Ring 5.2: Resistance

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Ring 5.2:

Resistance

Kell (or mostly-Kell, at least) showed up at Liam's house Friday afternoon looking unusually pleased with herself. “Hey, what's up?” said Liam.

“Oh, that Morley guy decided to follow me off the school grounds today and start calling me names and stuff. So I punched him.”
“You punched 'im? Great! Where?”
“Just square in the face. He nearly fell over, and then said something about me hitting like a girl, I said 'I am a girl, you jerk', and then he started walking off, muttering something about getting me back later. I called after him, saying to put some ice or meat on his cheek, 'cause I'm pretty sure it was bruising up.”

“Hah! Serves 'im right. Oughta keep 'im off your back for a while, at least. So long as ya didn't do it unprovoked.”
“Nah, I gave him like five whole minutes to leave me alone. I think once I even said I was gonna punch him if he kept it up.”

“So, how's the progress with the ring?”
“Um..I barely notice any changes when I put it on, but it still glows. I'm sure it'll do something different when it's all done. I'm more curious what you're gonna look like as a girl..”
“Ah, don't worry about that. We have ta wait for the others anyhow.”

“Why don't you just use my ring and do it now?”
“'Cause I wanna use it as a demonstration for somethin'. A little bit 'a magic education for those guys.”

Akio was late, so the other two had to wait for him before heading off to Liam's house. Cole had a question. “Hey, Rolf. What do you think of Liam?”

“How do you mean?”
“I mean..you deal with a lot of bullies. He's kinda..isn't he?”

Rolf shrugged. “He's not a bully, if that's what you're asking.”

“Well I know that. But don't you think he could be, if he wanted? He has kind of a way of dominating people.”

Rolf nodded. “He does like being in charge of things. But he doesn't do it like your average bully. He talks people into doing things, keeps secrets and tells 'em when he wants 'em known. But..the best way I can put is, so far it looks like he uses his powers for good.”

“Yeah. I'm glad about that, at least.”

The missing member of the trio finally came running up, and stopped, panting. “Hff..hey, sorry I'm late!”

“What'd you do this time?” asked Rolf.
“Do? I didn't do anything. I just had to finish something in my last class, is all. No big deal.”

“Well, then let's go.”

Rolf led the way, and before long they were at the door. Liam opened it. “Welcome. C'mon in.” And then he led them to where Kell was waiting. “You bring your ring?” Liam asked.

“Yeah, I have it here,” said Akio, holding it up. It occurred to Cole that he didn't remember handing Akio the ring the other day, but since he'd managed to not lose it, he decided not to bring it up.

“Alright, lemme borrow it then.” He held out his hand, and Akio gave him the ring. He put it on his index finger and a few seconds later it glowed and he took it off again, handing it back to Akio.

“Now, consider this a demonstration,” said Liam. “As you c'n see, I ain't changing much at all. Folks with talent in magic, and who are magic, have a lot of resistance this sorta thing, and I've actually trained my own past that small bit 'a talent.” His hair was very slowly growing out—well, slowly compared to the explosion of hair that Akio and Cole had seen when changing, at least. “But it's my own magic workin', and I want it to happen, so it keeps goin' anyway.” Now he started to get shorter, very gradually and slightly.

“However, since I know how ta use magic, I can actually turn down that resistance and make it go as fast as someone not so resistant,” he said. “Watch.” He made a slight sweeping gesture with his hand, and suddenly his hair growth and height loss sped up. Within seconds he was reduced to about Akio's height, and his hair was down to his stomach on the sides and back. His eyes' color shifted to a bright purple, and then the more specific changes began.

His shirt turned black and pulled tighter on his stomach as it got slimmer. His shoulders pulled in, and his arms and legs thinned; his sleeves broke off at the shoulders while his jeans split at the thighs. The denim turned to white cloth as the leggings combined with his socks and pulled tight on his legs. His skin became smoother and paler all over, and his face shrank a bit, becoming rounder and softer-looking. His eyes took on a slightly more slanted shape; a pair of hair ornaments that looked like small leaves appeared on the sides of the top of his head, each bringing a lock of hair up and apart from the rest of the hair. Meanwhile, the sleeves grew longer, bits of purple cloth and a nature-themed pattern appearing on them.

Next, Liam's hips pulled their way out and back. Still standing, he took the change of balance gracefully, moving the position of his feet as necessary. The remainder of his jeans spread out into a skirt, the denim softening into purple cloth. His shirt split in the middle, turning to a sleeveless kimono top, and then her chest began to swell into it. A tall belt appeared around her stomach, along with a purple rope around its center held by a large purple ribbon near the front. Her breasts stopped growing at a medium size, and bounced slightly from the force of their rapid growth.

And then, Liam's ears suddenly grew, pulling their way up to the top of her head. Black fur appeared on their outside, and tufts of white appeared on their inside, and within seconds they had become two tall triangles. Then a long, wide tail burst out from her back, covered in thick black fur other than a white tip..and then another one came out, and all of a sudden Liam lost her balance, flailing slightly before falling over on her face.

She quickly pushed herself up to a sideways sitting position. “Do not worry, I'm all right,” she said, in a higher alto tone, and grinned. “It has been a while since I had to deal with these tails..”

Akio walked over and offered a hand to help her up. “Ha, you almost stayed standing the whole way through,” he said.

She took the help, but glared once she was standing up. “You have no idea how difficult just one of these is for balance..much less two.”

“Wait, you've had a..you've had tails before?” asked Cole.

Liam nodded. “I usually hide them, for obvious reasons. But it was much easier to make a disguise which more closely reflected my true appearance in that regard.”

“Um..Liam, you're kinda talking different,” said Kell. She was right; Liam's usual accent was missing, and her speech had a kind of crisp exactness to it instead.

She shrugged. “It is part of the costume. I believe I was thinking of an older, more traditional look, so this result makes sense. Anyway,” she said, Liam's usual accent reemerging, “I c'n stop anytime I want.”

Cole had another question. “Okay, how do you hide something like that? Can you just transform at will?”

“To an extent.” The fox-girl demonstrated, pointing at one of the tails as it seemed to shrink away into her lower back again. “Seems like anyone magic can look non-magic if they want. I am not sure whether it is something magic people could always do, or if we adapted it at some point. But my ability is limited to just hiding my unique traits; I can not even alter the length of a fingernail at will without help from something like this ring.”

“Are you gonna get rid of your other tail, too?” said Akio.

“Hmm..it's safe enough to keep it around here. Why?”

“Uh, no reason.” Akio's face was slightly red for a second, and Liam's ears could pick up his heart beating very slightly faster.

Rather than comment on that, she moved on. “All right. Now..there is something I want to tell you. I believe I have mentioned maybe once that I have a certain extra sense, being magic. It lets me get a sense of what sort of magic potential other people might have. When I met you three in that restaurant, my extra sense pointed out something to me about one of you that I thought you ought to know..but I wasn't certain which one at first.”

“And..what is that?” asked Rolf.

“Well, Rolf, I think you might be magic.”

“What? You mean like you are?” He was still calm; after all, Liam certainly made it seem like being magic was really not that big of a deal.
“Hm..not exactly. There are many different kinds of magic people. And I'm not terribly surprised if you didn't know. After all, a magic human sometimes marries a non-magic human and hides being magic for their whole life, and the children are born with the more obvious traits hidden.”
He looked more concerned about this. “You think my--”
“Hold on now, I'm not done. It might not even be your parents. After all, a person born and raised looking and acting like a non-magic human might never find out, and their children might not find out, and so on. So..maybe that didn't happen with your parents, or even with anyone still alive, but it probably happened somewhere up the ancestral line. Of course, I might be wrong. My sense for magic isn't perfect, after all.”

Rolf nodded, looking thoughtful.

“And..how would we test whether you're wrong or not?” said Cole.

He looked up again. “Yeah, I dunno how to grow a tail or whatever like you do.”

Liam scratched her head, thinking. “Hm..well, I was born with a tail and learned to hide it. And you might not even have a tail, so even if I tried to tell you how to make one appear it might not work. But..I thought about that, and had an idea.”

She held out a hand to Kell, who handed over her ring. (“See, some people know how to take cues,” said Akio, and Cole replied “Shh!”)

She walked over toward Rolf, saying, “Hiding or revealing one's magical traits is a change of form, and these disguise rings are able to change one's form. So if you ask this ring to turn you into your 'true' form, then whatever that is, it should do that. And..it shouldn't be very hard to figure out hiding whatever unusual traits that might give you.” Then the fox-girl offered him the ring. “Would you like to try it?”
He thought for a few seconds, and then nodded, taking the ring. “...Yeah, okay. But if it turns out I can't figure out how to hide whatever, though, you're gonna be responsible for the mess.”

“Sure, but I doubt that'll happen. After all, you have me to help you.”

“Yeah..sure.” Rolf put on the ring.