The next day Andrea wants to look as good as possible for her… new friend date? She just.. doesn’t know what shes doing here. At least her hair is grown out so she can try and make it look cute. Even if her clothes are kinda… plain, the way her chest swells under her top gives Andrea all sorts of euphoria, and she has actual hips now to fill out her shorts! Is Amaranthine free? Would she mind helping her with makeup? 

Amaranthine would love to help her with makeup. Does she want something bold or more natural?

Andrea is not very… bold. In general. She just wants to girl more successfully. 

Then Amaranthine will do a more natural look, deemphasize her lingering masculine features, and pet her a little more about it as well.

And before long Bluebell arrives. She's a brown-haired, blue-eyed woman wearing a halter top and jeans, practical sneakers on her feet.

"Hey," she says. "Andrea?"

Gosh having her makeup done and getting pets about it is maybe her new favourite thing in the world? Its really very good and tingly, not in a sexual way, but like… something orthogonal to that. Being fussed over by someone pretty is yesgood. She barely recovers from all these feelings before Bluebell arrives.

“Yeah? Thats me, Bluebell?”

"Nice to meet you!" Bluebell offers her a hand to shake. "I brought my car over, so we can take it together, or if that's not comfy for you we can take transit. Your choice. Thrift store first?"

Sure, she can do polite handshake. “Car is fine. Thrift store sounds good.” Even though she knows this world is more accepting… She thinks she might feel stared at or judged on public transport.

"Alright then, let's go." It's not a long walk to the parking lot.

Bluebell's car is an unfamiliar make of SUV, with space in the back to... lie down, apparently? And two front seats. Bluebell moves her purse off the other front seat and gestures for Andrea to hop in.

At least SUV’s are big. Getting into tiny cars has always been annoying with her male height. She gets in. Ahhh what to talk about with a stranger… She hasn’t had to make a friend in person since college… “So uhmmm… I know we are going to the thrift store but like… what exactly are the general pleat tropes for clothes? Just so I have an idea before we get there.”

"It varies a lot! It depends on what the pleat is, but most pleats have a couple associated styles. Like, for example, if you're a Voluptaten then you can wear stuff that's easy to take off or stuff that's fun to take off - sarongs and togas and stuff in the first case, more zippy snappy stuff in the second."

“I don’t know what Voluptaten is… sorry.” Theres so many new latin-esque words for these things…

"Voluptaten means 'one who gives pleasure' — on Earth I think you have ruder words for that role."

“Eep!” So… slutwear… “u-uhm maybe that one… isn’t for me… just yet.”

Why did she say yet! I mean sure being a slut is very femme coded and sounds hot. But she can barely handle being around people fucking in the temple dorms, much less being a slut.

"Awww. Aren't you just adorable. There are other roles of course. Some less obvious."

Bluebell stops at a traffic light. "Do you have any thoughts on what role you'd pick? If you could pick any one, I mean."

“I don’t really know what roles there are… besides like some vague generalities like some are more dominant or submissive or sadist. I guess I lean submissive?” Gosh that was hard to admit. Even if its normal here. All the leftover catholic sex guilt just makes it hard to talk about.

"Yeah, I do think that might be a little more natural for you."

Gosh being judged on her submissiveness… sure was a feeling. Andrea is not sure which one it is yet. But its a feeling. This is unfair really, when she was still a boy she could totally have pulled of dominant. Just on pure gender tropes alone.

The thrift store cant arrive soon enough because she feels very awkward.

Fortunately she doesn't need to wait very long before Bluebell pulls up at a thrift store parking lot and gets out of the vehicle. "Alright," she says. "Let's have a look and see what we've got."

It looks cheery enough, with a brown exterior full of plate glass windows. Kind of familiar, honestly. 

Okay, what kind of stuff do people give to thrift stores in a sex positive world where people identify with kink-ish roles. Because even earth thrift stores had pretty random stuff in them.

Andrea gets out too and follows Bluebells lead.

The thrift store is fairly packed with clothing, organized vaguely by style, labeled with more of those latinish words Andrea doesn't know the meanings of. The closest three aisles are "Dolorin", "Docila", and "Voluptaten", but there are many more in the store. 

The Dolorin aisle is full of slashed-up or otherwise distressed clothing, arm-baring tops, backless dresses, and patterns that look like spilt blood or scars. It seems to like the colors blue, green and yellow, as well as a dusty red that reminds her of dried blood. 

The Docila aisle is full of leather collars, frilled dresses with long skirts, white gloves and stockings, and simple, black, non-staining slacks and suitjackets. There are also some quite elaborate dresses, ranging from very skin-baring to more conservative. The general theme seems to be muted colors that go with anything — charcoal, brown, black. The occasional elaborate dress tends to use a jewel tone rather than sharply drawing the eye with bright colors.

The Voluptaten aisle is full of sarongs and togas, along with the occasional piece of clothing with snaps or zippers. There are also some bikini tops and bottoms. Most od the patterns are bright, bold and eyecatching, of flowers, peaches, or ocean waves. There are matching charms and necklaces too. 

"See anything you're interested in yet?"

Back home… all the things in her amazon Wishlist trended a bit… pastel egirl or goth. The classic stripey thigh highs and swooshy skirt combo of every baby trans. None of the stuff so far really suits her aesthetically, and she can guess enough about the tropes of Dolorin and Voluptaten that what they symbolize doesn’t suit her much either. Collars are cute but she is sure they mean something here. “Whats Docila?”