Battle Vixens! - 40

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Episode 40: Another Monster

The tornado sirens started. There was no tornado.

Announcements on the local TV and radio channels made the situation more clear, but either way the usual practice of getting and staying safely indoors, in a basement if possible, was of more use than simply continuing on as normal, unaware of any danger.

The Vixen Initiative had a way of alerting people, but it was only somewhat widely adopted; some people didn't have phones or didn't have the right kind of phones to use it, and even assuming that everyone was near someone who would receive an alert that way seemed like too great a risk at the moment. Therefore, the tornado sirens were engaged, even though it had been a minute or two since the VI's own alert began.

Ning folded her ears down, looking up at the sky. "Nngh..it's so loud," she complained, aware it was bordering on whining.

"At least you only have two ears," said one of Gemma—Plus, probably, judging by the voice. The other one was pacing around nervously.

Usually, the mist appeared pretty close to the ground. It would coalesce after not very long, and then there would be a monster to fight. Today, in the middle of the afternoon, it had begun to swirl toward a specific point up in the sky..and it hadn't stopped. For three or four minutes it kept gathering, resembling a lone stormcloud in an otherwise clear sky; in fact looking just like one with a peculiar shape to cameras. To people, however, it was immediately obvious this was something else; it possessed some quality that was difficult to put into words. Maybe...it was alive. Or maybe it gave off an oppressive atmosphere, like staring into the eyes of a lion getting ready to pounce right on top of you. The effect was strong enough to send pets and strays fleeing or panicking at the sight of it.

"I hope it just keeps doing...that until the others get here," said Ning.

"I really hope it doesn't," Plus replied. "If it's getting bigger, it's getting stronger," Minus added quietly, explaining what she meant.

Ning couldn't keep staring into the sky like this. One of Gemma was always looking, anyway, so she turned toward the other one. "..Any sign of puppets?" Her fingers were unconsciously running across the hilt of her sword, still in its sheath.
"I've been watching, and 'feeling' for shadows being pulled around or anything like that," said Minus. "So far, nothing.—" "—She must be focusing on the city today. I hope they'll be okay..."

There was a moment of tense silence; Ning occasionally glanced up at the sky and didn't see much change, just a bigger cloud. Then Plus said, "I think it's forming! Get ready..."

"Right, always." She looked up herself and saw the shape of four limbs forming, a gigantic, thick tail, wings...a short muzzle toward the front. Before long, it opened two enormous, bright red eyes, and it moved: The limbs and tail twitched strangely, and then the wings spread out and give one swift, hard flap, sending the remaining bits of mist scattered around it away and showing the monster's full form. It made a distant, screaming roar that could be heard over the noise of the sirens, and then dove straight at the center of town, right where Gemma and Ning were waiting.

It landed a few yards away, hitting the ground hard enough to shatter the road and make deep pits under each foot. Seeing it at a distance before just hadn't done its size justice: Its legs were like black tree trunks; that proportionally short muzzle alone was big enough to easily fit all three of them inside, and it was lipless, row upon row of teeth as long as spears laid bare.

"W-we have to fight that?!—" "—It's as big as my house," Plus squeaked.

"I guess we do." Ning wasn't feeling particularly confident about this herself, but put on a brave face, taking a couple of steps toward the thing. Fighting a literal dragon had never been considered a possibility for her bucket list, but it seemed like it was getting checked off anyway.

The monster drew its head back, and snapped it forward like a snake, spewing a torrent of mist from inside its body. Some of it stuck around like a fog, while the rest congealed into smaller creatures, resembling malformed animals with little glowing eyes and sharp teeth of their own.

"Oh, come on," said Ning.
"Like it's not overpowered enough?!" Plus agreed. The dragon took one slow, earth-shaking step at a time while its creations charged the three fox-girls. Ning caught the first one to arrive with a single swipe of her blade, and it was gone. Gemma threw some knives and other projectiles at some of the others, dispatching each with two or three hits. It only took one bolt of arcing lightning to be rid of the rest, but the dragon was still coming.

Ning tried striking it with lightning two or three times. Some mist poured out from each spot she hit, but the dragon continued forward without so much as a flinch. "It's gotta have some kind of weak point," she said. "Like, that big turtle was soft under the shell.."
"That's normal for turtles, though—" "—do dragons even have weaknesses?!"

Tired of waiting for it to get there, Ning ran forward, hoping to get it in the eye. After all, that was usually sort of a weakness for the ones that had them, right? No sooner had she made the leap over its mouth than its neck snapped toward her and the side of its head rammed straight into her, sending her flying away.

"WAAAAAAH!" Ning managed a clumsy roll at best, and levered herself back to her feet with her sheath. Gemma scattered, Plus coming closer to her while Minus went toward the opposite side of the dragon, trying to lead it to follow her.
"A-are you okay?"
"I'll live." The side it had hit was going to be sore, but there was plenty of adrenaline to help ignore it for now. The dragon took the bait, moving much faster than it had approached earlier and snapping its head down at her; she made a black ball of energy-absorb to stop it cold, and then shot five or six shadow-bullets in its general direction while dancing her way back. Ning took in a small huff of breath before running toward the dragon with its back now mostly turned to her, Plus following a bit behind.

"I'll get its attention on me," she called back. Once she reached its leg she leapt up, drew her sword in a slash-then-stab motion, and kicked her way off of the giant foot, backflipping and landing on the ground just soon enough and far enough away to avoid a reflexive backward kick from the limb. Then she called down some more bolts, bending them into and through the sword, before summoning it back to her hand and taking several steps away from the dragon while it whirled toward her.

Plus had split off, and now began tossing knives with small points of light at their tips toward the dragon's side; Minus drew up some of the crumbled concrete, forming it into small spikes before tossing them at the creature's back. When the knives hit there were small, audible explosions each time. But the dragon was focused on Ning now, taking one step after another toward her and nearly reaching her with every snap of its gigantic jaws. She fired back repeatedly with electricity, but it showed no signs of slowing down as it came dangerously close to backing her up against a building.

It drew its head back to strike, and another small black sphere appeared between her and it; its nose rammed and recoiled, dissipating the sphere while reacting to it like a solid wall. Minus waved her over, and she wasted no time getting out from under the monster in those precious few seconds it took to recover. It turned its head and then its body, drawing back as it had before and breathing more black mist out at the two of them. Ning had an undefinable bad feeling about the fog it produced and made several swift jumps back out of its range, inadvertently leaving the other fox-girl inside of it. Minus began coughing as the smaller monsters appeared around her.

She was shaking her head slowly, like she was confused. It was obviously a time to attack or get away, and she was doing neither. Something was wrong.

Now that she knew it was dangerous, Ning couldn't go into the fog to rescue her: It wouldn't do any good, she'd just get affected the same way herself. But the smaller monsters were getting ready to pounce on her, and then the dragon could..! The only possibility was to fire some lightning that way, but even with the control over it she had now, she couldn't hit all or even most of the animal things without the spread being high enough to also hit the person she was trying to protect. Minus could resist magic, but it was an active thing, and she didn't seem to be in a state to protect herself; and besides all of that, even if all the animals were gone and Minus miraculously unharmed there was no way to get her out of the fog!

Ning's brain spun in a panicked cycle like this for a second or two before tripping over itself as she realized that Minus had just disappeared. "Wha—?" There was no time to figure out what was going on; the dragon started charging her again. She turned and ran, hoping desperately that 'making someone just disappear' wasn't another thing that the fog itself did. After running for a few more seconds, she heard the dragon change course behind her, turning to their mutual left and continuing at a speed that suggested it was still pursuing the same target—or at least, thought it was. When she stopped and turned around, there was a familiar glow there, which formed into a much more familiar person.

"Light!" There was a moderately hard-to-resist urge to jump at her with a hug; Ning carefully reminded herself this probably wasn't the appropriate time for it.
"Sorry I'm late," she said quietly, nodding. Behind her—past where the dragon had been before—were both of Gemma, Minus visibly shaking off the effects of the fog. Of course—she must have changed back to "recombine" and get the affected body away from the dragon.

"The Quinns should be here pretty soon too." Light's voice was noticeably deeper too, like it had been during the turtle fight. "I, uh, see we're fighting a dragon today?"
"Apparently. The puppets haven't shown up yet."
"I'm keeping an eye out myself."

"So, its breath is some kinda poison and makes a bunch of mini-monsters," said Ning.

"Seems so," Light agreed.

"They should probably know that before charging into this fight."

"Oh! Right." She shimmered out of view again, as the dragon began to turn in the direction of Gemma, after successfully biting the illusory Ning and only tasting air.

Her breath properly caught after that break, Ning raised her sword to the sky and hit herself with some lightning to recharge. Then she ran toward the beast, planning to do one better than getting it in the leg this time. It had its sights on the twins by this point, beginning a relentless series of bites, swipes with its forelegs, and continual forward motion. Some strikes Minus would block with those black balls, and others they would both dodge, Plus shifting its targeting off to one side or another to make it easier. While it was busy with that, Ning ran up to one of its hind legs from the outside, carefully keeping clear of its gargantuan whip of a tail, and jumped, stuck her weapon halfway into its leg with the blade horizontal, swung around on the hilt to land her feet on the flat of the blade, and pushed herself off of it for a second leap, making it most of the way up onto the thing's back. She resummoned the blade to her hands and stuck it in there to help climb the rest of the way up before running farther, closer to its center, and plunging the blade in there just as the dragon's body started to shake and buck to throw her off.

One after another, bolts of lightning came from the sky, through the hilt of the blade, splitting equally to Ning and the dragon. She could feel the sword coming steadily loose from the partially indistinct solid mist it was stuck in, which also conveniently provided no handholds itself. By now the beast was bucking too hard for her to readjust her grip or push the sword back down, but she held out as long as she could before finally being thrown off by a violent upward motion, sending her flying what felt like a mile into the sky. She winced in anticipation of a particularly nasty landing, not having any particular control over her motion at this point, only to find herself slowing down on the descent instead of speeding up.

"Uhh..." Ning examined herself and found a faint blue glow surrounding her. Then she looked up to see Clark—or anyway, what looked like a slightly more "mature" verison of Clark's fox-form in a different outfit—floating in her direction, with a much brighter version of the same glow around her.

"Glad I made it in time," she said. "I don't think it takes a physicist to figure out how that was gonna end." They both were placed gently onto the ground.
"Right..thanks. Rory made that look so easy," she said.

"It was also a really bad idea. Anyway, you look super tired to me. Take the rest of the fight off?"

"I can't," she said, waving vaguely in the dragon's direction to emphasize why. It had risen to its hind legs and then crashed back to the ground, making another palpable quake; now it was spewing its black breath where it thought Gemma was—which, thankfully, she wasn't by now. Light was with her on one side of the dragon, and Rory—well, someone Ning assumed to be Rory anyway—was on the other, hitting her palm with her fist like she was about to join in on a bar fight.

"You should at least move to the back row, just hit it with lightning from a distance," Clark suggested, with a visible expression of worry. "It'll make everything worse if you get eaten."
She sighed. "I guess you're right." She summoned her sword, complete with sheath, and offered it over. "For your wife."
"I'm sure she'll just love it," she half-joked, gently taking the weapon before floating up and off in the direction of the recipient.

"So, nothing particularly works so far?" Light said.

"Not really...—" "—...I mean, it loses about as much mist as a normal monster would from lightning and stabs and slashes—" "—but it just has so much. I mean, it can just breathe it out to make that poison fog as an attack."
"I guess our only option is to wear it down, then." A 'hologram' reflection of the surrounding area was being projected into her eyes in a way that didn't quite obscure what was right in front of her; she could see Clark headed for her wife with Ning's weapon, and Ning sitting down a decent distance away to physically rest. The dragon and its recently-breathed minions were just about realizing their present targets were fakes. "I just hate when they make a boss 'harder' by upping its HP a couple orders of magnitude."

Light blinked herself into place to the left of the dragon's head, the same side she'd been on before but now visible to it. She raised a hand and fired her strongest laser right into its eye, which instantly got its attention. Then she made several images of herself all jump out from her present position, some charging into the fog and mini-monsters while the rest ran off to the left; she herself waited for it to begin to turn, blinked next to its neck, and gave a hard downward slash with both "copies" of her blade, then moved to just between its shoulders while it tried to snap at that. She stabbed "both" of the weapon into it, and then superpositioned more copies and stabbed those in, and then more...when the number got up to about ten the oldest ones started "decohering" or whatever, fading out of existence about when new ones appeared. On a hunch, she spoke Ning's phrase, telling her power to call a bolt of lightning down on that sword. The nature of the sword-splitting mixed with the bolt, splitting it into ten bolts each with the same power, each of them hitting their apparent mark.

The dragon scream-roared at a volume comparable to a jet engine, and jerked its head back to throw Light off; she blinked away ahead of the maneuver, leaving the weapons in for the moment, and landed next to Gemma again, taking a second to catch her breath from moving so quickly during that entire last attack. Plus and Minus had been taking turns peppering the thing's side with smaller attacks, which were doing damage, but not all that much.

Rory now had Ning's sword in hand, and she flew under Clark's power to a few yards over the monster before descending blade-first into its back, pulling the blade out and slashing wildly with it before jumping back off just as it started bucking again. Clark stayed up in the air, her needle weaving a massive club with the end of Ning's empty sheath in her hands as the "handle". She slammed it down on the dragon's head when it turned to retaliate against Rory, the strings coming alive when it broke apare and wrapping all around its neck and muzzle, squeezing a deluge of mist from it before dissipating; this drew the second deafening roar from its throat, muffled slightly by a temporary inability to open its mouth.

When it did open, that mouth spewed a thick fog in Rory's general direction. Clark picked her up out of it while Light appeared over the dragon's head, stabbing it through the neck another few times before driving the strongest laser she could manage straight at its nose. Rory came down, grabbing the hilts of two of the blades to drive them farther in. "Bad dragon! No poison breath!" A bolt of lightning from Ning hit the smaller monsters just as they formed, and then a second one struck the middle of the monster's back.

The dragon's enormous wings spread out and flapped, and it raised its head, snapping at Clark in the air; she quickly floated out of range, and the monster flapped again, lifting it off the ground and into an aerial chase of the hovering fox-girl.

"HOW CAN IT FLY?!" She turned tail and zoomed away as quickly as she could, but the dragon was clearly moving quickly enough to catch her at this rate.

"How can you fly?" Rory shot back, still hanging on by the two light-swords she'd grabbed.

"Not a good time for that!" said Light, running up the dragon's head and jabbing a sword into its right eye to try and get its attention off of Clark for just a second. It screamed—even louder from right next to the head—and twisted to get her off, which was just enough distraction to make its real target invisible and send a false one away to its left (just in case that was the only direction it could see now). Light blinked off of its head and began turning to light and back every second in lieu of not being able to actually fly herself. The image was moving faster than the real thing, fast enough to get away, and on seeing this the dragon breathed more poison its way, making a bunch of little winged monstrosities in the process; Light blinked near them, holding her breath while getting rid of them with a series of rapid slashes; then she teleported over next to Clark and accepted her help aura-flying to get a break from the constant light-and-back changing.

The dragon whirled and twisted in the air, turning upside down in a bid to get Rory off of it. The blades she was hanging on by were clearly coming loose, so Clark flew over to help her defy gravity for a bit while Light blinked her way up to the dragon's underside, curious if that had any chance of being a weak point. She brought Ning's blade to her hand to avoid stealing one of Rory's handholds, and plunged it into the monster's belly, calling another bolt of lightning down into it for good measure. There was damage, but nothing particularly special; if this thing had a weak spot here then it was at some very specific point. That experiment done, she blinked away to one side of the flying beast just in time to avoid it twisting its head around to bite at her in midair.

She left an image of herself to get away from it more conventionally, leading the dragon into a convoluted, corkscrewing path while steadily blinking her real self closer and closer to the ground. After a little of this the gigantic monster lost all control over its position in the air and went crashing back to the ground, demonstrating that, thankfully, it obeyed some sort of aerodynamic laws even if they weren't the usual ones. The impact tore another huge rut into the road, and she winced briefly to see so much destruction coming from this particular battle. But it wasn't like they could easily lead it out of town or anything...right? At least she'd managed to prevent it from crash-landing through a building.

Gemma was over with Ning, Minus channeling her version of Clark's power to "recharge" Ning's ability to shoot lightning. They had also gotten well clear of the impact site. Light placed herself near them, while Clark and Rory dove toward the dragon to press the attack. "What I wouldn't give...for a health bar," she said between some rapid breaths.
"Like, some granola?" Ning asked, confused.
"No, I mean—how much is left of that thing? If it just keeps going and going like this, we're gonna wear ourselves out and have nothing left."

"They do sort of go fuzzy when they're close to dying," Plus pointed out. "Not that it's doing that right now," Minus added.

Clark had given the sheath over to Rory, after wrapping it in a few layers of sharp spirit-string. She began bashing the monster's right wing with it, sending string spiraling and wrapping around it, binding it so it couldn't take off. Clark hovered over the middle of the beast's body, weaving new string around her wife's present "weapon" as she hit the old off of it and onto the monster. It screamed in what felt like a frustrated rage in addition to the pain from the several blows.

Light nodded in the direction of the fight, deciding that her breath had been caught enough by now. And she blinked over that way, starting a pattern of stabbing her sword into the thing on the side opposite of wherever Rory was hitting it just then. Ning stood up and raised a hand to the sky, calling down lightning into each sword immediately after it was in. Minus continued recovering her magic while Plus ran to join the fight, throwing arrows and explosion-laced knives at the monster as soon as she was in range.

When the dragon spewed its breath down, Plus was lifted out of it and placed behind its back, and a bolt of lightning got rid of the animals spawning from it. When it turned its gaze skyward and tried to hit Rory, Light stabbed it in its already-damaged right eye, made it target a fake image of her, and then held her breath to make quick work of the winged things it formed into. The dragon was twisting and snapping like a dog chasing its own tail, flapping half-tied wings futilely in an effort to take to the air again, and as the combined onslaught continued it began to scream more often in pain and rage.

It felt like an eternity of just keeping the barrage of attacks going before the thing showed real signs of weakening. First it stopped breathing mist, resorting entirely to swiping with its paws and snapping with its head in an effort to conserve what was left. Then, little by little, it became less distinct, looking more and more like the cloud it had first formed from. Rory landed in the middle of its back, tossing away the sheath and stabbing it repeatedly with a sword borrowed from Light while Clark focused entirely on binding its wings. Light took Ning's blade to the middle of the thing's head and leapt away, firing several heat-lasers all over the thing's body while Ning hit her own weapon with as many bolts of lightning as she could manage. Plus fell back, completely spent, and Minus was leaning her hands on Ning's shoulders to remain standing. But finally, through all of the effort, the gigantic beast gave one more deafening roar while it dissipated, leaving Rory to fall through empty air and land a little roughly on the ground, ending up lying on her back.

Light and Clark floated to the ground next to her, the latter kneeling down to see if she was okay. All three of them were audibly panting. "Whoo! Killed a dragon," Rory said, pumping a fist up into the air.
"I'm..just glad....it's over," Clark said between heaving breaths.

"Wha', you gettin' tired?" said Rory. But despite the bravado, all three of them could feel a distinct sense of defeated tiredness and impending loss of powers.

"Oh..ooh no. We need to get out of here." Light grabbed Rory's hand by the wrist and pulled her to her feet. "I ch...can't keep a lookout for puppets nearly as well with my normal powers, and we're all way too tired to fight if hh, if any of them show up!"

"R-right." Forcing her body to stay itself for a moment longer, Clark picked the three of them up, flew them over to the rest of the fox-girls, and then flew everyone a couple of blocks away before placing them down a little less gently than she would've liked. "Invisible, still?"
"Yeah.."

"Far enough?"
"Th-think so."
"Great!" She finally, visibly let go, relaxing as a white mist poured out of her body. The same happened to Light (though she was keeping her "normal look" illusion on, so it wasn't visible), and then to Rory, who had managed to land standing up and then leaned against a wall.

Once the three of them were back to normal, Light looked at Gemma, expecting her to demand some kind of explanation. Instead...both of her bodies had fainted from exhaustion, and were lying next to each other on the ground. Ning was sitting up beside them, looking over them with concern. "Just, uh...yeah. Overwork your powers and that happens. Happened to me once," said Light. "I think I'm gonna end up sleeping like death tonight anyway..."
"Hey, at least the monster's dead," said Rory, going over and carefully lifting Minus into her arms. "You okay to get the other one?" she asked Ning. "This random alley's great and all, but I'd really prefer someplace on campus or our house as a spot to have a post-dragon-slaying party."
"Hmn..nngf!" Ning picked up the other body with slightly more trouble; not that it felt at all heavy to her, but her muscles just didn't want to obey any orders at all at this point. "I'm in no condition to party, but this much I can do."

"Great. Bit of a walk from here."
"Hey, I did move us in the right direction," said Clark.

"Yeah, yeah."

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FINALLY!
Finally.

As it often happens, it took me forever to just start writing this. Once I made that step, the whole thing pretty much flowed out at once. I'm sure taking a break from this was probably good; it feels like I'd been at it almost nonstop until this point. There's quite a bit after this that I have pretty well planned, so maybe I'll be able to pick up momentum again.

The "Best" RPG Ever-60

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While Nora had picked out a variety of reference and fiction books, and Mira some "legal" spellbooks and still more fiction, neither of them had thought to buy anything regarding monsters. Zack and Katherine decided fairly quickly that their errand was going to the library to borrow books of that nature: Something detailing various types of monsters and/or demons along with any useful weaknesses or other helpful information about them. This gave them a destination before they had even reached the first intersection after the alley they started out in.

A few minutes later, the catgirl recognized someone coming toward them from the other direction, and waved. The aged elf came closer and stopped before them. "Well, what a surprise," he said cheerfully.

"I agree," she replied. "Tsaron, this is Zack; Zack, Tsaron."
"Pleasure to meet you, Sir Zack," he said, nodding to the wolf-girl. "I do hope you'd join me for tea some time."
"Uh, sure, I guess."

"..Look, I don't want to beat around the bush too much," said Katherine. "You are a psion, aren't you?"
"If you've drawn that conclusion, then I won't dispute it," he replied. That seemed to be as close to a yes as he was willing to say.
"Have you been, uh, reading my mind?"
"You must not have much experience with your powers if you can't tell the difference," he said calmly.

"Okay—well—you were definitely reading his mind a second ago, right?" she tried, realizing he had immediately referred to Zack as 'sir'.

"I think you both know the answer to that," he said, still wearing a calm grin. This conversation was turning marginally infuriating.

"Rrrrr. I'm just saying, you might see some stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense to you if you keep reading me or my friends' minds. I'm not, really sure how to explain it to you in a way that does make sense, either."
"I've hardly noticed anything out of the ordinary," he said with a small shrug. "Not that you aren't all extraordinary young people in your own right, but I have seen much in my days.

"At any rate, with the cat out of the bag—so to speak—" (he looked pointedly at Katherine while making this expression) "I should probably tell you not to bother trying to read the mind of the Captain of this town's guard. Blanking is an extremely difficult art to learn, but a master of it can not only tell when someone is trying to look at their mind but actively respond to it. It's easier to just tie your mind to another entity that obsessively thinks of only one thing, or just layer centuries of thoughts into such a thick fog that you don't remember half of them yourself, but those come with certain costs of their own and can be navigated around with some effort since they still amount merely to passive defenses."

"I'll..keep that, in mind," she said.

"I'm confident you can," said Tsaron. "At any rate, I have an appointment to make. Please drop by for tea sometime soon, and bring as many of your friends as you like; I'm sure I'll be able to find enough chairs." With that he, gracefully and serenely went around Zack to continue on his way past them.

They waited there for a moment, until the elf's footsteps faded out in the distance behind them. Finally the knight asked, "..What was that about?"

"I get the distinct impression he wants me to know who top dog is—'so to speak'," said Katherine, with a touch of annoyance in her voice. She sighed. "At least I don't think he means us any harm. I mean, if he did he would've probably already done it."

They began walking again. So, does he know we're from Earth and that thing about having seen much means there really are others from Earth here? thought Zack.
I don't know..his wording was so vague. It could mean that he didn't see any of our thoughts about being from Earth, even though you were literally thinking about it as soon as I started to vaguely reference the idea, she said back. He doesn't strike me as the kind of psion who respects privacy a whole lot—I know, I know, even compared to me though—and he's probably really powerful given his age, which together mean the only way he wouldn't see those thoughts from one or both of us is if the..whatever brought us here actually 'blocks those out' from being read. Under the theory that we were brought here by this world's gods, there's no reason I know why they wouldn't be able to just, do that.

..And there's no way to just ask him directly without actually talking about what we don't really want him to know in the first place, Zack said.
Yeah.

---

Rose paced around the block for maybe the twentieth time, and came back to the guardhouse. The guard standing next to the front door saw her approach and shook his head: The Captain had still not yet returned. She sighed, and crumpled onto a nearby bench to rest her feet for a moment. She could swear she used to be such a patient person..! In..the other world. For that matter, how did she survive such a long time in this one without a great deal of patience?

"Hey there," said Mira's voice from behind her, making her jump to her feet and turn 180 degrees in a rapid motion. "Hahah, sorry if I startled you."
"No no, that's okay..." One of her feet scratched the ground a bit in mild embarrassment.

"You still waiting for the Captain to show up? I'd think she would've been here by now," said the witch.
"Yeah..."
"I suppose that means you still haven't had lunch yet. Aren't you hungry at all?"
The dragon-girl's stomach chose this moment to growl loudly entirely on its own. "Um...yep," she said quietly, blushing a little bit.

"Well, then let's go somewhere so you can eat, silly!"

Rose looked at the guardhouse, and back at Mira. "Come on, they've definitely got the message you want to see her by now, right?" she reasoned in reply. "The Captain knows her way around town, and can probably find you wherever you end up. I'm sure she wouldn't want you to starve yourself waiting for her, either."
"I guess so..." She took some slow steps to go around the bench toward the witch.
"Right, that's settled. So where would you like to go?" she said cheerfully, putting an arm over Rose's shoulder as they arrived next to each other.

"Uhh...I don't really know that many places," she said. "I...like meat," she added with a touch of severe awkwardness.

"Well, I could probably make a couple of recommendations not too far off from here. Let's go!" Mira began leading her off.

It did not take very long for the restaurant they arrived at to seat them and take their order. But everyone was giving them looks. Rose had noticed people staring at her now and then anytime she was in town; some of them scared, most just curious, like they hadn't seen someone like her before, and that was fair. But this was...staring staring. It made her a little nervous, skittishly looking around at them and often seeing them turn away just before her eyes could meet theirs.

"I'm pretty sure they're staring at me," said Mira, noticing her expression. "Witches are not very popular."

"But uh...neither are dragons, right?" said Rose, nearly at a whisper. "I-I mean...the stories are always about a hero slaying the big awful mean dragon. And they usually are awful enough to deserve slaying. But it makes someone like me look bad..."

"It's the same way for me, you know," said the witch, keeping her volume just at the upper edge of conversational, where many of the onlookers could definitely hear her. "All the evil, nasty warlocks and witches of history make being a nice one an uphill battle. I just have to prove myself every step of the way."

"Heheh...I guess I can try to do the same," said Rose, brightening a little bit. However, there was a lingering feeling for a moment there, a faint thought resembling but haven't I already tried that before? She frowned slightly, trying to hold on to a slippery memory, but it was just no good. One of those awful experiences better forgotten, maybe.

"Here's to being the nice ones," Mira said, raising her glass a bit in a mock-toast. Rose took an awkward couple of seconds to register the expression and do the same, clinking them gently against each other before draining her entire cup...that was what you were supposed to do, right? The witch just giggled at her and reached over to pat her head a couple of times, which felt...nice. Rose smiled and blushed slightly from that.

When the food did arrive, Rose tried to at least sort of imitate the 'normal' eating everyone else was doing. As before, she had real difficulty using a fork effectively, like her hand just wouldn't quite obey her with any kind of utensil in it. This was...maybe something she could 'buy' on that "Humanoid Sociability" part of her skills to make this at least a little easier? It was just starting to irritate the part of her mind that remembered being this stuff being automatic without even needing to think about it. Mira hadn't ordered much, of course, having already had lunch, and even offered the dragon-girl a few tastes off her plate.

---

Nobody actually knew where Ezra lived. As far as the members of the guard were concerned, she lived in her office and was busy working when not present there. Of course this was an intentional ploy to keep her brief times at home actually peaceful. This was the ideal place to host a guest who didn't really want to be publicly known...like a certain psion, who was already waiting on a chair in the living room.

"You know, anyone else I found in my home uninvited wouldn't leave it uninjured."
"You did invite me, though. Didn't you?"
She sighed, taking a nearby seat. "I'd just rather find you at the front door than showing off your skill at picking locks."

"What if you were late? I'd have to stand around outside and direct people unconsciously around me the whole time. After all, you are awfully busy."

Ezra took a moment to roll her eyes. "I really thought after all these years you might have learned to obey a few of society's basic rules."

"Oh, I know how. I'm just delighted I don't have to. You know why."

"I think I have more experience obeying orders than you, and I have been a perfectly well-adjusted member of society ever since," she said.

"Sure, especially since becoming the head honcho of said society," he jabbed back with a moderate smirk.

"..Well, I'll ask you something I can't ask them. How many years has it been?"

"Nearly two decades," he says. "Well—since me. Since you, tack on another I suppose. I could give you a lot more detail mentally."
"You know very well I prefer the slow and steady way," she said. "Any new wars, since yours?"

He shrugged. "Sort of no? No less military presence around the world though. No shortage of nukes about, still."

"One thing I like about this world over ours," she said. "Summon a giant demon and someone will be able to seal it. Cast a spell of mass destruction, it takes forever and people will be ready and waiting to try to stop you. None of this, kill billions of people by pushing a button."

"Hmm," Tsaron nodded. "Maybe we have the gods to thank for rules like that. Not that you can't still hurt a lot of people if you really want to," he said. "It just takes forever, and comes with a tangible price. Then again, we've got monsters to contend with here."

"But you can fight monsters: Put your sword in them or throw magic at them. Even someone who fails and dies at least does so knowing that they were fighting a real threat that was actually there, and had some effect toward stopping it. Not that we don't have political intrigue here, too, but it's never the survival of the entire world at stake."

"...That took a depressing turn, I'm sorry," Ezra said. "Anything else?"

"Oh, sure. You'll love this—technology's marched even farther ahead; even I barely recognize it all," he said. "Everyone carries huge phones around that do more than computers did in your day. And mostly use 'em to waste time. Plus, they've got two or three breeds of devices with mikes in 'em that you install in your home, and then you can ask them questions and buy things through them and so on."
"That's a...darker future than I imagined. Government mandated surveillance?"
"Not at all, you pay for those things," he said. "They're a luxury item. I guess they send the data to the company and not the government, but it's all supposed to be anonymized and.."
"And you can probably think of a thousand ways to abuse the existence of something like that," she said.
"Ohh yes, get the right black hats on it and...! Anyway, on top of that, they like to hook up every kind of normal appliance to the Internet they can. 'Smart' this and 'smart' that...can you imagine wanting a toaster with a screen on it that talks to your phone?" He put a hand on his forehead. "And, I sound like their old people complaining like this about it. Gods."

"Not that our new arrivals actually use many of those things themselves," Tsaron added after a moment. "One or two of them do record themselves for the whole world to see and hear, though. Online performance art, out of playing those, ah, computer games live." He was more familiar with them than she was, and tended to adjust his terms this way even though she would've understood the normal jargon just fine. "I admit I don't personally see the appeal."

"You know more about those games than I do," she said, shrugging.

"But I still never played very many myself. Considering the emotional attachment some of them have to the things, I almost regret it. Doing things over again, I'd love to end up nice and safe where they were instead of diving neck-deep into all that risk just because I thought it was the 'right' thing to do at the time."

"I wonder how their world would handle a reinstated draft," Ezra mused. "Or if that's even a possibility anymore, with how much society changed. But hey, if you were nice and safe you probably wouldn't have wound up here."

"There is that, of course, at least in theory. Given our collective 'failure' I doubt I'm the kind of person the gods would summon over here twice."

---

"You know, I'm a little surprised the wolf didn't follow us out," said Katherine. "He was right there, after all."
"Now that we have an actual 'den', he's content to stay there, I think," Zack said. "Unless the whole 'pack' is going out somewhere, or I ask him to come along."

"Really," the catgirl shook her head. "I bet I couldn't get a better idea of what he's thinking with a deep mind-scan. Have you noticed he's a little bit of a tsundere?"

"Ughh, that term." Zack shook his head in annoyance.

"What?"
"I'm so sick of seeing characters written into that weird fetish stereotype. Nobody actually acts like that. Nobody."

"Oh yeah, JRPGs. Yep." The catgirl nodded. "I'm sure it's not always that bad, though?"
"I think I can count the number of well-written characters you can reasonably call," (he had a brief verbal hesitation out of disgust) , "'tsundere', on one hand."

"Hahah..yeah, I'd believe it.

"Still though. He's like 'grrr I'm nobody's pet, don't touch me—will you pet me? I'm terrified of the'—what was that mental phrase—'sky noise, hold me!'."

"Hah, yeah, a little bit," said Zack. "He just wants to be respected, I think. But just as much, to be a part of the pack."

Katherine turned, giving him a scrutinizing look. "Did you...laugh there for a second? Like a little 'hah'?"

"Yeeah..what about it?"
"I dunno..I don't remember ever hearing your laugh before. Rayna said she tried to make some jokes but they didn't connect at all."

"I have a sense of humor," Zack said, completely seriously. "I'm just quiet about it. I don't really, giggle or laugh out loud much," he shrugged.

"I guess the word you're looking for is 'dry'," she said. "You don't exactly tell a lot of jokes either, though."
"I haven't had much to joke about lately," Zack countered. "Feels like that should change soon, though."

"Can't wait. Anyway, we've arrived."

She waved at the library doors, pretending to use the force while psionically pushing them open. Zack rolled his eyes, mentally calling her a showoff, but went on ahead through them. She just sent back the concept of "when you've got it, flaunt it" and followed.

The knight started toward the front desk. "Hey, where are you going?"
He stopped in his tracks, turned half around toward her. "...To ask where monster reference books would be," he said flatly.
"That'd take forever. At least compared to me already having found the section we're after," she said, starting off in that direction. Skimming sensory information was very convenient for finding a clearly-labelled row of shelves.

Zack sighed and followed. "Does that 'mental charisma' thing just not work on people who know you?" he said quietly. "Or are you just intentionally being obnoxious?"

"My unshakable confidence is part of my charm," she shot back at the same volume. "Isn't that exactly what you like about me?"

"There's a difference between confident and smug."

"Which is?"
"One of them is annoying."

"You know you love it." Despite the words sounding like an argument, they had a good rhythm going. Katherine could've told he was enjoying it without even reading his mind; his tail was wagging a little bit.

They reached the right place at this point, and the catgirl turned toward the shelves. "Now, which of these looks the most..helpful...?"

"..Something wrong?" said Zack, noticing her sudden distracted state. In the midst of her passive, semi-involuntary run-through of nearby minds she had stumbled across a deeply unfamiliar sensation: One mind in particular was attractive, in very much the same way that she would normally expect a body to register as attractive. In the span of a second or two her supernaturally-powered mind went into a brief moment of confused overdrive, splitting off into two main lines of thought: One of them questioning whether this was actually a normal thing for a psion to feel, and the other one debating whether or not to dig deeper into the mind to know where to find that person later. When Zack asked her whether something was wrong, it interrupted both of them, and she quickly shook herself out of the overloaded state.
"Nope. Now let's see..." She recovered and forced most of her mind to focus on the task at hand, which to Zack looked like her resuming normal behavior, looking through the books. A small part of it at least looked in on what that mind was thinking about, to get an idea of where he was in the library right now and maybe make plans to return, much later, alone.

It was something about magic, specifically chaotic magic...the nature of monsters...she couldn't actually understand some of the technical aspects of the thoughts without risking digging deeper into the concepts, which she couldn't spare the concentration for besides not wanting to risk violating privacy any more than her powers automatically did. And yes...he. A guy. The next logical question was: What was so attractive about this? There was just something very nicely...organized and put together about it. It was hard to quantify into words, but that was no different from finding someone physically attractive, was it? She ducked out of this train of thought to keep her outward behavior normal, once she felt like she'd skimmed enough information to get by.

Obviously they didn't want something detailing the anatomy of one monster, and a seven-volume encyclopedia seemed like a difficult read. After a bit of looking, Zack pulled out a moderately thick book whose title indicated it was a primer on common monster types. That sounded like a good starting point, at least; undoubtedly they had already encountered some rarer monster types, but goblins and dire wolves and wildcats were surely pretty common, for example. Katherine also found a compendium of demons, though this was a lot thinner and seemed to have relatively sketchy descriptions based on bits and pieces of hearsay and legend. This was about the point where she stopped looking at the...cute?...mind and started off toward the front desk to check the books out, keeping them floating in the air next to her on the way to show off a little more.

Still, what to do? Finding an attractive mind—well, finding a mind attractive in the first place had caught her a little off guard. Rushing after him would look strange, and didn't feel right to her in the first place. Thinking carefully about what she'd experienced and...either making some kind of plan or burying the thoughts as deep as they would go in her head seemed like the best course of action. In fact, burying it temporarily for now was a great idea; save it for a time she was on her own in her room or something instead of out here with someone else, needing to split concentration off for walking, talking and so on. For now...they just needed to get the books back to the house.

Midas Journal 28

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

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Entry: May 27

The night after I wrote that last entry, Brie came to my place. I told her about what happened Monday, and she looked excited when I started talking about the dragon. At the end she said, “So you know a dragon now? That's so cool.”
“You, uh, like dragons?” I said. “I could probably introduce you if you want.”
“Heehee, maybe.” She reached up and ran her fingers across my ears. “It's just—there are stories of stories of people talking to dragons, but it's all so distant, like they're just legend and may not even be real—or, not real anymore. To be able to just hang out with one anytime you want is something else.” About at this point, I noticed my hair was getting a little long.
“Oh..uh, are you..?” I said, tugging at it.
“Mm-hm!” She pecked me on the lips and then I felt her tail brush against mine for a moment, which drew a shiver across my body and a gentle tingling all over. “I told my power to change you a little bit every time I touch your fur,” she added with a wink. My fur softened and my body hair disappeared, and I shrank a little bit.

“Always trying something new, huh?” I said, pulling her into a hug and rubbing her ears back in return.

“Rrf! Well,” She pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes. “Can't let it get boring, right?” Her tail brushed against mine, and my hair grew while I shrank a little more. “I mean, isn't your power just fun? It's exciting, watching someone change, right?”
“I uh...it certainly sticks in my memory,” I said, and heard that my voice had changed a little bit.

Brie pulled me into a longer, deeper kiss, rubbing my ears again. I heard my voice pushing up higher and higher until she finally let go, and I was already girl-size, my clothes threatening to fall off of me.

“Come on, Kael. You don't have to worry about me getting jealous. I can appreciate the kind of beauty your power produces too, you know.” Her tail ran across mine again, and I yipped softly, shivering and feeling a slight tug between my legs. “It's exciting, seeing the look on their face when they realize they're changing, and then after a while they start to enjoy it..! Right?”
“I—yeah,” I admitted, feeling the blush already on my face brighten. “It's..I-I try not to think of it that way, but...I'm always eager to see what's coming next.”
“Heehee, think of it that way aaalll you want, dear,” she said, starting to rub my ears again and curling her tail around mine. I barked softly, feeling the change accelerate; she leaned in a little closer again. “I know I do.”

With that, she started nuzzling me and I nuzzled back, feeling my body soften and my sex gently change. I let out a soft “Aah~!” as my chest pushed its way out into hers and my clothes shrank to fit me, and she replied with a pleased yip, pushing me over onto my back with my head on the armrest again. We ended up petting each other for about the next hour before finally getting hungry and going out to eat, and since Lue had called an “all girls” pack meeting the next day we agreed to just stay Kaela and Brie for the moment.

I went to that meeting right after school with no idea what to expect. Lue had just said she had a “nice surprise” for everyone along with wanting to discuss “pack policy”, whatever that meant. Brie arrived about the same time I did, and I went up to knock on the door.

Instead of Lue or one of her parents, a stranger opened the door, a short werewolf girl with really long red hair. “Uh, hi, welcome. Come on in,” she said awkwardly, and the reason was obvious: She had on some kind of fetish maid outfit! She waved, and added, “Alpha's...in the back.”

I looked at Brie, whose expression suggested she was just as confused as I was, and then went in, around the...maid girl, to confront her about this as quickly as possible. “LUE!”

She appeared right away. “Oh hi there!” she said cheerfully, ignoring me crossing my arms and glaring at her. “I see you've met our new omega? Roan, this is Kaela and Brie; you two, Roan.”
“Uh..h-hi,” she repeated, turning toward us.

“What did you do,” I demanded, feeling my ears fold back against my head. I was pretty sure Roan sounded like a guy's name on top of everything else.
“Hmn? Roan wanted to join the pack, so I gave her the usual test,” she said innocently.
“I'm talking about that,” I said, waving at the state of dress she was in.
“I've been trying to learn magic lately, starting with clothes-morphing spells,” she said. “You like it? I think it's super cute!”

I was going to respond to that, probably in some way that involved a lot more shouting, but I heard Roan giggle at this point, and looked over at her to see her blush had just brightened from that...compliment? And she had her hand up to her mouth, trying to stifle more laughter. Then I looked back at Lue. “Okay, seriously, what is going on here.”

She responded by actually laughing, out loud. “Haa~hahah!” She kept it up long enough to make it awkward, Roan joining her in it about halfway through. Brie and I shared another confused glance while she finally picked herself up from being doubled over in laughter. “Ooh, oh La Lune; I need a minute. C'mon, this way,” she waved, and started toward the living room.

“Sorry Kaela, it's just—you make the funniest faces when you're all righteously indignant, and then confused.” She turned around and fell back onto a couch. “I mean—I knew you'd overreact, but didn't expect it to go quite that way.” Roan followed us inside, and sat next to her, looking a little like she didn't know what to do with her legs.

“So can we have that explanation now, or after another half hour of you laughing?” said Brie.

“Okay okay. So—like I said, Roan wanted to join the pack so I gave her the usual test.”
“Um, I'm actually a guy,” Roan added, trying to be helpful.
“Yep! Well, not right now, but you know what she means.”
“Yeeeah...so, how..?”
Lue just grinned. “Remember when I said there are ways? Not cheap ways, sure, but magic's got all kinds of wonders if ya know where to look.”

“And you...” I looked back and forth between them again.
“She knows a spell to turn someone's clothes into a maid outfit,” said Roan. “Um..m-my usual stuff didn't exactly fit me like this, and..”
“Let me guess, you didn't tell her it would make a maid outfit,” Brie finished.

“Yep! But putting it back on with an audience was totally Roan's idea,” she said.

“N-no it wasn't!” Roan protested. “It was your idea, but you were just joking until I agreed to do it.”
“Right, right. Anyway, we bought her a few other outfits after that, and this is really one of those,” said Lue. “So I'll turn it back after Chris gets here. Unless you want it to stay that way~..”
“Um...n-no, I think I'll be full enough on embarrassment as it is,” she said, looking away.

I sighed, and sat down on a chair; Lue was, after all, just being Lue. “So...omega, huh.” Brie looked at me for a few seconds before coming up and falling over on top of me. “Hey!”
“What, you don't like it?” she asked, pulling her arms around me and climbing up enough to put her cheek against mine.

“Fiine,” I agreed, returning the hug and feeling a blush run across my face. Lue seemed calm and happy as ever about this, but Roan looked surprised and possibly embarrassed for me. “So..omega?” I repeated.

“Yeah. Lue said, um, th-the most recent member to join is..?”
“Since that's what we basically decided last full moon,” said Lue. “But Chris seemed happy with the idea of being omega—at least in our pack—the last we spoke, so we're meeting partially to discuss ranking again.”

“Mnnh.” Brie leaned over past my head to turn and face the couch behind me. “Aand, the other parts?”
“Well, I just wanted to hang out with everyone again, since we had so much fun last time,” said Lue with a faux-innocent smile. “And maayybe show Roan my true form while we're at it.”

“Whoa, what? 'True form'?” Roan sat up; this was news to her.
“She means her werewolf form,” I said, deadpan. “It..is pretty different from how she looks as a human.”

“Boo, you're no fun,” said Lue, and then turned back toward Roan. “Actually, I'm a little curious what your wolfy form is like, after the potion's effects. Maybe you'll be willing to show me yours if I show you mine~?”
“Uh..m-maybe,” she said, looking away again. I guess some kind of potion was involved in turning him into a girl. And, now that I think of it, it must also include some way to go back, since she wasn't complaining about being stuck or anything like that...

At this point all of us could hear Chris walking toward the front door. Lue looked at Roan expectantly, and she stood up after hesitating for a second. “Yeah, I'll get it..”

The doorbell rang about as she reached the door, and she opened it. “Hey, uh..”
Chris gasped loudly. “Ooh, that is so cute! Where did you find that outfit?”
“Um..i-it's a...”
“Oh wait, I'm sorry. I didn't really introduce myself.” We heard the door shutting. “I'm Chris. Are you a neeew member of the pack?” I could practically hear her leaning forward during the word 'new'.
“Y-yeah. Roan.”

“Nice to meet you! Lue's in the living room right?”
“Uh-huh.”

After that, she ran inside, Roan walking up behind her. “Welcome back,” said Lue. “I'm glad at least someone appreciates my work.”

“Oh, did you make it?” she asked, tilting her head. “I didn't know you could sew..”

“It's a clothes-morphing spell,” I said.

“They have those?!” And then in the same breath, at Lue: “Can I try?”

“Well, you're awfully eager,” she said teasingly.
“Heheh...” She blushed and nervously tapped her fingers together. “It just looks so cute..”

“Well...we should probably discuss our main business first,” Lue said, patting the seat next to her that Roan hadn't been in a minute ago. After Chris bounced over to take a seat, Roan fidgeted in confusion for a second before Lue waved her over, and she hesitated a second longer before coming to sit down again.

“So. The last time we discussed ranking, we more or less agreed that it should be based on seniority. This makes Roan here the new omega,” said Lue, patting the red-haired girl's head (which visibly flustered her even worse). “As far as I'm concerned, rank isn't and never should be very important in this pack. Well—except for me being the boss and Kaela or me approving any prospective new members, anyway. So...I would like to ask everyone's opinion on coming up with a new policy.”

“No objections here,” said Brie. “But I don't want to be an omega, even if it is just a title.”

“Um, I-I don't really want to be omega either,” said Roan quickly. “If I'm..being honest. I mean, I will if I need to, but...”

“Noted, noted,” Lue said. “This leaves only two options, but there is the small problem that before anyone else was in the pack I declared Kaela to be beta.”

“Well, I don't mind being omega,” said Chris. “I'm just glad to be a—um...to be in the pack at all!” I'm pretty sure she was going to say 'glad to be a werewolf'.

“Okay then. Until we make some other decision, Chris can be omega and we won't worry about specific rankings beyond the three already established. Aaand..” Lue spoke a spell, poking Roan gently in the shoulder. The maid headband disappeared from her head, the stockings shrank into normal socks, and her dress split apart at the waist, shrinking into a t-shirt and jean-shorts. She breathed a small sigh of relief, I imagine from not being in such a short skirt anymore. Then Lue faced Chris and cast a different spell, waving her hand and morphing her clothes into a similar maid-outfit. “..There. What do you think?”

“Oooooh~! I love it! Howdoesitlook?”

“Adorable~.” Lue rubbed the top of her head some. “You know, we could declare an unofficial tradition that the maid outfit belongs to the omega if you want. Sound like fun?”
“Sure!”

“Well, that's all the 'official' business I had tonight. But we could take some time to hang out, hmn?” Lue said, looking around the room again with an eager grin. “I'd hate to only get to see all my girls once a month, after all~.”

“Some of us aren't 'yours',” I reminded her with a touch of annoyance.
“Or, always 'girls' either,” Roan joined in.

“Exactly!” She hopped up. “So let's have some fun with it!”

It never specifically occurred to me before, but it's pretty obvious that Lue's parents are actually pretty rich. Maybe at least one of them has a really high-paying job, or maybe her “old self” left them a lot of money; maybe both? I say this because she clearly had no experience with video games before that night she invited me to join the pack, but now she revealed a brand-new system with five or six different multiplayer games loaded on it. In other words, she got them to buy all that for her in the span of about two weeks. Besides that, she'd been practicing. I get the impression that having an “alpha mentality” comes with some kind of instinctive competitive streak, and losing to me so much back then bugged her more than I thought at the time. Well, at least this is a safer outlet than physically fighting people (not that I think she'd lose there, either).

Back on the subject of Lue's rich family, though, she also ordered a bunch of pizzas in without batting an eye when it got close to suppertime. And then after demanding everyone put the controllers down when it got there, she revealed an extensive collection of anime hiding in one of the cabinets in her living room. I've never personally been big into that stuff, but I feel like learning this about her kind of explains a lot. From her descriptions while asking us which one to watch, it seems like it covers the whole spectrum from high-octane action to comedy to romance...including some stuff I don't think she had any business seeing before turning eighteen, but I won't go into that too much. One other thing: She was her usual confident self in every way when she first opened the cabinet door, but I could swear I saw the tiniest hint of embarrassment or nervousness in her face and ears right then. Maybe her “old self” would've never been interested in that stuff at all and felt it was a little weird, but I feel more like the “new self” always kept it a secret; either one could explain why this didn't ever come up before. Brie and Roan, who already knew her before we met, seemed surprised by it, at least.

It didn't take long for everyone to vote on one of the ones she labeled “comedy”, and we kept watching even after all of the pizza was gone—which I was a little shocked was even possible for five people in one night to do. Chris and Lue tied for the most slices and, again, I wonder if it turned into a competition for her at some point. I mean, every time she saw Chris keep getting up to get more she would yell “Hey, bring me one too!” But maybe I'm overthinking it and she really was just that hungry; I mean, she didn't exactly seem to get sick from eating it all.

At the end of one episode, Lue stood up suddenly and overdramatically declared, “I can wait no longer!”
“Um, what are you talking about?” said Brie.
“I've only been getting more curious since you brought it up,” she said, turning to face Roan, “I have to see what you look like as a werewolf.”
“I brought it up?” she said. “Didn't you..?”
“Please?” she continued, as if Roan hadn't even responded.

“Well—fine, I guess. I dunno why it's a big deal.” She stood up too, stretching slightly and getting ready to change forms.
“Hey! Wait a second. You should probably at least get rid of your bra first, silly.” she said.

“Uh—what.” Roan stopped in her tracks, entirely confused by this suggestion.

“In case your bust size changes,” Brie said bluntly, “like it does for almost all of us. Well, I think Chris is about the same..?”
“Yep!”
“Wa-wait, that really happens? I-I thought that was just something perverts told each other,” she said.

“Just because it is doesn't keep it from being true,” said Lue. “And a practical concern. Now, you don't want to mess up your brand new clothes or get all squeezed into them, do you?” She leaned forward like she was going to stick her hands under Roan's shirt and unhook it herself.
“I-I can do it myself!” she protested, taking several steps back before turning around to go to the hallway and continue on to Lue's bedroom. “Lemme have some privacy for a minute!”

Once she had closed a door slightly violently behind her, Lue muttered, “Spoilsport.”

“Awh, she'll get used to it eventually,” Brie said quietly. “This is just another sign she likes you, y'know.”

“W-what? I don't care if she likes me,” our alpha said. After a second she realized she'd said it like that, and tried to amend it: “I mean. Past being friends and pack-mates of course.”

“Are you sure about that?” I said, not passing up an opportunity to tease her for once. She just growled quietly, looking away and visibly trying in vain to not blush a little bit.

It took a few minutes for Roan to come back. I could pick up the movement of clothes, and occasional frustrated growls. Eventually she returned, already in werewolf form—and wearing nothing but a pair of boyshorts, which had probably been her underwear all along. The first thing I noticed about her werewolf form was how tall it was—still nowhere near Lue's incredible stature, but taller than mine or Brie's, for sure. Her fur is mostly a slightly darker red than her hair, with a brighter shade than it along her underside. There was some very visible muscle to her in werewolf form; it gave me the impression her strength was probably second only to Lue's too. And...her bust was indeed noticeably bigger in that form.

“You came back!” Lue said happily, standing up again to greet her.

“Hmph.” She was holding her arms awkwardly over her huge chest, as if still trying to cover them up; her blush was visible even through the red fur, which I wouldn't have even thought was possible. “A-all my clothes are too tight to even put on,” she said. “Why are girl clothes so tiny?!”
“What happened to your boy clothes?” said Brie.

“I left them at home!”

“Awh, I was hoping I'd actually get to see you change,” said Lue, coming around next to her and more or less ignoring the complaints. “Maybe next time. I bet you're just as tall as you would be as a boy, right?”
“Y-yeah,” she said. “This almost feels normal, except for everything.”

Lue put a hand on one of the arms still crossed over her chest and gently pushed it down to her side. “C'mon, we're all girls here. There's no need to be embarrassed. Everyone else has already seen each other fuzzy anyway.” She pulled the other arm down too; it seemed like she was having an easy enough time that Roan had to be letting her do it. “And we have a no-shirt policy on full moons, you know.”

“S-s-s-seriously!?” At this point, Roan was looking at the rest of us in astonishment.

“Yeeah,” said Brie, in a tone that made it clear it wasn't a big deal. “Look, werewolf fur is thick enough to cover up, and clothes really like to get caught on it even if they are loose enough to fit. Do you seriously put a shirt on during the full moon as guy? Or anything besides underwear?”

“Well, n-no. But, but I don't have..!”

“Hey!” I said finally, getting a little tired of this. “Look Roan, nobody really wants to make you feel uncomfortable the whole night, Right Lue?”

“You're right,” she said, even apologetically lowering her ears a little bit.

“I can get something that'll fit over you, okay?” I know a spell for conjuring things out of my closet and drawers at home; by this point there are tons of clothes for both sexes there, including shirts that would definitely have fit her.

“...No, it's, it's okay,” she said after seriously thinking about it for a minute. “Brie's right too...I'm just overreacting. Thanks, though.”

“Offer stays open if you change your mind,” I said.

“Thank you.”

“Well, I promised to show you my werewolf form,” said Lue, starting to grin again. “Maybe that'll make it all worth it,” she added with a small wink, which made Roan blush all the way through her fur again. Lue nodded to her, and began to change right away. Of course she'd managed to slip her bra off and onto the floor sometime between when Roan had left and returned, and no sooner did she start to have fur on her body than she tossed off her shirt and got rid of her skirt, too. Roan had about the same reaction the rest of us had the first time, her eyes going wide and her ears up while she slowly tilted her head upward, watching our alpha rise up to and beyond her height and grow into the huge, equally beautiful and strong form hiding away inside her small human one.

“Heheh. What do you think?” she said, crossing her arms under her generous chest.
“Y-your voice, changed too...?” Roan squeaked quietly.
“That is pretty unusual, I guess. Maybe you get why I think of this as my real self, though?” Lue said, putting a forepaw on Roan's head to ruffle her hair a little bit.
“Um...y-yeah..”

“Come with me, now...” She led a dumbfounded Roan back around to the couch they'd been on before and sat next to her, pulling her into a hug before long.

It didn't take long after that for the rest of us to change to werewolf form, too. I'll admit I was a little too concentrated on Brie from about then until we fell asleep on one of Lue's beds to tell much, but I'm pretty convinced she managed to pet Chris and Roan at the same time in some way that kept both of them happy. At any rate I don't remember hearing any complaints.

And we did fall asleep, a little past midnight. The full moon is special, not just changing werewolves into that form but giving a kind of restless energy to it; without that, cuddling in werewolf form is just as prone to falling asleep as it is in human form. I say that to say that this was, honestly, the first time I slept through a whole night with Brie in my arms. Even if we were both girls at the time, it feels like kind of a big step in a way, but we just sort of slipped into doing it without even trying.

It won't be the last. I'll make sure of that.

Today was still a school day, so Lue somehow managed to wake up very early in the morning, cook a big breakfast, and then get everyone up in time to shower, eat, and leave to get there on time. For everything that's weird or questionable about her, I have to admit she's got other ways of being almost impossibly reliable and helpful.

At lunch, I saw Adena in kind of a daze again; I was able to gather that she had gone on another date with Rhia before she blushed and insistently changed the subject, apparently forcing herself to focus on something other than that. She teased me about having Brie's scent being all over me—which it was since she'd hugged me for a minute or two before we went our separate ways that morning—and then we started talking normally again a little after that. Still, the whole conversation convinced me that I needed to get some answers about all of this.

I still had questions about those wars and “disasters”, too, so I started sending off texts to ask Giri if she could meet with me and if she could get Ren to come along. I think she could somehow tell I had serious questions I wanted answered; her responses were more serious than usual, and she suggested we meet at his place for better privacy than the restaurant we'd gone to before. With some help from the map on my phone, I made it to the address a little later this afternoon, and knocked on the door.

After a minute, a tall, thin guy with white hair and fox-ears opened it up. “Hi, uh..Kaela,” he said, pointing at me slightly the way someone does when they finally remember a half-forgotten name. “Giri said you wanted to talk in private?”

“I guess you're...Ren?” I said. I noticed that my power was informing me he had no desire to be changed by it; in fact I could feel an especially strong one to not be, which was a new one for me. He nodded, and waved me inside, so I went, following him into the kitchen to sit down across the table. “Giri's not here yet, but it sounded like you wanted specifically to ask me something too?”

“Yeah. It's just—I'm concerned about Adena. Do you, know what happened?” I asked.

“I just know she sent me a text that the jig was up,” he shrugged. “Why, is she sulking or something? Every kitsune has to learn to deal with the fallout from a big deception like that.”
“Well, no...um. Actually she's very happy to be found out. Like way too happy,” I said. “She said—well, for one thing Rhia was apparently okay with the lies, and still wanted to go out with, her, sort of? That's a whole separate can of complicated worms. But then she started talking about how it was nice to...what was it, something about having someone to obey?” I frowned, my ears lowering a little. “It's just, really weird. I dunno how to describe it.”

“Oooh,” Ren said, sounding like he understood. “So that's it.” He nodded, apparently to himself.

“What's it?” I pressed after giving him what felt like long enough to have already started explaining.
“Aah, look Kaela. I dunno if a werewolf can understand this too well. Kitsune like games, and games tend to have winners. When someone 'plays along' and 'wins' and seems like they genuinely enjoyed the game, it's about the nicest gesture one of us can imagine. And...some Kitsune like to have someone who figured them out and won the game that way as a 'master'. It's really just another, different kind of game, and it's way more consensual than it sounds. A good 'master' is someone who will mostly order their Kitsune to do things she wanted to do anyway, but was never brave enough to do herself. And there's not really any kind of binding force in place; if a Kitsune doesn't like an order she can just ignore it, and if she gets tired of a 'master' for any reason then she can just leave.” He shrugged. “I've even heard stories of people who tried to take advantage of that kind of relationship getting punished pretty severely by their 'pet' for it. So I don't think you have anything to worry about, especially if she seems happy.”

“Oooh..kay,” I said, processing all of that. “So, is that what's..?” I started.
“No! Nooo-nonono,” he said, anticipating the question and shaking his head furiously. “Giri and I are serious adults and absolute equals in every way, not playing a game like that at all. I am not that kind of Kitsune, you see. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but—I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I just, know of it being a thing sometimes. So hopefully that clears that up for you.”

The doorbell rang at this point, and he nodded over to me before standing up to go get it. After that, Giri came in with him, practically hanging off of him with her arms. Ren was frowning and blushing, but I could tell from his ears that he liked the attention, even when he pried her off to sit down and she responded by just half-lying on his lap.

“Please use a chair,” he said, pointing to an empty one to my left.
“Ohh, alright,” Giri said, getting up and finally sitting down for real. “It's good to see you again, Kaela~. You look like you've been having fun.”
“Uh..?” I didn't know what she meant by that.
“If you've been around your girlfriend or whatever lately, she can tell,” Ren explained. “Succubus, remember,”

“Uh, r-right.” I could feel some heat in my cheeks while I hoped she couldn't tell too much of what exactly had happened.

“Anyway, you wanted to know something?” she said.

“Yeah. Uh, so, Frelye mentioned some kind of disaster several centuries ago..and Thera said that your um..an, cestor?” (I paused, unsure if that was the right term; Giri just nodded for me to continue) “Died of wounds from some kind of war half a century ago. I, wanted to know if you knew anything more about those things..or any other major magical wars that most of the world doesn't know about.”
“Let's see..I'm sure I can at least answer some of your questions,” she said. “A dragon or a real historian would be your best bet, of course. But why the sudden interest in ancient history, hmn?”
“Well..you know, the power I have is kind of insane,” I said. “It...occurred to me that it could start some kind of disaster or war like that, if I'm not careful. I thought...knowing what's happened before might help me prevent those kinds of mistakes.”
Giri nodded. “Always the considerate one. That's why the girls flock to you, you know,” she added with a wink. “Well, let me see...”

“The trouble a half-century ago was this: For reasons we're still not entirely sure of, the veil suddenly tore wide open for a fairly big group of humans. They...were not ready for that. They saw many kinds of people, such as demons, werewolves, and so on, as monsters to be slain—exterminated, more like. Worse than that, somehow they gained access to some powerful celestial magic, and some other stuff like fire magic and dangerous artifact weapons they considered 'righteous' in nature. Then they more or less declared war on the entire magical world.” She leaned forward a little bit and looked down, running a finger around on the table. “They caught the people who normally keep order in this kind of situation totally off-guard, and made tons of trouble for a couple of decades. We could've done more to help what was going on in the 'normal human' side of the world then if it hadn't been for all that. I mean—peace-keeping magic users in general, of course.”

Giri turned her head up toward me again. “What you should learn from that, Kaela, is that we keep the veil around for a reason. Only the right people, at the right time, should be brought out of it, and only the right amount; that decision must be made on an individual basis, and the veil itself is designed to do just that. The benefits magic could have for those still fully enveiled have to be weighed against the risk that they won't accept it, and in the end more harm will be done than good.”
“I see...” I nodded. This was something I hadn't really thought about before.

“As for the other one,” she said with more of a grin, “if you've played a major RPG in your life then you know how this one goes: A demon lord consolidates power, collects all the biggest and best demonic focus gems he can find and then starts trying to use all that power to spread the demon realm up into the regular one and crush the opposition so he can take over everything...”

“So a group of heroes go to his castle to wreck everything and stop him?” I guessed.
“Right! And that was hardly the first time something like that happened, but this one is notable in that once he was dead the magic world as a whole decided they were tired of cleaning up messes like this every other century, so it was time to attempt some preventative measures instead of just waiting around for history to repeat itself.

“First they smashed the big foci he'd collected, then went on a big search and seizure to get rid of as many of them as they could find, and established a sort of informal ruling that it was illegal to have them—sort of like how vampires and werewolves and so on don't go around biting humans anymore. Before you go worrying, though, something as small as mine is gonna get a blind eye turned to it until and unless I do something really bad, and then me having that would just be an excuse to punish me worse. It won't happen at all because I'm a good little demon. Right?” She gently elbowed Ren, who looked bored; I guess he already knew about all of this, or just isn't interested in history in the first place.

“Yeah, yeah. Honestly, that was kind of a knee-jerk reaction to the specifics of the problem, but they also did the much more important work of forming a kind of loose alliance between powerful rulers and so on to keep an eye on things and nip any further disaster like that in the bud,” he said. “You might be surprised at the nature of many of its founding members. Even more chaotically oriented beings like a lot of nine-tailed Kitsune prefer a certain level of peace and stability to play around in, and will do what they can to prevent or swiftly end an outright, world-scale war.”

Giri nodded. “Their legacy continues in the peace-keepers I mentioned a minute ago who were instrumental in ending the more recent crisis. Giriah was involved with them, and I hope to make a similar career myself someday.”

After that, I ended up spending the rest of the day with them. Well, I felt like kind of a third wheel and offered to leave a few times, but Ren insisted I stick around and eventually said something about Giri “behaving herself” better with an audience. As couples go, they're a little strange, but it seems like it works for them. I guess I'm not really one to talk, anyway.

What Giri said about the veil is important to keep in mind. It suggests to me that magic could help out a lot of people, and that magic-users know that, but they're afraid of what could happen if it just all comes gets revealed at once. And I have to agree with that fear, honestly. If I want to deal with the Problem (it gets a capital “p”, I've decided), then I have to be really careful about how exactly people still completely “under the veil” get pulled out of it.

Who do I know that were out of the magical world before...things happened? There's me, Adena, Chris...Tina, I think, and Rio of course. I'd like to talk things through with as many people who've gone from “no magic” to “all magic” as I can, and try to figure out what would make it easiest for more people to go that way. Thinking about what Giri said, maybe there isn't anything I can do and the veil itself is actually pulling people over as fast as it safely can. I just wouldn't feel right leaving it completely alone.

---

This, of course, started being written around the time I finished with "The New Omega". Just look how long it took me to finish! A writer's block around the point where Chris walks in was the main culprit.

P.S. I know, I've been neglecting the Writing Status thing up on the upper right. It's up to date now..for now.