Midas Journal 23

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Entry: May 13

At lunch, I sat with Adena again. She had kind of a lopsided grin on her face. “..What's with you today?” I said.

“Mmh? Oh!” She looked at me as if noticing me for the first time. “I had another date with Rhia last night. It's so easy to be a boy now with the extra tail, and we got to be together a lot longer than before because of it. Not that she knows that's why, just that I agreed to stick around a lot longer.”

“You do remember she goes to the same school as us,” I said, a little quieter, “and has cat ears. Right? About as good at hearing as ours are.”
“Hmhmhm,” she laughed in her throat. “I'm not that foolish. We have different lunches, and her class is way on the other side of the school. On top of that, I have a spell up to know whether she's within a certain radius, and it's not going off.”

“Okay fine, but you and I are also not the only ones with animal ears and knowledge of magic here, either. Someone who knows what a Kitsune is capable of could rat you out.”
She just shrugged. “That's a risk I'll have to take. Any-who, it's a low enough chance of happening that I'm fine if that's how it comes out. It'd have to be somebody willingly talking about a stranger behind their back, or else betraying a friend like me...both delicious forms of mischief to cause.”

“Sooo...judging by your, uh, distraction before I started talking to you, I guess it went well?” I said, deciding that convincing her to be smarter about when and how to talk about it probably wasn't worth the trouble.

“Yep! It's funny, I'm a girl now, but I can remember how good it felt as a boy, kissing her and cuddling up to her last night, and just...mmm.” She closed her eyes, smiling and blushing slightly. Popping them open again, she said, “Do you ever get that with your boyfriend? Or, have you gone back and forth enough to know?”
“I...hm.” I thought about it for a second. “We've sorta been together with each other both ways, so...I dunno, when I think about him I think I kind of default to whichever sex is opposite mine right then. Maybe something about how his power affected me, though...”

“Heheh, I can't wait for the big reveal then. If things don't go boom too badly maybe we can see what it's like to reverse roles, too. Otherwise, I dunno...I guess I'd consider looking for a boyfriend for a little while instead.”

I sighed to myself, still unable to believe how casual she was being about possibly losing a relationship—one she seems to like more and more—to this 'game' of lying and deceiving. Still, I tried convincing her not to do it, and it just doesn't feel like my place to interfere past that.

This afternoon, Lue ran up to me, waving, as I was walking back home. “Hey!”

I stopped and let her catch up. “Um..hi,” I said, “what's up?”

“Brian told me you got him into the pack last night,” she said, grinning. “Good job! Now we can at least sorta call ourselves a proper pack. In fact I have even better news—a possible fourth member!”
“Uh-huh..” I said, cautiously. “Anyone I know?”

“I don't think so, but one can never really tell. There are some problems though—well really more like one major problem—and as my beta I expect you to help me fix it.”

“Rrright...what kind of problem?”

“Well, for one thing, this guy is not a werewolf. In fa-act, he's totally uninitiated in magic in general. As far as I can tell he wanted to believe werewolves exist so bad he managed to just sort of pierce the veil on us. I caught him staring at someone's tail with a look of shock on his face.”

“So, why's that such a problem?” I said.
“Well I can't exactly bite him!” she said, agitated. “People would know!” I can remember as well as she does that it's illegal for people like werewolves who can make more of their kind out of normal humans to intentionally spread themselves (in our case, bite people), except in some really specific conditions. Well, I say 'illegal', but it's not a law on any books anywhere, it's just that other races (including much more powerful ones) don't like the idea of the whole human population being subject to a mad dash to make as many humans as possible turn into each of the numerous kinds that might be in competition for that. I can say as a “former human” myself I agree with the sentiment. But that's not what my question was about.

“I mean, why do you care about getting him in the pack,” I said. “You don't know the guy—right?”

“I care because he really wants to be a werewolf,” said Lue. “and I have lots of experience from my past life helping newbies adjust to the lifestyle, so to speak? I'm sure if he's in my pack then we'll have a quality werewolf in a few years. Someone else? Not so much. And now that he knows about us, he might get someone else in trouble for biting him—he's really that into the idea.”

I crossed my arms. “So you think a total stranger is gonna be able to pass your test, then. Even if I...do the thing you're asking me to do, you wouldn't have met any sooner or anything.”

“That's perfectly fine,” said Lue, waving a hand dismissively. “He can be a trainee until we get to know each other better if he doesn't pass right away. It's not much different from a 'fight me' pack letting someone go through multiple trials if they fail the first one. And if at some point I figure out he'll never pass, then you and me, we've got lots of ways to make sure he can't take revenge for being banned out of the pack.”

I sighed. “So where is this guy, anyway?”
“He's at my house~,” she said in a singsong voice, her mood obviously soaring from my half-decision to do what she wanted. “C'mon!” She grabbed my arm at the wrist and started on a dash toward her house, halfway dragging me along.
“H-hey! I can walk, you know!” She slowed down a bit and let go, allowing me to rub at the grabbed wrist until it stopped hurting from Lue's death-grip.

“I can't help but wonder, though...” I said after a minute or so. “You...really like seeing boys get turned into girls, huh.”
“Hmm? Whatever would give you that idea?”
“Well, it's the first thing you asked me to do, even though there were other reasons...you seemed really happy to meet Brie. And now you're so excited and eager for...this. I find it hard to believe you'd just let mister 'wants to be a werewolf' try and join our pack this way entirely to help him.”
“Hmph.” She gave a small frown. “For the record, it always helps a pack to get a new member if they're worthy, so I'm helping me and us in that way. But if you must know, it's not so much the changing itself as the results. It's partially a my-new-life thing and partially because I get to be young again. I find that, maybe something in my makeup or upbringing or whatever makes me really enjoy the cuteness and softness of fellow girls...and in fellow werewolves, fluffiness too. I'm sure you can understand that much.”
“Er...” I thought about being with Brie, both female, the night before, and felt some heat in my cheeks. “Y-yeah, sure.”
“On top of that, I know I won't be romantic with a girl. After all that initial attraction to boy-you and the way our friendship since then went, I'm not bothered at all by you in that way because I can sort of think of you as a girl all the time. And this being my new life and all, I don't want to be 'in that way' with anyone for a while. Like I said before, I've got things I want to do with this life that'll be much easier if I'm unattached for at least a while.”

“So what you're saying is, if you have it your way our whole pack will be girls...aside from me or Brian being male. You know how that might look from the outside, right?”
“We don't have to all be girls all the time,” she said with a shrug. “Not with you in the pack, especially, but even if you left or didn't want to there are ways...”

“Well, I'll warn you I'm not gonna give this guy the impression he has to be stuck as a girl,” I said. “Not with the amount of control I have over my powers now.”
“Nor would I want you to,” she said. “All options on the table. But if he stays a boy, it really means he has a power to go back and forth, right?”

“Yeah, I guess..that's right,” I said, nodding slowly.

“Like I said, there are ways.”

We arrived at Lue's house, and I followed her inside. She strolled into the room with a cheerful “I'm ba-ack~!”

The guy in question was sitting in one of the living room chairs. He was wearing a dark t-shirt with a wolf on it and jeans; his hair was dark and kind of wild. He seemed a little pudgy, but it was hard to tell exactly since his clothes were pretty loose on him. “Oh, hey.” He stood up, and turned to face me, his eyes wide as he clearly looked at my ears and then tail. “Um—this is your uh, beta?” he asked, looking at Lue.
“Yep. Be nice to her.”

“Sure.” he held out a hand as if to shake, stepping a little closer. “I'm—”
“Hey-hey, no touch!” I took an emphatic step back away from him before he could accidentally brush my shoulder or something. My powers informed me he wanted something, and wanted it bad. It felt like more than enough desire to change him if a stray hair of mine touched his shirt. “Not until I explain something, at least. We can wave.” I waved at him.
“O-oh, okay?” He waved back awkwardly. “Well, I'm Chris...uh...sheesh, those really are real huh?”

“I already showed you mine,” said Lue impatiently.
“Y-yeah, I'm just...having a hard time believing it still.”

I cleared my throat to get his attention again. “My name's Kaela. What did Lue tell you about me?”
“J-just that uh, it was illegal for werewolves to bite people and you might have some kind of other way to um. M-make me a werewolf?” he said nervously. It was a little weird having someone else act a little intimidated by me, even just a little bit, but it occurred to me the first thing I'd done was snap at him not to touch me, and after that first impression he was trying to ask me for something, after all. Oh well.

“Right..” I folded my arms again, “let me explain. I'm not just a werewolf. I have a kind of...weird power recently, since I turned eighteen. If I touch someone, that power can...change them. A lot.”
“A lot?” he repeated.
“Right. It usually grants what someone wants, but it turns them into a girl in the process. And it basically rewrites history so it's like they were always that way.” It feels weird how good I'm getting at explaining it to other people. It's only been a couple of months since all this insanity started, and now I seem to mentally register it as almost normal.

“So, if I..if you did that to me, I wouldn't..?” he started, looking very concerned.

“You'd still remember everything you do now,” I explained patiently, “but you'd also remember a different version of events. Since both of us would see you change, Lue and I would remember both versions, but everyone else—anyone else you know—would remember the 'new' you. I'm pretty sure what would happen is it would reach back and make your parents werewolves too, and probably change some other things as a result.” That was what had happened with 'making me a werewolf'. I guess in theory I could actually make it so that someone had been bitten at some point, but that felt like it would defeat the point of me changing him instead of Lue or someone else biting him.

“So...I could really be a werewolf, then?” he said nervously. “At the cost of...”
“You don't have to be a girl forever,” said Lue. “Kaela here's talented enough to give you the ability to go back to boyhood if you like, and drag the memories along with you.” I found myself blushing and giggling slightly at Lue calling me 'talented'. “But you'd have to put up with turning into a girl at least once.”

“Oh..is that really it? You could..I could really be...?” he said, looking like a kid who'd just been told the entire contents of a candy store were free for the taking.

“Right,” I nodded. “But I won't do it unless you absolutely want me to.”
“Well, I do want it,” he said. “All my life, I've wished werewolves were real, and now they are..! And, and you can...I could really...yes. I really want it. Definitely,” he said, looking straight into my eyes with a determined expression.

“Okay then. You might want to be ready to sit down, it's uh, kind of a rush,” I said, moving a little closer. He nodded and back up until his legs were touching the chair he'd been in, and once I was close enough I looked at his face and waited for one final nod from him before reaching forward and gently brushing my fingers across his cheek.

The effect was instant. A wave of change rippled across his face, removing facial hair, smoothing skin, and rounding its shape out into a very feminine look. Suddenly I noticed he had bright, sky-blue eyes, and on the girly face they did a lot to give him a cute, innocent look. Next his hair grew out, straightening and taming itself until it framed the small face on the front and just barely touched his shoulders on the sides, while a lot of the back gathered together into a ponytail which rapidly grew longer and longer until its locks swung down to the top of his hips. His ears popped, first the left and then the right, instantly into tall wolfish ears, their fur the same black as his hair except for a bit of gray near the tips and some fluffy tufts of white on the inside.

“W-whoa..” All of this happened so fast that he had just now had time to react. “Aah..” He shivered as the change to his skin spread downward, visibly racing along his arms. His sleeves cut off of the rest of his shirt and slid down off his shoulders, growing longer and fanning out wider near the ends. His shirt's collar pulled itself free, turned white, and spread out a bit too, while the rest of the shirt slid downward, showing off a bit of his smooth, hairless upper chest and leaving behind just a pair of straps to hang itself off of.

“O-oh, it's...it..” he mumbled incoherently, his voice beginning to subtly change, as the shifts to his body's shape spread downward. His shoulders began to narrow, his arms thinned, and he started to get shorter. The graphics on his shirt started to fade to black as it pulled itself slowly, steadily tighter against his torso and especially his stomach, clinging close against the slight pudge there just in time for it to start retracting and flattening inward. His stomach also curved itself in on the sides, and then his hips responded by steadily pushing themselves outward, growing the tops of his legs with them.

“Ahm..mmn..” He wobbled unsteadily as his stance and center of balance began to change. His pants, which I now noticed had been getting steadily tighter on him and turning from blue denim to black cloth, began to change to thinner material and pulled taut against a pair of man-legs before squeezing them slimmer and slimmer. As the material of the pants shifted more and more, it began to turn translucent, showing the smooth skin on his legs and a pair of underwear clearly halfway between boxers and panties, the leggings unusually long but tight on his widening legs and hips while a plaid pattern faded to solid pink and the top rim was beginning to grow frills.

“W-wa..aah..” Chris's cute face started to blush as the shifting underwear pulled tight enough now between his legs to reveal a bulge, and furthermore that said bulge was diminishing in size. His voice now sounded like a young boy's, and it brought my attention back up to his head. His mouth was open, his teeth visibly growing longer and sharper and his tongue hanging out slightly as it too lengthened. His shirt had lost its pattern entirely by now and turned dark blue; as his height continued to sink downward it finally hung low enough to cover his groin, only to split itself apart right in the middle at the hem. The cut traveled upward, the two sides splitting outward, as it quickly formed an upside-down V shape and revealed his now paper-flat stomach's belly button, and a bit of cloth beneath the shirt which was forming itself into a bra.

“Ah...aaaah...arf!” I heard Chris's voice rise even more, sliding up out of male range, followed by a dog-like bark as suddenly a tail burst from his lower back. It was covered in thick, fluffy fur, black like his ears and hair with a white tip. The new appendage swung itself around awkwardly, which combined with the unsteady wobbling from before caused him to topple backwards into the chair right away.

The pants had converted entirely into a pair of tights, and beneath them a brilliant pink, frilly pair of panties showed only a very small bulge left of the new werewolf's manhood. He barked again, in an even higher pitch than before, and then yipped excitedly as what made him male slid the rest of the way inward, bringing the underwear firmly flat down there. She blushed even brighter at this, but the changes continued anyway, her chest immediately starting to push forward and stretch the top out. “Aah—awa..wwaah..!” She let out noises halfway between human 'aahs' and wolfish barks as her breasts continued to steadily develop. At the same time, a pleated skirt grew out from the top of the tights, slinking down along her wide hips in seemingly an effort to hide her exposed new underwear and privates. More white cloth grew itself out of the back of her shirt, adding even more to flow around about the new outfit.

“Ahm..mmh...mmnn..” Chris (whose name I noticed hadn't changed at all as memories of her already being a female werewolf entered my mind) squirmed slightly on the chair, her eyelids sinking down over her eyes and her already bright-red face blushing even more, as her breasts continued to grow and grow. Slowly, a white-petaled flower seemed to bloom itself out from her hair just under the left ear, growing out (even though it was obviously made of cloth) into a very cute accessory to match her increasingly adorable new form. “Mn..hhhh...” she took a deep breath and sighed as her breasts finally finished growing, winding up bigger than anyone else I've changed before and, along with her wide hips, giving her a soft, plump look.

“W-wah!” She opened her eyes and raised her arms in surprise, seeming to suddenly remember there were other people in the room. “Oh my gosh, that was so—I was, I mean you know like—you weren't kidding about that being a rush!” she said excitedly, her voice high and squeaky, but clearly a mature girl's all the same. “Oh man oh man!” She hopped up and pounced at me in a sudden hug. “This is even better than I coulda ever imagined! Thank you sooooo much!” I discovered she was about equal height to Lue (so, shorter than me) as she buried her face in my chest, her tail whipping back and forth like an electric fan.

“Erm..you're uh, welcome.” I felt myself blushing slightly as I awkwardly patted her back a couple of times. “Y-you should thank Lue, though..this was more her idea...”

“Yeah, okay!” she let go of me in an instant and pounced just as eagerly at my alpha, who opened her arms to accept the hug and then returned it willingly, her hands rubbing up and down along Chris's back a little.

“You're quite welcome,” said Lue, grinning at me over her shoulder. It was a very 'I told you so' kind of grin, and I couldn't help but feel it was about the new girl being obviously happy as a girl even though we hadn't argued about that at all.

“Heehee, yeah! New alpha!” Chris drew herself back out of the hug just enough to look in Lue's face again, and her ears and tail suddenly drooped a bit. “New alpha? Urr, do I have to fight you?” I guessed that her memories finally caught up enough to inform her of the normal way to get into a pack.
“You're lucky you don't,” said Lue, “I can tell just from your hug you're a huge softie. But—” she cut off another cry of 'new alpha' before it could begin, “There is a test. I have to know I can trust my pack, so we pet each other to force our instincts to show our true feelings about each other.”
“Oh, okay.” I tilted my head slightly at just how casually she accepted such a weird and sort of overly-intimate test, but didn't say anything. “That sounds a lot better than tryin' to fight someone,” she said. “But um...we just sorta met. I dunno if..”

“You can take the test more than once,” said Lue in an encouraging tone. “And not passing doesn't mean we can't hang out. If anything, getting to know each other better will make it easier for you to pass.”
“Yay!” Fully out of the hug by now, Chris gave a celebratory leap into the air, arms in a big Y shape and clothes and hair all fluttering around in response. (She was facing away from me but I'm sure Lue got a full view of the girl's new assets bouncing from the maneuver, too.) “S-so I can take the test now? Or um, do you think it'd be better if I wait first..?”

“Now's fine,” said Lue, and gestured to her couch. “Take a seat.” The newest werewolf nodded and obeyed, and she turned to me. “Well, do you want to do the honors?”
“Me? No way,” I shook my head. “If you're uh, done with me here I'm sure I can find my way home.”
“Don't be silly, you're already here, so as my beta you should at least observe the test to see whether you agree with my decision or not,” she said with a bright smile. I sighed and went over to the chair Chris had been in recently while Lue moved slowly up to the couch and sat down right up against the new girl, on the other side of her from me.

“Okay, so I'll go first,” said Lue. “You let me know if you're feeling uncomfortable or anything, okay?”
“O-okay,” she nodded, starting to blush again. Lue gently wrapped her arms around her and began to grow her own ears and tail out, the tail curling forward toward Chris's and beginning to slide around it at the base as it formed. By the time it was full-length, my alpha's tail was already mostly wrapped around the other girl's, the tips slowly across each other. Chris shivered excitedly, her arms wrapping themselves around Lue in another hug.

“Y'okay?”

“Mnh.” She grunted, seeming to already have trouble forming words. That seemed like a 'good' sign, I guessed.

A pleased, eager look on her face, Lue reached her hands up and gently put them across Chris's huge ears, every one of her fingers finding a nice big patch of fur to brush around. The other girl's response as the petting began in earnest was a soft “Aah..mnn...mrf!” She continued to bark in her throat, holding Lue more tightly as she began to nuzzle her. Lue leaned forward, slowly pushing Chris backwards and down until she was leaning against the armrest of the couch and both of them were coming uncomfortably close to me. I edged toward the other side of my chair, trying to suppress my own tail beginning to swish back and forth as I saw her obviously passing this part of the test. Somehow it seemed like I could feel the immense gratitude from her at having an apparently long-held dream of being a werewolf fulfilled, and it seemed obvious somehow that her response to me would've been even stronger...which made me even more glad I hadn't agreed to be the one to do it.

After a while Lue slowly released the other girl's ears, her hands slowly sliding down along Chris's cheeks to her shoulders. She leaned back again, Chris following her and continuing to nuzzle, until they were both sitting up again, and then slid her hands down more, past the chest to the inward slope of her stomach, and down along that to her hips. Finally Lue released her entirely, and she finally started to pull her head back from Lue's, audibly panting rapidly from the recent experience.

“Aah—um,” she stammered out between gasps. “D-did I pass?” She didn't seem to mind having just done something really embarrassing at all, I thought.

“Heehee, well. I certainly think so. You?” Lue looked to me, and I noticed her face was actually slightly red.

“Yeah, it uh, certainly looks like you trust her a lot or w-whatever,” I said.

“So now it's your turn to pet me,” said Lue. “Basically you can be in the pack if you want to at this point if you do that, whatever the results. Buut, if you don't like my reaction then you can back out.”
Her breath finally starting to get under control, Chris stuttered, “Oh, y-you want me to..um, err..”

“Yep,” my alpha nodded cheerfully. “You have to do it to be in the pack, it's the rules.”
“O-okay. Um..” Chris's tail swished around slightly, and seemed to rediscover Lue's still wrapped around itself. Then she hesitantly put her arms around her, and reached her hands slowly upward.
“It's alright, don't be shy,” said Lue softly, in a kind sort of tone. I noticed Chris's arms were shaking a bit, until she finally managed to reach the ears and slowly ran her fingers across them.

“Mmh..” Lue closed her eyes and smiled slightly as she began to pet her, and gently returned the hug, but that was about it. She seemed fairly relaxed, and not excited at all. After a short while, she said, “Okay, that's prolly enough.”

Chris let go right away and drew back slightly, her ears drooping and her tail doing what it could toward the same while still tangled up with another one. “Um..I-I'm sorry, I'm not very good am I...”
“It's not that, you're perfectly good at it,” said Lue. “I just don't know you too well yet. That's not surprising, since we just met today.” She gave a kind-looking smile. “But you see, I felt nice and calm in your arms. I already know you're not gonna hurt me from your reaction, which is a nice start. If you wanna join the pack, it'll be easy to get to know each other after that.”
“O-oh! So, I didn't fail or anything?”
“I already said you could be in if you want.”
“W-well, I do want!” she said excitedly, and suddenly grabbed Lue in another hug, most of her tail slipping free of the tangle so it could start wagging again. “New alpha!”

“Yeah, yeah, new alpha,” said Lue, patting her back a couple of times. “Congrats.”

Pushing Chris slightly off of her, Lue said, “So! I'm sure you're both aware, tomorrow night is the full moon.”
“Yeah..” I said.

“I'm sure you can get the word out to Brian, I'd like us to have a get-together then—here, say. A time to all be together as a pack and more or less solidify our structure a bit.”

“Um, you mean being here, a-all night?” said Chris. “Like a sleepover?”

“Yeah, basically a sleepover I guess,” said Lue. “But as a pack. And we'll all be covered in fur. Any objections?”
It took me a second to realize she was addressing me. “Huh? Oh, yeah, no. I kind of guessed you'd want to do something like that. But uh...about Brian though.”

“What?”
“I..we were talking yesterday and it might be better if both of us are girls, so we don't, you know...and anyway, it'd be weird to have a sleepover with a bunch of girls and one guy anyway.”

“Be my guest! The more the merrier,” said Lue, giving a thumbs-up. I should've guessed she'd only be happy about both of us being female for that.

“Okay. So I really do have some homework to catch up on, especially if I'll be busy all night tomorrow,” I said, standing up.

“Sure, sure,” Lue nodded, and drew Chris a little closer to her again. “You're free to go.” She reached up and tickled the tip of one of the other girl's ears, which she responded to with a surprised yip. “We'll just be here for a while, I think. Pack induction and all that.”

“Uh-huh. You, uh, do that.” I headed out the door as quickly as I could, not really wanting to be party to any more of it.

It's pretty clear by now that in addition to everything else Lue wanted someone she could pet into a frenzy who wouldn't get embarrassed and stop like me, and wasn't my boyfriend or girlfriend. I didn't tell my power to change Chris in quite the way they did, I just let them do their thing, which means...I don't know, somewhere in there he wanted to be like that? Or...maybe what he wanted was to be a werewolf appealing enough to Lue that she'd let him into the pack, in which case maybe my powers reached out enough to tap into her desires to change him? I guess it falls under my 'stop worrying about it' category as long as she's happy, and well...she certainly is that. I'm a little nervous about what might happen tomorrow night, even with someone like that to distract Lue. But I practically agreed to it as soon as I let her bring me into her pack, so there's no use worrying about it too much now. I definitely should make sure to get plenty of sleep tonight, though, even with the full moon kind of giving werewolves an energy boost all night to stay up with.

Midas Journal 22

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Entry: May 12

Over the last couple of days, I've been asking everyone I know who's “in the know” about magic to write down for me a list of all the kinds of magic people they're familiar with. Between so many people, I feel like the combined list should at least account for a decent number of things I might “discover” for myself in the future. If I change like six people and none of them are on the list, even as I update the list with what each of those people says they know about, that's going to look really suspicious that maybe my powers are secretly just making up new kinds of magic people. But if I start just checking off things on the list, then either I haven't been “inventing” new things at all, or the list or my memory of it is also retroactively being changed (which is scary, but I shouldn't worry about it because there's no way I could tell that was going on). It's a long list, so instead of trying to memorize the whole thing I'm just memorizing how long it is. If a new kind of person is added the list has to get longer, or something I wrote down has to be replaced, which would mean somehow removing a kind of magic person either from the world or from possibly two or three different people's memories. I also put it in alphabetical order so hopefully I'll be able to spot it if something gets replaced.

Notable things I haven't run into yet are several more kinds of people based on animals, demons, vampires, dragon-people apparently? So some of my guesses the other day were weirdly on-point. Also even though my conversation with Annabel suggested Rabbits like for people to not know about them, and maybe especially 'predator' types, Lue wrote down “rabbit” on her list. The conversation went like this:

I was reading through the list, and paused at the word “rabbit”. I wanted to ask about it but I needed to ask in a way that didn't suggest I had already met a Rabbit; she'd probably be able to get who exactly out of me and I don't want to risk any trouble. So I pretended to be confused about the use of the word (which, honestly, I was the first time I heard it anyway) and said, “Rabbit? Like, just the animal?”

“No, silly! Rabbit people. I dunno why they don't call themselves something else to be less confusing, but they don't. They're pretty secretive about even existing, though, especially around 'predator' types like ourselves, so you better not let that list fall into the wrong hands.”

Great, an opening to ask my real question. “Um...if they're so secretive, why do you know about it?”

Lue shrugged. “In my past life, two young members of the giant pack I was head of found out about a certain Rabbit family and thought it would be funny to hurt their son. I didn't even know about it until the kid's parents came to me privately and informed me about the incident. What they did to him left him paralyzed from the waist down, about. After I found out about it,” (she started getting a scary kind of toothy grin with sharpened teeth at this point) “I kept those two in the pack just long enough to ensure they wouldn't be capable of hurting someone like that ever again, and then kicked them out.”

“O-okay,” I said, feeling a little scared for my own life even though it obviously wasn't in danger. I think that touch of instinctive fear was why I didn't really connect the dots until later that she might have actually been talking about Annabel's past life, and if she was, well, that's a pretty weird coincidence. But how exactly does it work if Lue's old-man past self wasn't even there to do the part she says she remembers doing? I don't want to give myself a headache, but it might be worth seeing if “he” still actually existed somehow in this version of events.

This was yesterday. Lue changed the subject: “By the way, I hope you're aware this Friday's the full moon?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, nodding.

She grinned (much more pleasantly than the earlier one) and said, “Well, hurry up and get your boyfriend in the pack! It'd be a disgrace to go through a full moon as a mere two-member pack.”

“How do you know I haven't already..?” I started, and then just sighed when she continued to grin. “I'll talk to him about it tomorrow, ok?”

“Good!”

I also met Rio right after classes yesterday, to get a list from her. We hadn't actually run into each other before then, and she sort of looked me up and down. “Wow, is that really you?” she said.

“Err, I guess so?”
“You look really cute! And happy.”

“Oh, um, thanks.” I knew I was blushing again from the compliment but tried to ignore it. “Can we talk for a little bit?”

“Sure,” she shrugged. “If you're heading home I can just join you.”

“Okay.”

It occurred to me somewhere in the middle of that that I wanted to talk with her about what had happened last Saturday and what I'd decided since then. I didn't mention Annabel, again, for the same reason I didn't say anything about that to Lue.

Of course she was happy that I've decided not to fret about the mind altering thing so much. She said, “Hmn, those seem like some pretty good rules,” she said. “You should add that you're allowed to use your powers for self-defense.”

“I guess that's sensible...” I said.

“Not just changing yourself, either. If someone's pointing a gun at you you're allowed to shift to a world where the gun won't fire or suddenly ceases existing. You're allowed to change them if you have to. I don't want you to get hurt because you thought you'd shift to some form that's immune to guns and whoever panicked and fired before you finished making the change...although I guess I'm not actually sure whether that's possible. It's better safe than sorry, is what I'm saying.”

It finally occurred to me: “Is this...are you thinking about your past life?”
She looked away a little and frowned slightly. “More like I'm thinking about what could've happened if, you know, if I'd fired before...”

“Well, you didn't,” I said. “Don't worry about it.”

“Heh,” she grinned. “I ever tell you you're way too nice? Just give me some peace of mind and add that to the rules, okay? If you already know you're allowed, you don't have to waste time thinking about it in a crisis situation.”
“Okay, okay.”

We reached my house at this point. “Well, you wanna just hang out for a bit?” I said. “I feel like every conversation we've ever had has been about me and my problems.”

“Sure,” she nodded. “Don't worry about it though, remember you're the one who gave me a second chance.”

“Well, I don't like the idea of our friendship being some kind of transactional thing where it's all just you owing me something,” I said, leading the way to the living room and offering a seat on the couch.

“Makes sense, too. On..a lighter topic, would you mind if I felt your tail a little bit?” She blushed slightly. “It looks really fluffy, and I've been curious ever since I saw it...”
“Sure, fine,” I said, bringing it around to her side of the couch. “Just don't pull on it or anything.”

“'Kay.” Rio started by just running one hand across it, but before I knew it she scooted a little closer to my end of the couch and just started hugging it and rubbing her face across it. “It's sooo soft! You're like a big fluffy pillow!”

I just giggled a bit, the free tip of the tail whipping back and forth in an effort to wag itself. It's strange, though, my tail doesn't seem any less sensitive but I didn't have any kind of...what I would call a “violent” reaction like I did with Lue, or even something quite the same as what I feel when Brian is petting me. It was nice, but there wasn't an extreme reaction emotionally or physically from the animal side or whatever.

I thought about this a little bit later on. Lue's under the impression that a werewolf's instincts tend to show how they really feel about someone. Did not having some kind of reaction to Rio mean we weren't friends somehow? I don't think so, so it must mean our friendship is different somehow from my relationship with either of the other people I've let touch my new fuzzy parts. Rio is cute and nice, and very smart, but I guess she feels more like a younger sister to me than anything else.

It raises the question of what my reactions to Lue say about what I think of her, though. My best guess is that I've thought of her as an “alpha” ever since we first met. It feels like she's always been able to get me to do things I normally wouldn't for anyone; I mean, the first thing she did after we met was more or less bully me into turning into a girl for her. It's not a bad thing, though; I mean, she's always seemed about equally interested in helping me out and messing with me, and even the messing with me has helped me figure some things out. On top of everything else if it weren't for her kind of pushing me around that way I wouldn't have met Brian. I guess it's a combination of some kind of submissiveness toward her strange kind of “alpha” personality and...gratitude? Something like that.

Today I went over to Brian's place. We hadn't seen each other since Saturday, so when I called and asked if I could come over it sounded like he couldn't say yes fast enough. He opened the door and smiled down at me. “Hey, pretty girl,” he said. “C'mon in.”

I could feel myself blushing and giggling a little bit from the compliment, and did as asked.
He lead the way over the couch so we could sit down; I pulled myself up against his side and he put his arm over me. “So, uh, how's..you know, being a girl treating you?”
“Pretty well,” I said. “I dunno if I want to stay this way forever, but it feels a lot more normal than it did when I tried to change myself. A lot of people want to touch my fur, though.”

“Well, it's pretty touchable,” he said, brushing one of my ears with a hand. I leaned over a little closer, smiling, and then let him pull me into a long, slow kiss. After that we just stayed close for a while, until he finally decided to break the silence.

“So, uh, the full moon's pretty soon..”
“You're the second person to tell me that,” I said, “but I already know.”

“Well, it's just, I'm not really sure—the whole shifted memory thing—and we met after the last one, so—” he stuttered awkwardly, but I understood what he meant.

“You're worried if I'm still a werewolf then our instincts will take over or something like that.”

“Uh—yeah.” His face reddened. “And since you—and I agreed we...”
“It's fine, we'll figure this out. If all else fails I could just make us both girls that night.”

“Oh, yeah. I hadn't thought of that. But, so, you want to...?”
“I'm a little curious about it. Anyway, there's another reason I think I'll have to be a werewolf that night.”
“What's that?”

“Um..last Sunday Lue came over to my house, and uh, you know how you told me she's the alpha type and all that?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
“Well, she's decided to actually start a pack, and wanted me to join.”

“Did you...fight?” he said, looking concerned even though I obviously wasn't injured.

“No. Lue wants to..” I blushed slightly. “She said she wanted to try out new pack members in a really different way. Err, by petting each other.”

“Petting,” he repeated, confused.

“She said some stuff about instincts being unable to lie about how people feel about each other, and like, she'd rather have a pack that trust each other than worry about having strong people because we don't really live in a world where physical strength is that important,” I said. It had sounded a lot more convincing the way she'd said it, but I couldn't exactly remember it just then.

“So, you agreed to join?” he said.
“Err, yeah. It was...it's always really hard to say no to her, and she is my friend, and the only..”
“No, no, that's fine, she's my friend too. I was expecting her to try and start a pack pretty soon, to be honest. So did she ask you to invite me to her pack or something? I mean I've talked to her like five times this week and she didn't say anything to me.”

“Um..she said she wanted me as beta, and because of how the, uh, tryout works she'd rather I ask you to join the pack and do the test myself.”

“Oh.” He stared off in the distance for a second and then back at me. “Well, I think we both know how that'll end up.”

“Y-yeah, but I'm a terrible liar, so..if you want in the pack we probably have to actually do it. Anyway, d-do you not..?”
“No, I just wanted to make sure we were both on the same page,” he said. “Um..who should start?”
“I don't think it matters. I guess you can start. Uh..” My cheeks had been getting steadily hotter throughout this whole part of the conversation and by now I felt like they could boil water. “Y-you might have to uh, when Lue did it she sort of rubbed her tail against mine.”
“You just want me to do that, huh,” he said. He was blushing too but gave me a teasing smile, which I couldn't help but giggle at. It brought the tension down a bit, so when he carefully reached his hands up to my ears to start rubbing them I managed to calm myself down enough to not jump.

I pulled myself closer against him, and I could hear his tail brushing against the side of the couch as it grew out. His fur was sort of rough, but not nearly as much as Lue's, and when I felt his tail starting to curl itself around mine it came with a strong burst of pleasant, tingly feelings between my legs and a quiet “Mmf!” from my throat. Almost right away I was brushing my face across his, but even though I was a lot more consciously aware of it than I had been by the time it happened with Lue I didn't feel ashamed or want to stop doing it at all. I barked softly in my throat, occasionally allowing my lips to brush against his.

It was not very long before he just grabbed my head and pulled me into a close, intense kiss, the idea of petting my ears completely forgotten. I gave myself into the kiss eagerly, slowly leaning back as he pushed forward until he was laying on top of me on the couch, our tails still together hanging down off the front. We kept going for what felt like hours and really must have been at least a few minutes before he finally released me from the kiss and I pushed him off of me, causing him to roll over onto the floor.

I sat up, still panting rapidly and heavily with a lot of heat in my cheeks. We slowly calmed down, just looking at each other with giddy grins, and after a while I offered a hand to help him back up onto the couch. “Hhokay. So. Did you approve?” I said, grinning.

“Um, yeah,” he said. “S-so I guess it's your turn to do that to me, then, huh.”
“Mm-hm. W-we can take a break, you know, if you want to,” I said.

“N-no, just uh..I wonder if you'd let me be the girl this time?”

“You be the girl?” I repeated. “I mean...I don't have a problem with it, but I'm not sure if it counts if one of us isn't a werewolf...”
“You don't have to stop being a werewolf,” he said. “Here.” He brushed my cheek briefly and I felt myself gaining the power to be Kael again, but as a werewolf.

“Oh..why didn't I think of that?” I said.

“Too much excitement lately, I'd guess,” he said with another teasing grin. “Let's start?” He began to shrink and I realized he was beginning to change into Brie.

“Uh—yeah!” I activated the new power I'd just gained, and watched as my perspective pulled upward. Brian's hair puffed out and turned white, followed by his ears and tail visibly growing fluffier and changing colors, too. His face turned cute and his body curvy, his t-shirt hugging close and pants shrinking into tight shorts as he switched sexes again. In no time at all I was me—male me—again, but still sporting the wolf ears and tail, and in front of me was Brie, looking every bit as beautiful and cute as I remembered.

Before I could even say anything Brie pounced on top of me and knocked me over on my back, her tail curling again around mine as she kissed me. She let go, and I started running my tail up and down hers, feeling a soft tail against my own for the first time, and brought my hands up to rub her ears. “Mrf..yip!” she gave a high, puppy-like bark, in between panting from the excitement of the kiss she'd just had. “Arr..rrf!” Her tongue hung partway out of her mouth for a second before she pulled it back in and just went straight to kissing me again, this one every bit as intense as the first one. I finally noticed in the middle of it that she had chosen not to have a bra on, as her breasts squished and rubbed against my chest with just a couple of thin shirts in between. She continued to give occasional high-pitched barks in her throat, which I found myself responding to with some low woofs of my own, until we finally seemed to both agree to stop and she pulled her lips up off of mine.

Still panting, I managed to say, “H-how come you keep ending up on top of me?”

She gave a bright, toothy smile. “You're just not the dominating type, I guess. So did I pass?”

“Well, duh. Um..welcome to the pack and all that?”
“Heehee,” she giggled, “you're so not a normal beta. That's prolly a good thing though, I think I get what Lue was going for.” Brie pushed herself up off of me and stood up, before her legs instantly wobbled and refused to support her, leading to her quickly falling to a cross-legged position on the floor. “Whoo—okay, too soon.”

I sat up on the couch again. Her face was bright red and her tail was wagging furiously, and I could tell that I was in pretty much the same state. “Uh—um...do you want to, did you wanna keep being a girl a little longer?” she said. “I didn't really even ask...”

“Well, you seem to really like being the girl,” I said, “but um, yeah...I've been thinking about it and I kinda wanted to give it a solid week. If that's not too bad..?”
“No no, that's fine. I just wanted to check first,” she said, leaning forward and poking me on the leg. I started shrinking down right away. “We've had a lot of, err, 'excitement', so if we're gonna hang out for a while your idea of both being girls to not...you know, or anything, sounds pretty good.”

I nodded, and my rapidly-growing hair swished around my face in response. I felt my sexual attraction to Brie slipping away as I went back to being female, but as I continued to look down at her she still looked every bit as adorable and pretty as ever. Soon my chest started to stretch out across the material of my shirt again, and I squirmed in my seat, feeling the same physical excitement from it as before and giving the same involuntary barks. My blush didn't fade away as I realized my own bra had gone missing between switching back and forth, and Brie leaned over and crawled on all fours up to the couch before climbing up to a seat again.

“Um—is there some particular reason for uh..” I said, poking my chest.

Brie giggled again. “I dunno, I just sorta felt like it.” She put her arms around me again, another girl-hug with our boobs squishing against each other. Even though I'm shorter as a girl, I'm still like a foot taller than Brie like this, and I had to appreciate the effort she made to not just bury her face in my chest. “I can fix it if you wanna though..”
“N-no, it's fine,” I said, hugging her back. “Um, but...I thought you weren't very happy with us both being the same before...”
“Well, we've just had our fill of kisses, so it's not so bad. Besides, we were boys last time. It feels easier to get close like this as girls, right?” She brushed her fingers across my face just a little bit and I didn't draw away at all, proving her point.
“Yeah...”

Only after I left there tonight did she change back. I didn't actually see it, but a kind of switch went off in my mind as to which set of memories were 'real' again. I'm getting strangely used to the feeling of my memories shifting around like this, to the point where it feels...well, not normal, but it's getting increasingly easy to keep track of everything somehow. I guess I should be glad it's getting less confusing instead of more, with how many different shifts in memory I've personally had. Most of the people I've changed only have one or two to deal with, as far as I know, but I have one for every one of them and also every time I go back and forth.

The strange just gets more normal every day, but I have to admit at least it's exciting. I wonder if I'm really starting to like it...

Adventure: The Witch's Friend (update 13)

Introducing The Witch's Friend!
This adventure will be a bit of a different CYOA, focusing on probably one particular transformation rather than a bunch of branches and endings. It will also be run differently; rather than me coming up with a bunch of directions a particular page can go to, every page's comment section is a forum for suggestions on what should happen next.

I will basically pick my favorite suggestion(s) from those given, and branch off events from each. More than one mutually compatible suggestion may make it into the same page after the one in which they are suggested.

What's New? 
Update 13-5 new pieces, one with an image. Update 12-4 new pieces, one with an image. Thanks to Volt for suggestions which helped me get some new inspiration for this.
Update 11.5-1 new piece with an image. Also I forgot to say what needed suggestions down below and fixed that for this update.
Update 11-5 new pieces; admittedly mostly things I wrote a while ago and held back on publishing for one reason or another.
Update 10-4 new pieces; two have images. Re-ordered update list (the thing you're reading now) to have most recent first so it's easier to see what the newest stuff is instead of having to read down the whole list every time.
Update 9-9(!!) new pieces, 3 of which have images.
Update 8-5 new pieces, including two with an image.
Update 7-3 new pieces, all three of which have an image! (Used to be 2 but I decided to add a 3rd the next day)
Update 6-1 new piece; small update.
Update 5-3 new pieces, one of which has an image!
Update 4-4 new pieces (don't expect this pattern to continue though, honestly)!
Update 3-3 new bits, one of which has an image! I've amended the section above to reflect the reality that suggestions don't really just decide what the main character does next, but may dictate what other characters do and even events not connected to any character at all.
Update 2-One step forward added to each of U1's branches.
Update 1-Two branches begun! Fair warning, even events and facts prior to the story's beginning may differ from one branch to another until established somewhere along the branch.
Update 0-It exists! Now seeking suggestions for moving forward from the beginning.

Need Suggestions:
-New pages that have 0 suggestions:  Familiar, Robber, Getting Smaller, Teleportation, Weights
-Other pages I'd really like to see more/different suggestions for: Dark, Help Out, Resistant
As always, pretty much any new suggestions are welcome, but I am very interested in adding more "depth" to the graph representing the branching storylines if possible (that is, moving them farther forward as opposed to adding more splits).

Inheritance

The "Best" RPG Ever-32

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Zack barely talked during breakfast, distrated by his dream the previous night. It didn't feel like it had been an ordinary dream, the kind one just forgets after shaking off the last vestiges of having been asleep the night before. If anything, its events felt more vivid and real now than they had in the dream itself, if no less vague about some of the details. Katherine and Mika were talking about someone they'd met through the psion's dream-walking powers or whatever, and Nora was quiet as usual. Once they were finished, however, he pushed thoughts of the dream off, thinking instead about their next step. It was time to go back to the guardhouse and speak with the Captain about the house—their house.

He knocked on the door, and her voice answered, "Come in." Once inside, she said, "Well, I assume you've made a decision."

"Right," said Zack. "We want it. Also, some of us were wondering what exactly the house came with. Like, what kind of rooms it'd have, that kind of thing."
"Since we're having it built, it can be laid out however you like," said the Captain. "I mean, within reason—we're not building an actual mansion or castle here." Everyone seemed ready to talk at once, but she preempted them: "But we can discuss those details in a moment. There's something else I'd like your help with."

"Oh..what?" said the catgirl.

"Some undead were spotted coming in from the west. Small numbers, but undead are consistently trouble. I'd like you to head out that way and find out what's causing them. If it's a necromancer, we'd prefer them taken alive but you have permission to kill if necessary. However, I suspect it isn't a person...they seemed to be randomly wandering rather than directed by anything in particular."

"Well..what else makes undead?" said Mika.
"It's likely some kind of dark artefact has surfaced, appeared, or activated over in that direction. If so, you'd be able to stop the undead from showing up just by picking it up. I'd prefer you take it here if possible so we can make sure it won't start causing trouble again. On the way there, it'd be best if you got rid of the ones it already made as well. Have you ever fought undead before?"

"I don't think any of us have," said Zack. Obviously all of them were familiar with the concept of undead, but there was no telling how exactly they worked in this setting.

"Well, they're not as easy to get rid of as normal monsters. Just beating them apart isn't enough; they have to be ground completely to powder or burned to a crisp unless you happen to know some holy magic, which can exorcise them."

"Does it matter if it's, uh, dark magic fire?" said Mika.
"It shouldn't, as long as it's hot enough to burn things. If you're willing to take care of this I'll do what I can for any unusual customizations you want on the house, in addition to some regular job pay. But I do want it done soon, before either any undead are sighted close enough to town to create a scare or they grow any greater in number at the source."

"Well, uh.." Zack paused, looking at Katherine. Understanding his intent immediately, she bridged the party's minds together just long enough to get an affirmative vote out of the other two, making it unanimous. "..sure."

"Good," said the Captain, nodding. "Now, about—" she was interrupted by another knock on the office door, and went up to open it herself. An elven man in overalls was on the other side. "There you are," she said. Turning to the surprised party she said, "This is Reed, an architect. Reed: Zack, Katherine, Mika, Nora. You can just use my office to hammer out the details, I have some errands to run anyway." Rather than wait for a response, she brushed past him on the way out.

The witch said, "Uhhh.."

"We just mentioned customizing the house today," said Katherine.
Reed just shrugged, walking inside and letting the door close behind him. "After a while you learn not to be surprised by anything that woman knows," he said.

---

The last person down the breakfast was Rose, who looked strangely tired and stressed compared to her usual bubbly deameanor. She'd even managed to tear a couple of holes into the nightgown she was wearing, despite the fact that it seemed nowhere near loose enough to get close to the claws one her hands or feet. After she sat down and mumbled an order for a bunch of sausages and bacon, no bread thanks, Rayna was the first person to speak up. "Hey, uh, you okay?"
"Mmngh..I didn't sleep super well last night," she said. "I kept having bad dreams about my forest...like I came back to find it all withered without me, or some big nasty monster was tearing it up, or—or it was on fire!"

"I'm sure it's fine," said the foxgirl. "You haven't even been away from it that long, right?"
"I know, but I can't stop thinking about it."

"Ohh, I get it," said Lynn, with a tone of realization.

"Get what?" said Rose, looking over at her.
"It's because you're part dragon. The forest is like your hoard, right?"
"It's my home!" she said, sounding insulted. She paused, calming down and uncertain why she was so agitated about it. "Mnh..I think someone called it that once, though."

"Well, dragons like to be in their hoard, where they can see all their treasure. Or...in your case, where you can take care of all your plants. Right? It's probably just, like, a natural instinct, and not something rational at all."

"Either way, though, I'm sure you'll feel better when you get back today," said Rayna.
The dragon-girl nodded. "Y-yeah..." She'd really wanted to stay in town longer, maybe get to know these girls—or the other ones—a little better, but now she was all stressed and agitated, which wouldn't be any good for making friends at all.

"You can always come back to visit us again," said Clera, sensing Rose's sadness. "Or we will visit you."
"Uh-huh," she nodded, perking up slightly. "I don't wanna be there on my own for such a long time again."

Even the time it took to eat felt like ages. In this new, alien state of mind Rose found it hard to enjoy the pleasant talk, or even being surrounded by cute girls at all. This was terrible, and if just going away from her forest for a day or so was always going to feel this way...well, that just wouldn't do! She resolved to try and do something about it once this stupid instinct thingy went away and she was back in her right mind again—well, at least the somewhat righter mind she'd wound up with initially on turning into a dragon girl. Either way, as soon as she was done eating she abruptly stood up to leave. "Um..I really—I don't wanna go, but I can't take it anymore," she said. "I'll see you again, right?"
"Yeah, we already said we would," said Rayna, smiling at her. "Don't worry about it."

"O-okay. Bye!" With a wave, she turned and ran off, unwittingly leaving them with the bill for her food but not thinking about that until she was already an entire hour out from town.

Once Rose left, Aria said, "Well, I didn't want to mention it when she was having such bad dreams, but I had a pretty good one last night. It looks like I even managed to unlock a new power!"

"What's that?" said Lynn.
"My sword can shapeshift now. Just like me. Anyway, I hope you're all ready for what we're gonna do today."

"We...haven't exactly decided that yet, have we?" said Rayna, one of her ears flopping aside in confusion.
"Well, we can't put it off any longer, especially since we have a good four-member crew now. Today is the day of the spreadsheets. Today we decide on a build for the whole party." She leaned forward onto the table excitedly. "We're gonna need to go buy a bunch of paper—big paper—and pens first, and then see if there's an empty office or something we can rent. Ohh, I wonder if they have pushpins and corkboards in this universe. Putting it all up on the walls would be the perfect way to see everything without having to crouch all over each other's shoulders."

As she went on like this, Rayna and Lynn exchanged a look to the effect of 'what sort of monster did we unleash?' Finally, however, Clera cut in by clearing her throat. "What exactly are you talking about?" she said.
"Oh, right. Non-gamer," said Aria. The way she said the word didn't seem precisely insulting, but had a touch of 'I forgot there exist people in this category' to it. "So, we all have skill trees we can learn skills from, right? It's better if we coordinate what skills to learn or not learn to get the best possible party for any situation. And the only way to do that is to lay it all out and figure out what kind of synergies and strategies we have available to work with. We sort of agreed to do this before you joined the party, but it seems like a good idea to you too, right?"

"Well...I don't see any reason not to maximize our chances of survival and success," said the winged girl, crossing her arms.
"Good, good!" she nodded excitedly, before picking up some bacon and biting into it, muttering, "Ohh, the delicious synergies..."

Clera looked at the other two for a moment with a questioning look, and they just shrugged, neither of them having quite seen this side of her before. At least she was muttering about something other than blood.

"Any-way," said Rayna, "I had kind of a fun dream too. It was a little weird, but..I was doing some kinda sideshow for people in a town—or uh, maybe a bunch of towns?—using my illusion magic. And you were there too, Lynn! Doing some cool archery trick shots and stuff."

"Huh..." Lynn looked like she was thinking.

"What's up?" said the foxgirl.

"I...think I dreamed about the same thing. But...well, while I was on my date yesterday Rast asked me how the two of us came to the frontier, like how we met and stuff. A-and I couldn't just, not answer, so I made some stuff up. But it was—what both of us dreamed sounds a lot like what I made up, pretty much. I'm not sure but—I think something funny's going on."

They sat in silence for a few seconds, processing this strange new bit of information.

"Mmh." Aria swallowed her latest bite of food and turned to the winged girl. "So what about you, Doctor Sweet? You have any curiously backstoryish dreams?"

Clera raised an eyebrow. "What did you just address me as?"

The shifter shrugged. "Doctor Sweet. 'Cause you're a doctor, and you're sweet. Answer the question?"

Dr. Kellen blushed a tiny bit, but folded her arms and glared at Aria. "Let it be known that I do not approve of this nickname. But no, I did not have that kind of dream last night. However, I did learn something rather strange about my nature since appearing in this world..."

---

There had been about an hour or two of negotiating various hopes and desires for the house. The only thing Zack specifically requested was separate bedrooms and the presence of at least three bathrooms, since he'd become quite aware of certain needs all of their bodies now had which none of them were likely entirely used to yet. Reed had no problem with four bedrooms and just said he'd put a bathroom next to each one. The others agreed unanimously on a library and some kind of living room with plenty of comfy chairs and couches (furniture and appliances (probably magical ones) were part of the Captain's deal, Reed had said, but they would need to buy things like books and groceries themselves). A few training dummies for Katherine were easy enough to arrange, but Mika had to be talked down from a full-size outdoor pool to just a small hot tub in her own bathroom since all the real estate a pool would need was right on top of the ritual grounds for summoning another demon for her to eat. Nora had no real demands of her own, but when Katherine suggested a small, maybe magically soundproofed quiet space for meditation she meekly added her own approval to the idea. Beyond that, Reed had already mentioned that a kitchen and dining area were quite standard, along with a few storage areas and of course a door to town.

"A door to town," the psion repeated, not quite understanding the phrase.

"Well, I'm sure you don't want to walk all the way here every single day," said the architect. "Besides, the Captain already paid for someone to set it up. There'll just be a door at a certain address around here, and you all get keys. If you have a key the door opens straight to your new house. If not, it's locked and there's nothing but a wall behind it. Pretty tough to fake a key, at that. This kind of range is easy enough to get done, maybe a little pricey—but again, in your case it's already paid for, so..."
"Yes," said Zack, nodding. "That's good."
"Okay, great!"

After all of that, Reed said he would draw up a plan and get the Captain's final approval for everything, and then they could get the place up and running in probably a few days' time.

"Um, a-a few days?" asked Nora.

"Well, you did ask for a few things not exactly on the standard model," he answered, apparently misunderstanding the direction of the elf's expectations.
Katherine gently elbowed her side. Magic, remember?

"Oh! Uh, r-right," said the weaver sheepishly, in response to both.

After leaving the guardhouse, they went for an early lunch in preparation of the undead hunting expedition.

"Soo...holy magic," said the witch to Zack. "You got some?"

"Hmm." He paused, closing his eyes to see the skill menu again. "Looks like there's something a little farther up the 'neutral' skill chain. 'Smite Undead'. It...channels magic through physical attacks so they can kill undead."

"Sounds perfect!" Mika chirped. "Can you afford it?"
"Yeah...gotta buy a few other things to get there. Seem like...useful enough skills anyway."

"Um, w-what about you?" said Nora, turning to the catgirl. "Undead d-don't exactly have minds, usually..."

"I've got it covered," said Katherine with a smirk. "After my little meditation adventure yesterday the guy offered us prizes. I got a set of elemental knives to throw around; I'll just use the fire one."

"Prizes?" said Mika. "What, like you were a good little meditator?"
She shrugged. "I dunno, the guy just told us he didn't have much use for the things and preferred us having 'em to just letting 'em sit around collecting dust."

"Maybe I should go have a meditation session with you next time," said the witch.

"I'm pretty sure he'll be able to tell if you're not serious. He did invite us to come for tea, though, so maybe we could invite you along too, if we give him some advance warning..."

A little later, Mika said, "Hey, you know what we should do if this goes well?"
"What?" Zack sincerely hoped it wasn't another trip to the baths.

"We should go kill another demon tonight while we still can. Y'know, before the construction mages or whatever get there? I'd say we're powerful enough to take on the next one by now—especially if I get some kind of sweet dark magic artifact or whatever today—and I'd love to taste another delicious—err, I mean, be more powerful! So I can help out in fights a little more."

"What, seeing Aria's humongous sword-demon-nightmare thing last night whet your appetite or something?" said the catgirl.

"No!" Katherine gave her a knowing look, enhanced by the knowledge she could read minds. "Okay, maybe a little, but I'm serious about the helping out part! High luck is great and all, but I can't stand to keep being the useless one in battle."

"Seems reasonable enough," said the knight. "Okay, if we get back soon enough from the skeleton hunting we can take a nap this afternoon and head out around sunset. If there's somebody around already there, though, we'll have to call it off."
"Yeah..." Mika nodded, sounding a little saddened by that possibility.

---

Rose finally stopped, panting, feeling as if she had sprinted the entire way, when her forest came into view at last. It was...fine. No fire or smoke, and as she took a few steps closer and felt her influence reach out across the whole domain once more it became clear that there were no trespassers or visitors here, nor had there been in the last couple of days: Not a blade of grass was out of place.

She breathed a sigh of relief as her feet reached the soft grass of her home, feeling her usual sense of excited, cheerful confidence return. After that, however, her face changed to a small frown of though as she realized Lynn was almost certainly right. This wasn't merely like arriving at home, comforting an event as that was in Rob's memories; it had felt terribly awful to be away for so long and now it felt immensely good to be back. Was she really...addicted to being here? It might be instinct, sure, but it was awful to think she couldn't handle going off somewhere with her new friends for even as much as a day without feeling all awful and having to come running home to her...hoard.

She sat down on a tree stump, leaning her chin on a fist and that elbow on a thigh, and closed her eyes to think. Was there a plant here or something that could suppress this unsavory part of her instincts?

As if in response, the menu reappeared. At first her mind stumbled in confusion; a menu like...a game? Right, this was some kind of video game or something. There was an empty inventory which—come to think—she could have used to carry more flowers and herbs to town; maybe uesful for next time? And there was a skill tree; she'd seen it before, just rapidly skimming over a bunch of powers she already had, but it was in the middle of a crisis situation and she hadn't really taken stock of the whole thing.

First of all—Rose giggled to herself—the skill tree was arranged to fit over an image of a great, spreading real tree, like from nature. Long chains of nodes had come pre-filled with all those powers she already felt quite used to having, some of them upgraded several times: Physical enhancements to strength, endurance, balance, speed, agility; magical powers largely running down a line focused on allowing her a massive home-field advantage in her own forest...but one line, clearly labelled "Humanoid Sociability", was conspicuously empty, not one of the skills ever taken.

Indeed, the very first one sitting at the tree's trunk was "Diminish Hoard Instinct", with a description indicating it was exactly the sort of thing she was after. There were loads of points available to buy skills with, seemingly all accumulated over her recent adventure; many were labeled as only usable on this particular branch with a note indicating that meeting and interacting with a bunch of "normal" people had awarded them.

This was perfect! But the dragon-girl also recognized that some parts of her socially awkward behavior was actually sort of cute and endearing, and may have been responsible for the kind of reception' she'd gotten from some of those girls. Besides, the idea of drastically altering her own personality felt deeply discomforting, so there were lots of reasons to be wary of some of these skills. But not freaking out so quickly about her forest every time she left it for a few hours? That was a far more than welcome change to make. She went ahead and started making it, upgrading it a few times to be really sure she'd be okay going out to visit the town again. For now she still wanted to rest in her forest a little while, but when the time came it would be great!

Beach Science

Apparently it's been about six and a half years since the last time I made a GCB related caption. Hard to believe I've even been at this that long.