Midas Journal 10

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Part of the reason there's no change in the following entry is that it was originally going to be just the first part of the next one, but because of a certain detail it became pretty clear they'd need to be two separate entries.

Also, just for the record, when I say real life is too busy for me to write that generally means I'm not even writing little bits of things because I literally don't have time to.


Entry: Apr 8
Today during school I had a chance to talk with Rio, and she wanted to know how my...uh...practicing was going. Since my parents weren't going to be home for a little while, I said we should maybe meet at my house so we could talk in more private than the coffee shop, and she agreed. So, after school, I explained mostly what I talked about here the other day. I was able to turn myself into a girl, but didn't have any change in memory, the weird body 'improvement' thing, the weird sense I was developing and that it wasn't exactly helping me stop from changing people. She let me get through ranting all of that before she said anything.

"Don't worry about it," she said, "that's good news--it means you're getting better. You ever hear the expression 'Rome wasn't built in a day'?"
"Sure."
"Well, magic-user types got so tired of telling their students that one they made up five or six equivalent clichés. The point is, progress isn't fast with this kind of thing, any more than exercising a muscle would be. I think the idealizing might just be a natural aspect of your power."
"Yeah, but it makes me hate it even more."
"How so?"
"I can't...okay, look, I basically just got through telling you that what you look like--right now--and maybe not even just that--might be the result of my own idea of what makes a girl beautiful or hot. That--that doesn't bother you at all?"
She shrugged. "Only when you put it that way. But really, all that sort of thing is conditioned by society anyway, so I'm not too ugly by everyone else's standards, and that's a good thing."
"Okay, okay wait. This..this is what the problem is. Based on everything I know about it so far, my power is literally intended for someone who is a complete perv and just wants pretty girls to like him, and probably more than that. How am I supposed to deal with that?!"
She nodded. "I can see how that could bother you, but I have to tell you, magic isn't specifically intended in any way. Look at it like this--does your personality change your hair color? Is your eye color specifically designed for someone with your particular interests?"
"Well, no, but usually someone who's talented with something is also really into it."
"But they don't have to be. There have been people with huge potential in one field who went into something altogether different. Like, imagine a child prodigy musician who ended up going into math and barely wrote half a bar. Sure, a lot of people in the music world would say his talent was wasted, but if he's any good at math he helped the world in a whole different way. It's not hard to imagine that happening, right?"
"Yeah, but I don't imagine music would instantly play whenever he was in the same room as an instrument."
"..Granted. Still though, everyone you've changed has been happy with it. Maybe you're like some kind of genie or something, giving people what they really want."
"And in exchange they have to be pretty girls."
"That's not too huge a price, if you ask me."
"I-ignoring how bad that makes me feel for now, what if someone wants something horrible, like the power to easily murder or steal people's free will?"
She shrugged. "I don't know the whole nature of your power, but you haven't seen it work that way yet, have you? Has a single person you've changed ended up having--and using--evil superpowers?"
"I guess not."
"Besides, I'm sure if someone started doing that I'm sure you could find someone else who wants to stop them."
"Great, so everyone I ever come into contact gets accidentally contracted into a magical girl war. That's...I don't even know how to describe how stupid and weird that would be."
"It's still all hypothetical, though. Besides, if you can give someone powers like that--and as far as we know you can't--I'm sure you could take them away with enough practice."
"Okay, yeah, this conversation's gotten way out of hand. I just wanted to tell you what was going on, and show you what Kayla looked like."
"Kayla?"
"Girl-me. It was on a nametag or something. I'm going to change in my room, because the last few times I did it I ended up in underwear and I'd rather not do it in front of anyone anyway. I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

After that I went into my room. That whole conversation up there was not the reason I felt the need to write this entry. The reason is because of what happened next. I had honestly forgotten about Carla calling me the other day (I know I know, it's right up there, but I only look at this when I'm writing it near midnight), but this..this was beyond weird. I went into my room and turned into Kayla--this time for some reason my clothes didn't all turn into underwear and I was actually wearing jeans and a t-shirt--and came back out. Rio was not there. Sitting in the same place was a guy I didn't recognize, except...he looked kind of like he could've been her older brother. He looked a little confused.

He said, "Kayla? I thought you were going to turn into a guy."
"What."
"That's what you said before you went into your room, right? You were going to come back and show me what the guy version of you looked like?"
I think my brain shorted out for a minute or two. I started pacing and stammering, what I can remember of it is a lot of, "I, but--you were---and me--ghhhkt." The guy looked kind of worried when I finally calmed down, and sat down on a chair across from him. "Humor me for a minute."
"Okay."
"What is your name."
"Rion, remember?"
"Still humoring me. How do you know me?"
"...I tried to mug you and you turned me into a younger guy."
"You were female before."
"Uh, yeah..."
"Okay, look. The person you are talking to right now, is not the person you have met or know or whatever. I have absolutely no idea why and I can barely comprehend how, but I have temporarily changed places with her."
"Um, alright...then, who are you?"
"I'm Kael. On my eighteenth birthday I developed a weird power to turn people into girls. When I tried using it on myself I looked like this. Does that sound at all familiar to you?"
"Sure, almost exactly like, um, Kayla, but..the other way around."
"Okay. Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go into Kayla's room for a few minutes, and then Kayla will probably come back out and stop talking in the third person about herself."
"Alright." I could tell he was still extremely confused, but I didn't want to stick around for much longer. Why? Well...um...as a girl...I was starting to notice he was kind of...not ugly. I needed to be me again as fast as possible, or at least that's what I was thinking when I headed back to my/Kayla's room.

Then I had an idea. I remembered that I wrote in this journal when I was Kayla. I went and looked in my/her computer, and sure enough, it was there. So I went and found a piece of paper, and wrote down where this folder is hidden in the computer. In that computer and this one, same place. I put it down on the keyboard. Then I changed back. I have no idea what's going on with this, but maybe that will give me some kind of clue. Anyway, I changed back and went out to find Rio back where she'd been before. She was looking at me kind of funny, like the way you look at someone who did something completely nuts out of nowhere and you're not sure if they're back to sanity yet or not.

"Hey," I said, sitting down across from her.
"...Hi?"
"Let me guess. I walked back in here, still looking like this, and explained to you that I was a girl named Kayla in a guy's body."
"...Yeah."
"Just to set the record straight, I'm me now. Not that other person. But I had a very similar conversation with a guy who looked a little like you. Does this mean that my power includes the ability to create alternate universes?"
"Maybe...but since time travel magic is possible--though extremely difficult, to the point of being impractical for even the most obvious of uses--it's possible an alternate universe already existed and your power just moves consciousnesses around somehow."
"And the Kayla in that universe just happens to change into me whenever I change into her."
"I....would assume so, that's the only way it would make sense."
"I think I'm going to have a headache for the next twenty years or so. Do you even believe this is happening? I have to admit, I think I'm going crazy now more than ever before."
"Look, I think we've talked enough for me to call you my friend, okay? You're my friend and I trust you, what you saw I believe you actually saw. I may not understand everything of what's going on, any more than you do, but since I'm a witch and you have the power to turn guys into girls, and sort of alter reality to make the change easier to deal with, I can't throw out any possibility unless I've got a really good reason to. Besides, Kayla-in-your-body was pretty insistent about not being you."
"Okay. Thank you."
"And by the way, while you were in your room the first time I thought of something."
"Yeah?"
"Maybe the reason people you change are attracted to you at first is just a sudden rush of hormones. Actually, that might even be part of the reason your body started looking different after the first time you changed. It could at least be a part of it, right?"
"...I guess so. But it seems like it was a little too all-at-once for that to be the whole reason."
"I know. Just thought I'd mention it."

After that, Rio left, Hey and the rest of the afternoon was pretty normal. I can't really think of anything else to what was that? Hi Kael! Who are you and how are you editing this? It's me, the other 'you'! <3 So wait, you're, the Kayla that talked to Rio in my body? Yep. Why are you typing in blue? It's my favorite color and I wanted to get your attention. Okay. So that means that this same file actually exists in both our universes, and is literally the same file? I guess so. I was reading through this and noticed the new entry showing up and thought I'd see what would happen! This has got to be the weirdest thing I have ever experienced. How so? I am practically talking to myself. Well, not exactly. I mean it looks to me like we're two different people! That headache I mentioned earlier? Did you read that part? Yeah, what about it? I think I need to extend it to my entire lifespan. However long I live, I am never going to stop having a headache. If you say so. Why worry about it, though? What do you mean? I mean, sure, there's another universe that's a lot like yours and has a person who is sort of like you and in a similar place to you, but what difference does that make? How does that NOT make a huge difference? I think that should be obvious. Is it really gonna effect your everday life? I'm guessing you don't have an answer since you're not saying anything. But anyway, I just thought of something I think might help us both out. What's that? Well, I was thinking about how you describe the way you change, and I do the same thing. You specifically tell yourself to 'be Kayla', right? Yeah. Well, doesn't 'being you' include being in the universe where being you makes sense? I'm not sure what that means. Well it's really hard to be really sure you're you without someone else around to recognize you! I don't know if I agree, but go ahead anyway. What if instead of saying to 'be' each other completely, which includes moving to each others' universes or whatever, we just concentrate on becoming the other gender physically and maybe mentally, but definitely staying in our own universes? Sure, it couldn't hurt to try I guess. Great! Anyway I've gotta go to bed, I don't know if it's the same time here it is there, but it's past midnight here! Okay, that's fine. Uh, in the interest of not making my lifelong headache worse, can we maybe not have these schizophrenic conversations every time I write one of these things? Sure! I probably won't even check this all that often. But if I have something to say to you I'm sure gonna say it! Fine. Maybe you can tell me if I'm starting to really go insane, instead of just seeing and hearing things that make me think I'm insane. Well if you want to not go insane try to loosen up and enjoy life a little more, okay? Sure, fine, and one more thing. Yeah? Please do not make any less-than-three hearts at me again. If talking to another version of myself is weird, any implication of that other self being attracted to me is even weirder. Oh wow, you do take everything real seriously. I didn't mean it like that, silly! Anywaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay g'night!


(This is about five minutes later) I think...I think that conversation should speak for itself. I can't even begin to describe how bizarre this is. I guess...I'll try what she suggested next time I practice. Anyway. Yeah. I hope I don't have to write again for like a week so I can get my head straight about all of this. It's probably too much to ask of whoever or whatever is in charge, though. Oh well.