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"Morning!" Mom said to Felix as she walked into the kitchen.

Felix sat at the table, eating some toast with jam as he read an ebook on his phone next to him.

"Morning," he smiled, glancing up at her for a moment, then returning his gaze to his book.

"You really think that eating sticky jam over your phone is a good idea?" she asked.

Felix laughed. "Just be glad I'm not eating it over a paper book."

Mom grumbled with a smile. "Don't talk with food in your mouth Fern."

He smiled. Mom had taken to calling him that in the past few months, since he started playing as Fern the half fairy. At first, Mom had called him Fern teasingly, but with every conversation they had, talking about the adventures he and his friends went on, the nickname had come to bring him comfort, happy that his Mom cared about what he liked doing for fun.

As he read, his phone suddenly started buzzing.

Felix answered the phone, leaving it on the table, and Rykker came on a video call.

"Hi Fern," he smiled.

"Hi," he waved to him. Rykker had kind of taken to the nickname too.

"So fairies eat toast for breakfast huh?" he asked.

"With jam," Felix added. "With home grown strawberries, so yeah, nature and stuff."

Rykker laughed. "Hey guess what? I found a solution to our problem."

"Oh?" Felix said.

"There's some guys at this comic book store who host D&D groups twice a week," Rykker said giddily. "The drought is over!"

"Yes!" Felix fist pumped.

A few weeks earlier, Derek's family had driven them out of their basement room. It had been a spare bedroom with no bed, but his parents had decided to fix it up if they wanted to have family stay with them.

But now their adventures could resume once again.

"That's fantastic!" Felix said.

"But there's a condition...," Rykker said in a foreboding, though joking around tone.

"Whatever it is Tadon," Fern took over, "I'll shoot it faster than it can be an annoyance."

"To have the D&D group," Rykker said, "still in the same tone, we must... masquerade as our characters!"

Rykker said the last part with dramatic flair, but Felix was feeling dramatic anxiety.

They wanted him. To dress up. As a girl fairy.

"Hey," Rykker said more calmly, "you okay dude?"

"What kind of stupid rule is that?" Felix surprisingly found himself becoming angry. "That's confounded stupid gatekeeping, you know that?"

Rykker seemed taken aback. "Gosh, sorry. I was joking around. They don't force you to dress up. But that's what everyone does. It's for fun."

"Augh," Felix grunted, "what difference is there really? I can't just go without a costume. Then I'd be standing out."

"Yeah," Rykker scratched his head, "I hear that people like this because they go all out in like, full cosplay."

Felix rubbed his hands against his face while groaning. "Can we find somewhere else to go?"

He heard silence. He took his hands off his face, and saw Rykker wearing a disappointed expression.

A good party member supports their companions.

"Are you embarrassed?" Rykker asked. "I guess... it probably would be weird for you, dressing up as a fairy..."

"And a girl," Felix pointed out.

"Yeah... but we're your friends," Rykker said. "We won't laugh at you. And we'll punch Pat before he does."

Felix smiled.

"It's just...," he said, "what if I look weird? I'm afraid... I'm afraid I'd look bad as a girl."

Rykker shrugged. "Well," he said, "Fern is a bit of a tomboy. You're not some princess dressing up for the ball. You're a ranger, a girl of the forests."

Felix felt himself calming a bit. "Okay," he said. "I... I guess I can try it."

"There's some of Fern I see," Rykker smiled.

"Caring about others' opinions is for fat noblemen," Felix said, quoting one of his character's oft repeated lines.

"And for party mates who risk their lives for each other," Rykker said, quoting one of his character's own lines.

Felix smiled.

"Gotta go dude," Rykker said, making a peace sign.

"Bye," Felix returned with a wave.

Their call ended. Mom sat down at the table with her coffee, with a blank expression.

"Mom?"

She met his eyes.

"Felix," she said, "if it makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to do it."

He felt some anxiousness return. "I... I know."

"Rykker said that people liked doing full cosplays and things like that for this."

"Well," Felix sighed, "I guess I'll have to make a nice costume."

"Do you want to?" Mom asked.

He shrugged. "I guess, to fit in."

Mom shook her head. "No, I guess... I mean, if you didn't have to worry about doing it around your friends, would you want to do it?"

Felix looked down at the crust of his toast, sitting on the table. Eating crusts was something barbarians did. Not even Fern was that untamed.

"Felix?"

He looked up, shaking away his distraction. "I don't know Mom," he said. "I... I think I do like pretending to be Fern."

"If you could just be a girl for a day," Mom said, "and none of your friends knew who you were, would you want to dress up as Fern?"

Felix found himself realizing that he would want to do that if that were the case. He definitely would.

"Yeah," Felix answered softly.

"Well then Fern," Mom smiled, "I think you might find you enjoy dressing up anyway."

"I... I don't think I'd make a good girl Mom," Felix said, frowning. "I barely make a very good boy."

"Aww," Mom pulled her chair up to his, and hugged him from the side. "I don't really think it matters. Be who you want to be. If you want to dress up as Fern, do it. But I think you'd make a very good Fern. You are her personality after all. Her character seems to be bleeding into you."

Felix smiled.

"As for your looks..."

Mom fingered the fringes of his hair. Over the past few months, he'd said he wanted to try out growing it longer. It now draped down the sides of his face. Just like he imagined Fern's hair would.

"I think I have something to work with," she smiled.

And despite his fears, Felix found himself smiling too.

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