I searched the DeviantArt version of Rain for all pages with the "Colette" tag. Unless there was a page where Jocelyn forgot to tag Colette (and I forgot about that page), Colette and Rain have had no on-panel interaction whatsoever. The only two pages in which they both appear are non-story pages: one listing who everyone's prom dates are and one telling you to vote for prom king/queen.

However, that doesn't mean Rain and Colette don't know each other, especially considering that they are both in the same grade.

I think the distinction is in whether it's conscious and requires effect (Rain, Ruby) or it's become natural. We can presume that Jessica and Ana might have had vocal training, or Ana's intersex status blessed her with a more femme voice, and Vincent's voice would have changed with hormones.

@greypoupon

The italics are intended to denote that she's changing her voice when she speaks. As someone who was never fully able change my own voice, while I can produce a good feminine sound and I can maintain it, I still have to concentrate really hard while I speak or it will quickly dip back down. I've heard stories of trans women being able to permanently change it, but that's not something I've been able to do. And the same goes for Rain. So the italics in her speech are meant to depict a constant effort to maintain the sound she wants. I've also used italics for Ruby when around people not in the know.

Jessica, on the other hand, does not speak in italics as she's long since got her voice where she wants it. She's like those trans women who train their voice and keep it . Reaching her original register - if she even can - would be the struggle for her now. Same with Ana for that matter, but I always felt like her voice was probably more in the mid-ground to feminine range anyway. As for Vincent, it's to my understanding that testosterone helps with changing a trans man's voice.

TL;DR - Rain gets italics for her speech to denote that she's actively trying to change her voice to get a sound closer to what she wants. The other trans characters don't have to put that kind of effort into anymore, so they don't use italics. In Rain's case, it's just something to represent us trans gals struggling with our voices (as best I can in a non-verbal medium).

I had always assumed that Ana underwent only a single puberty as her condition was recognized fairly early. On the other hand this part of her life remains dark (presumably there was a mother at some point).

The relevance to the current discussion is that if Ana had only a female puberty then her voice would never have broken.

It's good to hear I'm not the only one who does that. Whenever I'm serving a customer or have to talk to someone I don't know, I talk in a more passable voice but when I'm with friends or co-workers I relax my vocals a bit more.
It does lead to the odd event where I accidentally confuse the hell out of a new co-worker but it's the easiest way for me to go about it.

@Jocelyn

Makes sense, thanks for the clarification!

Nah, Pale for life :P

No, Ruby.

Close second.

If you mean the conversation where they talk about their respective trans issues, it's in chapter 31, starting at about page 806.

yup that one thank you!!

@guest

Typically, in a chapter where I'm not bouncing back and forth through time, I just set the date on the first page of the chapter. Most chapters take place in one day, so I don't usually need to do it more than once. The exceptions might be any chapter that lasts more than one day in-comic (like Chapter 29, for example, which timeskips about two weeks about halfway through).

As for how long Rain has been on hormones: we're looking at just over a week right now. Bearing in mind that this page takes place on March 19th, and Chapter 30 (when she starts hormones) begins on March 11th, it's been eight days. So if it feels like not much has changed since she started, it's because not much HAS changed yet.

I hope that helps. ^_^