Vixen Society - Cycle 13

Vixen Society

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  Beginning / Before / After / Last

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Cycle 13

Since she'd stolen the first shower, Troy thought it was only fair for her to make breakfast. She sat across from the adorable dog-girl, wagging her tail and looking her up and down. Den was blushing at the stares, but not complaining; if anything, she was giving just as good back.

“S-so uh..you can turn me back, right?” she said as the meal came to a close.
“I'm sure gonna try! I mean, unless you wanna stay like that?”
“Uh, no.” Den shook her head. “I mean—d-don't get me wrong, there's...things I definitely like about this. But—we haven't really...I mean, we don't. We h-haven't even been on any dates or anything! Right? I..l-like you, but I don't wanna rush in too fast.”
“Mmh...”

Troy nodded slowly. Her heart sank a little bit from knowing she'd have to turn her 'new pet' back and watch him leave for his own place again...but she certainly wasn't going to try to force her (or him) to stay. If the experience with Carter had taught her anything, it at least included that being pushy with someone didn't make them like you any more. Besides...maybe Den was right, and they'd both let impulses get the better of them the night before.

Soon she stood up in front of the dog-girl, gently placing a hand atop her head and trying to think how best to take back the shared curse. After a moment, it came to her. After softly clearing her throat, the wolf-girl said: “My curse I shared, from me to you~, I take back, and now undo~.” A soft red glow like the one that had converted her friend into a dog girl slowly formed around her and then flowed out, back into Troy. As it did, her body and clothes alike shifted all the way back to the form of the young man he'd been the day before.

“Phew...” He breathed a sigh of relief, looking down and inspecting his appearance. “Glad that worked.” It brought the wolf-girl a little bit of happiness that he looked...maybe slightly disappointed, despite the statement of relief.

“Uh, m-me too,” she said. It would've been bad to have stuck her that way, she kept telling herself—and hoping the lesson sunk in. She could always...let her catch go to play with him again later, right? Right...

“Well uh, I've gotta get to work soon,” Dennis said after a moment. “But—we'll talk. Let's, maybe actually go on a date soon?”
“Sure!” She grinned happily, wagging her tail. He was cute as a dog-girl, but..the blushing face he had on right now, as man, was pretty cute too. She could see...going on a date with him at least, for sure. And...maybe sharing the curse with him again, now and then, after that.

After her final guest left, the wolf-girl thought about things a little bit more. Well, she was most definitely happy staying a gorgeous woman with canine parts for the rest of her life herself, regardless of what happened to or with the people around her. Maybe...to fit the new look, maybe she could swap a couple of letters in her name to make it feel more feminine. Tory? She spoke it to herself a few times, seeing how it felt in her mouth and imagining hearing it out of other people.

But, as the wolf-girl continued to consider things, her mind went to another logical question. Curses usually didn't work the way she'd just used the Canine Curse Carter had given her, right? So...why was she able to do that, anyway?

...Maybe the Kitsune who'd done it in the first place would know.

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“Hmmm....”

Ella walked around Miles in a slow circle. He wrung his hands nervously, not really sure what to think of a cute girl sizing him up like this. They had taken up a room in the library of the sort that was usually used for studying, and Kiara was standing in a corner, leaning against the wall and playing on her phone.

Ella stood on her tiptoes, leaning up at him. “HMMMMMMM....”

“W-what is it?” he said, unable to take it anymore.
“Heheh! You get a pretty funny face when you're flustered,” she said, hopping back a step or so. “So like, I don't have the kinda power that can just poof you into a girl or whatever, but there's..something on you. Something powerful enough for me to 'smell' it, even though it's not close right now. Wonder what it could be?”
“Something...like a magic something?” This was definitely the first he'd heard of it. Given her reputation, Ella might've just been messing with him yet again...but he wanted to believe.

“Mm-hm! You hiding any super-artifacts in your dorm room or something? Hey, maybe we should go check!”

“You want us to go to a dude's dorm room?” Kiara repeated with a tone of annoyance.

“I mean, yeah? That's what ours was until just recently, right? Anyway, there's two of us! And I wanna know what the magic thing is. It smells a little like you!”
“Like me?" the catgirl said. "How?”
“I dunno! It's a new and unfamiliar thing! That's why I wanna know what it is!”

She sighed. “Fine, I guess. You mind, Miles?”
“Uh, n-no, not at all.” He was nervous about having two cute girls in his room, but... “I-I mean, if you think it'll help, I'll do anything!”
“Heheh..you might not wanna promise that to me~,” Ella said. “No guarantees, but I think it might be worth a shot at least!”

---

“Angus! Hey!” Olivia waved, then ran over, closing the distance with a certain satisfying ease. He'd been sitting on the sidewalk leaning back against a building, and reached up a hand for her to help him up.
“Hey there missy—whoop!” She didn't pull hard enough to hurt him, but he did stumble briefly once he was on his feet.
“Uh, sorry.” She rubbed the back of her head with a hand.
“'Sall right. But you seem awful excited, and it's a bit early for dinner, ain't it? Somethin' new come up?”
“Yeah, it totally did,” she nodded, grinning. “It's uh—you know how I said I'd come to you first if I was in a position to hire someone for something?”
“Sure?” It sounded like he might've forgotten, actually. But what mattered anyway was that she remembered.

“Well, I—uh. Actually, it's way easier if I just show you. You're free, right?”

The homeless old man looked around pointedly. “Seems my schedule's pretty darn clear, yep.”
“H-heheh. Okay, I'll—teleport us. It might be a little bit of a jolt, soo..” The kitsune gently placed a hand on his shoulder, and moved them both to a spot a couple of yards out from the front door of her new house. He stumbled briefly, then looked around, seeming slightly disoriented, before shaking his head and then looking slowly around, getting his bearings again.

“Well, this's a fancier neighborhood than I've been to in a while. What's here that's got you so worked up?”

“It's uh—that house,” she pointed. “Someone. Gave me, that house. No strings attached or anything! C'mon, c'mon!” With her hand still on his shoulder, she sort of tried to lead him up to the door. He took the hint, following her lead.
“No kiddin'? How'd you get so lucky?”
“Well, it's—it was one of the 'vixen society' people, actually. They..kinda heard me complaining about my apartment, and is the kinda person who just has something like this lying around collecting dust. Legally, I 'inherited it from an uncle', even though uh..I don't have any uncles.”

She took out her key and eagerly brought him inside with her, gesturing around at the big antechamber. He gave the view an impressed whistle. “Either this room's the whole place, or it's bigger'n in here than it looks out there.”
“Uh—yeah. It's bigger on the inside, literally,” Olivia said. “Magic stuff.”
He nodded—both of them had seen plenty of 'magic stuff' in the last couple of weeks, after all. “Well, I'm happy for ya and all, but—what's this got to do with a job for me?”

“That's the thing—this place is really big,” the kitsune said, “I mean huge. It needs—someone besides me to take care of it all. Plus some of the magic stuff here needs its own upkeep. But there's a thing, uh..a magic circle upstairs that's supposed to be able to give anyone the know-how to take care of it all. It just needs someone, willing to do the work.”

“That's where I come in, eh? Huh.” While she waited nervously for his response, Angus sort of scratched his head, considering. “I ain't got much experience in housemakin', but if you think this magic'll tell me how, and don't mind dealin' with any gaps it don't fill, that ain't so bad. What's the compensation?”
“Well uh—I can offer room and board for sure,” she said. “And..it's not much, but since I've moved out of my apartment, I can pay what I was doing for rent there.” Olivia's ears sank slightly while she quoted that number. “But uh—once...some of my debts get paid off, I can pay more! I dunno exactly how long that's gonna take, but..probably a few months for the small ones, or...a couple years for the bigger ones...”

She trailed off because Angus had his arms crossed and was giving an inscrutable, serious frown while he seemed to seriously consider his options. “Well now,” he said after waiting a moment. “That don't sound too bad. I've been gettin' worse than 'room and board' for a long while now, and it ain't what I like. And a paycheck like that oughta be a good supplement to my retirement, anyhow. If you'll have me, miss Olivia, I think you've gotchurself a deal,” he nodded.
Her ears sort of popped upright at the use of the word 'deal'. “Oh, r-really? That's great! Um, do you need any time to—uh, or any help moving anything?”

Angus raised his arms, looking at himself briefly, before shrugging. “Nah, I got it all on me already. If you don't mind gettin' me that 'on-the-job trainin'', I could start today.”
“Well—sure! I mean uh...I can't really pay you a sign-on bonus or anything, but I could totally start you off today and have your first paycheck by next Friday?”
“Alright with me.”

Olivia drew herself up and offered him a hand. “I..didn't really draw up a contract or anything, but—if we make a Deal, and shake on it. I'll stick to it. Okay?”
“Works for me.” He took the hand and shook it firmly. “It's how business oughta be conducted anyhow, with an honest handshake and keepin' to your word—I say.”
“H-heheh..I thought you might say something like that.”

“Soo..I'll take you to the uh..magic circle room, then?” She gestured in the direction of the stairs.

“Certainly.”

---

While they were packing up all of Luca's stuff and taking it down to the truck, Vincent came up next to their helper. “Listen—you have anything specific in mind? For how your ears and tail should look?”

“Uh—like how?”
“You want cat parts? Dog? Wildebeest? What?”
“Oh uh..you know, maybe just like you?” Ryker said. “I mean, your ears look pretty amazing, right? Not to mention the fluffy tails! I'm okay with just one-a those, though. But otherwise—yeah, like yours!”

“Hmm.”

She asked him again later. “You have any preferences for color? Length?”
“Well, y'know—I guess the same color as my hair?” he said. “The rest, like I said—like yours is fine!”
“Mine comes with fangs, you know, and a more sensitive nose. You want that too?”
“Oh, yeah, sure, that'd be awesome! Just like yours, dude.”

The same theme came up every single time the kitsune asked her catboy's furless furry friend for details: “Just like yours”. “Just like you”. That was the message that more or less sank into her head, and the more she heard it and really thought about it, the more a rather obvious 'literal genie' style of trick seemed to present itself to her. It was almost like he was begging for it! Especially when he talked about how cute she was and said something like “Yeah like the whole package? Totally!”

She eventually decided...she was going to do it. It was well within the terms of their existing Deal, after all, and...if he didn't like the results, it wasn't any harder for her to undo the prank and leave him with what he really wanted. If Luca or Ryker suspected what she was thinking of, neither of them showed any signs—but then, they were both fairly gullible anyway.

They just needed to finish up the move first. Maybe she'd even treat Ryker to dinner as an apology if the trick made him really mad.

---

and now she claims she was able to 'share' the curse with another of our friends.

turning him into a dog-girl

And also un-share it back again.

I might not believe her, but

checked with him and he said it happened too.

Carter didn't have to wait long for another response from the Society.

Well uh

that definitely isn't something we did.

There wasn't enough of a boost, and you don't have the power on your own for a spreadable curse, either.

sounds to me like your friend had some kind of hidden magical talent!

a little hard to know what kind exactly...

oh, maybe just ask her to install the app?

Yeah, that could work!

What, Carter sent back, you can detect magic through people's phones?

uh, pretty much

I mean it's mostly just detecting potential to be a Kitsune we were interested in

but if this friend of yours can just girl and un-girl someone casually like that

it's probably enough for the app to catch a scent.

Okay...I guess we'll try that, then.