The "Best" RPG Ever-119

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"I'm baaack!" Aria finished her work not long before lunchtime, and made her way back to the house.

"Hey, come in here," Mira called from the library, so she headed in. There were a number of stacks of handwritten paper spread out all over the table the witch was leaning over, one hand loosely holding one of the papers at a slight upward angle.
"Wow, uh...where'd all this come from?"

"Mail. The Captain of the guard agreed to have a selection of the town library's 'restricted section' transcribed for me so I could research curses a little better," Mira said, dropping the paper and standing upright. "I think I've had a small breakthrough, and I really need to talk through it with someone to be sure it makes sense."

"'Kay." Aria went over to a chair. "To be clear, this is pure rubber-duck, right? I don't have any 'education' in this world's magic.

"Yeah, no problem. But I'll explain this so you should understand anyway. I was trying to make sense of something that I didn't understand about curses before." She started pacing slowly. "You're familiar with your basic physics, right? Conservation of energy, basically says you can't get anything for free?"
"Sure..? But I assume all bets are off with magic."
"You'd think so, but not exactly. From what I can tell, magic is sort of like another form of that 'energy', with particularly complex interactions with ordinary matter and energy. I don't think it's as straightforward as normal physics are—which, yes, is already not easy—to describe the conversion between magic and 'normal physics stuff', and I guess there may be some cheating involved if you really do your math, but it's still generally true that you can't get something for nothing. All magic has a cost, and perpetual magic needs upkeep."

"That doesn't really surprise me," Aria said, crossing her arms. "I mean—any magic system that's not totally exploitable has some kinda mana cost or at least cooldowns or something, right?"
"Yes, but—curses!" Mira spread out her arms over the table. "How do they work? By which I mean, literally how? Like—what's the basic description of a curse?"
"Uh, you cast it on someone and they're stuck with it? Like Zack?"
"Like Zack!" she pointed. "Curses do a presumably bad thing to the target, and hang around forever unless something is actively done to dispel them. How? I mean, the person who cast that curse has been dead for a while now, to put it bluntly, so it's not like she could be maintaining it from beyond the grave. Even if the curse's effect is passive most of the time, how does it undermine a person's natural resistance to unwanted magic instead of just constantly burning itself against it?"

"Well uh...I guess if you put a lot of magic into a curse, then the bulk of it could be stored to maintain things?"
"That was what I thought, at first," Mira said, nodding. "In general, curses basically always require more effort to cast than other spells with similar-ish effects. There's no way to make a direct comparison since they also tend to do things that other spells can't in the first place, but from casting a few experimental low-level curses on myself, they definitely feel way more costly than I think they 'should be' from my experience using demonic magic more directly."

"But you said 'at first', so that's not it?"
"I don't think so," the witch said, shaking her head. "Think about this: Has anyone, ever, in the whole history of this world, had a curse weaken with time, or suddenly vanish after they lived with it for a long time?"
"I've never heard of anything like that," she shook her head. "I mean—I haven't exactly heard much about curses to begin with, but my basic understanding from my relatively few recovered memories of this world is that curses are forever unless dispelled."

"Yeah, and in all of the literature I've gotten about curses here, or anything I can remember being taught about them by Griselda—there's no implication or suggestion that they can ever just 'wear off'. I—I'm pretty sure I remember her cautioning me not to curse people lightly, because if I can't take it back then it won't go away."

"Okaay, so one of your other assumptions must be wrong, then? Maybe demonic magic can passively draw power from somewhere else, like the demon world or something, and the curses are costly because they need to 'set up' that link?"

"Close, but no," Mira said. "It costs a lot to make any link to the demon world, and they're always very temporary. I'm pretty sure the gods are constantly maintaining and repairing the 'barrier' to keep demons from overrunning the world, or something like that. Besides, if a link like that exists you'd think someone would've found it, since if you could break that link it would be an instant cure-all for every curse ever, and we'd know if something that simple existed.

"So, no—if curses do perpetually draw power from something, then for them to work the way they do, it has to be both close at hand, and effectively inexhaustible. And at this point I thought about Vae's potion. Its peculiar effects, and the way it relies on demonic magic..."
Aria nodded slowly, thinking about that. "You said something about how the demonic magic was acting as a 'power source' or something?"

"Weren't you in the other room?"
Aria narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly, giving herself big, bright white fox-ears for a second and pointing at one emphatically.

"Oh, yeah, point taken. Anyway, I don't think she was exactly right about how the demonic magic was functioning. I mean—yes, the effect is, overall, imitating the behavior of elvish and I guess shifter magic that keeps them young, but in a very different way. I think the demonic magic is doing something that maybe only demonic magic can do, and siphoning magic right out of her soul."
The shifter raised an eyebrow. "That...sounds bad."
"No no no," she waved her hands quickly, "that sounds way worse than it really is. See, the soul is—in the first place—the thing that a person's magic comes from. It's, kinda hard to describe, but the soul is essentially a magic generator that you can pull magic out of. Like—when a mage suffers burnout, it's the 'connection' that you pull magic through that's damaged and needs time and rest to recover."

"..So you think curses 'siphon' their power from the soul, too?"
"Right! I mean—I think what a curse does, is either intercept or somehow conterfeit that 'connection' using demonic magic for its own means. So if you apply the same method, but outside the context of an actual curse, you get a power source that can be used to perpetuate any effect, even a purely un-curse-like, beneficial one like what's going on with Vae. It's just that linking that up to anything is so horrendously complex that I don't think I'd ever be able to do it without a lot of help from something else."
"Like the complicated magic involved in Vae's potion, presumably."
"Yeah! So—circling back, the reason curses stick around forever is because they're 'stealing' a tiny fraction of the afflicted person's magic output, and presumably that also sneaks their effects in underneath normal magic resistance. And casting a curse is costly because you need to not only pierce that natural resistance, but then establish the link and 'bury' it where it can't be resisted. Which I think means that you could get a cure-all for curses if you could find a way to sever the soul's magic output long enough for the curse to run out of stored-up energy and fizzle out, connection and all. But uh.."
"Why hasn't anyone done that before?" Aria suggested the obvious question. "Even just by accident, while desperately trying to be rid of a curse?"

"Well, I think know the answer to that," Mira said. "It'd kill you. Burnout normally happens way before any risk to a mage's life develops, but there are records of people willfully pushing their magic so hard, so far past what would normally be the point of burnout, that they just die afterward with no apparent physical cause."
"...Ah. Well, that's a dead end on the curse-breaking front, then."

"Yeah, but—if I'm right, this information on curses and demonic magic in general could be super useful for all kinds of applications in the future. That 'eternal youth potion' could basically be just the beginning of an entirely new field of study. With uh, the only problem being that you'd need more than just me handling the demonic magic, and I'm not sure too many people will happily sign up to be witches and warlocks just to experiment with this stuff...at least, not people I'd trust with demonic power."
"Well, no need to rush things," Aria said. "Like my 'computer project', just take the steps you can for now, and don't do anything stupid and risky to advance things too fast. Besides, if I ever get to the point of 'fully merging', I guess I'll technically be part demon too, so I could prolly get in on that—assuming there's a way for me to use the magic to do something other than give myself berserker strength after it's become fully 'mine'."

---

Since the ogres hadn't noticed them yet and weren't approaching, the group dispatched to get rid of them walked at a brisk pace rather than running. Katherine asked: So, Zack—if we get you close enough, think you can just hot-knife-through-butter their heads off?

I don't know—maybe that only works on 'small enough' monsters? It's not like this sword came with instructions.

That's a big 'if' anyway, Lynn pointed out, recalling her own first encounter with an ogre. Frankly, I'd rather nobody get up close and personal with them. Three out of the four of us have good ranged attacks anyway.

Then I'll be better off with my shield, Zack thought, switching to dark form. But you can bet I'll at least try to cut one of them if I get an opportunity.

The knight took a few extra steps forward, carefully moving to a ready stance, while the other three fanned out—Lynn notching an arrow, Katherine getting a few knives out and floating around her, and Clera placing a hand across her necklace, preparing for an explosion big enough to hurt, but not so large as to likely set the grass on fire. Some wordless mental communcation coordinated them, ending with the psion giving the winged girl a mental nod, and she let loose, drawing her hand back and throwing it forward to send a basketball-sized comet of fire streaking out at the center of the nearer monster.

It connected and spread into a massive, bright, hot explosion—all of the adventurers closing their eyes just in time to not be blinded by the resulting brilliant flash—and at the same time an electrified arrow shot between the eyes of the other one, making it jerk and spasm briefly before swinging its club wildly around. The one the explosion had hit was only briefly stunned, and recovered to start running at Clera; by now she had turned around and gotten a running start to take off into flight. Zack ran after her pursuer as he tried to swat her out of air with his own giant axe but proved to still be out of range, and he struck at its leg with his sword, making a wide gash through an ankle and causing the monster to roar in pain.

The one Lynn had hit came after her, practically ignoring a volley of five more zapping arrows that mostly landed in his belly. Katherine tossed a dagger up toward his head and directed its motion just slightly to have it catch him in the eye, activating it to cause a bright flash of light and blind him so the archer could move around and out of his sight. A second dagger sliced at his throat, but found the skin there too tough to fully cut through, winding up with its blade buried about a third of the way across.

Zack's ogre whirled and swung the blade of its massive axe down at its most recent source of pain; the knight easily dodged aside of the chop rather than trying to block that much force, and moved around to strike through more of the injured ankle with his blade. Clera took advantage of its attention being downward to curve her flight back around and spew a wave of fire from her hands into its head, burning it and making it roar and swat at her again. She flew past it too quickly to be hit and gave the other monster the same treatment on her way past.

This distraction was more than enough for Zack to finish more or less cutting the thing's foot off. It roared again, and he ran out in front of it to goad it into trying to chase him. Despite the pain it undoubtedly was feeling, it seemed to expect its injured leg to work as it always had, which resulted in it more or less stumbling over its own severed foot and collapsing forward toward the ground, roaring out in rage and flailing its arms violently enough to throw its weapon a long distance off in the process. The knight turned aside and stopped as soon as he was clear of his opponent's falling body, readying Enceladus as it fell toward him. Once its head was in range, he chopped the weapon down through the monster's throat with both hands, cutting off its cries and making it go limp immediately.

No longer under pursuit, Lynn was able to turn and draw another arrow, firing it into the ogre's uninjured eye with another jolt of electricity. It convulsed violently from this shock directly toward its brain, dropping its weapon and falling over to one side. Katherine moved well away from its flailing body to avoid being struck by a stray swing, and concentrated her energy on the dagger buried partway into its throat, driving it deeper and making it keep cutting until it hit something vital. Its voice gurgled briefly before it, too, went still.

Clera pulled back around to land next to Lynn, watching the two fallen monsters carefully. "At least these appear to have the same vital areas as a human," she commented.
"More or less. A lot bigger, though—little more armored too," the catgirl said, carefully yanking her weapons back out of the thing without coming any closer herself—in case it still had some death throes left in it.

"And a lot of blood." Zack carefully wiped his weapon on the grass before sheathing it, then brought a hand across a part of his face that felt wet and warm, examining the red liquid that came off onto his fingers. "Gods, I need a shower..." He looked down. "Maybe an armor washing, too."

"Hey, if we come across a convenient lake or stream," Lynn half-suggested, stopping when she saw the wolf-girl fold her ears down at the mere suggestion. "Okay, okay—sooner we get back to town the better, then?"
"Yeah."

The four of them made their way back to the caravan, and Katherine reached out as soon as she could feel Rayna coming into easy telepathic range. We got the ogres. Any trouble on your end?

A few goblins showed up, but we took care of them. I buffed the prince and a couple of soldiers, kept us invisible, and they were gone in a single stroke each.

I imagine that made them feel better, after the last time they fought goblins, Lynn said.

Yeah, even the ones I didn't buff are in really high spirits now. Hey, did you find out this time?
...Find out what? the archer asked back.

Whether or not ogres have layers?

Lynn communicated a deadpan, annoyed glare as best she could through mental communication ...Don't even start.

---

"Soo—" Aria sat up in her chair. "What're you planning to do right now?"
"I'm...gonna take a break. I've been concentrating on texts and thinking hard for long enough. Maybe make some lunch for everyone. You wanna help?"

"'Want to' and 'willing to' are two different things," the shifter said, hopping up onto her feet. "But I am at least willing. Not necessarily competent, of course."
"It's okay, I'll make it easy for you."

They were passing through the living room when someone knocked on the door to town, and Mira went over to get it. "Oh—hi Vae."
"Good morning," the short Vulpin girl nodded. "Do you...know whether or not Rose is in? Or accepting visitors at the moment?"
"Well—she's in her forest right now, sure. Annd, I'm quite sure she'd be happy to see you again."

Vae's left ear twitched a couple of times. "I don't ordinarily go to visit someone without announcing myself in advance, but..my eagerness got the better of me. I have a spare hour or so, and wished to see whether she would allow me to harvest a few materials for the experimental potion today."

"Go on through, then," the witch said, moving aside and waving her at the other linked door. "I'm pretty sure she can sense anyone in her 'domain' or whatever, so you probably don't need to worry about startling her."
Her right ear twitched once. "That is..certainly preferable."

After that, they continued on to the kitchen to start lunch. Everything was nearly ready by the time Nora and Lupa came through the front door, the wolf-girl following the scent of food and Nora following her. "We're baaack~!" the former announced on their way into the kitchen.

"Welcome. How'd things go?"
"Tall fox was really nice, and pet this one!" Lupa said.

The weaver cleared her throat softly. "Fazren seemed to think your idea held some weight. He said he would send for any reference that might be helpful, and make an attempt at it for himself as well. And...he is at least tentatively willing to try Vaedin's potion, so long as the gods don't tell him not to."
"How likely do you think that is?" Aria asked, sitting up in her chair. The food preparation was past the point where she'd be any real help, which maybe gave the unfortunate impression she'd been just sitting there waiting to be fed the whole time.

"I don't know..I feel he is rather attuned to them. Certainly more than I am," Nora said. "But the primary if not only concern he expressed was that it may alter the nature of his abilities as a Weaver—due to the interaction with one's natural magic."
"Oh, hmmn. I suppose I hadn't thought of that," the witch said. "Then again, curses don't usually have a noticeable effect on one's magic unless they're specifically targetted at it. I think the risk is pretty low, but—I guess you never know with sufficiently complicated magic."

"Right...hence his asking 'permission'. If they don't tell him no, then either they believe his power won't be affected negatively, or it isn't important enough to bother answering him regardless."

"I guess it's better than asking forgiveness," Aria said.

Lupa spent most of this conversation slowly sneaking closer to where Mira was finishing up the food preparation. The witch turned her head one way to find the short wolf-girl looking up at her with a cute grin, wagging her tail. She ruffled Lupa's hair, but said, "Hey, ease back a little bit, hmn? Don't want you to get burned."
"Ah! Sorry." Lupa took some steps back. "An old habit, this one thinks...but, can't remember from when? It felt like this one wouldn't get any of what was cooking otherwise."
"That's...hmn." Mira thought for a moment. "You were acting a lot like a dog begging for human food, you know. Maybe...were you a domesticated dog before turning into a dire wolf?"
She seemed to need a moment to think about it before answering. "...This one doesn't know. And, what's 'dome-es-stick-ated'?"
"It means an animal that's used to living with humans..more or less," Aria said. "Or, I guess, 'people' rather than just humans."

"Wait.." Nora thought. "When you first changed, you mentioned something about how happy you'd been with your 'first pack'. Was that before you became a dire wolf?"
"Uhhhm...this one thinks so? Sort of remembers, being smaller. And a place like this, with uh..floors, and walls, and doors and windows. And, there was a first alpha there, before this one became alpha."

"Was that first alpha a human?"
Lupa thought about it some more, then nodded slowly. "This one...thinks so. It's uhm..hazy? Hard to remember clearly, like it was a very long time ago. And, this one remembers being very sad..and then a lot of hurting, and then being big and angry. That was when this one started the new pack."

"I think it's reasonable to conclude that you probably were someone's pet dog originally," Nora said. "In a way, I feel it explains how you've behaved since being personified a little better..that is, how friendly you seem to be most of the time? I wouldn't expect that from someone who was only ever a wild wolf or a monster before."

The four of them had lunch together, and then Mira took two more plates with her to the door to Rose's forest, using one of her shadow-tentacles to turn the knob and pull the door open. "Helloo~!" she called on her way in (or maybe 'out' was more accurate). Soon enough the dragon-girl skittered up in front of her on all fours, bringing herself upright only after she came to a halt.

"Heyy! Oh wow that smells good!"
"Heheh, thanks. You have anywhere for me to put these?" Rose nodded, raising a hand and causing some plants to twist and grow up into a sort of makeshift table, so she set them down there. "How're things going, huh?"
"Great! Uhmm, Vae's picking a bunch of different kinds of flowers, herbs, leaves and stuff. She keeps saying she's really done this time, then staring at one more thing on our way out, and I have to insist that she takes a little if it's useful. I'll go make her take a break to eat though, 'cause I don't think she will otherwise."
"Yes, she does seem like the sort to habitually work through lunch. Anyway, enjoy~!"
"Yeah! Thank you!"

A Summoning, Part XXVIII

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Part XXVIII
~Devil~

Kyle had used this walking trail before. Some of the gym's regulars used it from time to time, too. Out of all of the places to meet Thomas's mysterious benefactor, "the edge of those creepy woods by the trail" hadn't been one of his guesses. He'd thought maybe it was a young warlock messing around or something, and he'd be going to that person's workshop or house or whatever. It wasn't impossible that such a place was, in fact, hidden in the woods, but usually there would be an easier way to get there, like a door somewhere else inconspicuous yet convenient that linked straight to the inside.

He stopped and looked around once he was at the edge of the forest, crossing his arms. There hadn't been any specific instructions beyond waiting at the edge of the woods, which was also pretty strange. It didn't look like there was anyone in the forest, nor near it, watching for him, so he wondered if he was just supposed to keep walking until something obvious presented itself. But, then something obvious did happen: A burst of black, shadowy stuff appeared a few feet in front of him—some flashy teleportation magic through which a tall, semi-demonic-looking woman appeared there.

"Hi there~," she said cheerfully. "Kyle, right?"
"Yep," he nodded. "So you're..?"
"Mm-hm. Name's Zotha," she offered him a hand, and he shook it somewhat hesitantly, tilting his head just slightly at her afterward.

"You're...not a demon," he observed. "I'm no expert, but I don't recognize what kinda power you got, other than there's a ton of it."

"I guess Thomas didn't tell you much," she said.
"Nah. Just said you might be able to help me out, and she'd give you my digits."

"Well, I'm a new goddess," she said.

The pride demon took a moment to stare at her, waiting for some kind of punchline. "...You're for real," he said after she didn't give him one.
"Yep."

Kyle crossed his arms. "Last I heard, there hadn't been any new major gods since the whole..thing with the foxes."

"Well, it was as much a surprise to me as anyone else. Long story short: I was born human, but last Saturday a series of wacky events led to me accidentally getting ascended. Anyway, since my domain is 'change', it should be easy enough for me to help you out."
"Huh. I dunno if I believe you 'bout that, but I guess you feel powerful enough to do whatever you want either way. And, you haven't attacked me or anything yet, and Thomas trusts you I guess."
Zotha nodded. "We were friends before this whole thing happened. So, wanna come with and get it done?" She gestured to one side, forming a sort of shadowy portal there similar to the effect of her initial appearance.
"...Sure."

The goddess nodded, stepping into the portal, and after a brief hesitation he followed. They appeared inside what looked like some sort of lounge, a room with some comfy furniture laying around, a few doors farther in and several windows giving a view of the woods outside. "Welcome to my domain. Or—I guess we're calling it the 'worship center', even though none of that actually goes on here. More like just a few meetings with people. But anyway—it legally belongs to the person responsible for ascending me, who ceded it to be part of my 'territory'. At least, I guess that's how it works?" she shrugged. "For our purposes, it's just somewhere private with chairs."

"Chairs," Kyle repeated, deciding to brush aside the rest of the explanation for now. He'd heard that some of the gods had their own 'realms' of sorts—a bit like how the demons had the demon world to themselves, but for just a single, ultra-powerful being instead of everyone of a particular kind.
"Yes, you ah, might want to be sitting down for getting transformed?" she shrugged. "Either way, I'm ready whenever you are. This shouldn't take too long, and then I can put you back where we just were—or somewhere else if you want."
"...You are stupid casual about all this," he said.

Zotha just shrugged. "This is like the hundredth time I've transformed someone this week."
"..Fair."

Shrugging, Kyle went and took a seat on the nearest couch. "Go ahead, I guess?"
"Alright," the goddess rubbed her hands together briefly, then spread them forward toward him, a sparkly purple light flowing toward him as a visible indicator of a massive amount of magic. No sooner did it make contact and start flowing into him than he shuddered violently, feeling an immediate wave of tingling spreading rapidly out from the area of contact near the center of his torso.

"W-whoa..!" Kyle's hair spilled out immediately, a river of bright blue falling across his cheeks and shoulders and sweeping itself halfway down his back. A brief glance downward found the body hair completely gone from most of the surface of his skin, leaving it looking soft and smooth. By now he could feel the self-proclaimed goddess's power overwhelming his own, easily piercing through and undercutting any natural resistance it might be trying to put up.

Her power began to pull and push at his body, shrinking and reshaping it; this came with a physical sensation like a giant fist closing around him, only without any of the pain that would accompany that. "Ah, aa~aahh..!" Kyle's limbs thinned, shoulders narrowed, waist slimmed—and within a matter of one or two seconds he'd lost a foot or so of height and his entire frame had collapsed into a slender, girlish shape, leaving his clothes to billow out awkwardly around him. This was followed immediately by a pressure between his legs that made him flush and murmur, a soft "Ooo~ooh..mmnh—mMMmnh..!" in a rapidly-changing voice as he squirmed around on the couch, feeling his manhood tugging itself smaller and smaller, terminating a high, girly "Aah!" as it was yanked away, out of existence, and the demon became a girl.

"Mm—mmn~nnh..." Her face was alight with a blush as a new kind of pleasure filled the new equipment down there; her voice settled into a lower soprano tone, cute but with some clear maturity. "Nnh, aa~ah, w-wow, d-dude!" That feeling down there continued as her chest and hips sprang to life, the former pressing forward while the latter spilled out in every direction: Hips, butt, and thighs all growing bigger and rounder and pushing into the couch beneath her. "Ooh, mn mn MMN~Nh..!" The initially small breasts in particular gave one hard push after another, each one coming with a brief acceleration in their growth and a simultaneous intensification of girlish pleasure, until finally they swelled out one last time, into a pair of huge, impressive knockers—and a particularly potent hit of girlish pleasure came along with, drawing a high-pitched "AaaAA~AAaAAahh..!" sound from her lips that terminated into a soft, breathy voiced sigh as that sensation finally died down.

"Hff, man..i-is it supposed to be that, uh, intense?" Still blushing brightly enough for anyone to tell the difference between her cheeks and the rest of her bright red skin, the demon-girl turned her head down and tugged at her ill-fitting clothes.
"I don't know whether 'supposed to', but 'tends to be' is accurate," Zotha said. "Oh, yeah, stand up and lemme fix your clothes, too."

"Uh, s-sure." Her legs felt kinda weak right now, but she pushed herself up with an armrest and remained halfway leaning on it while Zotha twirled her index finger and sent a tiny sparkle of light (which Kyle could see still contained way more power than some minor clothing alteration really needed) to spiral around her body, rapidly reshaping her clothes into something that fit. The pants split at the thighs, the top part pulling up into some ultra-short jean-shorts while the rest became tight stockings; the shirt shrank to fit her and somehow spawned a bra out into place around her enormous breasts; and a gold bracelet, a baseball cap, and a pair of lensless glasses spontaneously came into being. Oh—and her underwear was panties now, of course.

"Uh.." Kyle pulled the glasses off and tugged uncomfortably at the thigh-highs. "Some reason for the specs?"

Zotha shrugged. "I just told it to 'make your clothes fit', I dunno where the extra accessories come from. I suppose I could've been more specific."
"Eh, it's fine." She let the glasses back down onto her nose, not really having any pockets to deposit them in right now. "So uh..do I owe ya anything for this, or what?"

"Nope! As long as you're grateful, that's good enough for me," she said, grinning. "Well—it's probably more honest to say that your gratitude literally serves as payment, since I can 'feed' on it? I'm still not really sure how that makes any sense."
"Huh, well—demons have always fed on other people's emotions," Kyle said, shrugging. "So, makes sense enough to me."

The goddess put a finger to her lips. "Interesting. You'll be the first actual demon I've met—nobody else I've changed so far has even awakened as one, despite my appearance. Maybe I have more in common with demons than I thought."

"Anyway—what I did should allow you to change back to being male whenever you want," she said, "but it won't alter your clothes. I..probably should've told you that before making them so tight..."
"Eh, it's fine," Kyle shrugged. "I'd be fine 'stuck' this way, anywho. But—it's gravy, I don't mind." Now that she thought it about it, she could feel it—the wave of overwhelming magic had not only imposed its will onto her body, but reshaped her own magic just slightly—adding on a new 'feature' it hadn't had before. So she knew exactly what to 'flex' to change back, even without a test.

"Okay then. So, I'll just put you a portal back where we met—unless you want to go somewhere else?"
"Nah, that's good," Kyle nodded.

---

After Rachel left for school, Graham headed out to look for potential jobs. Maybe physically going places in search of help wanted signs was pretty old-fashioned, but...well, she couldn't help still being old in some ways. For now, she just wanted something part-time to occupy a little bit of certain days and earn some extra money.

The store she'd gotten new clothes from was hiring. She pulled up and parked, hopping out of her pickup and standing leaning against the door for a moment. This was where she'd seen that werewolf girl, Damon...

It was strange; she'd not really even met that person, but looking at the store, the mental image of that brief sight of her was the first thing that sprang to Graham's mind. Some irrational part of the catgirl's brain imagined that, if she was here often enough, Damon would be back and they could properly meet...but she quickly shut her eyes and shook her head hard enough to make her feline ears flap, dispelling the notion. For one thing, Damon was going through some real trouble right now, and for another, she was here for a job, nothing else.

She headed inside, asked at the front counter about the sign, and was directed to the manager's office in the back. So the Neko made her way there, carefully opening the door and then knocking on it on her way in. "Hello?"
"Aah!" The manager looked...well, 'demonic' was probably the only reasonable word for it. She had bright blue skin, red eyes with black sclera, pointy ears and—maybe most importantly for this impression—big bull-like horns and a long, slim black tail flicking around behind her. She'd been staring hard down at some paperwork on her desk, and the catgirl's knock on the door had startled her. "Oh. Who're you?"
"Pardon me, miss," Graham said, stepping in and letting the door shut behind her. "Name's Graham. I'm here to inquire about the job opening? If it's still open, that is."

"Oh, well—aren't you the sweetest li'l graham cracker?" she said, her expression warming up almost instantly. "And a Neko too, by the looks of it?"
"True.." Graham nodded, feeling a faint blush on her cheeks from that first statement.

"Well! We are still looking for someone to help out. I have a small problem here, y'see. About half of our customers are magic folk, with unusual appendages such as tails to accommodate for—but nearly all of my workers are under the veil! We have clothes that fit tails and wings and ears and horns better than the 'human-tailored' ones, but I can't exactly be telling humans to offer them to people who they think are fellow humans too!"

"That..does seem like somethin' of a problem." Graham's head tilted with one of her ears sideways; she wasn't really sure what to make of the store manager suddenly venting at her like this.
"Oh, excuse me. I probably should introduce myself first. Please, come closer," the demon-woman beckoned, and Graham came up in front of the desk. "Valoz, but humans think it's Valerie, so—everyone calls me Val," she said, offering the catgirl a handshake. "Hmm. Firmer grip than I'd expect for someone your size," she commented.

"I'm not near as young as I look," Graham said. "Pretty recently someone did some magic to make me physically young again, and it 'awoke' the cat parts, more 'r less." The detail of her having been male before didn't seem relevant enough to bring up.

"Ah, I see," she nodded, getting what might be best described as the expression of someone plotting something. "That's excellent, someone cute enough to look good in our threads but mature enough to have a proper work ethic...

"Tell you what—I get a good vibe off of you, miss graham cracker~. If you'd like a job helping me out with that issue I just outlined, you've got it. Ten—no, fifteen dollars an hour sound good?"

"Just like that?" The catgirl headtilted again. "No application form, background check, or anything? I could just as easy be lying to you, after all."
"Nah," Val gave a curt, dismissive wave. "I mean—we'll have to do all that stuff for corporate and all, but I know it won't be an issue." She leaned in slightly, grinning widely enough to show a few sharp teeth; her tail could be seen whipping around up above and behind her head. "I'm a Mammon, you know, so I can tell whether or not something will be profitable at a glance."
"Hmm. Well now, I'm retired, and only looking to work part time. That a problem?" Graham said.

"Not a bit—as long as you work hard when you're here. You want to start training now?"
"...Sure?" The Neko shrugged. This wasn't how she'd pictured the morning going, but the pay she'd just been quoted was decidedly more than expected. Anyway, if it didn't work out, she could always just quit.

---

"Here we go again..." Anika sighed, standing in the middle of the worship center. She'd changed into the outfit she'd been 'given' the last time the Ruler of foxes inhabited her body, figuring that was better than having more of her clothes changed into something identical-looking or worse. It was a minor inconvenience for Zotha to replace clothes, but it was also easy to imagine 'Fox' gifting her increasingly feminine and embarrassing clothing for each new appearance, too.

"I'd apologize for making you do this again so soon, but we all know whose fault it is," Zotha said, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, yeah." The fox-girl nodded, took a deep breath in through her nose, and evidently let the goddess in. The shift was more rapid than before, and without the accompanying smoke—but there was no less of a pressure from the immense power of the being now inhabiting Anika's body.

"Good afternoon, godling~." Fox gave the goddess and her priestess a mischievous grin. "I take it you enjoyed my gift?"

"Your 'gift'." Zotha deadpanned.
The Kitsune god chuckled. "Excuse me—or is it that you were annoyed by my prank? It is relatively recently that human society came up with April Fool's day, but my people warmed up to the idea very quickly. It's been a special day to all of us ever since. And with a few of them putting on such an impressive display this morning, how could I possibly resist joining in?"

"Yeah, uh...altering people's lives drastically, maybe forever, against their will is a...greeaat prank."
"Pffheheheh~!" Fox giggled, obviously only amused by the sarcasm. "Really, I ought to be thanking you, or perhaps even Jess in particular for bringing you into being. I felt much more free to do something like that, knowing there was some willing 'damage control' on hand."

"So you wouldn't have done it if I wasn't around?"
"I would have come up with something different for the rain to do." The Ruler paused, tapping one of her ears with an index finger. "No, scratch that—I wouldn't have had the opportunity in the first place without you. After all, little Anika was instrumental in bringing the rain," she said, placing a hand against her own chest for a moment.

"So—either way—you knew that I'd go out of my way to help people who'd been unwillingly transformed, and decided to take advantage of that, for a prank."
"That's certainly one perspective on it," Fox said, nodding. "I won't insult your intelligence by spelling it out for you, but perhaps you'd like a hint?"
It sounded like she'd just suddenly decided to change the subject. "A hint about what!?" Jess said, getting annoyed herself. They were both getting used to feeling the fox god's immense power around them; since they knew she had no intention of actually using it on them, they no longer felt any apprehension or fear from it, which left room for more normal emotions like irritation. Judging by the way that she continued to smile, maybe this was what she wanted.

"I certainly hope I don't underestimate your collective intellect, so—I'll give it, and that ought to be sufficient. I told you before that I am on your side."
"Yes..?" Zotha said.
"And that, for political reasons, none of us can act directly—either for or against you. As much as I'd like to share some of my own power with you to force the issue, I'd only wind up getting myself demoted, and possibly worse."

"..Oh."
"'Oh' what?" Jess said.
"You can't give me help, but you can cause trouble."
Fox nodded, putting on a satisfied grin. "It is in my nature, after all."
Since Jess still didn't seem to understand, Zotha spoke some of her own logic aloud: "I gain power from gratitude."
"Ohhh!" the priestess got it now. "And—who's more grateful than someone who was just in distress?"

"Precisely."
Zotha sighed. "I guess I should thank you, then—even if I'm not feeling very grateful right now."
"You're certainly not under any obligation to," Fox said. "I was only doing what foxes always do."

"I just would've liked some advance warning that we'd all be so busy today," the goddess of change said. "But I guess that's 'not in your nature', huh?"
"If I tell you that I'm planning a prank, then it's part of the prank," Fox said cheerfully.

---

After supper, Onida sat on the couch to watch TV. It felt like forever since she had the time and was in the mood to just lie back and relax like this. Sam changed back into a guy and went to do his streaming, and Damon elected to curl up on the rest of the couch, eyes toward the tube, and watch it with her. "Uh...is that really more comfortable than sitting?" she asked her sister after watching her for a moment.
"Mm-hm! Sometimes, anyway."
"All right then..."

A few hours later, Sam came back out—a girl in an oversized shirt again. "How'd the streaming go?" Onida asked. She was sort of used to asking Damon a question like this in the morning, when they'd sometimes eat breakfast together—or, failing that, at supper the following evening.
"Aah, pretty well," she said. "I wanted to introduce the new space before I, aah..anyway. Mind if I join you?"
"Oh, not at all." The werewolf girl came and sat down in a free chair, leaning back to relax.

Over the next fifteen minutes or so, Onida caught herself sneaking glances at Sam—the motion of those ears or that tail catching her peripheral vision, and her eyes wanting to keep watching the furry appendages move for just slightly longer than a brief glance to confirm the origin of the motion would allow. Unfortunately, it seemed that she noticed—in the next commercial break, she turned Onida's way.

"Hey, aah...do my, you know, fuzzy parts..bug you?"
"Er..not, particularly. Why do you ask?"

"It just seems like you've been looking at 'em some. I mean, it's no big deal, really—I get they're a reminder I'm not totally 'human'. I guess it might even stray a little toward the uncanny valley for someone used to only ever seeing humans."
"It's..not that. I'm very sorry if I gave you that impression. But...I admit, I have been staring some. I'm also sorry about that; I know it's rude, and I usually have much better self-control."
"Well.." Sam tilted her head adorably. "I guess it's fine, if you're not too uncomfortable. A little staring doesn't hurt anyway. Aah, guess I am still curious what it's about, though."
Onida blushed slightly, putting her hands together and playing her fingers across each other nervously. "It's, a little hard to explain..."
"That's okay," Sam said. But it only made her want to explain herself even more—worrying about what kind of conclusions the werewolf might be drawing.

"Look, th-the best I can do is tell you that there is a very primitive, stupid part of my brain that sees those ears a-and thinks, 'oh, a cute puppy, let's pet that!' Even though I know you're not a dog."
"You've got that right—I'm a wolf," Sam said, grinning wide enough to show off her fangs. "Pretty important distinction there."
"But, uh—first and foremost, you're a person. Right?"
"Aah, sure." She shrugged. "I'm a human, but also a wolf.

"One of the things born werewolves just sorta understand is that we've all got a 'wild side'—maybe a little more wild than other kinds of, like, animal-people." Damon picked her head up slightly at this point, watching the conversation with a sudden, keen interest. "We're just as much wolves as people, in a lot of ways, and..living normally as a werewolf is more about accepting and working with those instincts than trying to fight against or suppress them. If that makes any sense."

"I..suppose so," Onida said.

"Anyway, petting is pretty much accepted behavior among family, close friends, and stuff. I guess you're way more likely to see it between girls or, like, romantic partners, though."

"Uh...r-really?!" She could feel herself blushing again.

"Well—sure. Hey, if you just want to know what they feel like...aah, I wouldn't mind you touching the ears," she said, gesturing to one of them with a finger. "Just be gentle and don't pull on the fur—they're pretty sensitive, and that stuff hurts."

"Erm..sure. I'll be careful."

Onida hesitantly leaned up close enough and ran a hand along one of Sam's ears, then the other, ruffling and stroking them. "Hmmnnh." They were soft and warm between her fingers, and the wolf-girl murmured softly under her touch briefly before letting out a few adorable barks. "Rrf~! Y-yip!" Already starting to feel even more embarrassed than before, she let go and fell back into her seat.

"Uh—did uh, was that wrong?"
"Not at all!" Sam said, grinning brightly (and cutely blushing a little bit, too). "Felt pretty good, actually. Maybe you're a natural at it."
"Er...m-maybe. Anyway, uh, thanks."
"Likewise~." The little werewolf's adorable grin, complete with the slightly red cheeks, was making Onida blush again...she forcibly glued her eyes on the TV when she realized she'd been staring at Sam's face.

Omega Zeta Kappa 17: ψ

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

I had the first third or so of this part written, the whole idea planned out, sometime last year. I just couldn't figure out the transformations until a few days ago. Anyway, as is kind of a habit for this story, this is decently long, so be ready for that.

---

Wesley lay across his bed, one leg stretched out and the other one pulled closer with its knee spiked up into the air, casually tossing a tennis ball straight up and re-catching it in his hand. "So, you see Jeff out there? He freakin' out?" He had a stocky build: a little on the short side, a bit broad in the shoulders, with dark hair.

"He seemed to have it under control for now. Little twitchy." His roommate, Zale, had hung around the frat house for most of the day, apart from going outside to run a couple of laps. "I saw Kaden changed." He was a tall, moderately lanky redhead with good, visible muscle tone on him. Both of them were, at any casual glance, your typical college jocks.
"Yeah? Get a pic?" Wesley turned his head to one side to face Zale, still tossing and catching the ball without looking at it. He was rewarded with a quickly-snapped picture of a tall, curvy redhead. "Pretty cute. Horns look wicked."
"Eh, not my type really. But I think she's interested in this chick she was hangin' with anyway," he said, pointing to a slightly blurred person next to her—blond hair, similar height and build. "Didn't catch her name, but prolly another member."

Both of them had agreed to put off any decisions about turning into a girl until the next day, at least. It helped this decision that Wesley had to head out for tennis practice fairly early that morning, and so didn't really have time for the OZK shenanigans. "You think we should do it?" Zale asked. "I guess everyone turns out super hot. You know that weird artist living downstairs?"
"Mhm?"
"Check it." He showed off another photo. "Think that's her roommate too, with the stupid long hair—you know, the guy who moves never? Saw 'em from the parking lot after dinner."

"Some people get all the luck," Wesley commented.
"Nah, some people have their metabolism jacked up by magic. At least we earned our physiques, huh?"
"Eh." Wesley shrugged. "If I had the option without it costing a bunch, I mighta gone for that a few years ago."
"Magical solutions don't last, man! It's just like surgery, but with different and wackier risks. You've still gotta make a commitment to do stuff different after."

"Yeah, yeah."

Wesley had come into college somewhat overweight. He'd been randomly assigned Zale as a roommate in the normal dorms, and then badgered by him into joining the tennis team—but he was ultimately grateful for both. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and these days he actually felt better after a good workout. Zale was a more classical jock, one of the soccer team's stars since freshman year, and it had been Wesley who'd gotten sick enough of the common dorm accommodations to convince him to join OZK with him so he wouldn't get roomed with some weirdo. The fact that Jeff—a mutual friend on the football team—was doing the same at the time had helped with this persuasion, and ultimately Zale was happier here too.

"So you think we should do it?" Zale repeated his earlier question, since it had gone unanswered.
"Eh."
"That's not an answer, man!"
"Let's see how Jeff turns out f irst."
"That's procrastination!" Zale threw a pillow at him, which he caught and tossed back.

"It's got a cutoff time. I just wanna go to sleep tonight without worrying about it."

"Baah, fine!"

On Sunday morning, some muffled yelling from upstairs woke them both. Zale sat up straight and looked around in a hurry, while Wesley turned over from his back to his front. "Dude, you hear that?

"Mh. Trying not to," was half-muffled by a pillow.

"I swear I heard the word 'tail'."
"Go back to sleep, Zale. It can wait 'till morning."

"It is morning! It's like nine thirty."
"Got up early yesterday. Morning's eleven."
"Ten."
"Ten thirty."
"Deal." Zale fell back onto his pillow and went back to sleep without setting an alarm or anything. He was pretty good at sleeping about as much as he intended to.

When they went out together toward the kitchen for breakfast, they found quite a commotion around the same part of the hallway where the two werewolves had been handing out potions the day before. The girl who they both knew Hollis's roommate had turned into was there with...probably Hollis, except his hair was bright purple? He was holding up his arm in front of him, and some of what Wesley would call 'certifiable weird magic stuff' was going on, a swirl of pink and blue glow around the arm. Opposite the arriving pair, Rich (long-haired, red-eyed girl) and Erwin (tall, super curvy, way more fit than before) were looking on.

Then, the guy who was maybe Hollis put his glowing hand on top of some catgirl's head, with the result of the glow settling on 'blue' and flowing into her, causing her to start growing up into a somewhat slim, fit cat-guy instead. "..Huh, it does work," he commented, looking down at himself, and then turned toward a curvy, dark-haired foxgirl nearby. "Whadd'you think, Darren?"
"Uhh.." She looked too flustered to respond, but her tail was wagging anyway.

Before she could really think of a response, everyone's attention was drawn to the now-sorority's illustrious leader instead. "Pfheheh..Haa~ahahahah!" What started off as a soft giggle or perhaps chuckle quickly turned into a full-bodied, almost villainous sort of laughter. It continued—Erwin looking on with a somewhat concerned expression—long enough for her to be doubled over briefly by the end, and she had to wipe a tear or two out of her eye after it stopped.

"Please, excuse me," she said, sniffing gingerly.
"Sooo. Is this uh, against the rules or whatever?" the cat-guy asked; he was starting to shrink back down—evidently in the process of turning back into a girl again without maybe-Hollis's help.

"Oh, of course not. It's excellent, absolutely excellent!" Rich placed her hands together, tapping her fingers against each other. "Transformation, reversal, gratitude and unexpected consequences—back to reversal all over again. What better tribute could anyone hope to give?" Her arms spread out wide at this point, in a sort of U-shape; her usual calm and refined manner of expression temporarily replaced by a kind of terrifyingly wide grin.

"You're uh..going full supervillain there," Erwin said gently.
"Ah, excuse me." Her expression snapped back to normal instantly. "If anyone wishes to take advantage of Holli's—possibly temporarily available—blessing, by all means, go ahead!" she waved. "I think we can get away with being a sorority if at least most of us are female, most of the time, anyway. Or if not, they'll just have to come up with a new term for it," she said quickly, sweeping her arms outward and upward dramatically. "Have fun, all of you!" She swept around to face the opposite direction and walked briskly away.

"Sooo...Hollis?" Zale said, approaching with his roommate shortly behind.

"Uh, yeah. That or 'Holli', I guess," he said, face flushing slightly as the short, stacked girl next to him put her hands on his arm. "Long story short, a..Thing happened when I took that potion, and now uh..that. Also, uh, this," he added, starting to shrink and shift himself, quickly changing into a pretty girl not much taller than her roommate.

"More precisely, her 'power' lets her give people the ability to change back and forth, like we can," the shorter girl added. "We're not actually sure how long she'll have it, though—it didn't exactly come with instructions or anything."
"Can you do that for us?" Wesley asked. "Hypothetically, I mean."

"Uh..." Holli held up a hand, and the blue/pink magic swirled around it down to her forearm for a second before dissipating. "..Nnno. I get the feeling that 'you have to take the potion first'. Uhh, actually I was gonna just say I got the feeling that it wouldn't work but that came out instead?"
"It's probably true, then," her roommate said.

"Well, maybe I'll hit you up later, then," Wesley said. "I mean—if I decide to take it, anyway.."

"Speakin' of, where'd those two werewolves that were giving them out yesterday go?" Zale asked, looking around.

"They're...probably taking the morning off," Erwin said. "I'll set up a table in the kitchen if anyone wants some." She turned and started off in the direction of the stairs, almost bumping into two other girls headed in the opposite direction. "Ah, 'scuze me. You look..better, Jeff." One of the two was Mylar, now a purple-haired catgirl—and the other one, a tall, gorgeous, curvy and buff wolf-girl, she'd just addressed as...?
"Uh, t-thanks, I guess."

Wesley and Zale looked at each other, the former saying: "Jeff?!"
"Dude, seriously?" Both of them made their way past the small crowd around Hollis and hurried up to get a closer look at her. "Is that you?"
"Uh, hey guys.." She blushed and nervously ran a hand through her long, light-gray hair; it was hard to tell if their sudden arrival was responsible for her slightly flustered expression, or if it was the catgirl whose tail was busy swishing around, brushing itself against hers repeatedly. "Yeah, I got turned into a furry for some reason. Thinking about going by 'Jen' too, maybe.." No, no..it was probably the catgirl.

"That's a pretty cute name," Wesley said.

"Duude, you hit the jackpot too!" Zale chimed in. "Not only are you totally stacked, you're even more buff than you were as a dude!"

"Uh, heheh, I-I dunno about that..."

"Were these two who you wanted to check on?" Mylar asked.
"Oh, uh, y-yeah some of them. Did you two uh..decide on whether you wanted to take the potion or not?" she asked.

"Eh, not yet," Wesley said.
"It might take him 'till the last minute," Zale said. "I think I might be on board, though, with Hollis's thing."

"Well, look, make sure you talk to your parents first. It's really better if.." She paused, tilting her head. "What do you mean, Hollis's 'thing'?"
"Oh, dude, did Rich not say anything?"

"Nnnope," Mylar answered for her.

"Well, Hollis got some kinda power where she can turn back into a dude," Zale explained. "And, like, make it so other chicks can turn back into guys too?"
"But, only if they took the potion to become girls in the first place," Wesley added. "She said it was a long story and we haven't had breakfast yet, soo.."
"You two should go eat, then," Jen said, crossing her arms. "It's what, like—eleven?"

"Pretty close by now, yeah."
"Then go!" she gestured commandingly in the direction of the kitchen. "Skipping breakfast isn't good for you."
"Okay, mom, sheesh."
"That really doesn't have the same sting when you're talking to a girl, y'know," Wesley pointed out, following his roommate the rest of the way off to the kitchen.

After breakfast, they found Erwin set up at a little station in the hall not too different from the one the werewolves had run. It didn't seem as 'popular' as theirs had been, but maybe that was because all of the most willing 'customers' had already had their fill. She waved when Zale and Wesley approached. "Hey, you two. Decided on what you want to do yet? No pressure."

"Ehh, I think I'll do it," Zale said. "I mean..it's like, zero consequences if I can turn back anyway, right?"
"I dunno about that," Wesley objected.
"Yeah, you might like it so much you don't want to! Heheh," Erwin giggled, cutely putting a hand up in front of her lips. "But seriously—what might actually happen is you grow a tail or wings or horns or something, that won't go away even if you otherwise turn back. On the other hand, you might awaken as some sort of powerful magical being."

"That happen to anyone yet?" Wesley asked.
"Weelll," she said, "I heard Xavier turned out to be a witch. And, Kaden's an Oni, and we've got at least two or three new Kitsune around. No Nekomata yet, but one or more of the catgirls might actually be Neko, it's a little hard to tell without some testing..."

"Eh, whatever," he shrugged. "I'm sure I'll make it look good anyway. Hook me up."
"Okay." She got ready to fill a bottle for him. "And you, Wesley? Still on the fence?"
"Well, if Zale's doing it," he shrugged. "I don't wanna move, much less learn to put up with another roommate. Way too much trouble."
"Very well. Now, listen, you shouldn't just chug these right out here in the hallway. You might change right away, and by all accounts people tend to have somewhat...extreme reactions while changing. Some people thought it was funny seeing that happen yesterday, but I think even they're getting a little tired of it."
"Like Rich's pet wolves?" Wesley asked. Erwin just shrugged, handing them the bottles. "Well, thanks for the warning, anyway."
"Yeah, same," Zale added. "See ya."

The both of them had already been in contact with their parents about the entire strange situation since yesterday—but by text, rather than a phone call. Jeff—or perhaps Jen—was somewhat of an old-fashioned person when it came to that. The response in both cases was effectively a slightly confused but very supportive shrug. Even before finding out about the Thing with Hollis, they'd both reasoned it shouldn't be that difficult to turn back if it was awful. Now they both sent off to let them know they were going through with it—plus the news that they might not have a way to change back freely anyway.

After that, the two of them stood facing each other in their room. "Well...here goes nothing." Wesley held out his bottle, and Zale 'clinked' it with his in a psuedo-toast.

"Yeah, dude." They chugged the strange liquid simultaneously, and Wesley winced.
"Blech. So sweet."

"Really? Mine was kinda sour," Zale said, smacking his lips a bit. "Not bad, though. So—who d'you think's gonna change first, huh?"
His roommate sighed. "We're already on that? Man, I just wanna lay back and let it happen." He plopped himself onto his bed, leaning back and turning until he was lying on his back once again. "Not everything's gotta be a competition."
"Aww, but competition's fun."
"It's not like there's some special talent in 'letting a magic potion turn you into a chick', though."
"Aaah..you got me there."

Zale was quiet for a bit after that, possibly contemplating the decision they'd both just made—perhaps somewhat rashly, despite all the delay beforehand. As he lay back on the bed, his head resting on the pillow, Wesley took advantage of the silence to zone out for a moment, staring up at the ceiling. He came out of it maybe a few minutes later feeling..somewhat sleepy, and like his body was a bit heavy for some reason. He yawned aloud, the thought occuring to him that...they'd put a lot of effort into going and eating breakfast, and so this break was well-deserved.

What a strange thought...it wasn't like that had been hard or anything, and breakfast was a reward all its own. But then, Wesley thought, he'd worked hard yesterday at least, right? That was surely worth a day or so of lazing about. He yawned again, thinking how weird this was; he hadn't been in this sedentary of a mood since high school. But he gave in to it anyway—there wasn't anything else he had to do right now after all—and turned his head back and forth across the pillow, stretched his arms and legs, rotated his shoulders, feeling his body just steadily...relax. His eyes fluttered shut; he wasn't asleep, but felt very content all of a sudden with just...lying perfectly still. The sense of weary heaviness grew stronger, making it feel more difficult to move...or maybe only that he wanted to move even less; it was strangely difficult to make a firm distinction.

After a little bit longer, the heaviness began to slowly ease off. He could feel a gentle pressure all over him, like some invisible force was starting to massage his body. It felt so nice, he couldn't help but let a soft, quiet "Mmmmnnh..." and wriggle in place just a bit. The sense of relaxation he was feeling began to deepen, beyond anything he thought he'd ever felt before.

He began to get the strangest sense that the muscle tone he'd worked hard to develop over the past couple of years or so was itself a form of stress, and seemingly as a result, it began to fade—to 'relax' away. And his body was so much bigger than it really needed to be, too, so it started shrinking: Pulling itself shorter and slimmer, sliding slowly up across the bed as he took up less of it.

"Mmh.." The soft tone from Wesley's throat was a little higher in pitch than before now...having such a deep voice was kind of a chore, wasn't it? He wriggled around a little more, feeling more comfortable the smaller and softer—weaker—his body became. "Mm~mnnh.." This time he could hear the pitch of his voice lilting upward mid-murmur, shifting to a high, somewhat breathy tenor.

Wesley's body finally finished shrinking, and he could feel its shape lying across the bed behind him: Narrow shoulders, slim, delicate limbs, a slender, flat waist, all seemingly divested of every last ounce of strength. Of course he knew that all of this was unusual—that it was probably the potion taking effect, taking away his manhood...but he just couldn't bring himself to care. It felt so, so nice..and he just wanted to keep relaxing until all of that stress, and this heavy weight across his body, was all gone. And his manhood began to tingle and shrink about at the same time that he found himself 'realizing' that being male was, in and of itself, kind of stressful...wasn't it?
"Mm~mnh..ah, aa~aah.." He squirmed a little more violently in bed, his face heating up with a blush, as the shrinking down there began to happen in earnest. It wasn't a lot more motion, because he really still couldn't be bothered too much, even though this was kind of an exciting sensation...it was making his heartbeat pick up a bit, too. "Aah, aa~ahh.." In no time at all, the soft, breathy sighs from his lips had turned from masculine to feminine, and now were taking on an increasingly high-pitched, breathy, adorable tone. It seemed like it wasn't just his physical masculinity ebbing as the thing between his legs began to tug and melt away, but his entire sense of being male...like it had all been an illusion, a false self that he was now waking up from...

"Aaaa~aah...mmffh..." Wesley turned into a girl, and felt a wave of warm fuzzy feelings down there that made her cry out with just marginally more volume than her soft murmurs before. It felt so nice, being so soft and small...why hadn't she thought of this before? It was kind of an absurd thing to imagine herself 'thinking of', but the new girl's mind was feeling kind of hazy overall anyway, so there wasn't much mental room to question it. Instead, she was focusing on the feeling of hair tickling her face, her forehead and cheeks, as it flowed out insistently down her back—and on the feeling of her clothes steadily shuffling around on her: Boxers becoming panties, shirt and pants merging and softening into a long, flowing, sleeveless nightgown with a deep cut to leave her entire neckline bare.

"Aa~ah, mmmhh..." As Wesley's clothes settled down, she could feel her hips and bottom pushing out, a sensation like they were relaxing to let out a bit of plumpness they'd been tensing to hide—giving her a moderate but quite girlish figure. The weight she'd been feeling before was all but gone now, and a strange sensation of power was beginning to well up from inside her. It was a thoroughly unfamiliar kind of power—not any kind of strength, but instead something derived from the very sense of relaxation and softness she was feeling right now. "Mmm~mmhh..." She enjoyed the sensation of this power pouring into her, seemingly causing her chest to tingle and begin to grow into breasts—but at the same time pushing its way out in a few other places: Her shoulder blades, the base of her spine, the corners of her head.

"Aa~aahnnn..." The growing breasts were the greatest concern right now, as their skin was suddenly intensely sensitive—enough to give her another, slightly more intense, taste of girlish pleasure. But she could certainly feel, too, something very slim making its way out from her lower back, growing longer and longer, and two more things growing out toward either side from behind her shoulders, spreading out a bit wider and bigger and flexing as they grew. Curiously, while she was aware of a pushing, growing sensation from the corners of her head, she couldn't actually feel whatever that was pushing through her significantly lengthened hair.

"Mmh—! Mmmm~mmhh..." One last push came to Wesley's chest, the new breasts rounding out into a pair of globes big enough to completely fill the nightgown: Not particularly gigantic, but big enough that—along with her hips and slender waist—she now sported an impressive figure for any girl of her diminutive new size. Then she squirmed and wriggled in place for a brief moment before relaxing, letting out a soft, high "Hhwaa~aahh.." that was half-sigh, half-yawn. Finally...finally, it felt like she was really and truly, completely and totally relaxed.

She lay there for a long moment more, wondering why she hadn't heard anything from her roommate yet. She slowly opened her eyes and sat up in bed, reaching a hand up to run through her long, soft hair—which had lost all color and darkness to instead become a bright, snowy white. That hand also examined what had grown from the top of her head: A pair of horns, slightly curled with rounded tips. Looking down, she could see that she'd also grown a pair of batlike wings too short and small to really be used for flight, and a very, very long, slim black tail ending in a flat, heart-shaped spike. She was...a demon-girl now.

Turning to Zale, Wesley found him watching something on his computer with his headphones on. With how quiet she'd been throughout her change...it was no wonder he hadn't noticed. She hopped down out of her bed—finding how very much bigger everything around her was strangely natural, enjoying the way her nightgown fluttered around her legs down to the ankles, and sneaked over to tap her roommate on the shoulder a couple of times.

"What?" He turned briefly backwards at her, back to his screen, paused and then did a very protracted double-take, slowly removing his headphones in the process. "W-Wesley!?"

"Well, uh. I guess I 'won', if this was a competition," she said softly. "Not that it is one, but.."
"D-dude, what's with the horns? The wings? Uh..that tail?" he gestured dramatically to each in turn. That last appendage was surprisingly dextrous and easy to control. She had it lifted up behind her, past the top of her head, with the spike at the end waving back and forth; the nightgown had come with some sort of hole for it to poke through, so this motion didn't lift its entire back end.

"Mm-hm. I guess I 'awakened' or whatever," she said. "Some kinda demon, I guess?"
"You guess? Does all that come with some kind of phenomenal magical powers?"
Wesley shrugged. "I'unno, I just got it."

Zale stared for a moment longer, up and down, taking it all in; Wesley could spot him blushing a little bit, and became slowly aware that she was doing the same...at least a little. "...Man. How are you so chill about this?"
"I guess it just doesn't feel like it's worth the effort to worry about it. If anything, this feels sorta nice...in a way I'm not sure I can be bothered to explain."

"Well—w-whatever. How'd you do it, anyway?"

Wesley titled her head ever so slightly. "Hmn?" Had she done something recently?
"How'd you change so fast?!" Oh, right.
"I'unno, I just..lay back and relaxed for a minute, and it sorta..came over me. It was easier than falling in a lake."

"Oh..man, I totally forgot. I did hear it's easier to change if you relax. Awwh, but now I can't, knowing that!" He raised his arms up in frustration.
"Why not?" The idea of 'not able to relax' now felt totally inconceivable to Wesley.

"'Cause like, I'll keep tensing up thinking the change is coming, and it won't get outta my head."

"...Well, you wanna get the change over with quicker?"
"Yeah! That way I don't gotta worry about it any more, at least."
Something that was new and unfamiliar, yet felt perfectly natural to the point of seeming instinctual, was coming to Wesley. "I can help you relax," was what she said to express it.
"How?" her roommate raised his eyebrow. "Gonna give me a massage or something?"
"No, uh...I think it's maybe part of my new demon powers or whatever?"
"Oh. Well, uh.." His blush got a little bit deeper. That was just fine with her—it'd be a shame if he didn't at least appreciate her new cute, decently curvy looks a little bit. "S-sure, I guess."
"Cool."

Wesley reached a hand up onto the top of her friend's head, just...trying to share some of the calmness she was feeling with him. "How's that feel...?"
"W-weird..." he trailed off, his eyes glazing over a bit. Then the demon-girl gently took one of his hands in both of hers and guided him toward the nearest bed (his). He sort of half-stood-up, half-stumbled over to it and sat down, and she let go of his hand to guide his head and body around into a position lying flat on his back. Then..she made her way up on top of him, pulling herself down onto him in a close hug.

His heart started pounding a little faster then, as he came partway back to his senses. "W-wes..ley..?" his voice trailed off again as her cheek pressed into one of his and she started 'pushing calm' into him again.
"Shush. Don't say anything...don't do anything..." The volume of her voice slowly faded into a breathy whisper as she spoke, hypnotically: "Just...rela~ax..."
"Mmh.." His arms were loosely held across her body, and while he was still blushing from a cute girl lying on top of him, he seemed to obey the command—or maybe become overwhelmed by her power. It was kind of hard to tell. Either way, his eyes shut, and he went still, breathing quietly in place for a long moment.

This wasn't bad...but Wesley couldn't help the feeling that his body was kind of uncomfortable to lie against, being all stiff and hard. Couldn't it be at least a little bit softer and more pillowy..? As if in response to this thought, Zale let out a soft, murmuring "Mmh..?" and then shivered. An extra sense which Wesley hadn't had before turning into a demon, and hadn't been aware of until this very moment, could feel a power exuding out of him—magic. He had started to change.

Zale felt completely and totally at peace for a moment. He'd never felt something quite like this before—either physically, lying down with a gorgeous girl holding onto him so close, or..emotionally, was maybe the right word for it. He was so used to always moving, trying to get or be better...it was so strange to find himself just wanting to be still...and calm. He knew he'd be right back to competing and striving almost as soon as his body finished its transformation, but right here, right now, in a cute demon-girl's arms...it was a very pleasant break from all that.

That was when he began to feel a faint tingling over every inch of his skin. For a second or two, he ignored it, wanting only to stay still like Wesley had said—but it grew stronger and stronger until he couldn't help but react. First he murmured, then shivered, and then held on to the pretty girl in his arms a little tighter, moving his head around a bit. He could feel the skin of his face softening against hers, his cheeks losing every bit of hair and turning smooth. The same thing was happening all over his body: Arms, legs, torso, all losing hair, smoothing and softening.

His scalp was the sole exception to this, gaining rather than losing hair. It began as a slight trickle down along his forehead and next to his eyes, perhaps possible to confuse with Wesley's soft, bright hair already tickling him there. But it flowed down past his shoulders, crawling across his back, and it soon became undeniable that it was his hair getting longer and longer. As the tingling faded from everywhere except between his legs, Zale was struck with just one, rather odd, thought: He hoped it would be at least as pretty as Wesley's. No..he hoped it'd be prettier. He was going to make it prettier! But, what a strange thing for a guy like him to be thinking...

"Mmnh, a-aah..?" Zale could feel a warmth in his cheeks, a pressure beginning to play across his face...then his shoulders. The tingling between his legs was finding less and less surface to exist on, which could only mean...his manhood was already getting smaller. And the pressure was shrinking the rest of him—it had made his face smaller and rounder against the demon-girl's, and was now starting to slim and narrow his shoulders. This same shrinking-pressure continued downward in a wave across his arms and torso, making the former pull shorter and slimmer, and compressing his whole frame while drawing his waist inward even more. He could feel his hands becoming smaller, the fingers slender and delicate.

"Aah..aa~aah..." Zale's voice was changing, lilting slowly higher and taking on a decidedly less masculine tone. He was getting shorter in addition to slimmer, as the pressure made its way down through his hips to his legs—but it was a slow shrinking. He rather hoped he'd wind up taller than Wesley...maybe a little curvier too, with bigger boobs. It again struck him as a little odd that he was thinking this way before he even became a girl...but it wouldn't be much longer now, anyway.

The tingling gave way to a slipping, tugging sensation that made Zale's heart start to race, his blush intensifying, and his murmuring turning into more of a moaning cry. "Aa~AAaah..mmMmmnh.. o-oh, ooOOoo~ooh..." No sooner had his voice pushed up too high to be a man's than it drew itself deeper again, audibly maturing into a deep, sexy alto tone—at the very same time as he felt his manhood fully and completely melting away, all sensation down there replaced by a sudden burst of intensely pleasant, fuzzy tingling and a gentle push up into the pit of her stomach as all of the necessary equipment arranged itself into place.

The new girl couldn't resist squirming around and letting out a somewhat loud "Aa~aaAAA~AAHHnnnNNNnn~nnh..!" as her first taste of girlish pleasure only grew more and more intense. Somehow she felt rather..proud of being loud enough for someone to hear, unlike Wesley's apparently totally silent transformation. At the same time as this pleasure hit her, she could feel her hips and bottom pressing out, her thighs plumping themselves thicker—curves rapidly growing into place that easily outclassed the shorter, smaller girl's.

"Mmh, mm~nh, mmh..!" She squirmed those generous, supple thighs together as her chest now sprang to life too, the nipples raising little buds of bumps up under them as they grew taller and wider themselves. The skin there was deeply sensitive, and on top of its growth and her motion rubbing them across the soft material of her shirt, they were also pressing themselves more and more into Wesley's soft breasts as they grew.

Yes...that's it..! Zale could feel an intense pride swelling up inside her as those buds began to blossom, pushing out bigger and bigger. She was going to be...curvy, and gorgeous, and still strong! "Mnn~naaAaAA~AAAahh..!" She tumbled Wesley over with her onto their sides, holding on tight, and crying out as the sensitivity of the growing bosom produced an even deeper and more intense pleasure downstairs.

She could feel the happiness at her growing figure forming into a curious kind of pressure around the corners of her head. It built for only a moment before bursting, causing her to let out a soft, breathy, high "Aa~ah!" as something grew and flexed out from either side. This was followed immediately by a similar, but much sharper, pressure building behind her shoulder blades. This burst right alongside a sudden, especially strong push from her breasts that caused them to grow substantially in only a second, and together the two sensations—along with a resulting burst of girlish pleasure—drew a deep, womanly "Ooo~OOOOO~OOoohhh..!" from her lips. Then there was a third and final sense of pressure, this time from the base of her spine; this one burst out almost immediately, but kept on going as a slim tail made its way out from her back, growing longer and longer as her breasts made one final push to their ultimate, rather impressive size...all of which together drew one last "Aa~AAAahhhnn~nNNnh..!" from her mouth.

A fuzzy sensation between Wesley's legs—the same kind she'd felt during her change—began to hit her as she felt Zale's body changing and shifting in her arms. She had a curious sense of happiness and satisfaction at the feeling of him getting smaller and softer, his voice steadily changing..and as he began to cry out from the impending change of sex, she couldn't resist a soft, breathy "Mmm~mmh..!" in reply. He probably didn't hear her, especially as he grew louder and louder and finally changed sex himself—very obviously accompanied by some girlish pleasure of her own.

And then, the body in Wesley's arms was getting curvier, and crying out in such a deep, sexy voice.

Zale obviously just couldn't help herself...and now, neither could Wesley. She held on tight, squirming a little bit herself, letting out a soft, high "Aa~aahnn..!" as her own pleasure downstairs began to deepen past anything she'd felt during her own transformation. And, as the bigger girl took charge, aggressively grabbing her close and pushing her over onto her side, she squirmed and cried out just a little bit louder, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of Zale growing even sexier, that flat chest turning into some nice soft breasts that steadly bulged out bigger and bigger until they fully engulfed her own, comparitively little, globes—all squished close enough together for each of them to feel the other's rapid heartbeat. "Aa~AAAAaahnnnNNN~nnh..!" her high, cute voice cried out in chorus with Zale's as the change completed, leaving her with a gorgeous, curvy woman in her arms...and a fellow demon, no less!

"Ah, aa~aah..." A high, soft, breathy sigh emanated from Wesley's lips while Zale panted, slowly catching her breath. "W-woo~ow...you're super sexy now, Za~ale," she murmured. "An' a demon like me...!"

Alongside this second declaration, Zale suddenly felt a slim tail placing itself across her own, drawing a high, startled "Ah~!" from her lips. Even though her voice had become such a deep, sexy alto, it still had the range to go up nearly as high as Wesley's...another thing she had better than the smaller girl. But all of a sudden, she found herself not caring so much about that...

After all, the adorable, white-haired girl she was holding oh so tightly onto was quite sexy in her own way, too, and something about the way the smaller girl was embracing her back gave her the impression that that Wesley was 'hers', too. So instead of worrying about being the better of the two of them, her sense of delight in her own attractive new appearance extended into the same emotion about the other girl's, too. She twisted her tail around Wesley's in response, letting out a deep "Mm~mmnh.." Both of them held on tight—with their arms and their tails—squirming and murmuring with girlish pleasure for a little bit longer. It took Zale a bit before she could form words.

"Wah, wo~ow..I only sorta noticed before, but you're really cute," she said.
"Mmh. You're not bad yourself. Nice and soft and pillowy.." Wesley stroked a hand through her roommate's long, bright red hair. "You should stay here and relax a little longer~..."
"Ah, uh..mmnh...o-okay, fine...but, I wanna look at myself in a mirror soon..."

It was five or ten minutes before the two newly-awakened demons untangled, and Zale found her legs still sort of weak from...everything, causing her to stumble a bit unsteadily toward the bathroom (the location of the only mirror in their apartment). The wings spread out from her back and her tail wove around behind her, all instinctive motions that helped her balance, so she made it without any particular incident, soon finding herself face-to-face with a gorgeous, curvy red-head. Her eyes had turned the same brilliant red, too, and at some point when neither of them had been particularly paying attention, her clothes had shifted around—a white, long-sleeved, collared shirt with a red tie, a black skirt and black stockings. Her own tail was no shorter than Wesley's, a little bit thicker, and ending in an arrowhead-shaped spike instead of a heart.

"I-I hope I'm stronger than I look now..."
"Awwh, what's it matter? We can just get Holli to turn us back into boys for our sports teams," Wesley said, still lying on her back on her roommate's bed.

Zale whirled, raising her hands partway and clenching her fists. "No way! I want this body to be just as useful, and attractive, and strong as the other one! Don't you wanna be the best you can be?"

"Mmh..only when you say it," the white-haired girl said, only leaning her head up a bit to face Zale. "Otherwise, I think I'm fine as-is. I mean, maybe I'm weak now, but I'm not unhealthy or anything, soo...whatever..."

"Hey, what kinda demon are you, anyway!?"

"Uh..the kind that just wants to chill, I guess?"

"Aawh, we can chill tonight!" Zale ran up to the other girl, grabbing a wrist in her hand. "C'mon, we've got shopping to do! I'm gonna pick you out some amazing outfits, 'kay?"
"Okay, okay..heheheh..!" The white-haired demon let herself be pulled out of bed onto her feet, placing an index finger into the other girl's palm and gently twirling around once, giggling softly (adorably!). "I wouldn't want it myself, but mmh..something about you saying it makes me want to show off in a pretty dress. Weird, huh?"
"Hey, maybe that's my power!" Zale said, grinning widely. "And once we're outfitted, let's go for a run!"
"Uh, that's a little too much. Let's see Holli first, at least..."

One of the undiscussed risks of using Hollis's strange new power was that the 'new' male form it granted wasn't necessarily like one's original looks. On top of Wesley's hair staying bleach-white, he only gained half a foot or so of height over his new feminine form, kept the wings and tail and horns, and now had a fairly slender, mildly androgynous build despite gaining all of his muscle back. He insisted on taking this form when Zale insisted on their running a few laps to 'work off' the big lunch they'd eaten after their shopping trip, and didn't regret it a bit. He pulled ahead of her near the end, stopping and turning to watch the gorgeous redheaded demon-girl run up—her ponytailed hair waving behind her in the wind, breasts bouncing up and down despite the best efforts of a sports bra—and stop right in front of him.

"Aaawwwh—hff, hff...I can't believe you pulled ahead of me!"
"I was saving up for the final sprint," Wesley said, grinning. He was blushing, and—noticing his eyes on her—so was she.
"H-hey!" She reached her arms back to undo toe hairtie, and grinned in spite of her own words: "L-like what you see, you perv?!"

"You know it!" Wesley said, giving her a thumbs-up.