Intelligence

This is certainly one of the longer captions, but it's not the longest. The image is so tall because the source image was so thin, and I felt I had to keep the caption at most thrice its width. Apparently that caused blogspot to reduce its size considerably when I uploaded it. If you are having trouble reading it as-is, here is a text+image form:

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Remus knew his friend Kell was the kind of guy who would take any advantage he could. College applications were very competitive to the kind of schools he wanted to go to. Remus stuck to the more traditional method of improving his standardized test scores--studying. Kell studied too, but he looked for anything else that could give him an edge.

One day Remus was hanging out with Kell at his house when a package came for him. He didn't pay much attention until Kell pulled out a pair of red-rimmed oval-shaped glasses out of it. "..Glasses? You don't need glasses."
"No, but these are special. They were being sold on E-bay for cheap," said Kell. "Supposedly they make whoever wears them smarter."
"Another lucky charm, then."
"Yeah. Why not try, right?"
"Well, for one thing, those look like prescription glasses, so they'll probably just mess up your vision and give you a headache. And for another..why do they have that strap thing on the back instead of ear hooks, like normal?"
"Huh?" Kell took a closer look at the glasses. "That part wasn't in the picture. No big deal though, I can still put 'em on." Kell put the glasses on, and waited.

"Well..I don't feel any smarter."
"It's probably just someone's prescription glasses they didn't need anymore or something, and they knew they could get a quick buck out of 'em."

"Yeah...they don't seem to be doing anything but making it hard to see," he said. "You might be right. But I still don't get the strap thing. Why would--whoa."
"What?"
"I just had a small cranial affliction," he said, rubbing his head.
"..What again?"
Kell blinked a couple of times. "Uh..I had a brief headache. It felt as if something exterior was entering and accommodations had to be made."
"Oh. Why are you talking weird?"
"I..do not know. When I attempt to communicate I find myself spewing excessively polysyllabic terminology. Wait, that's not what I--"
"Oh! You're talking smart. That means it worked, doesn't it?"
Kell thought for a moment, not quite noticing the hair showing up on the sides and top of his peripheral vision. "Well..I am not certain. I mean, vocabulary is not exactly a yardstick for intellect."
"Yeah, but just knowing all those words is sure to..uh..wait, what's up with your hair?"

"What do you mean?"
"It's turning green!"
"Huh?" Kell pulled a strand of his hair over to his eye from one side, and he could clearly see that it was getting a greenish tint to it, and getting brighter. "Wait..it is lengthening, as well!"
"Maybe you should take it off."
"Yes, of course." Kell quickly lifted the glasses off his head, strap and all, and handed it to Remus; the whole time his hair's color continued to brighten, and it slowly grew until it was framing his face, just short of his shoulders.

"Wha.." Kell looked around for a second. Everything far off looked blurrier than usual. "It..made me nearsighted? I wouldn't want to wear it again, however..I suppose I could afford a prescription--" He stopped short, and did a double-take. Remus looked a little taller than usual.
"What is it?"
"I--I am diminishing!" As he spoke, Kell's body rapidly lost height, the whole room rising up around him. "But..my apparel..?" His shirt, hoodie, and pants both seemed to be getting tighter on him, especially the pants. He put a hand up against his stomach, and observed, "My girth is decreasing, as well.." He looked up as the shrinking came to an abrupt halt to find that he was now a full head shorter than Remus. "I..I do not think removing the spectacles halts their effect," he said.
"But..what are they doing?" asked Remus, looking at the glasses.
"I--cchkkt!" Kell sudden feeling of choking brought Kell's hands to his neck, and they found what seemed to be a collar. Yet, it didn't feel all that tight--he could breathe just fine again after the first second.
"What happened?"
"Some kind of...mm!?" Kell's eyes widened in surprise at his voice--it sounded much higher than before. He cleared his throat, and even that sounded strangely high. "My vocalization was altered! I sound..I sound like..oh."

"Oh, what?"
"I think I understand the purpose and end of the effect.." said Kell, while his jeans suddenly turned all to cloth, splitting at the thighs. Below, it turned white and squeezed tightly against his legs, seeming to push them in as it did. His upper legs seemed to grow as a direct result, and to push back and apart at the top, widening his hips; the upper part of the pants turned black and began to shrink still tighter, especially between his legs. "They make one at least appear more intelligent by altering one's vocabulary, but..they also alter one's physiology, to an..an extensively effeminate end."
"Um..so you're..they..?" The bulge between Kell's legs rapidly shrank into nothingness, allowing the shorts to fit snugly, as well as some underwear that he hadn't even noticed changing underneath.
"Yes! They alter one's sex," said Kell, with some resignation in her voice. Then she suddenly could feel her ears, seemingly stretching out on their own. "Oh..is that not all?" she said, tugging at one of her ears. It was growing, and felt fuzzy to the touch.
"I guess not," said Remus, staring at the ears. "It looks like..cat ears!"
Kell could feel something pushing its way from her back, through the bottom of the hoodie and shirt, just above the shorts. "And..a matching tail, I presume."

She managed to maneuver the tail, as it came close to its full length, so she could get a hand on it and look at it. It was bright green like her hair now was. This is a..dubious bonus--I was only expecting.." Her eyes widened again at an odd, pushing feeling from her chest.
"What?" said Remus.
She unzipped her hoodie, and got a look at two small bumps up against the inside of her shirt. "M-mammaries," she said, blushing, as another push expanded the bumps. "R-rather sizable ones, at that," she added, feeling another, bigger push, and watching them grow still larger.
"Um..when did your eyes turn green?" said Remus, trying not to stare at her growing breasts.
"I..d-do not know," she said. There was one last push, completing the rapid filling out of her figure, and she had a brief, strange sense that it was 'done'.

She looked up, into Remus's eyes. They were both silent for a few very long seconds. A small smile crossed her lips, along with another blush. "I..think it is over. And..it must have completely altered my gender as well."
"W-what's the difference?" said Remus. He was starting to blush, too.
"If I were sexually female but male in gender..I, do not think I would feel much attraction toward you."

A moment of awkward silence passed. "Well..I suspect the spectacles have done all they will to me, and I am still nearsighted. So. I could probably use them."
"S-sure." Remus handed Kell the glasses, and she put them on her nose, pulling the strap over her feline ears (which she had enough control over to fold them flat against her head).
"I suppose we at least know the purpose of the strap. But..why create glasses that transform their wearer into a female feline hybrid, and alter her speech into excessive verbosity? Are the feline parts meant to create some sort of stigma?"

"I dunno. I think they're cute."
"And my irregular communication?"
"It's kind of cute too..even if I don't understand all of what you're saying."
"Hm. Is there anything in which the glasses curse me with some disadvantage?"

"Well, you're not a guy anymore, so I guess you aren't as strong.."
"I was not particularly athletic to begin with, though."
"Well, I don't know then. You look great, I mean, I bet you could be some kind of model if you wanted.."

"Perhaps I could try a sensual pose to test that hypothesis?" She adjusted the glasses with her right hand, putting her left hand against her hip (which felt oddly natural), and licked her lips. 

"Okay, wow. Y-you are officially the hottest girl I have ever seen," said Remus, blushing.
She laughed. "That was..m-merely meant as a jest. I would rather not display clothing for a living, I think. Would you care to join me for daily sustenance?"
"You mean..lunch?"
"..Yes."
"Sure."

This was something I needed to finish before the story idea mentioned off to the right, in case you were wondering.

Midas Journal 13

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Entry: Apr 16

Part 2

Okay, now the real reason I'm writing this is because of what happened this afternoon. Before today, Aden and I hung out a couple of times, on Tuesday and Thursday. I introduced him to Carla at lunch, and he flirted with her a little bit. She didn't mind, and I was glad to have her not teasing me for once. We talked a lot, and at the lunch table, and I got to know him pretty well. He's into gaming..pen and paper RPGs, that kind of thing. And apparently Tina's also in his group that meets every other weekend, which I guess means Tim was before. There's a lot more stuff I found out about his interests and all, but I don't want to go into too much detail about all that stuff.

So. This afternoon. Aden offered to buy me some ice cream at a local-run shop, he said it was really good stuff, and it was. We got the ice cream, and we were on our way to his house because he wanted to show me some stuff. He had barely started his cone, he finished a story he was telling from one of his games, and then he said something. He said, "You know, Kael, sometimes I really wish I could do magic. I mean, I know it's not real and all, but it would be so cool to be able to throw around fireballs or make crazy elaborate illusions. What about you?"

"I kind of like magic not being real," I said. I was being perfectly honest about that.

"Aw, c'mon, I'm sure there's some power you'd love to have, just to play around with for a little while," he said, and gave one of those friendly fake punches to my arm with his free hand. "Huh?"

I looked at him, and I noticed it at the same time he did. Well, he noticed some kind of black material wrapping itself over his knuckles, and starting to grow. I noticed that all of a sudden my sense was telling him he would turn into a girl if he touched me. Oh man, was all I could think. Now what?

The material quickly wrapped itself around his hand and up his wrist a little bit, ignoring the outer half of his fingers. "Well, this feels weird," he said, and I saw the material squeezing his hand and fingers into a much smaller, skinnier shape, and even the exposed parts of his fingers shrank. Two things that looked like miniature belts appeared on top of the wrist of the, gloves I guess, and then from the wrist up his whole arm started shrinking, the hair on it disappearing. His t-shirt's sleeve pulled in until his shoulder was exposed.

"Scratch that. This is weird," he said, looking at his arm and turning it around. "Whoa.." Then he started to lose height, and his shirt started to get tighter and longer at the bottom. I could see the middle of the shirt separating, buttons appearing to hold it together, and the collar growing and folding itself over. And then his other sleeve pulled in to match the first one, and his arm started shrinking too. For some reason he put the ice cream cone in the already-changed hand, and watched the one that was changing as the same black material as before showed up at the edge of his wrist and grew down the hand into a matching glove.

"Huh..wow," he said. I could hear his voice starting to change now. He looked down at his lower body, moving his head back and forth to try and get a better look at what was going on. Thanks to the tight shirt I could see his stomach shrinking in and his hips growing, and now his pants split at the thighs, the top part turning white all at once while the bottom turned black. The top part shrank up a few inches and started getting vertical creases on it, and some kind of straps made their way up from the leggings, which were now squeezing his legs into a very slim shape. "So I'm gonna..?" he started, in a voice that still sounded like a guy's, but barely, and paused, getting a weird look on his face. "Oh. Yes, apparently." His, or I guess her, voice rose into the girl range now.

"Whoa," she said, and I looked up to see Aden's face quickly shrinking and shifting, his hair suddenly turning from dark brown to bright blond and growing out, covering his forehead in the front, framing his face on the sides, and reaching as far as his waist in the back. He blinked once, and suddenly his eyes had turned this bright yellow color. Then a red tie appeared in the middle of his shirt's collar and grew down to about the middle of his stomach, and the motion drew my attention to two small bumps now on her chest, still growing and stretching the tight shirt farther out. Or, I dunno, maybe the shirt was growing there.

"Oh? Wow," she said. Her voice was really high now, even for a girl, almost at risk of being squeaky and annoying..but not exactly that high. And then I noticed her ears. They were getting big, and growing fur, like Rhia's had, but not in exactly the same shape. The fur was the same color as her hair, except for a white tip on each. There was some motion in my peripheral vision, and I looked down to see a big, bushy tail in the same color, with the same kind of white tip. I have no idea when that appeared. And by the time I looked up again there was some kind of blue hat on her head, sitting awkwardly behind the big triangular ears, and her boobs looked pretty much full.

"Phew, is it over?" she said, looking over herself again, taking the tail in one hand and looking at it for a second or two. She got an excited look in her eyes. "Man, that was crazy! Look at me, I'm a fox-girl! Huh?" She paused a couple of seconds, and I'm pretty sure I knew why. I could feel another copy-of-memory thing happening, and suddenly I knew she was Adena, knew I had met her under the same conditions and all but as a girl, with the same animal ears and tail. Since I'd only really met her this week, my memories weren't all that effected, but I knew it was a pretty big deal for her.

Finally, she said, "...Okay, wow. All of my wow. Did you do this?" She seemed mostly amazed about it still, but kind of happy.

"..Err, sort of. Not on purpose. I can explain somewhere more private."

"Okay, c'mon!" She grabbed my hand and started half-running in the direction of her house. I was glad to find out she wasn't super strong like Lue, but I followed her anyway, and in a couple of minutes we came to her house and she led the way inside.

"Okay..I'm pretty sure my parents aren't here, so this should be private enough," she said, closing the front door and moving to the middle of the living room. "So, I have powers now. Like, awesome powers. Check this out!" She put her right hand out, palm-up, and a yellow-colored fireball appeared hovering over it for a few seconds.

"Uh..maybe don't do that around flammable stuff."

"I know, I know! It's just so cool. But--so you said you did this somehow?"

"..Yeah. About, a month ago was my eighteenth birthday, and since waking up that morning I sometimes turn guys into girls when I touch them. I don't really understand how or why it works, but I thought I'd at least learned to sense whether that would happen or not..."

"I was about to say. You've touched me plenty of times, what makes this one special?"
"I don't know. When I first met you it didn't 'feel' like anything like that was going to happen. And for some reason it seems like everyone it happens to is just really happy about it. I don't get that, either. I mean, I can use the power on myself to go back and forth, but as far as I can tell it's just..weird switching genders."

"Hm..yeah, you're right. It is weird. But the reason I'm happy with this doesn't have anything to do with being a girl. It's because it came with awesome powers. Like, watch this." She made a tossing motion off to her left, and suddenly she was standing over there. I did a double take to see that there were apparently two of her. The original went over to the 'new' one and waved her hand around inside it, and it shimmered like some kind of movie hologram. Then the copy disappeared. "Actually..hey. I think I get it!"
"You do?"

"Yeah. Your power grants wishes!"

"Uh.."
"No no, hear me out. Just before you changed me into what I looked like now I was talking about how I'd like to be able to do magic. Specifically fire and illusions. Right?"
"Yeah.."
"And when I turned from Aden to Adena, what kind of powers did I get?"
"..Oh."

I sat down and sighed, hand on my forehead. She came up in front of me and leaned forward a little. "What? What's wrong with that?"

"Okay, look. The other thing I've noticed about my power, other than what I've already told you, is that every time I've turned a guy into a girl they..act kind of attracted to me. Especially at first. Meaning if you're right about my power granting wishes..the trade-off for granting someone's wish is supposed to be getting turned into an attractive girl, and..ugh, I don't even want to think about it."

She sat on the couch next to me, but not uncomfortably close. "Well, I didn't feel especially attracted to you. I mean, you're pretty good-looking but I still don't really feel like we need to be more than friends, you know? What if it was just a rush of hormones or something?"

"Okay..but if you were coming up with powers, and made up a power that could grant other people's wishes while making them girls, why else would you do that?"

"Well obviously nobody came up with your powers. You sure didn't, right?"

"Yeah, but for something as specific as this I get the impression somebody must have made up all the rules."

"Eh, maybe." She got back up again. "I think you need to relax a little, take your mind off that stuff for a while. C'mon, I have some old cards to show you."

So, long story short: I tried to make a new male friend, I ended up turning him into a girl, too, and finding out more terrible things about my powers. I just hope I can get them under control soon so this kind of thing won't happen anymore.

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Alright, so. Here's the deal. This is a story that I've never had any particularly solid long-term ideas for. I think it up, and write it, in a one-scenario-at-a-time kind of format. And I'd really like to have some more scenario ideas to work with. So, as of this entry, I am taking suggestions for what should happen next in Midas Journal. If you have a suggestion, please post it in a comment to the most recent one (which of course is this one as of this writing). There is no guarantee that suggestions will be used, but if I do use yours I'll be sure to credit you up top for the idea.