Ring 2.1: Becoming

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Ring 2.1:

Becoming

Kevin turned over in his bed, and sat up. He looked for the clock, and eventually found it. What time was it? Around 10:00, it looked like. Time to get up, not every Saturday but definitely this one. He swung around so his feet were on the floor, and glared at the ring on his nightstand. He was glad he hadn't been woken up around 7. It was always torture going back, because it was so slow. He almost reached for the little piece of plastic jewelry, but stopped himself. He had a promise to keep.

About an hour later, he was out the door and on his way to a nearby restaurant. He didn't usually like to eat out at a sit-down place like this one, but today was different. Near the front door, he met a tall, kind of bony-slim guy wearing angular glasses and, of all things, a trenchcoat. "H-hey, Liam." This was his best friend, had been for many years. Best, because Kevin didn't like to admit to himself that he was basically the only one.
"Yo. Glad ya came as yourself today," he said.

"W-well, I d-don't go back on promises...you..you know."

"Sure, sure. I trust ya." He paused, looking down at Kevin and tilting his head a little bit. "..Hn."

"What?"
"Tell ya later. Come on in, my friend." Liam went inside and held the door open for Kevin to follow.

Inside, Liam held up two fingers for the host. "..A, distant booth if you can?"
"No problem," said the host. The place wasn't very busy just now, empty enough to have private conversation...exactly why they were here at this time of day. So he was able to seat the two of them, and give them menus, without any wait.

They sat in an awkward silence for a minute or two after ordering drinks before it occurred to Kevin that Liam wanted him to start the conversaion. "S-so..what'd you want to talk about? Why couldn't.."

"Because I want to talk about you, my friend," said Liam, pointing a finger at Kevin's face, "and I want to talk about you with you rather than you with a layer of magically-produced costume on." As he continued talking, he leaned farther and farther across the table, bringing the finger closer to Kevin's face, before suddenly drawing back, like a spring, to sitting up straight on his side.

"O-okay..um.."

"Listeeen, I'm not gonna tell you to stop what you're doing. You're my friend, and I like to see ya happy, man.But not, if it hurts ya in the long run."

"Wh-what do you mean?"
"Well, let me start with the positives. I'm friends with you. With Kevin, right? Savvy? The things I like about you are unique to you, and if you're really a different person I wouldn't like you as much. But I can tell you that isn't happening, because I like Kell just as much as I like you, and for all the same reasons. And I'm not beyond admitting, Kell is hot. I'd ask her out in a heartbeat if we'd just met. To be clear, I am saying that last part to clear the air. If I used that as an excuse to hide my concerns, I'd be a terrible friend and an even worse lover, dig?"
"Uh..okay..so..wh-what are your concerns? I mean, K-k-kell is..better than me. She's s-stronger, and m-more confident, and..um.."
"Yeah, I know. But Kev, man." He leaned forward, elbows on the table. "We've been workin' on your confidence for years. You were improving, you were really gettin' better. Speakin' up, hardly stuttering at all. But now that you've found this shortcut all that progress looks like it's just disappeared. The way you are now, I'm surprised you didn't hide under your shirt when the waitress looked at ya."

"But.."

"Now, now let me finish. I'm not saying I disapprove of you using a shortcut. If it makes you a better person, more like who you wanna be, and faster, and if it really gives you all that extra confidence you've always wanted, I say go for it. But I got two concerns where it comes to that. The first one is this--is all that extra confidence real?"

"W-well..yeah! O-o-of course it is."

"Are you sure? How can you be sure, man? I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I have to know for sure, and you have to know for sure. What if Kell's 'confidence' is just a layer over your usual nerves? My cocern, Kev, is if it's fake it'll break someday, and then we'll be back and square one, but worse."

"I..okay, I understand..b-but, it is real. I know it is. I-it's not li-like I'm thinking nervous thoughts and putting on a s-show, it's like I feel like I r-r-really know what I'm d-doing. It's like..y-you know how you'd always s-say there was a c-confident guy in m-me, waiting to come out?"
"Sure, and I still stand by that."
"W-well, it feels like that's really what h-happens. L-like the confidence I al-always wanted just comes out. A-and it feels natural."

"Hm." Liam looked thoughtful for a moment. "Okay, that's pretty great then."

"On to my next thing, I think it's pretty obvious but I think I should point out to you that you're turning into a chick."
"W-well..yeah...."

"Okay. Now let me explain: I don't think you gotta turn into a girl to be more confident, even shortcut-wise. Like, I bet if you were born a girl and grew up into Kell's looks with all else equal, you'd still act pretty much the same way you do now. Bein' a girl isn't what's giving you confidence. That's a separate thing the ring does. Am I wrong?"

"N-no..that's probably c-correct."

"Okay then. So they're not inextricable, Kev. That means turning into a chick is either a bonus or a price. And shortcuts that come at a price stink. I mean, if I was in your position, which I can only sorta imagine I guess, I don't know if turning into a girl would be worth all the confidence in the world, even if I know it's real. It just seems like a pretty desperate price. So..I'll ask ya direct. All the confidence and attractiveness and whatever else aside, do you like bein' a chick? Or are you at least okay with it?"
"W-well..I-I'm not sure. I mean..it's h-hard for me t-to separate one from the other. B-but..I think, it doesn't matter that much, if I'm a g-g-guy or not, either way. I'd j-just rather be..that better person. Male or f-female."

"Hm, now see, that's what concerns me. The loss of confidence as you the more often you're her, and that's the problem right there. You're startin' to associate the two. Bein' confident means bein' Kell, so obviously bein' Kevin means stuttering and muttering all the time, right?"
"Um..I-I..yeah..I guess I was th-thinking that. It's..you're right, it's n-not really true."

"Yeah. This is what the whole 'becomin' the mask' thing is all about. Also, when I said earlier, that you're turning into a chick? I meant the present progressive tense as literally as possible."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"I mean, have you checked your hair lately?"

"Um.." Kevin reached up a hand and touched his hair. It was longer than it had been before..by more than it could have grown in 12 hours.
"Yeah. It's also lookin' a little reddish. And I think you're starting to catch up to me on height, too. It's all part of the same thing. Your body gets used to being Kell when you're her so much, so it doesn't go back as far. Eventually you're gonna get to where you hardly turn back at all."
"Th-that..that would be..I w-would love that."
"Are you sure? Never goin' back to being Kevin again?"

"Y-yes. I don't want to be me. I want to be her. B-but..does that mean, we couldn't be f-friends..?"

"No way. I mean, like I said, you're you, even when you're her. My tastes in people are too picky to be so easily fooled. She's just you, but a girl, and with confidence. Other than the breasts she's what you coulda been anyway in a few more years."

"S-so, are you disappointed in me, f-for..taking a shortcut? F-for turning into her instead of.."
"Well, I'd be lyin' if I didn't say I wish you could see what it's like to gain all that confidence by your own hard work..but if you're okay with takin' a shortcut, I'm fine with it. Look, Kev, none of us human beings are being. We're all who we think we are, and we never think we're the same thing twice. Everyone's becoming, so who'm I to fault ya for wanting to become someone better a little faster, eh?"

"Oh, but.." something occurred to Kevin. "But, w-wait, aren't p-people..my family, th-the school..? everyone's g-gonna notice if I'm changing that much!"
"Well, maybe that'll make it easier."
"H-how?"

"Weeelll..you'll have to deal with a few jerks with no sense of sympathy, but if everyone thinks your body's changin' in unusual ways and even you don't know why, it looks all baleful polymorph and nobody's gonna get onto ya for slowly turnin' into Kell. That you're doing it totally on purpose can be yours and my little secret, eh?"

"Oh..th-that's..yeah, I c-c-can do that. B-but..wait, I've a-appeared as K-Kell..I've met p-people, made f-friends, told them m-m-my name..what am I g-gonna.."
"Sshh. Look. Magic's tricky. Most people don't know it exists around here, and they definitely don't know how it works. You an' I don't either. So maybe there's this mysterious Kell girl who's showin' up right when you start changin', and you start remembering all the stuff she did just like you were the one did it. And then, when you're all done, you still got no idea where she came from before she appeared and you started changing. Sweet deal, right?"
"Y-yeah..that'll work. Th-thanks, Liam. F-for..for everything."
"Sure. What the heck are friends for, Kev?" 

"D-do..if you ever want t-to try using the r-ring.."
"Kev, maan, we've been over this. That ring, even if it preserves general youness, changes things. I don't need me rearranged, I like me bein' me. And if I ever need to look a lot like someone else, then I'll use it. But until then, I'm not gonna waste that one costume the ring gives on somethin' as small as basic curiosity. Alright?"

"S-sure..."

"Great." Liam looked up in the air for a minute or two, seemingly trying to remember something. "..Oh. Riiight. One last thing."
"Y-yeah?"
"When this is all over, don't you dare start dating me out of gratitude or somethin' like that. That'd be some kind of emotional blackmail horse-excrement on my part, and I won't have it! If you ever ask me out, you do it like you were born a woman and I had nothin' to do with it. You got that?"

Kevin had slid halfway down his seat in terror. "Um...y-yeah."

"Great. Let's order some food now, 'cause I'm starvin'."

To be continued...

 

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So, quick author's note. I'd like to know if anyone called this development back when Kell was first introduced. And if so, why you thought this would happen.