Battle Vixens! - 134

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Episode 134: Vixen Party

Emma decided that she wasn't hungry enough to join the crowd pushing their way into the doors, instead waiting patiently for them to get through and planning to follow them inside afterward. Amory seemed to more or less have the same idea—or, maybe he was just waiting with her. "By the way, um...your dad has my number?" she half-asked him.

"Oh. Yeah—he, wanted it in his phone, in case of 'emergencies'. I guess he decided something was an emergency? Sorry, I guess I could've at least told you about it."
"I-it's fine, I get it. And...he didn't have anything bad to say, anyway," she said with a slight smile. "I shouldn't really be surprised you know him better than I do. Um...

"I'm probably, gonna call some of my family back, after this. Now that they know..."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," he said.
"It's just—would you, mind if I mentioned that we were um..I mean, that you...?"
"Not a bit. It's only fair anyway—since I told dad without even asking you."

"And..if they want to meet you..?"
"No problem at all."
"Okay. Although um.." She fidgeted with her hands a little. "A-april and Bev are both really pretty, so..."

"What, you're not about to suggest I'd fall for one of them over you?"

Emma blushed again. "H-heheh..I just, thought of it as a joke. But, didn't tell it right, I guess."

"Hey, we can go in," he said, pointing, and then hurried to catch the door and hold it open for her.

The restaurant had no single table large enough for even half of them, so instead they'd been given a cluster of tables all close enough to each other that even people sitting as far away as possible could still pretty much hear each other—fox ears or not. Light had more or less just taken a random empty seat, and so had wound up at the same table as Simon, Karis, and the Quinns. Simon had grabbed Cynthia on her way over to where Rowan (now back in human form) and Dawn were sitting, so she was here too. Emma and Amory wound up at one of the tables on the outside edges of the cluster, along with a couple of the city vixens.

Zeno waved to the two of them as they came and sat down. "Gemma! Nice to see you again."
"Um, i-it is?"
"Sure! Listen—you doing okay? I can't imagine spilling my identity unexpectedly like that, but you know..saving a life would be worth it, to me."

"Um, yeah. I guess I feel the same way..I just, kinda. It freaked me out a lot at the time."

"Well, you know—" she leaned back in her seat a little. "The VI's got people, for anything like that. If you need any help or whatever? But I guess you've already got someone to talk to, eh?" she said half-teasingly, gesturing at Amory.
"Y-yeah..." Emma just looked away shyly. Her face wouldn't show it, but...a thought, or maybe a suspicion, occurred to her. It felt like Zeno was deliberately saying that a certain way—a different way—but still badly wanted her to hear it..something which only one other person seemed to badly want her to know about. So was that really a different person, or...maybe it was the same one twice?

Well, she'd just said she didn't want her identity 'spilled'. Emma definitely wasn't about to confront her about it.

Thad was at a table with Warp, Sam, and Ning. "Say, Ning—what went down with you and the bank? I mean, I know you didn't get arrested or formally charged or whatever, but.."

"The VI has some very good lawyers," she said. "The money I stole had already been returned, of course, but there was the tiny little matter of the cost to repair all the damage done in the process. So we worked out a deal—a payment plan, pretty much. The VI's doing a little merchandising with my likeness, and all the proceeds from that pay the bank back with interest until it's all settled—then goes to me after. Think I'll put it in Nadia's college fund. In exchange, they don't press any charges or hassle me or anything. Pretty sweet, right?"

"Yeah, I guess most bank robbers wish they could get off that easy."

"You think that's impressive, how about me?" Warp said with a slightly vicious grin. "Guess dyin' and coming back helps matters, though."

A few waiters went around taking orders, interrupting the bits of chatter going on. Then Nico (who was over at Rowan's table) leaned back and waved. "Heeyy, those of you who are married—how'd you first meet? To get things started, my hubby and I were high school sweethearts~. Passing notes in our freshman classes, wanted to marry alongside graduation—but our parents said 'nope, you're going to different colleges. Pass the distance test, and then we'll see!' But we were among the lucky few who did pass!"

"Ah, yes.." Clark nodded. "Rory and I were in grad school—different subjects, but at the same university. She just, walked up to me one day a complete stranger and said, 'you're cute and you talk cute. Wanna date'?"

"'Talk' cute?" Cynthia questioned.

"He had this adorable British accent back then!" Rory said with a big grin. "You'd hardly know it now—but it does peek through sometimes."

"I pick up what I hear around me, is all. Can't help it," he said with a shrug. "Well, I'd never been on a date before, let alone asked to one, but my friends said yes for me. I suppose I should be grateful to them."

"You'd better!" Rory said, laughing.

"I met my wife overseas, during the war," Sam reported. Her table was a little farther off from Light's table, but close enough to comfortably participate in this conversation.
"Yeah, same," Ning said from right next to her. "Guess it's a generational thing."

"Well, Simon and I met at college too," Karis said. "I was halfway through my math ed major and saw this guy doing sketches at a table outside the cafeteria. I forget exactly what I said, probably something about his work looking good—which, of course, got his attention. And then I mentioned some manga I was reading at the time, and he was like: 'anime is not art!'" She gave this quote in a deep-voiced, mocking tone, practically spitting out the T at the end of the last word.

"So then she picked me up out of my chair and entirely off the ground by the collar of my shirt," Simon continued. "'Say that again, I dare you!' is what I recall. But I'm not much of a fighter—or rather, I wasn't one pre-superpowers—so I suggested that she please put me down, and we could settle the matter like civilized people instead."
"We debated for three entire months," Karis said. "Not—constantly, but we'd meet or run into each other off and on, and always have some new argument or piece of evidence to throw back and forth. Finally he gave up and admitted defeat, and we both announced relief that we'd never see each other again. 'Good riddance!' was your exact words, if I remember."
"Complete with throwing my arms up in the air," he said nodding. Then, after a pause: "We found something new to argue about two days later."

A little later, after drinks and appetizers had come out, Simon leaned forward slightly. "Say, Light—looks to me like you're in a pretty good mood for once!"
"You can tell?"

"I do have a lot of practice reading people. And you certainly seem more relaxed than the other day. Not to mention better than I'd expect from fighting to the point of fainting from exhaustion less than an hour ago."
"Yeah. I guess...I've let go of some stress. I'm gonna try to, do a little better at just accepting people's help from now on."

"Does that mean I can teach Rowan my keyphrase tomorrow?"

She tilted her head slightly. "You want to help that badly?"
"No, don't get me wrong. It's just—from listening to your friend over there," (he gestured to where Magus had been gushing about their recent fight for the last several minutes) "fusion is obviously amazing, and I am missing out on it! But I am willing to offer my support in exchange."

Simon seemed to like to box people's perception of himself in in this way, expressing a personality of "absolute selfishness" at every opportunity..but Light was starting to get the impression that it was just his strange, backwards way of being "humble". "I guess..if you want to do it that badly, it's fine," she said slowly.
"Excellent!" He then turned his attention to telling Cynthia his personal opinion about a bunch of different colleges' art departments..which she seemed a little confused and overwhelmed by, but didn't tell him to stop.

"Hey, boss?"
"Hmm?" Rowan sat up slightly, not even bothering to object to Nico calling him that. It was his own fault if he answered to it, after all.
"You've got a real serious look on your face. Something eatin' ya?"

"Uh..no. Just thinking about what I have to do tomorrow. Wondering if it'll be as bad as today, or worse..."
"Yeesh, I hope not. C'mon, let's not think about that! It'll spoil your supper. Have a fried green tomato!" she insisted, pushing the plate of appetizers at him.
"..Thanks." He'd lied, of course, but there was no way he could say what he was really thinking about.

During the fight earlier, shortly after they had fused...Light had taken an opportunity. She—rather, they together, as Wave—had deliberately thought about something, as a means of communicating it to him in a way nobody else could listen in on. An idea, a terrifying possibility that had occurred to her, and to Clark Quinn. And the Giver herself had confirmed this idea as a real possibility.

Vixens in general were capable of causing a disturbing amount of destruction. On a rainy day like today, Rowan himself could personally cause a localized flood. Ning could cause city-wide power surges, or strike an entire crowd full of people with lightning. Simon could make earthquakes; Rory could probably level buildings if she put her mind to it; Cynthia could turn a city block to ash with some effort. But this...this was on another level entirely: The possibility of nuclear annihilation in just one person's hands.

Light hadn't wanted to tell him about it just to let him know it was possible. She wanted help. It wasn't something she could do by accident. It wasn't necessarily easy; it wasn't even guaranteed to happen if she tried, and of course she never would try 'just to see'. But she wanted there to be someone else, who knew. Who she could trust. Who understood the ramifications, and could help assess whether the situation was serious enough. When was the risk worth it? And so...Wave had agreed/decided upon a term, a codename almost, for this particular use of Light's power, to be used if they ever needed to speak about it again.

"The Last Resort."

Even if tomorrow brought attacks that really were worse than today..it was still hard to imagine things escalating to that level, to where it would truly be necessary. Every other option would have to be exhausted. There would need to be a concerted effort to evacuate everyone in a wide radius to minimize the loss of life. If they did this in the city, there would be no city left afterward. The scar would remain for generations.

He certainly appreciated Light's trust, to want him to help her decide...but ultimately, he also wanted the same thing she did: To never have to think about it again.

---

It was fairly late into the evening. Dr. Brand walked out of his office, seriously considering abusing the powers associated with his mask to reach his car faster, and with less rain absorbed into his clothing. He paused several steps down the hallway, noticing a light still on nearby. It was one of the grunt workers for the research department's part of HR.

Out of a small burst of curiosity—and, certainly, concern for a coworker's health, he came and gently knocked on the door before stepping carefully inside. "Still hard at work?"
"Awwh, yeah," she nodded. "I know it's getting late—just got a bit more paperwork to fill out."
"I'm on my way out myself. You shouldn't stay too much longer." He leaned over the paperwork in question. "Are we hiring someone new?"
"Uh, well—not necessarily, but they like us to be proactive. These are a few potential contracts—different sorts of positions for Gemma," she explained. "Just in case. And—since we now know a legal name, I was asked to fill it in on all these."
Dr. Brand sighed. "I'm no lawyer, but this is almost certainly a breach of ethics. Nevertheless..I suppose this decision wasn't yours in the first place." He was about to turn and leave when the name she was writing on all of those papers caught on something in his brain.

"...Emma Hayes," he read it aloud, slowly.

"Yeah? Same last name as one of our consultants! Wild, right?"
"...Yes," Dr. Brand said slowly.

In the course of his scientific studies, Dr. Brand had gained a pretty good grasp of statistics. He knew, objectively, that with billions of people on Earth, and untold opportunities for them to run into each other in various configurations, well—any one specific coincidence might be unimaginably rare, but some coincidences happening to some people was practically guaranteed. But lately...he found that he didn't like it so much when events started to rhyme. It was just that he was all too aware of who might be the poet.

"How, exactly, did we come to employ Ms. Hayes in the first place?" he asked, trying to put some curiosity into his tone of voice.

She tapped her pen against her own head a couple of times. "Oooh, let me think...right!" she brandished the writing implement up in the air victoriously at remembering. "Frank's secretary—Opal? Biiig into fashion, said she was a huge fan of her designs. Naturally, she went through a much more rigorous screening process and everything, but that's how we first heard of her."

"I see...

"Well, I'll leave you to it. Be especially careful driving in the rain and the dark," he said, turning around to leave.

"Yeah, you too! See you tomorrow, Dr. Brand!"
"Likewise."

---

Simon stood up and waved. "Your attention please, everyone!" Then he sat down again, waving Rowan's way. "Okay, floor is yours."
He stood up slowly. "..Sorry about the interruption. I just thought it would be best to make you all aware—as I imagine many of you haven't been checking your phones much. The Giver made an announcement that there won't be any attacks tomorrow. However," he continued loudly, raising his hands to keep everyone's attention and cut off the start of a few cheers, "the same announcement also says the day after will be 'worse'. We should all, of course, spend some time resting and recovering from today's efforts, but don't forget to prepare for whatever 'worse' means." Then he dropped his arms again and sat down, allowing the people to resume the cheering and then get back to their conversations.

Not too much later, the dinner was over, Simon settled the bill in full, and everyone spilled out the front doors. Amory waved to Thad. "So, I guess you came from the same place I did, since Emma's from there?"
"Sure did. You wanna split passengers?"
"Yeah. I thought I could get Gemma and Light, and..?"
"I'll take Magus? That cool with you?" he asked the girl in the hat.
"Huh?" She seemed much more obviously tired than earlier, making even just following the conversation difficult for her. But she caught up after a second or two. "Oh, yeah—that's fine."

Light gently pushed Emma toward the front seat, taking the back for once. Just out of curiosity, she looked up how No Evil had dealt with the day's last attack. Some distant, blurry footage clearly showed the monster just barely failing to grab Lift before she'd had time to react and jump out of the way. She smiled slightly, feeling like she'd at least made the right decision when it came to that...

She was also reminded of something mildly important. "Oh, right. Braille helped us out this afternoon, and wanted help working out how her power works. We're, pretty sure we figured it out, but.."
"Yeah, if you wouldn't mind visiting her with me tonight?" Amory suggested. "Along with, maybe, the rest of No Evil or something."
"Sure," Emma nodded. "Um...excuse me a minute." She'd already been in the process of digging out her phone.

"Um..hi?"

"Emma, darling!" the woman on the other end said immediately. "Are you alright? Hurt anywhere?" She sounded decidedly mature, with sort of a 'high-class' sounding veneer to her inflection and choice of words.
"N-no no, just..tired. I, I wanted to thank you for the message...and um, also for not making it six messages."

"You really ought to thank Doris for that; it was her idea. You know how she hates to lose credit for any little thing."

"Mm-hm. I'll, call everyone back. It's just...a proceess, you know."
"Certainly! Say—I'll be coming pretty near you tomorrow for some business. This consulting job I've been doing remotely wanted me to look over some things in person. If you have some free time?"

"Yeah, I'd love to!" she said, seeming genuinely happy at the prospect.

"Uh—b-by the way uhm.."
"Yes?"
"It's just. I've recently um. There's." She blushed faintly, seeming to struggle to find the right way to introduce the concept.

"Goodness, dear, you sound positively flustered! Are you trying to say you're actually dating someone?"

"Uh—yes! Kinda, pretty seriously even. I-i-i-if you wanted to, you could maybe..meet him? ImeanIthought, he's like an only child of a single parent, so probably not used to so many people, but just, one at a time, might not be so overwhelming?"
"I would relish the opportunity to meet someone who's won your heart, love. So—let's talk scheduling, then?"
"Uh—sure!"

Omega Zeta Kappa 24: ο

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I've got a plan. Come to the library.

Gene received a simple, two-sentence text midway into his breakfast on Saturday morning. It was from perhaps his best friend, Odin, who'd recently turned into a gorgeous, redheaded succubus. The last time they'd seen each other, she'd been walking off with a couple of other demon-girls—both members of the now-sorority OZK—after making him a sort of promise. It amounted to giving him the best chance possible to get a date with the girl of his dreams.

He had no need to question what the 'plan' mentioned was supposed to accomplish. From the moment he got out his phone and read the text, he scarfed down the rest of his breakfast and booked it to the library, stopping just in front of the front doors completely out of breath. He was about to walk inside, but then thought: 'The library' was a pretty vague description of a location...did she want him to come inside, or meet out here, or...?

One of the library doors opened, the demon-girl on the other side. She was wearing a t-shirt (which was a pretty tight fit for her chest), some very short shorts, and dark leggings up to her thighs. "In here, dummy."
"Oh—hff, okay..." Gene followed her inside.

"Dude, did you sprint all the way here?"

"Yeah, k-kinda...heheh.."
"Well, I guess it's better we do this quick anyway.."

Odin was nice enough to walk at a slow pace, giving Gene plenty of time to catch his breath. They headed up the stairs to the second floor. "So uh...what's your plan, exactly?"
"It's not...that complicated, but...well, you'll see, I guess."
"I'll 'see'?"

Odin sighed, not like she was annoyed at him, but rather something else. "A bunch of other people..decided to involve themselves. So...we're gonna meet with them."

"Okay...?"

She led the rest of the way to where all the private study rooms were, and then to the entrance of a fairly large one near the back. She then knocked on the door, even though Gene was pretty sure they didn't have locks on them or anything. After a moment, a tall wolf-girl with light gray hair opened the door, glancing between the succubus and Gene. "This the guy?"
"Mm-hm."
"Alright..." She moved aside, gesturing for them to come in. Gene hesitated, feeling a little uncertain about just what he was walking into. Odin half-turned around and gave a reassuring expression, like she'd sensed his nerves. He nodded and followed then, trusting her. The wolf-girl shut the door behind them, and he found himself in a fairly crowded room; other than her and Odin, there were seven more strangers.

"Sssoooo." Odin said, and gestured his way. "This is Gene. Gene, meet: Jen," (the wolf-girl) "Myla," (a short catgirl with purple hair) "Tielo and Mars," (both fox-girls, the latter currently staring into her phone), "Vade, Xavie," (both fairly normal-looking girls), "Nikki" (a girl even taller and bustier than Odin, with even longer hair), "and Perri," (another fairly normal-looking one, a redhead).

"That's Xavier!" the slim, white-haired girl introduced as 'Xavie' snapped. "And why did I come so late in your list?"

"It was alphabetical," Odin answered immediately.

"Wh—no it wasn't—!"

"Then be glad it wasn't," she shrugged, and continued over Xavie's confused sputtering while she tried to come up with another complaint. "Anyway—they're all members of OZK." Gene thought: for thinking they were just a bunch of 'weirdos', Odin seemed to have warmed up to them all pretty quickly. "Jen, Myla, and Tielo are part of the council."

Gene looked between those three. "So, like—Rich's friends?"

"Yep!" the catgirl said cheerfully, although Jen seemed to approve of the title a little less.
"Who better to know what she'd find 'interesting', eh?" Tielo said, her grin somehow managing to be adorable, friendly, and vicious all at the same time.

"Llllet's just say everyone here's got a reason to want to mess with her," the wolf-girl said.

"More than one," the huge one...Nikki, right...added.

"More importantly, there's plenty of magic and expertise between the lot of us to figure out something goo~ood," Tielo said, rubbing her hands together.

"So, uh, you all have...some kind of idea for a major makeover? Or, like, something I should do to get her attention?" Gene said uncertainly.

"I guess calling it a 'makeover' isn't entirely inaccurate," Myla said. "To put it simply—Rich likes change, and is fascinated by the unusual."

"She is elated to have witches and demons in our midst," Xavie said.

"Yep!" the catgirl continued. "She was happy enough to see Jen here turning part-wolf, but even more excited once it was confirmed she's an Ookami!"
Gene asked, "Which is...?"
"A rare type of celestial Yokai," Mars said.

He glanced her way, and noticed her eyes were still glued to her phone. "Yeah, that, doesn't help me much."

Odin loudly cleared her throat to stifle all the chatter. "Basically, we want to see whether you have the potential to awaken as some rare kind of 'magic person'. If we can make that happen, it will probably make Rich way more interested in you."

"And if that doesn't work, uhhm, at least you get some neat powers?" Perri said.

"It'll work, trust me," Tielo said. "We just need to find something 'interesting' enough. Which would be...your cue, Vade?"

Vade had been leaning back in a chair this entire time, seemingly asleep. "Huh?" She sat up slightly and looked around like she didn't know why her name had come up in conversation.

"You did say you know a spell to scan for one's potential of awakening, did you not?" Xavie said.
"Oh, right! Yeah. Come over here for me?" she said, gesturing Gene's way. He glanced at Odin, who gestured for him to go ahead, and then complied.

"Is this uh, scan thing, gonna hurt?"
"Huh? No way, it's totally passive. It's just easier if you're closer," she said, still not getting up from the chair. "Aaand if you hold still. 'Kay?"

"Sure..."

Vade lifted her right arm, hand spread open, just high enough to sort of point the palm of that hand his way. Then she mumbled something gibberish-sounding in his general direction, and a faint glow settled around him for a few seconds. As soon as the muttering and glowing stopped, she dropped her hand again. "Hmmm..."

"What'd you see?" he asked.

"Well, I've got good news, and bad news," she started, then after a brief pause continued: "And also more good news that mitigates the bad news." She paused again before continuing: "...Which comes with some news that might be kinda bad depending on—"
"Will you get on with it," Nikki demanded.

"Don't you dare take that tone with her!" Xavie immediately snapped

"Oh, yeah, what're you gonna do about it?"
"Girrlls?" Vade said gently, lazily waving a hand over to lightly touch the closest spot on Xavie—which happened to be her right thigh. Xavie's face flushed red and she looked away to try to hide it; Nikki just crossed her arms and glared quietly.

Turning back to Gene, Vade continued: "Anyway, I guess I'll give it to you in that order since it won't make sense in any other. Sooo, first of all, you've got the potential to awaken as a dragon, which I bet Rich will find more than interesting enough."
"Can confirm," Tielo pitched in. "And setting her up with a dragon is a way better prank than our prospects seemed before!"

Gene wasn't sure how any of this was supposed to be prank, but he wanted the whole story regardless. "Okay, so, the bad news?"

"Right, well—the thing is, awakening as a dragon takes a lot of magic power. I mean like a ton. And...you have so little power of your own that it'd basically all have to come from outside sources. I'm talking an amount that, if I tried to supply, I'd be in a for-real magical-burnout-coma for at least five days straight."

"Wait, is that a thing?" Perri said, before Nikki shushed her.

"But the other good news is, I don't have to supply it myself. I mean—" Vade lightly swept her arms outward, gesturing at the whole room. "We've got two Kitsune, two witches, a stupidly powerful succubus, plus an Ookami, all right here! Which oughta be enough to awaken you without it being too big a drain on any one person."

"Uh, sweet." Gene was already feeling some hype from the idea of becoming a dragon. That sounded so cool! "So—what's the other bad news?"

"Weeelll...it's just a hunch, but basically everyone I just named had their magic recently entangled with Rich's wild-magic-filled, 'make-you-a-girl' potion pretty recently. Especially Odin—whose power we can't do this without—seems to have some of..that built into her very nature. It probably wouldn't be enough to have an effect if it was just a few people channeling the power, or if it wasn't so much power that I can't possibly hope to filter out all impurities on the way to you. But basically, there's a pretty high chance of, uuh, let's say 'contamination' of the awakening with that potion's effects."

"Meaning...Gene would get turned into a chick," Odin clarified.
"That's the possibility," Vade nodded. "And if that does happen, well, dragons have such ridiculously high resistance to magic that it'd be pretty difficult for anything external to turn 'her' back into a guy. Sooo..you'd probably be stuck female until you're good enough at being a dragon to determine your own form."

"Is that a thing?" Perri asked again.

"Sufficiently powerful beings of all kinds can essentially alter their forms on a whim," Mars said (still not looking up from whatever she was doing on her phone). "And fully-fledged dragons are inherently, collossally powerful."

"So I'd get to be a dragon—but a girl dragon," Gene concluded, and Vade nodded slightly. "Is uh...I mean.." Since Tielo seemed to be the expert on the matter, he turned her way. "You think Rich would still be, 'interested', then?"
"Oh, absolutely. If anything, I think she'd be delighted if you—as a dragon—were able to join OZK."

"You shouldn't feel like you have to go with that option," Odin pointed out. "That wasn't the only potential you detected, was it?" she asked Vade
"No—just the one that stood out as the strongest," Vade said. "Lower-cost options include..let's see, a tanuki? Dryad? Demon like your friend there? If we just pump some undirected magic in you, you'd probably randomly awaken as something, anyway."

"All of which would leave him male—or at least easier to turn back to male," the succubus said.
"Right!"

"Dude, are you kidding?" Gene said, turning Odin's way. "I could be a dragon. Like, a flying, fire-breathing, super-strong, collossally powerful, immortal dragon!" he excitedly gestured to illustrate each descriptor as he spoke it. "That's awesome!"

"I just..don't want you to feel like you have to," Odin said. "If you like the idea that much, though, we can go for it. I'll help you as much as I can."

He grinned big. "Thanks, man."

"So—if everyone's okay with this—what exactly do we do to supply the magic?" Odin asked Vade.

"Oh, you can just channel it my way. I know a spell to 'accept' magic, and all you should need to do when I'm casting it is focus your attention in my direction and 'want' to donate some of your own power," Vade explained.

"And...is everyone on board?" The succubus looked around; a chorus of various words of assent replied.

"Okay then~!" Vade hopped onto her feet.
"You seem unusually energetic all of a sudden," Xavie observed.

"I'm excited. This is exciting! I've never directly awakened someone before, much less into a dragon!"

"Waaiiit," Odin said as soon as she heard this. "What're the chances something goes wrong?"
"Mmh, pretty low. I've spent years learning good control over my own overpowered magic," Vade said. "Anyway, if it failed, it'd just drain us all a little in exactly the same way but awaken him as something else—not like, cause a dangerous explosion or anything."

The succubus crossed her arms. "And I guess, we'll just have to trust you on that.."
"She is the closest thing present to an expert," Tielo pointed out. "Mars has no doubts about this—do you?"

"Nope."

"See?"

"I don't see why her opinion matters so much," Odin said.

"C'mon, let's go for it!" Gene said, getting a little caught up in the excitement himself.
She sighed, "Okay, okay..."

"Ah, right—I'm still maintaining my soundproofing spell for the room," Vade said. "So nobody panic if the magic gets kinda loud. Now let's get started..!"

Vade spread out her arms to her sides, the hands palm-up, and softly chanted some more gibberish. After a moment, the room somehow seemed to dim slightly, as if the light bulbs were getting less power. Gene looked around the room, watching as some faint trails of light spiraled in from the various magic-wielding girls in the room toward the space just above each of her hands, each one in its own color and texture. Nikki's was a brilliant pink, Jen's a pure white, Xavie's 'light' somehow more like a black shadow. The two fox-girls and Myla had magic about the same color as their respective hair, and a very faint, translucent thread of bright red light came from Perri. Odin's magic was a deep purple, thick stream of light that seemed larger, brighter, and more solid than anyone else's; it came to Vade's left hand, and she seemed to need to focus carefully to send some of it along to her right, as though to keep the two in balance.

Before long, all of the various magic was floating above her hands as two brightly-glowing orbs of wispy light, the various colors swirling around chaotically through them. The mage brought her arms slowly forward until they touched, cupping both hands together and combining the two orbs into one. The swirling colors in them faded and slowed their motion somewhat as she continued chanting, her expression one of intense concentration. Finally—and, to be honest with himself, this part made Gene pretty nervous—the giant orb of magic-light-stuff was gently, slowly floated over to him, and into him. He felt a paradoxical mixture of deep, calming warmth and highly-energetic excitement all at once, spreading from the point it first contacted his body outward and growing rapidly stronger as he absorbed the entire thing. Finally, the magical light-show seemed to be over, and the room's light bulbs resumed their usual function.

Vade took a slow breath in and out, looking slightly winded. A brief glance around found most of the others looking like that had taken something out of them too—but only a little bit. However, aside from that giddy, warming feeling persisting, Gene didn't feel very different. He certainly didn't feel like a dragon yet. "Did it uh..work?"

"Oh, yes, perfectly," Vade said, nodding with a small smile. She stepped backwards and flopped back down into her chair before continuing: "Couldn't have gone better! You'll need a few seconds to properly absorb that much magic, is all."
"Not to spoil the mood or anything, but that was super, like, dark and quiet, rather than loud," Perri pointed out.

"Eh. You never know with partially-wild magic," Vade said.

Gene found this conversation a little hard to focus on. The warm/excited feeling from the big ball of magic entering him was continuing to get stronger, advancing from warmth to a sense more like actual, fiery heat. It continued to be bizarre, however, in that he thought it should be hot enough to burn or hurt or something, but instead it only felt all the more comforting. He shuddered slightly, gasping in a breath and letting it out again, and felt that increasingly intense heat in the very air crossing past his lips.

"O-oh, d-dude..!" The heat now running throughout his body seemed to spread out again to his skin, flickering all across it as a sharp, tingling sensation. Gene gasped and breathed out again, and felt the air come out even hotter. The tingling faded from all but his scalp and between his legs, and his hair suddenly erupted outward, bright golden tresses falling across his forehead, cheeks, and shoulders, before finally trailing all the way down his back to the tops of his legs.

"Aa~ah, haa~ah..hff, ffh..!" His voice audibly shifted, its pitch rising, as he felt the warmth sort of..melting him, making his body pull itself smaller and slimmer. His belly sucked in until it was flat, his shoulders narrowed, and his arms and legs slimmed down. The tingling between his legs grew steadily stronger, and on top of the intense heat pouring through him, his cheeks felt even warmer with a blush. All of this definitely meant..!

"Aa~ah,, hff...rr~rrgh.!" A sort of growl came out as Gene felt a strange push from the corners of his head, something quickly shoving its way out past his hair on each side. He couldn't quite..feel whatever had just grown out, aside from the bases of them on his head and their weight. Horns! "Rr, rr~rraaAA~AAah...!" Despite the growling coming out about as low as his voice could, it sounded like a young boy's. This time he felt something shove its way out from his back, ripping through his shirt and stretching out to his left—then an identical feeling from around the same place pushing out to the right. Wings!

"Mm~mnh, aah—aa~ah—..!" The tingling between Gene's legs had progressed into a tugging, slipping sensation at some point. So, he was really..becoming a girl...! He'd expected this to be a cost for awakening as a dragon, to feel at least a little disappointed he hadn't lucked out and stayed male despite Vade's warning...but it felt so good, and so right..!

Gene inhaled again, and let it out. This time it wasn't just hot air that came out, but a burst of brightly visible, burning fire! At the same time, he felt a push from his lower back, around the base of his spine, and the thing pushing out from there rapidly spread itself out longer and thicker, waving around through the air behind him excitedly as he felt his manhood shrinking smaller and smaller...a tail!

"Mmnn~nnnnghh...!" Finally, Gene felt it happening. His manhood melted away, just as the rest of his body's masculinity had. "Aah, aa~aaaAAAaah...!" A cute, high voice came from her lips as she felt her first taste of girlish pleasure spreading through, bringing with it a gentle push to her hips and thighs as she began to grow a woman's curves.

"Rrr~rr~RRRRRHhh..!" Another low growl came out, her high voice audibly deepening and maturing a little bit throughout. She could feel the warmth pulsing out of her body, fire flickering its way all across her half-torn, ill-fitting clothing. Most of it simply burned to ash; some was instead refined by the flames, reforging into something new. "Mm~mmn~nh...! H-heheheh..!" At the same time, her chest pushed its way out, growing steadily bigger and bigger, and bringing with it some more bursts of feminine pleasure.

"Aah, aa~aAA~AAh...!" One last push came to the new girl's chest, increasing her bust size from modest to generous. It was accompanied by one last burst of fuzzy feelings between her legs, bringing all that anticipation and enjoyment down there to a satisfying conclusion. Finally, she breathed in one last time, and let out a deep, monstrous roar—accompanied by another jet of flame from her lips, no less!

"Haa~aah...hff, ffh...heheh...!" After a brief, satisfied squeak, Gene started trying to catch her breath...but she couldn't keep from giggling! She felt so giddy, strong, powerful, and above all—hot! She'd never felt so good in her entire life! Even if she was now only wearing a mostly-unzipped tracksuit top, a pair of tiny panties, and a pair of socks!

"Well..it looks like it worked, anyway," Odin was saying.
"Unless she just looks like a dragon or something," Nikki suggested.
"Are you serious? She just literally. Breathed. Fire!" Perri objected, waving her arms excitedly.

"I've never actually met a dragon before, but that's definitely a unique aura," Tielo added.
Vade (who had leaned back in the chair enough for her head to be facing the ceiling) added: "It definitely worked, trust me."

And Jen, finally, asked: "Is no one gonna say anything about her clothes?"

Just about when she'd come close to catching her breath, Gene snorted slightly and started giggling again. "Haa~aAAAHAHAH...!" Now that she was paying a little more attention...these girls were hilarious! They were like an inadvertent improv comedy troupe or something! Was it always like this around OZK? Maybe they were more fun than she thought.

Odin came up and gently placed a hand on her shoulder as she came out of the laughing fit. "So..not that I need to ask, but how do you feel?"
"A-maaaz-ing~! Heheh..!" Gene hadn't gotten much shorter, it seemed, but that still left Odin the taller of the two of them. She impulsively hopped up to give her friend a tight hug, in the process becoming aware of a lot of newfound strength and—thankfully—also the capacity to control it and keep her arms' grip around the succubus to a not-spine-crushing level. "Thanks so much, dude!" Admittedly, there was also the awareness of her impressive bust, and how it felt squishing against the other girl's own.
"Uh..y-yeah.." Odin returned the hug only gently and briefly before insistently setting her back down. "Could you zip that thing up, please?" she said, blushing.

"Oh, yeah—heheh!" While she did, she twisted around a bit to face the rest of the room's occupants. "All of you, too~! Thanks sooo much! Anyone else want a dragon hug!?" she asked, spreading her arms (and wings) out wide.

"Uh, no thanks," Nikki said first, and several other rejections followed.
"Awwh, too bad."

"Anyway," Odin said, asserting herself over the conversation for the moment. "This 'study group' only had this room booked for thirty out of the about-fifty minutes we've been here so far, and I know better than to keep this highly volatile mixture of people all in the same room for very long, so—we all need to get outta here. I guess you'll all find out how this 'prank' went soon enough, one way or the other. First—you need some clothes that fit," she concluded, gesturing Gene's way.

"Ohh, yeah..I didn't think about that," she said, an index finger coming up to tap her face just below her lips.

"Me either!" Perri interjected.

"Well, at least shopping should be fun!" Gene said, grinning again.

"Really?" The succubus seemed fairly surprised by this declaration. It was true that clothes shopping—or shopping in general, really—had never been a pastime of Gene's before.
"I mean, I'm looking forward to people reacting to the wings and stuff," she clarified. "Like, the looks on people's faces oughta be priceless, riiight?"
"Oh..sure, I guess. Come on, then."

Miraculously, Gene's wallet, phone, keys, and other effects had survived the blazing fire of her transformation, instead somehow moving themselves from the pockets of his pants to those of her new top. It was already going to be awkward enough to explain to her family how she'd become a dragon and a girl, so not having to add that her phone was now a small pile of ash was a relief.

It also meant she didn't have to beg Odin or anyone else to spot her some cash for the 'starter set' of girl clothes. The succubus evidently had it on good authority that—if and when she joined OZK—Rich would definitely be willing to help buy some more. Never mind that—if their plan really worked, then that red-eyed beauty would be begging to buy her all kinds of stuff as gifts! The idea of a rich person lavishing her with treasures made the new dragon even happier than it would have before, for some reason.

She let Odin lead the way on which shops to try first, as she'd already been through needing some outfits for a female body. It only occurred to her while browsing the shelves that her more unique traits were by far the bigger problem here—clothes that fit someone with a tail weren't that hard to find, but tops that wings could go through were an even bigger concern. Odin, however, had also dealt with that issue herself, and gently pointed Gene the right way. That had probably informed her choice of store, come to think of it. And she even had a few tips to share on getting a top past one's horns without poking holes in it. The dragon-girl was grateful yet again to have such a great friend!

Not needing to spend as much time finding clothes that she could wear gave Gene the opportunity to try and strategize. She wanted some comfortable clothes, sure, but also some outfits that showed off her figure or just looked sufficiently cute. When it was time to go talk to Rich, she wanted the best chance possible, and...even if she'd sworn up and down that she didn't care about appearances, Gene knew that everyone did care at least a little. Every little bit helped. That also meant she needed to come up with the best..way to approach this whole thing. Would she ask to join OZK, find excuses to hang out with their illustrious leader, and then ask her out? Try to forge a friendship somehow first, then join, then ask? Or...

Ultimately, she received inspiration for definitely the best plan from a very unexpected source. She was almost finished picking out and trying on outfits, asking Odin how the latest getup looked. And then...

"What do you think?" she asked, twirling around to show off a short skirt and camisole she was trying on. This top was great—its back was low enough to accommodate her wings without any special alterations needed.
"It looks good, I guess. And..it's getting looks, definitely."

"Perfect! Maybe I'll just wear this out, then."
"You're not gonna, wash it or anything?"

"I mean, I'm already wearing it, so if the problem was other people trying it on first..."
"It might shrink in the wash, though."

"Hmm, yeah. It'd just a be a little tighter then, right? Good."

Odin sighed slightly. "You are entirely too happy about this. But, do what you want."

While they waited in line to check out, something else occurred to her. "Oh, yeah! I was also thinking...Gerar, maybe?"
"Uh, what?"
"Like—as a 'dragon name'! Doesn't that sound cooler? Like—Ge-rawr, heheh!"

"Do you need to change your name?"
She shrugged. "No, but dragons do usually have fancier names, right? You can keep calling me Gene if you wanna. But, maybe I can try it as a nickname? I'm just thinking of introducing myself as a 'new' person to Rich rather than someone she's met before."
"Deceiving someone isn't really a good way to start out...anyway, you don't think she'd know within a couple of hours?"
"I don't have to lie, I can just—not mention it at first! And letting her figure it out would be part of the fun."

"You know what—from what I've heard, maybe Rich is crazy enough to think that way too."

Finally, they came to the cashier, and Gene paid. The moment of inspiration came as they were walking out. Odin said, "I think that should be everything you need, and enough outfits to manage. It's not like you can't put on your old shirts, too..."

The succubus trailed off as someone came running up to them: A brown-haired catgirl on the tall and curvy side, wearing a fairly loose shirt with the hem hanging far enough down to make the question of if she was wearing shorts undecidable. Her legs were bare from the mid-thighs down, anyway. It looked like she'd just started sprinting as soon as she saw them, and even though she seemed pretty fit, she needed a second to catch her breath. "Hff, hff, hi! Uh..!"
"Yes?" Odin asked, as she was clearly addressing her.

"I'm, York! Yes, right. And—we, kinda met before! Briefly," she said haltingly. "I was...shorter, then."

The succubus crossed her arms. "Uh-huh..?"

"I didn't really get a chance to say anything, at the time. And I just, um.." Her face flushed bright red, her tail flicking around excitedly behind her, as she seemed to have a hard time finding her words. Odin waited patiently for a few seconds while she put it together.

"You're—uh—the most beautiful girl I've ever seen! That's it," she said finally.
"Oh...yeah?" Odin's face maintained a neutral expression, but her cheeks reddened slightly. Gene had the distinct impression she enjoyed the compliment.
"And—will you, uh, do you want to..go, somewhere? For lunch? Or supper? Oorrrr.." The catgirl appeared be struggling to come up with the name for a fourth meal of the day.

Odin just shrugged. "Sure."

York's ears popped completely upright in surprise. "Oh! R-really!? I mean uh.

"S-sorry, it's just, I've asked a lot of people out before, and no one's ever just said yes right away before."

"Well, I've had girls asking me out since puberty and usually say no. So—I guess this is new for both of us," Odin said. "I recently...became a succubus, so it's...harder than it used to be, but you're the first one to ask since then too. So I guess you just got lucky."
"Oh! H-heheh.." York giggled nervously. "Um!" she then finally seemed to notice that Gene was present—or at least that the dragon-girl had been with Odin rather than just randomly standing nearby. "Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you," she said. "Are you—"
"Friends, yep! I'm Gerar," she introduced herself with a big grin. "We were just finishing up some shopping, is all~."
"Yeah. You can take care of yourself from here, right?" the demon-girl asked.

"Uh-huh. You go have fun!"
Odin's blush, which hadn't left since York's compliment, got slightly deeper. "Y-yeah...good luck with your thing."

She then walked off with the catgirl, starting to discuss where they were going to go and who would be paying. Gene—or maybe Gerar—silently thanked the catgirl for helping her decide what to do. After all, even though York had obviously been very nervous, and in fact expecting to be rejected, she'd been bold and come right out and asked anyway! And it had worked, even with someone as usually-unwilling as Odin. And that was it, just the inspiration the dragon-girl needed! She was a big, powerful, fire-breathing dragon now, after all, not some kind of subtle trickster fox or shy feline or whatever. So why waste any time doing anything but the most straightforward method possible? Anyway, that had nearly worked the first time—with Rich being surprised-slash-impressed at his boldness, and only rejecting him as 'not interesting enough'. She was definitely 'interesting enough' now, right? So it was straight back to the OZK dorm for her!

...After she put away the stuff she'd just bought, that was.

Her luck was positively unbelievable. There was no need to enter the "demon's lair" so-to-speak like last time; no sooner had the dragon-girl come within a few yards of OZK's front door than it opened up and her target walked right outside through it! So, steeling her nerves, she immediately raised her right arm, waved, and called out: "Heey cutie~!"

Rich seemed to look around briefly to try to figure out if there was someone else she was yelling at before turning back toward her and asking, at just a high enough volume to be heard at the distance between them: "'Cutie'? Are you, perhaps, referring to me?"

"Well duh," Gerar said, taking a couple of steps the other girl's way. "I mean, there's no one else around here as cute as you are, right?"

Rich took a moment to walk closer, to within proper conversational distance. The dragon-girl could now properly make ot an intrigued expression on her face..tinged with a faint but definitely present blush! Perfect. "Do you...know who you're speaking to?" she asked.

"Sure! Richard Tanner, right? Rich for short? Wealthy boss of the OZK?"

"Well—I wouldn't say 'boss' exactly, but..." she trailed off, taking one small step closer and leaning up slightly to more closely examine her. "Excuse me, but—are you an actual dragon?"

"Yep!" Gerar decided to turn her head off to the right and let out a puff of flame as proof. "Fire breath and everything!"

"Strange." Rich put an index finger up to her left cheek and tapped it periodically, a fairly adorable 'puzzling it out' kind of expression. "I wasn't aware of any dragons anywhere near our campus, and I'm usually pretty well-informed about that sort of thing."

"Well, then I guess there wasn't one, before today! I just 'awoke' or whatever this morning!" Gerar declared.

"I see..." Rich nodded, dropping her arm back to her side. "And, are you aware of your..needs as a dragon?"

That was a weird thing to bring up. The dragon-girl tilted her head slightly, trying to make sense of the question. "What, you mean like: Food, water, shelter—?"

"A pile of wealth to sleep on?" Rich interrupted her question with another one.

"A pile of what!?"

"Wealth...? You know. Gold, silver, jewels, enchanted artifacts?" This list sounded strangely attractive to Gerar..and hearing Rich say it even made her seem a little more appealing as well.

Gerar needed a second to get her head out of that line of thinking, and say: "I uh, wasn't aware that was a thing a person could need."

"Well, every dragon instinctively wants a hoard. Without one, they tend to get terribly restless, and may turn to stealing whatever catches their eye—or worse, taking it by force."

At this point—despite how much she enjoyed Rich's attention and seeming concern for her—the dragon-girl had the mild suspicion that she might be getting taken for a ride. The idea of someone needing a bunch of physical, material wealth just to sleep was utterly absurd. Yet Rich seemed absolutely serious, even if she was trying to manuever Gerar into something. So, she tried a fairly neutral response: "Wow, that uh..sucks?"

Rich smiled like she was getting what she wanted anyway. "Oh, but don't worry too much." It was a distractingly cute smile, though. "I wouldn't bring up a problem like that if I had no solution in mind." Maybe giving her what she wanted wasn't so bad? "I'd happily lend you a few treasures myself, just until you're established enough to properly build up a hoard of your own." Okay, that offer brought her focus back to the conversation! "Although—I don't imagine your present accommodations adequate to fit that all safely into. We've plenty of room in the OZK house, however—if you'd be willing to join?"

Oh..of course. Myla had said something before about Rich liking 'change' and 'the unusual'; the way that bit of conversation had gone made it almost sound like she wanted a 'collection' of unique individuals in OZK. She must have thought she had Gerar on the hook by now, but the dragon-girl had been planning to join all along..meaning it was Rich on her hook! But better to let her keep thinking otherwise.

She put her index finger back up to just under her lips again. "Hmm, yeah, maybe—since you're already being so generous and all." And then leaned in slightly, grinning and feeling her tail flick around excitedly behind her. Rich was a little bit shorter than her...just about the perfect height difference, it felt like! They could look in each other's faces easily, but...eventually, perhaps...it'd be easy to pick her up completely off her feet into a hug, too! "You wanna discuss it over lunch or something? I mean, I wanted your attention in the first place so I could ask you out!"

Rich seemed as surprised by this as she had the first time Gene had asked her out. "Me...really?"

"Yeah you!" the dragon-girl said, standing up straight again to wave both her arms at Rich. "Sooo, whaddaya say, cutie~?"

"Well...all right, then." Rich's faint blush from before came back. And was joined by that smile...! The combination of those two was just perfect! "Lead the way, miss..?"

"Oh, yeah—the name's Gerar! Nice to meet you, Rich!" she said, excitedly taking a small step forward, thinking of making some sort of physical contact—but she restrained herself to just placing her hand on the shorter girl's shoulder for a second.

Rich's blush got just a little bit brighter as she looked up in the bigger girl's face. "Err..likewise. Shall we...?" she gestured lightly in no particular direction, and Gerar let go of her shoulder in order to actually lead the way.

"Yeah, sure!"

The dragon-girl had a strong craving for meat, and was pretty sure she could get Rich to cover the cost, so she led the way toward the nearest steak-place at a medium-fast pace. Rich didn't necessarily look athletic, but she kept up quite easily without any sign of losing her breath.

After a little bit of quiet walking, Gerar said: "You knooow, you seemed weirdly surprised to be asked out at all."
"I am. You'll be...only the second one to ever do so, by my count."

"Really? I'd think someone as pretty and wealthy as you would've had suitors knocking down your door all week! Not to mention girls flirting at you before then."

Rich shrugged. "And yet it's true.

"I believe my usual demeanor, and the steps I've taken to achieve my goals, have earned me a somewhat strange reputation. People are often intimidated before even meeting me. I have—'followers', I suppose, aplenty, but precious few friends who don't feel the need to keep me at arm's length. I don't really regret this—rather, I tend to lean into that reputation quite often. People's reactions are often just too funny...and it has its uses besides."

"Huh. So—with just the downside that people don't wanna date you."

"Even that, is perhaps not such a downside. I would hope it filters out the cowardly, and anyone who isn't serious. I don't want my time wasted by such people in the first place. However...that apsect has only occurred to me quite recently. Until two days ago, I hadn't really imagined myself as the potential object of anyone's affections."

"Awwh, that's kinda sad, isn't it?"
"I can..see how it may sound that way. It's just that romance has never been a specific goal of mine."

"...Wait, is that why you did the whole 'let's be girls in a sorority' thing?! So you'd at least be surrounded by cute girls?"

Rich shook her head emphatically.

"Again—none of what I just said crossed my mind before Thursday. And I assure you my motivation wasn't nearly so shallow as that—though I will admit it's a fringe benefit."

"Well, at least you admit to that much. It'd be criminal not to even notice how many beauties are living in the same building as you right now.

"—Hey, we're here! Is this place good with you? And can you uh, get the check?"
Rich nodded. "Easily."

They went through the motions of getting a table and ordering before resuming conversation.

"So—why was it you wanted to do this whole thing in the first place? Something that big doesn't come outta nowhere at all, does it?"

"But of course not. First, it was perhaps my idea, but not my decision alone; it couldn't have been. The council, and some of the other members, were properly 'in on' this decision long before it was made. My—I should say, our goals—included instigating an unavoidably conspicuous prank on a large number of people and institutions, including the school—from top to bottom: Administrators, professors, students and their parents, and even many of our own members. What better way to shake people out of a complacent state than turning such a basic part of their world upside-down?" Rich grinned; there was a strange mixture of cuteness and confidence to it that Gerar rather liked. "Also some of us, including myself, also genuinely wanted to find out whether it's more fun on the other side of the fence."

"So—how're you liking that part so far? Uh, full disclosure, I'm in the same kinda 'boat' since my awakening included, y'know..this?" the dragon-girl said, gesturing at her own bosom as a shorthand for 'being a girl now'.
"I think results have been quite positive for most people...many more than I would've anticipated, really. I'm certainly not unhappy myself, as of yet. And yourself?"
"I like it, heheh. Although it's been less than a day so far, and there's some stuff I'm totally not looking forward to."

"Likewise. So, aside from those motives...well, I do have one personal reason the other council members probably don't share. Perhaps, I should say a little more about myself to help explain it.

"My parents, adoptive, are both Mammon—greed demons. Like many of their kind, they worship Ouroboros. Well—it's more of a philosophy, really, largely about the proper way to handle wealth. Ouroboros was a dragon like yourself, but he gathered power over a multitude of years and ascended to godhood as a result. In an effort to prevent his instincts from causing him to harm the world, he declared the entire world to be his hoard to protect. So anything that will harm the world he sees as theft from that hoard, and whatever will profit the whole world adds to it—thus aligning his instincts with his true motivations. Those who 'worship' him take up the same thought: 'the world is our treasury to enrich.'
"Under that lens, keeping vast amounts of capital tied up doing nothing is worse than destroying it. Better to spend, invest, or even give it away if necessary—though not randomly, but intelligently, with the goal of always generating more. 'Generosity is the best form of greed' is a slogan I grew up with. I don't necessarily love the old dragon myself, but I've seen how practical their way of handling money is, and do wish to do my best to imitate it."

Gerar listened intently, leaning slightly forward and feeling her tail move back and forth behind her. Was Ouroboros able to just, decide what his hoard was because he was super-powerful? Because he was a god? Or was that something any dragon could do, to some extent? Rich probably didn't know the answer, but it would be easy enough for her to test the waters...

She continued: "However, I really consider myself a follower of Azoth instead. Not that she really solicits or benefits from 'worship' as such either, but I have come to love her primary aspects, and admire their effects on our world ever since her ascension. In a stagnant life, one can be unhappy and not even know it. Forcing a little bit of—relatively harmless—change on people, at least gives them a new perspective to think about the world and themselves from. Even if you do decide to change back, you don't forget where and what you've been. And there's quite a gain of empathy when people really are put into each other's shoes. So—I wanted to experience a taste of that myself, and gift it to those I'm most fond of. And I'm more than happy to see it splashing out to people I didn't know before as well, such as yourself."

"Oh?" Gerar sat up slightly, putting on a somewhat coy expression. "What makes you think my awakening is related?"
"I'm not especially talented with magic, but I've learned a few basic spells, and some passive sensing. It takes a vast amount of power for someone to awaken as a dragon—enough that I should have noticed it if someone on campus possessed that much naturally. And I've gotten to know the 'scent' of Vade's power quite well, so I can tell she was involved."

"That's so neat! Is power sensing a thing you can teach someone?"
"Perhaps. I'm no expert, but it should be far easier for a dragon to do in the first place."

"And...when you were talking about your personal goals before. You sound way more together than me, or most people I know, really," the dragon-girl said. "Like you had your whole life mapped out before graduating high school. I know like, one person like that besides you." (Which was to say: Odin.) "So what is the big plan, anyway?"

"Well...most of my fellow members of OZK are well aware that I'm taking an art major, but far fewer know that I'm actually double majoring in business."
Gerar tilted her head slightly. "'Cause you wanna, sell your art?"
She shrugged. "Not really; I'd be happy giving mine away. But I do want to help others sell theirs. That is why I joined our sorority, and cultivated its membership in the way that I have. I already have plenty of connections with wealthy potential buyers through my parents, and wanted to get to know a number of talented, promising artists of all sorts. Not only painters, mind you—but also writers, musicians, actors, game developers—and it doesn't hurt to get to know people my age whose careers are likely to be lucrative as well. I'll help them sell, publish, or otherwise practice their craft as a living, taking a modest fee as a broker, publisher, advisor, agent—whatever you'd like to call it depending on the art form. I believe there's also a rapidly-building demand for enchanted items, which those talented with magic could produce. My parents and elder siblings are well aware of my plans, and have given me free access to a large amount of funds to invest in those connections now, with the hope that I will return that investment many-fold in the future."

"Hey, I got to meet some of the other OZK girls alongside Vade, and they seem like a ton of fun to be around. And just hilarious sometimes, riiight?"
"Oh, absolutely." Rich grinned again. "Yet another fringe benefit."

"But I gotta admit, I'm not really any of those things you sound like you're looking for in members. I'm just kindaaa, taking a math major 'cause it's what I'm good at. You still want me in?"

"I'm interested in you for other reasons." Rich put another smile, this one a bit gentler. "It's really almost enough on its own that you're the first person willing to ask me on a date, but another entirely that you're a dragon. I...wouldn't put it this way myself, but I have been accused of having a 'fetish' for the unique. I'd be excited to get to know a dragon—at least at first—if she were otherwise the laziest, most useless person imaginable."

Gerar picked up on one out-of-place word in all of that. "Hmmn, 'first'? I thought you said I was the second earlier."

"But you are the same person as 'Gene', aren't you?" she said, setting her right hand on the table to gently point its index finger across.

"Guilty as charged~! Heheh, I thought it'd be fun to make you guess, is all."
"An interesting puzzle, at least. But, I'm more impressed by your willingness to actually change so much, and risk irreversibly taking on some unpleasant new state, just to get this far with me."

"Well—" the dragon-girl could feel her own face heating up with a blush at this point. "I decided after our first meeting that it was worth it. You seemed really, just powerful and in control of things, and that made you even hotter in my eyes. Being rich and generous doesn't hurt, either."

"I've been told that dragons genuinely find wealthy people more attractive. Maybe that was your potential showing through." She shrugged. "Or it could be that the cause and effect are the other way around—perhaps you had potential to awaken as a dragon because you find wealth attractive?"

"If that's it, I have you to thank, and a lot to thank you for! Man, being a dragon is awesome!"

"Well, I'm glad you enjoy it..."

Once their food arrived, Gerar needed a lot more restraint than expected to not just pick up the entire steak, put part of it in her mouth, and tear it off with her teeth. She'd ordered it medium rare on something of a whim, instead of her usual medium well, and now felt like she'd have actually liked it better even less cooked. She also didn't feel as interested in the sides as usual (apart from the bacon in the potato), and wound up eating the entire huge slab of meat—not a typical feat for 'Gene'! All of this was probably more 'dragon stuff' she hadn't known about beforehand, but it didn't worry her too much.

After Rich paid, they went out into the parking lot. "I had a great time! Thanks again~," the dragon-girl said, stopping her walk to turn Rich's way, taking a last couple of steps mid-turn to wind up fairly close to the red-eyed girl.

"You're quite welcome. I..admit, I felt much freer than usual to share my inner thoughts. Especially with someone I've barely met before..." She trailed off at this point, noticing how close Gerar was standing. Her face reddened a bit. "..Yes?"

Gerar gave back a blush of her own, alongside hopeful grin. "Can weee...hug?"

"Oh. I.....don't see why not."
"Okay, hehehe~!"

She spred her arms wide and then picked up the shorter girl in her arms in a big, close bear hug, leaning her head over Rich's shoulders. The feeling of their chests pressing together was pretty nice, as well as feeling the red-eyed girl's hearbeat steadily pick up as she drew her arms slowly around Gerar, then leaned her head down onto her shoulder, finally returning the gesture in full. They stayed that way for a good minute or so before Rich started trying to let go, and—not really wanting it to end, but wanting to force things even less, the dragon-girl gently set her down again. Rich's face was adorably flushed from all that, and there was also a slight smile.

"That was wonderful...I feel like I'm beginning to understand what the others like so much."
"Heheh...well, I'm open to give you another anytime!" Gerar said. "It was pretty great on my end, too~." She'd made her decision by this point.

"If you don't mind..perhaps we could make our way back to OZK to get your membership sorted? There are some..formalities that need to be observed, such as getting the council's majority approval." Rich didn't know it yet, and she'd wait for the right time to tell her, but...
"Yeah, sure! I'm not busy." Gerar grabbed Rich's right hand in her left and started back the way they came. A blush that had just started to fade came back even stronger, its shade nearly matching her eyes, but she didn't actually object.

What use did a modern-day dragon have for a bunch of solid gold and jewels anyway? If Gerar had to have a hoard with her to sleep, then...a soft, cute girl—or even a handsome boy—who could buy her whatever she wanted? Someone she liked, who liked her back? That was the right thing for her! So she'd decided: One way or another, she was going to make Rich her hoard! She quietly giggled a little bit at the pun after actually thinking that.

---

Here we are, the final proper part of OZK! I do have an epilogue planned and largely written, consisting of a number of short snippets of how things go after these events; mostly I'm just uncertain whether I want to add a couple more. But I'm very happy with this as a finale, with how it involves a lot of "old" characters, coming full circle in a couple of ways, and also finally involving a dragon. I've had this image in mind for this story since it first began, and finally fully decided what to do with it around when Gene was first introduced.

I think this is now the longest story I've ever properly "finished", the epilogue notwithstanding. I know I've had plenty of fun writing it, so I hope if you've read this much of it that you've enjoyed it too. These characters, and OZK as an organization, aren't necessarily gone for good, anyway; there are plenty of opportunities for them to show up in captions or other stories.