The Next Chapter: 3

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 3: What'll We Wear?

Once her wolfish ears had heard Jay's footsteps fade into the distance out in the hallway, Ed quickly yanked the shirt she'd woken up in off of herself and pulled on one of her t-shirts. Since it was designed to fit a man some six to fifteen inches taller than her, its hem hung down to her thighs, but it was also designed for a wider person, which meant it hung halfway off of a shoulder no matter what she did, the collar even threatening to expose part of her new breasts. She eventually gave up on improving this situation, and started toward the door—only to realize that her stupid tail was flipping the shirt up in the back! It took conscious effort to keep the front half or so of that tail still so it wouldn't do that, and she found it strangely hard to keep her balance with it not automatically helping, despite the fact that she'd lived most of her life without a tail!

Throughout the entire process, Ed's stomach growled, and she felt increasingly famished. So her first act once she felt relatively covered and able to walk was to follow Jay straight to the kitchen for some breakfast. Her stride was noticeably shortened, making her want to walk faster, and giving in to that led to her losing focus on keeping her tail from lifting the back end of her shirt up...! She soon decided that, as long as there wasn't anyone to see it, this was fine, and then she took off at a brisk walk the rest of the way to the kitchen.

It was in this that she discovered a minor advantage to her new appearance: Walking fast like that, for a moderately long distance, didn't seem to tire her out at all. Moving at such a speed, even with her shortened stride, would probably let her get places faster than before while also being less exhausted by the trip. It was strange: Nothing about her appearance seemed any more fit than before; certainly there was no visible muscle or noticeable solidity to her; yet the evidence still suggested she was decidedly more physically fit than before. Did this have something to do with being part-wolf somehow? That didn't seem to make any sense; maybe it was an unrelated effect of the magic that had changed her.

Ultimately, she caught up to Jay while the redheaded fox-girl was still browsing the fridge. Of course she heard Ed's approach, which slowed considerably as she focused on making her tail behave again, and quickly turned to look. "Heey! They've got donuts in here. You want some donuts?"
"Uh, sure."
"Chocolate, right?"
"Yeah," Ed said with a nod, and then something occurred to her. "Wait—if we're part, like, canine or whatever..is chocolate poisonous to us now?"

"Mmm...I sure hope not! I say we should test it out."

"Maybe you should; I'm not gonna make myself sick."

"No need to worry about that," a third voice cut in, making both of them jump slightly and turn toward the kitchen's door. Camilla was standing there, wearing a t-shirt and some shorts.

She was fairly curvy despite looking quite fit, taller than Jay (now was), and had gray eyes and short blond hair. And, somehow, both of their super-enhanced hearing had missed her entrance entirely. "Hey, g'morning. I'll assume you two are Jay and Ed, and not some squatters or whatever," she said, giving a small wave. Camilla's voice was almost as deep as a girl's could be while still obviously belonging to a woman. "Anyway—being part-animal doesn't introduce any dietary restrictions. And you're officially members now, so the kitchen supply is as much yours as the rest of us's. So, eat whatever you want."
"Cool! Chocolate it is~!" Jay said, immediately pulling out a box and opening it up to face Ed.
The wolf-girl shrugged, taking one of the donuts and going to look for a plate. Those were...in a cabinet above a counter, she remembered. She then found that her hand could easily reach the lower corner of the cabinet door to open it, but not the uppermost plate of the stack.

"Whoop, lemme get that for ya," Camilla said, pulling down a plate and handing it to her.
"Uh, thanks..."
"No prob. I guess it must be pretty weird losing a bunch of height, huh? I think there's a stepstool in here somewhere, or something."

Jay, meanwhile, had selected a donut and started scarfing it down, with the box still open on the counter in front of her—and the refrigerator still open, too. "Will you at least close the door?!" Ed demanded.
"Mmf, shrry," she said, gently kicking the refrigerator shut.
"Ugh, I swear..." Looking back to the very tall blond woman, Ed said, "Anyway uh...I'm Ed, he—uh, she's Jay. For the record."
"I might've guessed," she said with a slight shrug. "You sure you're good with just one? Apparently the way this place's transformations work can make people super hungry after."
"I'm sure I'll be fine."

Camilla went and took a donut for herself from the box before Jay could eat all of them. Eventually the three of them made it to the dining room and ate together.

"So, like: Nancy's super busy with some stuff today, so she lent me her card so I can take you two shopping for stuff. Score," Camilla added, waving said card in the air briefly before pocketing it again. "She totally won't mind if I get a few things for myself too, after all."
"Uh, really?" Jay said. Ed realized at this point that her plate was empty, she barely remembered taking the first bite of her donut, and she was still feeling fairly hungry.

"Yeah. I guess you guys don't know? Nancy's family is like—super ultra rich," Camilla said. "Her parents are a pair of Mammon who've been billionaires for like a century; all her older siblings are really successful. Like, her next-older brother's name is literally 'Rich', and he's gonna marry a literal dragon pretty soon apparently?"

Ed sighed, letting herself down onto her feet, collecting her plate, and heading back to the kitchen for seconds. She slipped up and let her tail do whatever it want as she hurried that way, but just decided to let it go.

"Told ya," Camilla said behind her before continuing.

"Sooo, sorry if I seemed kinda unfriendly the first time we met. It wasn't a sure thing you'd join, and some guys just can't tell the difference between a girl being friendly and flirting with him."
"Wha—really?" Jay said.
"Ooh yeah. You two'll know exactly what I mean by like, this time next week, trust me. And as for last night, well, Nancy really likes to talk. And I don't care to talk too much when someone like that's in charge of the conversation, y'know?"

Ed returned with the remaining two donuts from the box stacked on her plate. At least this meant nobody had to put it back up, she supposed.

"Anyway," Camilla continued, "I've already got a boyfriend I really like, so I can't have any other guys thinking I'm interested."

"It really just looked like you didn't wanna be too distracted from your game," Jay said.

"...True, that too," she nodded after a brief pause. "But I'd have still made a little more of an effort to be friendly with some female visitors, at least, sooo." She gave a brief shrug.

"Anyway, like I said—we're gonna go shopping so you can get some clothes that fit you. And other necessary stuff for living as girls for a while—you'll get what I mean once we get to it," Camilla said. "You two gonna go in what you have on?"
"It's not like anything else fits me right now," Ed said. "If this even counts."
"Yeah, same. I mean, I know it's PJ's, but still," Jay added.
"Yeah—those getups aren't nearly the weirdest I've seen walking around campus on the weekend," Camilla said with a small shrug. "Seriously, button that thing all the way up first though," she added to Jay, who (already done eating) nodded and got straight to work on that.

"I guess it's pretty weird to just, wake up as the other sex, huh?"
"Yeeeaah," Ed said. "Plus having weird furry parts, and like, fangs."
"I dunno, I think I kinda like it," Jay said.

"Can't say I really get the appeal," Camilla said. "I like how I look now, is all. I guess L'hoxie might have a better idea..."
"Uh, how so?"
"Oh..y'know. Just, sheeee's been around magic stuff her whole life," she said.

Ed had the distinct sense that Camilla was lying-by-omission with this answer, but decided not to press her. Instead she said: "'L'hoxie'? She called you 'Cammy' before, too."

"Just little nicknames. Me and her go way back. Like, I knew her in high school. She's really mellowed out since then. Way more fun to hang with these days."

The first thing Camilla wanted them to get was..undergarments. Particularly, she pushed both of them at a lady whose job it was to measure their busts. Ed really questioned whether the small pair she'd wound up with were worth the embarrassment, but neither Camilla nor that store worker were about to take no for an answer. It turned out there was more to measure than just their chests anyway. After learning her new body's various sizes, the wolf-girl selected some sensible-looking...things, including mostly shorts for the lower undergarments; she noticed Jay mostly going for decidedly frillier options. Then it was time to get outerwear. Thankfully, Camilla left the two of them alone for this now that they knew their sizes. Ed knew exactly what kind of clothes she wanted.

A little while later, she crossed her arms, staring into the mirror.

She'd picked out a black t-shirt and some jean-shorts, but wasn't entirely sure about the results still. "Hmmph." Somehow having a bra on under the shirt made her bust look slightly bigger...and despite definitely getting the right size for everything, and it all feeling like a very comfortable fit, it still looked kind of tight. Tight enough to not leave much of her newfound figure to the imagination. Well, it would have to do; she could buy some oversized shirts, sweaters, and so on to feel a little less exposed, she decided. It was nice to at least feel fully-clothed again.

"Heey, are you done in there?" Jay asked from outside the little dressing room.

"Uh, yeah.." Ed went and opened the door.

"Check this oooouu~uut!"

The redheaded foxgirl had garbed herself in a black-and-red dress, complete with some tight black thigh-high stockings. She was blushing but also beaming as she picked up the skirt a bit at the sides and twirled a little to show it off. "How's it look?"
"Uh, fine I guess? You're...really going all-in on dressing like a girl, huh?"
"Sure, why not? I mean, if I am one anyway! I like being attractive for once in my life is all—even if it's 'pretty' or 'cute' instead of 'buff' or whatever."
"You really don't seem like you mind being 'pretty' at all," Ed pointed out.
"I guess not, heheh. But hey, you look really cute in that too!"
"'Cute', huh.." It felt like her friend's vocabulary was fixed on that word alone when it came to Ed's new appearance. Yet she couldn't deny it. As short as she was, and the way her face looked, and her body's curves...if Ed had been asked before all this to say how someone who looked like she did now looked, words like 'cute' and 'adorable' would've been the first to come out of him.

"I bet that'd look even better with some stockings, and be warmer too. And you should get at least some dresses and skirts, you know?"

"I don't see any reason to waste the money on that," Ed said. "This already feels weird enough to wear. A skirt would feel like no pants at all. Wait—how is your tail not flipping that skirt up, anyway?" she asked, remembering her experience with the big shirt that morning.
"Huh? There's a hole for it, duh." Jay turned partway around to show the hole. "There's clearly labeled stuff all over the store specifically for people with tails. And wings, and horns, and whatever else, too! I guess that's why Camilla picked this store specifically."
"Oh...I guess that makes sense, at least."
"C'moooon, Ed!" Jay leaned down at her friend a little bit. "We're not paying for this stuff anyway! Let me pick out a couple of more girly things for you."

Ed sighed. "I guess that's true. Fine, I'll do that if you at least pick a few more...normal things. Like, tomboy, casual stuff. For yourself."
"Hmmh, okay. Works for me!" Jay agreed, and then happily headed back out to the main store to start looking around.

"Wait up—I need to actually tell you what my sizes even are!" Ed hurried to follow her out.

---

Two unique-looking individuals were taking a shortcut through greek row. When they were about to pass by the building Omega Zeta Kappa hoped to make the home of their new chapter, one of them stopped short, turning to stare at it for a long moment. The other, after briefly continuing forward, realized he'd stopped, and turned back to see why.

The first was a handsome, slightly skinny guy with sky-blue hair, brown eyes, and—what stood out the most—a pair of large, bright, white-feathered wings coming out from his upper back, presently folded together but no less conspicuous for it. "Hmm." Still staring at the building, he put a finger to his chin.

"Something special about that building?" asked the second, a girl with no wings, yet no less odd-looking for that. She had unusually pale skin, pitch-black hair, was dressed nearly all in black, and even the irises of her eyes were dark to the point of near-black as well. She had an outdated handheld game console in her hands, and continued playing on that throughout their conversation.

"But of course! How else could it possibly have caught my attention?" the winged one replied.

She spared a short glance the building's way. "Looks pretty normal to me."

"Yet it wasn't there at all last semester, and now here it is before us, complete! Construction projects on this fair campus of ours of such a scale hardly ever show such alacrity as to be finished in the span of one mere summer."
"Okay? So it was a rush job. Prolly gonna collapse in like, two years."

"Oh, I very much doubt that," he said.

After this, he waited a long moment for a reply. Near the end of that moment, he turned to his friend, whose expression suggested she was already very bored of this whole conversation. She sighed, but still humored him with a completely deadpan "Why's that."

"Well, I suppose your senses still aren't so finely honed as mine are, or you surely would have noticed it already: That entire building is enchanted," he declared.

"'Kay. Sooo...is it supposed to be?"
"I certainly hope so. One part of the magic suffusing that abode is dedicated to granting its interior more space than its exterior would otherwise allow. The whole place really could collapse if that sort of magic were applied carelessly after its completion, rather than during its assembly..or perhaps a very carefully-planned expansion. But that isn't even all of it! There's something else...a bit more complicated....and I can't quite make out its details from here. Quite intriguing."

"Then, I guess we'll just have to ask someone who lives there, huh? But like, later. We got places to be right now," she pointed out, then turned and started off toward their original destination.
"Mmh, right you are. Truly a shame, but I suppose I'll just have to savor the mystery itself for a while." He turned too, easily catching up to her sluggish gait.

"Sure, whatever makes you happy," she shrugged, still not looking away from the console's screen.

---

This part is where you can start to see what I was talking about, with getting multiple "variant" images of the same people. It's particularly tough to get Jay's fur just right, with the dark ear-tips and white tail-tip, so I cheated a little bit here.

It's probably obvious by now, but this story is organized a lot like most of mine, rather than following OZK's formatting. There kind of are supposed to be two main characters, but we'll be following others' perspectives along the way as well.