After sharing my thoughts about how Robert of The Goes Wrong Show would react upon learning Chris was trans, I received another anonymous message on Tumblr: hiii do you have any more thoughts on trans!chris/robert??? i really enjoyed what you wrote!!! •ᴗ•

So, for an alternative scenario, what if Chris joins the drama society while he's still presenting as a woman, meaning that he comes out as a trans man when he and Robert already know each other? Again, I'm envisioning Robert somehow managing to be completely unfamiliar with the concept of being trans.

At first, when Chris attempts to explain that he's a man, Robert assumes Chris is simply mistaken and attempts to 'help' by explaining Chris's gender to him. No, Chris, you must have lost your memory. I've known you for years, and you've been a woman the entire time. Look, I've got photographs.

("For God's sake, Robert, you don't unders— why do you have so many photographs of me? When did you take these?")

Eventually, Chris manages to communicate that he'd like to be referred to as 'he'. Robert clearly doesn't understand the point of this exercise, though, and he makes an effort so token it's almost worse than not trying at all; he gets Chris's pronouns right maybe twenty percent of the time. He also hasn't grasped that this is a permanent state of affairs; when Chris corrects him on his pronouns the next day, Robert's response is "What, still?"

And then Chris hits on the answer. "Look, Robert, just think of this as an acting exercise. Up to this point, I was playing a female role. From now on, I'm playing a male role, and you should play your part accordingly."

It clicks for Robert instantly. Suddenly he takes great pride in treating Chris as a man, and in correcting anyone who slips up. Chris has no idea of whether Robert thinks of him as a man, but he'll take it.