Ring 1.3: Returning

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Ring 1.3:

Returning

Once they were inside, Aki went straight for the ring on the coffee table. "So," she said, picking it up and looking at it, "is this the greatest thing or what?"
"It's..pretty great, I have to admit that," said Jen.

"Yeah. If only it hadn't made me so darn short.." Aki put the ring on, and it seemed to turn black for a second or two, like it was pulling away the light from around it. And then she suddenly started growing, her clothes shifting and growing, her petite breasts deflating and her girlish figure flattening down back to good old Akio. He didn't even lose the ring.

"Phew. I thought I was gonna get a cramp in my neck or something. Who wants to turn back next?"
"Hmm..it wears off in twelve hours, right?" said Jen. "I think I'll just stay like this until it wears off."
"I wanna turn back," said Flora, holding out a hand for the ring. Akio handed it over.

While Flora was busy putting on the ring, and it "glowed" black as before, Akio said, "So why do you want to stay like that? You're not tired of being attracted to guys yet?"
"W-well, I haven't been around that many guys tonight. But, that's not why. I kind of like being, you know, sorta kinda physically fit for once. Even if it's as a girl, and a disguise or whatever. Maybe I'll even sleep better for it." While she talked, Flora's clothes shifted into jeans and a t-shirt, but tailored to her current proportions. Then they grew out to Rolf's proper size, and she blushed, holding onto the pants to just barely keep them from falling over. Thankfully, Akio wasn't paying attention.

"If you say so. I mean, being a girl is kinda fun, I guess. I don't think I could handle doing it too often though, once a month is definitely plenty for me. What d'you think, Rolf?"

"I think it's great!" Flora's body still hadn't changed. The pause ended just as she started to speak again. "I had so much fun tonight, I mean, everyone was just tons of fun to be around and..and.." Her voice slowly lowered, her body growing a bit taller and her chest fading away, her hips drawing in and her stomach out. She could feel Rolf's old strength returning as she turned back into a guy down below, and this was where he hesitated. "..and, whoa. Have I been talking like that all night?"
"..Pretty much," said Jen.

"Wow. I thought I asked the ring to not turn me into a huge girly-girl. Like, I was thinking maybe some kind of tomboy athelete or something..how'd it get the disguise so wrong?"

"Are you saying you didn't enjoy it?" asked Jen.
"W-well no, but I..okay, look, I like being a man. Going full feminine like that and being okay with it, much less enjoying it, is weird. Where are the instructions for this thing?"

"I tossed them to you, remember?" said Akio.
"Oh, right." Rolf reached in his pocket and pulled out the instruction sheet. "...Where did the stuff in my pockets go when I was wearing a skirt?"
"Huh..who knows," said Jen. "Well, at least it didn't totally disappear?"

"Yeah, there's that," muttered Rolf. "...Akio. Half of this instruction booklet is warnings. Did you read. Any. Of them?"

"Well, no, I just got the ring in the mail today, and then I ran straight here to show it off. Why, is it anything bad?"
"Hmm..lucky for you, nothing we need to worry too much about. Apparently using the same disguise a lot in a short amount of time 'may result in becoming the mask'. I guess we're okay if we only use it once a month, though. Oh, wait, look at this. 'The diguise invoked is the first thing you think of after putting on the ring.' That's great. So it just ignores little words like not. And..hm. Well, that could be a problem."
"What? What is it?" said Akio, coming over to where Rolf was and trying to get a look over his shoulder at the paper.

"Apparently, the disguise you make with the ring is 'imprinted' for you, and if you want a whole new disguise you have to use a new ring to make it."

"Aww, really?" said Akio. "So to get taller I'm gonna have to buy a whole new ring...dang it, those things are expensive!"

"Wait, wait, hang on...It looks like an existing costume can be 'modified'. I'm guessing this means you could make yourself a little taller, but not as tall as I am now...and, like, not a cat or anything."

"Well lemme try that, then." Akio started trying to take the ring from Rolf, who held it back reflexively for a moment before realizing he was actually volunteering to be the guinea pig and handing it over.

"Okay, just don't drop it this time."

"I won't." Akio put on the ring and thought of Aki, but taller. His mind almost involuntarily recalled what Kell had said about how Aki probably wasn't through growing yet. After a couple of seconds, the ring glowed. "Alright.."

Akio took off the ring, and then felt the sqeezing sensation again. But, it wasn't quite as strong this time. And when the room, and Rolf, and Jen all started moving up, they stopped a lot sooner. His stomach and limbs shrank much the same as before, but Akio managed to keep his balance even as his hips pushed out a bit. Then he looked down, at his clothes, and was surprised to see it was just his jeans and t-shirt getting tighter, rather than suddenly bursting out into a skirt and blouse. He could feel a brassiere forming under the shirt, and his underwear tightening, but now he found that it felt strangely good. He blushed, a shy grin on his face, and a small, quiet "Mmm..." came from his closed mouth in Aki's girly, high voice as he became a girl again. Then her chest jumped out, becoming boobs again like before, but she looked down and could clearly see, even with the shirt over them, that they were bigger than before, and it was clear from the way they filled the bra this time that her eyes weren't deceiving her.

She looked up at Rolf, and then quickly turned her head over to Jen. Their eyes weren't quite the same height, but she didn't have to look up quite as much now, and that was plenty. "So, how do I look?"
"You look..older. Like you aged a year or two," said Jen. "If you're using that look to go to the arcade next month, you'll have to say you had a growth spurt or something."
"Well, that's believable enough, right? Okay, I'll look like this next time." Then she put the ring back on, and began shifting back.

Still on the way to manhood, Aki handed the ring to Rolf. "Now you try fixing your problem."

"Wha--now?" he said, taking the ring but not really wanting it.

"What better time than the present?" said Akio, now fully male. "I'm sure you don't want to go a whole month wondering if you'll be able to go the arcade next month without getting into arguments about fashion and how to attract boys half the time instead of playing games."
"Um..yeah, okay, okay. I guess I'll try."

Rolf put on the ring, and tried to think of Flora's body with his mind. Or a mind as close to his as possible. Wearing jeans, and a t-shirt, like a sensible person. He took the ring off and closed a fist around it as soon as it had begun to glow.

He found his t-shirt losing its sleeves, the collar pulling itself down to show off some of his chest hair; a bra made itself apparent over his shoulders and across his back, and his underwear and jeans both shrank, suddenly becoming uncomfortably tight. But there wasn't a frilly dress this time. That was a good sign, he thought.

The familiar shove came to Rolf's midsection then, and his shirt seemed to pull tighter around the slim, flat stomach than it really needed to. His head's hair grew out and changed color, and with a mild tingling the hair on his chest, and most of the rest of his body, pulled in or just plain disappeared for the most part. His hips shoved out, and then he could feel the tightness of the panties his boxers had turned into between his legs starting to loosen up, and before he knew it he'd turned into a girl again.

Flora's chest shoved out once, and then again, filling the bra and giving the tank top her shirt had become some cleavage to show. She couldn't help but notice her head starting to rush again, the pleasant feeling coming back between her legs, and she tried but couldn't quite resist looking at Akio for a second or two.

She turned her giddy smile into a frown and closed her eyes for a second, thinking. Trying to get a sense of what was going on. It occurred to her that the clothes she were wearing looked great on her, that wearing unisex clothes like this made her femininity and beauty all the more obvious..she stopped herself and opened her eyes. "Urgh..I think I'm still kinda mostly the same as before. I mean, my clothes are normal but the stuff I'm thinking about them isn't."
"Hmm, well, let me do a quick litmus test then," said Akio. "What do you think of sports?"
"Oh, sports? Sports are great! They help you stay fit, a whole lot better than just exercising and dieting would, and they're loads of fun and a great way to meet lots of new people. Besides that, people on sports teams hang out a lot and..and, whoa why in the world was I gonna say that?"

"What were you gonna say?" said Jen. "Come on, you're among friends."
"I-I-I was gonna say that all the cutest boys play sports! Oh man, I need to change back right now." She put the ring on and rapidly returned to being Rolf, faster than any of their changes before had been.

"..Phew. Okay, that was weird and uncomfortable. I mean, when I was Flora before I was totally okay with saying stuff like that, now it's just weird."

"Hmm, well that's progress at least, I think," said Akio. "I guess since your original disguise defaults to 'girly-girl' you can only sort of halfway change Flora's mentality to a more boyish one."

"Maybe you need to experiment with it a little to get the right mix. I mean, some of the stuff you said about sports is what you usually say," said Jenna.

"I..yeah, you're right," said Rolf. "But..no more experimenting for me tonight. I just wanna stay male for a while before I even think about being 'Flora' again, okay?"
"Fine with me," said Akio. "Sooo, who's keeping up with the ring?"

"Definitely not you," said Rolf.
"Aw, but I bought it! With my own money, even."
He nodded. "Yeah, which I'm sure means you'd feel really terrible if your investment got lost. Which would happen if you kept up with it. You'd lose it."

"You really think I'm that untrustworthy?"

"Well, you do lose stuff a lot," said Jen. "Let's see, how many phones have you gone through in the past six months?"
"Okay, okay! You win. You should probably hang on to it anyway, in case you change your mind about turning back before you go to bed."

"Huh..that actually makes sense," said Rolf. He went over and handed the ring to Jen. "Are you sure you're not coming down with something, Akio?"

"No way. I have amazing ideas, and I make great decisions all the time. They just get crowded out because I make lots of decisions and, you know, they can't all be perfect."

"Whatever. Let's go home." Rolf opened the door. "See you tomorrow, Cole! Or, Jen, whatever."

"See ya!"

To be continued...