Maybe We Should Have Rescheduled

"No trouble at all." Chloe retrieved two crisp Manta Carlos dollars from her purse and handed them to him.

When his hand drew near, something resembling purple lightning would arc between their hands. Chloe would look surprised, then confused, then worried.

That's when the changes began.

Chloe held her eyes shut for longer than a standard blink. When she opened them, Cylthic still looked like a girl.

"Oh... Shit," she said. "I think that this counts as a side effect."

She cleared her throat, still trying to process what was happening. It would be even harder for her to explain it to Cylthic. "I... Um, I had a spell cast on me this morning to, uh, to do things, because of reasons." She swallowed. "And, and I think what happened to you might be a... side effect of that.

"Magic that affects the body..." Chloe answered his first question sheepishly.

And now apparently his father was calling, and Cylthic was completely abandoning his shit.

"Okay, okay, calm down," Chloe said, patting him on the shoulder in a gesture of genuine . Nothing happened this time she touched him. Apparently it wasn't that easily reversible. "You probably don't know why he's calling you yet, right? It might not even be a big deal."

The thought of Cylthic's dad being upset about his abrupt sex change didn't even occur to her. He was an eldritch abomination, the sort that liked to pretend it was beyond human comprehension. Why would he even care about gender?

Chloe followed Cylthic outside. She watched the father and child's conversation with a slight frown.

"Well," Chloe said, patting Cylthic on the back. "At least it doesn't seem like your father cares. Plus, If you need, I can arrange to get this fixed for you."

Chloe felt genuinely sorry for Cylthic. She never thought that she would feel that towards him; she fully intended to destroy his life's work and purpose later, after all. But she could relate too much to this.

Chloe was completely baffled.

This was wrong. Profoundly wrong, in fact. But she also couldn't say anything about it without overstepping her bounds. Cylthic's father believed that this would be a learning experience for him... or would it be 'her' now? Did she need to acknowledge pronouns that were actually forced upon people?

Nothing that Chloe knew about being transgender had prepared her for this. None of it applied here.

With a sigh, Chloe fished for some good news to give to Cynthia.

"Well... On the bright side, this might not even be permanent for all we know, Cynthia. You might become Cylthic again any minute now. And uh..."

She cleared her throat. Only extreme pity could lead her to suggest this to someone like Cylthic. "If you're still like this when I finish lunch... I mean, I have a few free hours, if you want to go shopping. I could help you with clothes and makeup and stuff."