’s unfortunately a really common narrative. Here, I can send you some resources to get better informed.”

“Please do!” Lucas said. “I mean, I want to be the best ally I can be.”

“Of course,” Brianna said. “An ally.”