Ring 5.1: Clearing the Air

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Ring 5.1:

Clearing the Air

Liam leaned against the wall, sighing a quiet “Phfff..” This would be fun to watch, but he suspected it would get a little bit tedious for him personally. And waiting around beforehand was kind of boring. Maybe he shouldn't have run the whole way, and maybe he wouldn't have if he hadn't been convinced the next part would be so much more fun if he made it here first.

He didn't have to wait all that long. Pretty soon he could see four figures making a turn around another house and heading toward him, the guys looking pretty surprised.

Especially Cole. “Liam? Wh--. How did you--? Gh..”

“One question at a time oughta help ya,” he advised.

“Okay, what are you doing here?” said Cole.
“Waitin' for you guys. I'm sure ya know I don't hang out here all the time.”

“Well I should, considering this is my house.”

“Calm down, Cole, he probably knew to wait here 'cause he's magic,” said Akio.

“Nah. I just took an educated guess.”

“But how did you know where his house even is?” said Rolf.

Liam pointed at the mailbox, which had Cole's family name on it. “Knew it was 'round here somewhere. I just had to look a little bit.”

There was an awkward pause after that. Fortunately, he was an expert at ending those. “So, c'n we go in already? It's way too hot out here.”

“..Sure, fine.” Cole opened the door, and everyone spilled into the living room. On the way in, Kevin gave a small giggle. “You ran all the way here to do that, didn't you?”

Liam shrugged. “Maybe.” He remained standing, and so did Rolf; Kevin took a chair, and Akio and Cole opposite sides of the couch. “So, we're here 'cause you guys have somethin', huh?”

“Yes!” said Akio. “I'm sure you guys remember last Friday. I was a girl.”

“You told them it was you?” said Cole.

“No, of course not. Liam figured it out.”
“'Cause I'm magic.” He pointed a thumb at himself, leaning against a wall again.

Cole gave Liam a look for a few seconds. “..Would you stop saying it like that?”
“Like what?”
“You keep saying you're 'magic', but when you say it like that it sounds like you're claiming to somehow be the embodiment of all magic everywhere.”

“So what if I was?”
“I don't even have any reason to believe something like that exists. Could you just say you're magical or something?”
“Hm..nah. You c'n say it that way if ya want, though.”

“Guys, we're getting off track here,” said Akio. “Yeesh, I thought I was the one who ran off on tangents all the time..”

“That's because you are,” said Rolf.

“Whatever. Anyway. The way I did that was..” he held out a hand to Cole and started trying to grab something out of the air. “Was..” After waving it around for a few seconds, he turned toward him, glaring slightly. “Hey, what are you doing?”

“What do you mean, what am I doing?”
“That's your cue to give me the thing, so I can show it to everybody. Duh.”

“You'd just drop it again.” Cole held up the ring himself. “What he's trying to say is, we found this.”
“You mean, I found it and I bought it. With my money.”

“Yeah, that. Anyway, this is supposed to be a 'perfect disguise' ring. It literally turns a person into whatever they think of when they put it on...with maybe some limits we don't know about.”
“The first time, at least,” said Rolf.

Kevin looked like she was about to say something, but Liam looked at her and shook his head slightly.“Ya wanna demonstrate that?” he asked.

“Well, um,” said Cole, moving the ring back into the palm of his hand. “I should warn you we sorta didn't know it 'saved' a form like that, and also we weren't sure it actually worked the first time, so we kinda used the amazing power for something sort of silly.”

“Silly?” said Akio. “Free arcade night is serious business, man.”

“Yeah, that. So the 'disguises' the three of us have are all girls. Do you want to..?” Now he offered Akio the ring.
“Nah, you go ahead,” he said, waving.

Cole sighed, and put on the ring, waiting quietly for a few seconds until it glowed. “It does that to say you've decided what disguise to turn into,” he explained. “And you actually take the ring off to change.”

With that, he stood up, took off the ring, and immediately started visibly changing. His hair grew out and his face changed; his stomach drew in, his hips pushed out, and his arms and legs slimmed down. His shirt shrank up against a flat, slim inward curve of a stomach and his jeans' leggings pulled up to just above the thighs, the remainder pulling tight, particularly between Cole's legs. Then her chest burst out into the usual fair-sized breasts; the tight shirt seemed to stretch out with them, the collar opening down until it showed a little bit of cleavage, leaving Jenna in a girl's t-shirt and denim shorts.

As usual, she managed to hold on to the ring the whole time and remain pretty calm. “So..yeah,” she said, putting a hand behind her head. “Sometimes it doesn't go as fast as that..but this ring is pretty amazing, right?”

“Heh, I'll say,” said Liam. “Pretty complex enchantments goin' on with that. It probably wouldn't give ya powers if you tried to disguise yourself as a superhero or somethin', though.”

“Um..” Kevin looked at Liam, and this time he nodded. So she got up. “I think I should probably show you guys something, too..”

All eyes were on Kevin while she dug into her pocket and pulled out a ring, looking just as cheap-plastic as the one Jenna was holding, but of a slightly different shade. She quietly, shyly put it on, waited for it to glow, and then started to change..it was pretty slow, and the differences in the end result were relatively small: Her figure became more pronounced, the breasts especially growing out, and there were some more subtle changes to her limbs, skin and face that all made her look decidedly more feminine. Her clothes didn't change at all, or at least not the shirt and pants. After a minute or so of silence, the person standing in the room was unmistakeably Kell from the arcade.

“So..you were lying earlier about having some dream, I guess,” said Akio.

“Yep. I mean, I didn't really want to lie to you guys but I also didn't want to tell everyone all the details, either. I was pretty sure you'd do this at some point, and figured it would be a good, private place and time...”

“That's fine,” Rolf said, “but..so, wait, you actually wanted to turn into a girl?”

Kell shrugged. “Sure. Well, not exactly. I mean, the first time I used the ring I just wanted to turn into someone who was the opposite of me..in all the good ways, that is. But the ring interpreted 'opposite' to also mean..” She made a slight sweeping motion over her body. “..And taller, I guess. But I really liked being not totally paralyzed by other people, and I started using the ring a lot..”

“So..that's what 'becoming the mask' means?” said Jenna, sitting back down again..and getting a slightly concerned frown on her face.

“Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it kind of messes with your head a little bit, too, but probably nothing too bad if your disguise thinks a lot like you do. Oh, but you guys don't need to worry; the only reason I've actually changed this much, this fast is because I've been using the ring, like, two or three times every day. Once or twice a week is probably perfectly safe..right?” She directed the question to Liam, who put a hand against his chin for a second or two.

“Hmm, yeah, prob'ly. Now that I've seen it in action myself I got a better idea of how it works. The ring uses the magic of the person usin' it to do all the work, which's why it don't need a power source. Problem is, when you're not yourself often enough, your own magic starts forgettin' details of what ta turn back to. There are a few ways it could screw up and not work like it's supposed to, but they don't apply to you four..or me, for that matter. 'S long as I don't ask for the wrong thing in a disguise, at least.”

Akio said, “So wait..we all have magic?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, sure, everyone's got magic. Some more'n others.”

“Neat! But uh..Kell. Or, Kevin. Kellvin. Whatever.”

“Yeah? You might wanna get used to the first one.”

“If you could turn back into a guy, and still be all confident like you are now..?”

She shrugged. “I never really put much value in being male, and I like how I am now. If I suddenly decide I hate being a girl for some reason..and yes, I can think of a few possible reasons but it might be worth it..then I might consider it. But not as an impulse decision or anything. I mean, I kinda decided to become Kell after a lot of thought and discussion about it.”
“Mostly with me,” said Liam.

“Plus, at this point it'd be kinda suspicious, don't you think? I mean, people would start asking me how I managed to turn back, and I might not be as good at coming up with a consistent lie this time..

“Anyway, didn't you promise you'd try something if they did have a ring, and told us about it?” Kell looked at Liam.
“I didn't promise nothin'.”
“You said it'd be 'too interesting to pass up'. You've never passed up anything interesting before.”

“Yeah, well..it's a Monday. Not a whole lot of time when ya get right down to it, and what I'd like to do might take a while. How 'bout we save that for the weekend, huh? Ta have somethin' to look forward to.”

“What are you talking about exactly?” said Akio.

“Aw, nothin' major,” said Liam. “Just maybe borrowin' your ring. Or Kell's. Comin' up with a disguise to use next week.”

Jenna thought for a second or two. “..What's next week?”

“Arcade night. Duh!” said Akio, standing up. “But what are we gonna do now? I mean, we're already all together here and stuff..”

“I dunno. You wanna play some games or something?” said Kell.

Everyone said yes or nodded, but Jenna qualified her agreement. “Well, I have to change back before my parents get home.”

“But then Kell'd be the only girl. What if we just relocate?”

“Yeah, everyone'd fit just fine in my house,” said Liam. “Or..I ain't seen you as a girl yet,” he added, looking at Rolf.

“I'd rather not,” he said, speaking for the first time in a while.

Liam shrugged. “Eh, suit yourself. My house it is, then. I'll lead the way in case anybody don't know it. Or forgot.”

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Great to have this out. But if you think everything will be 100% resolved after the next weekend, you might have missed some foreshadowing...