The Next Chapter: 17

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 17: Who's Coming to Dinner?

"Hmm hmm hmm~mnnnh..."

L'hoxifel was cooking tonight's supper for most of OZK's membership, plus one visitor. She caught herself humming one of the songs from the previous week's karaoke night without quite being sure of its title or who had sung it. Eventually she zeroed in on it being Ed's performance, and then she managed to recall some of the words in the final chorus.

"Must be a love-spell~ you've cast on me; can't be a hate-spell~, I don't wanna be free..hmm hmm hmm hmnnn~ hmm..."

A little later, she had everything to the point where the only thing left to do was wait a while, so she stepped out to the dining area to take a seat. After she'd sat there a minute or two, the door opened, and a fairly tall, white-haired wolf-girl in a tight-fitting suit wandered in, her head tilted upward as she visibly sniffed the air.

"Something smell good?" the demon-girl said. "Sorry, it's not quite ready yet."
"Oh, hey—sorry, didn't know someone was in here. I'm Tokanwa—gonna be joining up real soon, I hope," she said, hurrying over to offer a handshake. "You must be L'hoxifel, right?"
"That's me," she said, taking the offer. "I've been on my feet in the kitchen for a while, so I hope it's all right if I don't get up."
"Yeah, that's no issue. Maan, though, you really are an actual demon!"

"Uh-huh..?"

"Sorry—it's just that I've never actually met one before. And your skin's purple! I wonder what kinda chemicals are involved in the pigmentation. I'd love to get some samples under a microscope. Plus your horns!"

L'hoxifel's face flushed a little bit. "Uhm, you like them or something?"

"Yeah! I wonder if it'd hurt to file off a little bit, and try to figure out the exact makeup of the surface keratin. Does the shape run in families? Maybe you have some pictures of your relatives to compare?"
Her blush deepened. "Errrm, Toka. Not to interrupt your fun too much buuut..."

"Oh, yeah—sorry." Tokanwa slid into a chair two away from the one the demon-girl was sitting in. "I can get kinda carried away about this stuff. There's just so much to learn!"

"It's just, even though they aren't physically sensitive, demons' horns are kind of an emotionally intimate part of our bodies. What you were saying there, was kinda like someone talking about taking clippings off the fur of, like, the base of your tail. Or your inner ear-fluff."

"I'd allow it," Tokanwa said, "for science. But—yeah, point taken. Sorry, I'm way more ignorant than you'd think about this stuff!

"...Okay, I got one question about it. Seriously. Not invasive—I hope. You can say no if it is!"
"Shoot."
"Did you ever, right before they started a growth spurt or something, get like a super-specific craving?"

"Hmm. I guess, sometimes? Actually, it's more like my mom would make some pretty unusual dishes sometimes, and when I tried them I liked them way more than I thought I would...but then I didn't like them as much later on. I guess that was when my horns were really growing, though, now that you mention it..."
The werewolf leaned forward slightly, her tail wagging excitedly. "D'you know what was in those dishes?!" Ed hadn't mentioned how cute Tokanwa would look when starting to nerd out about stuff like this, but she also wasn't necessarily Ed's type.
"Pfft—easy, girl~. I've got the recipes in my phone; I can send 'em along if you give me a number."
"Sure!"

---

"Whoa..what happened to your eyes? Is..it my imagination, or 's your hair blue now, too?"

Fritz sighed. "I'll..tell you later. Let's just get supper, okay?"

"Sure..." Hendrix nodded, picking up on it being a sensitive topic, and the two of them headed into the dining hall together.

Fritz's roommate was a tall, handsome, smooth-shaven Adonis of a guy who wore his golden locks long, all the way out to his shoulders. His parents had named him after a rock legend, and he swore from their very first meeting that he was "gonna be a rockstar!" He was double-majoring in music theory and advertising, since apparently the second-most-important thing for a star (after having amazing songs to play, of course) was being able to promote oneself.

They sat across from each other in one of the booths, chatting—and pointedly avoiding the subject of Fritz's eyes now being pink. Hendrix also didn't mention the visit to OZK at all, even though he'd probably heard about the angel-girl through Ivan at some point.

"Oh yeah—you remember that freshman dude in the choir, who showed up last Monday as a fox-girl all of a sudden?"

"Mmhm?" Fritz's mouth was full, and he needn't contribute more than this to the conversation anyway.

"Today she was—he was back as a fox-boy! Our director pulled him aside and was like, 'pick a lane! Do you want to sing bass or soprano?' And he kinda scratched his head and said 'uhh, whichever is best for the choir?' She couldn't really get upset about that, and just said 'bass it is, then'. But dude, last week she was singin' a totally different part with no trouble at all, practically sight-reading all of it. Guy or girl, that's a talent that's going places, man!"

It occurred to Fritz that this person was probably another member of OZK. But mentioning that now would mean bringing up that entire topic, and he still didn't want to—not in public. Instead he just nodded along.

After that, they went back to their dorm room. Fritz carefully closed the door behind him, dropped his stuff, and shed his pants like he usually would when not planning to leave the dorm again until morning. "Okay, so like—what happened?" Hendrix asked. "I guess it had to do with that weird chick that dragged you and Gio off somewhere?"

"Yeah. Uh, so..she's in a weird sorority that takes guys. Their whole house is enchanted to transform people, but apparently it's supposed to only do that if you sleep inside," Fritz explained first. "Only..I guess whoever did that screwed it up somehow. It uh..transformed me anyway, even though I was awake. So they gave me this..." He pointed to the ring he was wearing. "It...let me turn back into a guy—with some mistakes, apparently. Gio didn't bother mentioning that 'till after we'd left, though," he said, annoyed.

"Wow—that's pretty crazy. Too bad I wasn't there; I'm a little curious how you'd look as a chick," Hendrix said.

"Well—uh.." Fritz blushed a bit. "The thing is, this ring..comes off if I fall asleep for some reason. And then I'd turn back into a girl. They promised a more, uh, permanent solution soon, but this is gonna make things..pretty awkward until then."

"Ooh, I gotcha," Hendrix said. "Well—don't worry about me. We're bros, even if you're a chick, dig? I'll be a perfect gentleman. What's it like, though, having an enchanted house transform you? I mean—if you don't mind me askin'?"

"It was...hmmh." He shook his head slightly. "It was weird—it's like I could feel it was enchanted as soon as I stepped inside. I didn't, realize that's what it was until after it all happened, but it must be. There was this...power, this energy, that seemed to be pushing at me, like it really wanted in.

"I..changed...when it got to be too much, and I did let it in. The..the really weird thing is, right after it happened, I felt like something similar was in me. Almost like I could, control it—make it do whatever I wanted. And it didn't seem like it was coming from the house, from outside; it was more like...it had always been there, only I never realized it before. But...I don't feel that anymore. It's like that feeling...disappeared all of a sudden, not long afterward."

"Hmm. You have any idea of exactly when?" Hendrix asked, scratching his head.
"I guess..it must've been before we left the place. After we went upstairs..."

It took him a second, but Fritz finally put it together. "..Oh." He remembered it, now that he was really thinking about it. "It was...it must've been...when I put this on," he said, holding the ring up in front of his face. "When I..turned back into a guy. Weird."

"Hey, that might mean something, man! I've heard a little about how magic stuff works from some of my classmates," Hendrix said. "Apparently there's some people who're crazy powerful, but either like—only as dudes, or only as chicks. That might be you!"

"I..kinda hope not..."

"Well, hey, there's really only one good way to find out, right? You were gonna have to go back the other way at some point tonight, right?"

"...I guess so."

On the one hand, the idea of having magic power of his own was kind of exciting. On the other...Fritz wasn't so sure about being stuck as a girl all the time, or most of the time, or even just when he wanted to use that power. It had just felt so...weird. But it worried him even more that part of the weirdness was him, deep down, sort of enjoying it.

He stared at the ring for a moment longer, then took a deep breath and slid it off. Instantly, he could feel the same energy—that same power as before—welling up from inside himself. It spread out quickly to his whole body: Lengthening his hair, softening his skin. Shrinking him down. "Aa~aah..!" His boxers shrank rapidly tighter as his manhood retreated inward and his hips spread themselves out. One quick tug turned Fritz back into a girl, just as her light-blue hair started tickling her thighs, and then her shirt split itself apart down the middle at the same time as her chest pressed itself up and out into the same pair of breasts as earlier that afternoon...!

"Aah!"

Her face burned with a blush all over again. "M-my shirt!" It had suddenly turned into a white, button-down, collared shirt, but more importantly—it was completely unbuttoned! She felt intensely exposed, especially with a guy in the same bedroom! Not to mention a pair of tiny little, pink, hip-hugging shorts being the only other clothes she had on now.

"Uh, don't worry—I noticed it happening and turned around," Hendrix assured her. And he was, indeed, staring at the wall opposite her right now. "Just lemme know when you're decent."
"Uh...s-sure..." If anything, him being a 'perfect gentleman' as promised made her feel uncomfortably excited for a second or two. Quickly swallowing that down, she hurried to her dresser, tossing off the tiny unbuttoned shirt to pull on a regular t-shirt. It was very loose around her slender frame, which did a decent job of hiding her figure, but it also slid off of one her shoulders, showing that off along with part of her neckline. Well—this was still way better than before, and hadn't taken nearly as long as awkwardly putting all of those buttons together would have!

"I'm good now," she said, and he turned around now.

"Huh. Well, you are pretty good-looking as a chick, at least."

The blush she'd been starting to lose came back even worse. "Reeeaally not helping!"

"Hah, sorry. But, what about that power? You feel it again?"
"I...do," she realized aloud. It had spread out to change her, and now it was just..there, the same as it had been right after the initial transformation. Waiting for her to command it—to want to do something with it, and then it would.

"So—you wanna try something with it, then? Test stuff out?"

"I guess..." She held up her left hand, palm-up, and just tried to..put some of that energy into the space above it. Some sparks visibly went up from her fingers to the area above her palm, forming a bunch of flickering sparks in a small orb floating in the air—like the inside of a plasma globe.

Hendrix leaned in slightly, watching this. "Coooool...! Hey, what'd happen if I touched that?"

"I don't...know? I don't really suggest it—" she started, but he'd already moved closer. "Uh, Hendrix, wait—!"

The warning seemed to fall on deaf ears. He'd stuck his hand right into the middle of the orb. "Yeeow!" He drew it back again, shaking it around. "That's some serious static shock, man."
"W-well you should've listened to me! I have no idea what this stuff is, or how to control it! You could've gotten seriously hurt!!"
"Aww, I'm glad you're concerned for me," he said, reaching a hand up to scratch one of his ears. "Hate to say it, but that pouty look is really cute on you, too." Then he let go of that ear to scratch the other.
"I'm not 'pouty', I'm annoyed!" she said.

"Right, right—sorry. Hey uh.." Hendrix now had both of his hands scratching both of his ears pretty hard. He lifted them away for a moment, brushing the hair aside to make the ears easier to see.

"D'you...see anything weird? My ears just got super itchy, and now..."

"Um, yeah." She did see something weird; those ears were covered in soft, blond hairs, which seemed to be in the process of growing rapidly longer and thicker. "That sparkly orb thing...definitely did more than shock you," she said. "A-and I'm not really sure how to stop it!"

"Oh, well—my bad, I guess," he said, then shuddered. "W-whooaa, this feels pretty trippy, though. Aah..aah...arrrffh." His mouth was wide open for the first couple of vocalizations, enough that she could see some of his teeth growing longer and sharper—turning into fangs. And with that...bark?...a short, golden-furred tail sprouted from his lower back. "Aaa~aa~aaAA~AARRFh...!" Then...Hendrix shrank. His voice lilted higher and higher, as his body got smaller and shorter; at the same time, that tail grew quickly longer and fluffier, his ears spreading up and out to become a big pair of fluffy dog-ears.

Fritz began to understand what was happening. The power she'd tried to make float above her hand wasn't just something generic, like sparks and glowy lights. She'd been trying to put something like the power she'd felt in the OZK house. That was: The power that had transformed her! Which could only mean that now Hendrix was...

He blinked once, and his eyes were a much lighter brown. A second time, and they were bright yellow. "O-o~oh wow, this fe~els..?" he said, his voice audibly leaving masculine range. "Pretty, n-nice..?" His face was lighting up with a blush; his boxers were shrinking shorter and tighter, and the tracksuit jacket he had on—which was shrinking with him to continue to fit properly—suddenly unzipped itself, coming apart to reveal a torso completely bereft of chest and belly hair. "Aa~ah..y-yip...rrufh..!" The shorts pulled close against a bulge between his legs, and then the bulge visibly shrank. Hendrix's height plummeted a little farther, until it was the same as the blue-haired girl's, and his frame collapsed the rest of the way to a slender, feminine look. "Mrr~rrrrfh..!" His already-long hair spilled out another couple of inches, turning a little bit wilder and messier an the process.

"Oh..oo~oh..." Finally, the shorts pulled flat between Hendrix's legs. "Ooo~oooh, d-duu~uude...!" She wriggled back and forth in place as her hips began to spread apart, and a pair of small bumps raised themselves up from her chest. "H-heehee~!" Her voice settled into a mid-range alto: Cute yet mature...kind of sexy. "Mm~mnnfffh....rrufh..! W-wow...!" Her tail whipped back and forth excitedly behind her as those small breasts grew out faster and faster, soon far exceeding the size of Fritz's own pair, before abruptly coming to a halt. A high, cute "Y-yip!" came from the dog-girl's lips as this happened, and her suddenly-big bust bounced gently out into place.

Hendrix giggled nervously, blushing and grinning. "H-heehee..." She leaned forward toward Fritz slightly, reaching a hand back to touch her tail, while the other one seemed uncertain whether to try to pull her top together or take it the rest of the way off.

"Well, I guess I don't need to worry about being a gentleman anymore, huh?" She did try to zip the jacket up now, but it didn't want to go past her generous new bosom, so she quickly gave up with a slight shrug—leaving some extreme cleavage in easy view. "Did it feel that good for you, too?"
"I-I guess so..? I was a little overwhelmed, at the time," Fritz said. Then: "H-how can you be so calm about this?! I don't know how to turn you back!"
"Awwh, I'm sure you can figure that out. Anyway, this is neat! A totally different look, and voice, and everything. Aren't I pretty cute, too!?"

"Uhm, y-yeah..." Try way too cute. Fritz was feeling even more conflicted about her roommate turning into that than she was about herself! "I-i-isn't having a tail just..really weird, though?"
"Haha, yeah, it's totally bizarre! And I was barking the whole way through the change! Guess I'd do that in bed with someone too~," she added, which made Fritz feel yet more conflicted.

"Well, hey—for tonight, problem's solved, right? Not too awkward that you've gotta be a chick if we both are!" Hendrix declared, not seeming to sense that this was making things more awkward for Fritz.
"Could you—at least—try to get a little more decent, please?"
"Huh?" She tilted her head slightly. "I mean, I'm not topless or anything like this—and chicks see each other's boobs all the time. But—sure, if it'll make ya feel better. The 'too-big-shirt' thing is plenty cute, too~."

"I'm...gonna focus on how to turn you back now," Fritz announced, going over to her desk. "I mean, like, in the morning. Before I put on the ring to go back to normal too."
"Yeah, sure! Guess I'll get a little bit of homework done—like I was planning before all this stuff." She then heard the sound of a tracksuit jacket hitting the floor, and tried to focus very hard on the ring that had turned her into a guy now sitting on the desk in front of her. Fritz really had already seen enough of her roommate's new dog-girl form to very easily imagine it topless, however, so she couldn't do much more than take some deep breaths and try to make her whole entire face stop burning until she finally heard the shirt coming down onto Hendrix's torso.

That she could do magic now was an amazing, probably life-changing realization..! But Fritz found it quite hard to focus on that, being far too distracted by just how bizarre her life had gotten in only the last five hours. Gio had sounded like he kind of liked the idea of living in a sorority full of 'cuties' too, and if he followed through on that thought, he'd probably drag Ivan in along with him...

---

Feeling thoroughly overwhelmed by the range and intensity of emotions she'd gone through across the afternoon, Nancy collapsed onto a couch in the lounge with intentions of doing absolutely nothing for the hour-and-a-half or so remaining until supper. She was grateful that Tokanwa had wandered off on her own pretty quickly, and quite certain the werewolf could entertain herself for a good while. She paid no attention to the real world while in this state, so other people coming in and out of the lounge, or walking through the hall outside of it, only just barely registered to her consciousness.

However, she was yanked partway out by a certain special sound. It was the noise of someone knocking on the front door to the OZK house. She sat slightly up, looking around. Was anyone here she could send to take care of it so that she could slide back into her haze? Of course not. Today had to be one where her astrological sign was fated for the worst luck possible...or something. The knocking was repeated, and she heard nobody in the hallway outside hurrying to the door to take care of it, either. So she sighed, closed her eyes, rubbed her temples, and pushed herself back to a normal mindset again. By the time the third knock came, she was quickly hopping to her feet and hurrying to the door, eager to see who it could be.

"Hello~?"

A skinny, dark-haired guy was waiting. "Hey! Is this Omega Zeta Kappa?"
"It is," she nodded, resisting an urge to answer No, this is Nancy. "How can—?"

"Can I join!? I need to be a girl!"

"Uuuuhh." Even she hadn't been prepared for that to come out of his mouth. Was her brother right in saying that a lot of people truly wanted this kind of thing?!

"Uh—hey, wait. You're the costume lady!" he said suddenly, and Nancy realized that he did look pretty familiar. This was one of the younger theater majors. "Nancy uh...Tuh..Trent?"

"Tanner. Close," she said. "That'd make you Ulrich, right?" It was a relatively hard name to forget.
"Yeah! So..?"
"You do realize there's normally an application process to join a GLO, right? In our case, it'd be nice to at least know whether you'd fit in with the existing members."
"But I really need to be a girl! You can do that, right?"

"Why is this so urgent, exactly?"

"It's for a part! So I can achieve my dreams," he said, spreading his arms out dramatically. "You're a theater major, right? So—you understand?!"

"A little, but—lemme get this straight: You're willing to join a sorority full of near-total strangers, so our house's enchantment can change your sex and completely transform your looks, just so you can try out for a part in a specific play."
"Yeah," he nodded.

"Well...you're dedicated to your art, if nothing else. But there are certain things you'd really need to live as a girl, and we usually like to provide those the morning right after the transformation. It'd be pretty awkward for you to go around campus as a shorter girl, for example, in the clothes that fit you now. Plus that'd reflect kinda badly on us."
"Yeah, Kyo told me all about that. I'm free all morning tomorrow!" Given what she knew of him so far, Nancy had a suspicion that Ulrich would be perfectly willing to skip classes if he had to to make himself free. But that was no skin off her nose.

"Okay, well—someone would need to go with you. Plus we do need to actually decide whether we want you to join?"

He looked slightly dejected by this hint of a delay, if not potential rejection. Nancy kind of got that; she wasn't an actor herself, but had seen firsthand just how cutthroat the competition for parts could be. Sometimes the director decided that they liked the first person they saw for a specific part, and all of the other try-outs might as well have just not shown up.

"Okay, how's this? You can have supper with us, and maybe hang out for a bit afterward—to meet the members. We can find out whether you're a good fit with the group we've got so far, and also whether any of them have an opening tomorrow morning—since I certainly don't." L'hoxifel always made more than enough for everybody, plus leftovers; adding an extra plate tonight wouldn't cause any problems there.

"Yeah! That'd be great," he said, nodding. "Thanks so much!"

"Don't thank me just yet," she advised. "Wait until we see how this actually turns out..."

---

"Love-spell Hate-spell" probably has some ridiculous spelling involving a lot of colons and backslashes. Its lyrics, at least for the chorus, kind of write themselves in my opinion.

I hadn't planned it to go this way, but it is kind of funny: Nancy fancies herself a bringer of chaos in a certain way...but she actually can't handle it that well if too much chaos at once comes to her of its own volition.