[PRPBENT] gender blender (jack/rainbow)

[kotaline]

Rainbow had realized she was now a he almost instantaneously.

It was simply one of those things which came naturally to her- him- her. Grandpa had always told her (him?) that every superhero should be constantly aware of their surroundings, so in the morning she had a mental checklist which she ran by herself to get her ready for the day.

Today there had been something different, and once she had pinpointed it exactly, she had screamed like a girl.

Only she hadn't, because she was a boy now and what had come out was a rather deeper voice which made her terrified, but also mad, because genders didn't change for a reason, and Rainbow was raised in a household where things that were out of the ordinary were generally blamed on supervillains. Someone was responsible for this, and whoever it was was going to get a piece of Cammy Carter's mind.

Cameron Carter? She (he) stared into her (his) mirror and bit, for the sake of narrative convenience, their lip. It was something to think about, but she had never liked Cameron much as a name, and she didn't see why she should change it anyway. Cammy was neutral enough, and she always went by Rainbow at school regardless. (Manbow, a small voice at the back of her head offered tenatively only to be quickly stomped on.)

Clothes were harder though, as Cammy was nothing if not feminine, and her costume was feminine as well. She still felt like a girl but dressing the tentatively-christened Cameron in either her costume or her normal day to day dresses felt strange to her. She was used to doing things by the book, and her family would certainly not approve of her failing to condone to the protocols of a genderbend attack, even if it was her first one. She knew how the humiliating-hilarious scenario was supposed to play out, all right.

Still, she only sort-of knew one boy she was on speaking terms with at school, and knowing someone that one was sort of on speaking terms with was very different from knowing how to contact them on a whim at 7 AM. Edging out of her dorm in a bathrobe, she (he) stared down the hall of the girls' (now possibly boys') dormitory to the boys' (now possibly girls') dormitory with a bag of her clothes. She chose a door at random and knocked on it tentatively, hefting the bag onto a shoulder that now felt too broad. "Good morning!" she called out in a somewhat husky voice. "May I borrow some kit?"  

[Rookeries]

Grainne Withers opened the door in a state of disarray, a jacket clutched in front of her like a shield.

She'd woken up this morning with Clubs jolting up like a morning rooster, and her state of consciousness took a few moments to realize that things seemed very strange and different. Looking down at her lap to realize there were obstacles (obstacles!) partially blocking her sight was one thing, but having bangs obstruct her vision like some fluffy, blonde, horrid mess was one thing.

Being only in boxers was also short of terrifying, as Graeme Withers, male, had grown up in an Upper Sewitan culture proper, and no respectable boy was to peak at any woman lest he was of age and planned to marry. He was charming, sure, but he had not wanted to marry himself, and Cran had told him that he was much too young for such an old concept of marriage, so Grainne, reborn this morning physically as a female, dressed herself as quickly as she could, though it felt odd enough to dress oneself in slightly oversized slacks, a dress shirt, and a vest that was a bit too tight at her waist.

Yes, her jacket was her only sanctuary. When she saw a boy of boyish height overcloud her (and Graeme Withers was much taller as a boy, and would not have had to worry about it otherwise), she slunk back and blushed a maiden's hue.

"Uh-- er-- 'm sorry, say again?" Grainne brushed her hair behind her ears, though the act was futile and it slung over her face again. Frustratedly, she pulled her jacket over her shoulders, though it was much too big for her, and crossed her arms to try and obscure herself some more.

It also occurred to Grainne that she was, unfortunately, a splitting image of her mother, which she remembered as rather tactless and quite goofy. She refused to be seen as either, and in the face of such adversary as being summoned to the door by a boy taller than himself-- herself-- she straightened her back and reworded her previous question, in a surer tone.

"I mean. Is there anything you need..." Grainne studied the boy, but he seemed unfamiliar, "...sir...?"  

[kotaline]

Usually, Cammy did not smile at the sight of semi-naked women apart from when they were art in art galleries, but the towering boy in from of Grainne's door was practically beaming at being right about the genderbend problem when they saw the state of their host. Only too soon they remembered the situation and blushed furiously, looking away and thrusting the bag that was slung over their shoulder in front of them. Cammy, who was no longer really sure what gender she felt like, as the amount of embarrassment that had suddenly caught up to her couldn't possibly be female, quickly stammered, "It's okay, miss! I'm a girl! Well, I mean, I'm not- I don't look like one right now, but I am on the inside," s/he paused, and added, "And not in the lots of surgery way, in the last night I was wearing a nightdress and it fit perfectly way."

Cameroneilla Carter found her/himself getting diverted, so he, for lack of a better term, proferred the bag more insistently, and dared to peek up at the recipient, catching sight of the distinctive eyes and hair. Eyes widening, he asked, "Jack, is that you?" It was a stroke of luck to find the only boy she knew at all (now the only girl, she supposed) in school by chance, and she felt a little (but not much) less embarrassed at the situation for it. "It's Rainbow, I need clothes, all mine are, well," She glanced down at the bag, which was full of pastel dresses. "Let's just say that between the bathrobe, this, and spandex, I'm about ready to go to class in this." Pulling on the polymer cotton robe, s(he) added, "Will your clothes fit me? I could really use some pants."

Now that she had had an hour to become accustomed to this body, Rainbow was beginning to recognize the unique opportunity to dress up like John Travolta and sing all the songs in Grease that her voice didn't go low enough for. Absentmindedly, she ran a hand through her hair in a vaguely cool-guy way, reminding herself that she had a comb in her bedroom. No leather jacket, though, and Graeme probably didn't have one either. Well, it was a silly idea, she supposed reluctantly, but she didn't see why she couldn't have some fun as a reward for having to deal with the impending problem of the sheer embarrassment that using the bathroom would now involve.  

[Rookeries]

Grainne took a moment to stare at the taller boy's expression, and only became redder when, to her, it seemed that he was absentmindedly smiling down at her. It was one thing to be looked down upon, and another to be looked down upon while in this state, during the morning, while she was getting ready and dressed.

"D-don't call me miss! I'm a boy, 'spite what you see now," the now-she snapped, hastily buttoning up her jacket, "And 'course I'm Gr--"

Grainne scrambled to catch the bag thrown at her and shot a demeaning look at her unexpected company. The name 'Rainbow,' though, registered sooner than later, and Grainne stared up at him with flustered surprise. If anything, Grainne had planned on staying relatively hidden (in plain sight) and at school (acting plainly), avoiding any who knew his alias, but her identity was discovered before she'd even left the dormitory. She took a step backward and inspected Rainbow again, and upon further inspection Grainne did notice her glaringly Cran features and tone of voice.

"Rainbow? How did you even recognize me? I look nothing like this as a-- you know what, sod it, just come in before anyone else sees us," Grainne opened the door wider and stepped inside of the room again, plopping herself down on the bed to inspect the bag' contents.

When she did, she frowned visibly at the noticeably colorful dresses that blended into each other like a particularly unsavory rainbow soup. Gender aside, Grainne still couldn't fathom the idea of wearing dresses in public, even with her experience with dressing like one before for plays. But that was when Graeme Withers was a younger boy, and now that he actually had peers to worry about, he wondered if dressing the part was worth his pride.

Gingerly, Grainne settled the bag to her side. "Thanks for the... clothes," she piped. She scratched her hair and looked up at... Cameleon? and tilted her head to try and visualize if, as he'd asked, he would fit in Grainne's outfits. One glance at her closet and she warily identified that, if they weren't hand-me-down suits from Hayden's family, they were outfits of the Upper Sewitan variety, which were, in most cases, baggy enough to fit anyone if they had a belt to follow.

"I've got some clothes you can borrow, sure. Just take what you need, though they might be a little... blander than what you usually wear."

Grainne wondered if that was a good thing, in this case.  

[kotaline]

Dutifully, Rainbow, still averting his eyes, replied, "Jack, I've been trained by my folks to react properly to any genderbending situation, including the recognizing of my peers when altered in a hilarious/nefarious (hilarifarious) misadventure. I could teach you if you'd like, but we'd need flashcards and maybe a week or two." Once he stepped into the room, Rainbow looked around a little more freely, coughing awkwardly because he was in a boy's (girl's???) room without supervision. "Also, should I call you Jacqueline now? I tried to think of a more manly name for myself, but I think that Ma- er, Rainbow will have to do." No one could know about Manbow. It had been a stupid idea.

He beamed as Graeme thanked him and touched his forelock respectfully. "Of course, Jack! I was hoping to help out a fellow peer, and thank you for helping me as well. It's much appreciated, even if it is bland. Oh! Not that- That is, I'm sure that you're exaggerating about your fashion sense. Your superhero outfit is very nice, after all." He coughed again, visibly unsettled, and glanced at the door longingly. Rather than get the clothes so he could leave though, Rainbow lingered around the room, hands stiffly at his sides, still looking everywhere but at Graeme. Finally, after some long and painful minutes, he looked at the floor and muttered, "C-could you get them for me? I'm not very comfortable rummaging through a former boy's wardrobe..." Apparently his training in dealing with wacky genderbend situations hadn't extended to being confident around the opposite sex, even when that opposite sex was formerly the same sex.  

[Rookeries]

Grainne perked at Rainbow's comment and scrunched his nose, if not bitterly, and started to rummage through her closet. "Genderblending? Bending? What kind of nonsense is this to give it a name, does it happen often around Cant or summot? I wouldn't like to stick around if that's the case..."

"...And no, you will not call me Jacqueline. I'm not called 'Jack' as an alias because it's a bloke name, you know." Before Rainbow even parsed to ask the question, Jack had already been lifting up a few jackets and pants to view then throw over to Rainbow's direction. She didn't take much time to judge each piece of clothing, though, anything went so long as they didn't have any patchwork on them. The blonde stared skeptically back at Rainbow after having handed him his brown-gray-offish red bunch of attire, eyes narrowed.

"Yes, well. Thank you for the compliment, but I'm not often modest, and I'm fairly sure here that I was telling the truth," she turned around again and prodded around the remaining wardrobe, if not halfheartedly, "Just tell me if any of those fit and when to turn around."  

[kotaline]

"Crantel, Jack!" corrected Rainbow automatically. "It doesn't happen around here often, thank goodness, but my grandpa always says that you should be prepared for every situation if you plan on fighting crime. That's why I've already drafted my will!" He smiled at Grainne brightly and stated, "Of course, with the tireless efforts of heroes and future heroes like us, Crantel is a wonderful place to live!" He looked about to give her the full tourism spiel, but was thankfully distracted by her refusal of his nickname suggestion for her, which deflated him somewhat.

"Really? Well, I suppose it's a little frivolous, but it seemed like fun. Say, what is your power? Gosh, I don't think I ever asked, how rude of me!" Rainbow usually asked, it was good to know your classmates' powers. You never knew when you had to form a crimefighting team, after all. "I mean, you know mine, of course, but they're not that useful yet. As you've seen." Even the thought of art class was enough to dampen his mood. "But maybe if you have an offensive power we can do team practice! I did a practice fight with Treble, but he simply refuses to fight me again and he seemed kinda upset with me after." More specifically he had almost tried to take her heels and hit her with them. It was an experience of somewhat mixed value, but at least she had learned how to fend off shoe-based attacks.

Sort of.

"Training partners have been sort of hard to find for me," he admitted. "I mean, you'd think people would want to train with me, my grades are really good! What about you, Jacque- Jack?" He caught the clothes she threw him and lifted them up carefully, deciding not to comment on them. Jack's clothing was a couple decades out of date even for Rainbow, but he wasn't really in a position to pick and choose.

"...Oh, right." Changing clothes. Rainbow hadn't thought about that, least of all about having to do it in the same room as a ma- er, woman. His grandpa had really only taught him the theory of genderbending, not the, er, practical, and when one got right down to it, he was a man now under these clothes with, well, man bits. He had never even seen those before! He didn't want to see them now, even if they were attached to him! And Graeme's clothes were too complicated to put on with his eyes closed, which would be silly and unprofessional anyway, but maybe if he tried really carefully-

He'd still have to shower later, and he certainly couldn't shower blind. And going to the bathroom! Rainbow felt a slow bubble of sheer panic building up in his chest. He wasn't ready after all, definitely not ready! But he was supposed to be able to deal with this!

A quiet, strangled whimper came from his throat and he choked it back as best he could, cracking a brittle, chipper smile. "Changing clothes. Yes, just... Actually, you know what? Maybe I'll just leave my clothes here for you and just sort of go back to my room."

The thought of skipping classes versus the thought of man bits. Rainbow didn't know which one made him feel sicker.  

[Rookeries]

"Cant, Cran, Crantel, we've been over this already, it's a nickname. An affectionate one, really!" Jack's voice was near overflowing with sarcasm, though the high-pitched voice, she noted, as even easier to achieve now that her voicebox was five times smaller than usual-- the fact that her voice even felt that squeeky made her neck itch an uncomfortable amount, though she decided to bare with.

"Eugh... I'm not sure if I want to stay in Crantel much longer if this has happened more than once, but," Grainne blindly tossed Rainbow a few more clothes and scootched nearer to the closet, sitting down with her legs shifting position every time she felt unsure of herself.

And oh, the power question: she faintly recalled Rainbow asking her that once before, but she decided not to tell him that he did in fact ask her, she simply didn't answer. She bit her lip in thought at the notion, though: she was one team short yet of consistent practice teams, and while she'd been invited to quite a few, she was only ever a temp for another sick or otherwise absent friend.

Jack threw Rainbow a tie or two and spun around to stare up at him thoughtfully, arms crossed around her legs, "Yeah, sure, I'll tell you my power thing." She turned around again and scratched her chin, "I've been having a hard time too, finding a team, so maybe it's a good idea. I mean, I get asked to teams all the time, sure, but I'm only ever allowed to be on one for a few days. I think I joined the Academy a bit too late for it to be simple in finding a practice team, you know?

"...Anyway, my power's a bit complicated. You know playing cards, the suites, well, mine is named after the 'Jacks' because--"

"...Actually, you know what? Maybe I'll just leave my clothes here for you and just sort of go back to my room."

"Oh?" Jack turned around, glaring bewildered at Rainbow, "What, are you going to change in your room, then? Then just bring back the spare--"

Upon just looking at Rainbow, though, it was a bit too obvious to Jack that simply changing wasn't the case, and she furrowed her brows. "...No, that's clearly not it. What, are you... embarrassed?"  

[kotaline]

"Well, I think that its proper name, chosen by the founders of the fair district upon its formation in- Jack! Crantel is a wonderful place to live! Anyway, it's our job to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen that often, or it will be once we graduate," Rainbow explained dutifully, scratching his head. "If you're panicked by it, imagine how the poor normal, everyday citizens must feel! I don't know what caused this mysterious breach in the fabric of reality, but I'm sure that noble-minded do-gooders much like our professors will soon put it right." He smiled brightly, cheerfully impervious to negativity where any sort of superheroics were involved, but faltered when he thought of his family back home. "I hope Grandpa sleeps through this, though," he added sheepishly. "When superheroes slip up like this, he gets to be a bit tetchy. And rightfully so! But it's not very pleasant for the rest of us."

"Oh, I know exactly what you mean!" he enthused, distracted by the pleasant possibility of having finally found a practice partner. "I came to the Academy late because my folks thought I ought to learn traditionally, and I've been asking just everybody. but for some reason after one session none of them want anything to do with me." He listened as Jack expounded upon her powers, attempting to dress and arrange things at the same time, but it was then that his panic attack struck and his cold feet kicked in for sure, sweeping all thoughts of practice partners temporarily aside.

When Jack accussed him of being embarrassed, he got even redder. "I'm not embarrassed! I can't be embarrassed I've been training for a situation like this for years!" His face scrunched up like someone who was trying very hard not to cry. "Your clothes are just... Just made of a fabric that I'm allergic to! So I'm just going to ask, um..." He had no other friends.

"Just going to ask..."

"Um..."

Rainbow was, for once, at a loss for an answer, so he changed the subject. "Anyway, are you sure you're not just embarrassed?!" he demanded. "If you need advice I'd be glad to counsel you, there's no need to ask me if I'm embarrassed to bring it up, because I'm certainly not! Not at all!"  

[Rookeries]

Jack's smile spread to either ends of her cheeks and she leaned forward towards Rainbow from behind the bedpost, her head sticking out and staring towards Manbow. Grainne tried to reason that she wasn't one to laugh or feel better at the misfortune of others, but at this point in time the situation was so ripe for the taking that she couldn't help but lavish in it-- so much so, in fact, that she almost forgot she'd turned the opposite sex herself.

"No, no no no. You're not turning any of this around on its head, Rainbow, you're embarrassed. Admit it!" she stood and walked in front of him, a pile of clothes slung from her arms, "Don't even give me that allergy bit, that's a load of nonsense and you know it. Training for this situation for years, but you never expected it to happen, did you? It was just a precaution, right? Admit it!"

Grainne was pushing her luck, of course, but she sat next to Rainbow anyways and tried to rescind some of her teasing for wholehearted advice. "Queer as it is, I can still help you out here and there if you're feeling particularly troubled. I mean, the whole "acting a boy" thing, so you don't have to just stick yourself in your room for lord-knows-how-long. Then maybe you can return the favor, for me?"  

[kotaline]

"The chance of a non-partnered hero getting into a genderbrending crisis are one in a million!" Rainbow replied heatedly. "It would be like getting struck by lightning!" He pounded his fist on his palm and noticed it was a male fist, sheepishly amending, "It was like getting struck by lightning. A-anyway, it's kind of an awkward subject to learn, especially if it's really unlikely to ever happen to you. Genderbending is a plot that usually only happens for the comedy factor, and heroes who have no one to psyche out with just aren't as funny to genderbend!" Having thus defended himself, he put his hand on his hip, then realized he was standing like he did as a girl. He jumped back with a squeak, then covered his mouth, looking at Jack and nodding mutely.

"That'd be pretty swell of you, Jack! And I'd be glad to teach you, too, I mean, I may be a teense rusty at being a boy, maybe, but I'm a pro at being a girl." Cheering up considerably, he decided, "It can be our first team project! And then neither of us will have to skip our classes anymore, so that's twice as keen." He straightened up and reached for the bag of clothing he brought with him, saying, "The first thing a bout being a girl is you have to dress nicely. Your colour palette should be bright and well-matched while the cut should still be modest enough so as not to be out of place in an educational environment such as the Academy. Since you're pretty pale, Jack, darker clothes would look better on you, but I don't have any, so we're just gonna have to focus on the other aspects of your appearance. Your red eyes are super striking, so if we pair it with some bright blue and white, we can give you a really Crantellian colour scheme if you want. Or we could do all warm colours, maybe..."  

[Rookeries]

Jack crossed her arms and smiled smugly at Rainbow, as if to let his own retorts sink in as embarrassing, though he wasn't quite sure how well his silent stunt worked out in the end. She was by no means an expert on hero-related shenannery such as this-- they hadn't covered that part in the History of Heroes, yet-- but neither was she particularly interested. She perked at the first mention of Rainbow's Girl Sessions, however, and leaned forward as if it helped her hear any better (it didn't, but it helped her look vaguely more interested.)

The more Rainbow went on, though, the more confused Grainne became. She scrunched her nose up in confusion, and nearly winced at how bright Rainbow's clothes colors were when they were taken out of his bags. Grainne put her hands up in the air and waved them as some sort of meager defense mechanism, as she felt the clothes were on her already, and she felt quite embarrassed.

"Hold on, hold on!" she retracted her hands to stare at the bright clothes again, and whispered, "I liked the 'darker clothes' number best. I can't wear any of this! These are all-- pink and orange and yellow and-- to be honest, really, I think Crantellian colors are rather obnoxious and g--" Grainne swallowed, "g-randiose, don't you think? I mean, I might be a girl now, but I can't look like some kind of monstrous Cant stage creation--" she stifled, "--not that you looked like a mosnterous Cant stage creation when you were wearing them, just!" she was exhausting herself; at last, she muttered dumbly in defeat, "Uh. My favorite color is blue, if that's any hint."  

[kotaline]

Rainbow reached dutifully into his pile of clothes and pulled out his sky blue hero outfit. "I have this in blue," he affirmed sheepishly. "But I'll have to teach you how to walk in the boots, I think." At the bottom of the bag, Rainbow's tall heeled go-go boots lurked ominously. "Anyway, bright colours look good on girls!" she said defensively. "They make people feel better about themselves, and they help with my camouflage! No one notices you when you're not trying to be noticed if all the rest of the time you look like a day-glo go-go girl, you dig?"

He reached into the bag again and pulled out a bright red dress instead with a white peter pan collar and a white belt. "This'll match your colour scheme," he insisted. "Especially if I turn the belt black!" As he spoke, the dress changed colours, and so did the white pantyhose she had pulled out as well. "I think you'll definitely feel more comfortable in this, it's more old fashioned." He pulled out a blouse that had poofy sleeves, and explained, "For underneath the dress." Looking at her hair, he pulled out a hairband as well, and it turned black in his hands as he did so. "I'll have to stay next to you if the colours are going to stick, though, um..." He bit his lip and looked at the ground. "I mean, I don't have to, it's silly, but I won't have people going around saying that I'm not good at dressing up my partner like a girl in a genderbend crisis! It might affect my grade!"

Pausing, he asked, "...We're partners now, right?" a little hopefully.  

[Rookeries]

Grainne took the armful of clothing items into his hands and nervously surveyed each and every item. She was impressed with how red the dress was, at least, and she thought the hairband complimented her hair quite well, and hovered it over her hair before realizing she didn't quite know how to put it on. Grainne instead sat complacently on the bed and fuddled the blouse, first, then fiddled around with trying to get out of the garb she was already wearing, starting first with the cuff of her collar--

She didn't have the proper undergarments on.

She covered her chest with both of her hands and stared with flushed nervousness at Rainbow. "W-what?" she stammered initially, "O-oh-- oh! Oh. Of-- course, of course we're that," she said blankly, "We're-- uh-- definitely partners! Partners, we are. If it wasn't proof enough that we're helping each other out like this, I don't know what is.

"Anyways," Grainne announced rather loudly before clasping her hands together, "I think I'll go with this for now, so! It's your turn." She noticed that her array of clothes was certainly nothing special to look at in comparison to what Rainbow offered her, what with it mostly being sweatervests and vests and dress shirts and trousers, all mostly of the same size, which were in fact not the right size for her. She stood up to test where she stood in height compared to Rainbow, and admitted defeatly that he was probably a little taller than she was when she was a boy.

"Yooou shouldn't have as much of a problem with picking your bit out," Grainne said, then waved haphazardly to her messy pile of clothing, "As you can see, everything's kind of the same deal, and you have your color-changin'-thing to help you out if you want to dress brighter, or something," she knelt down next to the pile of clothes and took out a capped hat, which she threw to him, "And there's my hat, if you want that for shade."  

[kotaline]

"A-aah!" Rainbow covered his face as Jack started to take off his-- her-- his-- her??? shirt and practically threw a bra at her, temporarily too concerned about not seeing his partner's particulars to be embarrassed by the thought of Jack seeing his frilly white undergarments.

"Yes!" he latched onto Jack's optimistic affirmation of their partnership gratefully, even managing to look up at him. His hundred-watt Crantel smile had not dimmed as a man, although it was a bit more grinnish and a bit less Miss-Crantel-'52. "It's a good thing we have each other! I can't imagine what non-partnered heroes would be doing right now."

When it was his turn, he lifted up Jack's garments gingerly, the bra having reminded him that he would also have to borrow Jack's underwear and Jack, valued partner though she was, had never seemed like the type who washed the whites regularly. "These clothes are all... Very..." he said doubtfully. "I mean, they look good on you, of course, but they're just... Don't you feel like some kind of 1920s newsboy??" Considering that his wardrobe was a 50s nightmare, Rainbow didn't exactly have the right to throw stones, though. He put on the cap hesitantly, then tried to put on the shirt, only to find that the sleeves were decidedly too small. He could still button it closed, though. Changing its colour to a bright paisley experimentally, he decided he could work with it, and loosened the sleeves a little, rolling them up so it would be less obvious how short they were. He pulled a sweatervest over it, which helped cover his stomach a little, and then began to look for pants.

Finding them, he felt a lurch as he realized he would have to put on underwear first. The underwear he had been wearing back when he was a girl had been adequate then, but was decidedly inadequate now. He turned beet red and resisted the urge to just sink his head into the pile of clothes and give up. He was a hero! Lives could be in the balance, and did he really want to apologize for not saving a child from a burning building because he couldn't put on mens' underwear??

He muttered, "Uh, Jack, I gave you, a, uh, a bra, so may I please borrow... Uh..."