Omega Zeta Kappa 14: ξ

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Out of all of the unusual cases in the OZK frat house, Vade was perhaps the most unusual of all. This was because, unlike every other person living in the building, Vade was not a student of their college. He also wasn't a student of any other college—he was, in fact, not a college student at all. Oh, he was college-student-age; he graduated high school right before moving in, and if he were going to college he'd be more than halfway through his sophomore year by now. But Vade's education was of an entirely different sort from your average guy his age.

Since he was young, Vade had always displayed strange abilities. His parents thought they were hallucinating the first time a seven-year-old kid waved his hand and made a toy float over to him so he wouldn't have to walk over to get it himself. As he grew older, they worked together as a family to suppress and hide those abilities, even after the point when the Veil was lifted and it was fairly clear they were some kind of magic. But then, about halfway through his junior year of high school, Vade had fallen asleep in class and managed to do magic in his sleep which resulted in all of the desks (including the teacher's) floating a couple of feet up into the air, and the jig was properly up. This got the attention of a nearby warlock, who made it perfectly clear just how dangerous someone with Vade's level of potential going untrained for the rest of his life would be for basically everyone around him. He then insisted that Vade become his apprentice, or else that he and his parents find some other mage for him to apprentice under.

Fortunately, Vade was pretty happy with this proposal. Being a mage's apprentice and learning a bunch of spells "like Harry Potter and stuff" was cool to him, and he figured that if he knew the right spells, he'd have to physically lift a finger even less often than before. It was a fact that Vade was a naturally lazy person, preferring sleep or any other sedentary activity over anything that required him to move. His threshold for 'working hard' was several orders of magnitude below most other people, which his warlock master was endlessly frustrated with. Even though the basic stuff he learned at first required precious little effort from Vade, his master was always asking what he'd do when the bigger spells required him to actually work—his answer to which was more or less "I guess I'll work harder at 'em, then."

He worked with his master on afternoons and sometimes weekends for the rest of high school—which to an outside observer might have sounded like he was taking on more work and would naturally be miserable, but learning magic was like a relaxing break for him compared to the rigors of actual school. After graduation, Vade and his master both wanted the apprenticeship to continue, and his parents more or less approved of that plan since there were all kinds of good jobs a well-trained mage could get these days.

It was traditional practice for an apprentice to live with the master, but then it was also tradition for this sort of thing to begin around the start of puberty instead of five to seven years later. Also, Vade's mother wanted him to be 'properly socialized', and his master was more than happy to find an alternative—seeming to think he wouldn't enjoy living under the same roof as his young apprentice for some reason. He had some sort of connection to the Tanner family, and through them made some unusual arrangements by which the college would allow Vade to live in the frat house and some sort of extra donations would be funneled somewhere or other in exchange. The entire deal was too complicated for most people follow (probably by design) and likely very unethical, but Vade didn't particularly care—he got his own place to live in (sort of), away from his parents and master alike, and could try and make some new friends there, too!

Every weekday a portal opened to the warlock's place, and Vade would study with him from 9 to 5 or even later sometimes. But now he got the weekends off, and he could sleep to his heart's content. Sometimes he got 'homework', but he could always get it over with pretty quickly—motivated by the thought of sweet relaxation and slumber awaiting him just beyond. Plus there were plenty of kooky people to hang out with or people-watch, like his roommate Xavier or the two werewolves who were always up to something; he got to go to campus functions like plays and stuff for free by pretending to be a student...and his life was generally just peachy overall.

"This is preposterous!"

"Mmh..."
"What kind of idiotic, ill-conceived, reckless...foolishness possessed them to do this!?"
Vade turned over onto his side, pushing the blinders up off his eyes just enough to open one half-lidded and look at his roommate, sitting on the side of his bed already fully-clothed, and presently engaged in what seemed to be a shouting/vocubalary battle against his phone.

"Wh'r y'ln 'bout, Zave?"

Xavier seethed, then hopped off of the bed and came over, thrusting his phone at Vade. "Just—just look at this!"

Rather than taking the phone in his hands, the apprentice mage gently floated it through the air until he could see the screen. "Hmmn..oh, hey, she's pretty cute." The first thing Vade's eyes settled on had been the picture. "Who's..?" His gaze drifted up to the text. "..Oh. Tha's pretty wild, yeah." It drifted back up toward Xavier.
"'Wild'?! It's insane is what it is! Why would any man want this?!"
"Why'd any girl wanna be a guy? World's a weird place, man. We've got a whole goddess specifically for transformations and stuff..." Vade turned over to his back, pulling the blinders back down over his eyes.

"I refuse to participate in this..this...!"
"Lunacy?" Vade suggested.

"Madness!" Xavier said with a tone of angry agreement. He huffed angrily for a moment. Then: "I am going to procure sustenance. Do you desire anything?"
"Mmmyeah, a donut'd be great. I'll pay you back..."

"Yes, yes, with your next allowance. I have important matters to attend to today, so I won't be back in here for a long while afterward," Xavier said.

"'Kay."

A minute or seven after his roommate left, Vade slowly sat up and stretched, loudly yawning. He was somewhat tall but also moderately chubby, as might be expected of someone who ate a few too many sweets while expending as little physical effort as possible. He didn't actually care, except when other people insulted him about it. Xavier seemed to know the sting of an unpleasant physical appearance well enough not to bring it up at all. And even though he probably didn't approve of his roommate's unhealthy decisions, he was still somewhat of an enabler at times. Naturally, this was another thing Vade's master was always on about, how magic was physically taxing as well as mentally, and a good mage needed to be in peak physical condition and blah blah blah...

After removing his blinders, Vade went to the bathroom to take care of a few things, including using magic to rearrange his short, light brown hair into a fairly acceptable shape—this, of course, required less effort from him than picking up a physical brush. Then he shuffled back to his side of the room, lay back on the bed facing the ceiling, and floated his phone up in front of him, scrolling up through the group text with his finger to the one Rich had sent—which he'd only lazily skimmed on Xavier's screen before. Rich really had turned out super cute, he thought. Maybe this was not just a 'make people female' potion, but actually a 'make people cute girls' potion?

After thinking about it for a loong moment, he sent some texts to his master:
so, a thing happened. OZK put out this announcement this morning

The second one was a paste-in of Rich's text. Then:

i can probably stick around either way, tho

I was warned of this decision, his master replied after a bit, later than I would like. The source of those potions is trustworthy, and they are not harmful. It makes no difference to me if you take one or not, so long as you are diligent in continuing your training.

Vade responded with a single letter: k

Xavier returned with the requested donut (after eating something himself, as usual; this provided Vade with enough time to wake up, get out of bed, and then lie down on top of his bed again). "Aah, thanks man." He sat up on the side of the bed to take the delicious pastry, biting into it.
"Think nothing of it," Xavier shook his head. "But perhaps you'll apply yourself to something constructive today instead of slumbering like an old dragon."

"Mmgh...hey, dragons are pretty sweet," Vade retorted. But he knew this, coming from his roommate, was an expression of friendly concern. "Aah, maybe I'll do some practice, though..."

"Very well. My canvases are calling." Flipping his scarf dramatically, he strode back out of the room.

After finishing his breakfast, Vade considered going back to sleep for an hour or...four. But then he thought: If he was going to take the potion, he could at least do that, first. Maybe the work of going all the way to..wherever they were giving people potions, would qualify his sleep as a 'post-applying-himself-nap'. It wasn't exactly practicing magic, but it was doing..something, which was more than he did on an average Saturday.

Once he got out of the room, Vade's 'sixth sense' for the flow of magic buzzed like crazy. There was magic whizzing around the whole building, bursting out of various points around him like never before. This made it all the more likely that the potion was more than a standard 'change-of-sex' affair. And all he had to do was identify the nearest source of one of those bursts and shuffle over in that direction, soon coming upon a very attractive girl with obvious signs of a recent, high-powered transformation spell—the sort that changed one's base form rather than merely temporarily pasting a new look on top of it—coming off of her. "Hey," he half-yawned. "Who's giving out those potions?"
"Uh, those two weird werewolves," she said. "Right in the hallway by the kitchen."
"Ah, cool, thanks."

"Nooo problem!"

This did involve going up some stairs, since the OZK house didn't have an elevator. Well—maybe Vade could cast something to make a portal to the next floor up or blink himself up there, but he wasn't really sure how to target it to not pop into someone's bedroom, and memorizing the layout of the place well enough to do it properly was decidedly too much effort. So, the stairs it was. Look, he thought as he trudged up them, I'm even getting exercise! It really wasn't all that bad, even though it was the very same trip Xavier had spared him by getting his breakfast for him.

"Whoa, hey, it's Vade!" Oh wow, the werewolves had come out not merely cute, but drop-dead gorgeous. The dark-haired girl addressing him was probably Quaid; same magic signature and everything.

"The dragon came out of his lair?! Woow," the other one—Sid, obviously—said.
"Xavier already made that joke, guys," Vade said. "Soo, you're the ones giving out that stuff?" he waved a hand vaguely in the direction of a nexus of rapidly swirling, unreadably chaotic magic in a jug on a little table nearby.
"Yep!" Sid said.

"Do they uh..make everyone into super cute girls?"

"Pretty much everyone we've seen so far," Quaid said.

"Inlcuding both of us, riight?" the other girl added.
"Yeah, totally." Compliments were supposed to help get people to do what you wanted them to, right? And it wasn't a lie or anything. "Listen, uh..I guess I'm not technically a member of the fraternity, 'cause I'm like..not even a college student?"
"Yeah, I'm not sure whether the rule about having to leave even applies to you," Quaid said, crossing her arms. "I mean..can you kick out someone who was bribed into place to begin with?"
"I dunno," Vade said, "wasn't my idea. But uh—you think that means I can't have some of that stuff if I want it?"
"Weelll, I dunnoooo..." Sid pretended to be doubtful until the other girl punched her lightly(?) in the arm, making her yip. "Yeowch! Okay okay—Rich told us specifically that you're an 'honorary member of OZK', and can take it or not, your choice."

"Oh, neat. Can you just, hold a dose out in my direction, then?"

They looked at each other and shrugged, then Quaid filled a nearby empty bottle from the jug to a seemingly precise level before screwing the cap on and holding it out in his direction. Vade lifted a hand, floating the bottle through the air toward him. "Thanks."
"I've always wondered," Quaid said, "are you just showing off when you 'use the force' like that? Or is it entirely so you don't have to walk the extra three steps to pick it up yourself?"
"Totally the second one," he admitted freely, keeping the bottle floating next to him.

"Well..at least you own it, I guess," she shrugged. "You could teach Xavier a thing or two about being self-assured."
"What d'you mean? He's pretty cool how he is."
"Are you kidding? His ego's as fragile as your bones prolly are," Sid said.

Vade shrugged. "If you say so. Anyway, thanks. See ya.." He turned to leave.

"Oh, right—if you haven't heard, it takes up to twenty-four hours to start taking effect!" Sid said. "But once it starts, it's kinda fast."
"And a little extreme sometimes," Quaid added.
"Got it. I'mma be in my room anyway, though, soo.."
"Enjoy your nap then, I guess," the dark-haired werewolf replied.

After locking the deadbolt on the door (since Xavier surely wouldn't be back until after the nap was over anyway), Vade sat on his bed and opened the bottle. It smelled—well, it didn't really have an actual scent, he realized. The whirling nexus of magic making up the glowing liquid had replaced the entire concept of said liquid's physical scent with something malleable and transient enough to be determined primarily by the magic, mind, and/or soul of whoever happened to be smelling it at the moment. The same was probably true of its taste. But his own olfactory perception interpreted this as precisely the smell of a chocolate-glazed donut, just like the one he'd had for breakfast. The same...would probably be true of its flavor, he figured.

Before he drank it, Vade took a moment to passively probe its properties in every way he knew how. It was quite a curiosity, very unlike any potion he'd ever seen before—which, granted, hadn't been more than a few basics his master had gone over with him. It was very difficult to get a read on what the potion was supposed to actually do; he wasn't sure whether its effects were simply so complex he couldn't untangle them enough to make sense of any single one, or if it didn't actually have a set effect in the first place and instead just pumped inherently chaotic magic into the drinker which then followed that person's wants and/or expectations.

It did seem to be a fact that everyone taking it in OZK had turned into a girl, but then they had all been primed to expect that. Vade wasn't sure, even with the hypothetical meta-knowledge that it could do or not do basically anything, that he could keep it from doing what he'd expected it to do before. Well, his master was tangled up with all kinds of powerful people in magical circles, so it was ultimately no surprise that an alchemist capable of producing something Vade couldn't even fully comprehend was among his acquaintances.

At this point Vade concluded that spending any more effort whatsoever trying to understand the strange potion would be a waste. His master thought it was safe; it was safe for everyone else; so it was probably safe. And anyway, if he wanted it to make him into a cute girl, then it seemed like it would most likely do exactly that for him. He floated the bottle to his lips and slowly drank its contents down, wondering the whole while if there was anyone around town who could make a 'chocolate donut shake' or something which would actually taste the way the potion seemed to, since he honestly sort of liked it.

Letting go of the bottle so that it fell to the floor, Vade took stock of its immediate effects on him. The twisting, wild magic was easy to identify as it flowed rapidly across and around his body, but it was suffering quite a bit of interference from his own expansive magical capabilities. It seemed like the amount of control he had over his own power now was also making it function as a passive resistance against the potion's transformative effects—which would perhaps be a good thing if he didn't want it to take effect. But, at the same time, the chaotic magic was very slowly, subtly 'tuning' itself toward his magic's own nature. It looked to be an extremely gradual process, but perhaps would be faster on someone with less magic...or at least less well-honed magic. Either way, it was clearly going to succeed at its job eventually unless he purposely shoved it out of himself while it was still foreign enough to identify as not-his.

Well—in that case, there was nothing for it but to wait. Vade had more or less promised himself a nap, and waiting for the potion to do its stuff was the perfect excuse to take one. He got his blinders on again, tucked himself into bed, and lay back, closing his eyes and drifting off into dreamland just about as easily as ever.

Vade half-woke-up, feeling mildly uncomfortable, and tossed and turned a bit in an instinctive effort to return to sleep. He wound up face-down, head turned sideways and pressed into his pillow, and still nowhere near conscious enough to really process much. His body itched briefly, so he scratched a few places; then he felt a gentle, massage-like push coming from all over.

"Hmmh.." It was a nice, relaxing feeling, but it also prevented him from falling asleep, and Vade could feel other curious sensations joining it. There was the feeling of his feet sliding up toward him even though he remained fully stretched out in bed. There was also the covers, and his clothes, seeming to shift around, the former falling around his body again and again as though it hadn't had room to go there before. His torso sank a little farther down against the bed as it found less and less of his belly in the way—the massage seeming to diminish that pudge bit by bit as he lay there, like it was some kind of zero-effort exercise too.

"Mm~mnnh.." Vade shifted around a little, hearing a strangely high voice and sleepily wondering where it had come from. "Mm~mh." Then he heard it a second time, lilting upward in pitch even more, and identified the source as his own throat. Not being awake enough to remember why this was happening, his only thought was, Weird, gotta check it out later when I wake up for real.

And so the massage continued, shrinking and slimming him down more and more. His arms and legs grew slender and small, his facial hair vanishing while some hair from his head began to fall all across his face; his shoulders narrowed and his fat gently trimmed itself away to nothing. By the time the pressing sensation eased off, Vade's feet were a good foot and a half or more closer to his head than they'd started, and the sheets and covers and his clothes hung loosely around a small, slight, girlish frame. He let out a soft, high, breathy, adorable "Haa~aah", a half-yawn and half-sigh of satisfaction as he felt like his every muscle was way more relaxed now than it ever had been before.

"Mnnh." The small, girlish boy turned over onto his right side, his hands pulling his pillow around in front of him so he could hug it and push his soft, small face into it. He felt the motion of hair crawling slowly down from his shoulders along his back, and now felt a strange, gentle, yet oddly pleasant tingling down between his legs. "Mmh, mm~mmh..?" The tingling grew a bit less gentle, making his face warm up, and was now joined by a sort of slipping, tugging sensation that caused his legs to squirm up and down against each other. "Aah, aa~aah..." Oh, this actually felt..rather nice, he thought. Vade's face warmed up even more as he felt his manhood slipping inaward, his very sense of masculinity fading the rest of the way away. He began to feel like he knew that he would wake up absolutely adorable, and also like he really wanted that to happen. And, as a part of that cuteness, the thing between his legs was going to have to go. So..

"Aa~aahnn..." A pleased sound came from Vade's lips as his manhood melted away, and then an even happer "Mmh!" in that cute, squeaky voice came out as she experienced feminine pleasure for the first time. Oh, yes—this was definitely the way to go. Her hips and legs squirmed around as they regained a bit of the plumpness she'd lost during the massage session, rounding out into a much girlier figure than before.

She let out a soft "Ooo~oooh" as the nice, fuzzy feeling down between her legs continued on—as some soft hair tickled her thighs, growing down along her legs, and her boxers shrank rapidly into a pair of soft, tight, snug panties. Her shirt pulled tighter and shorter, lifting itself up a bit before splitting off a lower part to remain around her hips. By now, her hair was touching the backs of her knees and still growing, and her chest was beginning to gently tingle.

Right..what would a cute girl be without some boobs? Vade had just sigh-yawned again in satisfaction and relief as the change to her butt and hips came to an end, and now she found her cheeks warming again as the skin surrounding her nipples suddenly seemed curiously sensitive to the motion of the shrinking shirt's cloth against it. "Mn~naa~aah..." She squirmed once more, squeezing the pillow tighter in her arms and feeling it begin to shrink smaller too, as her chest began to push forward, two tiny breasts budding into place. "Aa~ahh, w-waa~aah..." Their growth accelerated, and so too did the resurgence of the nice, fuzzy feeling down between her legs. She sort of nuzzled the pillow with her face, half-imagining it as the soft face and body of another cute girl maybe, and blissfully cooed in response to her blossoming chest and the accompanying girlish pleasure.

Eventually it came to an end, and Vade let out a soft "Aa~aahnn" again as the pleasant feeling came to a satisfying conclusion. This was followed by a bit of soft panting, then a quiet "H-h~aah" of a sigh as she brought the pillow back under her head, suddenly feeling terribly tired and sleepy again, like she'd just exerted herself or something. Not that she had—or at least, not that she felt like she had. But nonetheless, she gave an adorable voiced "Hwaa~aah" of a yawn and then went straight back to a deep, refreshing sleep.

Vade properly awoke some time later, to the sound of a key being used on the bedroom door, and then an unsuccessful attempt at opening it. A low, female voice growled from outside, and then said: "Vade, unlock this at once!" While she didn't recognize the voice, there was only one person it could be coming from.

"Mnnh.." The new girl slowly sat up, feeling the covers slide down off of her slender frame. She poked the blinders up off of her eyes with a slim, delicate finger, and then used that same small, soft hand to wave at the deadbolt, undoing it with a touch of magic. "'Sunlocked," she half-mumbled before slowly pulling herself to her feet.

As Vade stood up, a faint warmth hit her cheeks at the sudden realization of what had happened—how very much bigger the room looked to her shrunken height, the feeling of the soft cloth of her top running across some moderately-sized breasts, ridiculously long locks of silky-smooth hair falling all the way down her shoulders and back and legs and nearly to her very ankles. She'd brought the pillow with her, she realized as she yawned again. "Hwaa~ah.."

The door opened just as one of her eyes did, and Vade laid eyes on possibly the cutest girl she'd seen all day, or ever—with nice curves, long, snowy white hair, in tights and a short skirt and a jacket that fit her upper body juuust tightly enough, all tied together by a bright red scarf around her neck—and right about Vade's height, too! Well—that was her new, significantly smaller height, anyway. And..both her eyes came open..this was Xavier, right? Or...wasn't it?

The white-haired girl tossed the door shut behind her and crossed her arms in a way that awkwardly squished them against part of her generous chest, blushing faintly as if in response to Vade's blatant staring. "I see that you really did give in to Rich's ridiculous demand," she said. Well, she acted like she was Xavier in pretty much every possible way, but Vade could feel an intense flow of magic positively pouring out of her, which was extremely un-Xavier-like.

"Uh, yeah..I thought I might end up a little cuter, is all," Vade said—deciding to address one thing at a time. "Soo, you too?"
"Mars tricked me," she said, glowering. "She claimed that I awakened some sort of power, but I have seen no evidence of it."
"Really? Huh.."

Vade tilted her head briefly, then dropped the pillow and took a few steps closer, getting a hunch. "Hey, can you try somethin' for me? Just, repeat this:" She incanted a simple spell that would make the caster's dominant hand glow, then quietly cut off the power to the spell after feeling it take effect on her own hand for a second or two.

Xavier squinted with an expression of confusion-slash-recognition, and then tried to repeat it. She got the spell's pronunciation perfect right on the first try, and what's more, her left hand glowed fairly brilliantly—much more noticeably than Vade's had. She then looked down, noticing the blaze of white light around her hand, and lifted it more into her view. "What th—gaah!" She shook the hand around in surprise like it was actually on fire, which dismissed the spell's effect. "What was that!?"
"Duude. Xavie, you're a witch!" Vade pointed excitedly.

"I'm a what!?" her voice cracked mid-yell as she got a very insulted look on her face and a faint sort of shadowy aura presented visibly around her. All of this cut off after a fraction of a second as her expression turned more toward confusion again. "Wait, what did you just call me?"
"A witch! Which, is totally not an insult, I promise. A witch is uh..

"So, 'normal' mages like me are people with a talent for one specific kind of magic that need to hone their senses over a long time and slowly pick up spells to be able to do other stuff," Vade explained quickly. "And even though we're called witches or warlocks or sorcerers or whatever else, technically 'witch' and 'warlock' are terms for a very specific class of people, like my master. They can learn spells way easier and even make up things that aren't 'real' spells but still work like spells just for them, they're more powerful on average, but uh..they get weird limitations too, like for instance their magic potential doesn't present itself at all unless their base form is the 'right' gender."

This last bit definitely raised the white-haired girl's eyebrow. "The 'right'..? One thing at a time," she shook her head. "What. Did you call me just now?"
"Didn't I just explain that?"
"Uuurrgh," Xavier sighed audibly in pure exasperation. "The name?"
"Oh! I thought 'Xavie' was cuter, and you're super cute," Vade said, gesturing forward, "soo.."

This clarifiaction made her flush, which was even cuter, even though she was trying to look angry about it at the same time. "Don't. Ever call me that. Again."
"Aww, not eveeerrr?" Vade deliberately put on a sad pouty face.
"No! It's..childish. A-and embarrassing."
"You don't think it's cute?"
She clenched her fists. "I'm not meant to be 'cute'!"

"But you totally are, though! Have you looked in a mirror since transforming?"

Xavier crossed her arms a little less awkwardly than last time, still trying without any success to make an intimidating glower at her roommate. "I haven't, and my..appearance isn't relevant to what names you may refer to me by." She hadn't been any good at intimidating Vade when they were both guys, either—but now, it was even less effective because the resulting expression was so cute.

"You never complained about 'Zave'.."
"I assumed that was only your usual laziness at work. Now you're making an extra effort to speak my name incorrectly!"

"It's still less effort than the whole thing," she pressed.
"...At least don't call me that in public. Or around anyone who might mock me with it."
"Deal!" Vade wasn't going to waste effort pointing out that the former implied the latter—it was obviously for emphasis anyway.

Xavier just sighed. "So you're saying that I have had the capacity, all along, to do magic, and that it refused to present itself merely because I was male?"
"I think so. The more I 'taste' it or whatever, the more similar it feels to the way my master's magic is tied to him. Not identical, obviously, buuut—well, you also cast a spell after hearing it literally just once, which is a pretty big indicator."

She shook her head. "This is unbelievable.."

"Hey, at least you know now, right? And I mean, it's not like you've gotta stay a girl forever. If you did anything that just temporarily changed your form while leaving your 'base' the same, your power should keep working."

"That's...something, at least."

"I really hope you stay like that most of the time, though. It's so~o pretty," Vade said, stepping closer and leaning in a tiny bit. From this distance, she could see that Xavier was actually an inch or two taller than her now—which was no problem at all, and maybe even kind of nice. "And look at that hair, too!"
"T-this?" The white-haired girl tugged at some of it with a hand. "If I do remain..like this, I shall have this perpetually unkempt mass cut at my first opportunity." Even though Vade was partway into her personal space—enough to make her cheeks redden some—she didn't make any move to pull away, nor ask the other girl to back off.
"Awwh, but it's so nice like that."
"How can you of all people not think of how difficult this would be to maintain?! Yours is even longer!" she gestured forward.

Vade shrugged, then used magic to lift some of her own massive cape of light brown hair onto her uplifted right hand so she could gently brush through it. "Ehh, I know some hair care spells, and there's prolly plenty more I can learn," she said. "Hey, you could learn them too now! Maybe there's even something that'll just style it for us. But, don't you think mine's kinda sweet all loose like this too?"

"It is..."

Xavier took a second to realize she'd said that aloud, and then flushed again. "Uh. Th-that is, it's very..you."
"You..like how I look in general, Xavie?" Vade challenged, wanting to see the other girl blush and stammer some more.
"Uh..yes?" She paused to sort out her thoughts. "..Yes. You're..obviously very attractive, a-as seems to be the result for everyone who takes that accursed potion."

"Soo," she crossed her arms (having no difficulty at all with the gesture for whatever reason), "you don't think I look any better than Quaid or Sid?"
"You're clearly superior to than them in every way," Xavier said. "Besides which, I've never liked...fur, on a person. It simply, does not look right to me."

Vade tilted her head back and forth. "So I'm about the same as anyone else human who got changed today, then?"

"N-no..that is, I have not been taking any kind of survey. No, it's rather t-that I haven't really looked at anyone else that way, regardless."

Vade moved her hands down to her hips, which actually felt a bit more natural now that she tried it. "So do you think I'm cute, or not?" she said, giving a small frown of feigned impatience.
Xavier sighed. "Of course you are cute! O-or any other such adjectives that would apply, like charming, appealing to the eyes, and beautiful! Why are you asking me this all of a sudden?!"
"Heheh," Vade giggled, dropping her arms out behind her back with the hands softly grasping each other. "I dunno, I just wanted to see you do all that I guess. Oor, maybe I wanted to hear you say it. I can kinda tell how you feel from how red your face's been getting anyway."

"You.." The other girl leaned slightly back for the first time. "What are you implying?"

"Well, neither of us was all that attractive before, right? But now I'm cute, and you're really cute, soo." She slowly reached out a hand during this, now gently touching Xavier's cheek, and succeeded in making her blush and draw closer again. "We can be cute witches together! So to speak, since I'm not technically a witch..." She slowly stroked her fingers down the soft skin.

"Hm~mmh." Xavier made a deep-voiced, happy sort of humming sound, even though her expression was still trying to keep itself far from any kind of smile. "I s-still, don't feel I truly grasp your meaning."

"Well, maybe you'll figure it out later, then," Vade shrugged, slowly dropping the hand back to her side. "Either way, someone with as much magic as you've got could be really dangerous to people with no training at all, sooo...I can ask my master if he knows anyone who'd be willing to teach you a few things—or if he wants to, even."

"That would be..very kind of you. If I have this power, than I'm eager to learn how best to use it as soon as possible. Besides which..indeed, I wouldn't want to harm anyone undeserving with it."

"You've always been a real softie deep down, I know~," Vade said. "That secret's safe with me. But now, you're nice and soft on the outside too, I bet." She shuffled just slightly closer.
"You..want to, feel for yourself, don't you?" Vade just stared straight into her roommate's eyes with a bright grin in reply. "V-very well.."

Xavier closed the last bit of distance between them, drawing her into an extremely hesitant, cautious hug. Vade returned the embrace a fair bit tighter, besides taking the opportunity to finally run one of her hands down through the gorgeous, snowy white locks her roommate had been blessed with. After a momentary flinch, both of these gestures were returned in kind, which felt...really nice. She just leaned her head in and put their cheeks together, listening to another soft, pleased hum and giving a high, happy squeak in response.

"You've always been super nice to me, Xavie~," Vade said, pulling apart just enough to stare into her roomate's bright green eyes again—but still hard at work on her hair.
"Hmmnh. You've always been better than most of the cretins in this place. You s-seem to know how I really feel, even if I say nothing to imply it."
"Well, you know, actions and words and stuff."

"A-and you were kind to me first, when no one else wanted anything to do with me."

"I just thought you'd be a good roomie. And I was super right, too!" She hugged the new witch closer than before.

After a bit more of this, they pulled apart, Vade gently taking both of the other girl's hands as she took a little step back. "Heyy, you'd make a pretty sweet 'body pillow' now, too.."
Xavier frowned (cutely). "I r-refuse to slumber as often as you do to accommodate that implied request."
"I wouldn't ask for that. Just at night when we're both sleepin' anyway?"
She looked fractionally off to one side, blushing deeper again. "M-maybe. I'll, consider it..."

"Heheh, good enough for me!"

She turned forward again slowly. "In return...perhaps I could paint your likeness sometime? A uh..a beauty as captivating as yours demands to be preserved. You would need only to sit still for a little while."

"I don't mind modelling for you at all," Vade said, letting go of one of the hands so she could spin herself around, lifting the other over her head in the process.

"Hey, I thought you didn't like 'overly representational' paintings, though."
"There have always been exceptions...i-it's more about whether the work has a meaning or not..."

They carried on talking, as they usually did. But still things were a little different, with decidedly more closeness and near- to actual-touching. This was gonna be fun, Vade thought. And...maybe she could practice a little magic tonight or something..after dinner.