Chapter Text
As any simple day in TPOT’s game parameters, the contestants were outside playing merrily and enjoying being outside. The sun shining high with a clear sky in this warm, spring afternoon already was a good reason to happily stay outside, and what better than to have fun with friends! The new teams had so many new bonds to offer, but they could always hang out with their friends from the first teams.
Despite what this perfect day could offer, someone still stayed inside the hotel since the day started, yearning to enjoy mindlessly as everyone else: Gaty.
She was inside her room with the curtains closed as she nervously took out a huge amount of clothes from her wardrobe. Standing in front of a mirror, she tried to visualize many outfits and find the perfect one, to no avail. She groaned when finally sitting on her bed, and rested her head on both hands. She hated this.
Lately, she felt awfully uncomfortable with her own body. She assumed most of the girls left in the competition had this same issue, but how could she know? Besides, they most likely had this problem resolved and if that was the case, Gaty was the only one falling behind. And the worst part, she had no one on her team to open up and confide this problem to. Fanny hated practically everything and based on what she knew, she probably won’t say anything positive. Tree, Marker and Black Hole were boys, what could they know? She had only one actually good option left…
“Gaty, are you here?” Pin’s voice could be recognized everywhere, as well as her sharpness and confidence with it.
She entered Gaty’s room and saw her distressed teammate with a lot of clothes thrown across the room.
“There you are! Oh, are you okay?”
“Well, not entirely. Do you mind if I take some stuff out of my chest?” Gaty requested, patting a spot on the bed next to her.
“Sure! Go ahead.”
“Okay, firstly, do you know what gender dysphoria is? You know, feeling uncomfortable with some parts of your body because your body doesn’t- doesn’t reflect… you.”
“Hm, I’ve heard of it, yeah,” Pin conceded, taking the seat.
“Well, I’ve been struggling a lot with that these last few days. I- And I don’t know what to do about it. I want people to look at me and truly see a girl. I’ve been doing some voice training, but I feel like it’s not enough.”
“Well, It’s not that difficult, really. I can help with that if you want to.”
“You really will?” Gaty queried, a smile tugging the corner of her lips.
“Yeah!”
A short silence filled the room. A feeling of anticipation remained inside Gaty.
“And… how do you plan to do that?”
“I’ll give you a tour over femininity, and we’ll see if any of that helps you feel better!” Pin explained. “And we’ll do it along these days, so it doesn’t overwhelm you to not instantly see changes after shoving everything to you at once.”
“Okay, that sounds good, actually.”
“First of all, I see you’re struggling with what to wear, am I right?”
“Does it look like it?” Gaty said with irony, but chuckling.
“I can help you with that first. So, let’s see what you got.”
After that, Pin took a look at what Gaty’s clothes had to offer. Everything that laid on the bed had periwinkle and yellow in a way or another, which didn’t leave her with much options. All of these had a problem: there was no definite style or fashion, it would be almost impossible to combine them together despite being pretty.
“I think I see your problem here,” Pin stated. “You have too many things, but you can’t combine them because you don’t have a definite style!”
“Ohh, that makes sense.”
“Exactly. We need to get a look at the many fashion trends that coexist, and let you decide!” she proposed.
After nodding, Gaty saw herself sinking into the blessings of Pinterest as Pin mindlessly scrolled over the precious and well elaborated outfits. Every now and then, she would look over different stuff and show them to Gaty, practically scanning at the outfits that apparently fitted in an alternative style.
“Those don’t quite convince me,” Gaty confessed. “Why don’t we go over something more… I don’t know, more casual but still feminine?”
“Oh, like downtown, things like that?”
“Uh yeah I guess. Let me have a look.”
After Pin searched it for her, she found the right thing she was looking for. She envied these girls that managed to make such pretty outfits and have eventful lives. As she was scrolling down, she found something else, something more ethereal and naturesque.
“What about this one?” Gaty asked, pointing at the post of a person with a mojoyce skirt.
“Oh, that? I’m pretty sure it’s fairycore.”
“Looks cool, can we see more of that?” She requested.
Pin agreed. She tapped over the picture and kept scrolling down from there. Gaty could swear she had a similar skirt getting dust inside her wardrobe, but couldn’t recall. She observed the graceful and exquisite clothing, and how it perfectly hugged their connatural girl bodies. Great
She’s just like them, just in a different body. She doesn’t need to feel bad because she can achieve that-
If only she could be enough of a girl.
But she already is
Then why doesn’t she see it when looking at herself?
Pin noticed that her friend zoned out, staring at the screen with her brows slightly frowned. “So, do you like them?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. They’re nice, but I don’t have anything like those with me.”
“I get it,” Pin said while taking her hand to her chin. “Now that we know what we’re aiming for, we can see what we need from your wardrobe and what we don’t, so we can make space for the things we truly need!” Pin explained.
“Sounds nice. But where do we start?”
“First we need to see what we got,” Pin disclosed. She took a white tank top and showed it. “Do we really need this?”
“Mhh, it’s too tight, I’m not sure if I’ll use it.”
“Okay, we’ll pile these things on this side-” she laid it on the feet of Gaty’s bed- “and the rest on the head of the bed, okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Good. What about this one?” She queried while showing a yellow skirt.
“Yeah, I actually use that one.”
“There we go!” Pin exclaimed, laying it on the head of the bed.
As a matter of fact, Gaty had many clothes, Far too many for being the simple girl she was, which showed at the struggle of finishing this apparently easy task. Some things like flared skirts could be fixed and reused, while others inevitably had to go, like a bunch of low waisted jeans she kept around “just in case”.
“Okay, we’re almost done,” Pin sighed in utter relief. “Do you use this skirt? it’s kinda like the fairycore thingies we just saw-”
“That’s exactly like them!” Gaty celebrated, having found the skirt she was thinking about.
“Off you go!” Pin said loudly while laying the skirt on a now moderate pile.
“Wait wait wait I’m not so sure about that one,” Gaty confessed. She started fidgeting with the ruffle of the periwinkle skirt she was wearing.
“Why not?”
“I… It kinda makes me feel uncomfortable with how it looks, y’know, down there.”
“Huh? …Oh, right! Well, is there something you can use to flatten it?”
“I’ve heard jean shorts help with that. I’m not sure if I have any- Pin? Pin, are you listening?”
She saw how Pin took a short made of a rather thick cloth that she didn’t see before.
“Right here!”
“Oh thank goodness. I didn’t want to throw away that one.”
“Yeah. Let’s keep going, we’re almost done!”
˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚
After they finished tidying up the wardrobe and trying on some new combinations, which was at the end of midday, Pin dismissed Gaty and left the apartment. Now, Gaty had to do things by herself and pick a cool outfit for today. She and Two planned to have a therapy session at night, which meant she could use any of the outfits she tried out with the help of Pin. A thin purple shirt hugged her figure with a white skirt and black sandals that enhanced the look. The reflection in the mirror showed how calm and confident she felt right now.
“Okay, there we go,” Gaty said to her reflection in the mirror, “If Two or anyone doesn’t like it, we don’t care. Well, if it’s Two we do care, but we won’t let it hurt us, okay? Good.”
Those affirming words were more than enough to pull herself out of the apartment. She closed the door behind her, went upstairs and crossed the corridor. The prime number painted on the door revealed she had the right door in front of her.
After knocking on the door, she waited for a few seconds. The door opened, showing the host of the game with their usual suit outfit and their pink tutu skirt over it, which didn’t even cover over their knees.
“Oh, hi, Gaty!” Two greeted with great gladness, waving their arms at her. “You can come on in.”
Two let her in. This damned room was the one where Two spent the whole challenge, and where one of the bugs her team had to eliminate entered and caused their elimination. Well, she couldn’t hold grudges against a room.
“That’s a nice fit! It’s far more than usual, is there a special occasion I’m missing?”
She got too distracted.
“Uhh, Gaty?”
“Huh? Wait, what did you say?"
“Nothing, I just said you came with a more elegant outfit than usual and wondered if I was missing anything.”
“Oh, no, no. I-” she chuckled- “I just wanted to come better, that’s all. Let’s start, shall we?”
“Sure!”