Private Finished Curiosity Killed The Former Cat

There was something definitely sketchy about a grown man disguising himself as a lithe, androgynous older teen to enter a school without being recognized. Sure, Kon was a student here only less than a year ago. Sure, Kon was, at best, twenty-four years old. Not that grown. And sure, he didn't have any bad intentions.

But damn it was he interested in these weird rumors. There was a low chance that he would be caught, and a lot of the people caught up in these rumors went to this school. There was always someone around to question. Someone best reserved for a person not known as Konpeitō. This was not something he wanted to be attached to his reputation.

Like that nightmare boy who always wore glasses. There were rumors going around about him, right? Nothing really... scandalous. People using sex shifting charms were the norm here. But a good detective wouldn't overlook anything.

Noticing the boy was about to leave his seat on a bench, Konpeitō went over to him quickly. Perhaps too quickly, as he seemed caught off guard by his sudden appearance.

"Sorry! I... I didn't mean to surprise you like that. I've just been wanting to do some, uh... I've been asking people around the school questions. About the recent rumors going about. There is, um, one going around about you on social media. About you using a sex-shifting charm. I wanted to know if it's relevant to the potential doppelgangers making people look bad."

OOC Notes

Banner art made using Picrew.

Oh fuck.

Giving a teenager a panic attack was not on Konpeitō's schedule for today. If he had any less empathy (or hadn't eaten before coming here), he would have ditched. But, no, he should have expected this. The boy... Zeke or something, based on social media, confirmed this rumor wasn't part of whatever was going on with several other people. This was unconnected. Personal. Just like Angelo warned him.

"Oh my—... I'm so sorry. I was just keeping an eye on all rumors, big or small, and yours is very small. I'm not sure why it's even a rumor in the first place. I thought people using those charms was a normal occurrence." Was there a stigma there he was unaware of? "No one's saying you're involved in the weird doppelganger stuff, no."

Good. It was a normal thing. For a moment, Kon wondered if he was being set up for failure when he was given a sex shifting charm as a gift when arriving on the island.

As the boy began to relax, Konpeitō rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he stretched it. "Eugh, no, it's my fault. I shouldn't be poking my nose into people's businesses. I overstepped boundaries there," he admitted with a pained voice.

"Uh, I hope the whole sex-shifting thing works out. I get how rough that sort of thing can be. I definitely wouldn't appreciate people spreading rumors about me transitioning when I'm figuring things out... Er, if you're transitioning." For all he knew it was him just playing around, like when Konpeitō played around with his forms. It didn't mean he was actually identifying as another person.

Konpeitō felt pride from getting Zeke's name right. His memory wasn't perfect, but at least it was pretty damn good. Now there was a new issue: how would Kon introduce himself? So far, he hadn't really lied about anything. He never gave a fake name or a fake excuse for why he was here. He didn't even look that much younger from his usual form. This could be chalked up to him playing around with forms again.

"My name's Kon." If he needed to change his identity for whatever reason, Kon was a simple enough name that it could be meant for many things.

Zeke didn't seem too focused on his identity, however. He still seemed shaken up by the sex-shifting stuff. "Considering the topic right now, it's an appropriate question. I did transition, yes. Female to male."

Sex swap charms sure made the topic of transitioning a complicated matter, didn't it? "I guess transitioning works better if you're changing multiple things. Your presentation, name, pronouns, what have you. But, heh, I'm no expert."

What was he trying to do? Give advice? It didn't seem appropriate because Konpeitō had to figure things out mostly on is own, so who knows what information he had wrong. But he also had rarely been able to discuss the topic with anyone. On an island where everything was accepted, it made it difficult to talk about some things without feeling silly.

"I will say, enjoying the charm sounds like the first step. I'd imagine you would get gender dysphoria if you kept using it but didn't really identify with the form you're using."

With how much of a mess gender was on the island, Kon was hesitant to try pushing Zeke towards a definite answer. Implying that he was trans or was simply messing around would be rude with how little information Kon was going off of.

At least Konpeitō knew how things were like for him. He would just need to skip the more sketchier parts of his transitioning. "I'm pretty open about this stuff. It's not something that bothers me. It's relevant to the topic, anyway," he said to reassure Zeke. "Where to start... Before coming here, I would sometimes act like a boy. Change my clothes, how I speak, the way I do my hair. I ended up finding that I liked that version of me more. Er, the idealized version of me. I didn't look exactly how I would prefer. It was only until I came here that I was able to truly present however I liked. I didn't have my dad telling me when I should look feminine and masculine anymore."

"I was gifted a sex swap charm to help ease my transition here, but I didn't like how... sudden the changes were. I didn't really look the way I wanted either. It took me learning shape-shifting to craft my perfect body."

He stopped there, thinking he went on long enough. Any more and Zeke might get overwhelmed with information.