Midas Journal 6

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Part 6, and the last one I've made so far unfortunately. Hopefully I'll come across some inspiration soon and get back to writing this or at least another caption.

Entry: Mar 24

School was mostly uneventful. Carla noticed I was a little nervous; I told her about the note and insisted I was going..she was a little confused that I thought she'd argue against it. The new...catgirl...seemed just as cheerful as...ever? I guess, definitely as cheerful as yesterday.

After school I went and found the address. It wasn't a house or an apartment—it was a coffee shop. There was something a little weird about this place, I thought. For one thing, the name 'Magic Java' sounds more like you're talking about the computer program or something with stronger stuff than caffeine. And for another, I noticed at least three or four cat-people among the coffee shop's several customers.

Rio was off in a corner, and waved to me when I came in. She seemed perfectly happy, and I wasn't sure what to think of that, so I sat down. The first words out of her mouth?
“I just wanted to thank you for the other day.”
Huh? I thought. “...Which other day?”
“Last Friday, of course. I don't know how you did it, but I'm really grateful. Actually, I'm a little curious too, about, well, how you did it. See...” she dropped her tone and voice quite a bit. “I'm an apprentice witch now, and I've never even heard of magic than can make so many changes like that.”
I tried to think of the best way to phrase it, a thought process which made an awkward silence, and made me feel like I really needed to fill it as soon as possible. “Um..look...I really don't have any idea how I did that. Since my last birthday a little over a week ago, you're like..one of four people I've done something like that to, and I still have no idea what's going on. And now I'm starting to see cat-ears on people, so I'm really worried I'm going insane.”
She paused at this, a very interested look on her face, and again I had no idea what to think of it. Another awkward pause went by, and finally she said, “Oh, wow, it must be some kind of inherited or universal stability power...and you're not crazy. Those people do have cat ears.” She pointed over toward some of the people who I'd seen with cat ears. She pointed at some other people, a couple having afternoon coffee. “And those two over there are werewolves, can you see their tails?”

“Uh...no.” There must have been something like, “I'm really stupid so please explain this” written on my face, based on what she said next.
“Oh, I see. You're a normal human. If you didn't have that power you wouldn't know about any of this kind of thing...Look, I'll tell you first, there's magic.”
“..Okay,” I said, willing enough to accept that.
“And secondly, there are magical people—not just witches, warlocks, mages, wizards and sorcerors, but people who are magical like elves, werewolves, nekos.” She pointed to the cat-eared people again.
“But why haven't I--”
“Ssssshh! I'm getting to that! There's also a kind of magic that keeps normal humans, who either have no powers or are ignorant of them, from seeing or hearing magical things they don't believe exist. Usually it only changes if it's forced on them, or their power acts spontaneously, and even then there's a chance a person could be driven insane if they don't accept what's in front of them. But I think you're not one of those people.”
“...Good to know...but then, couldn't I just say I believe there are werewolves, like, and look over there and see something different?”
“No, it isn't just belief on a conscious level. A person can believe with all of their conscious might that something is there, but if their subconscious doesn't fully accept it, the magic still works to keep them from seeing it. That's why there are paranormal researchers who couldn't see a full-scale magic battle happening right in front of them—that, and those sorts of people tend to believe the wrong things when they do believe.”

I nodded...and then sort of put my head down, putting my hands over it, trying to get my brain around all of this. She apparently knew better than to interrupt me, until, a few minutes later, I finally looked up. “So...you're okay with..you know...a completely rewritten life, complete with a different body and maybe even mind?”
“Yeah.”
“...Why?”
“Because, it's a second chance. In my old life, I threw away my chances, or I wouldn't have been trying to do what I was. I know it won't be easy, but I know I won't give up this time. However you did it, you gave me something I barely even knew I wanted.”
“Okay, that's probably the best reason I've heard.”
“What d'you mean?”
“Well...as I said...I've been doing that...by accident, to people since a couple of weeks ago. Three people. All three of them seem happy with it, and one of them happens to be my best friend, and can't give me nearly as strong an explanation. I know I wouldn't be happy with something like that, so I don't get why everyone else seems so happy with it.”
“Hmm...Well it probably isn't a coincidence. Maybe whatever your power is only targets the right people.”
“I hope so...I guess...”
She stood up. “Look. I'm going to ask my teacher, and do some research, and see if I can find out what that power is. Alright? I'm glad I could talk with you. And...all of the people who come here are supernaturally aware, the ones who aren't can't see the entrance, so don't worry about talking about magic in here.”
“Alright..” She ran off.


I left not too long after, and noticed the owner's eye was on me, just a little bit. I dashed home, and got to work on my usual routine, still trying in the back of my head to process all of this. There's magic, not just of one kind but several, and magical creatures running around, and everyone I know is either in on the secret or absolutely blind to it? Ugh...it gives me a headache just to think about.

Midas Journal 5

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Part 5; see first part for information.

Entry: Mar 23
A new entry. Guess what that means? Yeah. Why am I conversing with my diary, anyway? (Or whatever imaginary audience I'm going to allow to read it someday?) It just seems silly. But it's the way I talk, and I don't have much experience talking to a wall. Besides, I'm sure any idiot could answer my half-rhetorical questions anyway.

So anyway, today. In school. In front of about twenty people who didn't even notice...and Carla, who did. Carla...huh. I didn't see her much the last couple of days, but today is the day I have P.E., and when Carlo...Carla has P.E. at the same time. Yeah, it's the class we have together. Now, our school's P.E. is a bit higher-quality than some other public schools...by which I mean we have a pool and a well-kept gym, and instructors who aren't afraid to use what's available. So it's usually a pretty fun class, all told. Unless you just don't like exercise or something...

So, today we were going to use that pool, do some laps. Boys vs. girls, in a kind of relay for each time, the team that took the shortest average amount of time (people divided by time, or something like that) wins...bragging rights, and that's about it. But good fun all the same, right?
Of course, we don't go to school in swimming trunks. That would be stupid. So everyone went to the locker rooms to change...and on my way out of the locker room, I bumped into someone. There's a one-door-wide hallway on the way out, so that's perfectly normal, and I guess I'd gotten a little careless. See, there some people...male people...who I touched by accident between Saturday and today, one way or another, to no effect. So I guess it doesn't happen all the time. But...it sure did today.

I have to admit, I didn't really even know the guy. P.E. is a pretty big class, and it's the only one I had (have?) with him. So it was a few..maybe several seconds before I noticed anything. Those of us (including me, Carla, that guy) who had gotten changed pretty quick were standing around waiting for everyone else, so it was dead time, without anything else going on. Really, weirdly convenient, because if anything else had been going on, I wouldn't have payed attention.

Where was I? I noticed something was odd, and turned my attention to him, when I saw that his stomach was decidedly thinner than average. At first I wanted to think he was just anorexic or something and I hadn't noticed, but no, the rest of his body was still the same width, and that stomach was really flat for a guy. So I knew what was coming, and that didn't make it any better. From that point on I was watching.

I already noticed that his trunks were getting a little bit tighter, and then that his hips were getting wider. I think that both were going on at the same time, so it got tight pretty fast, closing up in between his legs and...showing no bulge. I noticed his arms and legs were both getting thinner then, especially the arms, and his skin was getting a little bit paler all over. The shorts looked weird now, because they were tight and they had turned into a kind of rubbery material, and they looked even weirder as the...ah...whatever part hangs down over part of a guy's legs suddenly folded up, and the material spread up the thin stomach, to cover the still-flat chest and grab onto the top of his shoulders (which I should note had gotten way slimmer now) with straps. I recognized it now as the kind of one-piece suit the school approved for girls to wear..which made sense.

His face shifted, his eyes became a bit wider (and looked bigger as his face was a little smaller), and his irises stretched out vertically, which kinda confused me because that definitely doesn't usually happen. His hair exploded out, quickly reaching the small of his back, and turned a pink that I'm sure isn't usually possible, and a yellow ribbon was back there, but because I was looking at his front I couldn't see much of it. I did notice that something had tied around his neck; it looked like a little collar with a bell and a bow on the front.

Now this was new. I noticed there was something thin and white twitching at his back, and soon realized that was a tail...like, a cat's tail! Then, of course, my attention was drawn back up by the inevitable push outward of his chest, quickly making the swimsuit less awkward. By the time they were done, she had some sizable breasts (that sounds kind of perverted, but it's true), and then I saw her ears had gotten bigger, breaking through the hair, and had fur on them like the tail. They got taller, and turned into cat ears.



I realized the change was done, and had a quick glance around. I found that a bunch of the other guys were also looking at her...and most of the other girls weren't. Looking back at the new...catgirl? I guess that's what she is...I saw her eating up the attention, flirting with some of them...and realized with a mix of relief, confusion, and annoyance that nobody was aware she had changed but me.

Contrary to what I expected, Rhia (I found out later her name was Rhia, I'll explain when I get to it) was a very good swimmer, and thanks in part to her the girls beat out the boys by a few seconds or so. Not that I cared, I mean, I had another boy-turned-girl to worry about. I went through the rest of the day anyway, wondering whether I was really starting to get used to this.

Carla joined me on my walk home from school today. After a minute or two of awkward silence I said, “You saw that, right?” and she nodded.
“Mm-hm.” (Why do people feel the need to nod and say yeah? Won't just one or the other do?) “I've got new memories too, actually. What about you?”
“Well...no, but I didn't know him too well either.”
“Neither did I. But I know her. She's Rhia, nice and friendly but a major flirt. Loves to play, never had a boyfriend though.”
“So you know her?”
“Not personally. But girls know about a flirt,” she said, grinning like it was funny.
“Oh. I was hoping for an explanation about the ears.”
“What ears?”
I stopped, and after a second Carla stopped with me. I looked in her eyes. “You didn't notice anything unusual about her ears?” I asked.
“Uh...no. Why?”

I just shook my head and started walking, thinking great, I really AM going insane now! She followed. “Kael, what is it?”
“Look. Big, twitchy cat ears,” I said, demonstrating both traits with my hands over my own ears. “You didn't see that at all?”
“No...I think I'd remember that. Are you sure?”
“...Forget it. Can we talk about something normal so I don't go any more insane?”
Carla looked concerned. Good, at least she got that I wasn't joking by now. “Hey, maybe they really are there, and I couldn't see them. I mean, if there's magic that can turn guys into girls maybe there's magic that can give them big ears and magic that keeps people from seeing them. And they'd be hidden from everyone else at school because, well, big ears are weird.”
“Yeah....maybe,” I said.

The rest of the conversation was, well, normal. Carla changed the subject to today's menu in the cafeteria, and well, I don't feel like going into it. It doesn't have anything to do with this anyway.


I forgot to mention, when I went to my locker (the one where I put my unused books), I found a note that had been stuck through the grill. It was in neat, curved, pink handwriting, and was signed “Rio” at the bottom with a heart as the i's dot. It said “Need urgently to speak with you, tomorrow after school if possible,” and a downtown address which I guess is where she lives. I stuffed it in my pocket at the time because I was in a hurry, and honesty I just read it while I was getting ready to write this. So...I guess I have a meeting tomorrow. Considering who Rio was, and that she might remember that, I'm a little afraid, but I guess if I'm shot I can't victimize any more guys, so I'm going. I'm sure it'll be worth writing about, too.

So I'm signing off. Good night.


(Telling my journal good night is stupid. Note to self: never do that again.)

Midas Journal 4

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Part 4; see first part for information.

Entry: Mar 20
So instead of getting more normal today, things got weirder.
What a surprise.

I explained everything to Carlos over lunch. Everything. I started with the gun-wielding robber turned schoolgirl, figured that was a good starting point because he was there to see it. Then I moved on to Seth. Sarah. Okay, that was out of the way. By this point we were sitting on the couch, on opposite ends, and the TV, naturally, was off. I wasn't sure how to move on from there:

“This is all pretty crazy. Woo. So it looks like you can touch guys, and turn them into girls—generally girls who are a lot happier. I thought you were acting a little odd around me..trying not to touch me, I guess?”
“Oh..I thought that wasn't noticeable,” I said. “I was trying to be discreet.”
“Oh, you were, I know you too well, man. But...wait a minute. that started Saturday. How'd you know about it then?”
“Okay...Ahm, Carlos. Did you have any kind of..dreams that night?”
“Yeah, I remember dreaming I was some girl, and getting up and taking a shower in your house...and then I woke up..in...the....shower.” He paused a moment, catching on.
I cut in before he could say anything else: “I had a dream that night too. It didn't make any sense to me, some guy turning stuff to gold. And I thought—that day, I thought I was dreaming when I got up and..and watched you change into that.”
He paused a moment, and nodded. “Okay. So...it was an accident, right?”
I nodded.
“But I saw that, ah, Rio girl yesterday in school. She never turned back. Why would I?”
“Well, after you went into the shower, I was..really freaked. I think I panicked, and my brain locked up, thinking how you couldn't be a girl, and there was no way what I'd seen was real.”
“So..you panicked, and you were able to turn me back by disbelief.”
“You could put it that way.”

Carlos paused. It was one of those awkward pauses where one person has no idea what to say (AKA me), and the other (AKA Carlos) is working up the courage to say something that isn't going to make sense to the first person. Okay, so I couldn't tell it was that kind of pause at the time, but looking back...uh...I'll just go on, alright?

At the end of that awkward pause I mentioned, Carlos said, “Try touching me again.”
“What?!”
“Hold up, it's not that crazy. I just want to see what happens. If it works, you know? I mean, it looks like you could turn me back if I don't like it.”
“But, it's not that simple. I don't even know how I did that.”
“That's easy, you denied it. With the other two, you seem like you didn't believe it, but it was more of an amazement than a straight-out 'this can't be' deal.”
“...Okay...but...I don't even know what happens to a person's mind, when I, do that. I mean, I'm pretty sure that robber guy lost every bit of whoever he was before turning into Rio.”
“You don't know that though. You've got to try and figure out just what happens when you touch people and change them, so maybe if it's not too bad you won't seem like a freak afraid to touch any other human being.”
I started to calm down a little. Carlos was doing his 'logic' thing now. “Yeah...yeah...but what about you​​? I mean, you want to be the guinea pig for this?”
He grinned a little, which only confused me a bit worse. “Eeh..you got me. I sorta want to know what it's like to be the opposite sex...especially if there's a chance I could turn back. Besides, I remember being sorta happy in that 'dream' I had Saturday morning.”

I thought on it for a minute. I tried putting myself in his shoes, but it was sort of hard. I like my present gender, thankyouverymuch. But...Carlos is adventurous, likes to try new things. He might enjoy it, and not in a 'pervert' kind of way. Finally I nodded hesitantly. “Okay...”

Carlos held out a hand, and I tapped it hesitantly with my index finger. It was like dropping that lead nitrate stuff into pandemonium capacitate, or whatever—it happened fast and spread fast. All at once, that hand had limber, thin fingers, pretty, long fingernails, and the attached arm thinned. Carlos watched intently, almost a little too excitedly—his black shirt tightened, turned a light blue and sleeveless, while his shoulders shrank and his stomach sucked in, and his face shrank into a blue-eyed, blue-haired form I immediately recognized.
It was on to the hips, which got wider, pressing out his jeans—though those got tight, fast, accenting thin, long legs Carlos suddenly had, and revealing a hole between them no man could pull off having. The shirt had shrunk so fast I had missed it, exposing the stomach and the shoulders and most of the rest of, well, her—and turning a little frilly, rounding out on the front expectantly just before Carlos's chest expanded straight into it.

...Great. It was the same girl Carlos had become before..on Saturday morning. But she was wearing clothes.
No shirt. Because Carlos only wore a T-shirt, and apparently whatever made this work couldn't, or wouldn't, create fabric out of nothingness.
After a moment she grinned up at me. “I'm gonna have a look at myself in the mirror. Be right back!”
She ran off to the nearest bathroom (Guess whose? Mine? Right.), and after a moment came back, still grinning from ear to ear, and sat on the couch right next to me.
“Aww, you're blushing. That's cute.”
“Um..Carlos?”
“Carla.”
“Carla. Do you..feel alright?”
“I feel great! I don't think I've ever felt so confident about my body before in my life.”
I spoke slowly and carefully. “So, you're not just randomly cheerful for no reason. Right?”
“Yeah. I have a legitimate reason. And changing was fun.”
(Not the word I would use to describe it, but okay.) “Uh..glad I could help?”
“Of course, thank you.” She nodded. “Seriously though..let's see what's different.”

“Well, you're sitting..um..there...and apparently have no problem being practically topless. And you're enjoying tormenting me.”
“Only because you're being so shy. C'mon, we're friends!”
“...Right. So, um..do your memories feel any different?”
“Hmm..” She paused a moment, thinking. “I still remember every bit of being Carlos. You know, hanging out as guys...all that stuff. I've got other memories though, as Carla. They're almost exactly the same until about the time I hit puberty.”
I was hesitant to ask this, but went for it anyway: “...What then?”
“Oh, you started to act a lot shyer around me. I've always been open with myself—it seems—so you were kind of embarrassed when we're together and I'm not perfectly modest. I can recall teasing you a lot—it's fun!—and some serious conversations about it, too. I mean, we're friends.”
I put my hand to my forehead at this point. “What's wrong?”
“I...have two memories now too. No idea how that happened.”
“So I don't have to go into detail, I hope?”
“No..plenty of detail in my brain now,” I said. “I guess you don't want to change back anytime soon.”
“Nawh. Let me try it for a few weeks. At least long enough to discover the nightmare of a period firsthand, non-memory...see if it's..you know...worth it.”
“Um..by then I might be unable to deny it though. I mean, it's pretty hard to right now, with the whole 'dual memory' thing...?”

“Well..you can't be the only person that can change people, right? I mean, that wouldn't make any sense.”
“Spoken like a genre savvy,” I commented.
“Yup.” She nodded. “So even if you can't, there's probably someone who could—if I ever get to hating this. Can't imagine it now, though...”

...So what happened the rest of the day? We...talked. The conversation degenerated into our usual kind of conversation. Gah, I mean the kind of conversation that's usual with Carlos. With Carla. Both memories agree it's usual. That's...really confusing. Whatever. It got awkward a couple of times—for me only, of course—but...I don't know what to make of it. I guess I didn't lose a friend. Wonderful. I've just gained a strange power I know absolutely nothing about.

Yeah, okay. It's kind of nice to have a...hot girl as a best friend now. But it raises a lot of uncomfortable questions, not to mention the fact that I'm easily flustered by...ahm...beauty...and she just laughs about it.

Anyway, the rest of the day...after we had our typical (not going over that again) remainder of the day, she picked up a shirt that Carlos's coat had morphed into and put it on for her walk home. We said goodbye.
And here I am, writing this. I don't know if it's possible for things to get stranger.


NO WAY.


I did NOT just say that, did I!?



Just...forget it. I'll write something else when it happens. Yes, when.

Midas Journal 3

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Part 3; see first part for information.

Entry: Mar 19
Part: 3
This next part is what happened today. (That's right, I'm writing this at night—what better time to hide stuff from people?) See, I've got a friend, Seth, who's a couple of years older than I am. He graduated last year from Phalos High, and he's been spending the time until next fall working under a small business as a telephone handler, to help pay for his planned four or more years of college. After school Carlos had to go run some errands for his mom, so I decided to go visit Seth at work on my way home, to relieve doldrums. Turned out he got the rest of the day off today, starting just about when I walked up to the place (how weird is that?), so he said he'd walk with me to chat a little.

“So, I haven't seen you much the last couple of months,” I said. “Not since New Years. How are things with the job?”
“Well...let's say I'm looking forward to college, Kael.”
I remember thinking 'this, the job you absolutely loved for six months straight'...but didn't say that. Instead: “Wow, that bad?”
“I just don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything anymore. It's not that I hate my boss or those professionals that work with him...I'm just getting annoyed with how they pretty much ignore me. The customers on the phone have the usual range from friendly to demonic, of course...I guess I just feel underappreciated. I don't want a raise, know they can't afford it anyway and there's no reason for one. Just an occasional friendly nod, pat on the back, 'hey, great, you're doing your job' would do. You know?”
I did the natural, semisarcastic thing then, of course, and patted his back a couple of times. He paused in his walk to give me a halfway grin. “Thaaanks. Ha ha.”

We started to move forward again, two or three steps, and he suddenly stopped. “Whoa.”
“What is it?” I said, looking around. There wasn't anything...and then I thought, wait a minute, there was nothing around. There we were on the sidewalk, without any other people, no cars, pets, or anything. The closest houses even had thick blinds drawn. I began to suspect where this was going, and didn't like it a bit.
“I don't know...my back feels..warm.”
“It is spring, you know.”
“I know..not like that, though. It's like...aah, I'm not sure how to describe it. The kind of warm, fuzzy feeling a kid gets hugging a brand new teddy bear. And it's spreading..aah...”
What I could see was his button-down shirt starting to get tighter, especially on his stomach. And I knew for a fact Seth wasn't nearly as thin as he looked now..

I could hear his voice occasionally, making slight noises, could hear it slowly rising in pitch, but I was more focused on what was happening to his body. Now his khakis were getting tighter around his thighs—not shrinking themselves, as I could see his hips quickly expanding, and his bottom rounding out. They did shrink quite a bit on his legs, and at the top, between them—I was quickly able to see something that wasn't there anymore.
My attention was suddenly and inexplicably drawn to Seth's face. I could see the bits of fuzz he hadn't been able to shave with his electric razor this morning suddenly retracting, leaving its skin entirely smooth; the whole thing then shrank in, his lips turning a shade of red I was sure could only be achieved with lipstick. Then his hair—oh, this was weird—shot out, growing down easily to the small of his back, past that to the top of the round bottom, and turned a shade of light purple as something red—a scrunchie?—tied some of it up in the back.
“Ah...whoa... That was, a push.” I was startled by Seth's voice, now a smooth, mature alto. I was going to ask or wonder what..she..was referring to when I noticed bulges appearing under the now quite-tight shirt. Suddenly the shirt's buttons popped off, starting at the center and going up and down, exposing a good bit of the slender neckline, flat, taut stomach, smooth skin..and most importantly, a black, flower-patterned brassiere that had probably been Seth's undershirt before, and was now filled quite completely.



Blushing, she gingerly traced her neckline, touching some of the skin on the new breasts. “Wow...R-real...
“It all feels so....wonderful....” After a moment, she looked back up at me, as if noticing me for the first time in the last few minutes. “Kael...don't tell anyone about this, alright? I've been..Sarah, alright?” I nodded dumbly. I had a lot of questions, and objections, too, but...I felt stuck.
She ran off, toward her house. After a moment I shook myself off, and ran to my own house. I sat through a normal supper to get to writing this...hoping it'll help my sanity.

I called Carlos after I got home, and invited him over for lunch. My parents will be out tomorrow, most of the day, so I'm going to tell him. I just really hope I don't wind up in some kind of loony bin.

Midas Journal 2

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Second part. See the first part for information.

Entry: Mar 19
Part: 2

Three days later, it was a Tuesday—as anyone with half a brain should be able to figure out, but yeah. Carlos and I were walking home from school when...I'm not kidding...a guy jumped out from a nearby alley wearing all black and a ski mask, and holding a gun. It was ridiculous, in broad daylight, and especially considering neither of us had anything of value. He tossed Carlos aside without a word and grabbed me by the collar.
“Give me all your money!”
“I-I don't have any money!” Of course I was more than a little scared, but meanwhile I was wondering in the back of my head why such impossibly weird stuff was apparently going to become common). The guy put the barrel of his gun to my forehead, which resulted in a general mental meltdown. I reflexively tried to push it off, with both hands, and...again I've got to say, this was the weird part.
His hand started shrinking. His glove disappeared, and his whole wrist—the whole arm—got smaller, thinner, and lost a good bit of the hair to it. For that matter, the pitch-black sweater sleeve pulled back from that hand the same way I'd wanted to recoil from the gun. Surprised, the guy let go of me, causing me to topple over backwards (fortunately, unhurt). Still in a bit of shock and terror about the gun, I was pretty much paralyzed and watched from where I was.
His sleeve got a lot looser as it stopped a little behind the elbow, the collar of it turning a bright green and the part on his shoulder an equally bright yellow. The whole sweater thinned all of a sudden, and then turned the same color of yellow—it turned into a shirt, seemingly without anything much under it. As the other sleeve shrank, revealing an arm that was becoming much like the other one, the collar opened down suddenly, turning the same green as the cuffs, and a bow tying it together seemed to appear out of nowhere.
The ski mask disappeared altogether, revealing a rough masculine face for all of two seconds before the rugged beard smoothed over, the whole face becoming shorter and smooth, the brown hair shooting out to great lengths before two sides were tied by more ribbons from nowhere—these ones yellow.
His pants turned green next, and seemed to fold in on themselves at the same time as the gap between the fabric on each leg closed, and then it pushed to the front and back, all of which resulted in the whole thing becoming a skirt. The yellow shirt suddenly shrank around his stomach, seeming to shove that area inward into a very thin, flat shape. I then noticed the skirt was losing more than half of its length, briefly exposing legs that were losing a lot of hair and shrinking, which were quickly covered up by white socks that quickly elongated into stockings reaching just above the knees. Once the skirt had finished shrinking the two revealed a little bit of smooth, curved skin between them, and the leggings were quite tight enough to suggest more of the same all the way down.
The skirt pushed out at the top and back then, apparently responding to a drastic change in the anatomy of the body's hips, and the bottom part fanned out to match. Last of all I was able to see the bow, collar, and upper part of the shirt being pushed out by what was definitely a pair of modest, petite boobs.



Her arms reached around her back, carrying a suitcase that must have been the handgun less than a minute ago. A sweet, high soprano voice spoke from the new girl's mouth: “Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you alright? I can be such a klutz sometimes...here, I'll help you up!” She reached down a hand and grabbed mine by force, pulling me up. Small as those arms were, and thin as they looked...wow, they were strong! So I came along for the ride in an attempt to not dislocate a shoulder.

She gave a small smile in my direction while I dusted myself off. “You alright now? I've got to go...say, do you..go to Phalos High?”
Not really knowing how else to respond I said, “Yeah...why?”
“I just moved in a few days ago...today was my first day of school but I sorta...got lost looking for it. I'm Rio by the way.”
“Rio. Right. I'm..Kael.”
She gave me a slight sideways glance. “How's that spelled? K-A-Y-E-L-E?'
“No...K-A-E-L. It..doesn't sound how it looks.”
“Right, got it. And you?” She looked off to my left.
“Carlos.” He must have gotten up at some point...he was now standing there next to me.
“Good to meet you both. Aaahm, I'd better be on my way home, bye!” With that, she gave a cheerful wave and then ran off in the direction I'd been facing, suitcase in hand.

I looked over at Carlos, and he waited until she was definitely out of earshot before speaking: “Okay...did I hallucinate or was that cute girl a robber with a handgun about two minutes ago?”
“...You saw that too?”
He nodded.
“I think you're right...nobody's ever gonna believe this, though...”
“Yeah. And there weren't any other witnesses—odd for a public street at this time of day.” He was right—there wasn't a single car or pedestrian in sight but the two of us.
“How about we just...pretend that what she said happened, happened, and she just smacked into us running...that way.” I pointed behind myself...opposite the direction she'd just gone off in.
“She didn't say that.”
“She implied it.”
“You're right. Close enough...”

From there the two of us continued our conversation where we'd left off, acting as normal and not-freaked-out as possible.
So...I guess if it was my doing...I can stop robbers by turning them into schoolgirls? That's got to be the weirdest power ever. But...I didn't say anything about what I'd seen the day after my birthday. I...just didn't feel ready.
Third time turned out to be a charm...at least as far as my not being able to keep it all to myself went.

Midas Journal 1

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So, this is an episodic story I worked on for awhile. It's kind of slowed to a halt as of right now, but I hope to re-continue it sometime soon, as I do have some plans for it. Since I haven't had much inspiration for captions lately I'm just gonna plan to post what's done on this in over a few days or so. It's old news to anyone who's read this at MSF, but here it is anyway. First part:

Entry: Mar 19
Part 1

If you're reading this, congrats on finding it. This is a secret, top-secret file. I've hidden it as deep in my computer as I could, so nobody would ever find it...at least, not easily. Not without my knowing, or unless something's happened to me.
And if you're reading this, I'm not crazy. Okay? I'm writing this, journal thing just because I'm trying to make sense of what I've been seeing lately. I know nobody's ever going to believe me, so...top-secret file. Clear?

So...lately things have gotten really, really strange. The worst part, I guess, is I'm starting to get used to it...but I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what happened:
A week ago, the Friday night after my 18th birthday, I went to sleep like I usually do. And I had a dream. But it wasn't an ordinary dream—it was really distinct, I could remember it after I woke up, and, well, I didn't feel like I had any control over it, even though I immediately knew it was a dream. All I saw in it was a man touching some fruit and it turned into pure gold, touching a cup and it turned into gold...something like that. Then there was this...flash, and then I woke up. Okay, so I had a weird dream. But that's not even starting with the strange stuff.

The night before one of my little circle of friends, Carlos, had stayed the night, sleeping on the floor under a blanket. I woke up in the bright morning light—you know the kind, it always interrupts a good sleeping-in, and you wind up giving up after a few minutes of flailing and getting up well before noon—and he was still sleeping there. The other side of my bed was up against a wall, so I had to step out where he was sleeping, practically on top of him, or else risk waking him up. I was careful enough not to actually step on him, but my bare foot did catch a good bit of the blanket. I didn't think much of it, stepping over the other side of him and going to the bathroom, but when I came back that part of the blanket had turned from blue to pink. Furthermore, the pink was spreading like someone was pouring a big bottle of dye on the spot, and it was somehow not staining anything but the blanket.

As the...the...pink spread to the part of the blanket over Carlos's body, his hair turned blue—no kidding...it just, all at once, changed color. And then his bangs grew out, the whole curly mass turned straight and smooth...I was already confused enough about that, and then I noticed the rest of his body.
There were two things wrong with that picture: One, there was no evidence of his wearing any clothing under the blankets, even though he'd gone to sleep in boxers and a T-shirt the night before...and two, he was shrinking. The blanket started to trace contours, his stomach was sloping in. Then the blanket itself got, well, a lot smaller, so when he rolled over lazily onto his side I caught view of the front of the stomach...which had turned flat, smooth, a little pale...and his legs. They seemed longer than before, and they were getting a shapeliness to them, the bumps and ridges between the hips and the feet reforming into single, smooth lines. His hips started to spread out, pulling the top of the legs each way, and in trying really hard not to look there I snapped my eyes back up, to find the blanket forming a kind of loose sleeve around each arm.
Those arms were shrinking, much like the legs; his fingers thinned and shortened, the nails growing out just a bit and becoming polished, uniform. My focus was drawn to his face as one hand reached up and brushed the strange, blue hair gently. It had become smaller too, the chin less defined, and turned the same palish color as the rest of him. His eye shape had changed completely...even closed, they seemed so strangely large...
My eyes were drawn to Carlos's chest. I really didn't want to look, but it was hard not to. I was struck dumb by everything...it was like...well, the expression goes “like watching a train wreck”. No matter how much I wanted to look away from something I couldn't, because somewhere beneath the dread, fear, and otherwise freaking-out that was going on inside my brain I was mesmerized by it. His chest was growing...he...she... was filling out. The little bumps grew, and grew, until they had reached a fairly...large...size.



Before I could say or do anything, she opened her eyes...which had turned the same shade of blue as that hair...and looked up at me.
“Morning, Kael,” said a light, upper-alto voice from her lips. She got up, the former-blanket now acting as some kind of bathrobe, and I forced my eyes up to her face..forehead. She leaned over and gave me a very brief kiss on the lips before going off to the bathroom, and starting the shower.

Well, I was confused, to say the least. The problem of Carlos turning into a girl was complicated by the fact that the first thing she did was kiss me and not even worry about a lack of clothing, and that was made about twenty times worse by the fact that she was...hot. What I felt was a mixture of surprise, confusion, embarrassment...somewhere at the back of my mind, a kind of elation, stirring up more embarrassment and a good bit of revulsion.
I sat down on my bed, trying to work out just what was going on here. After a few minutes the shower stopped, and I looked up, ready for...well...okay, so I wasn't ready. Not at all.

To my surprise, Carlos walked out..as...Carlos, not the girl, wearing the change of clothes he'd packed last night.
“Hey, what's eatin' you?”
“Um...nothing. I think I had a..a weird dream, that's all.”
“Oh.”

The rest of the day was...normal. We played some games, and after awhile Carlos went back to his house. The whole time I made sure not to touch Carlos...or his clothes.


So after that I got to thinking that it was just a...hallucination, or some kind of dream where I woke up somehow already sitting up. Maybe I was sleepwalking. Dreaming. Dreamwalking. It was a good, normal three days before such theories were blown out of the roof, in other words proven totally wrong.