The "Best" RPG Ever-81

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

When he heard supper was almost ready, Rast said he needed to go wash up, and Lynn gave him directions to the guest bathroom on the first floor. The witch watched him leave the room and, as soon as he was gone, moved over next to her on the couch. "Uh...heyy." Lynn leaned slightly away from her. "Do you uh, need something?"

"Not necessarily. I thought I might ask you a question, though."
"Without him here, I guess? Shoot."
"I learned a new spell recently, and I'm trying to get as much practice and understanding with it as I can," Mira said quietly, leaning in just slightly—not quite in personal space, but close enough to make it clear she wanted the conversation to not be overheard too easily. "It's a step in the direction of—well, if I become powerful enough and understand this magic well enough, I could 'cure' Zack. You know what I mean?"

"...Yeah," Lynn nodded after a second or two. "But I assume it's not very convenient to practice, since you're telling me about it..?"

"Mm-hm," the little witch nodded. "To put it simply, it goes the wrong way. Incubus magic, y'know. The weak one I know now is so temporary any mage can dispel it. I need to not only make it go the other way, but preferably develop something a little more permanent in nature—but still reversible, of course."

"I'm still not really seeing how I can help here," the human said, tilting her head slightly as she thought about it. "I know a little magic, but I'm not really what you'd call a 'mage'. Really, you're probably the closest we have to a proper 'spell expert'..except maybe Clera."
"I don't need advice, at least not right now. I need test subjects," Mira said in a near-whisper. "Ones willing enough to sign a permission form I drew up. So far I got Loren to agree to do it one time, but it doesn't seem likely he'll let me keep trying until I get all the experience I need with it."

"So, what then...?" After a brief moment of confusion, Lynn recognized where the this was going: "You're asking me if you can try it on Rast? I think maybe you should ask him that."
"I know that," Mira said, annoyed at the suggestion she wouldn't. "I'm not asking you for permission! I want to know if you think he'd be interested, even slightly, or if he'd be totally disgusted with the idea. You know him way better than I do, at least; and I saw the way he looked at me when he found out a was a witch. He seems nicer now, but I don't want to antagonize him if asking for something weird like that won't go over well."

Lynn looked up, away from her and around the room briefly. "I think..I've convinced him you're not a bad person. But I'm not sure if...hmmn..."

She trailed off, thinking about it. Rast liked the "simple" life he lived here, but she seemed to have sparked some kind of adventurous streak in him lately. This was pretty different from seeing other parts of the world, but it definitely qualified under "strange new experiences". Besides, if he did experience...that...even on an extremely temporary basis, it might make it easier to explain her and everyone else's strange position—assuming she ever got to the point where she felt she could. Besides all of that, there was the faintest hint of nagging curiosity: What would he look like as a girl, anyway?

"Well, I don't know that it's a great idea, but I think if you're honest about why you want to do it he might be receptive," she said finally. "Even if he's not, it shouldn't make him any more hostile to you; if anything, him saying no and you respecting that could earn his trust a little more. I'm sure he knows about Zack's curse by now, even though none of us have actually said anything, so...explain it as simply as you can."

"Heheh, I can do that," Mira said, and stood up. "Well, that smell is starting to drive me crazy. I think the last time I ate was late this morning."
Lynn nodded, standing up herself. "You're not planning to bring it up during supper, are you?"
"'Course not. After, maybe, if he's still here and Zack's not in earshot, or another day if not. I'm not totally sure it'll work no matter how much I do, and I don't really want to set him up for disappointment. Anyway, if everything does seem like it'll work out...I kinda like the idea of it being a surprise."

Katherine had set a place next to Lynn for her boyfriend. Once the meal was started, everyone else he hadn't properly met already took turns introducing themselves, and he gave nods of what seemed like familiarity to at least their names—it seemed they really did have a reputation by now, at least among the guards. Rayna teased both of them almost incessantly, but it seemed to be a friendly gesture, and Lynn at least took it like one.

"Hey, guess what?" Aria said after a bit.
"..What," Clera said, humoring her.

"So, after Loren left I sorta accidentally took a nap—I guess I was more tired than I thought after yesterday. Anyway, it's fine though—somehow or other, through that dream I remembered something. A lot of something!"

"That's excellent news," the winged girl said with a nod.
"I can take a look at it after supper if you want me to," Katherine added.

"Er..not ta interrupt, but, you forget somethin'?" Rast said. It seemed like this wasn't too common of knowledge.

"Oh, yeah, I have wide-scale retrograde amnesia," the shifter said. "It all started when I pulled a sword out of a stone that had a gigantic, super-powerful blood-eating demon in it. We're pretty sure the wards on that thing were responsible." She said all of this with a normal, friendly grin, which had the predictable effect of making Rast extremely nervous.

"Ah..well...um. I, sure, do hope that gets better for ya," he said, before looking around at the rest of them seemingly for any other subject to change the conversation to. "S-say, you're a knight, ain't you?" he said finally, looking at Zack.

"Hmn?" He swallowed what was in his mouth. "Was one. Why?"
"You ever do any spear trainin'? I could always use a few tips."

Zack shook his head. "I know the basics, but my weapons of choice are swords and shields."

"Ahh, those pair pretty nicely with it, though, don't they? If you'd ever be interested in sparrin'."
"Some other time, maybe. The Captain already 'sparred' with me today," Zack said.
"Ah." Rast's immediate wince suggested that he knew what that meant—and that the knight's experience with her had been fairly typical, at least in some ways. "Yeah, some other day I'll ask ya again. Don't 'spect I would last too long anyhow."

"Don't sell yourself short," Zack said. "You fight monsters on a regular basis, right?"
"Sure. Jus' beasts though, usually; the stronger, more organized ones ain't for me to handle."
"Much of my training was focused on humanoid opponents with weapons of their own. Fighting something like a pack of beasts is a whole different game."

"Yeah, maybe you should spar with his wolf instead," Rayna said, half-joking. The wolf in question sat up, his head just clearing the table, in repsone.

"That wolf? The ol', scarred alpha? Ain't gonna tempt Demaeus, Rayna," Rast said. "He'd tear my throat out 'fore I could get my footing." The wolf made a short, soft bark that sounded like agreement, and lay back down, satisfied. "Has 'e...got a name, by the way? I mean, since he's ah..stayin' with y'all?"
"For whatever reason, we haven't figured one out yet," Katherine said. "I consider it Zack's problem."
"He doesn't seem to want one," the knight replied right away.

"You haven't exactly offered him one, either, have you?" Mira said. "We could at least see how he responds to a few suggestions."

The wolf, still lying down, made a short growl. "Hear that? He's not interested," Zack said. "Pets get names, and he's nobody's pet. So it'd be insulting to try."
"Um, p-people get names, too," Nora pointed out. "He seems rather..um..person-like, d-doesn't he?"
"That really doesn't change how he would interpret the gesture, though," Katherine pointed out. "I guess if he does count as a person, that's all the more reason to respect his wishes, huh?" Zack nodded.

"Hey, since everyone's here, you want to show off what we figured out this afternoon?" Katherine said, toward the elf.
"Hmn? Oh, um. S-sure," Nora replied after taking a moment to understand what she meant. Closing her eyes in concentration briefly, she shrank and shifted to her new feline appearance. Rast was particularly impressed to see it, watching intently with wide eyes.
"Wow, that's amazin'! How'd you figure out to do that?" he said.

"It's uh. A certain kind of spirit weaving, related to animal spirits," she explained slowly. "It took me a long time to learn, but since making the first one work this seemed to come much more easily."

"She did have a little help," the catgirl said. "I just tried to take something similar to what she does for the wolf form and replace the 'wolf instinct' bits with stuff from the primal end of my own mind."

Nora nodded in agreement. "Um. This appearance has some physical advantages that uh, the wolf form doesn't. And what's especially nice is, for some reason I don't seem to stutter as much in this form. Something about, feline confidence, perhaps..."

"You do seem to suffer from more frequent pauses," Clera pointed out. "But it is a step in the right direction, if we could get that to work in your default form."

Rast's interest in the transformation and its results didn't escape Mira's notice. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all, she thought.

After a while, Zack excused himself and headed upstairs, the wolf following him. The rest followed suit one after another, Katherine leading the shifter to the meditation room to help sort and clarify her newly regained memories, until it was just Rast, Lynn, Rayna and the witch still in the kitchen.

"So, what do you think of them all?" Lynn asked. "Now that you've had a chance to actually meet everyone."
"They're all uh, pretty nice," Rast said. He looked nervously at the other two still present. "Aria's kinda scary, but she's so nice it's tough not ta like her. Clera sorta reminds me of the chief healer we got 'round here; that ain't a bad thing, mind. I never really properly met a psion before, but Kath sure knows how to cook for one thing. Ah..Zack seems awful serious, but I guess I wouldn't expect anything else from a proper knight."

"Come on, you can tell me to my face if I'm terrible," Rayna teased.

"Naw, you ain't. You are, uh, well, you seem real keen to pester miss Lynn, but I do get the impression you get along great when I ain't around."

"She's as close to family as I've got in this town," Lynn said, "everyone here sorta is, really. But you can think of her as a protective older sister if it helps."

"Older? I'm younger than you," the fox-girl protested.
"By like three months!" Which had wound up true in both worlds. "Anyway, I just mean you're being protective."

"I am not."
"Oh yeah? What would you do if I came home crying 'cause of him?"

"I think I'd make sure he never sleeps again," Rayna said, in a dead serious tone.

"Uhh..." Rast gave her a nervous look, not liking the sound of that.

"Oh, I know you wouldn't hurt her in the first place, though!" she added hastily. "Riiight?"

"Um, I g-guess I'd better not, then."

"Hahah! Seriously, you're fun to mess with and it seems like she's pretty happy to be around you. I approve."

"I dunno how safe I should feel about that first part, but I guess I oughta be thankful for the rest," Rast said.

"So, you still think I'm evil?" the witch interjected innocently.
"Wah! Um. I s-sorta forgot you were still here," he said. "Sorry if I, gave you a hard time before. Lynn told me some a' what you've been through. I can't really imagine what it's like to have folk look at you all the time like you're some kinda mosnter when, you just wanna help out."
"It's amazing what one can get used to with enough practice," Mira said. "On that note, I'm a little tired of the 'small' look. 'Scu~use me." She shifted back to her taller form, a feat which drew his rapt attention for the second or so it took. "Phew."

"It's amazin' you can just go back and forth like that whenever you want," he said. "Usually that much change takes a lot a' magic, or a good while for even a shifter ta do, right?"
"You think this is impressive, you should see what Aria can do," Mira said. "When it comes to changing her look she's really talented."

"I didn't know that. She usually looks pretty much the same, don't she?"
"As far as I understand, the 'default form', or something really close to it, is more 'comfortable' to stay in," Lynn said. "She's been trying some unusual stuff lately, though."

"Okay, Rast," the witch said. "I have a proposition for you."
"Um..w-what's that?" He didn't seem to like the way she'd started smiling when she said that, and physically backed up in his chair a bit.
"I semi-recently ate the magic of an Incubus. Along with the other powers I've learned, it gives me some shapeshifting magic. If you like I could try a spell I've put together on you so you could see what it's like for yourself."

"Er um.." He was surprised by the offer; he very obviously had a 'no thanks' on his tongue but hesitated, really thinking about it. "Is it..safe? I hear a lot a' spells that do that kinda thing, 'specially dark, demonic ones, can hurt people. Or just plain hurt."
"I tried it out on Loren earlier today," Mira said. "He described is 'embarrassing' but decidedly not painful. Also, it was really easy to change him back. The one spell I've got so far is really simple to dispel, which returns the body right back to normal."
"What's ah..what's embarrsin' about it?" he asked.
"To put it bluntly, it's a sex-change transformation," she said, putting up her hands. "It turns a target guy into a girl. I'm trying to make a version that goes the other way, but because Incubus magic, this is what I'm stuck with for now. You know about Zack's curse, don't you?"

"Um..I heard somethin' about her bein'—well, someone makin' her a girl?" he said. "Err—that wasn't you was it?"
"Of course not," Mira shook her head. "He was like that when I first met him. Anyway, If I got that other-way spell strong enough then it might be able to break the curse. Or at least turn him back temporarily, which I'm sure he'd love."

"Guess I can see that," Rast said. "What's that got ta do with your offer, though?"
"Well, spells are like—spear fighting I guess?" Mira said. "Not that I have any experience with that in particular, but I imagine practice makes things better. If you understand how to do one technique then related ones start to make a lot more sense too. Right?"

"Sure," he nodded. And then, after a second or two, understood: "So—you're sayin', to figure out a spell that might break the curse, you need 'practice' with what ya already know. And.." He looked around at the others presently at the table, thinking about who else was in the house. "You ain't exactly able to practice that on your friends here, or yourself either I guess."
"Exactly."

"Well ah..I suppose it wouldn't do no harm if you can undo it right away," he said.

"That's great to hear," the witch said, producing a piece of paper and laying it on the table before pushing it toward him. "Have a look at this."

"Er...what's that?" He picked it up, realized he had it upside-down, and then slowly spun it around in his hands until he could read it.
"Permission form. As you might imagine, testing this sort of spell out on the unwilling would seriously hurt my reputation in this town. To ensure everything's on the level, the Captain asked me to draw up something like this so I can at least prove I had permission."
"S-so, you've asked her aobut this already?" he said, looking up from the top of the page. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised, she sorta knows everythin' anyway, huh?"

"She had a bad experience with a warlock in the past, and wants to keep me on the straight and narrow," Mira said. "Fortunately for both of us, that's exactly where I want to be, too. Anyway, that thing isn't legally binding, and it has no magic on either—though I guess it'd be dumb to take my word for that."

"Magic sight says it's just paper," Rayna interjected, pointing a finger at her own eyes. "Lynn trusts me, and you trust her, right?"

"Err.." Rast looked back and forth between the two of them, and then at Lynn, something else occuring to him. "This wouldn't uh..be too weird, for you, would it?"
"Not at all," she shrugged, and then gave a slight grin. "If anything, I'm a little curous how you'd look as a girl. Maybe there's a few things about me you'd understand better from the experience."

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised for that either," Rast said. "Still, ah...n-no offense, miss Mira, but I'd prefer if Lynn was around when you did this."

"None taken. There is reason to do with the 'embarrassing' nature why you might prefer some privacy, but if you and Lynn are both okay with it there's certainly nothing to the magic that forbids an audience."
"Can I get in on this too?" the fox-girl said. "I'm a little curious how my 'sight' will view the spell's effects—and maybe I could even provide some insight into the spell itself," she said.
"Well—I don't p'rticularly mind," Rast said. "Alright, so.." He placed the paper on the table before him and leaned over, re-reading it. Once satisfied he understood the contents, he looked up again. "Anybody got a pen?" Three hands immediately reached toward him, a writing implement in each. After a second's hesitation, he just took the nearest one (Lynn's) and then started to sign the form.

---

Nora knocked on the door between Zack's room and their shared bathroom. "Come in."
The knight was sitting at his desk, and turned the chair around while she entered, managing a small smile in her direction. His disposition was much more easily read from his tail starting to whip back and forth and his ears sticking up. Heeding a small, vague wave in that direction Nora went over to sit in the bed across from him.

"Uh. H-how're you feeling?" she said, not entirely sure how to start this conversation.
"Good. It still hurts, but not as much as it did last night."
"Th-that's good. Um..I was a little worried when th-the Captain was asking to see you. I-I guess she went easy on you?"
"Not at all," Zack shook his head. "I healed the bruises myself—all the big ones, anyway."

"Really?" The elf gave him a concerned look. "W-why are you in s-s-such a good mood, then?"

"Look, I'm a little weird." He leaned back in his chair. "Sometimes, when things really aren't going my way, I'll start sulking about it never wanna stop. I've kinda been doing that ever since..this happened," he waved toward his appearance, especially the sizable chest. "But, only a little for the most part. Last night was..sort of a breaking point for me. When I really start moping, though—trying to make me feel better by like, saying you're behind me or telling me it'll be okay, just doesn't help. I need someone to pick me up, punch me in the face, and tell me to get over it. Which—would make most people worse instead of better. But not me."

"And the C-captain..did that?" she said, still no less concerned.
"Not literally punching me in the face, but basically. She reminded me that there's more important things than the pain I'm dealing with, or hating this body or the curse it came with."

"You s-shouldn't think what you're d-dealing with isn't important," Nora objected.

"Yeah—don't get me wrong. I haven't given up, and I still don't like it—but it is less important to me than protecting everyone else, as best I can. Besides that, I like all of you and..I don't really know if I've done a good job showing it up until now."

"I d-don't think you need to worry about that," Nora said. "I think everyone d-definitely knows how you feel about us b-by now."

"Good, I guess."

Zack sighed and looked away, then back at her. "Anyway, me-from-here is a huge combat nerd, which I didn't even know was a thing. She taught me some new stuff to do with my swords that I hadn't thought of before, which feels about like someone handing me a new game. You know?"

"Um..I s-suppose I can relate," Nora said, imagining a new book instead.

"Yeah, if I have some time free tomorrow I'll probably do some drills and see if I can work some of it into my usual set of moves. Though, I guess it's been a while since we actually went out and hunted something."

"H-how do our um, finances look?" Nora said. This was among things she'd never gotten much experience with herself.

"We're still rolling on what we got from the fire giant thing, let alone what we had before that. Still, it's a bad idea to get out of the habit of working," Zack said. "Trying out different teams like we did when you guys went to the ruins seems like a good idea." She nodded in agreement.

"Um..s-so..."

"Yeah?"

"I don't know e-e-exactly how um, a-aware of it you are...th-the way you invited me was a little uhm..." Nora looked off to one side, blushing again.
"Oh, that. Yeah, I, have no idea why it came out that way. You prolly know this by now, but I don't always think before I talk."
"Heheh. Or do anything else, r-really," she said, recovering from the nerves somewhat. "I-it's just um. D-do you have any idea how, um. Uh." Nora tripped over her words briefly once again, thinking of the right term right away but unsure how he would take it. Zack just waited patiently for her to say whatever she was going to, so eventually she spat it out. "Um, c-charming you're, you can be if you want to?"
"I guess not. I mean, not exactly anyway. I'm not an oblivious moron, I could see the effect it had on you. I-it just made me feel, weird I guess. I don't, I mean I don't really feel able to think of you or, anyone else here in those terms." This time the wolf-girl looked away slightly, the tiniest bit of red to her cheeks. "On the other hand, what we've been doing together is kinda...y-yeah, if I wasn't, I mean my body wasn't..."

"I-I know what you mean," Nora said. "It's the same for me, a little. I-I mean I don't exactly understand...where an impulse to want to t-touch your ears came from in the first place. Lately I j-just seem to, find myself wanting th-things I never even imagined at all b-before, much less me wanting them. B-but in the moment it feels natural and nice, s-so it doesn't really bother me then."

Zack nodded. "Even out of the moment this body's stupid instincts make me think about it and want it sometimes. You know, I realized today that it's easier to suppress them after, um.." He made a vague gesture with his hands that both of them understood perfectly well. "..than before we started. Like I feel more in control of myself because I let it do what it wanted for a while. I guess the 'wolf spirit' your powers reach into has something to do with it."

"P-probably." Nora wondered just how much of her instincts Katherine was used to suppressing—or Rayna, for that matter.

"S-so um..you want..?" Nora started to ask; Zack's face didn't change but his ears immediately lowered to the horizontal and his tail went on overdrive, audibly thumping against the rails of the chair behind him.
"Well, I wouldn't have asked you to come if I didn't," he said. "It's..a little early, I mean we just ate. But uh." He gained a faint blush again. "I did already change clothes." He was in a longer t-shirt and possibly not much else. Nora had actually changed into what she considered bedclothes already, too, but mostly just because they presumably weren't going anywhere soon and they were a bit more comfortable. "A small part of me just wants to jump over on top of you and knock you right on your back."
"Err..heheh." Nora couldn't help a small giggle at the combination of expressions and the sudden admission. "M-maybe you should sit over here before that happens," she suggested, scooting to one side of the bed and gesturing toward the other.

Zack slowly stood up, turned around to sit next to her, and leaned over onto her shoulder. "Mrf."
She responded by gently running her hand over the top of his head, gently rubbing his ears a bit. "You're st-still pretty tired, aren't you?"
"Mn-hmn." Pulling himself off of her again, he opened his eyes to look up toward her face. "Takes so much effort to act 'human' sometimes. Guess that means I'm not one, huh?"

"Well—neither am I if you want to be t-technical," Nora said, running her hand down through his hair. "I think we're st-till close enough."

"Heh." Giving a slightly bigger smile, the wolf-girl leaned around and pushed on the front of Nora's shoulders with enough force to get her onto her back.

"W-wah!" He climbed over onto her, far enough up to lean his nose onto her cheek and start nuzzling while his arms wrapped around her. Nora returned the embrace, running a hand down his back from where his hair ended to the base of his tail a couple of times. Zack made soft churring noises, some high barks and yips, and his tail kept whipping back and forth in the air above.

"I hate t-to say this..you sound um..really cute, doing that," she said.
Zack pulled his head up just enough to look at her for a second, his eyes just half-lidded. He was blushing in some embarassment but after a brief hesitation said, "Don't...really care right now. You wanna change, or stay like that?"
"Ch-um.." It took her a second to get her thoughts together enough to understand his meaning. "You mind if I use the c-c-cat form? It's a little less um..b-big." She'd meant to say something about reducing their difference in height, but it was easier to put it this way than go into detail just now.
"Fine by me." He leaned in and started nuzzling her again with no futher conversation; the elf shifted to her smaller feline form, keeping her head where his was during the shrinking and slowly curling her tail forward and around his, letting out an equally adorable purr when his hand touched one of her ears. It didn't seem like they were going to stop doing this until at least one of them fell asleep...