Darren would’ve loved to have been able to say that he took it all in stride. However, when one suddenly finds themself in a different realm (not dimension, as Dee later explained) and are confronted with someone who has just made it incredibly clear that:

1. They’re not human
2. They can magically travel between realities, and
3. Magic is real

it’s quite understandable for that individual to then have something of an existential crisis. For Darren, this crisis started with an anxiety attack.

“What the hell is happening?”

“I’m sorry, I figured that showing you would be easier than explaining!”

“Where the hell am I!?”

“It’s a little pocket reality I made a while back, it’s like a magical midway point for trav-“

“That’s not what I meant-I! I just- what-I-I-”

Darren dropped to the floor, curling up as the new information overwhelmed him, feeling confused and scattered and *scared*. He heard a thump, looking up from the ball he’d folded himself into to see, through the welling tears, that Dee had jumped off the counter and was coming over to his side. They knelt down next to him, offering a hand, and he found himself shying away from their touch. The – what are they? – sighed, sitting fully on the floor with their legs tucked off to the side.

“What can I do to help?” they asked, softly. They’d obviously not expected this, it seemed, but looking in their slightly luminescent eyes Darren could see kindness and concern. The genuine worry nearly let loose the flood of tears threatening to burst forth.

They don’t want to hurt me at all, do they? the rational corner of his mind whispered, but he didn’t unfurl himself from his ball. Instead he opted to just peek out from over his arms, glancing between Dee and the strange items on the shelves.

“Am I able to go home?” he muttered quietly, his heart racing with anxiety.

“Yes, always.” Dee replied, speaking slowly and softly, obviously taking great care as to what to say. “But I suppose I didn’t make that clear, did I?”

Darren shook his head, letting go of a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding. His eyes anxiously flitted around the shelves in front of him, taking note of all the strange and wonderful artifacts before him as he tried to bring himself down off the edge of a breakdown, focusing on his environment instead of the now-slightly-less overwhelming knowledge he was faced with. Jars full of mysterious substances that swirled like water but was as dark and deep as the night sky, a snowglobe that didn’t seem to stop snowing, a lava lamp that looked suspiciously like it contained real lava, and a pebble that had a hole through the middle that looked to have been worn down by the flow of water over many years, to name a few. 

“What happens now?” he spoke quietly, but with a bit more confidence than last time. He glanced over at Dee, their face showing their concern

“How so?”

“Like, is this it? Do I just go home now? Or was there an actual reason for me being here?” he lifted his head from hiding behind his arms, looking Dee in the eyes.

“Straight to the point, I suppose.” Dee replied, before swinging their legs around to sit cross-legged. “I guess the best way to sum it up is like this; the shop only shows up to those who have traces of magical energy surrounding them. Generally, you only pick it up if you practice it, or if you’ve been blessed, cursed, that sort of thing. Heck, you can get doused in the stuff just from being frequently close to a regular practitioner, or being from a bloodline with a lot of magic in its past.”

“But I’ve never used magic?”

“Maybe you haven’t, but it’s possible one of your recent ancestors did, like your parents or grandparents. Could even just be your best friend or partner. Do you have any partners?”

Darren shook his head. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, but it just never felt right for him no matter how much he loved the other person

“Right. There is another option though,” Dee added, seemingly reluctantly. “The shop has the ability to appear to non-magic people too, but with a caveat. One that I set after some of my last adventures with some old friends. This shop is a safe space, and is capable of appearing to people in need, especially people who are… okay, I don’t know what word your timeline uses but where I’m from we call ourselves Queer, does that ring any bells?”

“Oh! Yes, we have that too,” Darren replied, “though I doubt that’s the reason I’m here.”

“How so?” Dee asked, tilting their head confusedly.

“Well… he sputtered, exasperated and embarrassed, “I’m not gay or anything…”

“So?” Dee asked again, an even more curious expression on their face.

“So! That can’t be it, because I’m not gay!” Darren said again, nearly shouting in annoyance.

“Ohhhhh right, I see where your head’s at now,” they started, a kind but concerned look on their face. “You- you do know that being gay isn’t the only form of Queer, right?”

“What?”

“I said, you do know that there’s more to queerness than just typical homosexuality?”

“I- I,” Darren started, his brain trying to work through the information, slowly putting together dots that he hadn’t really thought of before. Dee could practically see the cogs slowly turning in his head. They sighed once more, realising just how much of the basics they were going to have to explain to the poor little creature who’d probably never really thought about it or been taught about it.

“Alright, let me give you the basics. Queer, where I’m from, refers to people that fall under Genders, Sexualities, and Romantic Identities that often don’t particularly fit within the norms of heterosexuality or of being cisgender. You obviously have a grasp on what the sexuality and romantic bit can include, but please know that they’re both wider than you think. It’s a spectrum after all, and people can be into all sorts of genders sexually and romantically, or even none at all, and that’s okay! Just so long as everyone provides informed and appropriate consent, that’s all good! You following?”

Darren, who was not expecting a lesson, nodded somewhat hesitantly.

“Fantastic. Gender is the same! I for one don’t have a gender, never did, but a lot of people take some time to come to the realisation that the one they were given at their birth, creation, etcetera isn’t the one they actually are or want to be, and that’s okay too! One of my services, in fact, involves these potions I came up with that can help people achieve their “true form,” so to speak! Gender is a construct, you can have whatever gender you want and nobody else gets to tell you otherwise, even if they don’t get it. Capiche?”

Darren nodded again, though this statement had left him with some…feelings, to think upon. Especially that true form potion. How lucky one must be to get to use something like that. He felt a strange pang of..jealousy? In his gut as he thought about it. Though, it wouldn’t help him of course, he’s just some regular -

“Alright, now we’ve got that exposition out of the way, let’s find out why you’re here.” Dee said, their energy having picked back up again after seeing Darrens major anxiety fade somewhat. They offered Darren a hand getting up, which he accepted, before going back behind their counter and sifting through some drawers, obviously looking for something. Darren followed them up to the counter, feeling somewhat lost as to what’s happening.

“I saw you looking at some of my wares on the shelves there,” they mentioned to Darren, gesturing to the shelves he had been looking at. He nodded. “There’s a lot of interesting things here, some of which even I don’t fully understand, which is why you’ve got to be extra careful about what you touch. Make sense?”

Darren nodded. It was one of the few things he’d learned today that did make sense

He gazed back at an unassuming rock on the shelf, one with a smooth hole worn through the middle of its oval shape, its worn surface betraying no hints of magical power. But then, everything else in this shop seemed relatively innocuous too, so he had to wonder what what a mere pebble could manage, let alone the rest of the seemingly random items displayed amongst the aisles.

“Aha!” Dee exclaimed, causing Darren to look back to see them holding a similar stone, this one with carved runes adorning its grey surface.

“Now this one! This is one I spent a lot of time on, making modifications and whatnot. Not easy when it’s wild magic, I’ll tell you what.” They came back around the counter, gesturing for Darren to sit back at the table. “I’ve made it so that it can reveal the magic residue that clings to people after spells and curses and such. It’s how I am able to help people with curse cures and whatnot. Heck, it’s at the point now where I can even get glimpses at the true form of people’s souls if I feed the stone enough mana.”

“How does it work?” Darren asked, his interest somewhat piqued by getting to see magic in action. Real magic!

“Easy!” Dee replied, bringing it to their eye as a slight blue glow started to overtake their hands, their eyes shining with slightly greater intensity, “I just peek through the little hole here, throw some mana into the mix to boost the spell and…” they trailed off, a look of confusion adorning their face once more. They tapped the hagstone like someone would a TV remote that had stopped working, then looked again.

“What’s wrong?” Darren asked, slightly worried. “Is it working?”

“Uhhh,” Dee said, sounding uncertain, “I mean, it sure seems to be but...“ They trailed off, looking through the hagstone again. Dee looked him over as they rubbed the back of their neck, muttering something to themself about “eggs,” “clients,” and “most being pre-cracked.”

“What’s going on?” Darren asked, concern creeping into his voice. Dee stopped, seemingly taking a few moments to figure out how to answer.

“I’m not sure how to broach this, but uh... I’m not seeing much in the way of magic exposure.”

Oh

“And uh, I don’t want to try and push this the wrong way, because that could backfire, but I don’t know how else to handle this particular situation if I’m entirely honest?”

Darren, now anxious and confused, asked “What do you mean by that?”

Dee awkwardly rubbed the back of their neck, before moving and opening a door labelled “Staff only” that stood against the side wall behind the front counter. They motioned for Darren to join them, which he did, rounding the front display case and entering the room to find it much larger than they’d thought. 

The door seemingly lead into a large living space of sorts, like someones home rather than an employee break room. They stepped out into a living room, centered around a coffee table which sat in front of a brick fireplace on the right side of the room, with 2 plush armchairs and a sofa situated around the table. Beyond that, there was a well maintained kitchen in the back left of the space, with a countertop and stools separating it from the main living area, adjoined by a hallway that presumably lead to the rest of the house.

Darren was, once again, dumbfounded at the unexpected sight, but Dee merely ushered them down to the couch before stepping away to the kitchen. Snapping their fingers, the fireplace lit up at a low flame, gently warming and lighting the mixed cobble and wood room as it did so. If you were to have asked Darren how he’d describe the decoration of the place, he’d have said homely. Several framed pictures hung from the rooms walls, some photographs, some highly detailed paintings or sketches, and all of various groups of interesting subjects. A few group pictures showed Dee standing amongst equally unusual groups of characters. One depicted Dee standing next to what appeared to be a crow person, a smaller scaly person, and a larger scaly person with horns. Another, a sketch of the walls of some castle or other straddling a river, the walls only broken up by a large portcullis blocking the river and a gatehouse overlooking the road that lead within. On the table lay a framed painting of what appeared to be Dee, arm in arm with a muscle-bound green woman with tusks jutting out of her jaw, sporting a sideshave and a long braid running down her back, and looking like potentially the butchest person Darren had ever seen.

“I hope tea is okay,” said Dee, setting down a tray with a teapot, mugs, milk, and a pot of sugar on the coffee table. They produced a coaster, setting it down in front of Darren and  placing his mug upon it before pouring him a cup.

“Thanks.”

“And I’m really sorry for putting you in another unfamiliar environment, but I figured this conversation would be best handled in a private space, I hope that’s okay with you.”

“Yeah, that’s okay,” Darren said, anxiety still evident in their voice, “but I’m still a bit confused as to what that conversation is and why we’re here - wherever this is.”

Dee noted the anxiety in their voice, taking a seat just beside them and rubbing them on the back gently. “Look - whatever happens, I can assure you that this isn’t the end of the world. However bad you think it is now, before knowing, however this goes it’s going to be alright. Okay? You’re going to be alright, it’s just something worth, y’know, discussing.”

Darrens anxiety faded a little at that, but didn’t fully go away. “And what would that be?”

Dee sighed again, picking up their own mug of tea and taking a sip before speaking. “So, you remember what I mentioned earlier about the “true self” potions and how some people don’t feel entirely aligned with their birth genders, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, I guess what I’d like to ask you is if you may have ever felt that way yourself? Like, there’s something inherently wrong with your body, or the way people see you?”

“Well, yes, I suppose so? But everyone feels that, right?”

Dee shrugged, “Well, yes, many people do experience some form of discomfort in their appearance at times in their lives, but this is different. It’s ominous, it lingers in the back of your skull and saps you to a degree. Leeches off your emotions and makes you feel disconnected, or lost, or like you’re not particularly attached to your sense of self. It can be quieter, it can be crushing, or anywhere inbetween, different people experience it differently of course, but this is how most people I’ve known have described it, myself included.” They looked over at Darren, then back down into their tea.

“I guess what I’m saying is- I mean, I-” They stopped and started, never seeming to find the right words for what they were trying to convey. “I don’t want you to feel freaked out by this or anything, but I also don’t think it’d be entirely right of me to hide what I saw. It’s nothing life threatening, but when I looked at you with the hagstone, your innermost self was a young woman.”

Oh

“And I guess what I want to ask is if you would like to look at maybe trying one of my true form potions?”

Ohhh