Hunter awoke with a start, not immediately sure where they were. The pillow was… warm? And moving? 

As they sat up, their head cleared a bit and they realized they were still on Mel’s couch.

“Hey, you. You’re finally awake!” Mel said loudly in a bad Scandinavian accent. “Cool, I can finally go piss.”

“Oh, sorry!” Hunter said. “You should have just woken me up.”

“It’s fine!” Mel shouted, already halfway to the bathroom. “You looked too comfy to disturb!”

Hunter stretched and yawned. “What time is it, anyway?” they muttered to themselves, and dug their phone out of their pocket to check. It was still mid-afternoon, and not all that much time had really passed.

They checked the Discord. Should I tell the Discord what’s going on with my gender? They decided to ask Mel when she returned from her surprisingly long bathroom break. In the meantime, they started looking through various channels. They mentally sighed as they saw that trans_rites and yaoiMaster69 had gotten into an argument in #gender.

yaoiMaster69: ok sorry i didn’t realize anyone considered the word “femboy” offensive

trans_rites: it’s used by alt-right types to provide a false alternative to identifying as a women, to help them recruit those trans women with especially severe internalized misogyny

trans_rites: it’s not offensive, it’s a dog whistle

trans_rites: 4chan speak

yaoiMaster69: dude i just saw it in manga okay

yaoiMaster69: i thought it was better than tr*p

yaoiMaster69: what word should i use instead

trans_rites: PLEASE don’t call me dude

trans_rites: that’s misgendering me and causes me dysphoria

trans_rites: there’s nothing wrong with the term “crossdresser”

trans_rites: which BTW falls under the “transgender” umbrella term 

trans_rites: it annoys me when people say manga characters “aren’t transgender” because they’re crossdressers

yaoiMaster69: okay i feel like that has really different connotations to it but sure

yaoiMaster69: TIL

yaoiMaster69: so I was reading pretty fluffy manga where the main characters are both crossdressers but not much of it had been scanlated, but I was excited to hear it’s getting an official localization for the US!!

Hunter glanced up from their phone as Mel finally emerged from the bathroom.

“I also ended up shidding. And farding,” Mel proudly announced as she approached the couch.

“Cool story,” Hunter said. “Can you take a look at something on the Discord? In the gender channel.”

“Oh, okay, gimme a mo.” A second later, Mel plopped down on the couch next to Hunter, and immediately draped her left arm over Hunter’s shoulders while her right hand started scrolling. “God, why is she like this? Aaah.”

“Do you mean Rites?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah! Her name is Evelyn, by the way. Or Lunaria? She seems to use both.”

“Good to know. So, uh, do you think we should do anything?” Hunter asked.

Mel shrugged. “It seems to have worked itself out. I think Evelyn is being unnecessarily aggro, but Yaoi really backed down so it ended up being okay. I’d just be concerned for the future if she ends up conflicting with someone who’s more angry or stubborn or whatever.”

“That seems fair. Do you think we should institute some kind of policy to curb the risk, and if so, what?”

“Uh… hmm. I’m not really sure. I’ll think about it. Anyway, I’m pretty much out of videos I wanted to watch anyway. I have an idea of a game you could watch me play, maybe?”

“Wow, so our roles will be reversed,” Hunter said. “How the turntables. Sure, what game?”

A wicked glint appeared in Mel’s eye. “Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV?”

“Oh, so you’re a catgirl,” Hunter said.

A laugh burst from Mel’s throat. “Fuck. Yes, I’m a catgirl. I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”

“If you want to be more like your cat, maybe you could try falling asleep on top of me later,” Hunter casually remarked.

Mel wiggled her eyebrows. “Owo~.”