Vulpine

So, remember how a very long time ago, I asked which of two potential captions people wanted to see? Between a wishing website, and a magical pendant? Well, this was the image I had in mind for the magical pendant, but it was originally going to be rather more similar to the other one (Foxy), with a first person perspective and somewhat more surprise on the part of the guy being changed. I'm rather glad it came out different; actually I'm glad I was able to get to where I could write this at all. Had a huge writer's block on it for the longest time.

Northern Wind

Took a break from stories to write a caption. Hope it turned out alright.

Ring 3.3: Another Try

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Ring 3.3:

Another Try

"You got the ring?"
"Yeah, yeah." It was midmorning on Saturday. Cole and Rolf were meeting at the former's door, before walking to the latter's house. The object in question was in his pocket, so he started walking, and Rolf moved when he did. "You sure you want to do this? You were acting seriously freaked out last time."

"I really want to get it right. I won't enjoy the arcade at all if I'm too busy being confused. I was fine before, but now that I'm thinking about it I won't stop thinking about it, no matter what it is that thing does to my brain."

"Given that you don't seem to particularly like being Flora, I would expect you to be more concerned about 'becoming' her."

"Well, yeah, but I read the instructions eight times, because I'm at least as paranoid about this as you are. Once a week is fine, no problem, even if you keep it for the whole twelve hours. The warning is more for someone who tries to, like, lead some kind of secret life every night using the disguise."

"Hm, speaking of, I'd like to borrow that booklet if you're done with it."

"Sure, I have at the house. Mom and dad will be at work all day, by the way..in case you were wondering."

"Nah, I don't think so little of your intelligence. Akio, maybe, not you."

Inside, Cole handed him the ring and said, "So do you want me to turn around, or go to another room or something..?"

Rolf shook his head. "Nah. We all changed in front of each other the first time, no reason to worry about that now." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to get a handle on his thoughts. He got a clear idea in his head of what he wanted to turn into before he even brought the ring close to his finger: A version of Flora who shared his interests, for mostly the same reasons as him. Someone he himself could talk to. Once he had that down, he put on the ring, still concentrating on that idea.

He opened his eyes in time to see the ring glow, and then took it off. And then..seemingly nothing. Rolf looked around for a couple of seconds, Cole blinked and shrugged. Finally he broke the silence. With shouting. "What the heck?! Did it run out of batteries or something?" He held up the ring and practically yelled into it, as if it was going to respond.

"Maybe Akio got a knock-off and didn't even know it. Let me try." Cole held out his hand, and Rolf handed the ring to him. He put the ring on for a couple of seconds, thinking of Jenna, the ring glowed, and almost before it had cleared the end of his finger Cole started shrinking back into a girlish figure.

"Hmm," he said, inspecting it while his hair tumbled across his shoulders and down his back, and his clothes all pulled in to a dark summer dress. "Maybe your instructions were too specific." His voice sounded like Jenna's by now, and then he became a girl and her chest pushed out, completing the change in under half a minute. "Anything about that in the instructions?"

"I don't think so," said Rolf, before brushing some hair out of his eyes. He was about to say something else before he realized he didn't normally have to do that, and then looked down and took stock of himself again. He looked a little bit thinner, but his clothes were still fitting about the same, having shrunk with him. "Huh."

"Well, maybe it just works slower if you try to change the costume too much," suggested Jenna, having noticed the small changes herself.

"Question is, how much slower? It's gonna be really awkward if this takes, like, an hour or something."
"Maybe if you tell the ring to change you again it'll speed things along?"
"No, there was a warning about that. Putting the ring on again during the transformation has 'unpredictable results'." Rolf's hair had reached about shoulder-length by now, and it was starting to look brighter. "..I guess if this is gonna happen the next time I try, I'll have to start changing first next arcade night." His voice sounded a little less deep now, that was progress.

They waited quietly for a moment or so. He started to notice little changes coming to his height now. Jenna looked thoughtful. "Hmm..say."

"What?"

"I bet you'd be more comfortable as Flora if you stick with the form a little while. Even if you can't make yourself completly non-girly with the ring you can at least get used to the way you act and think so you're not stressing about it at the arcade."

Rolf noticed that his underwear wasn't touching his legs anymore, and became aware of a slight pressure between his legs. "What do you have in mind?" he asked, looking down at himself again and finding his stomach slimmer than before, his hips a little bit wider.

"Well, maybe we could hang out here, play some games or something. Or if you're feeling really adventurous we can go out shopping or something."

He felt an urge to take her up on that offer at the word 'shopping', and it didn't feel all that foreign, even though he knew he didn't usually do that kind of thing. "Um..hanging out here is fine," he said, his voice beginning to pull out of the masculine range. "As for the rest..we'll see." By now his hair was all the way down to the small of his back; he grabbed a bit of it and examined it to distract himself from the pressure between his legs, now alternating between getting tighter and looser. "If we do go out, I swear I'm gonna get a haircut or something. This just seems unmanageable."

As much as he tried to ignore it, the crossing over from male to female drew a slight blush to Rolf's cheeks. She felt a mild tingling across her body as most of the hair pulled in and disappeared, and her shirt and pants started to feel a bit tighter then before, though thankfully they weren't turning into a dress or anything. "Is..it going faster, or is it just me?" she said, her voice now well into the soprano range.

Jenna nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right."

Rolf could feel her hips pulling out and her stomach pushing in just a little bit more, and then her chest gently pushed out into a bra she hadn't even noticed appearing under her shirt. It was still a shirt this time, too, no neckline or exposed shoulders, though it was a little bit tight, and more so as her bust filled out.

Within a few more seconds Rolf was sure she had finished turning into Flora. She took a deep breath, thinking, and was relieved to find her interest in sports relatively unmarred. But she still couldn't help but think how cute the tomboy look must be on her..

"Okay, well, let's play some games then." Flora led the way into the game room, and Jenna followed.

---

It was hard to explain to herself how it had happened, but shortly after lunch Flora found herself near the front doors of the mall with Jenna standing next to her. And then they walked in without any ceremony.

Flora looked around at the clothing stores, simultaneously lost and bizarrely at home. Rolf had seen all these places before, but never really understood their purpose, never found any reason to look for more than a second or two at the vast array of different clothes; now she was inexplicably familiar with not only how to put them on but had some internal idea of how good this or that dress would look on her, or for that matter on Jen, and she felt like she could just look around at the colorful display for hours.

Jenna looked slightly less confused than she did, but between the two of them they managed to attract the attention of another, more natural-born high-school-aged girl behind them, who walked up next to them. She was a blond with a pixie cut in a camisole and jean shorts. Actually, both of them recognized her as she went to their school, and they'd even met briefly at the arcade, but Flora couldn't quite recall the name.

"Hey, you guys haven't been around here yet?"
"Well, no, we've been kinda busy the last week," said Jen. "Care to show us around, Lauren?" Right, that's what it was.

"Heh, sure."

She took the front and led the other girls along. "You're in luck, actually. I'm here for this huge sale that going on, but it's all day and on the other side of the mall, so there's no hurry. Let's just start here." Lauren began with the nearest store on the left, taking them up to the window and pointing inside. "They have all the brand name designers there. That's the place you go if you wanna spend a bunch of extra money for the label. But hey, if that's your style, I don't judge." She whirled around and quickly walked the other direction to the next store, the others still in tow.

"Fancy dress store," she said, indicating the clothes inside with her whole arm. "Expensive, but worth it. I used 'em for the prom this year, will again for the next one. If you ever need something fixed, one of their tailors takes some work on the side. Name's James, tell him I sent you and he might give one of us a discount sometime." With that, it was another turn and go.

They passed by a lingerie store, which neither of the usually-guys had ever set foot in. Lauren waved at it without stopping, saying, "I'm sure you know what that's for." Then she stopped in front of a video rental place, and the other two exchanged glances. They'd been here before, a lot, and had a decent idea of what she was about to tell them. "One of the last of its kind; I don't know how they get the prices as low as they do but if you ever wanna see a movie you don't own or catch up on a show that's out on DVD, stop by here." The place rented games, too, equally as nice and cheap.

Next they came upon a rather large shop, taking up the space of three normal ones. "They have a little of everything here, but you can get a little lost sometimes. They're real friendly, but they like to sell five or six outfits at once for some reason; if you try to walk out with just one they'll start throwing random discounts at you left and right. So if you actually want a bunch of outfits.."
"..Pretend you can only afford one," finished Flora.

Lauren gave a single nod. "Right."

Eventually they reached the other end of the mall, and a relatively small store awaited them. There were some sale posters blocking half of one of the windows, but from what they could see the place was full of clothes..and people. "..And this is where I was going," said Lauren. "They're a little unusual, they deal in used clothes, but this is no goodwill, it has to still be in pretty good condition. And they clean up and repair any damage before it goes out on the shelves. If you like the name brands but can't afford 'em, you might get lucky and find something here for a tenth of the price, and heck, nobody can tell the difference anyway."

"So I'm goin' in, you guys wanna join me?"

Jenna and Flora exchanged a look. They were both rather grateful they'd talked about this beforehand, the possibility of one of them actually wanting to buy something, or needing to do so to keep up appearances. Rolf had cash on hand, plenty to pay for an outfit or two, and Cole could pay him back later. It wouldn't be hard to hide a dress or whatever in Rolf's closet, cluttered as it was, so that was where they could keep it.

After only an instant of confirming their earlier plans, they turned back to Lauren and Jenna said, "Sure." They followed the other girl into the store, and got to work.

Supper was in the food court at the mall, also paid for with Rolf's cash, and after that the two of them set off for home. Lauren came with them, chatting for a good few blocks of the way, but eventually turned a different direction, leaving the two boys-turned-girls to sigh with some relief. They both changed back as soon as they were inside Rolf's home, and confirmed that neither of them had come to resemble their feminine disguises in any way they could measure.

As he was getting ready to walk out the door, taking the instruction booklet with him, Cole said, "Hey, if you wanna do that again next week we oughta invite Aki along, too."
"Hah, yeah, that'd be fun. Knowing him, she'd probably pick out something wacky looking and then actually pull it off. Um..not that I really want to do this again next weekend. I think I'd rather stay male a whole week this time, now that Flora acts..mostly like me, anyway."

"Well, maybe after arcade night, or the weekend after that, then. I'm glad to see you're a little more comfortable with it at least," said Cole. "When're you free next week to go to the gym?"
"Uh..Tuesday, I think. Actually, I'd better check my calendar, I'll text you about it later."

"Alright. See you!"

Rolf thought, after he'd closed the door and left, that Cole seemed more cheerful than usual, especially about the idea of exercising. Maybe, in some odd way, this was good for him. It got him wondering, Is it good for me, too, in some way I can't see? But he shook his head at that thought after a moment, and headed off for his room. He had some weight lifting to catch up on before bedtime.

---

Note: In the interest of honesty, I'll point out that in 1.1 Akio said the ring's effect lasted 24 hours, but then in 1.3 it was implied he'd said 12, and I've been acting like it's 12 ever since (see: Kell turning back automatically in the early morning). So I went back and edited the first part to match what I said/did later.

The "Best" RPG Ever-2

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Not ten hours ago, from at least one person's perspective, an avid tabletop gamer had received his monthly magazine, and found slipped into it an envelope with a disk inside. He couldn't find any mention of the disk in the magazine, the envelope was blank, and the only marking there was on the disk itself was "Best RPG Ever!" written in permanent marker. He muttered to himself a question of whether that was an advertisement or someone's review.

A few hours after checking the mail--just after lunch actually--he decided to take a look at it in his computer. The disk didn't even have an autorun function, it just acted like a data disk. "Is this someone's idea of a prank?" he thought. There was an executable that would apparently start the game, but no other files, not even a simple readme.

His curiosity was strong enough for him to ignore the risk that the disk might have some kind of virus or something, so he started the file and watched the percentage loaded crawl along. It was taking forever, so he got up to go get a drink. He didn't quite make it to the kitchen before suddenly, unexpectedly blacking out.

He woke up face-down, a little sore as if he'd fallen that way, and quickly pushed his way up into a standing position. Once he'd done that, it occured to him he definitely wasn't at home anymore. In fact, he wasn't anywhere recognizable: Just a white room with some kind of holographic pedestal in the middle, and what he could only assume to be an old-school message box floating above it.

"Huh..well, this is kind of awesome." He said, looking at said center-of-the-room objects. "I think they went a little overboard on the immersion, though, especially if they're gonna put unrealistic stuff like that in."

"..Oh who am I kidding. I wish I'd copied the disk and sent it to some LARPers or something. They'd have a hoot with this."

"Hmm..so, pick a class to begin, eh? What've we got here.." He figured out how to scroll from one class to another without much trouble. "Knight..class taken by another player. Bah, who wants that anyway? Witch!? Sorry, wrong gender. Illusionist? Lame. Huh, the archer sounds good, but probably sucks at close combat. Wait, construct? Like, a robot? I was thinking this was a fantasy game. Maybe it'd be interesting..oh, wait, it says constructs have 'muted emotions'. Nope, not for me, moving on."

The next option to appear looked to just be a 2D drawing of an eye floating in the air. "Hm..Psion." He read aloud, "Psions: Those who have rejected the use of all magic in order to unlock the true power of the mind. They are capable of unimaginable feats, manipulating and controlling the minds of others, lifting objects and affecting the physical world in various other ways through the power of their intelligence alone."

"Now that sounds awesome. But how do I..oh, yeah, just pick up whatever's there, right?" He reached out and closed his hand around the eye-thing. It didn't feel like he was holding anything, but his hand felt vaguely warm. The message box told him to bring his middle and forefinger to his forehead to confirm, or open his fist to cancel.

"Standard psychic stance, huh?" he commented, holding his hand in the prescribed manner. After a second or two, he felt something like static going from his hand to his forehead, and then his head started to hurt. "Hrk..ow. What the heck, message box, you didn't say this was gonna hurt!" He held his head in both hands for a few seconds as the headache intensified, making it feel like his brain was going to blow his own skull open, before suddenly dying down and going away, and then suddenly he felt oddly better than he had before, like his head had been a little sore all his life and now it had been relieved.

He let go, opened his eyes, and shook his head, trying to shake off a mild dizzyness that seemed to be lingering from the headache. He could swear the message box was moving up on him. Actually, after a couple of seconds he realized he wasn't all that dizzy and it was moving up. Or rather, he was moving down. He looked down to see if he was on some kind of elevator platform going down or something, and got a clear view of the floor getting closer.

"What the..is being short somehow a requirement for psychics? I...whoa!" His comment was interrupted by a sudden shove outward from his hips, making them wider and completely throwing off his balance. He flailed for a couple of seconds before going down, faceplanting with a smack.

"Ow," he said, not willing to get up yet. He felt another shove from his stomach now, but this one was inward instead of out, and as soon as it happened he could feel his shirt hanging loosely on the sides where it had fit pretty close before. Then his shirt pulled tight against his stomach, and he got an even better idea of the inward curve it had now. Then the sleeves grew out to his wrists, and his jeans suddenly felt like they were made of a much softer material.

He pushed himself up with his arms, trying to ignore a squeezing feeling coming from all four appendages, and managed to raise himself to a sitting position. He looked down and saw his shirt had turned a bright teal color, his pants now covered in black and white stripes; he was just in time to see the leggings splitting at the thighs and crawling down an inch or two, and then the top part started to open up a hole in the middle.

"Wh-what is this?!" he said, as his underwear suddenly lost its leggings entirely and pulled rather close between his legs. "How is..?" He was interrupted again by a sudden feeling of something shoving out from his back, a strange, thin appendage that all at once grew at least as long as one of his arms, and quickly began flicking around all on its own. He turned around to see it dancing around, just as it felt like it was.

"A..tail? Aah!" He was reacting to another sudden push, this time from his right ear, as it moved higher up on his head, became much larger and, by the feeling of wind across it, also became covered in fur. It was followed quickly by his left ear, and then just as suddenly his hair burst out, framing his face and tumbling down his back, to the top of his hips.

Then, without warning, came another shove inward, this time from between his legs. He looked down at the skirt that the top of his pants had now turned into with wide eyes for a second or two. "D-did I just..eep!" His voice was high and squeaky, nothing like how it had been just a few seconds ago. And his shirt chose now to pull its collar down from his neck all the to way below his chest, as if it were unzipping, and show some kind of vest that hadn't been under it before.

He saw his flat chest for only a second before it shoved out, too. "Aah!" Two little bumps appeared, and then came another push. "Aaah!" This one was just slightly longer, but accomplished much more, filling the little bumps rapidly into full-sized breasts, confirming his earlier suspicion about the pull from between his legs. But just to be certain, he put his hands down in the middle of the skirt, and..sure enough, he was a girl now.

"W-well," she said, blushing and quickly taking her hands away from that spot. "I don't see how being a catgirl is necessary to be a psion.." She carefully stood up, but quickly found the caution unnecessary. Her tail seemed to be making it incredibly easy to balance, and when she did an experimental stretch, she actually felt really limber.

"Hm.." On a whim, she tried to do a backflip, something he had never even attempted before, and found it remarkably easy to do, landing neatly on her feet at the end of it. "Okay, this isn't all bad," she said. "I can handle this. It's just..very immersive roleplaying. Which means I need a name."

She walked up to the pedestal, seeing that the message box had changed to indicate she should walk into it to "begin her journey". She took a deep breath, thinking. The Psion class had sounded good for a reason. All she needed was a positive attitude, and this could be a lot of fun. Then she took the next step, into the circle.

---

Since he couldn't actually see any towns or landmarks, or much of anything besides some mountains way off in one direction, Zack just picked a random direction and began walking. The grassy field seemed to stretch on forever, but he didn't seem to get tired from walking nearly as soon as he expected, especially with the bits of armor built into his current clothes...even as nonsensically-placed as they were, they definitely weighed something, right?

Eventually he saw someone in the distance. As far out as it was, he couldn't tell exactly what the person looked like or what they were doing. Dancing around randomly? Jumping left and right? He walked a bit faster out of curoisity before he caught sight of another member of this "dance", a decidedly quadripedal creature that appeared to be trying to catch the other one. Then it occurred to him that they were probably fighting, or at least one of them was. The other was trying to avoid getting killed.

Well. He had two swords, and apparently knew how to use them. Zack broke into a run immediately, and though there wasn't any super-speed or anything like that, his stamina was still surprising for the distance he covered, and thankfully by the time he got there the person hadn't been pinned by the creature, and as he stopped, panting, he could get a better look at both.

The creature looked like an unusually large wolf, with unusually messy fur and teeth somehow even more prominent than on a normal one. The person appeared to be some kind of cat girl, in much more modern clothing than seemed quite appropriate. At least, he thought so. Zack wasn't exactly a history buff. She appeared to be trying to get her hand to her forehead, and nearly succeeding before having to jump out of the way of the wolf again. Her reflexes seemed unusually good..he tried really hard not to think 'cat-like', but couldn't help himself.

Having sufficiently rested from the run, Zack drew his blades and charged at the wolf just as it was about to pounce at the..cat-girl..again. The wolf was surprised by the attack, but jumped out of the way quickly enough to just get a couple of gashes on its side rather than just being cut to pieces as Zack had intended.

"Hey! Are you stealing my kill?" demanded the girl.

"You don't have anything to kill with," answered Zack, staring down the wolf while it growled at him, seemingly ready to pounce again. It occured to him after he said that that she might also have an inventory or whatever.

"That's what you think! My mind is my weapon," she said.

"Okay. Then use that to kill it if you're so concerned. I'll distract it." The wolf jumped at him, and he knocked it away with the flat of his blade. It rolled with its landing and was back on its feet in no time.

While they stared each other down again, the cat-girl seemed to be having a private conversation with nobody. "Oh, come on! Really? You've gotta be kidding me."

"What's the matter? Your 'weapon' not as powerful as advertised?"

"Rrgh, stupid quadratic wizards. All I can do right now is provoke it or stun it briefly."
"Well do one of those then!" The wolf jumped at Zack, and its claws grazed his right arm, but he managed to give its back a nasty cut with his other blade, and turned around before it could press its attack any more.

"Well I am not drawing that thing's teeth at me," she said. "Stun it is, then!"

Since the direction he was facing had both the girl and the wolf in it, Zack could see her putting her fingers to her forehead again, successfully this time, and then the wolf appeared to be hit by an invisible bat to the head, and stumbled for a second, dazed. That was all the opportunity he needed to lunge at it and stab the point of the larger blade into it. It was still moving with the sword going all the way through it, so he shoved the thinner sword under its neck and drew a deep gash through it, finally causing the creature to slump over and stop moving.

As soon as it was clearly dead, the wolf disappeared and a small sack appeared in its place (not stabbed through with Zack's sword, though, thankfully). He looked to the stranger, about to ask her a question, but she interrupted him by saying "Dibs!" before dashing up to the sack and picking it up, causing it to disappear (presumably into inventory).

"Was that really necessary?" said Zack, sheathing his blades.
"Yes it was. Every bit of gold counts," she said.

"..Sure, whatever. So were you pulled into this place by a weird game disk, too?"

"Oh, so you're an actual person, then? Not an NPC? Real shame, that."

"Yes. I'm Zack."

She gave him a confused look for a second or two. "That doesn't sound like it fits you at all," she said.
"It's my name," he answered.
"So you used to be a guy, too?"
"I am a guy."
"You can't be serious. Your breasts are bigger than mine is!" she said.

"Th-that doesn't mean anything," said Zack, crossing his arms across his chest and then quickly uncrossing them, as that had the unfortunate effect of reminding him about the unfamiliar weight there. "I'm still the same person I ever was, even though someone screwed around with my body."
"Hmph. You clearly have no sense of good roleplaying. I'm Katherine."
"Which would make your actual name, from before you got sucked into whatever the heck this is.."
"..none of your business!" she said. "You may call me Kath if you need to save time."

He tilted his head a bit sideways. "Not 'Kat'?"

"Ha! No, nothing so stereotypical as that. So I guess you're the one that picked the Knight class."

"Yeah."

"Great, you can have it. I picked Psion because I was promised unimaginable, head-exploding power...but obviously that's going to take a while."

He started walking again, and she ran up next to him. "We should stick together, Zack. Form a party, share XP?"

"So there's experience in this, too?"
"Well, there's gotta be! How else are we gonna learn new skills? I'm still working on figuring out how to access my stats right now, though. But anyway, you keep me alive long enough to learn some powerful skills and I'll repay you ten times as much once I can throw buildings around with the power of my mind. How's that? Sound good?"
"Whatever."
"Great! And I hope you're not bent on playing a Lawful Good, because absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I mean to be thoroughly corrupted by the time we're through with this game."

"You think that'll work? We're probably supposed to be heroes or something."
"Hey, heroes can conquer, too. I don't think anyone's gonna have a complaint when I can explode heads or make mind-slaves whenever I feel like it."

"..You're completely crazy, aren't you?"
"No, I'm just having fun with the role! I chose to be a Psion for power, and I'm gonna ride that power as high as it takes me."

Zack didn't really care one way or another, but didn't bother to say that. He was too busy looking at what seemed to be buildings on the horizon.

---

Note: Well, most of the suggestions on the last entry were rather far-reaching. I was really looking for things to help me move it along short-term. I have ideas for how the setting works, and the direction the plot moves in eventually, and they may not be entirely compatible with some of those suggestions. But I'll try to work in what I can, which in this case meant having Zack "rescue" the second party member on the way to town. I mostly felt compelled to do it this way once I figured out what her personality would be like, and really wanted to write some of it right away. As you may have guessed, I know of what a few of the players' classes will be, but I mean to add any classes you happen to suggest (wizard/sorceress in this case) to the list of possibilities to pull from whenever I decide to add another member. Hoping to play on the two-character dynamic for the moment, though.

I do want the players to be actually trapped in the RPG world for at least a while..but I will say that just because they're stuck in an "RPG" doesn't mean winning will free them, assuming there even is a win condition to begin with, since that was just what Zack was hoping would happen. The idea with NPCs is that they will be people who were born in this fantasy world, and act like real people, rather than repeating the same line of dialogue endlessly. I think the best explanation I can give without spoilers is that Katherine has a much better idea of what kind of game this is than Zack does right now.

That said, I still want any suggestions you have, especially about what kind of town they're entering, character ideas for the NPCs there, and what sort of quest they may find themselves sent on.
And monster ideas, too. I'll probably keep using stock fantasy monsters like dire wolves otherwise.

Ring 3.2: Table for Six

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Ring 3.2:

Table for Six

Kevin wasn't happy at first that Liam made him turn back to go out in public, but when they had just sat down at the restaurant he noticed Rolf and a guy he could only assume to be the friend he'd gone to the gym to see walking in. Needless to say, he was now quite grateful. That situation, with Kell here and him "not", would have been difficult for both of them to explain..probably. Liam was good at that sort of thing, usually. Making good on his earlier invitation to Rolf, Liam of course waved him and his friend over. While they were on their way, Kevin saw someone else he recognized coming toward the entrance and saw another person coming who would have made it definitely difficult to explain.

He must have paled, because Liam said, "What's wrong?"

"That's Sam," he whispered, "one of the people Kell m-met last Friday."
"Well don't worry," said Liam quietly, "she don't recognize ya. Just act natural." After that, the two guys had arrived at their table, so there would definitely be no more talking about that subject. He thought he might even be able to ignore her presence, at least until Rolf's friend waved at the guy she was with and the two of them came over.

"'Scuse me," said Cole. "it's just that you look an awful lot like a guy I know, but you're with a girl."
"Whaat, I can't be with a girl?" said Akio. Then, looking at Sam he quickly added, "Not that I'm with-with her, we just played some games and then she suggested we go out to eat. Nothing weird about that."

"Sure," said Rolf. "Have a seat if you're not on a date."

"Well there aren't any chairs left!" said Akio. After a couple of seconds of the other two guys looking at him he said, "Whatever, I'll go get two chairs then."

Sam, meanwhile, was looking intently at the..kinda dark reddish haired..guy? She could swear he looked familiar from somewhere. "U-um..is s-s-something, wrong?" he said, with all the volume of a mouse trying to get food from the same room as a sleeping cat.

"Hmm..I swear I know you from somewhere, but I can't place it. Weird, I'm usually good with faces and names. Speaking of which, I'm sure we haven't met," she said, turning to the tall, thin kind of guy. She knew who Rolf and Cole were, but this guy definitely didn't go to their school.

"Name's Liam, miss. Pleased to meetcha. And, this is m'friend Kevin." Akio brought chairs, and Sam sat down. Then the waiter came, paused briefly to find the table's number of members had tripled, recovered and took drink orders, then went off to find menus and silverware for everyone.

"Hmm...yeah, we've had a couple of classes together, haven't we?" said Sam, looking at Kevin.
"Uh..m-maybe?"
"He's the guy that makes ridiculous grades and doesn't talk," said Akio. Rolf glared at him. "What? I'm trying to be helpful."
"Well, you may not recognize Kevin because he's started looking different lately," said Liam. "Since 'bout last Saturday his hair's been growin' like crazy, and a bunch of other weird junk. He's goin' to see the doctor about it tomorrow, so let's change the subject, huh?"

"You two I don't know," said Liam, looking at Rolf's friend and the guy who was with Sam. "You Rolf's friends?"
"Yep. I'm Akio, and the big guy is Cole." Cole glared at him this time. "What? It's a helpful identifier."

"You know, maybe you could have referred to me as the smart guy, or the nerd, or pretty much anything other than the one thing I'm most sensitive about," he said.

"Hmph. You don't get offended when Rolf says something about it."
"Yes I do, I just know I can't get away with hitting him. And he only says stuff like that because he actually wants me to get better, right?"
".Mmmnah, sometimes I do just say it to tease you."

"Well that ain't bad," said Liam, before Cole could respond. The three guys just looked at him for a second or two.

"Wait, I lost track. What specifically isn't bad?" asked Sam.

"Reminding your friend here he's got a weight problem. Since you were just at the gym, I'm guessin' you're actually doing something about it, right?"
"Well..yeah, but not because of these jokers."
"You sure it's not? Maybe it is and you don't know it. They're your friends, right? So if they're poking ya about something maybe you get to think about it more than ya would otherwise and that motivates ya to do the right thing sooner or later. 'S long as it ain't so far as bullyin', it's good for ya."

"..You have a strange idea of how to help people," said Rolf.
"Well, it works, don't it, Kev?"

"Y-yeah," he said. "I used t-to, stutter a lot more..if you c-c-c-c-can believe that. Or j-just not talk at all. Ever."

Their drinks came, and they ordered their food. "So you guys were playing games, huh?" said Cole, to Akio and Sam, but mostly the former. "What games?"
"Oh, you know, just some fighting games and Sword of Mana a little.."
"You mean at your house?" said Rolf.
"Well, yeah, I mean my dad was home and there's definitely nothing weird about a couple of friends, or acquaintances, or whatever playing games at one of their homes."
"It was my idea anyway. So what kind of games do you like, Kevin?" said Sam, making a deliberate effort to include him.
"U-um...I play a lot b-but I really like rhythm g-games.."

Liam said, "Kev here is a pro at DDR. He's gonna win a competition if he's over his stage fright before the game goes outta style." Sam looked thoughtful at that, but didn't say anything.

"So anyway," said Liam, "by you guys' surprise" (looking at Cole and Rolf) "I take it you two haven't done this before, least that they know of."
"Hm, nope, this is the first time we've really spoken to each other much," said Sam.

"So what inspired ya to do it today, eh?"
"Well," said Akio, thinking quickly, "I dunno. I don't always need a reason to do things. I just decided it would be a good idea to ask her today."

"Nah, you always have a reason for what you do, whether or not you know it. If ya can't think of a reason it's because ya don't know yourself well enough yet."
"I'm not so sure I want to know myself too comprehensively," he answered, "since apparently everyone who does finds me annoying."
"Nobody knows you that well," said Rolf.

"Yeah," said Cole, "I think I'd be more terrified to know what goes on in your head sometimes."
"Hey, I have good ideas sometimes," said Akio.

Rolf countered, "Yeah? Like when?"

Akio paused, raising a hand palm-up and giving Rolf an open-mouthed look that said, "Seriously?!" Rolf blinked a couple of times before realizing what the answer to his question would have been, but managed to remain calm after that.

Cole, realizing the conversation needed to be steered somewhere else and soon, said, "Never mind. So what school do you go to, Liam? I mean, I haven't seen you around--"

"Yeah, I live just outta your district. Real shame, too, I coulda helped Kev a lot more if we went to the same spot."

Rolf said, "You sure about that?" Liam looked at him for an explanation, and he continued, "You might not be around forever. If you're really trying to help him be more confident, being around him all the time will just make it all dependent on your presence."
"Huh," said Liam. "Yeah, I hadn't thought of it that way. Ya learn somethin' new every day, eh?"

"Kevin.." said Sam, and he managed to turn his head her way after a couple of seconds. She spoke slowly and carefully. "If, it's not too personal, is there some particular reason you know of why you're.."

"N-no, nothing like that," he said. "I've j-just k-k-kind of always been..st-stuttery. I g-guess people ost-ostracizing me about it when I was y-younger d-didn't help, though."

"Mmh. Kids can have so little compassion sometimes," she said. "They learn it from their parents."

"And each other," said Liam.

"And the media," said Cole.

"And teenagers," added Akio. "And with that, the joke's stale."
"I wasn't joking," said Sam, half-glaring at him.

"I know, but once everyone else started adding things to the list it turned into a kind of overly long gag thing...nevermind."

Akio looked at Cole and said, "So are you gonna go on a diet or something soon? You sure ordered the same kind of food as usual this time."

"No.." said Cole. "Even people not blessed with your ridiculous metabolism--and good luck keeping that past twenty-five--can eat normally as long as they exercise."

"Ah, you have that too?" said Liam. "I tell ya, man, it's hard. Lotta people think I'm bulemic or somethin'."

"Oh, I'm sure it's so hard looking like that," said Cole.

"I didn't start it," said Akio.

"'Ey, every problem deserves respect, man. Comparin' one man's woes to another's don't work, because you ain't been through it yourself. You ain't got real empathy if you can't pity the famous at least half as much as you envy 'em."

"You have a lot of weird sayings," said Sam. "Is there a book somewhere?"

"Nah, this is all original. Or piped in from my upbringing, whatever."

The food came, and for the most part the conversation died down while everyone was eating. At least, that is, until Liam said, "By the way, I'm payin' for all this."

"You..are?" said Cole. "Why exactly?"

"Because when I walked in with Kevin I told 'im this was my treat. Besides, I got the means, and this is a meetin' I approve of."

"We can afford to pay for ourselves," said Rolf.

"Yeah, Sam and I agreed to go dutch to prove it's not a date," added Akio.

"Well you can share your zero-dollar price evenly then. I don't think I'm datin' all five of ya." He managed to get everyone to laugh at that, even Kevin.

"But seriously," said Sam, "you're sure you're okay with this?"
"Yeah. Like I said, I got the means."

Once the food was done, and Liam handed the waiter more cash than any of the others at the table would have ever considered keeping in their respective wallets at once, he said, "You guys, we gotta do this again sometime. Maybe one or two of ya at a time, though, your trio dynamic makes it real hard to get a fix on ya individually, ya dig?"

"I don't think I follow," said Cole, and the others nodded (except for Kevin, of course).

Liam shrugged. "Well, eventually one of ya will be busy and the others free anyway. Nice to meet you all, anyhow."

"Likewise," said Akio, getting up. "You're a pretty cool guy."

The other's got up, too, except for Liam and Kevin. "He doesn't afraid of anything?" said Cole, deadpan.

"Nah, I fear things when it's sensible," said Liam. "Anyway, you all stay in touch, hear? Keep Kevin talkin' for me!"

Once they were out the door, and the other four out of sight, he said, "Well, Kev, that went pretty well, didn't it?"

"Y-yeah. But, u-um...when I'm, d-done, what should I..?"

"Yeah, that's a detail we better hammer out, eh? What about a dream?"
"..Th-that would work. S-sometime later..say I had a d-dream about..w-wait a second."

"What?" Liam paused his walk, since Kevin looked particularly concerned.

"Th-those three guys..w-well, Akio and C-cole at least. They act just like..w-which means.."

"What, what? Spit it out, would ya?"
"I'm p-pretty sure those three have at l-least one r-ring like mine b-b-between them," he said, starting to walk forward again. "Th-they're too much like three of the girls I m-met at the arcade last F-Friday for it to b-b-be a coincidence..and besides, I h-haven't seen those th-three since then, an-anywhere."

"Hm. Well, it's all-girls, and those rings are online. Maybe they were just desperate to go the arcade for some reason. But they may not know about magic like I know about it though, so we oughta tread carefully about tellin' 'em anything."
"D-do you think, though, if it's true..."
Liam nodded, already knowing what Kevin was trying to ask about. "Yeah. If we're good enough friends by then, and they go and admit to you or me they have one, there'd be two rings between us. This is way too interesting to pass up in that case. But we'll see, man. We'll see."

The "Best" RPG Ever-1

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Note: I meant for this to come out a few hours later so the other post wouldn't get buried, but mistyped the publishing time so that blogspot's records indicate it coming out much earlier than I wrote it. The take-away from this is that there's a chapter of the Ring story below this post, in case you didn't know that.
 

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Zack received in the mail, in addition to the usual bills and advertisements, an envelope containing a CD. The envelope was missing its return address, and the CD's only label was handwritten permanent marker declaring that it was the "Best RPG Ever!"

He was intrigued, as a great many people in the same situation might have been, but suspicious. He knew a way to put in the CD and have his computer scan it for any malware before running anything on it, and he did that. It didn't detect anything. The only thing on the CD was a single file, named "Begin.exe," that appeared to be taking up more space than the disk had—several times more, in fact. That was weird, but after another few scans of the file Zack figured it must be relatively harmless, and his curiosity inspired him to start it up.

A plain text box appeared, saying only the word "Loading" and a percentage which moved slowly at first, while he watched, but began to speed up after reaching the 25% mark or so. When it got close to 90%, Zack found he was beginning to feel..strangely numb, and just as the percentage reached 100 he suddenly blacked out.

He woke up lying down, looking up at a blank white ceiling, and quickly sat up and looked around. "What the..?" The whole room was blank and white like that, no door or window or anything. He couldn't even place where all the light in the room was coming from. It seemed to be a perfectly cube-shaped room, and right in the center of the floor was the only thing in the room besides him. It was some kind of circular pedestal with a..holographic..image? Floating above it. It looked like a slowly spinning cube.

After confirming that there weren't any hidden doors (that he could find at least), Zack carefully touched the floating thing on the pedastal. Suddenly what looked to be a 2-dimensional box, with a blue background and white text (a message box, he realized), appeared, saying "Drag left and right to select a class for more information. To choose a class, take its associated object."

"So..this is the game?" he muttered to himself. "Not..what I was expecting. But maybe it'll let me out of here if I pick a class." He put his index finger in the middle of the cube and then moved it to the right, hoping that was how you 'dragged' the thing. He was right. The cube seemed to scroll to the right and out of existence, while another object moved in to take its place: A sword with a very wide blade at the hilt that tapered only near its sharp tip.

The message box changed. "Knight: The class of noble protectors and great heroes. Knights excel in the use of the blade and are difficult to defeat in a purely physical fight. A knight can shift between the Bright and Dark forms for offense and defense respectively, and use minor holy magic as well as a few unique spells at higher levels."

"Hmm..that doesn't sound too bad," said Zack. This room frankly creeped him out, so he was eager to get out of it as soon as possible. He reached out and closed his right hand around the hilt of the sword, which despite looking all holographic and transparent was evidently completely solid. The message box changed again to say "Would you like to play a Knight? (Pull for yes, release for no)"

He pulled the sword out without much thought. It was surprisingly light. The center of the circular pedastal glowed with white, and the message box said, "Step into the summoning circle to begin your journey." Zack took a deep breath and then walked onto the circle.

As soon as he had done that, he found himself floating gently upward in the air. He looked around, fascinated, as the room around him seemed to fade to black, leaving him in a singular pillar of light. The message box disappeared, too. Soon he seemed to be floating freely in the air, his feet finding no footholds, yet he didn't feel like he was falling either.

He was less fascinated and more bewildered when his clothes suddenly glowed white and then seemed to shatter off of him, all except for his underwear. He looked around wide-eyed as the white stuff that used to be his clothes began swirling around him, but then he was distracted from the display by a bunch of strange feelings suddenly coming from his own body.

It felt like something inside him was pulling, particularly at his stomach and arms and legs. He looked down and saw that his stomach was actually getting thinner and smaller, and then he became aware of a pushing sensation from his hips. They were growing wider, he saw, and blinked at the sight. He couldn't quite bring himself to be shocked that his body was being altered: He had, after all, just started a computer program that teleported him into a white room with no exits. But it was still very weird.

He became much more concerned when he noticed that his underwear was getting tighter, its leggings shorter, and the pulling sensation was coming from between his legs as well. No way, he thought, as a tingling feeling spread throughout his body. His skin, all over, was becoming paler, the hair on it shrinking in. And then he saw his bangs, and felt his hair falling down across his shoulders. His hair had definitely not been a pinkish white color before, he thought, as it continued to grow and he felt the tips crawling their way down to the small of his back.

The white energy stuff around him drew his attention again when some of it closed in around his legs and feet, and suddenly turned into clothes, black shoes and..stockings? With white bits of armor at the knees and ankles. Then another bit of it closed around his chest and shoulders, becoming a lacy black bra. Zack shuddered, and looked down to see that his underwear was definitely turning into a matching pair of panties, pulling still closer between his legs.

He tried not to think about that, looking instead at his arms and stomach again. They were so slim now, and the stomach had an inward curve to it, supplemented by his now-wide hips. He managed to actually get distracted when he noticed another few pushing sensations, this time coming from his ears and..his back? Just below where his hair now reached, which by the way was nearly to his hips. As the pushing continued he could feel his ears beginning to twitch and move, and became aware of air moving across them; the thing coming from his back began moving more and more like an appendage, and he could feel air on it as well. It occured to him this must be fur, as he managed to get the thing from his back to move to where he could see the tip. It was a tail, for sure.

Now the white stuff closed in around his torso and hips, and he could feel a long-sleeved shirt pulling tight against his stomach and arms, gloves on his hands, and some unfamiliar weights on his shoulders and the sides of his hips. He looked down, wondering why there wasn't something up against his upper legs, and realized that there was now a white skirt surrounding them. "No way.." he muttered, but then had to pause at just how high-pitched his voice was. It wasn't squeaky, but it didn't sound like him.

And now he became aware of a flatness between his legs, a realization helped along by the tight panties that were definitely still there under the skirt. Zack shook his head, trying not to think about that, and turned to see what the weights near his hips were. He noticed first of all that he seemed to be wearing a black cape held on by two bits of shoulder armor, and then noticed a pair of sheathes, one of them with a thin sword in it and the other designed for a familiar-shaped broadsword but empty.

The problem reasserted itself as his chest began pushing out, and he could feel the tight shirt's resistance as two bumps formed, quickly expanding and giving more cleavage for the space between his collar and the top of the shirt to show. He stared at it as it filled the bra underneath. "I..no, this can't be real," he said, shaking his head but only getting the feeling of the weight of his hip-length hair swishing back and forth. Before he knew it, and without any say in the matter, he had the body of a rather well-endowed young woman.

He looked down at his right hand and realized that he'd been holding the sword this whole time, and that it no longer looked the least bit holographic. Yet it still felt so light! He looked to his left hand and found some kind of gem was on a..bracelet? It looked like it should fit around his neck, he thought. All the white stuff that had been his clothes before were now his clothes again, it seemed, because there wasn't any more of it swirling around him. And then, before he could think about what had just happened too hard, he found himself feeling exhausted, and couldn't stop himself from drifting off to sleep.

Zack woke up to a sunlit blue sky above him, soft earth and grass below, and was immediately confronted with all the sensations the tight clothes imposed on his very womanly body. He immediately sat up, and then stood up, looking around and wondering how his tail (which was definitely also still there) hadn't made lying on his back incredibly uncomfortable.

He seemed to be standing in the middle of a circle of stone pillars, not too unlike stonehenge, he thought. Both of the swords were sheathed, he noticed as he looked down, and he gently pulled them out. It was odd, he knew the swords were heavy by their balance, heavier than he should be able to handle..especially with how thin his arms looked now. But he could raise them up and give them both a few experimental swings with very little effort. In fact, their balance felt rather right, and he seemed to know just how to hold them and strike with them without them running into each other, like he'd been using them this way for years. "Right.." he muttered, trying to get used to his higher, alto voice, "RPG mechanics. Even a level one warrior knows how to swing a sword."

He sheathed the weapons, and then looked to the odd gem-bracelet thing in his hand. "Where do I even keep things?" he muttered to himself. It wasn't like his new outfit came with pockets, after all, that would be silly. "Guess I'll just put it on.." he pulled the clasp open from his hand and then tried to put it on his neck. It wouldn't latch. "What the..eh?" His attempts were interrupted by the appearance of another 2D blue-with-white-text message box in front of his eyes, close but small enough to be readable.

It said, "A knight's gem of brightness can only be used when an ally is in danger without the proper skill."

Zack shook his head as the box disappeared. "So what am I supposed to do with this, then? I swear, I need a bag or something to put it in..wha?" When he said he needed a bag to put it in, the gemmed amulet-bracelet thing disappeared. "Huh." He thought about wanting it back in his hand, and it appeared. "Guess I do have an inventory system. So that's good."

"Now..where am I going?" He looked around at the circle of stones, wondering if he could find a town nearby. Maybe someone could undo the changes to his body at least, if not get him home..maybe beating the game would send him back. No telling. But for right now he'd need to play along, he probably was level 1 or this game's equivalent of that, after all, so angering whatever super-powerful being sent him here now would probably be a bad idea.

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Okay, this is an idea that's been knocking around in my head for a while. There are a few general, overall things I know I want to do in this story, but a lot of the details haven't been hammered out. So I'd like to do something interesting with this story: I want you, in comments, to suggest a general idea of what happens next. There will be more party members eventually, but not the very next part, I don't think. If you're not sure what to suggest, think about what's going on. In this case, obviously Zack is going to look for some kind of town or village or whatever, but what will he find? Any interesting sorts of people in the town? If there's a random encounter, you might suggest what sort of enemies appear. That sort of thing.

(Just so we're clear, it's not necessary but it is helpful if suggestions go with the latest entry, rather than all of them being on this first one. I'm not sure if there was some confusion about that, but thought I should point it out just in case.)

Ring 3.1: Another Weekend

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Ring 3.1:

Another Weekend

With summer on its way, a Friday afternoon was like a breath of fresh air for even some of the busiest students. Sports were winding down for the most part, most of the performing-arts classes had already had their performances, and it wasn't quite time for everyone to begin cramming for finals.

Rolf was leaning against the locker, arms crossed, watching the crowd of students on their way out of the school, when he picked up a sound he didn't very much like.

"What's with you, nerd? You tryin' to look like a girl so people'll stop callin' you a wuss? Huh?" That sound was Morley's voice, and on closer inspection its owner was standing over one of the other students, leaning with his arms against the lockers and his would-be victim between them.

Would be, because of who had just noticed. "Hey." Rolf's voice carried where it needed to, and his feet carried him over to Morley. "Back off."

Morley stood up straight and turned around to Rolf. He was a wider, bulkier kind of guy than Rolf, who was a more streamlined kind of athletic. He could lift more raw weight, but he knew better than to mess with him, so instead he glared. Rolf scowled back. They had a brief staring contest like this before Morley threw up has hands as if he had no idea what it had been about, and said "Yeesh" before walking away.

Rolf glared at him until he was out of sight, and then looked with a more neutral expression at the person he'd been standing over. "Um, th-thanks," he said, looking kind of like he expected Rolf to punch him or something.
"No problem. Hey, are you.." He knew the other guy looked familiar, but there were enough differences from what he remembered that he took a minute to dredge up the name. He was a little taller than he remembered, and his hair looked like it had been dyed a more reddish and less dark brown, and he'd let it grow out to his shoulders. Even his clothes weren't quite the same as usual, but it was hard to place why..a little baggier, maybe. "Hm...Kevin?"
"Y-yeah."
"Your house far from here?"
"Um..n-n-ot too far. I usually w-walk."
"I'll go with you. Sometimes Morley doesn't know when to quit."

"Oh, th-thanks but, y-you don't have to."

"I insist. Go on and get your books."
"Ok-okay."

Akio had his last period with Sam, and managed to catch her a little bit out of the door of the classroom. "Hey, you game?" he said. He figured if he was going to talk to someone he hadn't really said much to before he might as well be direct to minimize awkwardness.
Unfortunately, the wording of his query confused her. "Huh? Game for what?"
"No no, I didn't mean are you game, as in ready to do some previously discussed thing, I mean do you game, like, play video games or anything like that?"
"Oh. Yeah, sure. Why?"
"Well, I thought you looked kind of like a person who'd be fun to play something with sometime."

"Maybe, but isn't it a bit awkward to ask me out of the blue like that?"

Well, now she'd invoked the A word, so there wasn't any way to avoid it. "Okay, well I guess I can't think of any way to introduce myself to someone who's seen me numerous times and knows my name but hasn't shared a conversation with me that isn't awkward."

Sam shrugged. "Fair enough. So I know you're Akio, and you know I'm.."
"Sam."

"Hah, well that's a decent start. Nobody calls me Samantha and gets away with it. Except for teachers. And my parents, but only if I'm trouble. And I guess if I'm ever called in for jury duty later in life I won't be able to correct the judge about it.."

"We might be getting off track here."
"Yeah, maybe. Anyway, you're lucky if you've got nothing planned this afternoon, because neither do I. What kind of game do you have in mind?"

On the sidewalk a little outside the school, it was pretty clear that Kevin wasn't going to say anything unless Rolf asked him something. So he did. "So, when did you start growing out your hair? I mean, just out of curiosity."

"Um..I-I never really d-decided to..I mean, since M-monday it's grown a lot f-f-faster than usual. I d-don't really know why. Are there any, um, any rumors g-going around?"

Rolf shrugged. "I dunno. Don't pay attention to that garbage. I guess if Morley thinks you're worth his attention there must be something, though."
"Th-that is a..um, a dubious honor."

"..Did you just tell a joke?" From the one or two classes they'd had in common in the past, Rolf knew Kevin to have a hard time talking to people, and especially in front of people. Once when a teacher made a joke in his general direction, he'd shrunk back in terror like it was going to kill him.
"Uh..m-maybe? I, I don't know. B-but um, the hair is-isn't the only weird thing that's been going on this w-week. I'm having some k-kind of weird growth spurt...m-my parents want to t-take me to the doctor soon to m-make sure I'm okay."

"Hm. Well, take care of yourself. Anything bad going on is worse with stress."

"I-I know."

"I know a great arcade we could go to," said Akio. Neutral ground seemed like the best idea, even if it was going to cost money.
"Hmm..neh. Too expensive."
"Well, I could pay for you if you want."
"I'm not so sure I want that. I've got some games at home, but my parents might think something's going on if I bring a boy home, you know."
"That's why I was suggesting the arcade."

"I know, I'd just rather think of every other possibility before going for the one that costs something. You've got games at your house, don't you?"
"Sure. My dad'll be there, so.."
"Akio, that's good ,but you don't seem like the kind of guy I have to worry about that with."
"Well then, I'm pretty lucky to give you that impression."

"Yes, you are. So lead on. I'll tell my parents I was at a friend's house, so they won't pester me about it."

Rolf and Kevin turned a corner, and the former nearly ran into a tall, dark-haired guy he didn't recognize. For a moment he wasn't sure whether to brace for some kind of attack, wondering whether this was someone Kevin had trouble with outside of school, and the other guy's expression displayed about the same amount of suspicion.

That didn't last too long, however; the stranger's expression turned to a wide grin and he said, "Heey, you makin' friends already, Kev?"
"U-um.."

"C'mon, introduce me, man! Whaddaya waitin' for?" Rolf wasn't sure what to make of this guy's tone: It was a weird kind of mock-angry impatience that made him unsure whether or not this qualified as bullying.
"Th-this is, uh, Liam, a f-friend of mine..Liam, uh, this is Rolf..um, he..ch-chased off some guy at my school.."

"Eh? Someone botherin' Kev here?"
"Not if I have anything to say about it," said Rolf, arms crossed.
"Great! Whoever it is, you oughta give 'im a good punch next time, though." He was looking at Kevin when he said this.
"So..you're his friend, then?"
"Y-yeah," said Kevin. "L-Liam is..helping me b-be a little more confident."

"Okay, well can you make sure he doesn't run into trouble the rest of the way home? I have to meet a friend at the gym."

"Sure, sure. Wha's the guy look like?"
"A large idiot named Morley. All bark and no bite," said Rolf. "He'll back off without a fight with you around, since he has no idea who you are."

"Heh. I dunno, maybe I want to start a fight." Liam pounded a fist with his palm..which it occurred to Rolf was definitely backwards from the normal expression.
"..That's up to you. I won't be responsible if he knocks you down. But I haven't seen him yet, so he probably gave up anyway. See you later." Rolf started walking away.

"Hey!" said Liam, and he stopped and turned around.
"What?"

"When you're not busy with your friend, we oughta' hang out sometime. You an' me and Kevin. Yeah?"
"..Sure."

Akio's dad saw them on their way to the game room. He said hello, and not to burn the house down.

"That was a joke, right?" said Sam, once they were in said room.

"Yeah, of course. It's not like I ever did anything that might have burned down the house before, right?"

"..Sure. So what do we have here? A PS3 and..a computer?"
"Well, actually, that's the only console I actually have, and there aren't a lot of multiplayer games here..but the computer's hooked up to the screen so we can play some older games."

"On a computer?"

"It's this wonderful thing called an emulator." He handed her one of two USB controllers. "The controller's not exactly the same, but hey, it's still a controller."

Rolf walked, briskly, to the gym. He didn't want to give Cole the time to decide to back out. When he got inside, he found him sitting on one of the couches. "What took you so long?"
"Morley."

"Ah, he was after another one, eh? Who was it this time?"
"You know Kevin? Guy who's afraid to talk?"
"Oh, yeah, sure, that guy. Heard some rumors he's been looking a little weird this week." He stood up. "But gossip sucks, so let's talk about something else. Am I gonna have to pay for a membership or something? Because those look crazy expensive and I'm pretty sure I can't afford them."
"Don't worry about it. The premium membership lets me bring in a guest once a week."

"Oh, well, that's good." Rolf led the way into the gym proper, swiping his card along the way.

Cole looked around at the gym's array of machines the way a deer would look around at a lit headlights museum. "So..what should I do here?"
"You should start small. Maybe a slower pace on one of the treadmills or something."
"No quick leveling cheat, huh?"

"I guess if you want to get there faster you can use the magic ring that also makes you a girl."
"I know, but in addition to being pretty sure I like being attracted to girls and not a girl myself, that's kind of risky. There are a lot of warnings that come with that thing, and most of them are distressingly vague."
"I think 'becoming the mask' is pretty specific."
"No, it isn't. For all we know overusing the ring could literally turn a person into a mask which then lets people who put it on look like the disguise the ring was used to make. And even if it doesn't do that, it implies a serious loss of mental stability on par with what happens to actors sometimes. I'd like to at least try to get fit the normal way before I even think about any super-ambiguous magical solutions."

"Sure. Treadmill it is then. I'll find you some small weights to work on while you do that."

After a couple of hours, Cole declared he was tired and Rolf offered to treat him to supper, which he was more than happy to take up. “You know,” said Rolf on their way there, “it's actually easier for guys to keep weight off..so I hear. As long as you keep exercising, you don't have to worry too much about your diet..I mean, unless you've been eating nothing but potatoes and bacon.”

“I like eating, and I do love bacon, but I'm not stupid. Heart attack at 30? No thanks.”

“Well..it's almost time for supper,” said Akio.

“Mmh. You wanna go somewhere, or were you gonna eat at home?”
“Uh..I hadn't really thought about this, but it'd look kind of like a date if I took you out to eat, right?”
“Not if we go dutch. I know a good place.” Sam stood up and grinned at him. “Unless you're chicken.”
“Eh? No way, I'm just, you know, concerned about what your parents would think if, like, some kind of rumor got out or something.”
“Well, come on then.”
“Sure, sure.” Akio followed her brisk walk out of his house and all the way to the restaurant.

Did I mention they were all heading to the same restaurant?