Ring 5.3: Close Enough

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Ring 5.3:

Close Enough

Rolf had been careful, this time, to really clear his mind of anything extra before putting on the ring. He made absolutely sure that his only thought to the ring was, Show me my True Form, whatever that is. And after thinking that for a few seconds or so, the ring glowed..somewhat brighter than usual. He wasn't really sure if anyone else noticed it, because they didn't react, so he wondered if he might have imagined it. It didn't really matter—if something had somehow gone wrong, it was definitely too late to do anything but stall taking the ring off. And, better deal with it now than later. So he took the ring off, and braced for whatever might happen.

His hair began to grow first. It wasn't long before Rolf could see his bangs before his eyes turning increasingly bright colors. He then noticed that his ears seemed to be moving, stretching upward, and brushing against his hair as they moved.

Soon the hair framed his face, and everyone else could see that his face's skin had become a bit smoother, and its shape was becoming shorter and rounder. Once he blinked, and his eyes turned a bright purple. Rolf noticed that his shoulders were narrowing as the now pure-white hair fell across them, his arms starting to get thinner. His shirt turned white with black at the edges, split into two sections held together with small buttons down the middle; it then seemed to grow a purple tie around his neck, followed by black collars folded over the sides and back. Next he felt another collar, the psuedo-pet-collar-type, squeezing his neck slightly before seeming to settle in and become strangely comfortable.

“Uh..why am I..?” he started, and paused at noticing that his voice had shifted up in pitch, now sounding like a deeper female tone.

Eyes were on Liam, who tilted her head a bit to the side, thinking. “That's..interesting.” She watched very closely as Rolf's stomach pulled in at the sides, the shirt tightening enough to show it, and a long-sleeved black jacket found its way onto his shoulders, growing down a bit past the hips. “Hmm, yes,” she said with a nod, and moved over, closer to Rolf. “Now, do me a favor and don't panic yet. I think I'll be able to explain when it's done.”

“O-okay,” said Rolf. By now his ears had become large triangles covered in fur the same bright white as his hair, poking up from the corners of his head. One was straight up and the other was horizontal, both making slight movements every now and then. His hair kept on growing down his back to the hips. His jeans turned into black cloth and split at the thighs, the leggings pulling down slightly. His legs became slimmer and his hips widened as the cloth pulled tighter.

A tail pushed out from Rolf's back, growing long and thick with the same white fur as his ears, and he started to awkwardly stumble around. Liam took a hand and helped him down to a sitting position while the shorts pulled increasingly close between his legs.

Rolf could feel his underwear turning to panties again, followed by a bra forming under the shirt. He could feel the soft cloth pulling tight between her legs, and the odd sensation of suddenly being a girl again. Then she could feel her chest gently pushing its way out. Her hair finally stopped growing out, and she got a hold of the tail to take a look at it, her other hand running through her hair.

Liam sat down in front of her. “Well, how do you feel?”
“Uh..kinda weird. I think I should be more upset about this, but something feels right. Is..my 'true form' really...female?”
The fox-girl shook her head. “No, but the ears and tail you've got are part of what your true form should look like. Probably the hair color, too, I think.”
“Okay..so, if I'm not supposed to be a girl, why did it happen? I made sure to only tell the ring to turn me to my true form.”
“Well..remember that the ring acts using your magic. Normally your magic should know even better than the ring what your true form is, but I think it got confused because of the way your powers work.”

“What do you know about how my powers work? Are they like yours?”

Liam shook her head. “No. I think yours are a little different. I think you can sort of absorb enchantments to your own body and then use them yourself. And the ring you've been using, that turns you into Flora, is an enchantment. I think your magic is used to that enchantment turning you into a girl, so using a similar enchantment to take on your true form got that form tangled with the original one.”
Rolf grabbed the other girl's shoulders. “W-well, how do I get it untangled? I don't want to be stuck as a girl!”
“Easy, easy, champ.” She patted one of Rolf's hands. “I think if you hide your ears and tail you'll turn back easily. And if you can get a feel for your powers, you should be able to untangle things to where you can turn back into a guy separately from hiding them.”

“O-okay.”

“First let's get you a sense of balance with that tail. C'mon.” Liam stood up, and grabbed Rolf's hand, pulling her up to her feet.

“Now, just try to stand normally and ignore the tail for a minute.” She let go of Rolf's hand, and she carefully adjusted her stance. “It moves to help you balance, unless you tell it to do something else. See?”
“Yeah..okay. This still feels kind of weird.”
“I know, I know. But try walking a bit.”

Rolf took a couple of experimental steps, and then just walked normally a bit. “Okay. Yeah.”
“Great. Now, try to get rid of your tail.”
“Um..how?”
“Try to kind of..pull it back in. The way it felt coming out, but backwards. Same for the ears.”
“O..kay..” Rolf's ears and tail slowly began to retreat, and then her clothes body started changing back as well. Before long Rolf was male again, and back in his original clothes.

“Hey! I'm back to normal!” he said, grinning.

“Well, mostly,” said Cole.
“What do you mean?”
“Your hair's still white,” said Akio. “And your eyes are purple.”
“Purple?”
“Well, they turned purple when you used the ring.”

“Ugh..well, I guess I can always dye my hair..or say I dyed it. But I don't know if anyone will buy that I wear contacts.”

“Don't worry about it,” said Kell. “I've actually heard of people changing eye color before. You can probably shrug it off, say you woke up that way one day. Anyway, everyone we know has already seen something way weirder than a little eye color change,” she added, poking a thumb up at her own head.
“Yeah..I guess so.”

“Rolf and I are going to sort his magic out over in another room. You guys hang out till then.” Liam started on her way out, and Rolf shrugged before following her.

A few rooms away, Liam stopped, and Rolf followed suit. “So, can you still feel the tail now?” she asked.
“Uh..Yeah. My ears feel kind of weird too. Like I just folded them away somewhere. It's kind of uncomfortable.”
“You'll get used to it. For now though, try to let your ears, and only your ears, back out.”

“Okay..” Rolf's ears pushed their way up, growing back into big fuzzy triangles. His hair grew out slightly, almost framing his face. “I..” He reached up and felt of his hair, “I think it's still confused.”
“That's okay, we're making progress. Try going back and forth a few times.”

After a few more tries, Rolf finally manged to make his ears grow and shrink without any change to his hair.

“Good. Now..try making your hair grow out without changing anything else.”

“Okay..” Rolf, currently with normal ears, tried to make his hair grow it. It grew all the way to his hips again. Then, with another of the same kind of thought, it shrank back to its original length. “Wow. I guess I can save on haircuts.”

“Now try just growing the tail.”

Rolf did that in one try. “I think I might have the hang of this.”
“Can you turn back into a girl without the ears and tail there?”
“I can try.” Rolf concentrated. His tail retreated, but his hair grew out and his body and clothes quickly shifted back into the female form again.

“This is kind of nice,” she said with a smile. “I don't have any of the weird mental compulsions I get when I turn into Flora, and I feel..I don't know, more athletic than her? Actually, I don't feel any weaker than I do as a guy.” She pushed her ears and tail out again. “It's weird, I've lived my whole life without fuzzy ears and a tail, but having them feels more..natural somehow. Do you mind if I stay like this for a while?”
“Not at all,” she said with a smile, “I'm doing it, after all.”

---

“Hey, I have an idea,” said Akio after the two girls with tails left the room.

“I'm not going to like it,” said Cole.

“Aww, how do you know?”
“Your tone of voice. You never have any ideas I like with that tone of voice.”
“Hey, that tone of voice got us into the arcade, right?”
“Yes,” said Cole, crossing his arms. “I still didn't like it all that much.”

“Are you gonna get to your idea or should I go get some popcorn?” asked Kell.

“Yeah, yeah, just get it over with.”
“Well,” said Akio, holding up his ring, “I think we should have a sleepover here as girls. You know, since Kell's a girl, and everyone can be girls, but none of us have ever done that before?”
“We've stayed over at each other's houses before, Akio,” said Cole.

“Yeah, but as guys, and this is different. Besides, Liam's house is huge. I bet there's all kinds of cool stuff here we haven't seen yet. And it'd be kind of awkward if everyone was a guy except Kell, right?”

“I wouldn't mind that much,” said Kell.

“Well, I still wanna do it,” said Akio.

“I don't,” said Cole, “but it will be awkward for me if I'm the only guy left, which I'm guessing you're already making sure is gonna..yeah.” Akio had already put on the ring by now.

When he took it off, his clothes immediately turned into bright pink cloth. The shirt sleeves grew out as his body started shrinking, and it all began to pull tighter against his body as a pattern of little red hearts appeared on it. Akio's arms and legs slimmed, his face shifted to a rounder shape, and his hair grew out.

“Sheesh, could you look any more obnoxiously girly?” said Cole.

“I'm sure I could~,” answered Akio in Aki's high voice, “but I can be as girly as I want when I'm a girl~.” His hips pushed out as the pants pulled tight between his legs, showing that he had crossed over. She grinned as her chest pushed out against the tight shirt, which pulled closer against her slim stomach. She gave a quick spin around to take a look at herself, and then tossed the ring at Cole, who caught it with a sigh.

“Hmm..” Kell walked closer to Aki. “You know, you look a little..bigger every time I see you.”
“W-well, I didn't like being short,” she said. “And I figured a, uh, a little more figure would fit better if I was taller. You think it's bad?”
“Nah, but don't go too far overboard. I think being small makes you look a lot cuter,” she said, ruffling the other girl's hair.

“H-hey!” She stepped back away from Kell. “No fair, I can't reach your head.”

Meanwhile, Cole examined the ring for a bit before finally putting it on his hand. It glowed, and he took it off again, and found himself shrinking, too. His hair flowed out, his stomach and limbs slimmed down, and his face shifted. All of his clothes except for the underwear joined together into a single piece of white cloth. The sleeves pulled in and the collar sinking a bit, leaving straps on his shoulders; the pants spread out into a skirt and then shrank up to just above the knees. Then he turned into Jenna, and her chest pushed gently out into a bra underneath the nightgown.

Rolf and Liam returned before long. “Hey,” said Aki, “we're having a sleepover!”

“We are?” said Liam.
“W-well, I mean if it's okay with you.
She shrugged. “I suppose it's fine. As long as you have your parents' permission, mine won't care either way. I would not mind hanging out a little longer with you three.”

“What, you don't like me anymore?” said Kell.

“Aww, I'm always hanging out with you,” Liam answered with a grin. “I'm..going to change to some less formal clothes, however.” She took out Kell's ring again, and put it on to shift back.

“Hmm,” said Rolf, “I wonder if I can change what these clothes look like..”
“Welcome to try,” said Liam. “I don't know what all your powers can do, so I can't very well tell you what won't work.”

She closed her eyes and concentrated. The stockings shrank into normal white socks, her shorts became gray gym shorts, and the shirt, jacket and tie shifted into a simple, slightly loose white t-shirt. She opened her eyes again to take a look at the results, and smiled. “Well, what do you know?”

“Good.” Liam was back to himself, but still with the fox ears and one tail, and put the ring on again. “I have ta wonder what the limit is for that, but you got plenty of time to mess around with it later. Here ya go.” After it glowed, he handed it back to Kell.

“Hey, Li,” she said. “You figure out a name to use as a girl yet?”
“Hmm, I hadn't really thought about it much,” he said, already back to female height. His clothes were simply shrinking to keep fitting until now, but as his stomach pulled in and hips pulled out they started to get tighter. “Maybe..Lia? I'm sure if Akio can get away with just dropping a letter, so can I.” He became female, and the jeans turned into blue cloth, their leggings pulling up as far as her knees. “It's sort of boring, though. Mia, perhaps? Or..” Her second tail grew out as her breasts pushed back out again, then it receded back as soon as she had stopped changing. “I think I like the sound of Leiko, actually.”

“Are you going with that one, or going to keep debating all night?” said Jenna.
“Hmm, Leiko's fine.” she said, with a nod. “What about you?” she asked the other girl with a tail. “Still going by Flora?”
“Maybe? Do I really look similar enough?”

“Hmm...” Aki walked over to take a closer look. “You're taller, your bust is a little smaller, your hair's a different color and way straighter, and you don't act much like her. I guess you could say you had a makeover or something for the hair thing, and the rest someone who's just seen you once might think they remember wrong. But if you've hung out with anyone not in this room as Flora it may be a little hard to convince them you're the same person..”

“Well, just Lauren, besides the night at the arcade,” said Jenna. “I really doubt anyone would expect to know someone all that well after talking to them just one or two times. Frankly, I think you could get away with a hidden depths angle if you still wear frilly clothes half the time.”

“Yeah..I guess that's worth not trying to maintain two different alternate identities for you guys' sakes,” said Rolf (or perhaps Flora), trying not to smile too much at a mental image of herself in a 'frilly outfit'.