Midas Journal 26

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Entry: May 21

The first thing I did after school on Wednesday was go to Brie's house to see her. Of course I'd checked she was actually there and available first, so when I knocked on the door she answered it. “Hey, so, what's up?” she said, leading the way to her living room.

“Um..yesterday something happened I think I should talk to you about,” I said. “It's...someone else I used my power on.”
“Uh-huh?” She said, sounding interested, and sat down. I took a seat on the other side of the couch and she immediately scooted over to put her arm over my shoulders.

“Well, it was..you know, the attraction thing, I'm just more worried about this one than usual,” I said, stumbling awkwardly. “I..I'll just tell you what it was about.” I gave a brief summary of who Giriah had been and why I'd decided to use the power on him..finishing with, “and...well, he turned into a succubus. Her name's Giri.”

“Okay,” said Brie, obviously not seeing a problem with that. “So, if she was a heroic demon before there's no reason to think she won't be one now. I guess you're worried a succubus will actually act on the new attraction to you more than anyone else has?”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “I—one of the first things she said was something like, 'you can have two girlfriends if you want'. But—I don't want that, even though she is cute and all. I told her that, but she still kept sorta flirting with me a little, and I don't know if that's just her personality, or like, how hard it is for a succubus or whatever to even take no for an answer.”

“Mmh. I don't really think you have much to worry about,” said Brie. “The way I understand it, if she offered something like that to you and you were even able to say no it means you have some kind of resistance to their usual powers over boys. Anyway, you could always just be a girl for a while till she cools off.”
“She...didn't seem bothered by the idea of me turning into a girl either,” I said.

“Look, I'm not really...I mean, I guess I am worried I'll screw something up about as much as usual, but what I'm really worried about is, is what if she starts spreading a rumor or something that I was dating her? I mean...even if I wasn't, just intentionally lying to break us apart. I have a hard time believing she wouldn't be able to convince someone else that was happening,” I said. “I—I wouldn't really know what to do in that situation, if you actually believed it I mean. I wouldn't know how to prove I wasn't..so I just wanted to tell you ahead of time, I'm not. I never will be. No matter how attractive someone else is, it's you I'm in love with,” I said finally, and sighed. “I don't know what else to say.”
“Awwh, Kael,” Brie smiled and tickled the tip of one of my ears a bit. “I'd never believe something like that about you. For one thing, you're a really bad liar.”

“Well—yeah, but if I'm trying to lie about something I sound nervous, and I'm scared I'd sound the same kind of nervous if—” I started, but she put a finger to my lips.

“I wasn't done,” she said, sounding mock-annoyed. “More important than that, though, I trust you. I have a lot of good reasons to trust you, I mean, I don't even know if you realize how much power you gave me over, like, all of you, and even though at first it was supposed to just be for one experiment you've never even thought about taking that power over you back. Right?”
“Well..no, I guess not,” I shrugged.

“But even better than that, I know you love me,” she said, wrapping her arms around me, pulling close, bringing her face nearly up against mine. “And I love you, too.”

She punctuated that with a kiss, and I returned it as eagerly as she gave it. It started gentle and romantic, with us both gently holding onto each other. Slowly we both started to get more excited, pulling ourselves closer and kissing a little harder, and before I know it I was on my back with my head on the armrest, in the middle of what I think is the longest and most intense kiss we've ever had. And then, after that, Brie did something new.

I felt a tingling racing out from where her lips were touching mine, out along my face to the rest of my head and my ears, and then down along the rest of my body. I realized what it meant as I began to feel my body getting smaller against hers, and became aware of hair pooling on the armrest behind me. My tail, still wrapped around hers, grew thicker, fluffier, softer, and also more sensitive; my ears had done the same thing already, I knew when her hands ran across them. I was making small “Mmh” sounds through the kiss, each one in a slightly higher pitch, as I felt my clothes wrap closer against my body, my hips stretching out and back while my stomach gently flattened and curved inward.

Before I knew it I was down to Kaela-size, her voice in my throat, my clothes completely changed to a girl's and my memories shifting over to the female ones...but I was still, just barely, male, and my lips were still locked against hers. She pushed herself against me a little bit harder for a few seconds, my body seemingly frozen mid-transformation, and then with a loud smacking sound our lips parted and I let out a soft, high “Aaaaah~!” as I finally changed sex, followed immediately by a gasp as I felt my breasts grow into place all at once, squishing directly into hers—neither of us was wearing a bra now, of course.

My hands crept up to her soft, fluffy ears; she was petting mine already, so it was only fair. Our tails were sliding across each other, each feeling every inch of the other's velvety fur, and with this it was enough for us to start nuzzling each other as closely as we'd been kissing a moment ago, letting out small, high, puppy-like barks and yips to each other. After a while, though, we pulled our heads apart again, our faces both bright red.

“Uh, w-wow...what was that about?” I said.
“I-I was like two inches away from going into heat, seriously,” said Brie with a nervous smile. “I don't think either of us are ready for that right now so we'll just have to settle for the soft touches. We could both be a little softer if you want though...” (She meant we could use our werewolf forms again, like on the full moon. I didn't get that at first.)

“Maybe..but uh, the couch is starting to hurt the back of my head.”

“To the bedroom, then!” Brie pushed herself off of me and stood up, her tail beginning to rapidly wag as soon as it pulled free of mine. Then she started to walk a little unsteadily off toward her room.

I got up to follow. “I'd have settled for swapping positions for a while, you know...”

I stayed over for the rest of the night. We did eventually go to sleep, still hugging each other, and the next morning we walked to school together before finally splitting up. I wasn't exactly paying much attention to my phone that whole time, so it wasn't until school was almost over that I noticed a text from Giri.

It said, “Hi again Kaela! There's someone I want you to meet but NOT use your 'special skill' on. I think they'll help put your mind more at ease.”

I understood what the part about the special skill was but not exactly what the rest meant. Still, it didn't sound like she was planning anything bad, and I felt a lot better about the whole situation with her after the night before. So I replied to see if they wanted to meet that afternoon. Within a couple of hours I was sitting at that restaurant full of magic people Rio took me to a while ago, waiting to see what would happen.

Looking around, I noticed some things. Of course it was mostly completely different customers from before, but I could clearly pick out werewolves, kitsune, cat-people..even a couple of Rabbits (rabbit-people, I still think that's needlessly confusing). And there were some demons around too, with some inhuman skin colors and various combinations of wings, horns, tails, and so on. I couldn't help feeling amazed and a little weirded out that I had gone from an outsider to this completely different world from the one I (really) grew up in, to a life-long insider with new, not exactly fake memories of growing up in it.

The door rang (it's one of those with bells that make noise every time it opens), and I looked to see Giri walking in, thankfully much more fully clothed than when we'd first met, and a Kitsune girl with white hair, glasses, and white hair and fur following. I waved lightly at them and they came over, taking two of the three free chairs.

The demon-girl frowned slightly at me. “Are you really that worried about little old me? I mean, that look's pretty cute on you, but..”

“I'm not..I didn't actually,” I failed to start twice. “Look, my girlfriend decided on it for reasons that didn't have to do with you. Anyway. Hi, I'm Kaela.” I offered a hand to the other girl, and she nodded, shaking it.

“Ren. I've heard just a little bit about you.”

My head tilted slightly. “Um..a little off-subject, but how are your glasses staying on straight?”
“Magic. It's really not that hard. I could prolly teach you the spell in a few minutes if you're halfway intelligent.”

“Anyway,” Giri interrupted, “Ren here is my mana battery. She's..well, actually male normally. Closest thing to a boyfriend a succubus can expect to have.”

“We're awfully clever,” said the fox-girl, leaning forward onto her elbows. “Giri drains masculinity out for her magic and then uses a tiny bit of it to turn me back later.”

“Uh-huh.” That explained not wanting me to use my powers on her. But she wasn't setting off any alarms, and at any rate I'm not really sure how it would work if the person is already physically female.

“You seem skeptical. We've got a few backups in store in case she accidentally used too much in the span of a few hours.”

“Oh, I wasn't thinking about that. Uh..out of curiosity, do you um, enjoy being a girl?” I said.

“I might as well ask you if you enjoy being a werewolf,” she shrugged. “The drain affects my mind too..but with it being temporary, I don't have to deal with the worst of it. So that's nice, I guess.

“So..as I understand it, you had some part in helping Giri meet Threa?”
“Uh..no, it's more like..”
“We met at her house,” Giri said. “Basically a coincidence. But Kaela here has some unusual powers. When I met her, she was a boy named Kael.”

“What kind of powers? You help unlock the ancestral knowledge?”

I gave a confused look. “No...I, don't actually know what that is.” It occurred to me after saying that that this probably had something to do with Giri not telling her “boyfriend” she had only recently become Giri, but honestly, I'm a bad enough liar when I know what the lie even is. I decided to just continue with the part of the truth that was mine to tell. “Ever since my eighteenth birthday, I have some kind of reality-altering, wish-granting...thing.”

“Reality altering?” Ren's eyes glowed slightly, and she looked skeptical. “You don't look all that powerful to me. Mostly just normal werewolf stuff there...”

“I don't know how it works exactly,” I said. “But um...here, I can prove it exists at least.” I tapped my wrist, asking my power to shift me from werewolf to kitsune, and let Ren and Giri aware of the change. I felt a subtle tingling across my fur, and my memories shifted slightly; my body pulsed with magic and some knowledge appeared of how to use it.

Ren jumped back slightly, blinking. “Whoa! How did you..you were definitely a werewolf a second ago! And—and wait, no you weren't? Is this..some kind of mind magic? It can't, I would've...”
“Well, that's how it works,” I said, crossing my arms. “It just sort of reconfigures everything. It can work on other people, but uh..usually it changes a person from male to female, and it has a tendency to jump out and work when I don't really want it to. Only if someone wants something badly enough, though. And, it's touch activated. You have no idea how many different versions of memories I have by now.” I quietly switched back to werewolf, since I'd made the point.

“Amazing...I've never heard of anything like that,” said Ren. “I mean..hm. I suppose if a power can just make people remember things differently then it'd be very easy to keep it a secret. So you've actually used your power on some people? Who?”
“Err, I mostly consider that their secrets to tell, not mine,” I said, trying hard not to look in Giri's direction. “But uh..a few people, yeah.”

“Hmph. I'm sure I can guess a few of them. Like your girlfriend, right? And obviously yourself, if she wants you to?”

I frowned. “Look, it's really not any of your business.”
“Ohh come on, I'm a kitsune. I'm good at keeping secrets!” she said. “Don't give me a puzzle to solve and then not tell me if my answers are right!”
“..Well, it's not exactly a secret if we say it here,” I said, waving at our general surroundings, and specifically people with ears like mine that could probably eavesdrop without even meaning to.

“I uh, cast a privacy spell when we sat down,” said Giri. “Seemed like the right idea. Probably should've mentioned that earlier.”

“I think I'm going to need to know that spell,” I said. “Fine, who do you guess? My girlfriend, fine. Not that you know who that actually is. We met while I was messing with using my powers on myself. We sort of switch roles back and forth.”

“Hmn...well, what about Adena?”

I paused, raising an eyebrow. “How do you know her?”
“I'm helping her keep up appearances of an alternate male life. She's mentioned you a couple of times, actually. She's always struck me as strangely amazed about her own powers, even though—y'know—always had them? So I'm guessing your power made a normal human boy into her?”
“Fine, yeah.” I nodded. “I was actually trying to make a male friend my power wouldn't affect. I didn't understand it as well as I do now...as soon as he started talking about how cool it would be to have magic, it just sort of happened. I really doubt you know anyone else I've changed, though.”

“Heheh, well, for someone who was technically not always one, she plays the trickster role pretty well,” said Ren. “Just some friendly advice though, try to keep out of the situation if you can. It's bound to blow up pretty soon.”

“Yeah, I've been telling her that...”

“Don't worry too much. It's a pretty normal stage for a lot of foxes, and she's clever and optimistic enough to come out of it better than ever after the fallout. Eventually you learn to lie in ways that won't blow up on you personally.”

“That isn't all that reassuring,” I said. “How much are you lying about right now?”

“Hmn...not much.” She shrugged. “I've always preferred the magic and knowledge route over the trickster one. Mostly I just throw the occasional support string on others' webs of lies.”

We were interrupted by a waiter showing up and asking us for our order. Giri offered to pay for supper, and our conversation moved out of magic to some more mundane introductions. Ren and Giri are actually college students, a couple of years older than me. In all the confusion of learning about magic I almost forgot about normal things like graduating from high school and moving on from there, which I guess I should be thinking about pretty soon. It's all still a little surreal; I could technically reality-warp my way into whatever job I want, even weird magic ones, but it feels wrong somehow. I'd miss out on really experiencing a lot of things that way, and...sooner or later I should probably admit to myself that I don't really have to worry about running out of time. When Adena talked like she'd be alive for centuries I was surprised and in some denial because the same thing basically applies to me, and probably at least a few other people I know, even if I don't try to do something about the general problem of death (which is still very much on my mind).

Today Rio showed up at my locker, while I was stuffing things into my backpack. I'd finally decided to try out the inventory spell I'd learned and just empty the whole thing out and not ever have to come back to it. “Hey..you learned an inventory spell?” she said.

“Um..yeah.” I looked around, suddenly worried someone else had seen me putting more into the backpack than could ever possibly fit. “Someone new I changed suggested I'd be able to learn spells by just..shifting things a bit to where I already knew them, and it works fine as far as I can tell.”
“Oh, wow. I can't believe I didn't think of that!” she said.

“Er..sorry. I mean, I know magic's kinda your thing but..”

“No, no,” she shook her head. “Magic's not a zero sum game, Kaela dear. It can only be better if more people enjoy the benefits, especially good people like you. Anyway, I wouldn't have magic if not for you, and you can turn to casting spells in self-protection before jumping straight to reality bending. Right?”
“Yeah, I guess I could do that,” I said. “Um, I've been using some of Threa's spellbooks as references so I don't accidentally create new spells.”

“I have a few suggestions if you ever want to do that intentionally,” she grinned. I was finally done filling the backpack, so I set it down and closed my locker for probably the last time. She seemed to take this as a sign that she should tackle-hug me, which I returned automatically. It was a brief goodbye hug, and I set her back down on her feet after a second or two. “See ya later, then!”
“Bye!” I didn't find doing that weird until she was already running off and I thought about it. Girls just...hug each other when guys wouldn't, I guess. Even among completely platonic friends.

I've started learning a bunch more spells this afternoon. I'm trying to do it slowly so I get used to the ones I know at each step. I don't want to overwhelm myself and risk getting confused, and do something like try to cast a face-cleaning spell and throw a fireball instead.

I wonder if I'll change someone new next week, too. It's getting to be less of something I'm worried about and more of an exciting curiosity, a “what's gonna happen next?” kind of thing. There's still a lot of the list I haven't seen yet, especially after Giri helped fill it up more.

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I've had this written for a little while, but held off on it because I've had some trouble writing captions lately. I've decided to just not worry about it too much. Sometimes there'll be a bunch of captions, sometimes there'll be a bunch of story bits. That's just how it is sometimes.