The "Best" RPG Ever-115

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As the group of adventurers (plus Vae) approached the door to their house, they found the small space designated for their mail to be overflowing with packages of various sizes, to the point where a few had simply been stacked next to it instead. "Ahh, sweet!" Aria ran up quickly, picking up one box to peek inside. "New toys! And all this after literally one day? Enchanters work fast here, I guess. Hey Lupa, can you help me get this stuff inside?"
"Okay!" The wolf-girl came up, tail wagging, and quickly grabbed the biggest, heaviest-looking boxes all in an unsteady pile between her arms.
"Hey, hey—carry it so you won't drop it, please!" The shifter hurried to try and stabilize the pile before boxes could start popping out of it to the ground. "This stuff's expensive and some of it may be fragile."
"Fragile?" She headtilted.

"You know, easy to break. Like if you drop it or throw it at the wall or something."

In response to a questioning looks from the witch and dragon (and what she guessed was the equivalent from Vae), Nora said, "Aria had an idea of something specific to do with enchanted items, and asked a number of shops in town to make prototypes." She couldn't very well talk of computers with the herbalist present, so she'd either explain in more detail or let Aria do so later. Then she went up and helped the two of them arrange things so that Lupa probably wouldn't drop any of her load, taking a few packages out of the pile in the process and then following the two of them inside with them in hand.

Aria led the way to the kitchen, clearly planning to spread everything out on the table and start opening the packages right away, so Mira turned aside to the living room with Rose and Vae, waving to offer the guest a seat. The bespectacled Vulpin took up residence on one side of a couch, and when the dragon-girl came up in front of the couch she made a clear 'come here' gesture—an invitation to sit next to her which Rose took up eagerly. Mira chose a chair opposite them.

"So, okay, long story short—I sensed demonic magic coming off of you," the witch said. "But it's not quite like any I'm used to 'seeing', which is either the 'naturally occurring' form in a demon or witch or warlock, or a curse acting on someone. It's...more like it's being used as an 'energy source' for something way more complicated that I think I just lack the skill to get a good understanding of. What's more, I didn't sense it when we first met, but I think it was there—just so weak that I wouldn't have noticed it without specifically looking for it. Even now it's weak enough most mages won't be able to detect it."

Vae's ears took turns periodically twitching throughout this explanation, and at the end of it she slowly nodded. "Therefore..." She was briefly interrupted by the noise of paper being loudly ripped apart in the kitchen.

"Ooo! Let this one try!"
"Hey, hey—careful with that!" More paper was then much more enthusiastically and noisily torn.

"Lupa!" Nora's voice came, in a particularly stern tone.

She waited for the interruption to end, and then continued without comment: "...You believe that it may be the energy source for the effect maintaining my youthful appearance, and now for changing it to this one."

"Yep!"
"Very astute. It is usually understood that the effect which keeps elves permanently youthful is an inherent, natural property of their magic. Each race's magic is distinct in subtle ways, which tend to make a perfect imitation of one race's magic by a member of another next to impossible. Nevertheless, I was attempting to develop a potion which would cause a person's magic to, at least temporarily, take on an effect similar to that specific aspect of elvish magic."

She shook her head, slowly and deliberately, both of her ears twitching simultaneously twice. "My goal was to produce something which would make one younger a single time, requiring another use of the potion after one physically aged again. The idea of finding some way to perpetuate the effect, in a true imitation of how it works for elves, had not even occurred to me. I would certainly have considered that a problem to be solved later, had someone else brought it up."

Nora could be faintly heard scolding the wolf-girl in the kitchen throughout this part of the conversation, with Lupa being appropriately apologetic in reply. If Zack was a good elder brother or sister, maybe Nora was the one who best fit the role of 'mother'.

"This also explains the explosion too, right?" Rose said. "'Cause like, maybe the demon magic mixed with the potion magic stuff in uh, an unstable way or something?"

"Hold up—explosion?" the witch asked.
"The experiment I mentioned before went wrong in the form of a large explosion," Vae explained calmly. "I narrowly survived and had a low expectancy of surviving my injuries at first, but my body both miraculously healed and transformed to the youthful appearance. And...that would be a reasonable guess as to why, although my knowledge of that kind of magic is too much lacking to draw any conclusions. This raises the question of how that magic was introduced in the first place, however."

"I'm guessing it can't be a natural part of any herbs or anything?" Mira said, and Vae shook her head gently. "Then—maybe some witch or warlock found out what you were doing and decided to try and 'help'? I wouldn't put it past someone like that to cause the explosion on purpose, even."

Nora came in, shyly sneaking in on one side and quietly finding a place to sit. Her presently fox-like ears had certainly been capable of hearing the conversation so far, even though she'd seemingly been otherwise occupied. Since Lupa wasn't with her, it seemed she'd been allowed to stick around and 'help', or at least watch, whatever Aria was doing.

"Anyway—" the witch continued, "—once I looked closer, I noticed that it's not just that there's more demonic magic on you than before, it's that it's kinda leaking?" Mira continued. "Or, I'd be more inclined to say 'venting'. It's too regular and slow to be just randomly leaving you, and it's not like it's being dispelled or 'slipping out' of the other stuff that's using it as power source. Plus, if it had always been 'leaking out' at this rate, then it should've been all gone before we met. I guessed that it might for whatever reason be using up some of the extra energy by uh, 'growing you up', but once it's vented down to its 'normal' amount, you'll turn back to normal."

Vae nodded. "That is an extremely sensible guess. I cannot account for precisely why there is more to be vented, but magic has always had some link to one's emotions. Regardless, it should be possible to test this theory, should it not?"

"Yep," Mira said. "I mean, we can just wait a little while and see if you turn back or, I could probably 'tug' at the venting magic to siphon out the excess and see what happens. I don't think there's any risk of me accidentally breaking the 'keeping you young' effect—I mean, it feels like I'd have a really hard time doing anything to that even if I really tried."
"Will to live, possibly," Vae said. "A crucial part of my theory was binding the transformative effect of the potion to one's will to live so that it would be accepted by the body in the same manner which ordinary healing magic is. That binding may have become permanent for me, since it remains a beneficial effect."

"Uh-huh, so—you want me to test it out, then?"
Vae nodded. "Please, go ahead."

Mira nodded, and softly chanted something, raising a hand toward the Vulpin woman. Something like a thin cloud of black smoke rose out of her body and floated into the air between them, flowing into a steady stream down toward and into the witch's outstretched hand. At the same time, Vae's body steadily shrank downward and inward, losing the newly-formed curves and height and pulling all the way down to the appearance she'd had when they first met. At the end of this she looked down at herself briefly, her ears twitching a couple of times, and then back up at the witch again.

"It would appear you were correct," she said, her voice also back to its original, higher tone. "If I can occasionally impose on you, this would also be convenient to do should I find myself wishing to return to this appearance to do my work."
"Fine by me," Mira said cheerfully.

"More importantly...do you think you would be capable of replicating the portion of this effect which consists of demonic magic?"

"Uhhmm, hmn. Probably? I mean, it doesn't look that complicated in isolation," Mira said. "That said, there is no way I could make any of the rest of it work—I mean, I don't even know what three-quarters of that stuff is, and there may be other parts too subtle for me to even notice are there at all."

Vae nodded. "That should not be a problem." Her ears seemed to go into overdrive, each twitching off and on in a random-looking pattern as she spoke. "Today, we discovered that the rarest of the ingredients necessary for the potion I was attempting to make, including some which I have never been able to procure for myself, are growing in Rose's forest. She was generous enough to offer me the use of some of them to make another attempt at that experiment, but I was hesitant in part because I did not know what had gone wrong the first time."

"And now you know. Or at least, you know more," Mira said. "So you want me to help you make a youth potion for real this time?"
"That is correct." Vae's mouth closed, and she took a long, slow breath in through her nose, the ear-twitches slowing back down to near their usual rate. "I do not expect full success from this attempt, but would settle for it successfully producing a potion without an explosion, which it seems reasonable to guess that adding the demonic magic at an extremely slow rate will prevent—or at least for that explosion not harming anyone or anything important. If I may, I would prefer to conduct the sensitive final steps, which would require your aid, out in the field near this house, where an explosion would cause no harm."

"Sure, that seems like a pretty good idea."

Vae nodded. "There are...there are other concerns, as well. The effect making and keeping me young was not without its unusual side effects, and I must replicate that effect exactly before I can isolate their cause and produce something without them. However, that requires that somebody actually drink the potion we produce, ideally someone as close a match to my body's state at the time as possible. Finding such a person at all, much less out here in the frontier, would prove..exceptionally difficult."
"Well, uh, what kinda person are we looking for?" Mira asked, thinking that Rayna might be able to pick out what they needed from a crowd if the herbalist could wait a few days for her to come back before they tried to test the potion—and Vae had the spirit of a scientest, so patience probably was something she had in spades.

"I was a Vulpin, just as I am now—and, as I mentioned, the effect may be very closely tied to the magic of one's own race. I was also advanced in age, to a degree considerably beyond the usual lifespan of our kind," Vae said. "This is what I think will be the most difficult thing to replicate, and it is vitally important not to choose someone too young in case the potion is capable of 'overshooting' its intended effect to a highly inconvenient or even dangerous degree. Also, I was male."

"...You were," Mira said, and the fox-girl nodded slowly. "Aand, you're not now."
"This was among the side effects I mentioned, and most likely the one which I would want to isolate and remove the cause for first first. Without testing, however, it is difficult to say whether the effect would change a person's sex regardless, or if it is exclusively an effect which changes males to females, so it would be best to test the potion on someone who is male to avoid wasting the effort if it is the latter." One of her ears twitched, then the other. "This effectively cuts the already miniscule pool of people we could possibly work with in half, which is rather frustrating..."

"Err, excuse me," Nora said quietly, waving as everyone turned. "I uh..know someone, exactly like that. But I, don't know if he'd be willing to..be involved with something that uses demonic magic. And I, am unsure whether he's still in town right now; I know he was a few days ago. And I'm not exactly certain how he'd feel about..upsetting the natural order of things by undoing or stopping aging...actually, the more I consider it, the worse of an idea this feels like." She shook her head. "But—I-I could still ask him, if he is still here in town to be asked."

One of Vae's ears twitched a couple of times. "You should not feel obligated, but I would appreciate the effort. If you do not feel that making this request would adversely affect your relationship with this person, that is."
"I, really doubt it. He's, more or less the one who raised me. And I'm sure he knows one of the people I'm living with is a witch by now," she said. "Or, thinking about it, he...probably knew that when he came to see me before, and didn't even bring it up then."

"Hey, even if he says no, at least you'd get to see him again," Mira said. "You liked getting to talk with him the other day, for like the first time in for-ev-er, right?"
"Right," Nora nodded.

"It is not at all urgent," Vae said, "It will take some time to harvest the materials and prepare the potion's components, especially alongside all of my regular work. But I thank you immensely for making even as unlikely an attempt as this to aid me in finding a useful and willing test subject."

---

While this was evidently the biggest frontier town around, it still didn't house a full-fledged temple of Haestra. After all, such places were generally dedicated miniature towns unto themselves, reasonably far off from regular civilization. When people wanted to worship Haestra inside of said civilization, the tradition was to build a small "park" or "garden" with relatively humble buildings for its caretakers to live in. This was what Fazren had been offered, and graciously accepted, as a temporary home once it became clear that his business in this town was not yet over.

He danced slowly through the garden, weaving water around over the flowers in what was a combination between exercise to keep himself sharp and a traditional, impromptu ceremony that many priests and priestesses of Haestra would do from time to time. Eventually he released the water in an even shower down onto the plants, giving all of them an equal share, and slowly turned around toward an audience of one who he had gained about four-fifths of the way through.

"Ah—hello, Lady Ezra," he said, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"A question. You don't have any more 'unhelpful advice' to pass along, do you?"

"Hmmh, not at the moment, I'm afraid."

"Very well. Since I imagine you might have their ear—I have a question which may make no sense to you personally," she said.
He nodded. "I can pray it to the sky if you think it will help."

"As long as you hear it, that's enough.

"My question is this: 'Are we needed because we are immune to it?'"

Fazren did not actually hear Ezra's question. That is—the sound of it passed through his ears, but missed his mind. He found himself replying, but also failed to understand the reply in just the same way. To him it felt like a natural, if unusually complicated, reflex to the incomprehensible sound he'd just heard. What he said was: "You are immune, and it is related, but is not the crucial element. Inoculation of the natives' minds is Bimorphaeus's task."

After this, he said (of his own volution again), "I hope that was helpful, Lady Ezra."

She nodded. "As much as can be expected. Do you plan to remain in town?"
"I hadn't at first, but it is an awfully long way home for these old bones to travel," he said. "I've heard a rumor that there may be a crystal installed in this town very soon, and thought it might be best to wait and use that to stop by my home temple instead. Since my arrival, I've been able to send and receive a number of missives, so I am still in good contact with them."
"Very well," she said. "I may come to you again if I come up with a better question."

"You're always more than welcome to," he said, nodding serenely.

---

After a little more conversation, Vae hopped down off of the couch and turned, pulling herself up around Rose in a hug. The dragon-girl squeaked blisfully, returning the embrace for a moment until they mutually broke it off and Vae hopped back to the floor in front of her; in the process the fox-girl had gained an inch or two of height back again. "I must take my leave now," she said. "The sun is close to setting, and I have work to do before I can sleep tonight. We will meet again soon."

"Y-yeah, okay! Heheh. I'll look forward to it!"

"I will contact you regarding the potion," she said to Mira, and then turned to Nora: "Let me know in correspondence, or when next we meet, whether the person you mentioned before is willing to help."
"Of course," she nodded.

Once the small fox-girl had closed the door to town behind her, Rose gave a high, happy sigh. "Aaa~aahh. She's so smart, and sweet, and cuuuute!" she said.
"It doesn't um..bother you that she used to be male?" Nora asked.
"No, why?"
"Only curious."

"Well—I mean like, if anything, it makes it a little easer for us to understand each other. 'Cause obviously I was a guy on Earth, but 'Rose' was a male dragon originally too, sooo.."
"You didn't seem surprised, though," Mira said. "I guess she told you before?"
"Yep! It's uh, that stuff about the experiment gone wrong and her being turned into a small young girl by it was the thing I wasn't sure whether it was private or not, but I guess she either doesn't see it as private or just, like, trusted everyone here with it by association?"

All of them paused then, hearing a gentle, polite, but still quite audible knock on the door. Nora stood up first. "I'll get it."

When she came to the door, she found Lupa running up from the direction of the kitchen, looking eager to potentially meet someone new—or possibly to bark at an intruder, if needed. Whatever the case, she stayed a bit to one side and behind the fox-eared elf while she opened the door. On the other side was an extremely unusual-looking person, who Nora felt certain she would've recognized if she'd even seen at a distance a single time before: A short, possibly human woman with hair that literally looked like a rainbow spreading out behind her, with a strange little top hat sitting atop her head in a manner which looked like it should have been sliding off constantly. And—behind her was someone who actually was slightly familiar: the avian man the party had rescued from the spiders earlier that day.

"Hello there~!" the strange woman said first, in a high, bright, cheery voice. "My name is Reiaza, illusionist and performer extraordinaire, and leader of the Troupe of Strangers!" She tipped her hat theatrically and put it back on during this introduction, in the process showing off that it really was just a hat—no hairband to keep it in place at all. "And, this is Belwin." She gestured backward toward him, and Nora saw that he was giving her a slightly headtilted look, like he saw something he didn't quite expect to—and yet he was also visibly blushing. "As I understand it, you and the others living here were responsible for saving his life."

"That, would be correct, I suppose," she said. Reiaza had an overwhelming energy and presence about her, not unlike Rayna, Aria, Rose, Mira at times...well, at least Nora had plenty of experience lately with being around such people. "It was, more of a lucky accident that he was still alive when we saw him."

"All the same, I wanted to extend my utmost gratitude to you and the others responsible for his rescue." She paused briefly, then elbowed the red-feathered avian behind her.
"Ah—yes, of course. Likewise with me," he said. "Seeing as I'm the one whose life you saved."

"May we come in for a just moment?" Reiaza asked.

"I, don't see why not.." Nora moved to get out of their way, feeling like the illlusionist girl was just going to push herself inside anyway, but the two of them were very polite on this point instead, waiting for her to finish moving before they came inside.

"Hi!" Lupa said cheerfully, wagging her tail for the two visiters.
"Why, hel-lo there~!" Reiaza strode up quickly, raising a hand toward Lupa and then using it to ruffle her hair a bit when the wolf-girl didn't react negatively to the offer. "Aren't you just the cutest little puppy?"
"Cute!" Lupa chirped back. "Small-hat is cute too."
"Awwh, you like my hat? I'm rather fond of it myself," she said, removing the hat to slip her hand into it, drawing out a bright red flower with a stem too long to have fit inside—besides the fact that Nora had been able to clearly see the empty interior of the headwear when Reiaza had tipped it before.

"She's, actually calling you cute," Nora explained. "Lupa here rarely uses anyone's actual name."

"Ooh, why thank you~," she said, offering the wolf-girl the flower. Lupa took it, but stared at it with her head tilted like she didn't understand why it had been handed to her. In fact, there was the distinct impression that she was wondering if she was supposed to eat it. Thankfully, she snapped out of this without putting the flower in her mouth once Belwin came closer.

"Red bird! Meet," she said happily, offering him the flower.

"Err, I suppose it is my color," he said, taking it and placing it into a shirt pocket. "My name's Belwin, miss Lupa."
"Red bird," she answered back cheerfully.
"Heheh," he chuckled, seeming to find this more endearing than annoying.

"My name is Nora, by the way," the weaver said, "excuse me for not introducing myself sooner."
"Oh, no trouble at all," Reiaza said. "And you two are quite capable fighters, as I understand it? Among those who slew the spiders whose webbing caught my star acrobat?" she gestured to Belwin to indicate who she meant by this.

"Yes! This one is super strong," Lupa proclaimed.
Nora said, "The others are farther inside. If, you'd like to follow me?" She gestured for them to follow her and headed for the living room.

"Pardon me, miss Nora," Belwin said, coming up next to her. "Is it my..am I mistaken, or are you truly a Vulpin?"

"Err, I'm actually an elf," she said, and received a predictable look of confusion from him in reply. "I am a priestess of Haestra," she continued.

"Oh, a weaver~!" Reiaza exclaimed excitedly, also coming up on the other side of her—leaving just Lupa in the back. "Weavers can gain the ability to freely take on different beastfolk forms, I've heard, but it's only the very best of them who achieve such a feat. You'd be the one who got the dread venom out of Belwin's poor body then, I'd assume?"
"Errm. R-right..."

At this point they finally reached the living room, where Mira had already gotten on her feet and was now thankfully ready and waiting to rescue Nora from these overwhelming people. "Hey there," the witch said, offering Reiaza a hand to shake. "I'm Mira, this is Rose; we heard your introductions from in here."
"Pleased to make your acquaintance," Reiaza said, shaking her offered hand and somehow leaving behind in it a black-petaled flower. "And—" she turned toward Rose and seemed to visually register her for the first time. "Oh my~!" She hurried over. "I had heard this town recently discovered a dragon living nearby, but nobody warned me she was such a stunningly gorgeous beauty~!"
"Eheheh." Rose blushed as she hopped onto her feet, her arms hanging behind her body, and nervously scratched the floor with her left foot—unintentionally damaging it in the process. "Uh, hi. I wasn't actually—um, I was somewhere else when they fought the spiders and stuff," she said.
"All the same, I understand you've been responsible for saving many other lives. And it's not too often any dragon is friendly enough to ever take human form," Reiaza said, coming slowly closer as she spoke.

Belwin was still stuck on Mira, ending a long stare with the sudden outburst, "Gods, a witch? Reiaza, did you not notice?"

"Oh, I noticed alright," she said, turning her head back. "But Mira's reputation precedes her, Belwin. The people of this town regard her as nothing less than a hero, so I can see no reason to doubt them."

"Lucky you," he told the witch. "Last time I saw Reiaza with a warlock, he was in the middle of gettin' an impromptu hanging."

"That's uh..nice," she said, in a tone of voice that clearly indicated it wasn't. "Anyway, the rest of our party is away at the moment, except for Aria, who's..oh, there you are."

The shifter came into the room, having briefly peeked through the doorway so that she could now enter in a form the same height and build as Reiaza. She was also trying to imitate the rainbow-hair look, with only extremely limited success. "Hiya! Yeah, we trashed those spiders good." It looked like her hair didn't 'like' trying to be more than one color at a time, and kept insisting on all taking on each new color she tried to give to just a section of it.
"I suppose you must be a shapeshifter, to be doing that," Reiaza said. "Although I don't believe I've seen one who could change so swiftly before. Saay, that's quite an impressive talent, is it not?"
"It really is," Belwin agreed—having apparently been who she was asking.

"Yeah, I'm pretty awsome," Aria grinned—giving up on the 'rainbow hair' and just settling on a flat, bright pink for the moment.

"Allow me to properly introduce myself, then," Reiaza said. "I am the current leader of the Troupe of Strangers. We are a variety of performers who gather once every few years or so to give a grand, spirit-raising show to the inhabitants of one fortunate, needy city. We've performed for this very town once before, many years back, and with rumors of things heating up out here in the frontier, it seemed like a good time to raise their spirits once again." This was possibly a reference to the fire giant attack, although it seemed like she meant to indicate that things had lately been more dangerous in general, too.
"Our name," Belwin continued where she'd left off as if on cue, "comes from the fact that we never have all the same folks the next time we get together. Only those who survive the years between shows, and are willing to go to the venue of the next one, are held in common from one performance to the next. I've been fortunate enough to survive the world and make it to three shows so far—and now that'll be a fourth thanks to you lot, of course. With that, we're always looking for new talent to participate in the next show."

"Hmn. I guess I get your meaning," Aria said, "But I'm not really sure my shapeshifting would come across that well on a big stage."
"You let me worry about that, m'dear~," Reiaza said. "That is, if you find you're willing to give it a shot. But I shan't hit you with an offer right now, so suddenly; I'll prefer to have you think on it for a while. After all, I've only now arrived in town myself, and it will be some days yet before the rest of the willing survivors from the last show can be expected to reach this remote and dangerous location."

"Sounds like the kinda thing Rayna and Lynn might be into," Aria commented.
"They're some of the ones who're away right now," Mira explained for the visitors, "on an important mission. But they were traveling performers before coming here. Rayna's also an illusionist—but, different kind, I think—and Lynn's an archer, storyteller, and other stuff."

"Shame they're away, then," Reiaza said, "I'll bet they're charming young ladies in addition to being talented."

The witch nodded. "They should be back in a few days or so."

"At any rate, I would like to extend to all of you my utmost gratitude," Reiaza said, taking off her hat once again for a deep, theatric bow that managed to point toward everyone without seeming the slightest bit awkward. "As something of a small gift reflecting that—at least, for those of you who don't wind up joining the show—you're all invited to attend a performance of the Troupe once it's fully formed, free of charge. You may bring along the rest of this town's heroes, for that matter; I'm all the more eager to meet with them after seeing the five of you."
"Sure," Mira said, "Sounds like fun. Thanks!"

"Oh, no, but of course thank you," Reiaza said, showing off by now somehow producing an entire bouquet of flowers from her hat. "I won't keep you ladies any longer, but I do very much look forward to our next meeting." She turned to leave after this, offering the bouquet to Nora, who awkwardly accepted it and watched as the strange woman left, Belwin in tow. He paused to look her way and give a strange kind of smile to her, seeming like he wanted to say something else, perhaps—but turned away to follow the leader of the Troupe instead.

The weaver breathed a sigh of relief once they were gone and the door was closed. "That was..unusual."
"I'll say," Aria said, resuming her usual hair color and figure. "Reiaza looks super weird. I mean—not in a bad way or anything, it's kinda cool-looking, but—if I encountered someone with a visual design like that in a game, I'd say 'oh look, an obviously important person'. 'Cause why would you waste the time designing something that elaborate for a minor character? But I guess she's just, basically like a magician? Like, the equivalent of an Earth magician?"

"I guess there's more than one meaning to 'illusionist' here," Mira said. "Those flowers sure seem pretty real."
"I think they are," Nora agreed, gently placing them on an end table nearby. "To all of my senses, they appear perfectly normal, and they aren't disappearing without her continued presence, either."

Rose was busy staring at the big gash she'd made in the floor with a moderately mortified expression. Mira came over to her. "It's okay," she said, "we'll put a rug over it or something."
"Eh-heheh, thanks, sorry. She was uh—very um, forward?"
"You're one to talk."
"Mm-hm, Iii, guess I am, huh?"

Omega Zeta Kappa 15: ε

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---

When the door started to open, Flynn removed her headphones and turned the chair around to face it. Hollis took half a step in before he saw her, and then—his eyes focused entirely on her—went, "Oh, sorry, wrong room!" He backpedaled and almost shut the door before she could respond.

"Hey, get back in here!"
He hesitated a long moment, then leaned inside, partially opening the door. "Uhh—"
"It's me, dummy. Flynn? Seriously, how do you not recognize your own room?" She gestured to herself first, then, a bit more emphatically, to their surroundings.

"Oh. Uh. S-sorry, dude." Now that he was actually inside, she could see him—slightly sweaty from running, obviously more relaxed, and...definitely cute, judging by the way her face warmed up while staring at him—and while he stared back. "Uhmm...

"So like, don't take this the wrong way, but you're super hot?" he said eventually.
"Thhhanks, I guess," she said, managing to mostly keep her composure despite the compliment making her heartrate jump. "You feeling a little less freaked out?"
"Uh, yeah. You know, running always helps me calm down." He went off to the bathroom to towel off, picking up some clothes on the way. "Sorry if I messed up your project."
"I, got it done once you left," she said. "So I guess you're forgiven." Part of her—which she quickly went to suppress—was very disappointed that he went into the bathroom instead of just stripping and changing in front of her like he usually had when they were both the same sex, and was also tempted to lean over and peek into the open bathroom door. He came back out before that part could argue much, thankfully.

"Uhh, man, I..I dunno what to do now," Hollis admitted, coming back out and sitting in his own computer chair. "I still wanna stay here, but I still wanna be a guy. And, I mean—it'd be really awkward for me to just stay this week with you uh, like that.."
"Like what?" she pretended to be annoyed.
"Uh, you know—female. And..hot, too." He paused for a long moment. "Maan, I must be going crazy."

"Yeah? How?"
"Like, I know it's just you, but..like, look at you!" he waved forward.
"I have. And?"
"I wanna do..things. Like, ask you out on a date or somethin'. Stupid, huh?"
Flynn shrugged. "Seems reasonable enough to me. Today?"
"To—what?" he half-repeated, confused.

"Do you want to ask me out today? Maybe for dinner?" she clarified.
"Uhhh."
"That's really not an answer," Flynn pressed.
"You serious?"
"Sure. It's just dinner, right?" she shrugged again. "I'm a girl now, and you're a guy. You've made it pretty obvious you're attracted to me, and I feel the same way toward you. S-sooo what's the big deal?" About halfway through this her facade semi-cracked and she started blushing again.
"W-wait, you're attracted? T-to me?" He gestured toward himself.
"Thaat's what I said. Plus, we already know each other, so we can skip the awkward introductions, right?"

"I mean..not that I don't agree," he said after another long, confused pause, during which he did a bunch of fidgeting in place. "But uh...how's this gonna work? I still gotta move out, or turn into a girl too, within a week, right?"
"We've got a whole week," Flynn retorted. "Plenty of time to figure it out later." I already have a potential solution, anyway.

"Uh, I-I guess so," he stammered, still nowhere near used to the idea of how Flynn looked now, much less going out with her.

"So, it's a little early, but we could just hang out somewhere else," she said. "Unless you're already hungry?"
"Uh, nah, but—yeah. It's, um."
"Little awkward just sitting and staring at each other in here, hmmh," Flynn nodded, then hopped down onto her feet. "Let's go, then."
"Uh—w-wait. In that?" he said, pointing.

"Why not? It's the only thing that fits me now," Flynn said. "Anyway, I'm decent enough."
"B-but like...your legs."

"I don't mind showing them off. The real problem is, I don't have any support for these yet," she said, prodding one of her breasts with a finger.
"Uh—uuuhh."

"Oh, quit gawking," Flynn said calmly—enjoying said gawking thoroughly.

"Well, maybe we should go get me some new clothes first, then. You wouldn't mind telling me how a few outfits look, would you?"
"Um—n-no. That's..fine with me," he said, finally standing up himself. "You're uh, not gonna make me carry around a bunch of bags, though, are you?"
"Nah. I won't buy that much today. I'd appreciate it if you'd drive, though."

"Um—sure."

As they went out of the sorority house, Hollis said, "So uh..what happened to like..your hair? And eyes? That's kinda what threw me off the most from recognizing you at first—I mean obviously apart from you being a hot chick."
Flynn shrugged. "They changed color. Apparently stuff like that is a 'common side-effect of extreme transformation magic'. At least I didn't grow a tail or wings or something."

"Uh, y-yeah. I think some people had stuff like that happen. You know Mars?"
"Phone guy?"
"Yeah, he uh..turned into a fox-chick. Kitsudon?"
"Kitsune." It was nice to have him back into a normal conversation mode, Flynn thought—but also equally fun to see him sometimes glance over at her and turn away blushing. It might even be fun to tease him into being flustered occasionally, if she could be subtle enough to get away with it.

When they got to the strip mall to buy clothes, the de facto leader of the now-sorority was sitting on a bench outside, and stood up now to wave them over. "Afternoon, you two," Rich said cheerfully. She was in a much more tomboyish outfit than the picture she'd sent out with the morning's announcement, just a t-shirt and a pair of shorts—but both clearly cut to be fairly tight on a girl's body, and they certainly were on hers. "Planning to get some new clothes?"
"Uh, for me at least," Flynn said, and the red-eyed girl nodded.
"Just wanted to let you know you should save your receipts to hand in later. I'll be comping at least some of our members' purchases this week which were made necessary by sudden-onset womanhood."
"That's, nice of you, I guess. Thanks."
"You're more than welcome~." After giving back a smile which was equal parts serene, cute, and somehow still intimidating, she went to sit back down again and probably await more people to give the same news to.

They spent an hour or so getting her some clothes. Along the way, they encountered a number of people who also seemed to be with OZK, although of course their altered appearances made it difficult to know just who they were without asking.

A cute girl with light-brown hair had a bunch of different outfits floating around her—so that had to be Vade—and she was verbally prodding another girl ("Zavy"?) to try on some of them. "No means no!" that other girl was saying. "That is vastly out of my budget!"

"Hey, it's on Rich's dime though, right? I'll spot you till she pays it back."
"I thought you were out of allowance this month."
"I mean, yeah, but I got savings I can pull from for special occasions..."

A short catgirl was literally mewling at a taller, ultra-long-haired fox-girl. "Heheh, I guess you like that one?" the latter said in response.

"Mow. Glad you can understand..."
"I dunno how exactly, but—yeah, me too. Anyway, I think it's pretty cute on you, too." The catgirl faintly blushed and purred in response to this.

At one point a very stacked, redheaded..demon girl?..ran up to them. "Yoo, Hollis! Check me out~!" She flexed her arms out to the sides confidently.
"Uh..yeah um....who're you?"
"Hahah, right. Bro. It's Kaden," she said, pointing a thumb at herself. "I got turned into an 'Oni', whatever that is, but it's overall pretty sweet. Oh, who's this cutie~?"
"Flynn," she answered for herself.

"Aah, Hollis's roomie, yeah? Pretty cute getup you got there," she said, referring to the camisole and skirt combo Flynn had just come out of the changing room with.
"Thanks, but—I'm not sure it's really 'me', though."

"Yo, you do you. Ah!" She turned around, apparently hearing the sound of a door to another changing room opening. "'Scuze me. See ya later!"

By the end of it, Flynn had plenty of undergarments to work with, and some casual stuff like shirts, pants, and shorts that fit her new size and proportions. She'd also tried on some skirts, stockings, and blouses, but only bought the top two or three outfits in the ranking of what made Hollis blush the deepest when he saw her trying them on. Ultimately, she walked out of the store in the outfit her new, girl body had come with plus a bra and some gym shorts. This looked pretty much identical, but had proper support and a bit more modesty in case the shirt got pulled up by her movements or blown around in the wind. Then they walked to a restaurant in the same strip mall for supper.

"Um. So, like..."
"Yeah?" Flynn felt her head tilt slightly. She maybe could've stopped herself from doing that, but..it was obvious he thought it was kinda cute.
"Do you, want me to pay for this? Uh, for both of us. Since you..just had to buy clothes, and stuff?"
"Well, I guess Rich is planning to pay me back for it later, and you shouldn't feel like you have to as a rule. Still, I won't say no if you're offering," Flynn said.
"Uhh—okay, then I'll offer. My treat, just this time. M-maybe uh, you could get me back later," he said hesitantly.
"I'd be happy to."

They talked plenty more while they ordered, waited for food, and ate. Hollis was getting used to her being a girl, and he was even slipping in occasional complements now—more specific things than just 'you're hot', like how he liked her purple eyes, the hairstyle she'd ended up with, her curves...each one made her feel very, very nice and drew an involuntary blush to her cheeks. By the time they were done eating, Flynn was determined to at least try what she'd wound up researching for perhaps more of the afternoon than she'd actually spent on the project. But first...

As they walked out of the restaurant, she sneaked over closer to him, gently placing her small, slender hand around his. He paused in place, looking down at the clasped hands and then to her face with a blush, and she just quietly nodded before continuing forward, leading him the rest of the way out of the building and then several steps off to one side of the entrance. Finally she let go of the hand and turned toward him, looking up at his face.

"Uhh.." If he guessed where this was going, then it seemed like he still wasn't mentally prepared for it.
"Dating me is fun, right? You like it?"
"Y-yeah?"

"I really like dating you," Flynn said. "You wanna kiss?"
"Wh—just like that? You've been a girl for like, five hours now?"
"Less than four, but I'm not really counting," she said. "Sure. I wanna know what it feels like to kiss a guy—especially you." Maybe she'd smiled several times before now, but at this point Flynn felt her lips curl far upward into a big one, her cheeks burning with an increasingly warm blush. "You uh, feel the same way?"
"Y...yeah!" he finally admitted.

"Good.."

Hollis was still too uncertain to actually make the first move, so Flynn nodded, stepped gently forward and up onto her tiptoes, drawing her arms up around him in a hug and letting him lift her the remaining distance into the air to bring their faces level. Then she planted a kiss on his face, and immediately felt herself totally lose control. What was supposed to be a gentle, teasing smack to get him used to the idea instead turned into a deep, maybe half-minute kiss with his full participation and a soft, low "Mmm~mmh" coming from her throat. Flynn was entirely too happy with how wonderful this felt to be disappointed that she hadn't been able to follow through with her original plan of teasing him a few times before going in for a long one.

Eventually they pulled apart, both panting. "Uh, w-wow.." Hollis mumbled.
"You're, ffh..p-pretty good..ever, hff..d-done it before?" Flynn's confident facade was basically impossible to maintain at this point, but she tried anyway, sensing that he found even the blatantly failed attempt kind of cute.
"J-just once, in sophomore year, uh, high school," he said. "Wasn't..anything like that."
"Well..." Her head tilted slightly. "W-want another?"

"Yeah. Oh man, I bet you do, too," he said, and this time he initiated it.

This kiss felt like it went twice as long as the first, and it was decidedly more intense; her body squirmed a bit in his arms as she felt one of his hands running through her long, white hair and her own hand gripped and let go of the back of his hoodie a few times. Eventually they stopped and both just panted breathlessly at each other for a long moment. Flynn was grinning like a child, and felt a soft giggle bubble out of her lips just about as her breath caught up. "H-heheheh..!"

"D-dude, you're amazing," Hollis said.
"I know...you too," she said, reaching a hand up and briefly ruffling his hair. "H-hey, let's not get too overboard on the first date though, huh?"

"Um, s-sure." He was about as satisfied as she was, so he didn't mind at all gently setting her down and taking a small step back. They just smiled into each other's faces for another moment, still blushing and trying (semi-unsuccessfully) to cool down from that whole experience.

"So, listen," Flynn finally said to cut into this. "That thing with you having to be a girl? I might know what we can do about it."
"Uh..r-really?"
"Yeah. I did some research."
"When?"
"Earlier," she said vaguely. "Gonna have to try it back at the house, though, so...I can explain on the drive back."
"Uh..okay then.."

In the car, she said, "You know Azoth, right?"
"Uhh, duh, who doesn't? The whole, 'no more veil' announcement and everything else since?"
"Yeah. Well, they're said to have a way to give someone the power to just go back and forth between their original form and a new one at will. Some of their original members just kinda do that all the time."
"Uh-huh...so, what, they got a spell that can do that?"
"Not, exactly. It seems like it's something that more or less only the goddess herself can grant someone. And, 'real' followers of Azoth have this entire 'spell-language' that allows them to channel prayers to her."

"So we just gotta find one of those, huh," Hollis said, a note of disappointment sounding from how unlikely that seemed.

"Maybe not. That 'language' is on the internet—her followers put up a public wiki for whatever reason. So, I spent some time earlier learning some of it."

"Duude, seriously? How'd you learn it so fast?"
Flynn shrugged. "It has some things vaguely in common with how a computer programming language works, but it's not really set in stone. I think I might just barely know enough for a low-grade 'prayer' that asks for something extremely simple and specific if I concentrate hard on that thing the whole time. So...she might not actually respond, but I figured it's worth a shot, at least.

"So, when we get back, I need you to go to whoever's offering people that potion now and take some from them, back to our room," she continued.
"How come?"
"Well, it'll make it seem like you turned into a girl the way everyone else did, for one thing. But I also think there's a way to use it to make my request 'simpler'."

Flynn carried the bag of new clothes back to their room while Hollis went to get the potion, setting it down and going to her computer to quickly refresh her pronunciation and comprehension one last time. She took her headphones off and turned around as the door opened and he walked in. "I, uh, got the stuff," he said, waving the bottle.

"Here," she put out a hand, and he gave it to her. Then Flynn turned and set it down on a free part of her desk.

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. It was hard not to be nervous about petitioning a literal goddess for something so..admittedly sort of petty. But, Azoth was supposed to be one of the nicer dieties of the world, so the worst she was likely to say was no—or nothing at all, as the case might be. If that happened, then they'd just have to figure something else out.

After spreading her hands out to wrap around the air just around the bottle, not quite touching it, Flynn stumbled through a brief chant in the bits of the strange, psuedomagical language that she'd managed to learn earlier that afternoon, concentrating hard on how she wanted the contents of the bottle to change. It was apparently normal to need to repeat the chant identically two or three times, so she didn't worry too much when nothing happened at first. The fourth or fifth time repeating it, she felt some doubt if she was even doing it right—but then, about midway through the sixth, a bright purple glow suddenly appeared between her hands and the bottle, making her yelp and draw her hands back in surprise. Fortunately, this didn't interrupt anything, and the purple glow flowed right though the bottle onto the potion itself. The liquid's characteristic rainbow of colors faded one by one, the cool ones shifting to blue and the warm ones to a bright pink, until its appearance was a much brighter-glowing swirl of just those two hues.

"Whoa.." Hollis was leaning forward, watching this strange display. It felt as if the lights of their room had briefly dimmed in the presence of the brilliant purple glow, and the potion now seemed to have a palpable aura of power about it. "Uh, so..it worked?"
"I think it did," she said, nodding and smiling slightly in relief. "I mean, I dunno what else that could've meant, unless Azoth decided to punk us or something." Then, turning up toward him: "I guess you know what comes next."
"I drink it?"
"You drink it," she nodded. "And we hope Azoth really was feeling charitable today."

"'Kay..."

Hollis took the bottle and uncapped it, putting it to his lips and drinking. The bright glow of the potion seemed to follow it out of the bottle, enveloping his body starting from the lips, then spreading out across his face and the rest of the way down his body. He set the empty bottle down and looked around at himself, holding up his arms briefly and staring at the strange swirling glow of pink and blue. The turbulent motion gradually seemed to settle, the blue becoming less and less prominent until only pink was left. And then, Hollis started to change.

"W-whoa..!" He shuddered, and Flynn could see his hair immediately flowing out, a ripple of change coming down his face alongside it and leaving its skin soft and smooth. Loose, messy hair hit his shoulders and his hoodie suddenly unzipped itself, showing the loss of body hair and softening of skin continuing to make its way down; his hair was already long enough now to frame his face and touch its tips to his shoulders on the sides, and it continued to stream its way out along his back as he shuddered, clearly feeling a chill or tingle from the wave of change to his skin.

As the growth of hair (and accompanying change of skin) dipped past his waist, another change began running from the tip of his head downward, this time a shift of coloration. His hair brightened instantly to a pretty, pale purple shade, and when that wave came to the level of his eyes it changed them, too, seeming to give them an otherworldly light-greenish glow. By now his hair had finally stopped growing at an absolutely absurd length, mostly stopping a bit shy of his hips but with two particular thick locks trailing a bit down his legs, too. And—the instant the color change reached the tips of those locks, a third wave of the transformation hit him.

"A-aa~aa, aa~aah..!" shuddering again, Hollis hugged himself as his height plummeted a foot or so downward, his frame instantly collapsing inward to a slender, girlish shape: Narrow shoulders, slim arms and legs, and his face curved and rounded into an adorable, feminine one. As a result of this, his hoodie slid off of the suddenly-small shoulders, and his pants slipped partway off of his hips for just a second—but then all of his clothes began to shrink at once too. His hoodie, now more than halfway unzipped, simply pulled itself small enough to match his swiftly diminishing frame; his pants softened and tightened, the leggings shrinking themselves all the way up his legs and finally stopping at the upper thighs, showing off slim, shapely legs covered in soft, smooth skin. "Aaa~aaah...!" As all of this happened, Hollis cried out in initially surprise, then distress, then it slowly softened into what was decidedly a sound of enjoyment, his small, cute face blushing—all the while the pitch of his voice rising up, up, up into feminine range, settling just as his height stabilized at a low soprano tone.

His shirt underwent the most drastic change of all, leaving behind its collar as it shrank most of its material away—sleeves vanished, the hem raced its way up to chest level, and the part that had been attached to his collar before dipped down, all of which let it show off a slender, soft neckline and a soft, flat belly peeking through the mostly-unzipped hoodie. What was left behind was very clearly a bikini top, with black straps and two little pieces of cloth in a purple polka-dot design hanging awkwardly across his flat chest.

"Aa~ahmmnnh..!" Hollis's lips closed, and then his eyes fluttered shut. Still hugging himself with those slim arms and small, delicate hands, he rocked back and forth on his feet as the shorts pulled back up onto his hips and then even tighter between his legs, showing off an unexpectedly small bulge which now shrank even more. "Mm~mmnh..aa—aah-aa~Aaahh..!" In no time at all, Hollis's manhood visibly vanished away, the tight shorts pulling nice and flat between what were now her legs. At once her hips flared out, her thighs seeming to push the shorts even tighter as they grew plump, and her small waist trimmed itself in at the sides even more.

"Haahh, hffh, aa~aahnn~nNNnnh...!" The transformation didn't give her more than a second or so to try to catch her breath before Hollis's breasts began to grow, making her face turn as red as tomato and causing her to cry out in obvious girlish pleasure. They swelled up steadily, making her squirm back and forth, a wriggling that slid her thighs against each other, and softly, cutely go "Aah, aah, aa~Aaah," until they completely filled the bikini top, stretching its material out a bit to fit their final, medium-large size. She let out a soft, high "Haa~aahhh.." of equal parts relief and pleasure as the new breasts fell gently into place, completing her change into a slim, adorable, yet still decently curvy girl.

Slowly, Hollis lowered her arms to her sides, clenching her fists a bit, and opened her eyes. The blush on her face had only faded slightly during this, and as she turned her eyes on Flynn it returned with full force.

"Uh, d-dude, that was, I, w-wow.." Flynn stood up, feeling her own face burn with a blush too. Hollis was...so cute! She was adorable, and pretty, and..just about half a head taller than Flynn now, which seemed just perfect somehow.

"Y-yeah, it's kinda, an extreme feeling," Flynn agreed with her confused mumbling. "Uh, d-did it um.."
"W-work? Yeah. I feel like I 'know' how to, um..b-but also.." Hollis took a couple of extremely careful steps toward the shorter girl, her knees wobbling. A faint blue glow appeared around her arms, then all flowed up to surround just her hands, becoming brighter and more distinct in the process. "H-hey, hold still for a sec?"
"Uh..s-sure?"

Flynn wasn't certain what this was about until the other girl pulled her into a hug, pressing those glowing hands against her back. Then, Flynn could suddenly feel a rush of tingling coming from the points of contact, and her body began to stretch and grow upward. "Aa~ah..mm~nnhh..!" It felt pretty good hugging the tall, cute girl, but the change coming on felt even better. Flynn grew taller, slowly picking her up in her arms, and her curves gently flattened away. Then, all at once, the white-haired girl turned back into a guy, letting out a deep-voiced "Aaaahh..!" as it happened.

He was decidedly taller than before, still with long, white hair and purple eyes, and his body remained fairly trim despite his muscles now tightening into some decent solidity and strength. His girlish clothes, fortunately, changed with him into a pair of boxers, male-sized gym shorts and a tight but properly sized and shaped tank top. "Mm~mnnhh.."

After this, Flynn was left panting heavily for a moment, the adorable girl in his arms blushing brilliantly at him from a few inches away—still holding on to him tightly enough for her new, soft breasts to press into his chest. "Uh, s-so yeah, that," she said. "I-I felt like I could um, I should..that."
"W-wow.." Now that he'd finished changing, Flynn felt like he understood how to change himself too. Azoth, it seemed, was generous above and beyond the request. Since watching the change, even as a girl, Flynn had felt something rather strong toward Hollis's cute, girly new look, and now...well, now he was feeling what any guy would toward such a gorgeous woman.

"You uh. You wanna?" she mumbled nervously. Flynn accepted the invitation wholeheartedly, pressing his lips into hers for a long, passionate kiss that outmatched either of the earlier ones that afternoon. From the way she moved around, her high voice softly crying out adorably in her throat, he knew Hollis was enjoying it immensely, and that motivated him to keep on going until neither of them could anymore.

"Mmnh, hff, ffh...m-man, you're like an animal," Hollis mumbled softly between gasps for air. "N-not that uh..hff,, th-that's bad or anything..."
"Y-you're really beautiful," Flynn replied, running a hand through her hair. "I dunno if I could've imagined a better look for you as a girl."
"H-heheh..y-yeah, me either..this feels super nice, looking like this..the way you look at me, like this, uh, too." She planted another, calmer kiss on his lips then, letting out a soft "Mm~mnh" of satisfaction as it was returned.

"Well, this works great for both of us, yeah?" Hollis said.

"Mmh. But uh.." Flynn 'flexed' whatever it was that let him change, and felt a faint tingling hit his body as he saw a pink glow briefly appear around it. "M-maybe we shouldn't go too fast?" he said in his rapidly-shifting voice. "I'd actually, kinda like to just.."
"Cuddle together as chicks?" Hollis said, starting to get a sly grin on her adorable, blushing face.

"Y-yeah..mm~mnh!" Flynn's sex changed, and then she rapidly regained her curves and shrank back down, having to stand on her tiptoes to stay at eye level with the other girl. It was yet another new feeling for her own big, soft breasts to be pressed against the other girl's—but an at least equally wonderful one, all the same.
"I'd uh.l-love that, too.." Hollis let go of the hug for a second. "L-lemme just, slip outta this hot thing.." She unzipped the hoodie and slid it off, leaving her upper body bare apart from the bikini top. "You want outta that?" she asked then, placing her hands on the hem of Flynn's top.

"S-sure.."

At some point, Flynn's standoffish facade had melted completely away. Maybe it was the instant she saw the beautiful woman Hollis had turned into. Whatever the case, she just let the taller girl help her out of her own top, then both of them took their shorts off—revealing a pair of tight, bright purple boyshorts on Hollis—and then the curvy, white-haired girl was then willingly guided over to her roommate's bed. Soon they were lying down under the covers, hugging as close to each other as physically possible, soft legs tangled up in each other, and blushing cheeks pressed close together. No words really needed to be exchanged at this point, Hollis just letting out the occasional high, breathy sigh and Flynn replying with deep, womanly murmurs.

What was it she'd been thinking before all this happened...? That being a girl wasn't a big deal? No, it was maybe the biggest deal ever. And—neither of them could be any happier about it!

One question came to Flynn's mind a while later: Had Hollis only been able to spread the blessing represented by that blue glow through her hands a single time, to just one person? Or was it just...a thing she could do now? Some testing would be required to find out...but it could wait until tomorrow.

The "Best" RPG Ever-114

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Aria fixed Mira with a look. "Really?"

"Hey, I knew it wouldn't just randomly come up in conversation," she shrugged. The two guards roused as soon as they heard the words, and were both busy groggily sitting up and looking around with expressions of obvious confusion—but, thankfully, not attacking everyone around them on sight anymore, and no weird staring either.

"Aughh, my head." Pirr rubbed her forehead.

"Are you two back to yourselves?" Ezra asked, and both of them snapped to attention, standing and saluting.
"Captain! Uh, yes?" the avian said. "Where'd I...go, exactly?"
"You two lost your minds or somethin'," Rast said. "You first."
"Me..?"
"What is the last thing you remember?" the Captain asked.

"Uh...let's see." Kayriel drew her wings together, putting a finger on the palm of the opposite hand. "I was scouting the path ahead just to be extra safe for the escort mission, and..I guess I saw something?"
"You went quiet all of a sudden, then landed and started starin' at me," Pirr said. "What'd you see?"
"It was uh...hm, I'm not really sure how to. It was like I saw..I thought it was a person at first, but then I realized it was more like a..hole, where a person was supposed to be?"

"Yeah..." Pirr half-mumbled. "You looked like that too, feraminute. But, the hole wasn't..empty. There was somethin' on the other side."

"Your eyes looked all freaky," Mira said, and Rast nodded his agreement with this.
"You were both put under the effects of a previously unknown enchantment," Ezra said. "Jacob helped to remove it. We'll be discussing countermeasures to prevent this sort of thing soon, but you two should get some rest for now."

"So..wait, am I hearing this right?" Jacob asked. "You..that happened just because you saw something?"
Rast nodded. "Sure seems like it."
"But you all, saw it too?" he said, to Rast, Hyacinth, and the adventurers. "And it didn't have that effect."
"Maybe our resistance is just higher," Aria suggested.
"Could be, but," he shook his head. "It still doesn't make any sense. You can't 'communicate' a spell just by sight, other than a basic illusion or something. You definitely can't spread magic from one affected person to another just because they exchanged a glance. There is no medium present for the transfer of the needed.."

"Excuse me," Hyacinth said, approaching him. "You removed something similar from me before, did you not?"

He briefly looked her up and down. "...Err, yes. I'm sorry, I didn't exactly introduce myself to you at the time," he said. "Jacob."
"Hyacinth. Squad leader, mage, republic of Nir." She shook his hand firmly. "I presume you're also the 'expert on chaos magic' I've heard about."

"I wouldn't really consider that my area of expertise, but—it is related to my field of study, and has been increasingly prominent as of late..."

Ezra cleared her throat for attention. "Regardless of how it is transferred, we need a reliable way to dispel this sooner rather than later. I'll take whatever you can give me by the end of the day, at least for emergency measures."
"..Right. Of course," he nodded. "I'll, try to perfect the dispersal spell, since obviously it'll be useful in more situations."
"Don't push yourself any harder than usual," the captain said. "You should expect to continue to refine your work afterward."
"Certainly, but I'd hate to give you something ineffectual when there seems to suddenly be a need for, what were supposed to merely be theoretical spells that do nothing one's body doesn't do on its own..."

"I'd be very interesting in learning this spell for myself," Hyacinth said, crossing her arms. "I'm unsure whether I can trust another escort to my town not to succumb to the same affliction."

"Uh, if you'll excuse us," the witch cut in. "We need to go report a quest. We went looking for lizards and found giant spiders instead, and apparently there's a thing with getting rid of their eggs that still needs to happen?"

Ezra nodded. "Come back to me later today. You, at least, should learn the spell Jacob is developing."

"Will do~," Mira nodded cheerfully, leading the other three adventurers into the guardhouse.

After reporting in and receiving their pay for spider slaying, the four headed into town for a late lunch. On the way, Mira said: "Soo, is it just me, or is this giving off major 'main plot' vibes to you guys, too?"
"Oh, totally," Aria said. "Mysterious 'go-crazy' affliction spread by sight? The literal expert we conveniently met a few days ago saying it shouldn't even be possible? Like, are you kidding?"

"Kath would say...'feels like the DM is railroading us'," Nora—back in fox form—observed. "It's unfortunate that we agreed to split the party just before this."

"Well, if the gods or whatever want us to regroup immediately, they're prolly even better with tele-magic than Loren is," Mira said, and then stopped suddenly in place, causing Lupa (who'd been quiet largely due to not much understanding the conversation) to bump lightly into her back. "Whooa, hey."

"What?" Aria asked first.

"I just caught a whiff of demonic magic that's not me, not you, and obviously can't be Zack 'cause she's nowhere near here, and it's totally the wrong 'flavor' anyway." The witch looked left and right, then pointed. "...That way." She began to follow what she sensed at a brisk walk, the others keeping up behind her. "It's faint enough that I, doubt any 'normal' mage would sense it at all. But, definitely there..." She slowed down soon afterward, turning and staring into the window of a restaurant.

"Oh, hey, it's Rose!" Aria observed. "And uh..?"
"Glasses fox got taller?" Lupa observed; at least she wasn't calling Vae 'smelly' this time.
"...Among other things," Nora agreed.

"Thaaat's the source." Mira squinted her eyes, trying to comprehend: "But why would...hmmn."

"You got some idea?" the shifter asked. "Care to share?"
"Uh, better we ask than speculate, and best we do it in private rather than loudly announcing there's demon magic on her. Meantime, uh, there's no emergency here, but I still kinda wanna interrupt them anyway."
"Hungry," Lupa said. "Tasty food inside!"

Nora started softly, "Are you certain we should—"
"Good point, let's go!" Aria accidentally talked over her, taking the lead toward the door inside.

---

Once the giant lizard was out of the way, the soldiers rotated their shifts around again: A new driver for the horses, most who'd been outside the caravan going in and those who'd been inside all staying out. "If there truly is no threat nearby, you ladies could take the opportunity to rest inside for a while," Peregrine offered.

"Mmh. Not that I doubt Rayna's Sight, but I'll feel better if I'm still keeping an eye out myself," Lynn said. "We're all quite used to doing a lot of walking and a little fighting anyway."

"If that was 'little' fighting, I'd hate to see a lot," one of the soldiers commented.

"I, for one, would love to rest my legs a bit," the fox-girl said.

"You want to keep an eye on Karl?" Zack asked the winged girl. "Need to know right away if the poison starts acting up again." Katherine didn't need to be able to read his mind to know he just wanted to give her an excuse to rest.

"I..suppose so," Clera said, nodding.

"I'll stay out here too, your highness," the psion added. "Zack?"
He nodded. "We've got a job to do."

"Very well," the prince nodded. "I shall remain on patrol as well, for the time being.

Peregrine waited near the front of the caravan until everyone else was ready, then waved the driver to get the horses moving and deliberately made his way to the side the knight had taken up. He took a position behind Zack for a few minutes, before slowly approaching a walk next to him. Zack sighed silently through his nose and ignored the prince for several more minutes, despite it being increasingly obvious that he wanted to talk.

Eventually, he knew that he couldn't keep silent any longer without being rude. "Do you..need anything, your highness?"
"Not particularly. Perhaps I ought to mention, if it isn't obvious already, I don't stand on ceremony too much. The fact is that I am among the youngest of my father's children; I have no expectation of inheriting the throne, and was not raised with the training necessary to rule competently anyway. When my father is eventually succeeded, or if I should marry before then, my title will officially change to 'Duke'. Regardless, I don't insist that anyone actually calls me 'highness'."

"...I have noticed that the soldiers don't tend to address you properly."
"Indeed," Peregrine nodded. "I asked as much of them not long into our journey. Such stiffness is improper, in my opinion, amongst people whose lives depend on each other."

"You want us to stop calling you that?"
"I would not insist upon it, if it made you more comfortable to do so, but if it is not your natural manner of speech..."

"It isn't."

"Then I would go so far as to say I would appreciate it," he said, nodding.
"Fine with me."
"Thank you, Lady Zack," he said, smiling warmly. Up until this point, the conversation hadn't bothered him much, but at this point, the knight felt himself look away, his ears folding back slightly as a sense of distinct annoyance washed through him. His face felt..warm, too.

He took a moment to deliberately compose himself before glancing back the prince's way. He had a very slightly worried expression—not as though he worried for Zack, but more that he'd managed to offend 'her' somehow. "Tell you what," Zack said. "I'm not used to being called 'Lady', either. I don't know how knights are in your country, but where I'm from the knight orders are where noble families send the children who don't stand to inherit anything. We're just the soldiers who get the more expensive equipment and training, and the more difficult jobs."

"I believe I understand your meaning," Peregrine said, nodding. "Just 'Zack', then?"

"If you don't mind."
"Not at all. It is only fair," he smiled warmly again, and fell back to his earlier position. Zack's heart raced for a second or two, and his ears tried to fold back again, but he got it under control in a moment, and was fairly sure it hadn't been noticed this time.

---

While they waited for their food, Vae made an attempt to explain how the part of her craft that wasn't growing plants actually worked. Rose failed to quite grasp the basic topic despite several different attempts, but still enjoyed listening to her talk about it. Despite her usual, netural monotone, it was fairly obvious she was passionately interested in the subject. Then their food came, and both of them stopped talking to finally sate their hunger.

About halfway into the meal, the front door of the restaurant opened. This wouldn't be unusual at a normal lunchtime, but with how late they were eating, it got their attention. It was Aria..followed by Lupa, Mira and Nora in the back. "Oh, heey!" Rose waved. Then, realizing something, she turned to Vae. "Um. You think I could invite them over?"
"I have no objection to that."

"Okay. Heey!"

Aria hurried up to them, the other three following more slowly. "We heard you the first time, doofus."

"Oh, uh, sorry."
"No problem. Soo, how you doin'? And who's this cutie?" She gestured to the fox-girl with a wide grin. "You ditch Vae that fast?"

"Uh, no no no, this is uh—we um."
"I am Vae," the Vulpin stated. "My appearance has only changed."

"Pff, I knew that. I was just trollin'."
Vae's left ear twitched. "You were what?"
"...Never mind," the shifter shook her head.

"Do you mind if we join you?" Mira asked, half-shoving her way around in front of Aria.
"Oh, you didn't eat already?"
"The quest got a little complicated—nothing we couldn't handle, but it wound up taking longer than expected."
"W-well uh, I-I don't mind at all. Vae?"

"Likewise."

As they sat down, she turned to Aria and stated: "I don't believe we have actually met."

"Nope, but I heard what you're s'posed to look like from Mira," the shifter said. "Aria, shapeshifter and wielder of a gigantic demon sword."
The Vulpin nodded. "Rose mentioned this about you before. Vaedin, as previously stated."

"Lupa!" the wolf-girl interjected. "This one saw glasses fox before, but didn't meet."

"'Glasses fox'," she repeated.
"Uh, Lupa has a Thing about using pronouns and/or proper names," Rose attempted to explain. "She was a dire wolf until like, literally two days ago?"

"I have not met a personified animal before," Vae said, "much less a personified monster. Most unusual, as I understand it?"
"Yes! This one is amazing," Lupa said cheerfully.

"Soo uh. Not to pry exactly, but what did happen?" Mira asked. "I mean, if you don't mind sharing."
"Not at all," Vae replied. "My appearance since before we met was the result of an experiment gone wrong, which seems to have permanently altered my body—particularly, causing it to maintain a youthful appearance despite my actually advanced age. This further transformation appears to be a previously unencountered side effect of that, brought on by Rose embracing and petting me."
"Uhhh." Rose blushed furiously, not having expected her to be anywhere near this blunt about it. It wasn't particularly surprising in hindsight, but still caught her off-guard.

"Woohoo, you go girl!" Aria cheered, and started to say something else when Nora, visibly fed up, clapped a hand over her mouth. "HMM! Mnr wnns'np dmnn—"
"Quiet, already. Am I the only adult here?"

"'Fraid so, with Zack and Clera both gone," Mira said, giggling. At this point they were interrupted by a server showing up to take the newcomers' orders.

"So anyway," the witch said, "I have a hunch as to what happened, but it's uh, best I don't explain it in public. If I'm right, the 'growth spurt' is probably temporary, but could also be refreshed in basically the same way."
"I see...that would be a relief if correct. I admit I have missed being tall to some extent, but the layout of my home is optimized for the appearance my body has been locked to in recent years.

"If I may ask: Zack and Clera?"

"Oh, yeah, uh—Zack's the one with the curse I told you about before," Rose said. "Sh—-uuh, he's like a wolf, um—wolf-person?"
"Canis," Mira supplied.
"Yeah, a Canis knight. With super pretty, long white hair and fluffy fur, annd..."
"Clera is a half-avian Empath, also with our party," Nora said, eager to direct the line of conversation away from Zack's appearance. "They went out on an escort mission this morning, along with three other members of our party: Rayna, a Vulpin illusionist, Lynn, a human archer—both of which are also travelling performers—and Katherine, a Felis psion."

Vae nodded, taking all of this in. "My ears occasionally pick up chatter outside of my house, some of it recently about a very unusual, but highly effective party of adventurers. I suppose that is all of you."
"You got that right!" Aria said enthusiastically.

---

Once it was finally out of the woods and crested the top of a hill with a clear view of the surroundings, the caravan stopped for a brief break. Rayna sat near the center of the group and sang a few songs to entertain everyone, earning some generous applause. About the third song in, Katherine mentally nudged Lynn. Hey, can you sing too?

Nah. I have a good sense of rhythm, but I'm somewhat tone-deaf. Ray was always the one who could sing back on Earth, too. In this world, I did learn to play some stringed instruments by feel to accompany her, but don't have any on me right now.

Alright. When we get back to town, I'm buying you a lute.

The fox-girl's magic seemed to have largley recovered already, as she happily put up some visual special effects with her fourth and final song, a sort of 3-dimensional 'music video' of the events it described rendered in the area above her head for everyone to see.

Karl still wasn't feeling too great, so Zack took the opportunity to re-apply the poison suppressant spell. Clera seemed to be entirely recovered, if she hadn't been by the end of the battle with the lizards.

"Truly stunning work, miss Rayna," Peregrine said once the show was over. "Your voice is as beautiful as you are."
"Awwh, you're only saying that 'cause it's true," she said teasingly, grinning wide. "Thanks, your uh—you. Heheh. Habits form easy and break hard, you know."
"I wouldn't have taken offense," he nodded.

Is there a reason you're glaring at them? Katherine asked Zack innocently.

No. He quickly looked in a different direction, pushing his expression back to neutral. Anyway, if there was one, he didn't know it—which made his own behavior even more confusing.

---

"...Yeah, that Weaver did a great job," a high, chipper voice said. "Not a trace of venom left, just some-a the spiders' natural, weak antivenom that'll, uh, make its way out naturally before too long. Annd, I just finished fixing him up otherwise."

"Then he should be regaining consciousness soon," A sterner, darker female voice replied.

"Yep!"

The avian in the bed groaned softly, and tried to move his wings. It didn't seem like he was paralyzed anymore; nothing even felt particularly sore.

"Ah! Speaking of. 'Scuze me," the cheerful voice said. As the red-feathered avian pushed himself partway upright and slowly blinked his eyes open, a cute Felis girl—evidently a healer, going by her clothes and the general context—came into the room. "Hey there. How're you feeling?"
"Mngh, pretty good, considering." He placed an elbow on the pillow to sit up a little more, experimentally. "Must be since a pretty lass like you attended to me," he said with a half-joking grin.

"Heheh, thanks but—most of the hard work was done before you got here. Hey, if you're feeling up to it, there's someone who came asking after you. A uh, human woman I think, with bright rainbow hair?" she said, patting her own hair a bit.
"Ah, that'll be Reiaza! Half-elf in actuality, I believe," he said, getting himself fully upright. "Ought not be surprised she got here ahead of me."

"You'd like to see her, then?"
"Most certainly, milady."

The healer darted out of the room, giving him a moment to examine his surroundings. Not that there was all that much to see, but—it was a building, not a tent, which probably meant he'd made it to the town. Before long she returned with his friend in tow: A curvy woman, rather on the short side, wearing a bright-colored, flashy dress whose hem trailed down to her ankles and a sparkly, purple miniature top hat on the upper-right corner of her head. Her eyes were both a brilliant, emerald green, and—as the healer had mentioned—perhaps her most striking trait was her hair: long locks coming down to knee-length, each few inches of which horizontally was a long vertical stripe of a different color from its neighbors, forming an effect not unlike a rainbow trailing out behind her as she walked. She had a bright, friendly smile for him—just as for almost everyone else—on sight.

"Belwiii~in, you reckless cad! I thought we'd lost you for certain when you weren't the first to arrive," she said.

"Eyy, you pretty well almost did," he said, spreading his wings out. "I go to touch down for a short rest, and next thing I know I get caught in a giant spiderweb and stung. Didn't reckon they made spiders so big!"

"They make everything big out here, 'cept for me," she said, and they shared a brief laugh.

"Ahh, but I tell you what, Reiaza," he swung around to hang his legs off of the side of the bed, facing her fully. "The last thing I remember 'fore waking up here was a sharp stick on the wing, and I then, ever so briefly, saw a vision of the most immaculate, gods-blessed beauty: A purple-haired kitten, wearing a look of terrible concern for my condition on her face. Mm, but it may be she wasn't real, merely a figment made by that cruel venom."

"Is that so? I've heard tell that this town's had a crop of particularly talented adventurers lately, and a few of them were responsible for your rescue," Reiaza said, picking up a bright pink lock of her hair and twirling it between her fingers. "If your vision was true, that 'kitten' may well be among them. Are you feeling up to a walk, m'dear?" She glanced the healer's way after asking him.

"He should be okay," she said, and then to Belwin: "Walking's fine, but stop for a rest if you feel tired. Nothing too extreme for a day or so."

"Aah, my act may have to wait, then. Truly, desperately tragic," Belwin said, feigning despair.

"There's plenty of time to fly, so long as you're alive, m'dear," Reiaza said, extending a hand and helping him to his feet. "The rest of the troupe will be some time yet to arrive, if they even arrive at all. At the least you could aid me in finding some new talent to fill the gaps in the meantime."

"Yes, yes. For now, I'll settle for expressing my utmost gratitude to my most generous saviors," he said.

"I must thank you as well, miss healer," he added with a small bow toward the Felis. "Though I must confess I'm a bit low on capital at the moment to properly repay you for your work."

"Oh, not to worry, sir—we're compensated well enough for taking emergency cases elsewise," she said.

"All the same," the rainbow-haired woman leaned slightly in her direction, briefly tipping her hat. "I'll pick up his tab later, if you please. Shouldn't be difficult to pick me out in a crowd, ey?"

"I admit your look is uh, pretty unique."
"I assure you, it's very much on purpose. Hard to drum up business without curiosity!" She grinned brightly, and turned back to her star acrobat. "Shall we, then?"

"Aye, indeed; lead on!" he gestured to the door.