The "Best" RPG Ever-1

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Note: I meant for this to come out a few hours later so the other post wouldn't get buried, but mistyped the publishing time so that blogspot's records indicate it coming out much earlier than I wrote it. The take-away from this is that there's a chapter of the Ring story below this post, in case you didn't know that.
 

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Zack received in the mail, in addition to the usual bills and advertisements, an envelope containing a CD. The envelope was missing its return address, and the CD's only label was handwritten permanent marker declaring that it was the "Best RPG Ever!"

He was intrigued, as a great many people in the same situation might have been, but suspicious. He knew a way to put in the CD and have his computer scan it for any malware before running anything on it, and he did that. It didn't detect anything. The only thing on the CD was a single file, named "Begin.exe," that appeared to be taking up more space than the disk had—several times more, in fact. That was weird, but after another few scans of the file Zack figured it must be relatively harmless, and his curiosity inspired him to start it up.

A plain text box appeared, saying only the word "Loading" and a percentage which moved slowly at first, while he watched, but began to speed up after reaching the 25% mark or so. When it got close to 90%, Zack found he was beginning to feel..strangely numb, and just as the percentage reached 100 he suddenly blacked out.

He woke up lying down, looking up at a blank white ceiling, and quickly sat up and looked around. "What the..?" The whole room was blank and white like that, no door or window or anything. He couldn't even place where all the light in the room was coming from. It seemed to be a perfectly cube-shaped room, and right in the center of the floor was the only thing in the room besides him. It was some kind of circular pedestal with a..holographic..image? Floating above it. It looked like a slowly spinning cube.

After confirming that there weren't any hidden doors (that he could find at least), Zack carefully touched the floating thing on the pedastal. Suddenly what looked to be a 2-dimensional box, with a blue background and white text (a message box, he realized), appeared, saying "Drag left and right to select a class for more information. To choose a class, take its associated object."

"So..this is the game?" he muttered to himself. "Not..what I was expecting. But maybe it'll let me out of here if I pick a class." He put his index finger in the middle of the cube and then moved it to the right, hoping that was how you 'dragged' the thing. He was right. The cube seemed to scroll to the right and out of existence, while another object moved in to take its place: A sword with a very wide blade at the hilt that tapered only near its sharp tip.

The message box changed. "Knight: The class of noble protectors and great heroes. Knights excel in the use of the blade and are difficult to defeat in a purely physical fight. A knight can shift between the Bright and Dark forms for offense and defense respectively, and use minor holy magic as well as a few unique spells at higher levels."

"Hmm..that doesn't sound too bad," said Zack. This room frankly creeped him out, so he was eager to get out of it as soon as possible. He reached out and closed his right hand around the hilt of the sword, which despite looking all holographic and transparent was evidently completely solid. The message box changed again to say "Would you like to play a Knight? (Pull for yes, release for no)"

He pulled the sword out without much thought. It was surprisingly light. The center of the circular pedastal glowed with white, and the message box said, "Step into the summoning circle to begin your journey." Zack took a deep breath and then walked onto the circle.

As soon as he had done that, he found himself floating gently upward in the air. He looked around, fascinated, as the room around him seemed to fade to black, leaving him in a singular pillar of light. The message box disappeared, too. Soon he seemed to be floating freely in the air, his feet finding no footholds, yet he didn't feel like he was falling either.

He was less fascinated and more bewildered when his clothes suddenly glowed white and then seemed to shatter off of him, all except for his underwear. He looked around wide-eyed as the white stuff that used to be his clothes began swirling around him, but then he was distracted from the display by a bunch of strange feelings suddenly coming from his own body.

It felt like something inside him was pulling, particularly at his stomach and arms and legs. He looked down and saw that his stomach was actually getting thinner and smaller, and then he became aware of a pushing sensation from his hips. They were growing wider, he saw, and blinked at the sight. He couldn't quite bring himself to be shocked that his body was being altered: He had, after all, just started a computer program that teleported him into a white room with no exits. But it was still very weird.

He became much more concerned when he noticed that his underwear was getting tighter, its leggings shorter, and the pulling sensation was coming from between his legs as well. No way, he thought, as a tingling feeling spread throughout his body. His skin, all over, was becoming paler, the hair on it shrinking in. And then he saw his bangs, and felt his hair falling down across his shoulders. His hair had definitely not been a pinkish white color before, he thought, as it continued to grow and he felt the tips crawling their way down to the small of his back.

The white energy stuff around him drew his attention again when some of it closed in around his legs and feet, and suddenly turned into clothes, black shoes and..stockings? With white bits of armor at the knees and ankles. Then another bit of it closed around his chest and shoulders, becoming a lacy black bra. Zack shuddered, and looked down to see that his underwear was definitely turning into a matching pair of panties, pulling still closer between his legs.

He tried not to think about that, looking instead at his arms and stomach again. They were so slim now, and the stomach had an inward curve to it, supplemented by his now-wide hips. He managed to actually get distracted when he noticed another few pushing sensations, this time coming from his ears and..his back? Just below where his hair now reached, which by the way was nearly to his hips. As the pushing continued he could feel his ears beginning to twitch and move, and became aware of air moving across them; the thing coming from his back began moving more and more like an appendage, and he could feel air on it as well. It occured to him this must be fur, as he managed to get the thing from his back to move to where he could see the tip. It was a tail, for sure.

Now the white stuff closed in around his torso and hips, and he could feel a long-sleeved shirt pulling tight against his stomach and arms, gloves on his hands, and some unfamiliar weights on his shoulders and the sides of his hips. He looked down, wondering why there wasn't something up against his upper legs, and realized that there was now a white skirt surrounding them. "No way.." he muttered, but then had to pause at just how high-pitched his voice was. It wasn't squeaky, but it didn't sound like him.

And now he became aware of a flatness between his legs, a realization helped along by the tight panties that were definitely still there under the skirt. Zack shook his head, trying not to think about that, and turned to see what the weights near his hips were. He noticed first of all that he seemed to be wearing a black cape held on by two bits of shoulder armor, and then noticed a pair of sheathes, one of them with a thin sword in it and the other designed for a familiar-shaped broadsword but empty.

The problem reasserted itself as his chest began pushing out, and he could feel the tight shirt's resistance as two bumps formed, quickly expanding and giving more cleavage for the space between his collar and the top of the shirt to show. He stared at it as it filled the bra underneath. "I..no, this can't be real," he said, shaking his head but only getting the feeling of the weight of his hip-length hair swishing back and forth. Before he knew it, and without any say in the matter, he had the body of a rather well-endowed young woman.

He looked down at his right hand and realized that he'd been holding the sword this whole time, and that it no longer looked the least bit holographic. Yet it still felt so light! He looked to his left hand and found some kind of gem was on a..bracelet? It looked like it should fit around his neck, he thought. All the white stuff that had been his clothes before were now his clothes again, it seemed, because there wasn't any more of it swirling around him. And then, before he could think about what had just happened too hard, he found himself feeling exhausted, and couldn't stop himself from drifting off to sleep.

Zack woke up to a sunlit blue sky above him, soft earth and grass below, and was immediately confronted with all the sensations the tight clothes imposed on his very womanly body. He immediately sat up, and then stood up, looking around and wondering how his tail (which was definitely also still there) hadn't made lying on his back incredibly uncomfortable.

He seemed to be standing in the middle of a circle of stone pillars, not too unlike stonehenge, he thought. Both of the swords were sheathed, he noticed as he looked down, and he gently pulled them out. It was odd, he knew the swords were heavy by their balance, heavier than he should be able to handle..especially with how thin his arms looked now. But he could raise them up and give them both a few experimental swings with very little effort. In fact, their balance felt rather right, and he seemed to know just how to hold them and strike with them without them running into each other, like he'd been using them this way for years. "Right.." he muttered, trying to get used to his higher, alto voice, "RPG mechanics. Even a level one warrior knows how to swing a sword."

He sheathed the weapons, and then looked to the odd gem-bracelet thing in his hand. "Where do I even keep things?" he muttered to himself. It wasn't like his new outfit came with pockets, after all, that would be silly. "Guess I'll just put it on.." he pulled the clasp open from his hand and then tried to put it on his neck. It wouldn't latch. "What the..eh?" His attempts were interrupted by the appearance of another 2D blue-with-white-text message box in front of his eyes, close but small enough to be readable.

It said, "A knight's gem of brightness can only be used when an ally is in danger without the proper skill."

Zack shook his head as the box disappeared. "So what am I supposed to do with this, then? I swear, I need a bag or something to put it in..wha?" When he said he needed a bag to put it in, the gemmed amulet-bracelet thing disappeared. "Huh." He thought about wanting it back in his hand, and it appeared. "Guess I do have an inventory system. So that's good."

"Now..where am I going?" He looked around at the circle of stones, wondering if he could find a town nearby. Maybe someone could undo the changes to his body at least, if not get him home..maybe beating the game would send him back. No telling. But for right now he'd need to play along, he probably was level 1 or this game's equivalent of that, after all, so angering whatever super-powerful being sent him here now would probably be a bad idea.

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Okay, this is an idea that's been knocking around in my head for a while. There are a few general, overall things I know I want to do in this story, but a lot of the details haven't been hammered out. So I'd like to do something interesting with this story: I want you, in comments, to suggest a general idea of what happens next. There will be more party members eventually, but not the very next part, I don't think. If you're not sure what to suggest, think about what's going on. In this case, obviously Zack is going to look for some kind of town or village or whatever, but what will he find? Any interesting sorts of people in the town? If there's a random encounter, you might suggest what sort of enemies appear. That sort of thing.

(Just so we're clear, it's not necessary but it is helpful if suggestions go with the latest entry, rather than all of them being on this first one. I'm not sure if there was some confusion about that, but thought I should point it out just in case.)

Ring 3.1: Another Weekend

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Ring 3.1:

Another Weekend

With summer on its way, a Friday afternoon was like a breath of fresh air for even some of the busiest students. Sports were winding down for the most part, most of the performing-arts classes had already had their performances, and it wasn't quite time for everyone to begin cramming for finals.

Rolf was leaning against the locker, arms crossed, watching the crowd of students on their way out of the school, when he picked up a sound he didn't very much like.

"What's with you, nerd? You tryin' to look like a girl so people'll stop callin' you a wuss? Huh?" That sound was Morley's voice, and on closer inspection its owner was standing over one of the other students, leaning with his arms against the lockers and his would-be victim between them.

Would be, because of who had just noticed. "Hey." Rolf's voice carried where it needed to, and his feet carried him over to Morley. "Back off."

Morley stood up straight and turned around to Rolf. He was a wider, bulkier kind of guy than Rolf, who was a more streamlined kind of athletic. He could lift more raw weight, but he knew better than to mess with him, so instead he glared. Rolf scowled back. They had a brief staring contest like this before Morley threw up has hands as if he had no idea what it had been about, and said "Yeesh" before walking away.

Rolf glared at him until he was out of sight, and then looked with a more neutral expression at the person he'd been standing over. "Um, th-thanks," he said, looking kind of like he expected Rolf to punch him or something.
"No problem. Hey, are you.." He knew the other guy looked familiar, but there were enough differences from what he remembered that he took a minute to dredge up the name. He was a little taller than he remembered, and his hair looked like it had been dyed a more reddish and less dark brown, and he'd let it grow out to his shoulders. Even his clothes weren't quite the same as usual, but it was hard to place why..a little baggier, maybe. "Hm...Kevin?"
"Y-yeah."
"Your house far from here?"
"Um..n-n-ot too far. I usually w-walk."
"I'll go with you. Sometimes Morley doesn't know when to quit."

"Oh, th-thanks but, y-you don't have to."

"I insist. Go on and get your books."
"Ok-okay."

Akio had his last period with Sam, and managed to catch her a little bit out of the door of the classroom. "Hey, you game?" he said. He figured if he was going to talk to someone he hadn't really said much to before he might as well be direct to minimize awkwardness.
Unfortunately, the wording of his query confused her. "Huh? Game for what?"
"No no, I didn't mean are you game, as in ready to do some previously discussed thing, I mean do you game, like, play video games or anything like that?"
"Oh. Yeah, sure. Why?"
"Well, I thought you looked kind of like a person who'd be fun to play something with sometime."

"Maybe, but isn't it a bit awkward to ask me out of the blue like that?"

Well, now she'd invoked the A word, so there wasn't any way to avoid it. "Okay, well I guess I can't think of any way to introduce myself to someone who's seen me numerous times and knows my name but hasn't shared a conversation with me that isn't awkward."

Sam shrugged. "Fair enough. So I know you're Akio, and you know I'm.."
"Sam."

"Hah, well that's a decent start. Nobody calls me Samantha and gets away with it. Except for teachers. And my parents, but only if I'm trouble. And I guess if I'm ever called in for jury duty later in life I won't be able to correct the judge about it.."

"We might be getting off track here."
"Yeah, maybe. Anyway, you're lucky if you've got nothing planned this afternoon, because neither do I. What kind of game do you have in mind?"

On the sidewalk a little outside the school, it was pretty clear that Kevin wasn't going to say anything unless Rolf asked him something. So he did. "So, when did you start growing out your hair? I mean, just out of curiosity."

"Um..I-I never really d-decided to..I mean, since M-monday it's grown a lot f-f-faster than usual. I d-don't really know why. Are there any, um, any rumors g-going around?"

Rolf shrugged. "I dunno. Don't pay attention to that garbage. I guess if Morley thinks you're worth his attention there must be something, though."
"Th-that is a..um, a dubious honor."

"..Did you just tell a joke?" From the one or two classes they'd had in common in the past, Rolf knew Kevin to have a hard time talking to people, and especially in front of people. Once when a teacher made a joke in his general direction, he'd shrunk back in terror like it was going to kill him.
"Uh..m-maybe? I, I don't know. B-but um, the hair is-isn't the only weird thing that's been going on this w-week. I'm having some k-kind of weird growth spurt...m-my parents want to t-take me to the doctor soon to m-make sure I'm okay."

"Hm. Well, take care of yourself. Anything bad going on is worse with stress."

"I-I know."

"I know a great arcade we could go to," said Akio. Neutral ground seemed like the best idea, even if it was going to cost money.
"Hmm..neh. Too expensive."
"Well, I could pay for you if you want."
"I'm not so sure I want that. I've got some games at home, but my parents might think something's going on if I bring a boy home, you know."
"That's why I was suggesting the arcade."

"I know, I'd just rather think of every other possibility before going for the one that costs something. You've got games at your house, don't you?"
"Sure. My dad'll be there, so.."
"Akio, that's good ,but you don't seem like the kind of guy I have to worry about that with."
"Well then, I'm pretty lucky to give you that impression."

"Yes, you are. So lead on. I'll tell my parents I was at a friend's house, so they won't pester me about it."

Rolf and Kevin turned a corner, and the former nearly ran into a tall, dark-haired guy he didn't recognize. For a moment he wasn't sure whether to brace for some kind of attack, wondering whether this was someone Kevin had trouble with outside of school, and the other guy's expression displayed about the same amount of suspicion.

That didn't last too long, however; the stranger's expression turned to a wide grin and he said, "Heey, you makin' friends already, Kev?"
"U-um.."

"C'mon, introduce me, man! Whaddaya waitin' for?" Rolf wasn't sure what to make of this guy's tone: It was a weird kind of mock-angry impatience that made him unsure whether or not this qualified as bullying.
"Th-this is, uh, Liam, a f-friend of mine..Liam, uh, this is Rolf..um, he..ch-chased off some guy at my school.."

"Eh? Someone botherin' Kev here?"
"Not if I have anything to say about it," said Rolf, arms crossed.
"Great! Whoever it is, you oughta give 'im a good punch next time, though." He was looking at Kevin when he said this.
"So..you're his friend, then?"
"Y-yeah," said Kevin. "L-Liam is..helping me b-be a little more confident."

"Okay, well can you make sure he doesn't run into trouble the rest of the way home? I have to meet a friend at the gym."

"Sure, sure. Wha's the guy look like?"
"A large idiot named Morley. All bark and no bite," said Rolf. "He'll back off without a fight with you around, since he has no idea who you are."

"Heh. I dunno, maybe I want to start a fight." Liam pounded a fist with his palm..which it occurred to Rolf was definitely backwards from the normal expression.
"..That's up to you. I won't be responsible if he knocks you down. But I haven't seen him yet, so he probably gave up anyway. See you later." Rolf started walking away.

"Hey!" said Liam, and he stopped and turned around.
"What?"

"When you're not busy with your friend, we oughta' hang out sometime. You an' me and Kevin. Yeah?"
"..Sure."

Akio's dad saw them on their way to the game room. He said hello, and not to burn the house down.

"That was a joke, right?" said Sam, once they were in said room.

"Yeah, of course. It's not like I ever did anything that might have burned down the house before, right?"

"..Sure. So what do we have here? A PS3 and..a computer?"
"Well, actually, that's the only console I actually have, and there aren't a lot of multiplayer games here..but the computer's hooked up to the screen so we can play some older games."

"On a computer?"

"It's this wonderful thing called an emulator." He handed her one of two USB controllers. "The controller's not exactly the same, but hey, it's still a controller."

Rolf walked, briskly, to the gym. He didn't want to give Cole the time to decide to back out. When he got inside, he found him sitting on one of the couches. "What took you so long?"
"Morley."

"Ah, he was after another one, eh? Who was it this time?"
"You know Kevin? Guy who's afraid to talk?"
"Oh, yeah, sure, that guy. Heard some rumors he's been looking a little weird this week." He stood up. "But gossip sucks, so let's talk about something else. Am I gonna have to pay for a membership or something? Because those look crazy expensive and I'm pretty sure I can't afford them."
"Don't worry about it. The premium membership lets me bring in a guest once a week."

"Oh, well, that's good." Rolf led the way into the gym proper, swiping his card along the way.

Cole looked around at the gym's array of machines the way a deer would look around at a lit headlights museum. "So..what should I do here?"
"You should start small. Maybe a slower pace on one of the treadmills or something."
"No quick leveling cheat, huh?"

"I guess if you want to get there faster you can use the magic ring that also makes you a girl."
"I know, but in addition to being pretty sure I like being attracted to girls and not a girl myself, that's kind of risky. There are a lot of warnings that come with that thing, and most of them are distressingly vague."
"I think 'becoming the mask' is pretty specific."
"No, it isn't. For all we know overusing the ring could literally turn a person into a mask which then lets people who put it on look like the disguise the ring was used to make. And even if it doesn't do that, it implies a serious loss of mental stability on par with what happens to actors sometimes. I'd like to at least try to get fit the normal way before I even think about any super-ambiguous magical solutions."

"Sure. Treadmill it is then. I'll find you some small weights to work on while you do that."

After a couple of hours, Cole declared he was tired and Rolf offered to treat him to supper, which he was more than happy to take up. “You know,” said Rolf on their way there, “it's actually easier for guys to keep weight off..so I hear. As long as you keep exercising, you don't have to worry too much about your diet..I mean, unless you've been eating nothing but potatoes and bacon.”

“I like eating, and I do love bacon, but I'm not stupid. Heart attack at 30? No thanks.”

“Well..it's almost time for supper,” said Akio.

“Mmh. You wanna go somewhere, or were you gonna eat at home?”
“Uh..I hadn't really thought about this, but it'd look kind of like a date if I took you out to eat, right?”
“Not if we go dutch. I know a good place.” Sam stood up and grinned at him. “Unless you're chicken.”
“Eh? No way, I'm just, you know, concerned about what your parents would think if, like, some kind of rumor got out or something.”
“Well, come on then.”
“Sure, sure.” Akio followed her brisk walk out of his house and all the way to the restaurant.

Did I mention they were all heading to the same restaurant?

Ring 2.2: Kell

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Ring 2.2:
Kell

After lunch, Kevin returned home and took a good, long look in the mirror. As expected, Liam was right. He didn't quite look like he used to: Still the same old scrawny guy, but careful inspection made it clear he had grown a little bit. He partially wondered how he hadn't at least noticed the hair earlier, like in the shower. He promised himself that he'd pay more attention from now on--what was happening was fascinating, and he certainly wasn't going to do it twice.

Then he turned to the nightstand, the ring waiting there. He picked it up, looking at it briefly to wonder how something so small and simple-looking could hold such an amazing power. The admiring stare was brief, however: He was eager to make use of that power. So he slipped on the ring, and thought of Kell. He didn't have to go into any specifics or anything; the ring glowed almost instantly.

Kevin turned to the mirror, and took off the ring. There was a brief pause, as usual, followed by a slight tingling across his body. His skin became smoother, the body hair thinner and much shorter, and the color paled a little bit. When that was done, his hair began to grow, the red tint to its color quickly brightening. He slowly grew taller, especially his legs.

His shirt and underwear both began to shrink. The underwear pulled up off of his legs and began to grow tighter between them. The shirt's sleeves pulled in and disappeared, while the lower hem began to rise up off his stomach. Both were starting to shift from their original colors to a brighter red tint. He was a little surprised to see his hair continue growing past shoulder-length, but not particularly distressed.

Eventually his height settled, and the shape of his body began changing. His hips and upper legs grew wider, while his stomach (now mostly exposed by the shirt) became thinner. His shoulders pulled in a little bit, his arms thinning and fingers becoming slightly smaller. He observed these changes with a grin: He was starting to feel his confidence come back. It didn't matter what other people thought of him, he could do whatever he set his mind to. If he was comfortable with himself, everyone else would be happy to be around him. Things like that he'd told himself for years, but here and now it felt more real, less like thoughts he was trying to put into himself and more like ideas he was having.

By now his hair reached halfway down his back, and the flowing locks of red hair were starting to look next to impossible to manage. But that didn't concern Kevin. He could see his underwear's sides diminishing to strings, frills forming on the top part, but more importantly than that, he see it getting closer between his legs, and could feel a gentle pulling there to match the change he was seeing. He smiled as the feeling there faded, replacing itself with a very different one. Now she was Kell..almost.

Taking note of a couple of ribbons and some braids that had appeared in her still-growing hair, which was now down to her hips, Kell looked up to her shirt. It was pink, like the panties, and the hem had stopped moving once it had reached her still-flat chest. The collar began to open up and move down, leaving behind a couple of straps over her shoulder. At the same time, she could feel her chest starting to push forward just a little bit, and see it growing into two small bumps as the shirt's neckline pulled down past them.

The top of the shirt gained a bunch of frills, and soon the middle pulled down to a single point, a small white bow appearing to hold together the two sides. At the same time, her chest continued to fill out. As it did, she could feel her nerves vanish, her confidence growing, swelling with the forming breasts..until finally, the pushing finished, leaving her with an impressive bust, an amazing figure to match, and a smile on her face.

She bent over toward the mirror, now almost too tall for it. Her hair reached halfway down her legs now, but it had finally stopped, too. "Hmm..gonna need another haircut, I guess," she said. She went over to her dresser and got out some shorts and a t-shirt, gender-neutral clothes that Kevin could get away with buying and having in his room, even though they were slightly too big for him.

Flora had probably been right, she thought to herself while dressing. It wouldn't hurt to wear something a little more feminine now and then. And soon, she wouldn't have to worry about raising suspicion by buying something like that. Still, even these clothes came off as pretty flattering, since her hips were wide enough to make the shorts tighter up top, and the way the shirt hung off her chest made its size rather obvious.

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"So am I still me to you?" said Kell, walking with Liam to his house.

"Sure. Are you you to you?"

"Definitely."

"Even with that hair?"

"It'll go back in twelve hours, and then I'm gonna make sure it doesn't grow this long again. I figured I might as well try it since I've never had absurdly long hair before."

"Li, I just don't think you know what it's like to have all those nerves all your life and then be able to throw them all away at once. I feels great. It's like a huge backpack full of rocks I've been wearing forever, and now I get to take it off and throw it away. I mean, I know I could've taken out the rocks one by one, but..you know..it's way better this way."

"Hah! Avenging my one-syllable nickname, are you?"

"Huh? Oh, I wasn't even thinking about that. But really, it's amazing, I'm not afraid of everything anymore! The only thing that's scared me at all when I'm like this is turning back. But, soon I won't even have to do that."

"So you're not afraid of anything, eh? Not even spiders?"
"Ha! I'll stomp 'em."
"Heights?"
"Well I'm not gonna walk a tightrope, because I didn't get stupider, but if I ever go to see the Grand Canyon I'm gonna actually see it."
"Crowds?"
She laughed. "No way! Like, last night I..oh, yeah, I haven't told you about what happened last night yet! The arcade thing."

"Of course, there were more pressing matters. So how was it?"
"It was fun. I made friends with some real girls. I mean..I guess I'd better stop thinking of it that way, but, you know, it was a bunch of people who like to game and everyone I met was pretty cool and fun to be around. Oh, and I got to show off on DDR."
"Great. So maybe ya won't choke the next time a competition comes around?"

"Yeah. Next time, I'm gonna win. Or at least get in the finals."

"Kell, you oughta know winners never settle for second place."
"Well, confidence obviously isn't the same as competitiveness. I'd just be a jerk if I couldn't live with being really good and not the best."

"Anyway, I met lots of cool people. Like, there was this girl Aki who was really short and slightly hyper. We managed to find a Rock Band set nobody was using and she was a great singer, even when she said she didn't know the songs. She was friends with, ah..Jenna, and Flora. Jenna was a master at Soul Caliber II, and pretty much every fighting game we played after that. Flora was kinda super-girly, and did more talking than playing sometimes, but she still didn't seem too out of place there. Um..and there was Sam and Sara and Lauren..I think I know them all from school, but I mean, I've never really talked to them before. And that's what's really great, I can actually talk to people now instead of awkwardly standing there with no idea what to say and eventually getting scared and running away."

"Hm..so those three you didn't know from school, did they say where they were from?"
"No, but nobody really felt the need to ask, either. Kinda lucky for me since I'm not really sure what I would've said if I was asked for more detail. I just claimed I was new in town and didn't go beyond that. Oh, hey! That'd be a good reason."

"A reason for what?"
"You could use the disguise ring to go to the free arcade night. Apparently they have it every month, and it's always all-girls, so.."
"Eh, we'll see. I don't know whether that's worth usin' up the one disguise. I mean, the arcade's open all the rest of the month, it just isn't free. And that's not a hurdle for me. You know I don't like to go into what I can afford."

"Yeah."

"..Liam?"
"Hn?"
"Thanks for being such a great friend. You're the best person I ever could've met."
"Hah, I'm not the best person. I wouldn't be so kind to ya if I didn't see something I liked."

"But that's just it. You can see stuff other people can't, you figured stuff out about me before I did and then helped me see it. I mean, I'm sure you know this stuff already, but I never really felt able to say it all aloud."

"Well, don't forget what I said this morning."
"Oh, I know. I don't think I want to be attached that way to anyone right now, anyway. I'm finally enjoying being me, so unless I'm just totally lovestruck I'm not gonna give that up to be someone else's girlfriend."

"Well, you shouldn't foreswear dating all the way, you know. All you gotta do is put it the other way around--whoever it is, make him your boyfriend."

"I know, I don't mean forever. Just, not right now. Definitely not before the whole 'becoming the mask' thing is done, and probably not for a while after that. But I'm trying to say you don't have to worry about me dating anyone, including you, for a while."

"By the way, speaking of this morning, I think you said something about you and me being human. But you also told me you were magic once..right? Am I imagining that?"
"Nah, that's what I said. I'm human, and I'm magic. You can be both. An' I'll flip over a house before I let someone tell me I ain't human just because I'm magic. People in this world think you're either human or less than it, and I don't have the pride it takes to say I'm more, so I'm not taking any chances on the semantics of it all."

"But you don't understand how magic works, either?"
"Nope. Nobody understands magic, Kell. Mages don't understand it, humans who happen to be magic like me don't get it, nobody gets it. The sooner you understand that, the readier you are to deal with it. Anyway, here we are." They had finally made it to Liam's home, and went inside.

Leading the way inside, Liam said, "So what do ya wanna do today?"
"Umm, I dunno. How about some DDR?"
"Heh. Sure. You know, I'm surprised being a totally different shape doesn't affect your skills at all."
"I think it has something to do with the 'perfect disguise' bit. It wouldn't be perfect if it didn't feel natural that way. And..it must preserve practice and knowledge and stuff."

"Sure seems like it."

Ring 2.1: Becoming

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Ring 2.1:

Becoming

Kevin turned over in his bed, and sat up. He looked for the clock, and eventually found it. What time was it? Around 10:00, it looked like. Time to get up, not every Saturday but definitely this one. He swung around so his feet were on the floor, and glared at the ring on his nightstand. He was glad he hadn't been woken up around 7. It was always torture going back, because it was so slow. He almost reached for the little piece of plastic jewelry, but stopped himself. He had a promise to keep.

About an hour later, he was out the door and on his way to a nearby restaurant. He didn't usually like to eat out at a sit-down place like this one, but today was different. Near the front door, he met a tall, kind of bony-slim guy wearing angular glasses and, of all things, a trenchcoat. "H-hey, Liam." This was his best friend, had been for many years. Best, because Kevin didn't like to admit to himself that he was basically the only one.
"Yo. Glad ya came as yourself today," he said.

"W-well, I d-don't go back on promises...you..you know."

"Sure, sure. I trust ya." He paused, looking down at Kevin and tilting his head a little bit. "..Hn."

"What?"
"Tell ya later. Come on in, my friend." Liam went inside and held the door open for Kevin to follow.

Inside, Liam held up two fingers for the host. "..A, distant booth if you can?"
"No problem," said the host. The place wasn't very busy just now, empty enough to have private conversation...exactly why they were here at this time of day. So he was able to seat the two of them, and give them menus, without any wait.

They sat in an awkward silence for a minute or two after ordering drinks before it occurred to Kevin that Liam wanted him to start the conversaion. "S-so..what'd you want to talk about? Why couldn't.."

"Because I want to talk about you, my friend," said Liam, pointing a finger at Kevin's face, "and I want to talk about you with you rather than you with a layer of magically-produced costume on." As he continued talking, he leaned farther and farther across the table, bringing the finger closer to Kevin's face, before suddenly drawing back, like a spring, to sitting up straight on his side.

"O-okay..um.."

"Listeeen, I'm not gonna tell you to stop what you're doing. You're my friend, and I like to see ya happy, man.But not, if it hurts ya in the long run."

"Wh-what do you mean?"
"Well, let me start with the positives. I'm friends with you. With Kevin, right? Savvy? The things I like about you are unique to you, and if you're really a different person I wouldn't like you as much. But I can tell you that isn't happening, because I like Kell just as much as I like you, and for all the same reasons. And I'm not beyond admitting, Kell is hot. I'd ask her out in a heartbeat if we'd just met. To be clear, I am saying that last part to clear the air. If I used that as an excuse to hide my concerns, I'd be a terrible friend and an even worse lover, dig?"
"Uh..okay..so..wh-what are your concerns? I mean, K-k-kell is..better than me. She's s-stronger, and m-more confident, and..um.."
"Yeah, I know. But Kev, man." He leaned forward, elbows on the table. "We've been workin' on your confidence for years. You were improving, you were really gettin' better. Speakin' up, hardly stuttering at all. But now that you've found this shortcut all that progress looks like it's just disappeared. The way you are now, I'm surprised you didn't hide under your shirt when the waitress looked at ya."

"But.."

"Now, now let me finish. I'm not saying I disapprove of you using a shortcut. If it makes you a better person, more like who you wanna be, and faster, and if it really gives you all that extra confidence you've always wanted, I say go for it. But I got two concerns where it comes to that. The first one is this--is all that extra confidence real?"

"W-well..yeah! O-o-of course it is."

"Are you sure? How can you be sure, man? I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I have to know for sure, and you have to know for sure. What if Kell's 'confidence' is just a layer over your usual nerves? My cocern, Kev, is if it's fake it'll break someday, and then we'll be back and square one, but worse."

"I..okay, I understand..b-but, it is real. I know it is. I-it's not li-like I'm thinking nervous thoughts and putting on a s-show, it's like I feel like I r-r-really know what I'm d-doing. It's like..y-you know how you'd always s-say there was a c-confident guy in m-me, waiting to come out?"
"Sure, and I still stand by that."
"W-well, it feels like that's really what h-happens. L-like the confidence I al-always wanted just comes out. A-and it feels natural."

"Hm." Liam looked thoughtful for a moment. "Okay, that's pretty great then."

"On to my next thing, I think it's pretty obvious but I think I should point out to you that you're turning into a chick."
"W-well..yeah...."

"Okay. Now let me explain: I don't think you gotta turn into a girl to be more confident, even shortcut-wise. Like, I bet if you were born a girl and grew up into Kell's looks with all else equal, you'd still act pretty much the same way you do now. Bein' a girl isn't what's giving you confidence. That's a separate thing the ring does. Am I wrong?"

"N-no..that's probably c-correct."

"Okay then. So they're not inextricable, Kev. That means turning into a chick is either a bonus or a price. And shortcuts that come at a price stink. I mean, if I was in your position, which I can only sorta imagine I guess, I don't know if turning into a girl would be worth all the confidence in the world, even if I know it's real. It just seems like a pretty desperate price. So..I'll ask ya direct. All the confidence and attractiveness and whatever else aside, do you like bein' a chick? Or are you at least okay with it?"
"W-well..I-I'm not sure. I mean..it's h-hard for me t-to separate one from the other. B-but..I think, it doesn't matter that much, if I'm a g-g-guy or not, either way. I'd j-just rather be..that better person. Male or f-female."

"Hm, now see, that's what concerns me. The loss of confidence as you the more often you're her, and that's the problem right there. You're startin' to associate the two. Bein' confident means bein' Kell, so obviously bein' Kevin means stuttering and muttering all the time, right?"
"Um..I-I..yeah..I guess I was th-thinking that. It's..you're right, it's n-not really true."

"Yeah. This is what the whole 'becomin' the mask' thing is all about. Also, when I said earlier, that you're turning into a chick? I meant the present progressive tense as literally as possible."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"I mean, have you checked your hair lately?"

"Um.." Kevin reached up a hand and touched his hair. It was longer than it had been before..by more than it could have grown in 12 hours.
"Yeah. It's also lookin' a little reddish. And I think you're starting to catch up to me on height, too. It's all part of the same thing. Your body gets used to being Kell when you're her so much, so it doesn't go back as far. Eventually you're gonna get to where you hardly turn back at all."
"Th-that..that would be..I w-would love that."
"Are you sure? Never goin' back to being Kevin again?"

"Y-yes. I don't want to be me. I want to be her. B-but..does that mean, we couldn't be f-friends..?"

"No way. I mean, like I said, you're you, even when you're her. My tastes in people are too picky to be so easily fooled. She's just you, but a girl, and with confidence. Other than the breasts she's what you coulda been anyway in a few more years."

"S-so, are you disappointed in me, f-for..taking a shortcut? F-for turning into her instead of.."
"Well, I'd be lyin' if I didn't say I wish you could see what it's like to gain all that confidence by your own hard work..but if you're okay with takin' a shortcut, I'm fine with it. Look, Kev, none of us human beings are being. We're all who we think we are, and we never think we're the same thing twice. Everyone's becoming, so who'm I to fault ya for wanting to become someone better a little faster, eh?"

"Oh, but.." something occurred to Kevin. "But, w-wait, aren't p-people..my family, th-the school..? everyone's g-gonna notice if I'm changing that much!"
"Well, maybe that'll make it easier."
"H-how?"

"Weeelll..you'll have to deal with a few jerks with no sense of sympathy, but if everyone thinks your body's changin' in unusual ways and even you don't know why, it looks all baleful polymorph and nobody's gonna get onto ya for slowly turnin' into Kell. That you're doing it totally on purpose can be yours and my little secret, eh?"

"Oh..th-that's..yeah, I c-c-can do that. B-but..wait, I've a-appeared as K-Kell..I've met p-people, made f-friends, told them m-m-my name..what am I g-gonna.."
"Sshh. Look. Magic's tricky. Most people don't know it exists around here, and they definitely don't know how it works. You an' I don't either. So maybe there's this mysterious Kell girl who's showin' up right when you start changin', and you start remembering all the stuff she did just like you were the one did it. And then, when you're all done, you still got no idea where she came from before she appeared and you started changing. Sweet deal, right?"
"Y-yeah..that'll work. Th-thanks, Liam. F-for..for everything."
"Sure. What the heck are friends for, Kev?" 

"D-do..if you ever want t-to try using the r-ring.."
"Kev, maan, we've been over this. That ring, even if it preserves general youness, changes things. I don't need me rearranged, I like me bein' me. And if I ever need to look a lot like someone else, then I'll use it. But until then, I'm not gonna waste that one costume the ring gives on somethin' as small as basic curiosity. Alright?"

"S-sure..."

"Great." Liam looked up in the air for a minute or two, seemingly trying to remember something. "..Oh. Riiight. One last thing."
"Y-yeah?"
"When this is all over, don't you dare start dating me out of gratitude or somethin' like that. That'd be some kind of emotional blackmail horse-excrement on my part, and I won't have it! If you ever ask me out, you do it like you were born a woman and I had nothin' to do with it. You got that?"

Kevin had slid halfway down his seat in terror. "Um...y-yeah."

"Great. Let's order some food now, 'cause I'm starvin'."

To be continued...

 

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So, quick author's note. I'd like to know if anyone called this development back when Kell was first introduced. And if so, why you thought this would happen.

Ring 1.3: Returning

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Ring 1.3:

Returning

Once they were inside, Aki went straight for the ring on the coffee table. "So," she said, picking it up and looking at it, "is this the greatest thing or what?"
"It's..pretty great, I have to admit that," said Jen.

"Yeah. If only it hadn't made me so darn short.." Aki put the ring on, and it seemed to turn black for a second or two, like it was pulling away the light from around it. And then she suddenly started growing, her clothes shifting and growing, her petite breasts deflating and her girlish figure flattening down back to good old Akio. He didn't even lose the ring.

"Phew. I thought I was gonna get a cramp in my neck or something. Who wants to turn back next?"
"Hmm..it wears off in twelve hours, right?" said Jen. "I think I'll just stay like this until it wears off."
"I wanna turn back," said Flora, holding out a hand for the ring. Akio handed it over.

While Flora was busy putting on the ring, and it "glowed" black as before, Akio said, "So why do you want to stay like that? You're not tired of being attracted to guys yet?"
"W-well, I haven't been around that many guys tonight. But, that's not why. I kind of like being, you know, sorta kinda physically fit for once. Even if it's as a girl, and a disguise or whatever. Maybe I'll even sleep better for it." While she talked, Flora's clothes shifted into jeans and a t-shirt, but tailored to her current proportions. Then they grew out to Rolf's proper size, and she blushed, holding onto the pants to just barely keep them from falling over. Thankfully, Akio wasn't paying attention.

"If you say so. I mean, being a girl is kinda fun, I guess. I don't think I could handle doing it too often though, once a month is definitely plenty for me. What d'you think, Rolf?"

"I think it's great!" Flora's body still hadn't changed. The pause ended just as she started to speak again. "I had so much fun tonight, I mean, everyone was just tons of fun to be around and..and.." Her voice slowly lowered, her body growing a bit taller and her chest fading away, her hips drawing in and her stomach out. She could feel Rolf's old strength returning as she turned back into a guy down below, and this was where he hesitated. "..and, whoa. Have I been talking like that all night?"
"..Pretty much," said Jen.

"Wow. I thought I asked the ring to not turn me into a huge girly-girl. Like, I was thinking maybe some kind of tomboy athelete or something..how'd it get the disguise so wrong?"

"Are you saying you didn't enjoy it?" asked Jen.
"W-well no, but I..okay, look, I like being a man. Going full feminine like that and being okay with it, much less enjoying it, is weird. Where are the instructions for this thing?"

"I tossed them to you, remember?" said Akio.
"Oh, right." Rolf reached in his pocket and pulled out the instruction sheet. "...Where did the stuff in my pockets go when I was wearing a skirt?"
"Huh..who knows," said Jen. "Well, at least it didn't totally disappear?"

"Yeah, there's that," muttered Rolf. "...Akio. Half of this instruction booklet is warnings. Did you read. Any. Of them?"

"Well, no, I just got the ring in the mail today, and then I ran straight here to show it off. Why, is it anything bad?"
"Hmm..lucky for you, nothing we need to worry too much about. Apparently using the same disguise a lot in a short amount of time 'may result in becoming the mask'. I guess we're okay if we only use it once a month, though. Oh, wait, look at this. 'The diguise invoked is the first thing you think of after putting on the ring.' That's great. So it just ignores little words like not. And..hm. Well, that could be a problem."
"What? What is it?" said Akio, coming over to where Rolf was and trying to get a look over his shoulder at the paper.

"Apparently, the disguise you make with the ring is 'imprinted' for you, and if you want a whole new disguise you have to use a new ring to make it."

"Aww, really?" said Akio. "So to get taller I'm gonna have to buy a whole new ring...dang it, those things are expensive!"

"Wait, wait, hang on...It looks like an existing costume can be 'modified'. I'm guessing this means you could make yourself a little taller, but not as tall as I am now...and, like, not a cat or anything."

"Well lemme try that, then." Akio started trying to take the ring from Rolf, who held it back reflexively for a moment before realizing he was actually volunteering to be the guinea pig and handing it over.

"Okay, just don't drop it this time."

"I won't." Akio put on the ring and thought of Aki, but taller. His mind almost involuntarily recalled what Kell had said about how Aki probably wasn't through growing yet. After a couple of seconds, the ring glowed. "Alright.."

Akio took off the ring, and then felt the sqeezing sensation again. But, it wasn't quite as strong this time. And when the room, and Rolf, and Jen all started moving up, they stopped a lot sooner. His stomach and limbs shrank much the same as before, but Akio managed to keep his balance even as his hips pushed out a bit. Then he looked down, at his clothes, and was surprised to see it was just his jeans and t-shirt getting tighter, rather than suddenly bursting out into a skirt and blouse. He could feel a brassiere forming under the shirt, and his underwear tightening, but now he found that it felt strangely good. He blushed, a shy grin on his face, and a small, quiet "Mmm..." came from his closed mouth in Aki's girly, high voice as he became a girl again. Then her chest jumped out, becoming boobs again like before, but she looked down and could clearly see, even with the shirt over them, that they were bigger than before, and it was clear from the way they filled the bra this time that her eyes weren't deceiving her.

She looked up at Rolf, and then quickly turned her head over to Jen. Their eyes weren't quite the same height, but she didn't have to look up quite as much now, and that was plenty. "So, how do I look?"
"You look..older. Like you aged a year or two," said Jen. "If you're using that look to go to the arcade next month, you'll have to say you had a growth spurt or something."
"Well, that's believable enough, right? Okay, I'll look like this next time." Then she put the ring back on, and began shifting back.

Still on the way to manhood, Aki handed the ring to Rolf. "Now you try fixing your problem."

"Wha--now?" he said, taking the ring but not really wanting it.

"What better time than the present?" said Akio, now fully male. "I'm sure you don't want to go a whole month wondering if you'll be able to go the arcade next month without getting into arguments about fashion and how to attract boys half the time instead of playing games."
"Um..yeah, okay, okay. I guess I'll try."

Rolf put on the ring, and tried to think of Flora's body with his mind. Or a mind as close to his as possible. Wearing jeans, and a t-shirt, like a sensible person. He took the ring off and closed a fist around it as soon as it had begun to glow.

He found his t-shirt losing its sleeves, the collar pulling itself down to show off some of his chest hair; a bra made itself apparent over his shoulders and across his back, and his underwear and jeans both shrank, suddenly becoming uncomfortably tight. But there wasn't a frilly dress this time. That was a good sign, he thought.

The familiar shove came to Rolf's midsection then, and his shirt seemed to pull tighter around the slim, flat stomach than it really needed to. His head's hair grew out and changed color, and with a mild tingling the hair on his chest, and most of the rest of his body, pulled in or just plain disappeared for the most part. His hips shoved out, and then he could feel the tightness of the panties his boxers had turned into between his legs starting to loosen up, and before he knew it he'd turned into a girl again.

Flora's chest shoved out once, and then again, filling the bra and giving the tank top her shirt had become some cleavage to show. She couldn't help but notice her head starting to rush again, the pleasant feeling coming back between her legs, and she tried but couldn't quite resist looking at Akio for a second or two.

She turned her giddy smile into a frown and closed her eyes for a second, thinking. Trying to get a sense of what was going on. It occurred to her that the clothes she were wearing looked great on her, that wearing unisex clothes like this made her femininity and beauty all the more obvious..she stopped herself and opened her eyes. "Urgh..I think I'm still kinda mostly the same as before. I mean, my clothes are normal but the stuff I'm thinking about them isn't."
"Hmm, well, let me do a quick litmus test then," said Akio. "What do you think of sports?"
"Oh, sports? Sports are great! They help you stay fit, a whole lot better than just exercising and dieting would, and they're loads of fun and a great way to meet lots of new people. Besides that, people on sports teams hang out a lot and..and, whoa why in the world was I gonna say that?"

"What were you gonna say?" said Jen. "Come on, you're among friends."
"I-I-I was gonna say that all the cutest boys play sports! Oh man, I need to change back right now." She put the ring on and rapidly returned to being Rolf, faster than any of their changes before had been.

"..Phew. Okay, that was weird and uncomfortable. I mean, when I was Flora before I was totally okay with saying stuff like that, now it's just weird."

"Hmm, well that's progress at least, I think," said Akio. "I guess since your original disguise defaults to 'girly-girl' you can only sort of halfway change Flora's mentality to a more boyish one."

"Maybe you need to experiment with it a little to get the right mix. I mean, some of the stuff you said about sports is what you usually say," said Jenna.

"I..yeah, you're right," said Rolf. "But..no more experimenting for me tonight. I just wanna stay male for a while before I even think about being 'Flora' again, okay?"
"Fine with me," said Akio. "Sooo, who's keeping up with the ring?"

"Definitely not you," said Rolf.
"Aw, but I bought it! With my own money, even."
He nodded. "Yeah, which I'm sure means you'd feel really terrible if your investment got lost. Which would happen if you kept up with it. You'd lose it."

"You really think I'm that untrustworthy?"

"Well, you do lose stuff a lot," said Jen. "Let's see, how many phones have you gone through in the past six months?"
"Okay, okay! You win. You should probably hang on to it anyway, in case you change your mind about turning back before you go to bed."

"Huh..that actually makes sense," said Rolf. He went over and handed the ring to Jen. "Are you sure you're not coming down with something, Akio?"

"No way. I have amazing ideas, and I make great decisions all the time. They just get crowded out because I make lots of decisions and, you know, they can't all be perfect."

"Whatever. Let's go home." Rolf opened the door. "See you tomorrow, Cole! Or, Jen, whatever."

"See ya!"

To be continued...

Ring 1.2: The Arcade

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Ring 1.2:

The Arcade

The three teenage guys, Akio, Cole, and Rolf, walked down the sidewalk from Cole's house, each of them recently altered in body, and somewhat in mind, to be girls of roughly the same age. They were finally going to get in on the free arcade night, for the first time since what in their minds was the best arcade in all of recorded history had come under new management. So naturally they were excited, but not saying much. Not, that is, until Akio realized something. "Oh, hey!" She was in front, so when she stopped to turn around and look at the others they both nearly ran into her. "We need new names," she said. "I mean, a disguise isn't very useful if you just tell people who you are underneath anyway, right?"

"Yeah..you're right for once," said Cole. Rolf's head titled sideways a bit, as she started thinking.

"Twice now. Ha. Anyway, I have it easy. I'll just call myself Aki." She whirled back around and started walking again.

"Wh--bu--that's way too close to your real name," protested Cole. "It's literally just a one-letter difference."

"Yeah, but how close it is doesn't matter, as long as it's not the same, and it actually sounds like something you'd name a girl," said Aki, looking back. "I mean, who's gonna look at me and think 'that must be Akio somehow disguising himself as a girl who is also at least a foot shorter than he is'. What about you, Rolf?"

"I think I'll call myself Flora."

Cole asked, "Why?"

She shrugged in return. "I like it. It sounds cute, doesn't it? Makes you think of flowers.."

"I guess so. Me..I'm gonna think of a name that isn't just a near-anagram of 'Cole'."

"Really?" said Aki. "So what name would that be?"

"Give me a minute, I need to think about it."

"Okay, beginning timing now!"

The sunset began as the three of them continued to walk. After a bit of silence, Aki said, "Hey, you know what? It's kinda weird we're all able to walk this easily, given that our centers of balance totally changed. And in skirts, too. Did the swishing around on your legs even register in your head before I pointed it out?"

"Um, huh. No, I guess it didn't," said Cole.

"Well, hey, perfect disguise," said the third girl. "It'd give you away pretty fast if you couldn't walk right, or wear clothes like the person you're disguised as."

Aki said, "Minute's up, Cole. Collette? Hehehe." She hadn't meant for that giggle to sound so..girly, but didn't really mind it all that much.

"Definitely not. Why do you take expressions like that so literally?"

"Well if you mean you need some unspecified amount of time you shouldn't say 'a minute'. Just say you need some time. Or, like, a moment. Which is technically not a minute, but also probably less than an hour."

"Okay, okay. I just came up a name, just now, alright? I'm Jenna from now on. Or Jen, if you're lazy."

"That's a pretty name," said Flora.

Aki said, "Yeah, it'll work."

---

The three of them got to the arcade at about the time the sun dipped below the horizon. They didn't have any trouble getting in; the lady up front took a brief look at them and gestured for them to go through, which they did. After a brief agreement to meet back up at the entrance in a few hours or so, the three split off to go play.

This was no ordinary arcade. It was a large, open space packed to the brim with a wide collection of games that the old man had worked long and hard to put together. The central section of the store was dedicated to rows upon rows of arcade cabinets, their coin-eating functions disabled for tonight. There were some from every era of the arcade, from early pong machines to modern-day hi-res fighting games. The sides had rooms with console systems, again at least one from every generation, hooked up to TVs in them, normally rented out by the hour to groups, but currently open for anyone to play.

Aki went off on her own, while the other two girls went together somewhere. She was wandering around at random, looking at all the people and machines and wondering what to try first, and it occurred to her once again just how short she was. Even most of the girls around here were taller than her, taller by enough that she had to crane her head up to see their faces half the time. She was worried she'd need a step or something to see the cabinet screens properly. In the middle of this, she was interrupted by someone saying, "Hey!"

She turned to look at whoever was shouting, and found a tall brunette in a tank top and jeans standing front of a Gauntlet machine. "I haven't seen you around before. Up for some Gauntlet?"

"Sure!" Aki's earlier fears were somewhat justified; she had to stand on the balls of her feet, nearly on her toes, to reach the top of the machine properly. She was so concerned about that she didn't immediately register that she knew the person she was now standing next to, by virtue of being in a couple of the same classes in school. Obviously she wasn't about to let on.

"So what's your name? I'm Sam." (Samantha, actually, but usually only the teachers called her that.)

"Aki," answered the shorter girl. "Nice to meet ya."

Jenna was in the lead, with Flora following out of curiosity. Back when the free nights were unisex, Cole wouldn't have walked with this much purpose. "So where are we going?" she said after a moment.
"DDR machine. I've always wanted to try that, but, you know.."
"Wow, really? You could totally have played that before. Maybe it'd even help, you know."

"Not to be nosy, but what are you guys talking about?" said someone nearby. The two of them looked to see an unfamiliar girl, with short, bright red hair, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. She was a little taller than both of them, and even though her clothes were fairly loose it was obvious she had a great figure.

"Oh, um.." Flora hesitated, unsure of what excuse to give.

"I lost a lot of weight recently," said Jenna. It was true, but not the information that could get them in trouble.

"Yeah."

"Mmh. Well, congrats then. Anyway, if you're gonna play DDR..maybe you'd like some tips from a master?" She had a grin of pride on her face.

"I guess that's okay, if it doesn't make me feel stupid," said Jenna, starting to walk again. Both of them followed.

"I'm Kell. Sorta new in this town. You guys?"

"Flora, she's Jenna. So is this arcade sweet or what?"

"Yeah. Totally."

"Man, you're really good at this," said Sam. "Not even taking all the food."

"Yeah..Me and, uh, some friends used to play this game all the time. So much I actually bought the PS2 version." Aki was about to explain how the other guys, usually Rolf, had gotten to the point where he'd threaten to punch Akio if he rushed ahead to steal one more morsel of fruit when he didn't need it, but then realized that would probably sound odd for a bunch of girls.

"..You're kinda having trouble there, aren't ya? Would you play better in heels?"

"Umm, I don't think so. I'd be on my tiptoes then, too, just forced into it by the shoes instead of able to take breaks. Maybe just a block of wood would be better. They really didn't design these things for the vertically challenged."

Kell watched the two other girls playing one of the easiest songs on the easiest setting, her arms crossed. "You know, I've found wearing a skirt makes it that extra bit harder to play..and easier to flash people. I mean, if that's what you want that's fine, but..I'd come in shorts or jeans or something next time."
"Yeah, not..hhh..not a bad idea," said Jen.

"Well--hff--I wouldn't look as good in shorts," said Flora.

"Is looking good--hh--really that important when you're playing video games?" said Jenna, a little confused by the statement.

"I dunno--hh--maybe?" The song ended with both of them panting and a barely-passing score for both of them.

"Okay, you guys, step off and lemme show you how a real pro plays." Kell got up on one of the machines while the other two stepped off. "Hmm..this one's always fun." The song she was looking at was an 8-foot song on Maniac. She paused and took a deep breath, standing up straight before hitting the start button. "Let's do this."

Aki and Sam finally managed to get themselves killed by a boss. The smaller girl got down off her toes and breathed a sigh of relief. They looked at each other for a moment before Sam said, “You wanna go again, or try something else out?”
“I think I could stand to sit down for a while, if that's okay with you.”

“Sure.” Samantha led the way to one of the side rooms. They were lucky enough to find an empty one with an SNES in it.

Aki looked around the bookshelf full of games. “So, are we working together or fighting this time? Oh, hey, Street Fighter.”

“That'd be fun. But you know there's probably a machine out there with the same game.”
Aki was on her way to start up the system already. “Well..yeah, but then you'd have to give me a handicap for short.”

Sam laughed. “Okay, okay. Let's go.”

Panting, Kell grinned first at a near-perfect score, and then at the other two girls who'd been watching. “See...nothing to it.”
“Well..nothing but like a million hours of practice,” said Jen. “You weren't even watching the screen most of the time, were you?”

“Mmh, I guess not.”
“Maybe we should play something Jen and I aren't newbies at,” said Flora.

“Okay,” said Kell, “so what d'you suggest?”

“Well..I don't know right off the top of my head. Let's go look for something.”

“So, have you ever been to this free night thing before?" asked Sam.

"Well, no, I mean I've heard of it before but this was the first time I was able to come..what about you?"

"I got dragged here by a friend a couple of months ago. It took some convincing, I mean, an arcade in this day and age? But yeah, it was a lot of fun so I decided to start coming back. She's got practice, though, so isn't here tonight."

Samantha was losing..badly. "When was the last time you played this?" said Aki.

"I'm not sure. Long, long time ago, definitely. I think maybe it was one of the hyper alpha turbo whatevers, not the original. You must have an SNES at home or something."

"Ah, well, there's this wonderful thing called an emulator..."

"I'm just saying, if I had a body like yours I'd show it off a little more," said Flora.

Kell answered, "But if you're hot enough that it's obvious, do you really need to show it off?"

"Well, you know, I don't mean like, wearing dresses and short skirts all the time, but maybe something that fits a little closer..."

Jenna had no idea how they had gotten into this conversation and really wanted out of it as quickly as possible. Fortunately, there was an escape in sight. "Hey, you played this before?" she said, pointing at a Soul Calibur II arcade machine.

"Hmm..maybe, once or twice?" said Kell. "Not much."

"Ohohoh, you're in for a surprise then," said Flora. "Jen here's a master at this."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far.."

"Come on, let's have a round then!" said Kell, going to the joystick and hitting start. "I wanna see just how good you are."

"Okay, okay.."

"Yeah, thanks for not using the taunt, but I think I'm tired of losing," said Sam. "How about we go play something else?"
"Yeah, sure." Aki got up and led the way out of the room. "I think my toes are well-enough rested anyway."

They walked around, looking for a game to play. "So do you wanna go do something after this? Or, like, on Saturday?"
"Ummm..I sorta..have a, curfew, and, uh, lots of homework," said Aki, thinking fast. "I sort of...made a deal to be able to come here tonight. Maybe some other time, though?"

"Sure!"

Jenna didn't notice that Flora had wandered away until after she and Kell had finished. But she figured Flora could take care of herself. "Well, you adapt fast," she said.

"I guess so, but it's still nowhere near good enough to beat you."
"Well, you know, it's the same thing as earlier. Hours of practice. Oh, hey Aki."

"Um..hi." Aki hadn't realized Jenna was there at first. "Jen, this is Sam; Sam, Jenna.." her voice trailed off as she looked at the other girl Jen was with. "Holy cow you are tall."

"Aki, this is Kell. She moved into town recently..right?"
"Yeah." Kell had to look down to see Aki's face, but she grinned once she'd found it. "Oh, don't sweat it, I'm sure you'll grow some more before you're done, Aki."
"Heh, yeah, I hope so."
"And hey, even if you don't, you'll look young for most of the rest of your life," said Sam.
Aki looked back at her, and then to Kell. "Yeah. Accentuate the positive, right?"
"Totally."

Aki looked at Jenna. "So you were owning Kell here on Soul-cal, eh?"
"Well, I wouldn't put it that strongly..I mean, she put up a good fight. Also, she might have been tired out from owning everyone, ever, at DDR."

"Oh, hey, that'd be fun," said Sam. "The steps are up on a platform anyway, so you shouldn't have any trouble seeing the screen, right?"
"Yeah! That's a great idea. Okay, see you later Jen."
"See ya."

And so the night wore on, the three boys-turned-girls enjoying every bit of it. It was what they'd dreamed of reliving for months now, and even the fact that they had to do it as girls among other girls didn't dampen how great it was. Perhaps it was even a little more fun, with the added benefit of seeing things from a bit of a different perspective. But eventually midnight rolled around and the arcade closed down, the three of them walking out with all the others who'd stayed until the end. Eventually the three of them were the only ones headed their way. Each of them chattered about the great time they'd had, the people they'd met, conversations they'd had. Only once they had entered and shut the front door to Cole's home did they turn their thoughts to returning to normal.

To be continued...