The human shifter stood in front of their mirror, skirt clutched in their knobby hands. Their brother… well, their doppelganger… laid on his bed with a comic book open in his lap.

“I don't think I can do this,” Chase protested to their recumbent brother.

“Then don't?” was the distracted reply.

Chase stomped their foot, eyes rolling, “Ugh, forget it. You're not helping.”

They had bought this skirt ages ago, when Mari had been their chaperone on the mall field trip, but Chase hadn't the guts to wear it beyond the confines of the room, not even around Mama. They did want Mama to see though.

“What if people tease me?” Chase murmured.

“We're shapeshifters… just make yourself look like a girl,” Toby sighed, matching Chase's exasperation from earlier. Chase sighed. But then Mama wouldn't see them, she'd just see some girl. With a groan, Chase pulled off their t-shirt. Now or never. They wriggled into their skirt-- a black, above-the-knee thing with a lace underlay. Given their slenderness, the skirt seemed more flowy than it would have perhaps seemed on a curvier individual.

Chase swayed cheerfully, letting the skirt fan as they did so.

“What shirt should I wear?”

“One of Mari's?”

They weren't really Mari's anymore, she'd outgrown them-- either in size or style-- and passed them along to her cousin. Chase has stashed these shirts in the same place the skirt had been stashed: in the bottom corner of their closet, in a ball. Chase stooped down, digging through the stash and fishing out a wrinkled v-neck tee with black pinstripes. Mari's style was a little more staid than the budding adolescent would have preferred, but they wouldn't turn down free clothes.

Chase pulled the shirt over their head, flattening it with their palms. They cast a crooked smile at their reflection. There was a momentary pause, and Chase's hair began to lengthen and straighten. By the time that the curtain of hair reached the small of their back, it was a dark, warm brown. They kept their usual human skintone.

“Make your eyes a little bigger,” Toby remarked. Chase shifted their attention from the mirror to just over their shoulder, to where Toby sat in the reflected world, “You know. Girlier.”

Chase nodded, their eye shape warbled.

“How about that?”

“Hm.” Toby said approvingly.

“Wish me luck.”

With that, Chase was gone through the door. They hadn't even taken the time to put on shoes.

°°°

Chase was all smiles. Where should they go first? Maybe they could show Kalos! She'd enjoy this new face. Or maybe Mari! They couldn't swallow their giddiness, knowing how cute they must look… they couldn't even decide where to go, they just… wanted to be seen! Would anyone figure it out? Of course not! The Mansion was always getting new kids, and they just looked like a new kid. What could they... could she... do for fun around here? What did girls do for fun?

The apparent girl flitted down the hall, unable to find a voice with which to reach out to another girl or group of girls.

Life had been busy at the Mansion as usual. Being married and suddenly having an extra child did not exactly change that. The newly minted Ms. Taylor-Cervantes had a lot of things to do every day, working as a counselor and an unofficial brood mother to many of the kids at the school. But even so, she kept an eye on Chase and Tody; especially the latter. The rip was closed, but there was no proof that SUPER, restarting on this side, did not still keep tabs on an asset like him. Gemma kept the twins close, even when she had work things to take care of.

Walking down the hallway with an armful of papers she just turned a corner, thinking about stopping by Chase's room, when she ran into the girl. She only got a glance before her aura kicked in, so it took a moment to register what was going on, especially because the pile of papers was also dangerously close to slipping out of her grasp.

"Oops, sorry..."

Chase felt the tendrils of their disguise unraveling moments before they collided with Mama. As soon as they felt their guise slipping, however, they quickly lost their steam. Oh, crap.

"s'all good!" a very much Chase-like voice squeaked, a little too brittle, before the human shifter turned and took off running away from their mother. If Gemma looked closely enough, she'd notice that the apparent-girl's hair was getting shorter and regressing to a very familiar two-tone hue... until she left Gemma's aura, that is.

Why did it have to be Mama?! Of all people! It had to be the one person that could suck all the fun out of wandering around looking like a girl. Chase didn't stop to see if Mama was following them, or calling after them, or really stop at all. They ran until they needed to stop and gulp down air, since they'd been running so hard.

Female!Chase rested with their hands on their knees, keeping a wary eye on the direction from which they'd just run. They'd run again, too, if they had to.

"This was... a really... stupid idea..." Chase grunted between breaths. They paused, wrinkled their nose. The voice would need some work. The disguise would need some work. They still... kinda wanted to show Mari, but God knew where she was... if she was in the dorms, Chase would need to sneak past Mama.

There was a startled squeak, and a change in the girl's appearance as she turned and bolted from her. Gemma's first thought was that she had not seen this child around the Mansion before, so she might be an intruder. her second thought was much more familiar.

"... Chase?"

She ran away and disappeared down the hallway. Gemma blinked, unsure what to do. If it really was Chase, or Toby, why would they run away from her? And if it was another student... why would they run away from her?

She hurried down the hallway, following.

"Hello?" she called, peeking around a corner "... Chase?... Toby?..." it was hard to tell the twins apart, but a gut feeling told Gemma the former was more likely to go around in an unusual form "... is everything okay?"