2.21 – Gender Fluid

The only warning here is that it took this many chapters to make any kind of gender fluid joke about Emma (in the chapter title only, dw). Emma POV let's go let's go!!

Meanwhile, back at the inn, a certain blue slime had a secret. A secret that not even Maple knew. Something Emma practiced only when entirely alone.

"Hi, I'm Emma. I'm a soap slime. Nice to meet—"

"Hiiii, I'm Emma, a soap slime~ No."

"Hello. Hello. HellOo. My name is Emma—"

Emma jiggled in frustration and distress. It was not going well. The vibration technique had 'clicked' some days ago, and today's attempts, while perfectly clear and perhaps even natural sounding, did not fit.

"Meow~"

These sessions often devolved into just making animal sounds. It was still vocal chord practice, but didn't cause nearly as much distress, because every voice attempted, bubbly, feminine, deep, masculine—none of them were Emma.

That was why it was secret, even from Maple. She would surely love any voice Emma decided to claim, but—it needed to fit.

Writing had been similar initially, and still wasn't great, but the need to communicate had outweighed the discomfort until it became natural. If not for often needing to be understood precisely, then body language and gestures were superior by far. The most 'Emma'.

A voice felt just as personal. Maybe because it communicated so much beyond the meaning of the words. Tone, pitch, accent, volume. When all of that combined and formed someone's voice, it had as much depth as body language. None of the combinations felt innately like Emma yet, so in a way, an entirely new aspect of identity needed to be formed.

Forming that identity was what the daily, somewhat-guilty secrecy was for. It could take weeks, maybe even years. Hopefully not, but Emma had far more important plans for today.

First was to check on their plant daughterson who was definitely going to be named Vin until it decided otherwise, even if Maple thought her own suggestion was silly. No activity yet. Emma lovingly patted the soil and trusted the process.

The process that no fewer than Maple, Sasha, Thera, and even Boss Lady had reassured her of. Their baby would grow up to be the healthiest, bestest plant, and they would never abandon it no matter what.

Breakfast was after that. Sasha, Pops, Dorothy, the other staff and regulars of the inn, Rachel, already puffing on something despite the early hour—they all got a good morning grin and wave as Emma found a seat.

Dorothy, the dragonkin [Waitress] with yellow scales, came over with a glass of juice. She was nice, but she liked to talk a lot. That would have been fine on its own, but she'd also been terrible at reading Emma's gestures. Having to write so much had been annoying, but she was slowly learning.

"Good morning, Em! Want your usual? Any special requests today?"

There was a gesture for this—one that Dorothy had been forced to learn—but today was different. Emma whopped out the amazing chalkboard Maple chose with the utmost care and love, and wrote.

Everything you've got!

Each stroke of chalk was a joy. Writing was fun, for the first time ever. The only stressful part was taking care to not erase the note Maple left. Seeing it there at the top filled Emma with so much warmth.

Dorothy read the message and chuckled.

"That is your usual. Nice chalkboard, though."

Emma gave her a guilty as charged smile, and then happily explained the chalkboard.

My amazing girlfriend got it for me. I love it so much!

"Ooh, a gift from your lover. Maple, right? I know you two are all, you know, with your relationship. That's adorable though! Are you going to get her something in return?"

Emma nodded, jiggling with enthusiasm. That was exactly the plan for the day before heading to Syber Grill for the evening shift. The only problem was...

Do you have any suggestions?

"For a gift? For a human? Hmmm. I guess a scalescratcher is out. Maybe jewelry? That's what I always want a guy to get me, anyway."

Emma answered with a nod and head tilt. The correct interpretation of which, in this case, would have been: thank you for answering, but I've never seen my human wear so much as a bracelet.

Dorothy seemed to get the gist.

"Yeah, I don't know. Humans are difficult. Women, too. Men are much simpler. You could get a man a knife, or a steak, or—a steak knife, or something—and he'd just be happy you got him anything at all. Ah, I'll be right with you sir."

Dorothy shuffled off to serve another table. Emma wasn't sure about the generalization, or about gifting knives really, but a steak would make a fine gift for anyone.

Maple wasn't just anyone, however, and none of those ideas would do.

After breakfast, Emma made for the one person whose judgement could be trusted: Boss Lady. Also known as Marielle, owner of Syber Grill, [Blood Matriarch of the—whatever it was.

'Boss Lady' summed it all up nicely, and she was basically human, so ought to be able to help with gift ideas. As long as her suggestions didn't involve any blood; Maple did not even like milk.

It was looking to be a beautiful morning, with dark clouds already in the distance. Lightning could be scary, but there was little better than stretching out on a stormy day for a raindrop massage. With that to look forward to, Emma continued through Syber.

In contrast, the solids never seemed to like the rain. Many of them were hurrying about while it was still dry, mindlessly even, paying no attention to where they were going. They weren't much trouble for Emma to slip past, but that wasn't the case for one little girl.

Alerted by a [Soapy Helper] Skill, Emma looked up just in time to see a towering gnoll run into her. He never noticed, however, even as she cried out and went skidding across the ground. The candy she'd had went with her. Emma had only had time to watch it happen, but leapt into action when the girl started crying.

"Oww—oh no, my lolly!"

The girl picked the sucker up and started bawling when she saw it covered in dirt. Emma ignored the memories that came bubbling to the surface, as usual, and gave the girl a big grin and wave.

The girl didn't react to Emma's presence, but she seemed uninjured beyond a few scuffed scales. That toughness was one advantage a dragonkin had over more fleshy species. Emma picked the candy sucker up, waved again to get the girl's attention, and then—engulfed it entirely.

The candy was maple flavored, funnily enough, and pretty tasty. Emma savored it a moment, and the girl's crying stopped. Then her mouth dropped in utter shock. Not only was her candy ruined, but a mean slime had eaten—

Emma pulled it back out, sparkling clean, and held it up for the girl.

"You cleaned it!"

The girl popped it back into her mouth, and Emma nodded and gestured by pointing and making a thumbs up. The girl stared puzzled for a moment, but then her eyes lit up in recognition.

"I'm okay, and you saved my candy. Thank you so much!"

Emma tipped the cowgirl hat to her with a smile, continued a few steps—and stopped. A maple sucker would make for a hilarious gift. A handful of gestures later, and the girl pointed out which stall sold them.

Emma bought two—one for Maple, and one to eat now—but then, unable to resist, went back for four more. Just one would last hours with careful enough fluid control, but such was Emma's gluttonous side.

One did end up being for Marielle. Emma greeted her in her office with a toothy-vampiric-biting gesture. It expressed a mix of bleh, bleh and rawr far better than actually vocalizing either ever could, in Emma's opinion. Marielle's return of the silly greeting put that thought to shame, however.

"Vleh, vleh! What is this, not only early, but you also bring me candy? You know you were already my favorite, don't you?"

She always played up the accent and mannerisms for Emma whenever it was fun or funny, and Emma emulated vampiric traits too. That could easily be considered rude in any other circumstance, if it weren't out of genuine admiration and shared fun. They'd long reached such an understanding, and could banter loosely.

Emma waved the comment off and plopped onto the bed. Marielle's office doubled as her bedroom, and a few of the other vampires in Marielle's employ also had rooms, though Syber Grill was not generally an inn.

The sound of scraping chalk went on for over a minute while Emma explained why she was there. Marielle took it and read.

"Ah, a gift for your human. And you're sure jewelry isn't an option—yes, yes. Only the best gift ideas. Vell actually, I may have something that would do."

She dug through a drawer and then came back with a leather case full of tubes of—

"Body paint. Non-toxic, and it won't stain your skin afterward. It's not my thing, as it turns out, but I am sure you and your Maple would have lots of fun, no?"

Emma's head tilted in confusion, and Marielle went on to explain the entire use-case she had in mind. When she'd finished, Emma left with a smirk. Boss Lady always had the best ideas.

Two gifts, and yet candy and paints alone were not enough. However much the chalkbaord had cost, repaying it would need something with more...substance. Something that Maple might use every day herself.

The [Soapy Helper] relied on intuition and instinct for the last item, much like when looking for their baby's pot, while wandering the markets. After many false leads, Emma ended up at a minotaur's wagon.

The bullish man was larger than most solids, full of muscle, and with two long horns protruding from his head. Unlike most of the wagons, there were no horses nearby, leading Emma to suspect that he might even pull the thing himself.

Spectacles softened his sturdy look a fraction, but it was his facial expression while he read a book and tuned the world out, that revealed more of his softer side. Mostly because, Emma could see the title.

Clash of Horns: An Interspecies Enemies to Lovers Romance

The rest of his body language showed how much he didn't want to be there, let alone have to talk to anyone. Emma's Skills, obtained long ago through necessity, pointed all of this out automatically. They weren't as useful now—and rather often only served as a harsh reminder of the past—but there'd been a time when solid body language hadn't come naturally.

Emma browsed the wares quietly. It was mostly farming and gardening tools, and at first glance seemed more helpful to their baby than to Maple. Another dud, then—

Aha! After spotting it, the device practically lit up in Emma's mind. It was a breast pump, probably. More precisely, it was a glass dome connected to device with a hand-lever, and then a hose. It wasn't as fancy as the enchanted ones SuQ Dairy had had, but it looked like it did the same thing.

Emma picked it up and squeezed it a couple times, at which point the minotaur looked up from his book with a finger on where he'd left off.

"Hey, don't play with that. That one's not for sale."

Emma set it down and pulled out the chalkboard. It wouldn't be the best gift, given that it was for Maple's business venture instead of something personal, but she did need that breast pump. Emma could feel it.

Hi I'm Emma, a soap slime. For milk? Why not sell?

"Okay. Yes it's for milk, but it's my last one and somebody's already reserved it; they just left to fetch their coin."

His eyes darted once back to his book, but he wasn't willing to be quite that rude.

Money now better than money later? Maybe don't come back, eh?

Emma stacked a handful of silver coins on the chest in front of him.

"As a [Merchant], I would normally agree with you Miss Sl—Emma. But they left a deposit, and are paying extra. I'd say try elsewhere if you really needed it, but the [Merchants] I'm aware of are all out too. I'll have more in about a month or so."

Emma added two more coins to the pile and slid it forward. He eyed it with consideration, but shook his head.

"Ehh, I don't know. Got a reputation to uphold and all. What's a slime need it for anyway?"

He let the book close around his finger, indicating he was at least invested enough to consider Emma's bargaining. Playing on his greed looked like a dead end though, so Emma, master of faces, made a sad pleading expression.

Please? It's for love.

"Love? It's a breast pump."

Emma nodded, and wrote a bit more frantically than the reality of the situation. The jig was up if whoever had reserved it came back, but Emma could just find another gift in that case.

My human girlfriend needs it. She got me this amazing chalkboard, and this would be the perfect gift. Please? I love her so much.

Emma uncovered the top with the message Maple had left. The minotaur looked like he'd already been on the verge of accepting, but when he saw that too, he looked up and down the market street with a sigh.

"Fine. I did tell those two I don't normally hold onto items like that. You either have the coin, or you don't. Keep the extra, then. This is for...love, however unusual it may be."

He closed his eyes briefly, as if to imagine the wholesome romance between Emma the soap slime, and an imagined human who oh-so desperately needed a breast pump more than anything else. Emma pumped a fist in the air, and couldn't help but giggle at how today's bargaining had gone.

Emma tucked the pump away, and a loud crack of thunder made the minotaur look to the sky. He packed up his book with a groan as the first droplets began to fall.