Well, glad people are enjoying this fic. It won't usually update this fast, but I already had this much written, so ... Anyway, I've been told I should provide actual links to some transgender/transsexual/genderqueer information resources to answer any questions people may have, but ffnet doesn't let people put links in their fics, so I'll just tell you the names of some sites and trust you to Google them. I recommend Transgender Unity, Tranarchy, Laura's Playground, Questioning Transphobia, Scarleteen (which is more a general sex ed site, but it has good info and I trust it), and Venus Envy (a semi-autobiographical webcomic, which is actually pretty informative - should warn you, though, it contains profanity, occasional semi-nudity and violence, and one single-panel not-very-graphic-but-still-obvious sex scene between sixteen-year-olds, so read with caution). Further site recs may be provided as I find good ones.
Maurice's line at the end is not really an accurate description of the situation, but keep in mind he is a) not an expert and b) trying to explain it to other characters who are completely unfamiliar with the concept. Better explanations will come in later chapters. The song "Bad Romance" is copyright Lady Gaga and has very little to do with the TG topic, but I thought it was Julien's kind of song. Also, in response to the reviewer's question about Julien's voice (which I think was actually a pretty reasonable question, since he can't really get access to hormone therapy), I can confirm that simple practice works wonders. Watch Rugrats and keep in mind that Phil and Lil are voiced by the same woman, and you'll see what I mean.
"Cute and cuddly, boys, cute and cuddly!"
The day was progressing as normal, everyone doing their part to entertain the flocks of people; wagging tails, big eyes, faux-clumsy walks, and all the other usual tricks. Kids cheered and adults cooed.
One particular child caught Skipper's ever-watchful eye. Not content with merely watching the animals, the small boy in question was busily reading the information placards on each enclosure, out loud.
"The pen-guin is a flig-ut ... flight-less bird na-tive to Ant-arc-ti-ca ..." the child chanted solemnly, blinking behind his oversized spectacles.
"Very good, Timmy! Very good!" his mother cooed, ruffling his hair.
"Keep an eye on that one," Skipper whispered to Kowalski. "Kid's too curious for his own good. Private! Distraction!"
"Penguins are a-kew-at-ic ..."
"Aquatic, Timmy dear, it means they live in water. Oh, look at that little one! Awwww!"
Timmy was suitably distracted by Private's tail-wagging, and Skipper relaxed. When Timmy and his mother moved on to the lemur habitat, Timmy peered at the lemur's information placard.
"Le-murs are pro-sim-i-ans ... Mommy, what's that mean?"
"Prosimians. A bit like monkeys, but different."
"Oh ... native to Mad-a-gas-car. That's in Africa, isn't it, Mommy?"
"Well, it's near Africa, dear, it's a big island just next to Africa. Well done, Timmy, you're good at this!"
Timmy blinked solemnly and continued to read. "Lemurs are mat-, uh, matt-ritch-al ... Mommy?"
"Matriarchal, dear, it says 'matriarchal'."
"Oh. What's that?"
"It means the girl lemurs are in charge, dear."
"Just like with you and me?"
Timmy's mother laughed. The penguins stopped watching the family and looked at each other.
"Hmm. Suspicious?" Private asked Kowalski.
"I don't know ..." Kowalski mused. "Our lemurs don't have a female, and Julien's probably the closest thing they have to an authority figure. Still, you'd think a vet would know better than to assume, even if he didn't look close enough to notice the difference."
"Hm." Skipper glanced in the direction of the lemurs. Julien fortunately hadn't heard what the family were saying, and was enthusiastically shaking his tail as usual. "Rico! Stop that!"
"Aw!" Rico stopped bobbing his head to the lemur's music and resumed the usual routine.
"That's it," Skipper said approvingly. "Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave."
The peace of the night was broken by a sudden racket from the lemur habitat.
"RA-RA AH-HA HA, ROMA ROMA-MA, GA-GA OOH-LA-LA ..."
"RINGTAIL!"
The penguins arrived at the lemur habitat in record time, to see Julien prancing about as usual, singing along at the top of his lungs. Someone had dropped a plastic spork at some point during the day, and Julien was now clutching it and singing into it in lieu of a microphone. Mort and Maurice were manning the boombox.
"-I want your everythin' as long as it's free, love love love I want your love! I-"
"Will you shut the heck up?" Skipper yelled.
Julien stopped singing, but continued to strut around, swinging his hips and paws in rhythm to the thumping music. "What, and deprive my public of my wonderfulness?"
"Nobody cares! We are TRYING to SLEEP!"
"Sleep is for the weak, silly penguins!" Julien cartwheeled, holding the spork with his tail and laughing wildly. "Lady Gaga will not be denied!"
"Dammit, Julien, turn that noise down! You're not the only animal in the zoo, princess!"
This statement had a much greater effect on Julien than Skipper had expected. Both the spork and his lower jaw dropped, and he drew back as if Skipper had bitten him. Maurice gasped and quickly switched off the boombox.
"Now, that was uncalled for!" the aye-aye snapped, before Julien scurried up and clung to him.
"They know! Maurice, how is it they are knowing?"
"I don't know, but let's calm down and talk about this rationally-"
"Talk about what?"
The lemurs stopped and looked guilty. Maurice grinned unconvincingly and said "Nothing."
Skipper's eyes narrowed. "Look, it's blatantly obvious something weird is going on with you lemurs. Tell us what's going on, or we'll end up finding out anyway."
"That's not much incentive to tell you, I must say," Maurice pointed out.
"If we find out some other way we'll mercilessly mock you all for whatever it is. How about that?"
Maurice looked up at Julien. "I think we're gonna have to tell them."
Julien sagged and sighed "Fine. But I do this under protest."
Maurice looked at the penguins and Mort. "You should all sit down, this is gonna take a while."
"Well, if we are having storytime let us be doing it properly ... Maurice! My puppets!" Maurice produced a box, from which Julien took a small crudely-made hand-puppet in the shape of a lemur with a pink flower on its ear. He held it up and began the story; "Once upon a time, there was a very pretty little princess-"
Kowalski raised a flipper and said "This had better not be like the time I asked where you'd hidden the TV remote and you tried to reply in Choose Your Own Adventure format. I kept getting eaten by rabid fire ants. And for the record, Julien, the term 'fire ants' does not refer to ants that are on fire."
"No, no, this will be making perfect sense when I am done, I promise. So, this princess was very smart and very pretty and very popular, and best of all very modest-"
Skipper groaned "I don't wanna hear the details of your love life, ringtail."
"What? No! I hated her!"
"Or your hate life. I don't see what your grudge against some girl has to do with anything-"
"Will you all just shut up and listen?" Julien cleared his throat and continued, pulling another lemur puppet from the box. This one wore a crown similar to Julien's. "Anyway, the princess was the only daughter of Queen Julienne the Twelfth, and so she was next in line to be queen of the lemurs. You see, lemurs are supposed to have a queen – when we have a king he's sort of supposed to only be ruling until he finds a ladyfriend to take over, you know. It's not fair at all but there you go."
"Yes, get to the darn point!" Skipper snapped, then blinked as Julien flinched. "Egad, you're actually upset about this."
"Well, yes. Why are you thinking I did not want to tell you?" Julien snapped.
"I-I'm sorry," Skipper said, thinking how weird it was to see Julien having difficulty talking about something. "I didn't realise. Please, carry on."
"I remember the princess!" Mort piped up. "She was soooo pretty ..."
"Yes she was, but right now she's telling a story, Mort, so shut up!" Julien shouted, waving the puppets angrily. "So. The little princess should have been very happy, but she wasn't." He made the pink-flowered puppet's head droop. "And for a long time she didn't know why, because, you know, princess. Pretty sweet life. But eventually she figured out that the problem was, to be a princess, you have to be a girl."
The penguins blinked at him.
"Uh, yes. So what was the problem?"
"Well, the problem was she didn't want to be a girl, silly penguin!"
"Why not?" Private asked, tilting his head curiously.
"Do you want to be a girl? Same thing."
"No, but I'm not one. I think," said Private, looking down curiously at himself.
"Look, will you just let him finish?" Maurice interrupted. "We'll explain the details later!"
"Sorry," Private said, clearing his throat and blushing slightly. "Carry on."
Julien nodded and resumed waving the puppets, this time holding up the one with the crown. "So, Queen Julienne, ruler of the lemurs and all-round awesome, never found out that the little princess wasn't happy. She might have found out some time, but sadly there was an incident with the fossa. Which was a little bit good because it meant she didn't find out, but still mostly bad because, well, obviously." He looked at the puppet, sniffled, and hugged it, whispering "I miss you, Mommy."
"Waaaaiit ..." Skipper held up a flipper, the metaphorical penny dropping. "Are you saying that ..."
"Mm-hm." Julien hugged the puppets tighter and turned his face away. Maurice stood up and rested a paw on the king's shoulder.
"Your majesty, I think I should explain a bit more of the details. I don't think you're up to it right now," he said quietly.
"No need, I think I understand," said Kowalski slowly. "Are you telling us that Julien is ..."
"Well, if you're talking strictly biology ... this isn't really accurate, but ..." Maurice took a deep breath, let it out, and finished "Yes. To put it as simply as possible, let's say yes. He was a girl."
