Battle Vixens! - 136

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Episode 136: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Blake didn't bother shifting to human form to go to bed. She had a feeling...and sure enough, once she'd near-immediately fallen asleep-slash-passed out from exhaustion, the sound of knocking on a less-familiar door woke her up again. Or..didn't. She sat up slowly, taking the time to stretch and try to mentally prepare herself.

The large, ornate room was as strange to wake up into as always. Her clothes were...as lacking as usual, an oversized t-shirt and underwear with no bra and no proper bottom. But she was just used enough to these things to not really regard them, swinging her legs around and falling off the side of the bed onto her feet.

If it was anyone else, they'd knock again. They'd get impatient from all of the delay, wonder if they'd been heard at all, perhaps even become insecure about whether the door would be opened. But the person who'd woken her up didn't have any of those thoughts. She knew full well that once was enough, and that the door would be answered eventually. Knowing this was frustrating; it brought on a temptation to drag the delay out as long as she could stand, just to see the reaction...but her 'opponent' in this regard had far more patience than Light could ever hope to, and both of them knew it. There just wasn't a point. And it wasn't like she could "run down the clock" either, since time in this dream-space didn't synchronize with real time. So, as soon as she felt more or less ready, she went up to the door and cracked it open.

"You want to talk."

"I would appreciate it," the Watcher said, in a pleasant, polite tone of voice.

"Come on, then." Light turned around and went to about where some chairs had appeared before, sitting down in one of them once they appeared again. She didn't bother opening the door wider or closing it again, and her guest seemingly obliged her impatience by simply appearing in the opposite seat, already sitting down. At the same time, she hesitated from speaking long enough for the silence to become slightly awkward.

Light didn't say anything. She didn't have any questions or requests. There was a lot of information the being in front of her probably knew that their world was ignorant of, but not much that felt like it mattered now—nothing they wouldn't figure out on their own. If she thought otherwise, the Watcher could talk to someone else. Light was done with being a go-between for obscure hints. If the woman with many tails wanted to say something to her, then she'd say it eventually; further prompting wasn't necessary. For someone who loved to talk so much, it never was.

And she began before too long: "I must say, I'm impressed. Really. There was more than one time today I thought you, or your allies, weren't going to make it. If the enemy were intelligent..it couldn't have better planned a way of stripping away your best fighters before its main assault. You were lucky, certainly, that its manifestation as an ambush predator was met with the perfect reinforcement on your side. But I think you could've figured the same trick out if you'd been lucky enough to dodge an attack or two anyway. No, but tonight..tonight was something special."

Was this all she wanted? To dispense praise, to give color commentary on the struggle for everyone's lives? Light's expression remained the same, but her breath came in through her nose and came out of it in a slightly louder and harsher hiss. The Watcher couldn't have missed this, subtle as it was, but continued anyway.

"Rory Quinn lost her entire sense of self less than a week ago, and only seems to have come back with stronger determination. She and her husband almost lasted long enough on that alone for their help to arrive. You were close to fainting, but only needed the slightest bit of support to get right back on your feet. Rowan and Ning could perhaps have achieved victory if that hadn't happened, but not without a price. Not to mention Magus...I don't know how I missed someone with so much potential. But it's probably better her power developed on its own anyway. Just from seeing her performance—"

Smack

Light knew that the Watcher could not be harmed, that "violence" of any kind didn't work on her. She also knew that certain actions, such as a slap to the face, didn't count as "violence". It wasn't that she had a new, original idea, or even really thought about it at all. It was just—she was sitting there listening one second, and the next she was standing over the Watcher with a slight sting in her right hand. The one still in the chair looked surprised, slowly raising a hand to rub her cheek slightly.

What she'd been feeling since coming to this place tonight—and probably much longer than that—spilled loudly out. "Do you ever shut up!? Can you even hear yourself!?"

"I—"
"Nobody—nobody is doing anything, specifically to entertain you! People fighting, and bleeding, and dying, is not so you can sit back and laugh at us!!"
"I d—"

"The world, the universe, the—whatever else, doesn't revolve around you! It does not care, what you like, or what you want to see!"

Light stood there panting air in and out for a second, long enough for the Watcher to get a word in edgewise. She still didn't stand up, and when she spoke, it was with a calm, rational tone that was even more infuriating than shouting back would've been. "I never thought otherwise."

"You sure don't act like it! 'Don't be boring'?! I'll be as boring as I want! Safe! Is boring! And, and for you to talk about Magus's 'performance' like she's on a game show—like a circus act put on for you personally—!"

"A poor choice of words—"

"Like you don't think about everyone else around you, exactly that way! You—you really think Emma's your friend? Someone you pushed, you manipulated into hurting people, getting herself hurt?! And today, risking her life?! What are you even doing, talking to me instead of her then?"

Light actually paused on purpose this time, her expression demanding an answer. "Frankly..you don't know Emma like I do. She was going to go help tonight all along—to help is what she wanted, and what she needed. I helped her come to the decision soon enough for that help to be truly effective. Besides, she's...busy tonight. And, still uncertain what to think of me."
"Big surprise!" she threw her arms up briefly. "The nice, kind person she knew, all along was just a mask you put on to screw with her! What's she supposed to think, if you won't even talk to her now that she took it off!?"

"I don't really know..." The Watcher spoke quietly, with a touch of sadness. "If it was a mask, it certainly left an impression on my real face when it came off. Or, maybe I still have a mask on that was under it. Maybe it's just masks all the way down."

Light stepped back, and flopped back onto her own chair, sitting hunched forward. "How many people have you killed. Had killed. Manipulated someone else into killing. Ignored their pleas for help, that would have been trivial for you to grant, and let them die. How many."

The Watcher sighed in a slightly tired way, like she'd been expecting this question. "I could recite a number for you, but would it really mean anything? I'm certain just one person is too many, as far as you're concerned."

"One person." This sounded like an echo of agreement at first, but Light continued immediately: "You've found one person you think you care about. Do you understand, that every single one of those people whose death you have caused, had someone who cared about them more than that? Who hurt, worse than anything that anyone does to Emma will ever hurt you? You can't just not know that, watching everyone's lives like you do, but do you understand?"

The Watcher paused for a moment, wearing a slight smile that looked worse than a frown. "When you put it that way...I don't know that I do.

"It sounds...awfully hard, to care about people. If it hurts so much to care about just a few, it must be so much more difficult for you. To care about everyone, and want to save all of them. It sounds like a terrible burden to live under. If it brings you some relief...if you need someone to hate? I'm not such bad target. You know how much harm I've caused. You know I won't retaliate."

There was a quiet, almost motherly kindness to her tone of voice. It just made Light even angrier. For the first time she could remember, she wanted to do or say something—anything, that would hurt the person in front of her. She'd wanted that for most of this conversation, actually, but only became fully conscious of it in those terms at this point. It was a terrifying feeling. Her whole body was shaking slightly from a tension that felt like it was getting ready to snap.

"Manipulation isn't friendship. Drafting someone into a war, isn't helping her. Deciding that you know better what someone needs and wants, and forcing her to try for it, is the kind of thing abusive parents do. You sat by and watched, when Emma was swallowed by that monster. Knowing, how much pain that would put her in. Knowing, that she was terrified, that none of us knew for certain if she would ever wake up again."

"I couldn't...I can't play favorites."
"Oh, no. You don't even help the people you say you care about the most. Not when it's 'against the rules'. Because your games, are more important to you than anyone or anything else."

The Watcher didn't reply. For once in the entire time Light had been aware of her, she didn't seem to have any idea what to say. She just sat there, looking sad and uncertain. It felt good to see that, but not in a way that quelled Light's anger at all.

"This is my room, right? You don't come in unless I open the door? Get out."

This seemed to snap her out of it. She sat up slightly. "Ah...but I wanted to ask—"
Light stood up violently enough to knock the chair over behind her; it landed with a loud clattering bang that cut the Watcher off. "I don't care, what you WANT!" She pointed at the door. "GET OUT!"

The Watcher stood up slowly, putting her hands out in a gesture of surrender. "All right, all right. I won't stay where I am not welcome. And I won't disturb you again. But you know, of course, that my dealings with your world aren't over yet. Some are still asking for my help."
"Then go talk to them," Light seethed.

She quietly went over to the door, which had been left ajar all along, and opened it fully to make her exit. On her way out she paused for just a second, turning her head to ask: "Are you still afraid, that you'll become like me?" After that she was gone, the door shutting behind her.

---

"Everything is going according to plan." The Watcher paused, taking a sip of tea from her cup. "I won't be missed, when I'm no longer needed."

"You know..." her host said. "You don't sound very happy about everything working as intended."

"One can be satisfied without being happy."

"Pfft. You're not usually one for riddles."

"The most efficient way to cut them off from my power is to ensure that they dislike me. Hatred is even better. Someone who thinks of me as a 'benevolent savior' could be a leech for centuries."
"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself," her host pointed out.

"...Do you, think I talk too much?" the Watcher asked, suddenly changing the subject.

"Hmm? Where'd this come from?"
"I've been told to shut up more times in the past couple of weeks than I think anyone on their world ever has before."

"Well, maybe not in this setting. But you do love explaining things—even more than I do—and you're very powerful, both magically and politically, plus literally invincible, so in most other settings, folks are strongly disincentivized to interrupt you. Maybe that's formed a bit of a bad habit? Actually, you're capable of giving a truly endless filibuster if you wanted to."

"That would be—"
"—Pretty boring, I know. I'm just saying, you could. Anyway, people's steady escalation of efforts to make it stop could eventually get pretty funny!"

"Mmn."

She leaned forward a bit. "...Gosh, I thought imagining that would at least get a chuckle out of you. Something's actually got you down, huh?"

Rather than agreeing or disagreeing—much less explaining the reason—the Watcher seemed to change the subject once again: "The first people to communicate with me, wanted something out of me. They would say or do anything, if it would just make me do what they wanted. Nobody powerful enough to be aware of my existence would ever contact me unless they wanted something. If that is who taught me how to relate to others, then the only way I know is manipulation."

"Well, when you finally wanted something yourself—I guess you put those lessons to good use."

"I suppose so.

"...I don't know of any way to be good or kind to someone, other than to give them what they want. Or to help them take it for themselves, for the greater satisfaction. Is that wrong?"

"Hmmn—it's not often you wanna hear my moral opinions." Perhaps the Watcher hadn't meant it as a moral question, but she chose to interpret it as one anyway. "I think I'm best off repurposing a cliché in this case: 'The ends don't justify the means'. If you stab a man's beloved wife so he can have a million dollars of insurance money, that won't even make him happy. Never mind whether it's right or wrong, or how everyone else feels about it."

"It seems obvious when you put it that way...although, none too comforting."

Her host nodded. "The truth can hurt. Sorry, but, you did ask."

A brief, distant expression came out in response to that first sentence. After a brief hesitation, she seemed to acknowledge the second only half-heartedly, just muttering, "I did..."

---

This was tough to write; I had to be in just the right mood for it to (hopefully) land. Other potential song-based titles for this episode include Weird Al's "I'm So Sick of You" and George Thorogood's "You Talk Too Much".

I wonder if you can guess what the Watcher really wanted to ask about.

Battle Vixens! - 135

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Episode 135: The Cat Came Back

"Bro."

Once he had the car going down the road, Thad couldn't help asking.

"What even was that total choke earlier? I thought I set you up pretty well."

"I was surprised, and got flustered!" Magus said. "I've always been terrible at keeping secrets. Like, dude, back in high school people couldn't even tell me about a surprise party for someone else 'cause I'd take one look at that person and just get super awkward, just like that."

"That's kinda a problem if you're gonna keep maintaining a secret identity and all. You ever think about taking some acting classes or somethin'?"
"Uh..not before. It might be too late at this point, since we're kinda fighting things nearly every day.."

"Pssh, whatever. Anywho, check this out." One hand still on the wheel and his eyes still on the road, Thad dug the note he'd received inside a mask out of his pocket and thrust it over vaguely in the fox-girl's direction. "I was just chillin' on the couch, waiting to see how things were gonna go, and someone popped a mask on our doorknob. With that note in it."

"A mask?"

"Yeah, like one of those uh, Japanese festival mask things. That's how I really wound up giving Emma a ride, too."

He waited a moment for Magus to actually read the note in question. Then: "So, you think it's legit? Is it from who I think it is?"

"Well uh...so, 'Beryl' kinda is or was 'the Giver', Emma told us. Plus the capital-letter word 'Gift', and talking about like the exact probability of someone's survival like they computed it...it'd have to be a pretty elaborate prank from someone with super intimate knowledge of a lot of things to not be her," Magus said. "Did you..try that mask on?"
"Nah, I had a message to deliver. It's sittin' in our apartment now. You think I oughta?"

"Well...it probably can't hurt? I mean, uh...

"Okay, this is kinda, confidential. You won't say anything, right?"
"Sure. I mean nah, I won't."
"Okay, well, the guys who made this hat, were also working on a bunch of masks like that, that I think are supposed to do pretty much the same thing? Like, give people powers. I dunno if she maybe, stole one of theirs or made one of her own? But it might..do that. Besides, just making you look different."

"So I could end up with powers like you?"
"Well—maybe? I think it's different for every person, what kind of like, 'potential' they have, and it might depend a little bit on what you're, expecting?"

"So if I do expect it to make me look like your spell did last night, it oughta do that?"
"Y-yeah..? Probably. You really want that?"
"Sure."
"Wwwhhhyyy...?" She dragged out the word to try to express some severe confusion at the concept.

"Man, I dunno if I can explain it. Like—I like how I look now, but...I really liked that, too. There's just somethin'...nice about it. I barely understand it myself. But, just this morning, I was thinkin' about how I didn't wanna make you cast a spell over and over just 'cause of that."

"I guess it isn't really my business, if that makes you happy, dude. I can't help being a little weirded out by it, though."
"Yeah, it's weird to me, too. Still, though..."

They came into the apartment, and Thad picked up the mask, showing it to her. "So, here it is. Looks like a cat, right?"
"Huh..yeah, kinda," she nodded. "So..you're gonna try it on?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Let's, at least lock the door first."
"Oh, yeah—alright."

Soon they stood across from each other in the living room, and Thad carefully lifted the mask up to his face, pressing it on. He immediately felt a kind of rush, a pushing and pulling all across his body. It felt pretty different from how Magus's polymorph spell had, and it went much faster, but..he could definitely feel himself shrinking and softening, his hair growing out, his clothes shuffling around. In no time at all the thing between Thad's legs disappeared, a pair of panties pulled flat down there, and a skirt fluttered around some wider hips; her bust puffed out last of all, right after her ears grew big and fluffy and a tail spread its way out from her back.

She carefully pulled the mask down off her face and tossed it gently, underhand, at the couch, putting her hands together a bit nervously. Her clothes were slightly different from before too: No leggings, and a bowtied ribbon around her neck instead of an actual tie. "So uh..looks like it worked, huh?"

"Guess so," Magus said, nodding. "Do you..feel like you got any powers?"
"Hmmn..." As far as Thad could tell, her body was exactly the same as the night before: Same height and proportions, hair length, fur, and so on. She felt just as soft and fuzzy as back then, too. "I dunno? Nothing sticks out right away. I feel like I'd be better in a fight as a dude, still."
"But, it must've done something, right? Hmm..."

The fox-girl put out her hand and a shower of blue sparks had her sword appear in it. Thad couldn't help but stare at the weapon for a second, feeling her head tilt slightly. It was like it was...lit up with something, even after the sparks were gone.

Not really noticing her expression, Magus went for trying to cast some kind of spell in her general direction. "Scan?" The tip of the blade glowed slightly, then faded off after a second. Magus dismissed the weapon again. "Hmnnh..I thought I might be able to do He—uh, a thing I saw someone else doing," she said, quickly correcting herself mid-naming-someone. "But I don't really know the meaning of what I saw without something to compare it to?"

"Hey. Could you, pull that sword out again a sec? Lemme look at it?"
"Uh, sure."

Magus carefully handed the catgirl her sword, and she held it up in front of her for only a moment before flipping it around so the tip could sit on the ground and carry the weight instead of her hand. It wasn't as heavy as it looked, but holding it up like that for too long still felt like kind of a chore. Thad nodded. "Yeah, it's..there's somethin' to it. I dunno if I can really even explain. But I can, feel something, I think? Huh, hang on..."

After gently pushing the weapon back toward the fox-girl, Thad hurried into the kitchen, soon finding a butter knife. That felt 'right' somehow—another cutting implement. Magus followed her with the curiousity of someone who had very little idea of what, but knew something was going on. "Hmm~mnnh..." Holding it up right in front of her eyes with one hand, the catgirl brought the other hand up next to it and did...something that involved moving that hand's fingers carefully around. It felt like she was pulling at some strings, maybe, or tapping on a wall...after a moment, she was able to make the knife 'light up' in her eyes the same way as the sword had, only much more dimly.

"..I got a hunch. Here," she offered the knife over Magus's way. "This sounds dumb to me even sayin' it, but, try to cast a spell with it like it was your sword?"
"Um, okay?" Magus took the knife. "Uh, look away a sec." Thad shrugged and complied. "...Flash!" This word (and presumably some motions with the silverware) had an effect similar to a phone's camera in the dark. "It works. But.."

The catgirl turned around again, watching Magus put down the knife she'd worked on and pull out a different one. "...Flash?" Despite some theatric motion accompanying it, this didn't accomplish anything. She picked up the other one, and Thad had to think quickly to shut and cover her eyes. "Flash!

"So..that one doesn't work, but this one does. What'd you do?"
"I kinda..tried to do, somethin' like what was in your sword, I guess? Like, magic stuff?"

"Wait...are you saying..you enchanted this knife?!" The fox-girl's eyes lit up adorably with excitement. "Can you do something else!? Like make it glow? Or on fire?"

"Uh, whoa—heheh..I'm not totally sure I understand this stuff, but I can't do anything if you keep waving it around like that!"
"Yeah, sorry, here." She half-shoved it at Thad, who took it carefully and held it up in front of her again.

Fire sounded kind of dangerous, but a glow probably wouldn't burn the apartment down. When she'd done that thing earlier, she was just imitating what was already in Magus's sword, but this felt a little different. Her other hand 'pulled' and 'tapped' for a good thirty seconds or more, finding one configuration after another didn't work...but somehow, it still felt like she was making progress. After converging slowly on the idea of 'making light', she finally felt like she'd found it! She dropped the other hand with a grin.

"Um...did it work? It's not glowing," Magus poined out.
"Just a sec.." Thad pulled her thumb back, then tapped against the knife's handle, like she was hitting an invisible button. Immediately its blade began emitting a faint glow of light—not much compared to the kitchen's overhead bulb, but enough to find one's phone by in the pitch dark. With a similar motion, it turned 'off' again and quit glowing. She handed it to the fox-girl. "Here, you try."
"Okay.." With a similar motion, Magus achieved the same result. "..Dude!"

She turned the knife off and on in again in rapid succession, looking even more excited (and cute) than before. "You can really enchant things! Like, make non-magic things, into magic things!!!"

"So...you think this is a big deal?" Thad said uncertainly. There were plenty of people who could do magic, and apparently a pretty reliable way to make anyone able to do magic, already.
"It's huge! It's like, exactly what those magic research guys are looking for! I think! We should—I mean, you—like—" Magus had started waving the knife around frantically halfway through this, and at this point finally seemed to notice the catgirl flinching away from her in reply. So she took a deep breath, set the knife down, and visibly tried to contain her excitement.

"It's...I mean like...it's your, it's up to you if you wanna tell someone—anyone, about this or not. But if, I mean if I could do something like that, I'd be calling those guys right now to tell them about it."

"What, this late into the night?" Thad said, crossing her arms. "Those dudes must be in bed by now. We don't even have an attack to worry about tomorrow. Anyhow, you're gonna fall asleep on your feet at this rate, right?"

"I, might," she admitted, folding her ears down slightly. "If the adrenaline rushes ever stop coming, at least."

"Yeah. So, we can tell 'em in the morning. Schedule a meeting and stuff. But, for tonight...you gotta sleep.

"So—you could go back to your room, change back or whatever, or we could y'know...do things like last night?"
Magus's face flushed red. "Um..."
"Sorry—I guess that's making things weird again."
"No, that's..m-maybe just for a little bit? I, probably should actually sleep in a bed after though...lying on a couch isn't all that comfortable."
"Alright." Thad grinned. "I'll wake you up so we can both go to bed normally, then? Deal?"

"..S-sure..."

Thad spent the next couple of hours or so lying on her back on the couch with the fox-girl sleeping softly on top of her, her head over her shoulder so one of her ears occasionally flicked the catgirl's own. This was weird, sure, but...it was very nice. Curiously relaxing, even though she never fell fully asleep herself. It had taken a little bit of self-control at the beginning to not push Magus's head into her chest instead, or curl her tail up to touch the fox-girl's...but once she was asleep, Thad felt instead like this was more than good enough for now.

Mortal's Test

I've made a sequel to Art Appreciation:

The source image for this caption was, again, found using an image generator.

Omega Zeta Kappa Epilogue

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It was a late Thursday night in the OZK dorm. "Hwaa~aah.."

Jen banged her fist on the side of her chair, making the catgirl who'd just yawned yelp and jump upright. "York, will you just go to bed already!? Finals are next week, and I can not study with you doing that."

"Auugh, I don't wanna yet."
"Why not."
"I don't have the energy!" she protested, dramatically falling back onto the couch.
"You don't have the energy. To go to bed," the wolf-girl repeated, deadpan.
"You don't geet iiiit. Odin's in our room."

"And..?"
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a succubus happy, by myself?!" she said, flailing her arms up in the air. "I mean...I always wake up feeling good and well rested, but uuugh..."

"Why don't you just say you don't want to tonight?"

"Are you kidding?! I just...need to build up my strength first."
"Then nap! Are you part cat or not?!"

"Uhhm.." She blushed furiously. "That uh, can vary from one night to anotherrr.."
Jen shook her head. "Yeesh.

"Look, just be glad she's not a dragon. I don't think Rich owns any bedclothes that aren't singed somewhere. She smells like smoke in the morning if she hasn't showered."

"At least she seems happy, though?"
"True...honestly, I think she's a little more relaxed lately. Weird."

"Of course she's relaxed!" The beast in question burst into the room just as she did the conversation, making both of its occupants jump. "I take nothing but the best care of my treasure~," Gerar declared with a big grin. "Yoorrrk! Odin's looking for ya."
"Oh noooo." York flopped herself up onto her feet, then acted like an invisible force was dragging her out of the room.
Jen cleared her throat, deliberately ignoring that. "No offense, by the way."
"Pfft, none taken~! You've never seen a scratch or burn on her, though, riiight?"
"Guess not."

---

"Who's that guy?"

Wesley drifted over to the window to take a look. There was a tall, skinny guy, kind of average-looking, with dark hair and glasses, standing at the front door to OZK. He would almost resemble a student, except he was wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. "I think that's...some business contact of Rich's? I've seen him around before a couple of times."
"Really? I guess he just sticks out a lot more now," Zale shrugged. "But—is it just me, or do you..feel something kinda impressive from him?"
"Hmmnh...a little bit? Can't exactly put my finger on it."

Flynn paused her music, paused her work for the year-end project, and set her headphones down. She shoved her chair back and stood up before heading to the door, verifying that she really had heard a brief, polite knock by way of Rich's voice now coming through on the other side: "I assure you she's in. Just wait another moment."

She opened the door to find the sorority's illustrious leader had been talking to—well, a total stranger to Flynn, some tall businessguy. "Hello?"
"Ah, see?" Rich said.
"I didn't doubt you or anything," he shrugged. "You're Flynn, right?" Now that he was looking right at her, she noticed something very strange through those glasses: His eyes were bright yellow, with tall slits for pupils, like a snake's eyes or something. It made her jump slightly when she noticed it.
"Uh, yeah..?"
He cleared his throat. "And you're the one who prayed to Zotha a few weeks back?"

"That's...also right, I guess. Why? Am I uh..in trouble?"

"Far from it. Ms. Tanner here said you figured out the ritual language within only one day, at least enough to make a functional prayer. That's pretty rare talent."

"I was..feeling really motivated, is all."
He nodded, pausing to crack his briefcase slightly open and shuffle through its contents with one hand. "Listen, I know you're still a junior now, but in a year or so, after you graduate—there's a job opportunity for you with Rejuvenation services. We're a little short on programmers and competent pray-ers right now." Finding what he wanted, he handed over a piece of paper. "A lot of the celestials originally working with us have other business to attend to, but demand's only been going up lately. We'll run out of old people eventually, I guess, but it'll be some years..."

"Uh..?" Flynn was going to ask what in the world he was even talking about, but she paused to skim the paper first. 'Rejuvenation services' was...a joint effort by Azoth and some other, longer-named organization whose main line of work was, apparently, using magic (especially that of the goddess of change herself) to make older people young and healthy again. There was some contact information on the paper, too. "I guess it'd be nice to have a job instead of having to look around," she said.
The businessman nodded. "Take some time to think about it. You have a year, or more if you want."

He turned toward Rich. "Now...I also heard there was a dragon hatchling somewhere around here?"
"Yes, of course. I'll show you to her," she said, grinning, and giving Flynn a little wave before leaving with him.

---

After the summer, the OZK sorority had a new batch of applicants. Tielo sat at the council table to evaluate them as they were sent in one-by-one. Mars was next to her for "moral support", playing on her phone and not really participating in the interviews for the most part. The first five were male but willing to take the potion, but the sixth was different: an incoming freshman with no history of ever being male. "Greetings. Name, please?" A rather petite and overall ordinary-looking girl at first glance, with short brown hair and dark eyes, but...
"You don't have that on your paper? Well I'll tell you anyway—Ursa Major!" She lunged forward, banging her hands on the table. "You better remember too, 'cause I'm gonna be famous!"

Such energy! This person had potential. Tielo just nodded impassively. "Got it. And why do you want to join OZK?"

"Superior food and lodging. Camraderie with other musicians. Potential for magic shenanigans to write songs about! Why would I not?"

"Sure, sure. Alright, I'll set you a worthy trial, then. Explore our living space freely, and identify the dragon's treasure. Don't try to steal it, though—this dragon can bench press a house, and literally breathes fire. Come back to me with the right answer within a week's time, and you pass."

"A week?! You'll see, I'll figure it out today!" she declared, whirling and charging back out the door.

"You, dragon!"
The blond dragon-girl paused, headtilting at the short girl pointing dramatically at her. "Uh, me Gerar. You?"
"Ursa Major. I demand you tell me what your treasure is!"
"'What'?" she repeated—thinking not 'who' or 'where'? "Oooh, this is one of Teilo's tests, isn't it?" she realized aloud. "It'd be no fun to just give you the answer then—no challenge, right? Sooo, I'll give you a hint: I go to the top floor every night."

"What, like, to check on it?"
"Mmmaaayyybe. Heheheh~!"

It was just another normal day when I first met her. Our usual group was getting ready for an afternoon of board games, and I'd been sent upstairs to retrieve our first choice...

Braxton's ears twitched as he exited the stairwell into the third floor. There was some noise coming from the storage room, which was..probably not good. He was headed there anyway, so he opened the door to find some strange girl hunched over an open box, rifling through its contents. "No, no.."
"Hey! What're you doing?"
She stood up and turned to face him. "Aagh, another fox?! Will nobody in this crazy place give me a straight answer?"
Braxton sighed, crossing his arms. This was..someone who'd recently encountered Tielo or Mars, he guessed. "Look—I'm not a Kitsune, just a furry. So, what are you doing here?"
"I am Ursa Major, and I seek to pass my trial! Does the dragon really keep her treasure here?" she asked. "Everything valuable-looking is much too dusty!"

"Uh, no..look, if you really wanna know about Gerar, you should talk to Odin. Huge redheaded succubus, can't miss her."

"Very well!" She swept past the fox-boy with the power of a locomotive.
Braxton sighed, going and cleaning up the slight mess that weird girl had made. So this was one of their new applicants? Well, whatever—Nina and the others were waiting on him to come back with the game. So he went over to the shelf and pulled a box out from midway down the stack.

"Mngh~!" One touch from Odin's hand suddenly shifted York into a wolf-boy the same height as her, and before he really even knew what was happening she'd grabbed him into a long, passionate kiss. He started returning it properly once he figured out what was going on, and she released him after...maybe a full minute, leaving him to pant heavily.

"Sorry, thanks. Needed that."
"Uh..rrfh..a-anytime?" It wasn't easy for her to stay loyal to just one person, but she'd made it very clear she didn't want anyone else "cluttering up" her life. That made York the luckiest man or woman alive...depending on her mood.

"A second red-haired demon!" another girl's voice suddenly declared, making both of them turn to face her as she ran up. "Are you the succubus, then?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"
"What is Gerar's treasure!?"

"'What' is?" she repeated. "Look, around this time..just watch out the front door. You'll see."

Ursa was getting very irritated. What was with these people? Why were nearly half of them apparently male? Well, she'd witnessed a couple of people shifting their sex as easily as breathing, so maybe that was just a perk of membership that nobody talked about. Perhaps she could get herself a male form with a deep bass voice and record a duet with herself!

But one thing at a time—she needed to pass the test today, and now the sun was threatening to set. One frustratingly vague answer after another had led her finally back to where she'd first entered the building, the front door. She opened it, leaning against it and looking around—not really sure what she was looking for. The dragon's treasure was on the top floor, not here, right? And why did everyone she asked about it seem so confused at first?

"Ah—'scuze me!" She'd been looking outward, and nearly fell over in surprise when Gerar went past her. "Thanks~!" she continued, seemingly thinking Ursa had been holding the door open for her. Then, paying no further attention to the short freshman, the dragon-girl ran up to a guy on the sidewalk with weirdly long hair, nearly tackling him into a hug and kiss. At least it looked consensual; he kept up the hug afterward, gently rubbing the top of her head.

"Ma chère," he said. "How were your classes today?"
"No trouble at all~. And you?" There was something awfully...possessive about the way she was holding on to him.

"Just fine. Shall we?" He gestured, and she finally let go of him so they could both walk off in the same direction.

Well, now it made sense! Everyone was confused when Ursa asked 'what' the dragon's treasure was because it wasn't a 'what', it was a 'who'! And furthermore, someone who lived on the top floor? Ursa was pretty sure OZK's bosses were all animal-people, except for Erwin—that super-busty girl who'd waved her and the other applicants in—and one other person, their bankroller. She was also pretty sure that person was supposed to be a black-haired, red-eyed girl, but there was no reason she couldn't just turn into a boy too. And so, she had her answer.

As soon as she'd chased down the fox-girl, she announced: "The dragon's treasure is..Richard Tanner!"

---

Tielo raised his hand and gently knocked on the door. "Mars, you in?"
"Yes." The lock clicked and the door opened, seemingly all on its own; the blue-haired Kitsune was way over on the opposite side of the room, sitting on her bed. "Please, come in." She was wearing a t-shirt and probably some underwear it hid, and maybe it was Tielo's imagination, but her bust looked..even bigger than before.

"Come take a seat?" she offered, patting the spot next to her.

"Alright." He came and sat down (the door 'shutting itself' behind him), and she curled her one visible tail around his, leaning over to hug and kiss him for a moment before letting go.

"Hffh...s-so uh..you earn another tail over the winter break? Ahead of me now?"

"Mm-hm," she nodded, grinning, as three more tails appeared behind her briefly before hiding themselves again. "But since you didn't know that before, I assume there was something else you wanted to talk about?"
"Well, yeah.." She was hugging him with one arm, and using the other hand to rub one of his ears this entire time, which made it slightly harder to concentrate on the conversation—but Tielo managed it. Mars had been steadily training him to deal with distractions, after all. "I guess with how fast you've been taking classes, you're gonna graduate this year? Same time as me?"
"That is true. But—let me guess.

"You were hoping I could succeed your position on the council?"

"Guilty."

"I can still do that. The OZK charter only says that council members must be 'students', with no restriction on graduate or not."
"What, you're going to grad school? Here?"
She nodded. "A couple of my professors want to work with me on some research projects. I'll need to do postdocs somewhere else, but I'll be around here for a couple more years, at least."

"Aah, that's perfect! And, I guess—congratulations? But I would've assumed you could get into grad school anywhere."

"Thanks all the same. Now—I guess you have a meeting to get to. When is it?"
"Uh, about an hour from now."
"Okay." She pulled him into another kiss after that, and proceeded to hold him..then her...up, for precisely fifty minutes.

Tielo left Mars's room pretty happy, but with enough time to recover from her giddiness and have some actual composure for the meeting. Being with a genius had all kinds of perks like that. She'd probably already calculated when he'd ask her to marry him...or maybe even had it planned out the other way around.

---

"Alright, ladies..." Rich paused to clear her throat pointedly. "Ladies?"

Erwin said, "It really wouldn't be appropriate for our sorority's council to have men at such an important meeting, would it?"

Jeff sighed and shifted into "Jen". "There. Happy?"
"I am~," Myla said, flicking the tip of her tail against the base of the wolf-girl's, making her let out a soft bark.

"Anyway," Rich continued, "this is our meeting to coordinate our successors, since most of us will be graduating at the end of this semester."

"I'm thinking of stepping down myself, actually," Myla said. "Next year's gonna be pretty tough for me as it is, and it'll be way more fun to watch a whole council of new blood figure things out for themselves than to be the sole member with 'seniority' and 'experience'," she said, derisively air-quoting her hands alongside both words.

"I agree and approve," Rich nodded, grinning. "Now, of course—your choice of successor is entirely up to you, and as is our council's secret tradition, 'favoritism is encouraged'. But it's still a good idea in this game to know how everyone else will be playing."

"I'm sure you all know my choice," Tielo said. "Mars will be continuing on to grad school here, so she can take over admissions. She's been 'studying' under me for a bit, and is, of course, already an expert."

"I'd like Nina to succeed me," Jen said. "She should be able to keep representing our more athletic members, besides being a generally positive and energetic person, and friends with basically everyone."

"Really? You don't just wanna make sure it's a fellow wolf-girl?" Myla said, teasing.

"You know that's not what I care about," she protested, folding her arms.

Rich waved to interrupt this banter before it could continue. "Both excellent choices. As for me—I'm nominating Xavie."
"Xavie?!" everyone except for Tielo said, nearly at once.

"Come now, I know my reputation. People think I know everything; they say my eyes are enchanted to read minds; many who don't know me are terribly intimidated on up to the fourth meeting. I'd gladly have our resident dragon succeed me, were we not in the same class. So laying her aside, who better to succeed me than a dark witch with a dramatic, threatening persona? And I assure you, she's mellowed out quite a bit over the past year, especially with Vade's help. I would have Vade succeed me, to be honest, if the rules didn't forbid it—and this is the second-best thing."

"You don't want one of your 'pet wolves' to succeed you, then?" Jen said.

"I implied the possibility, and they don't want the position. Not that that prevents me from forcing it on one of them, but it does make me happier with my choice."

"Well, it sounds like a super high-energy group you're all assembling so far," Myla said. "It'll be fun to watch, but they do need to get things done sometimes, and frankly I don't trust Vade to calm things down all by herself. So I'm gonna nominate Corbin. Let the dynsaty of catgirl gamers continue, and—more importantly—bring in some much-needed chill."

"Hear, hear—on both counts, I say," Rich said. "That just leaves..Erwin?"

"Well.." She fidgeted, rocking back and forth in her chair a bit. "I admit, I'm torn between two options. I was thinking Layton might be a good successor—knowing, at the same time, what it's like to be small and unsure of yourself, but also how to build up that confidence? She may be best able to empathize with most members, and especially can help out anyone Nina's a little too..extra for. But, well, since we've become a sorority, there's also come to be a new 'class' of member in our ranks, with no representation on the council so far. Nor does anyone we've named so far belong to it."

"Ah, I see," Rich nodded. "It's quite a different life to come into our fold having grown up female, I imagine. As naturalized as most of us are to the girl life by now~."

Erwin nodded, "Right. Although all of them are currently freshmen, so not very many are necessarily prepared to lead. But I thought, perhaps...Ursa Major, might have the confidence?"
"Not to mention the energy," Tielo agreed.

"I understand your dilemma now," Rich said. "In that case, why don't we just take both?"

"Um..?" Erwin titled her head pretty hard at that.
"Not that both can simultaneously succeed you," Rich clarified, "but—the council has always been chartered as 'four to seven' students. Two of the rooms we're presently using for storage on this floor are really meant to be bedrooms. Clear one out and furnish it, and we need only vote someone into the new position before officially naming our successors. I believe the situation warrants it—in terms of our increased population since last year, and ensuring that that 'new group' gets fair representation."

"Oh. That does seem like a sensible solution."

"Shall we put it to a vote, then? All in favor...'aye'," she and the other four said this, raising their hands. "All opposed..." After a brief pause, she nodded in response to the silence. "Then it's done. We can make the room ready within a month or so, and then inform her of the decision. Perhaps, move her up here to 'observe' so someone on the new council will have an idea of how the old one operated?"

---

Nina was running a little late, so she more or less sprinted up the first two flights of stairs, nearly running into the blond cutie standing just at the foot of the third flight: Layton. "Whoop—sorry! You goin' up too?"
"Uh, y-yeah..but um.."
"What's the matter? Nervous?" she gently rubbed the top of Layton's head a bit—Kaden was usually the one doing that, but Layton usually seemed to like it.

"I uh—yeah. I dunno if I'm ready, to be 'at the top' with those people..."

"Hey, c'mon, Erwin picked ya for a reason, right? That means you're more than worthy. C'mon, we can go up together!" she said, gently prodding the shorter girl toward the step. "Race ya up?"
"Uh, th-there's not, it's kinda not wide enough for two."
"Yeah, true. You go on ahead of me, then."

Xavie was about as happy to see the two of them bursting into the meeting room as could be expected. "Hmph, good of you two to finally make it!" Which was: Not at all.

"Yo, sorry, I held Lay-lay up a minute. Totally on me," Nina said, hurrying to her own seat.

"'Lay-lay'?!" Ursa repeated, loudly and obviously stifling a laugh.
"Eh, not every nickname's a hit," the wolf-girl shrugged. "Anyway, we're all here now, right?"

"Indeed. I'll have order!" Xavie shouted. "Corbin, wake up!"

"Mrow? I am awake. Just leaning on my hand, see?"
"With your eyes closed! Gods, you're worse than Vade. And Mars, can you not take this seriously?!"
"I'm taking it quite seriously," the Kitsune stated impassively.

"Then how about taking your eyes off your phone for five minutes!"

"Okay." She immediately set her phone on the table face-down.
"That goes double for you, Ursa."
"Huh? Oh, are we actually starting now? Sure." She pocketed hers.

Mars said, "Four minutes and forty-five seconds..."

Xavie glowered, and the entire room darkened. "I did not mean that length of time literally!!!"

"Whoakay, okay," Ursa said, briefly putting out her hands in a 'hold up' kind of gesture. "Don't start cursing the rest of the council, witch girl. Lemme just—pass out the agenda to you all." She pulled out some printed pages and started shuffling them out to everyone else.
The witch still wasn't pleased. "Who put you in charge!?"
"Oh, I'm not in charge, most excellent leader. I just thought you'd appreciate some structure and organization, is all. Of course this is tentative, subject to change..?"
"Oh." Xavie visibly untensed, taking the paper and looking over it. "Yes, that is a good thing. Otherwise we shall be here all afternoon." The room's light gradually went back to normal.

"I'll take some minutes, too," Ursa continued. "And we can chat about future agendas ahead of their respective meetings if you'd like."

Xavie had picked up the piece of paper handed her way to briefly peruse its contents, and mumbled "Yes, good," in a way that made it unclear whether she'd really been listening to that last part. Then she set the paper down again.

"So, our first issue is to do with admissions. The stock of potion Rich bought over a year ago is nearly empty. And apparently it was 'a special one-time production batch', so we can't just—order more of the same, either. Obviously we could just insist that male applicants find their own ways to change if they truly wish to join us."

"Is it really a problem?" Corbin asked. "I mean, two of us at this table can transform people easily enough, not to mention Nikki and Vade."

"But within a few years none of us will be here. We require a more sustainable plan."
"Mrow...you mean we can't just leave it for the next council to deal with?"

"We can, but that's at least me and 'Lay-lay' you'd be pushing it off on!" Ursa declared. "And we won't stand for it! Right?!"

"Uh—um..." Layton immediately sat up straight and stammered, not having expected to suddenly be yanked into the conversation.

"W-well..even if we can't get that potion...the Tanners are still um, donating enough where we could just, buy other things that'll transform people...right? Like, enchanted accessories, or other potions?"

"That's at least acceptable as a tentative solution," Xavie said, nodding. "Thank you, Layton."

"Hey, what about clothes and stuff for all those 'new girls'?" Nina asked.
"Rich was specifically covering that herself," Mars answered. "Even our male applicants this last year had to sign a waiver of understanding that they'd need to pay for those themselves. With one or two under-the-table agreements to help if they really couldn't afford it, of course, no different from the support we've provided other students in similar situations. It's certainly cheaper than covering their entire living expenses, which we've done for a few of our members..."

---

"Flynn! You in there?" Myla knocked on the bedroom door again, a little more loudly. "I can hear your music, you know." She could also hear a slight sigh, and then some light footsteps coming up to the door.

"Is this important?" she demanded right away. "I'm trying to put the finishing touches on my senior project."

"Well, I think it's pretty important. You know what my senior project was?"
"'Was'? Like you already turned it in?"

"Yep, a couple weeks ago! So," she continued even though she hadn't guessed anything yet, "it was a little game. More like a, vertical-slice demo kinda thing. Honestly, held together with the coding equivalent of duct tape and glue."
Flynn crossed her arms. "Yeah, I've seen how you code..."

"So anyway! I also put it up on the internet for people to try, and it's faaaiiirly popular? Some people said they'd absolutely help fund a full version if I put it up on kickstarter. Including you-know-who! But I might need a little help with, you know, not winding up with a collapsing pile of glitches and crashing instead of a functional video game. And I thought of you!"

"Of course you did."
"I mean, there's plenty of potential testers I know, but maaaybe you could help out with the whole, actual codebase situation? I'm not talking about working for free, by the way. I'm sure you've already got a job lined up, but maybe, in your spare time outside of that?

She sighed. "Alright, I can take a look. After I finish my schoolwork, and we sign some kind of contract about pay."

"Absolutely!"

---

"Odiiinnn~!" It was a good thing the succubus was fairly strong and resilient, since Gene very nearly tackled her to the ground with an extremely enthusiastic hug. A weaker woman's spine might have cracked, she thought.

"Hi..this is a bit much, isn't it?"

"No way! I haven't seen you in two whole years!" She did let go and hop back. "Not since the wedding...oh, hey York!" she waved at the catboy about half a foot shorter than Odin, standing next to her. "Still enjoying the 'endless honeymoon'?"
He looked away, blushing deeply. "Uh...y-yeah, let's call it that..."

Rich leaned in slightly to interject: "Shall we head inside?"

They came to their table, the girl and boy of each couple sitting across from the other's. "Now, given the length of the trip, I don't imagine you just wanted a double-date to catch up," Rich said. "Not that there's any problem if so..."
"No, I do have a motive or two," Odin admitted. "You're just about to finish grad school, right?"
"Mm-hm," Gene nodded. "Rich has been the breadwinner this whole time, no big surprise there. Or—more like the meat-winner, heheh. I guess the big bad business world is treating you pretty well if you can foot the bill here, though!"
"I'm making it work," she said, nodding with a slightly proud expression. "York's helping, for sure."

"I'm just an extra-friendly IT guy by day," York explained. "Working on the 'low end' lets me feed her some useful info on how us grunt workers are doing."

Odin continued: "So—to put it simply, we need a mathematician, and I thought of you."

"Oh, really? What for? I mean, my work is pretty abstract."
"It's in higher-dimensional geometry and topology or whatever, right? That's extremely relevant. Maybe, I should explain what we're doing first.

"So, airplanes. Loud, expensive, and highly pollutive. They're relatively fast compared to boats, which take forever, if you want to get from one continent to another. Or trains for overland travel, not to mention cars and everything they put out."
"All true. But people gotta get to work, right? Or their families, or whatever else," the dragon-girl said.
"Right. But we have magic now. It's time to look into some better alternatives. So what if, you could just step through a door in L.A. and be in Japan? Or drive out only a few miles to get to London? For less than a tenth the price of a plane ticket. All the baggage you want, no extra cost."
"That..sounds pretty amazing. I mean, I know there's some private teleportation services around, but most of them are kinda sketchy, right? I've heard the targetting can be a little, off."
"Yeah, that's the main problem. Aiming a one-time teleportation is one thing—I think someone's gonna figure out how to do that reliably pretty soon, and instantly outcompete anyone who can't. But we're working with the airline companies on making sustained portals, in their terminals. A near-replacement for commercial flight except where it's really needed, and they won't be trying to shut us down if they're in on the massive profits.

"The problem is, linking those up is way more complicated. We've got plenty of magic power behind the operation, but the geometry you need to make sure they stay targetted properly for a long period of time is an absolute nightmare. I had a look at it myself, and only got a massive headache for all my efforts."

"And it's..multi-dimensional? As in, more than three or four?"
Odin sighed. "Kinda? It turns out the math is easier if you use extra dimensions instead of trying to account for the rotation of the Earth, the solar system, and the galaxy directly. Just not 'easier' enough for me or anyone else on the team we've got right now."

"Well, sweet! In that case, I'd love to at least give it a try. Here I thought I'd just wind up freeloading once I graduated. I'm sure my parents-in-law will be proud, huh Rich?" she said, gently elbowing him.

"Certainly."

---

"So—let me get this straight," Quaid said. The phone was on the table between him and Sid, on speakerphone, with Rich on the other end of the line. "We get to test brand new, full-immersion VR tech. And basically do some improv-slash-larping, playing some overleveled boss characters in a humongous MMORPG. And we get paid for it?"
"That's about the size of it. What do you think?"
The werewolves exchanged only a brief glance, and then said simultaneously: "We're in!"

---

"Well, my dear...you've got nine tails, three doctorates, and plenty of wealth to play around with. Never mind that you're not even a century old and weren't even born a fox—anyone would be jealous of the rest of that."

Mars gently rubbed Tielo's ears. "Are you jealous?"
"How could I be? I get to share in the fun," he said, grinning back at her. "I'm just wondering if you're gonna be bored now."
"Mrr~rrh.." the blue-haired fox-girl gently nuzzled her husband a little before responding. "Finding a new challenge is a challenge in itself. But last night, I received one from on high—so to speak."
"Oh?"
"The Ruler said I have real potential. But set me one more test.

"She said: I've been thinking of stepping down in a century or two. Show me your happy and successful grandchildren, and I will seriously consider giving you my support to take over for me."
"Ah." Tielo nodded, grinning slightly. "I guess you'll need some...children first, then."
"Mm-hmm~..." She leaned in for a kiss.

---

That's it, the proper ending! An epilogue consisting of a bunch of brief scenes presented in chronological order, with some references to other stories here and there throughout. Even managed to find a place for one more image. I'm really happy to have written this whole story through. Again, some of its characters may very well show up, or at least be referenced, in other stories and captions. If I think of another scene to insert into this, I just might; I guess I'll "repost" this update so it shows up as new if that happens.

Aetuornos Beta 3b-2

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3b-2: Firebrand's Foray

"It's a battle of wits and wills. Manual dexterity too, sure, but that's mostly practice. Once you get good—so good there's no barrier between what you want to do and what you fighter does—it's your avatar versus theirs. Outthink, outplay." He tapped his forehead with an index finger. "The thrill of victory! The cheering of the crowds! The rush of being just two or three pixels of health away from dying! No risk of actually dying," he added quickly. "It's a sport perfect for people of my, uh, physique, too." And then, finally, with a big grin: "Yeah, the prize money doesn't hurt, either."

Blake was fully aware that it was a very slow news day, for them to be covering some nerdy fighting game competition. He didn't particularly care. Being famous wasn't his goal, but hamming it up for the camera was a lot of fun. Miraculously, someone in charge actually liked his somewhat theatric response to a simple question about why he liked these games enough to make more-or-less a career out of competing in tournaments, resulting in maybe dozens of eyes watching that performance from an overweight, bunny-eared nerd. But perhaps one or two of those people would be his future competitors in few years..that'd be nice.

One thing he hadn't mentioned, figuring maybe it went without saying: The ridiculous, fantastical worlds the fighters took place in were a lot of fun. Sure, he was a Rabbit who'd lived outside the veil his entire life, but they still didn't live in a world where a girl who looked like she was twelve years old had an entire army of squeaky-talking, lego-looking robots under her command, or a maid attacked people with brooms and vacuum cleaners, or literally little red riding hood herself beat people up with a purse. It was probably a good thing the real world wasn't like that, but it was fun to be transported into a world so ridiculous and see all those crazy animations play out.

When it came to the reasons people tended to enjoy video games, Blake mainly liked just three things: Real competition-slash-cooperation with other people, raw challenge, and...aesthetics. Okay, he liked the cute girls—he was a dude in his early twenties, so sue him! The point is, not a lot besides fighting games tended to interest him. But, when the consolation prize for second place after he lost a very hard-fought match against a worthy opponent was beta access to the universe's first real, true, full-immersion-tech virtual reality game, he couldn't very well say no! The more he heard about how it all worked, the more excited he got. The game was going to be so freeform and his own player character so customizable that he could basically make the experience exactly what he wanted it to be.

The goal for Blake was simple. His whole life, he'd played as all manner of ridiculous characters with loud personalities—mostly cute girls—and flashy powers and attacks. This time, he'd live out that fantasy as for real as he possibly could: No screen in the way, but his own physical form's lack of physical fitness not getting in the way either. For this, he selected an entire persona to embody from the ground up, kitting out his stats like a DND minmaxer.

A strength-based fire mage, with plenty of agility—firework-like punches and kicks! A voluntary no-weapon, no-armor penalty in exchange for access to unarmed fighter skills. Last-second dodges, fast combos! And loose clothes rather than armor, so nothing would get in the way. A ferocious wolf-person for flair, plus the extra bonuses to strength, balance, and reflexes. And then, of course, a name to reflect this character's bombastic personality: Blaze!

He was very excited for the game's release, and the opportunity to finally embody this person he'd envisioned and meticulously set up. It was a shame he was out of town winning another competition for those first few days, but at least they'd released some new content by the time he was back home and ready to play. Wednesday evening, he finally lay himself down in the weird little pod and mashed go, already feeling pumped for what was going to come.

Blake had been browsing the beta forums off and on since the game's initial release, so he had a pretty good idea of what to expect when things started: His body seeming to fall away out of the real world and into a blank sort of sky, where it would be reshaped into the form he'd chosen. There was still a little bit of reflexive shock and flailing around from the sensation, but he got over it quick. And—the change was already starting, he noticed, with a feeling of tingling rolling across his ears.

The tingling gave way to a pushing, downward and inward, compressing his familiar tall black rabbit ears into a shorter, wider, spikier canine shape. At the same time, his tail suddenly stretched itself out, growing longer and thicker until it was a huge mass of fluffy fur nearly the length of an arm behind him. He turned around, brushing a hand across it. "Haha, wow." All the predatory beastfolk, and plenty of demons too, had super-long tails; he always thought they looked kind of inconvenient for everyday life. But this wasn't going to be any everyday life for him.

After fixing which animal-hybrid he was, the change moved on to pushing Blake's entire body inward: A sharp yet pleasing, almost massage-like pressure causing him to rapidly shrink smaller and shorter in nearly every way. "Who~oa~ah..!" His clothes quickly tented around him, especially his shirt as this shrinking seemed strongest on his belly, flattening it out in a matter of seconds. "Aa~aah..!" At the same time, his voice cracked and squeaked a couple of times as it quickly changed, by the end paradoxically sounding deeper, yet no longer the slightest bit male. After all—just like all of Blake's other favorite characters to play as, Blaze was a girl.

"Mnnh—rrfh!" a high, cute bark came out as he shivered, feeling his skin erupt into tingling and his hair suddenly burst out into a long, wild mane falling nearly down to his hips in the back. Already his very loose clothes were starting to pull closer again, even though he still wasn't quite done shrinking. His flab was all gone by now, leaving his midsection flat and his arms and legs slim, but this last bit of pressure shrank his frame into a particularly slender shape, with narrow shoulders and a soft, round, cute face.

When the tingling hit him between the legs, it didn't stop—even as it faded from everywhere else. Instead it grew steadily stronger, as Blake's pants slid off of his hips and broke apart in the middle, turning into a pair of long stockings, and his underwear lost most of its leggings and pulled quickly tighter about his hips and, of course, down there too. "Maan, aa~aah...mrr~rfh..!" His cheeks felt the warmth of a blush as the tingling progressed into the slipping, tugging feeling of his manhood giving way. It felt strangely good, he thought, squirming his legs against each other as it swiftly melted away.

"Oo~ooh..." Blake's deep, womanly alto came out in a soft cry as she felt a burst of exciting, fuzzy feelings down there—even as her lowerwear pulled snug and flat between her legs. Her t-shirt was actually getting a little overzealous with the shrinking at this point, as its hem yanked itself halfway up her midriff. Exposing more skin was fine with her, really, but it shouldn't disappear entirely! At the same time, she could feel her hips and thighs gently plumping out, followed by a rush of tingles across her chest. "Mm~nnh..rrfh!" A low hum gave way to one more high bark as the wolf-girl's chest burst forward, taking only a couple of seconds to go from flat to—well, some still kind of small but undeniably present breasts, filling out her small, slender form nicely.

"H-heheh..!" Blaze patted her body down with a satisfied grin, letting a cute giggle emerge from her lips. This was perfect! She then noticed the ground had appeared at some point below her, and with a small shrug, she tilted around so that her arms were below her in a full-on downward dive. She wasn't falling at the kind of speed that normal gravity would've provided, and anyway it wasn't like anything in the game could really hurt her, so this just looked like fun! After a moment, she landed on her hands, did a neat, easy front flip to land on her feet. Putting one hand on her hip and feeling her tail wag happily behind her, she lifted the other one in an open, palm-up position, and effortlessly summoned a flame hovering above it. She hadn't seen it happen, but her eyes were now much the same color as that bright orange light.

"Yeah, this'll do nicely," she said, closing her fist to dismiss the flame. Looking around, it seemed she was in a forest. That wasn't a very good place to find people, and—since her character was supposed to be a hero anyway—it wasn't really somewhere she felt appropriate to properly let loose, either. So she just picked a random direction and took off at a run, which soon enough turned into a rather effortless sprint.

After a couple of minutes, Blaze 'felt' something ahead of her and to the right, and quickly jumped away from it, twisting in midair to land facing it. She felt not the least bit sore or winded! Was this what it was like to be fit in real life, too? Questions like that would probably have to wait until, at least, after she'd exterminated the monster that had interrupted her run.

It was roughly the shape of a deer, maybe a little larger in size, and did have hooves, but it had short and spiky horns rather than antlers, sharp teeth in a shorter muzzle, and—most strikingly—was covered in reddish-brown scales rather than fur. Now that she was standing across from it in a 'ready' stance, the creature reared itself up and kicked its feet in the air like a horse, its mouth making a hostile hissing noise.

"Yeah? Come on then, if you're so tough!" Blaze taunted, making a 'come get some' gesture with her right hand. The lizard-deer immediately charged at her, and she ducked aside, wreathing that same hand in flame as she punched into the thing's side, knocking it over into a forward-sideways tumble along the ground until a tree trunk stopped its momentum.

She couldn't follow that strike up, however, as her 'instincts' had her jumping forward and rolling out of the way of a charge from a second member of the same species. It turned itself around to pursue her, but she was ready before it arrived, ducking backwards under its charge, bending into a handstand-backflip that had her flame-wreathed feet kicking up into its body to send it briefly flying up-forward through the air.

The first monster had recovered its feet by now, so it charged at her from her side. "Pfft, predictable," she said, bending slightly to spring up past the reach of its horns and land herself directly on the monster's back. Grabbing its horns in her hands, she sent a fire down into it as it bucked and thrashed wildly to try and get her off of it. She yanked it sideways to point it toward a tree before using the momentum of its bucking to leap off it into the air and land on the other one's back fist-first, knocking it over and leaving her free to hop off and away from it.

The other deer-lizard indeed rammed itself into that tree, and continued flailing around in a desperate attempt to no longer be on fire. In fact, its act of running around with Blaze on top of it had spread quite a lot of fire all around. But that was no problem for the little wolf-girl mage; in fact, this kind of thing was simply a part of her tactics—part of her theming. She spread out her arms with the hands palm-up, and all of that fire swirled into the space above them as a pair of burning fireballs. Then she put her hands together and made a quick 'hadouken' gesture, sending that ball of fire flying straight into the beast she'd just knocked over, smacking it hard in the side just as it recovered its feet. It was bowled over by the impact, and the fire wreathed itself all around its body as it fell and tumbled.

Now that it wasn't on fire anymore, the other monster hissed loudly again and charged Blaze's way. She readied herself to counter it again when something bright flashed into view between her and the beast: A humanoid shape of glowing fiery bright-gray light a little shorter than herself, floating off the ground. It caught the thing's head in its 'hands', not seeming to mind those hands being gored in the process, and pushed it back. Another near-identical looking thing was floating over to the other monster as it shook off the last of her flames, its hand turning into a small knife-like blade as it raised that arm and then slashed into the beast's throat.

"Aaaalright then?" Figuring that these things were on her side, at least for the moment, Blaze ran up and around the one blocking the nearest beast, leaping to flaming-bicycle-kick it in the side. The floating light-man let go when her feet made contact, letting it fall naturally over onto its side, and then floated over to assist the other one in continuing to restrain/cut up that other beast.

Blaze's target stood up shakily, looking pretty badly injured to her eyes, but hissed again, jumping and opening its mouth to snap its teeth at her. She smoothly dodged the bite and socked it in the side of the head, then hopped back out of the way as it raised itself up and tried to kick at her with its front hooves. By now, the other monster was out of commission, and the two light-things floated up to stab some blade-hands into the remaining one from its sides. It was sufficiently concentrated on Blaze to be completely blindsided by this attack, and only briefly convulsed before falling over dead, too.

The wolf-girl looked back and forth between her two 'helpers', not entirely dropping her ready stance. "Sssooooo..." Both of them blinked out of existence, and then she could see someone behind them: A guy in a robe with a staff, the spitting image of a 'normal' mage.

"Hey...I saw a bunch of smoke, and thought someone might be in trouble. Sorry, I guess people don't like 'kill stealing', but..."

"You couldn't let a cutie like me fight all on her own~?" she said teasingly with a big grin, taking a couple of steps closer. "Really though, I appreciate it. We are supposed to work together here, right?"
"Yeah, that..was what I thought," he said a little uncertainly, like he wasn't used to people flirting with him. That just made her want to mess with him a little more.

"So—are you a new player too?" she asked.

"Well, everyone's new if you.." he sighed. "No, I've been on before. My name is Ronin."
"Blaze~!" she said, eagerly offering her hand up at him to shake, which he accepted after a second's hesitation.
"I, came back to these woods to look for..newcomers. Especially mages."
"Oh really~, that's interesting. I'm kinda a mage myself," she said, wreathing her right arm in a spiral of fire for a second or two. "Fire mage, to be more specific. So, what's your interest? Hoping to form an all-mage party for a challenge run or something?"

"No, I..hmm. How do I put this..." Ronin seemed to need a moment to think.

"Follow me out of these woods first, okay? The exit's not far, we can talk on the way."

"Alright then," Blaze nodded. "Lead the way."

He still seemed to need a moment to gather his thoughts, after which he quietly cleared his throat. "Listen...soon, a massive army of demons and monsters will descend on this country."
"Oh, yeah?" That sounded like fun.

"Already I've heard news of some of their leaders and elites scouting out the land, taking out groups of adventurers and seeming to have some mysterious missions of their own to complete, in advance of that army's arrival."

"Oh yeah! I heard about some stuff like that," Blaze admitted—although it was more 'read in the forums' than 'heard'. This phrasing worked for the roleplaying.

Ronin nodded and continued: "Their ruler, the Demon Queen. There is one thing she fears most, and all of those aligned with her will seek to destroy it. I was asked to...spread this thing, to as many people as possible. It's something only mages can use. And there is one specific...'form' of it, that we need."

The trees thinned as they arrived at the forest's edge. "So..you're thinking of 'spreading' this thing to me?" Blaze said, keeping the conversation going as they came out onto a much more open roadway.

"Right. You see..it's.." He took a moment to summon one of those humanoid light-things from before, pointing at it. "The gray glow there. That's what it is for me. It makes my summons a little tougher than they would be otherwise."

"So, it's not just this Demon Queen's weakness. It gives other advantages?"
"Yeah. But, I mean—disadvantages too. And also...I'm not really entirely clear on this, but it might destroy the world later. So there are some...risks."

"Bah, I can handle it! Especially if it's flame," Blaze said. "I mean, did you see what I did earlier? I can handle any fire. I'm literally an expert at it!"

"Okay then." He stopped, turning to face her. "So, to be clear—we're looking for someone with a white flame. But I don't think there's any way to tell what color someone will have until they get it. If someone gets a white flame, the Demon Queen and her minions will target that person especially, so there's a big risk."
"I don't mind a little risk. I'm in this for the thrill anyway," the wolf-girl said, grinning. "I say, let 'em come! So what do we need to do to 'spread' this thing?"
"Well..it's a pretty simple ritual. You..pick it up along with the fire itself. Just hold still...it does involve drawing a tiny bit of your blood."
"Alright," she shrugged, holding out her left arm.

Ronin nodded, having his summoned creature poke her finger with its blade-hand before dismissing it. He placed his left hand under hers, and his entire body started to glow with the same bright gray shade of flamelike flickering as the summon had a moment go. "This fire, kindled as the world began. This fire, to consume the world at its end. In the time between, it must through mages spread. Will you take it in?"
"Yeah!"

"Then...take this Secret Fire. Handle it wisely." Ronin gently placed his other hand atop hers, and the gray flame raced across her arm to the rest of her body. Its color brightened steadily until it became what she thought of as the color fire should be: Bright, blazing orange, like her magic usually was; like her eyes were. It disappeared from view a moment after covering her, but she could still 'feel' it inside of her, now a part of her own magic, and understood exactly how to spread it to another mage.

"Hmm..orange."

"Are you disappointed?" she asked.
"No..hff.." he paused, panting slightly to catch his breath. "We just need to get it to a lot of people. I am curious what it 'means', though. I only know what purple and gray do, and that white is supposedly important..."
"Well, I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough. Anyway, thanks~," she said, pouncing up at him with a hug. He was too baffled by this act to really respond before she'd let go and hopped back a couple of feet, and he was left cutely blushing afterward.

"I guess you're not really looking for a party at the moment, then?" Blaze said. "Just more newbie mages for this Fire thing?"
"Y-yeah..pretty much."
"Well, I'm gonna get back to exploring—maybe I'll find a party to run with if I keep looking. So, see ya later, Ronin! Maybe we'll really party up then, huh?"
"Uh, sure..." He was still blushing! Blaze just giggled and gave one last quick wave before heading out on the road.

A short walk later, Blaze caught sight of an unusual monster from the top of a hill. It was shaped like a wildcat, but very clearly made of ice. If that wasn't a perfect target to test her newly-enhanced magic on, she didn't know what was. So she hurried, running and then sliding her way down the hill to stop off just in front of it.

"Hello there, kitty cat~!" On the off chance that it was a summon like those things Ronin used, or someone's magical familiar or something, an ambush just seemed wrong. However, it proved to be just as much of a generic enemy as expected when it quickly leaned its head back and then jerked it forward, spitting out a big spiky chunk of ice right at her! She dove aside and rolled, popping back to her feet in no time. "Wow, ruuude!"

The ice-cat monster wasn't interested in being polite, however, as it now charged straight at her with clear intent to pounce. But this was really the kind of attack Blaze had been hoping to see all along. She ducked back just out of the way of its pounce, drew her arm back, concentrating a swirling mass of fire around her fist, and punched straight down into the top of its head. The impact immediately shattered the monster apart, much of its mass melting—it was dead in one hit!

"Whooo yeah!" Blaze cheered, punching a fist up into the air. Her fire magic felt hotter and was clearly even stronger than before. Even if that thing was super weak to fire, it definitely didn't look like the kind of enemy that was supposed to go down that easily. "Awesome."

"..Excuse me." The wolf-girl's ears twitched, and she turned to find the owner of that voice making their way down a hill opposite the one she'd come from. It was a human girl with dark hair done up into some stupidly long twintails, wearing shorts and a tank top. Something about her, maybe something 'in the game', told Blaze she was a monk. Her expression was: Stern, severe, serious.

"Oh, hey—did I kill steal on ya? Sorry 'bout that," Blaze said, kicking a bit of dirt behind her. If someone else had damaged that monster first, no wonder she'd killed it in one hit—but that was a somewhat disappointing possibility.

"I was hoping to track the origin of that beast. Its kind is not normally seen at this elevation." The stranger stopped a couple of yards away. "However, more importantly: You are a mage?"
"Yeah. Guess I don't look the part, huh?" It hadn't really registered to the wolf-girl when she was talking to a guy earlier, but—she was really short now! She even needed to tilt her head upward to look this monk in the face. Still, she maintained a winning grin.

"And did I see a trace of the Secret Fire in your magic?"

"I guess so? Some guy called Ronin did just 'spread' it to me."
The monk girl's expression turned even darker than before—if that was possible. Blaze definitely had the sense that this was a real frown she was looking at now. "Irresponsible. Have you any idea of the danger?"
"What, you mean how the Demon Queen's minions will be after me? Just sounds like fun to me!"

"Beyond that. The gods of this world themselves abhor this power. It poses a danger of destroying this world one day. It may even be capable of consuming one of weak will, who uses it recklessly and without consideration."
"Eh, maybe," she shrugged. "My will's pretty dang strong, though!"

In response to this, the monk shifted her stance just slightly. It was still pretty loose, relaxed—but between 'ingame' instincts and years of watching animations of fighting-game characters at the start of their matches, Blaze could spot instantly that she was getting ready to fight. "I will test that claim. Prepare yourself."
"Oo~oh, yeah?" The wolf-girl got ready herself, her grin getting even bigger. "Bring it on!" She could practically hear a deep-throated, male voice saying: Round One. Fight!

The monk came up on her surprisingly fast. It was a good thing she dodged sideways and slightly early, because instead of just a fist, there was a golden blade of light just barely missing her neck. She tried to punch back with some fire on her fist, but her opponent kept moving forward like she'd been expecting to miss, making that fist only hit air. Then she flawlessly continued her run while turning around to go for a diving kick (complete with another of those blades coming from her foot) that Blaze had to dive to get away from. She rolled and whirled as she stood halfway up, more obeying an instinct than making a decision when she put her hands up and caught the monk's wrist between them—the hand attached to which had a light-blade on it, and had been halfway into a downward chop that very well could've cut her head in half otherwise.

Thinking fast, the wolf-girl sent her flames up across her hands onto the monk's arm as she did a kind of judo-throw sideways. Picking up and throwing another person felt effortless, and from that brief exchange it felt like her opponent was physically weaker than her—in terms of pure physical strength, that was, with her arm so easily pushed away by Blaze's hands. She went flying, bouncing off the ground a couple of times before managing to make a perfect landing onto her feet and skid along the ground a couple of feet from the momentum.

By that point, the wolf-girl was back on her feet, and running toward her in hopes of capitalizing on a briefly prone state. Seeing now that that idea wasn't going to work out, she jumped as she closed in, going for flaming bicycle kick and hoping the unexpected angle would at least catch the monk somewhat off-guard. The attack was perfectly and completely dodged, and she had to tilt herself around awkwardly after landing to avoid a couple of bladed hand-chops, then nearly lost her balance—would have completely lost it if not for her tail—to an awkward sideways-downward duck out of the way of a bladed roundhouse kick.

She tilted back upright as the monk went into what her brain registered as a brief 'recovery animation' from that big kick, which made her instinctively want to punish with some kind of counterattack. Remembering what had worked before, she grabbed the monk by the upper leg and judo-threw her straight over her own head onto the ground. Her opponent predictably didn't stay prone for even half a second, cartwheeling to upright and immediately starting to advance on Blaze again.

It occurred to her that she was perhaps underusing her fire magic in this fight—and she was a fire mage, after all! So rather than retreating or preparing to dodge, Blaze summoned up a whirling flame around herself to a distance of a couple of feet, making her opponent flinch back slightly out of her aggressive motion rather than get burned. She dove forward—still wreathed in flames—hoping to tackle the monk-girl to the ground, engulf her in that fire, maybe get some face-punches in while on top of her. This..turned out to be quite a mistake.

The monk's brief hesitation wasn't nearly the opening Blaze was hoping it would be. And rather than trying to dodge partway out of the tackle or the flames, she simply kicked her foot forward and upward into the air, a light-blade flickering into view—placed perfectly where the wolf-girl's belly was going to be in about half a nanosecond. She couldn't very well dodge that, and so managed to impale herself directly into it.

It was a very good thing that injuries in the game didn't truly, physically hurt like their equivalents in the real world. Even though the monk dismissed the blade and let Blaze flop face-forward onto the ground immediately after the hit, she could tell her injuries were 'very bad' and 'hurt an awful lot'. The fire she'd been wreathed in went out with that hit, too—since she wasn't exactly concentrating on keeping it up anymore.

She turned her head over to one side to breathe something other than dirt, and found the monk knelt over next to her. "You show some promise. Not as foolish in combat as you act."

"Pfft. This is a game, you know? Just, hff—smile and...enjoy the.....victory." It felt kind of difficult to breathe and talk at this point.

Kay Oooh!

Dying in the game was kind of weird. 'Blaze' lost consciousness, but not 'Blake'. There was the brief impression of a choice: Stay and wait to be revived, or respawn at a 'nearby religious site'. Figuring that someone who'd attacked her unprovoked wouldn't likely be willing to waste any revival magic or items on her, Blaze immediately chose the latter. She was mentally fed a blurb about a 'kind miko' finding her collapsed in the wilds and carrying her off to be healed...and then she 'woke up' to find herself lying down on her back, on a hard cot sort of bed.

---

That's right, I can kill off whoever I want in this story because it's all in a video game anyway! It might seem weird for Blaze to die in practically just one solid hit, but that's the price of minmaxing. She's still a squishy mage wearing zero armor, even with all the strength, martial skills, and fast movement. Besides, it was a very nasty hit.