Wishing to Dive Headfirst Into

"Miranda! Miraaaannnndaaaaa!!!" Carlos saw her in the hallway; with her brilliantly blazing long red locks, it was easy to identify her even from the back. But he was pretty far away, and she didn't stop when he called, and by the time he did catch up to where he thought she was, she had turned a corner and promptly disappeared, now nowhere to be seen.

"Darn!" he punched the air in frustration, disappointed in himself. Everyone else found that girl so easily, it seemed—the very moment you wanted to talk to Miranda, the rumor went, there she was—but after no less than a week of trying, Carlos just didn't seem to be able to reach her. She'd be off somewhere in the distance, sitting perfectly still, and then—poof—the moment he looked away or tried to approach her, she was gone, vanished into the crowd or—when that was unavailable—thin air itself! Some of his classmates swore she was in the same classes he shared with them, but he could never find her even there! And now this...

Carlos slumped forward in defeat, another attempted meeting with the mysterious woman aborted. Maybe she wasn't even real, he thought, somehow a collective delusion of the entire campus including himself? But no, there was simply too much evidence: He'd seen the amazing things she could do, and had done, for people, for himself time and again. Carlos picked himself up again, redoubling his resolve. Next time he'd get her to talk to him for sure!

That was when a voice came from far too close to him to not have been noticed its owner before. "Bwaulg!" He jumped, shuddering, and rapidly turned to the source of the voice, all before properly processing the words.

"What do you want?" And there she was: Miranda herself, standing with her arms firmly crossed together not three feet away from him, the annoyance as plain on her face as it had been in her voice.

Carlos stared at her, wide-eyed and unbelieving, almost past the point of rudeness. "It's really you! You are real," he said happily, fistpumping. He knew she was upset and was aware this reaction of his wasn't helping matters, but his absolute elation was overriding whatever sense of propriety he usually had.

"Of course I'm real," she said. "Is that what this is? Somebody wagered with you that I did not exist?"

"Noo, nononono," Carlos held his hands out, shaking his head violently. "It's just—you're kinda hard to get a hold of, is all. A-and I really wanted to talk to you!"

"Why?" she asked, still affronted. "You are not in any pain that needs my advice."

"Yeah, but...you're so cool!" He waved his hands out toward her. "Always helping everyone out with their problems. Plus you're magic too, right? I mean, I've met people who said you did impossible stuff for them."

"That is...meant to be a secret," she said with a slight shake of her head. "I...suppose I have not been so discreet about it lately."

Her arms uncrossed and her expression softened somewhat for the first time. "It is true. I am a somewhat accomplished witch."

"That's so awesome!" Carlos spouted. "Can you teach me?" he further blurted. "Like, magic and stuff? I want to be able to help people out like that too!"

"Heh.." Miranda chuckled softly. "Well, you certainly aren't shy about your desires. However..." She shook her head. "I will tell you a secret better kept than my powers, but you must not repeat it. In truth, I am far older than I appear to be. The college employs me as a covert counselor of sorts, and in addition to payment I am allowed to audit whatever classes I like to keep up the appearance of a fellow student. Every six years or so I take on a new appearance and name to maintain the act. So I don't want for money, besides which I am no teacher of spells, and hardly in the market for an apprentice at the moment. Whether you even have potential for the kind of magic I use is unknown, and by your age even a fairly strong potential would be difficult to properly train."

Carlos visibly deflated throughout this explanation, especially the last sentence. "Aww..."

"I'm sorry if I bugged you or anything," he said sadly. Maybe he could find someone else who knew magic and wanted to teach him, he thought.

"Hmm." Miranda had fixed him with a searching look while he wasn't looking; Carlos tried to stand up straight and look innocent, although he was uncertain what she was—possibly—suspicious about. "Why do you want magic of your own?" she asked finally.

"Well—like I said. It's so cool. There's so many ways you can help people with magic, when nothing else works. Right? That's why you use it, isn't it? I bet I could even save some people's lives if I knew the right spells and stuff!"

The witch nodded slightly, but her expression turned a bit dark. "I do not want to crush your hopes. However...If you became desperate for power, even with noble intentions, there are many who would prey on that desperation and harm both you and others in the process. Perhaps it is best I don't leave you be."

"Oh." Carlos wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. "You gonna obliviate me or something?"

"Obliviate?" She stared blankly back, understanding the reference at all.

"Uh...make me forget we had this conversation or something...?"

"Of course not," she shook her head.

"The problems I listed still stand, but I believe there is a way around them. With my enchantments in increasing demand around campus, I could use a familiar. This would entail me channeling my magic through you, which would eventually awaken whatever potential you have as well as grant you familiarity with my spells sufficient to cast those that fit your nature yourself."

"That sounds so awesome," he said with a grin. "Um—aren't familiars usually like, animals or something though?"

"The most powerful familiars are humanoid," Miranda explained. "Although I would deceive you to not admit to a high likelihood you gain some animal traits as a result of the status, you would remain capable of essentially everything you are now."

"There's no downside, then!" Carlos concluded aloud. "I'd love to be your familiar!"

"Heheh," she chuckled again, finding his energy amusing if not infectious. "Calm yourself, please. While it would be a temporary state of affairs, it's not to be taken lightly. I want you to take at least until this weekend to mull it over before making a firm decision; I require about that long to prepare for the necessary ritual anyway. Give me your number, and I shall text you directions to where to go if you still wish to go through with it."

"Okay!" Carlos said, and rattled off his number right away, while she was still busy digging in her purse for her phone.

"Heheh, hold on a moment!" Miranda said. "Allow me to—there." Her phone in hand, she said, "Again, please. Slowly. And what is your name?"

"Oh! It's Carlos," he said with a nod. "Uhhh." Then he went through his number again, as slowly as he could manage. This time she got it.

The place she had him go was a particular office inside one of the campus's administrative buildings, which from the outside had all the look of a maintenance room or perhaps some unused space. Her texts had indicated the door would be unlocked, so he carefully opened it to find something very different on the inside.

It seemed—bigger than should fit in there, for one thing. There was an area of the room with an entire couch facing a big screen, a corner with a computer chair in front of a long desk, and a wide open space in the middle with a pentagram inscribed in a circle faintly glowing red on the floor. Just on the other side of that pentagram was the witch, still in the same sort of casual wear as the day before, but in the faint glow her usual mysterious presence was enhanced into a downright mystical appearance.

"You are here," she said, stating the obvious. "Please, shut the door behind you."

"O-okay." Eager as he was, Carlos couldn't help some nervousness at the imposing sense of power radiating from Miranda just now, lending her a sort of firm, commanding aura. He carefully shut the door and took a couple of steps inside.

"This is my 'office', for lack of a better term," the witch explained. "It is space allotted to me by the college, although I essentially only come here when I am not meeting with anyone. It has some comforts, but I usually spend little time here, favoring my own home. Nonetheless, I think this is the best place for the ritual."

"Well...sure," he agreed blindly. "Is...that what the circle thing's for?"

"But of course," she nodded. "I have prepared everything necessary. Allow me to explain the procedure: First you must step in the center of the magic circle," she said, pointing. "Hold it," she said, putting out an arm palm-first as he began to step toward it. "Allow me to finish explaining before you do so."

"Oh. Uh. Sorry."

"It's all right. Your eagerness is part of your charm, after all," she said.

"Now: Becoming a familiar is a mutual contract. Once you are on the circle I will use it as a focus to channel my magic through you and grant your nature better compatibility with mine, as is necessary for a familiar to have. This is likely the point at which you will take on some animalistic traits. You can back out afterward if your mind changes, and be returned entirely to as you are now. After that, I will begin the contract spell. You will completely understand the terms and conditions, and be given an opportunity to accept or reject my contract. The point of no return comes if you should accept; although I have prepared a contract which allows us to nullify it harmlessly, that is only possible after a period of adjustment which could last anywhere from a week to a full year, depending on several factors which I am unable to accurately measure. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," he nodded slowly. It was a lot to take in, but she had explained it so carefully and well that he couldn't help but understand. Did she really think she couldn't teach anyone anything, or was that 'I am no teacher of spells' thing just part of her efforts to rebuff him, he wondered. "I still wanna do it. So, can I..?"

"Yes," she nodded seriously, "Proceed."

Carlos stepped carefully toward the glowing circle in the ground, and then carefully picked his foot over all the glowing red bits to plant it squarely in the center without touching them, followed by doing the same with his other foot. Maybe it wasn't necessary, but he didn't want to screw up all her careful preparation, after all!

"Brace yourself," Miranda instructed him, and when he nodded that he had, she began softly chanting in some incomprehensible tongue. It was fascinating, somehow, to hear, as though he understood something ineffable of their meaning even though any literal translation was far from him. The circle began to glow brighter, and lines traced inward from each point of the star toward the center, stopping where they reached Carlos's shoes and seeming to flow the red glow upward across his body. Before long he saw the glow make its way down his arms to his hands, and was aware of it covering his head, too. Then there was a sensation like something warm pressing itself inward onto—and into—his skin.

It felt unbelievably pleasant, like a warm, friendly hug from a gigantic teddy bear. Carlos found himself wrapping his arms around his body as if instinctively wanting to return that invisible hug, and let out a small, pleased "Mmmh" as the warmth seemed to sink deep inside him, right down to the bones.

He felt as though he was melting from that warmth, and yet it wasn't uncomfortable—just the opposite in fact. His point of view sank downward as his height diminished; he could feel his body pulling itself inward, slimming and narrowing everywhere. Looking down, he saw his sweater billowing out around him, slipping off a shoulder as it rapidly narrowed and softened. "Mmmh" came from his throat again as he found he enjoyed the shrinking; it felt like he was simply meant to be much smaller than he had been, and now that error was being fixed. Looking forward periodically, he saw Miranda's forehead, then her eyes, then her chin, all rise past his eye level as the warmth steadily melted him away.

It was not merely size he was losing, either, as Carlos's pleased sighs and "Aaah"s and "Mmnn" sounds came in steadily higher and higher pitches. He was aware of his manhood wilting and shrinking away from the warmth as if it, too, didn't belong. His pants and boxers both slipped down his legs, revealing soft, smooth skin on shapely limbs, curvy thighs tapering down to slender ankles. His hips, too, looked rather wide compared to his slender frame, and he knew from the sensation of warmth across his skin that his belly was flat with a sharp inward curve to the sides. His hands had slipped out of view under the cuffs of his sweater, which now fell loosely across his tiny, skinny arms; its collar was halfway down his left shoulder, only the opposite side hanging on his neck keeping the whole thing from falling off like his pants had.

"Mmh, mmMMmmh..!" Carlos became abruptly aware of a couple of little tugs between his legs. In a high, girly voice he murmured in response to each one, feeling the warmth being joined by a blush all across his face. His bright blonde hair fell out across his shoulders, tickling the exposed one, then two especially long tails loosely slid their way down across either side of his back, down past the hips to the exposed bit of his thighs, tickling the smooth skin there, too; the very tips of those locks darkened to a near-black shade as though singed by the fiery warmth within him. "O-oh...mnh.." Two more little tugs, not that there was much to feel them with at this point. Then Carlos's ears tingled, and they began to do something which felt like stretching, impossible as that was for something normally stationary on the sides of his head.

"MmMMmmnh." Away his manhood slipped. "MmmMMMmmrrRRrrrhhh~...!" As Carlos's sex fully changed, she found the pleased noise from her throat—much to her surprise—suddenly erupting into a distinctly feline purr. Her ears stretched up and up, newly grown fuzz on them sliding across her silky-soft hair, erupting past that hair and beginning to twitch around, picking up the subtleties of the motion of air across them and detecting distant sounds with their suddenly powerful hearing.

"Mnh, mrrr~rrrh...!" She purred again, feeling a distinctly pleasant sensation in the new equipment between her legs as a tail slid its way out of her lower back, a slim line of soft fur spilling past the hem of her sweater in the back to begin twitching from side to side periodically in a further feline expression of pleasure as it grew to a length no less than half her (quite diminished) height. "Mrrh, mroo~oww..!" Next she felt her tongue moving strangely—growing ever so slightly longer, it seemed—and a sensation in her teeth which was later explained by the discovery of some sharp, slightly longer fangs taking the place of her human canines. The feeling of being distinctly a cat washed through her as she let out another delighted "MrRRrroooOOooww~!" at the feeling of her chest gently puffing forward into the material of her sweater, stretching the suddenly tight top as the two little bumps rapidly bloomed out into a mid-sized pair of breasts that felt nice and big on her tiny, petite figure. This, too, gave her the most wonderful feelings deep between her legs, making her appreciate womanhood—in addition to cathood—all the more. She briefly felt something sliding its way back up her legs as the changes to her body finally stopped, followed by the pull of a snug, soft pair of panties against the sides of her hips and the strangely blank spot between her legs. Finally, she felt something just touching the hair of the corner of her head and some soft material tying itself around the new tail a bit before the tip—both of which she would later see to be floral accessories accentuating her newfound cuteness.

"Mew...aah..?" Carlos opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times, having a brief oblivious episode where she wondered why Miranda was so tall all of a sudden that the witch's impressive chest was right at her eye level. Then she looked down and instantly felt very exposed by the sweater hanging barely to the top of her thighs, and tugged down on it with her tiny, delicate hands, her cheeks flushing, ears spiking straight upright, and her tail twitching wildly in shock. "Waaah!"

"Heheh," Miranda chuckled at this reaction. "I thought for sure you'd turn out to be a puppy, but it seems a feline form fit you better. It's all right; we're both girls here, after all,” she said with a mischievous smile.

"Wh-why?!" Carlos demanded first. Then: "I-I mean..um. Why did, why am I a girl?"

"Well," Miranda said, "Being a witch, my magic is inherently feminine. I suppose it should have come as no surprise that you would accept it so completely as to not even resist that part; it ultimately makes you far more compatible now than you otherwise would be. But—as I said, we have not committed to any contract yet; I could retract my magic and return you to normal now, if you wish."

"N-no way!" she said excitedly, leaning forward. "I-I was just um. Curious and surprised, is all, like maybe you should've warned me or something! But it's totally worth it!" Her tail went into overdrive during this outburst, expressing her panicked energy better than anything on her face could.

"All right, all right. Settle down," Miranda said, holding out a hand. Somehow this instantly made Carlos feel calmer, and she leaned away again, standing upright.

"Now...Are you prepared?" Miranda asked.

"Yes," Carlos nodded with as serious an expression as she could manage.

"Then, let us begin."

Miranda began chanting again, in that fascinating almost-language. Carlos's ears twitched as she listened, her attention drawn far more closely to the sound of the witch's voice this time and her mind seeming much closer than before to comprehending that ineffable meaning. This time, it was Miranda's body which glowed first, brightening to the same brilliant red as her hair—which now floated up all around her as though weightless—and lighting up the entire room. The witch's eyes, she realized, were covered with that light as if emitting it themselves. Then Miranda raised her arms up, palms pointed forward and in toward Carlos's body, and streams of the luminous magical light flowed from those hands straight into Carlos's center, making the catgirl glow just as brightly before gently lifting her off the ground, floating her up just enough for her face and the witch's to be at the same level. Their eyes then met and—instantly—Carlos understood.

As Miranda's familiar, the witch's magic would be channeled through her very being in order to amplify and focus it, which would significantly enhance its power and versatility. This flow would prevent Carlos's own magic from expressing, preventing her from using it for whatever she would have otherwise been able to for as long as she was a familiar. In exchange, Carlos would have access to Miranda's magic for her own use, and it would naturally keep her body healthy, young, and unnaturally resilient to both physical and magical harm for the contract's duration. Additionally, the flow of magic would give each of them constant access to mental communication with the other and an intuitive sense of the other's intentions. The contract could be nullified and its effects immediately dispelled by either party, but since doing so before the flow completely stabilized would risk great harm to both of them, this option would only be available after that point.

Miranda was offering the contract, which meant she had already assented to its terms. Carlos could feel the spell pressing on her mind for a yes or no answer as to whether she also agreed to it. The diminutive catgirl hardly hesitated at all before saying Yes! as loudly in her mind as she could, and immediately felt the contract taking effect, the bright red glow sinking into her body as a pleasant warmth again while she was gently set back down onto her feet. This time the warmth seemed to settle and remain inside her, a constant, pulsing sensation of Miranda's power and will flowing into and through her and back again. Both of them took a deep breath and let it out slowly in sync as the rest of the spell's glow faded off, leaving only the relatively faint illumination of the magic circle to light the room.

Well, how do you feel? Miranda's voice came to Carlos's head despite the witch not moving her lips a bit.

"Amazing!" her familiar shouted excitedly. "I can do magic now, right? Ooh, watch this!" She held up her right hand and snapped it, producing a small flame floating above her upheld palm.

"Heheh," Miranda put a hand up to her chin, unable to suppress a giggle at the adorable catgirl's enthusiasm and her big, goofy grin. "It is impressive you've taken to its use so quickly, but please put that out. I don't want to have to explain why we set off this building's smoke detectors."

"Oh!" Closing her hand, she instantly dismissed the fire. "Whoops. Heehee."

"There's a good girl." One of the witch's hands reached over and was rubbing Carlos's ears before she could react to the motion. She purred, surprising and embarrassing herself, blushing but lowering those ears in submission, leaning into the petting with her tail twitching happily back and forth.

"Waah!" Carlos snapped out of it just as suddenly, pulling herself back upright and her ears popping straight to vertical again. "Wh-what was that?!" she demanded; the contract had felt like an 'equal partnership' sort of thing, and some portion of her newfound feline instincts also yelled that she was 'not a pet!'

"Sorry. I fear some of your youthful impetuousness is rubbing off on me through the connection," Miranda said, suppressing a laugh at her reaction. "You did enjoy it, didn't you?"

"Nnn..yes," the catgirl said, the truth coming out past her embarrassment and confusion.

"Then I see no reason to deny you the experience. It is just us here, after all," she said, coming around to put an arm over her cute little familiar's shoulders.

"I...I guess so," she agreed slowly, letting herself be guided over to the couch and sat down nice and close to the tall, gorgeous witch.

Before she knew it, the catgirl was purring again, eagerly pulling herself up around the witch in a close hug and even permitting her to run a hand gently down along her tail. She nuzzled Miranda's cheek affectionately in appreciation, and was a little surprised to find the witch nuzzling her right back.

Now then, Miranda's voice came to her mind; their present position did make it a little tough to speak aloud, after all. Do you wish to keep your name, or use a new one? I'm a little partial to Catrice, myself.

That's... she sent back, finding this way of communicating as easy as breathing. I wanted to say you can't just name me like some pet, buut..III...actually really like that one.

Catrice it is, then, Miranda replied cheerfully, a bit of that mischievous smile evident in her mental voice. So, Catrice, perhaps we should learn a little more about each other. Where do you hail from?

By the time they parted ways, the two of them knew as much about each other as a couple of old friends, and Catrice was embarrassingly, hopelessly addicted to the witch's gentle petting. She made her way back to her apartment, thankful for her previous lack of a roommate. Tonight would be her last time there—it would include packing up her things to take them all to a new home with her witch—so she tried to think of some magic tricks she could safely test out while she was by herself to get used to using Miranda's magic. Maybe there was a spell or two that could help with packing, she mused, or at least something to conveniently convert some of her gigantically oversized old clothes into something more fitting to an adorably petite catgirl like herself...

Jeanie's Roomie

The sequel to Gene's Jacket!

The "Best" RPG Ever-97

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Once she was asleep, Katherine walked over into Aria's dream as usual. "Hey. You were up late," the shifter said, standing up from her usual meditation stance and stretching. "Is Zack all right?"
Taken slightly aback by the unexpected expression of concern—with that windup, Katherine was sure she was about to say something teasing—the psion nodded slowly. "He'll be just fine. In fact, he wanted to visit us here tonight. You ready to start pulling people in?"

"You know it!" The shifter gave an energetic thumbs-up.

First Katherine got Rayna and Lynn, letting each one acclamate while she set up a section of the dreamscape to have the seating of their house's living room, and then reached over toward Zack. Even though her own body was...right up against his, it just felt easier to start with whoever was nearer to Aria instead. Maybe that made sense, as she was the 'host mind'. Either way, she pulled at the wolf-girl's mind while the other three were on their way to the seats.

It wasn't a pleasant scene he brought with him. In the same shape as his waking body, wearing armor stained in places with blood, Zack was holding his sword up as if preparing to defend himself against a massive pile of fresh-looking corpses in front of him, at least twice as tall as he was. Aria made a face toward the psion which more or less said 'are you sure he's okay', while Rayna and Lynn paused to glance briefly at the nightmarish vision and then exchange a further glance with each other.

Katherine could swear one or two of those bodies looked entirely too familiar. "Zack!" she yelled to get his attention, floating closer to him.He jumped, turned around with his sword still raised, hands shaking, and looked back and forth in a quick, panicked motion before realizing where he was. "...Oh." He visibly calmed, lowering the weapon and then letting go of it, which caused the sword to disappear entirely. His armor began to melt and soften into cloth, transforming slowly into his usual sort of casual wear.

"Well, that's a new one," Aria said. "You okay?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "Better now that I know that's not real," he said while pointing back at the bodies but visibly refusing to turn and look at them again. "Can you, uh," he said toward the psion, "...get rid of that or something?"
"Sure, no problem." With a wave of her hand, Zack's "part" of the dream-space was overwritten by more of Lynn's, turning into a further length of grassy plains under bright sunlight. The wolf-girl visibly breathed a sigh of relief, able to feel the nightmare setting disappearing without even looking. "Thanks."

Now Zack had the mental focus to shift his body into a male Canis form—although, the others noted, still long-haired and rather on the short side, with a distinctly feminine face. Even Aria declined to comment on this aloud while he walked over to the others and slumped down onto a free seat of the couch. "FFFffff."

"I guess you were right about getting a nightmare," Katherine said while she got busy pulling Nora in also. "You wanna...talk about it?"

"Literally anything else," he shook his head. Rayna and Lynn exchanged a look: His voice was unchanged from the deeply womanly alto of his waking body. Again, nobody commented. "It's just the same stupid junk as before, anyway." Nora quietly walked over and took a chair, silently waving hello to everyone.

"Okay, here's something," Lynn said, sitting up to face Aria while the catgirl floated up to an empty space to join them, reclining herself in midair. "Where'd this whole 'never give up for anything'...thing you were yelling about come from?" she asked the shifter.

"Well...I dunno," she said with an arms-up shrug. "I've just...kinda, always been like this. For as long as I can remember, I've always had this, obsessive drive to not let anything beat me, or keep me down. That's...not a very satisfying answer, though, is it?"
"Well—it's fine if it's true," Zack stated. "Not every little thing has to have a great reason."

"I can still talk a little more about it though, I guess.

"Tell the truth, I've actually mellowed out quite a lot in recent years. It used to be kinda unhealthy. Like, I'd risk doing real, permanent harm to my body and/or livelihood just to get a better time or score or whatever. Eventually, I realized that was stupid, and I set some ground rules and forced myself to follow them. Y'know how I did that?"
Zack crossed his arms. "...You treated 'following the rules' as your new challenge."

"Yep! It's amazing, it really is. I had this, like, gradual epiphany that I am the one who decides what I am obsessively trying to accomplish. It turned this—thing—that I always used to feel had control over me, into a sort of power, a freedom to accomplish whatever I really wanted to. I set the goals," she said, pointing her hands up at her face. "Me. Nobody else. And then that unstoppable determination gets them done. From that point on, I won't let anything or anyone control me into doing something I don't wanna do. And I will never give up on doing something I really believe in."
"Yeah..." Zack nodded slowly. "I could feel that. When Kath sent your...that, to me. It's an amazing thought, but maybe too intense for me."

"Please, Zack," Katherine said. "You're at least as stubborn as she is."

"No one asked you."
"So anyway," Aria continued, "Once I had this—I dunno. Philosophy? Worldview? General...concept, thing, in my head. I started saying stuff like that in my streams. 'I can do this; we can do this.' 'You can do it'—anytime someone in chat talked about some goal of theirs I thought was a good thing. At first I was a little embarrassed when people pointed out how much I was saying stuff like that. Like—it's super cheesy, right? 'My name's Will and I'm all about willpower'," she said in a somewhat mocking tone. "That was about when, uh..."

Aria reached a finger up into her hair, twirling it around a bit in a sudden burst of apprehension. "Well, one of my regulars came in one day with some bad news: He'd just been diagnosed with cancer. I mean bad cancer—not that there's good cancer but like, on the scale between 'benigh spot we can remove in outpatient' and 'get your affairs in order, we'll try to make you comfortable,' it sounded closer to the latter. He uh...wasn't sure if the pain of treatment was gonna be worth it. You know what I had to say about that, though.

"Mayyybe it wasn't good advice, objectively speaking. I sure didn't try to argue logically. Just—every time he showed up I'd ask him if he was getting treatment yet, and tell him not to give up. The whole chat got in on it, too. I feel a little bad, I think we might've bullied the poor guy into agreeing to some kinda experimental treatment. But I mean, he did keep showing up in chat while we were doing that every singe time. Eventually he disappeared for like a...month or two, and when he came back they were still trying to get it out of him. Coulda gone either way at that point, but as of the time I came here—years after he was supposed to have died even with treatment—he was fine. Bad stuff all gone and not come back yet."

"Sooo, I made it my cause after that. Did lots of charity streams on the weekends, have people donate to give me ridiculous challenges to try. Took some time off work to go to the big marathons they had raising money for charity research and stuff. I, honestly just couldn't believe my stupid obsession that used to be all about winning was getting passed on to other people and maybe even saving lives somehow."

"...What?" Lynn looked like she wanted to say or ask something, which Rayna was plainly waving at her not to. "Hey, come on, I can take it," Aria said, pointing a thumb to her chest. "There's a massive demon in my head over there—" she waved vaguely toward the cliffside "—constantly sharing his wonderful addiction to blood with me with an intensity that would drive lots of other people insane. I can handle an awkward question or two."

Rayna crossed her arms, glaring at her friend with her ears lowered in annoyance, but shook her head 'go for it, I guess'.

"I don't want to cast any doubt on the good you're saying you were doing," she started.
"...Not that that's going to stop you..." the fox-girl interjected.
"Just—if you want to give money to stuff like that, why go through an extra three steps for it? Technically, you could spend the same amount of time working to earn more money and everyone donating through you could just donate themselves instead. Right?"
"Ah. I've had this one before," the shifter nodded with a smirk. "First of all: Technically yes, but no. A human isn't an economic machine that can put endless hours in and get the same money out for each one. You need downtime to be effective at whatever you actually make money from, and that's what streaming is for me; always has been. So whatever time I'm donating is being more productive, not less. Second: Obviously I donate out of what I do make. Third: You have no idea how many people would never just give money but would donate to something special like that. Even people with charitable dispositions need an incentive or excuse to get started sometimes, and then there's just people with disposable income who wouldn't donate a cent to the charity normally but are willing to pay to get to make me do something silly on-stream and watch the results. And if you think of it that way, what I'm doing already is working for the donation money, and probably getting a lot more than I could with a 'real job'.

"Now, why were you so scared of that one?" she said to Rayna. "If I couldn't answer something like that I would've quit a long time ago."

"Because we had this argument ourselves at one point. Not for the exact same reasons, but..."
"Our audience was giving us more money than we actually needed," Lynn said. "Not to brag or anything, just a fact. We decided to do a thing where we'd have them help us pick out from a list of thoroughly vetted charities to give some of that extra to."

"Vetting done by our personal crack team of researchers, AKA ourselves," the fox-girl added. "We caught some stuff nobody else had. But first we had an argument that lasted about two months about every little detail of the setup and our motivations for it."

"I guess even you get tired of arguing with her about something after long enough," Zack said.

"We don't argue, we discuss," Rayna said. "But usually the topic changes a lot more often. Not her coming up with new objections to the same thing, or repeating old ones every time we got together for a recording session."

"Well, this was important," Lynn said. "I just didn't want anything left out when we went public with the idea."

"Anyway," Katherine said, "enough of this heavy stuff. We almost got some SNES" (she pronounced a single word rather than letters) "games similuated accurately last time."

"Uh—simulated?" The tension between the two evaporated instantly as they and Aria began excitedly explaining this to Zack, who looked Nora's way briefly and received a slight shrug in return.

---

Rose took the suggestion of staring at the stars somewhat seriously, slowly lying onto her back with her head up toward the clear night sky. Mira shrugged to herself and quietly took up much the same position, waiting patiently for either the sound of her friend talking or falling asleep.

"They have stars here," she said after a long while, as though just realizing it. "Other planets too, maybe? I dunno much about that stuff."
"In principle, this 'universe' could be very different from ours," the witch said. "Their 'stars' could be something other than the supermassive fusion reactors we're used to seeing from Earth. But I doubt it. The sun seems like a pretty ordinary main-sequence star; moon looks like a round moon; the maps and charts I've seen seem like they belong to a roughly spherical planet rather than some crazy discworld thing."

"You think it's the same space? Is Earth in one of the galaxies out there?" she pointed vaguely upward.

"Couldn't say."

"...Wonder if, like, anyone's ever tried going into space here. Or if that's even a concept they have," Rose said.

"Nothing I've heard of—the 'me' from here, I mean. It would be much easier with magic, but a lot of the same huge physical challenges of making a body survive in space probably exist here, too. Society has to really want to go to space to do it. Helps if there's a couple of big, wealthy nations in a cold war with military motivations, too."

"Hmmh."

After a while longer, she sat up again, and Mira joined her, getting to a cross-legged position facing Rose. "Hey..you ate that demon and stuff, right?"
"Mm-hm. Turns out it was two of them somehow, too, which brings my grand total to six."
"What kinda powers did they give you?"
"Weelll. It's mostly potential for powers—expansion of the skill tree and some free points to spend in it, none of which I have just yet. I can control the tentacle thing's 'ink magic' at least as far as dispelling it where it already exists, but I'd have to put some points into a new skill to be able to make it myself. Don't think I want that particular power, though. Oh, but—I can do this," the witch said, holding her arms out to the side. Four shadowy, partially-translucent tendrils starting a bit thicker than her arms and tapering to rounded tips flowed out from between her shoulder blades, near where her wings were based, and wriggled around above and below each of her arms. "Think I can stretch and fine-control them, pick up stuff...nothing too heavy at their base level, though. If I put effort in—or buy some levels—I can have more of them, too."

"Neat," Rose said, grinning. It was clear she would've had a more enthusiastic reaction, but she was tired, and yawned loudly.

"Mngh. I'm like, super tired all of a sudden."
"Adrenaline finally wore off, I guess." The witch dismissed the shadow-tentacles. "Using magic is physically taxing, and I think even a dragon has her limits," Mira pointed out. "I guarantee you'll feel better after you get some sleep."

"Yeah..prolly." She yawned again, more quietly. "I jus'...don't really want to face tomorrow yet. I dunno."

"You're under no obligation to tell everyone else you're from Earth right away. Or even talk to them. I can head back and tell them you're okay if you just wanna stay here a little longer."
"Mm..noo. They already know anyway, right? A-and, I want to tell them. I wanna show them I'm okay." Rose shook her head. "'m just...not sure if I am, yet."

"That's just the exhaustion speaking," Mira said kindly. "You don't have to make any decisions until you've had that rest, and then we can go from there, okay?"
"Alright, alright." Rose shook her head. "Sheesh, mom." She flopped forward into the grass. "I'll go to bed already iiif that's wha..." She yawned again. "Y'rilly wan'..."

Almost as soon as she closed her eyes, the dragon-girl was fast asleep, steadily curling herself together into a comfortable ball on the ground. Mira shook her head with a slight grin, then shrugged and lay herself down on her side, carefully tugging a wing out of the way before it could be under her. While not nearly as tired—especially after absorbing the energy of two demons that night—she never had been the sort to have difficulty falling asleep.

Lacking the Needed Perspective

Brad was, by any measure he could think of, any girl's dream. He was tall, buff, handsome, well-groomed and even reasonably smart. Plus he always treated girls he was with well, remained faithful as long as he was actually with someone, and tried to be as sensitive and considerate as he knew how. So why, he wondered, was he sitting now at the other end of a third breakup with a girl after being together for nearly an entire year? It was turning into a sort of awful yearly tradition for him, and seemed set to sour his winter break yet again.

"Go to Miranda," his friends said. "She helps everyone! She helped me out when I had a problem." So, reluctantly, he did, approaching her out in the courtyard one day when she was sitting on a bench with seemingly nothing to do.

She greeted him with a smile and a little wave, silently inviting him to take a seat on the opposite end of the bench. "Hello, Brad," she said in a friendly tone of voice—but he couldn't help some worry that this was their first time meeting, yet she already knew his name.

"Uh, hey..." He started awkwardly; something about her demeanor had him off-balance right away. "You...got a few minutes to hear me complain?"

"Certainly," she nodded. "I thought I might see you sooner or later."

"Well, uh—" Maybe it would be easiest to jump right to the problem, he thought. "I just can't seem to keep a real relationship going with anyone. Like, ever. The first time someone broke up with me, I thought, you know, maybe it just wasn't right for us, or maybe it was even just her. A-and the second time, you know, maybe me just having bad luck; coincidences happen, right? But after Sandra and me were going steady for almost a year now and then we get into a huge fight all of a sudden and three days later she dumps me—third time it's happened, I gotta think the problem's with me. So: What am I doing wrong, y'know?"

"Brad," she said in a kind, almost motherly tone of voice, "Not every breakup is somebody's fault. Sometimes people can think they're compatible for a long time before finding out they're not. And you can't assume that finding a real, lasting relationship should only take three tries. Speaking from experience, you can get to know a lot of people you are interested in, but not end up remaining with any of them."

"Really?" Brad said, and received a solemn nod in reply. "I just wish I knew what it was like," he said. "I mean, I think I'm being a good boyfriend, but it's been a few too many times I get in a fight 'cause I don't understand what she really wants, and can't no matter how hard I try. What's it like over there, huh?" he said with a vague gesture toward her. "I gotta be missing something."

"Hmm." Miranda put her hand to her lower lip in a thoughtful expression. "Perhaps I can help you with that. Would you meet up with me here, in one day's time?"

"Tomorrow?" Brad said; she had a funny way of talking, he thought. "Sure. I mean, I got a class right before this time, so I might be a little late, but..."

"That will suffice," she said, giving him a small nod and gathering her things before standing up. "I will await you then. I've work to do now."

"O-okay." The way she said that, and now began to stride away quickly, with a purpose, made him apprehensive about whatever her solution was, but—after all, she was supposed to be some sort of miracle worker. He'd just have to wait and see.

When he arrived the following day, there she was, sitting as peacefully as ever. She even waved him over and greeted him exactly the same way. Once he was seated, he realized her right hand was closed, holding something in her palm perhaps.

"The truth is, I can't help feeling a little poorly for you," she began, "since—a few days ago, I did not advise Sandra specifically to break it off with you, but I did give her advice which may have led her to that decision all the same."

"Really?" he said first. Then: "I-I mean, it's fine. You give good advice, so...maybe it really was the best for both of us."

"I'm glad you're mature enough to accept that, however reluctantly," she said. "At any rate, this is what I have." She opened her palm toward him to reveal a simple ring, seemingly wrought of gold—but did not extend her hand as though to offer it to him. "To put it bluntly, this is a magic ring. If you—and you alone—wear it, it shall give you the form and mind of a woman. Perhaps that way you can learn whatever it is you believe you are missing. Take it off, and you will return to normal."

Brad stared at the small trinket, then back up to Miranda's straight, perfectly serious face, then down at the ring again. "A-are you for real?" he said, naturally incredulous.

"But of course. Look around you," she gestured with her free hand. "Nobody is paying us any attention." Indeed, it was true: The two of them were being avoided and totally ignored by everyone else on the courtyard. "You could shout, and they still wouldn't spare a glance. Such is my doing. So if you don't believe me, try it on here and now. I can guarantee our privacy here, you see. If I'm lying and I cannot, then the ring also will do nothing, and so there is no harm in trying it, is there?" Now she held it out for him to take.

"Uh...I guess not," he said, slowly reaching over to pick it up. She could be truly impossible to argue with if she wanted to be, it seemed.

Once the ring was in his right hand, Brad held up his left and slid it down onto his ring finger, finding it an eerily comfortable, perfect fit for being from someone who'd never so much as looked at or felt his hands, much less measured the fingers. It began to faintly glow then, barely visible in the afternoon sunlight, which was already some further evidence that magic, or at least something unusual, was involved.

The first instinct he then had was—although it had looked perfectly plain before—that it looked so girly on his finger. An irrational part of him wanted to take it off right away because of that, like that "girliness" was going to infect the rest of him if he let it. His more rational side remained in control, keeping it on instead.

Brad shuddered suddenly, feeling a chill run down his spine. Then he felt a sensation not unlike his muscles relaxing while someone gently massaged his shoulders, and found his perspective slowly sinking as he started to shrink. "W-whoa.." he mumbled, holding his hand up to his face and seeing it slowly diminish in size. The arm attached to it was slimming down, too, his solid muscles steadily melting away. Looking down and pulling the hem of his shirt up briefly, Brad discovered that even his six-pack was fading, rapidly softening and flattening as the ring's power ebbed his manly strength away. The part of him that didn't like the ring was crying out now—Look what it's doing to me!—but somehow it felt weaker, fainter, as a different part—which seemed to him not new but not entirely familiar either—eagerly wondered just how cute he was going to turn out.

Brad's shirt billowed out around him while his jacket threatened to slip off entirely, his feet pulling off the ground and his pants sagging around his hips as he grew slimmer and smaller, his shoulders narrowing and his limbs getting shorter and smaller. He felt a gentle slipping, tugging sensation between his legs that made the displeased part of him panic on its way toward the back of his mind, but delighted the rest of him with its gentle, pleasant tingling. That tingle abruptly spread up and down, all over his body, taking away his ugly body hair as it went, smoothing and softening his skin and—as he rubbed his chin with his small, delicate fingers—utterly destroying his facial hair. He let out a pleased "Aa~ah" in a high tenor voice—far above the one he'd had seconds earlier in pitch—as the tingling hit his scalp and soft, deep purple hair showered down across the sides of his face, over his narrow shoulders and down his back.

Brad knew now that he wanted to be a girl, completely and utterly. That 'boyish' part of his mind that disliked the idea was so far gone he couldn't even feel it anymore. And so, he welcomed the rapid shrinking of the ugly thing between his legs with a pleased "Ooh, mmn~mmnh" in a girlish voice which was still steadily rising in pitch, and greeted the deeply pleasant, tingly sensation as it finally, defeatedly, slunk its way inside her body and became womanhood with a happy, breathy "Aa~aahh..!" All at once she was female inside and out, and loving every bit of it. Then her hips burst outward, drawing a surprised "Ooh!" in her adorable, high soprano voice as she felt them rapidly filling out, stretching the material of her boyish underwear and pants with wide hips, thick thighs and a nice, plump bottom. Finally she let out a very pleased "Aa~aahhnn~nn..!" as two bumps centered on her nipples spread forward, just as rapidly forming a nice, big pair of breasts covered in soft, deeply sensitive skin that rubbed pleasantly against her t-shirt as they bounced outward, making her body just as completely female as her mind.

Brad slowly opened her eyes, staring downward in response to the sensation of cloth sliding around across her body, and caught sight of the final masculine part of her appearance promptly correcting itself: The boring shirt became a cute white blouse, her jacket turning pink and popping out a snowflake pattern across the hem; the pants split off at the thighs, the upper part softening and spreading into a frilly, dark plaid skirt while the rest pulled together into a pair of long, tight stockings, merging with her socks in the process. "Mm~mh.." she murmured softly, enjoying the show—and finding every bit of her new outfit to be perfectly cute on her.

After panting for a second or two, Brad looked around suddenly, her hair swishing around, in a slight panic as she realized just how embarrassing her reaction to that transformation had been. But thankfully, everyone really had failed to notice any of it; they were still going about their business as though nothing had happened at all in the vicinity of the bench. But...

"Waah!" Brad stood up suddenly, grabbing her coat and blushing brilliantly in Miranda's direction; after all, she certainly had seen and heard all of that.

"Eheh, heheheh," she giggled nervously. "Uumm.."

The redhead seemed perfectly calm still, as though nothing out of the ordinary had even happened. "There is nothing to be ashamed of. The physical experience of such a drastic shift is naturally a bit extreme in nature," she said. "Now, I trust you are convinced of that ring's power?"

"Yeah!" she said with a quick nod, holding her left hand up to look at it again—only to find it wasn't there. "Waaiit..."

"It's invisible," Miranda explained patiently. "So that nobody notices the source of your 'disguise' and exposes you by removing it. You alone may remove it. But I must warn you."

She stood up, a stern and serious expression on her face which made Brad rather nervous. She also realized, with a bit of a start, that she was now half a head shorter than the redhead, making her...well...calculations were difficult. Very short, was the main thing!

"The effect which returns you to normal when that ring is removed requires something from you to 'inform' it what 'normal' even is. But a person's body is a rather elastic thing. If you are in that form too often and for too long—by which I mean a habit of using it near-constantly—it may begin to recognize you as you are now as 'normal', and removing the ring will do nothing then. Should that occur, feel free to seek me out to correct the problem. But I will be disappointed in your lack of caution in that occurrence," she said.

"Oh. Okay," Brad nodded. "Um...but, thank you though. Seriously. This is, so...different. It's exciting all by itself somehow!"

"That is hardly surprising. People do tend to enjoy new experiences these days," Miranda said with a very slight shake of her head. "Well, enjoy yourself, then. Just bear my warning in mind."

"I will!" she said, waving excitedly to the witch as she walked away. Once she was gone, people seemed to stop completely ignoring Brad's presence—although they didn't seem to think her 'suddenly' being there was anything out of the ordinary, either.

The first thing she wanted to do was get a good look at her new self in the mirror, she decided. And while she was on the way, maybe she could come up with a name to use when she was like this. For...disguise purposes, of course. Perhaps it'd be fun to see what one of her usual boy buddies thought of her now. A lot of them were rather cute, she realized, another blush running across her cheeks. After all—she did want to know what it was like on this side of the fence!

The "Best" RPG Ever-96

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---

Once everyone was inside, they stopped for a moment in the living room. "So uh..is...what happened to Rose, exactly?" Lynn asked. "I mean, is she gonna be okay?"

"Hopefully?" Katherine said, her ears drooping slightly.

"The ink magic stuff forces a person to think about things they'd rather not," Rayna said. "I guess there was something she really needed to stay buried."
"That's not too reassuring," said Lynn, crossing her arms.
"Well—Mira's..." The psion paused for a second, uncertain how to explain it without going into information she'd read from the witch's mind which she might prefer remained private. "She's told me before that she has experience helping people through things they don't want to talk about," she settled on. "At least, I think it's best to leave it to her for tonight, and hope we see one or both of them not too far into tomorrow."

"All right. Well...good night, then," she nodded, heading for the stairwell. Everyone else responded in kind, most following her up—it was fairly late by now, after all.

Nora stopped just for a second to make eye contact with Katherine. If you want to ask him..I don't mind, she thought. Just let me know if you don't. I'll be in my room.

Uh..okay. The psion mostly succeeded at suppressing a blush.

Noticing that the catgirl was looking at him, Zack didn't go up, remaining in the living room with her while nodding to Lupa to head on up and go to sleep. Once they were alone, he said, "What?"

"Just uh..are you sure you're okay?" she said with a concerned expression. "I'm...not happy about it, but I couldn't help seeing what you were thinking about. It seems rough, is all."

"It's nothing that I haven't dealt with before," he said.
"I just..you know, if you wanna talk about it..."
"Then at least you already know?" he shrugged. "Fine. Let me get this armor off first."

He pulled the pieces off one at a time, letting them fall onto the floor, until he was just in the shorts and tank top he usually wore underneath, and then half-collapsed onto the couch. Katherine hesitantly sat down next to him, on the opposite side. He took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "You know. I usually deal with my problems by not thinking about them, and talking means thinking. I guess I am still thinking about it, deep down."
"I'd say that's all pretty normal."
"Sure." He turned toward her. "It's just...I let people treat me like I'm some kind of hero...sometimes I almost believe it myself, because it's so much easier. I don't really think it's true, though. I'm not brave at all; I'm just more terrified at the thought of someone else getting hurt than I am of getting hurt myself. Especially people I like. In the end, it's just another kind of selfishness." He turned, slowly, forward again and upward, until he was leaning back against the cushion and staring up at the ceiling.

"You know, I don't know if there is any such thing as a totally selfless person," Katherine said. "Not if you keep digging in hopes of finding the 'real motivation'. I don't think it matters, really. In the grand scheme of things, I think what you actually do is more important than why."

"Maybe. But then, what I do is usually put myself in danger and worry everyone, or get angry at someone who didn't even do anything wrong, just made a mistake or something...

"When I think about how I felt—if it was even real—when I saw the rest of my order die to that witch, or how I would feel if any of you got killed by something, it's...I feel like a failure. Like it's supposed to be my job and mine alone to protect everyone, and if I don't do that—especially if I can't do that—then I'm worthless, and I might as well be dead. So, it's better if I die instead." Turning toward her again: "Isn't that stupid?"

"I can't argue with that. At least you know it, though," she said. "I mean, if that was what you really believed then you wouldn't be fighting it. You're more than rational enough to keep that in check, or—I mean, at least the 'you' that's entirely from here wouldn't still be alive after that first 'failure'. Right?"
"I guess so. I still don't get how that's supposed to work. I mean—why pick a 'backstory' for me that could make me suicidal anyway?"

"For all we know, the logic is that it's fine since it didn't."

They were both quiet for a moment, Zack slowly turning his head back up to the ceiling. Then: "Yooouuu want...petting, don't you."

"H-hey!" Katherine's face flushed: The accusation-slash-offer had come completely out of nowhere, realized in his mind at about the same pace as he said it. "Maybe. I-I mean, no. Yes. Whatever!"
"I can do it if you want to, but I don't really care." Zack swatted the air in front of him mindlessly. "I mean, with what my body's like, I can't fault you for what yours wants." In fact—and he probably knew this—she could read that he at least wanted someone to pet him too, and she was quite high on the list of who.
"Yeah, fine." The catgirl pulled her feet up onto the couch in front of her. "It's just really weird to hear you suddenly come out with it like that." She pulled herself around until she was on all fours, facing him, and slowly stalked toward him. "Here I've been trying to figure out how to even broach the subject, or if it was even appropriate to say anything about it tonight or if I should just wait until you're feeling better, a-and you just let it out right away like it's nothing!" Finally she pulled herself on top of him, wrapping her arms around the curvy wolf-girl and leaning her head in until their cheeks met.

"Mmnh. I'm too tired for subtlety. Anyone hear us down here?" One of Zack's fingers teased the tip of her ear.
As her entire vocal system was busy purring, the psion replied telepathically: No. Rayna and Lupa both fell into bed and went to sleep instantly; Aria's not using animal ears. I mean as long as we're not loud or something. She returned the favor, rubbing his ears from base to tip and letting her tail curl forward to start wrapping itself around the long, thick ball of fluff coming from Zack's back.

Usually not. "Rrf." Right? Both of them twisted around until his back was on the couch, his head on the armrest, and their tails entwined together running down the front. We can't stay here all night, though.

Go up in a few minutes, then. Katherine mewed softly, retaining a harsh blush on her cheeks and well aware Zack found the noises she was making very cute. Well, he wasn't much better, she thought.

Holding and petting Katherine was a very different experience from any of Nora's forms. She seemed very flexible and limber, and moved with a kind of sly confidence that the elf didn't have even when in her own 'feline' form. Plus she was just so...small and soft; with their heads and chests together her feet barely reached his ankles, and her breasts were bigger and squishier than the elf's, too. It was a little strange to know she was fully aware of the thoughts going through his head, but it was difficult not to have them when his entire focus was on her body and the deep purrs mixed with adorable, high-pitched mewing she was constantly making.

Eventually they did peel apart, silently agreeing to head upstairs and change clothes before continuing rather than risk the deep relaxtion putting them to sleep in such a...compromising position. They did want to admit this was happening, but that wouldn't exactly be the best way for everyone else to find out.

Zack picked up his armor before going upstairs, heading into his room. Lupa was more on top of her bed than in it, still wearing the entire outfit she'd had on all day and lying half-curled-up with a fully-made bed, covers and all, underneath her. He sighed, shaking his head; she was sleeping peacefully enough that he didn't want to wake her, but...it'd be a good idea to explain how getting into bed was supposed to work tomorrow. For now, Zack went into the bathroom and got out a spare comforter, carefully unfolding it and laying it over her so her head just poked over the top of it. Lupa yipped softly once or twice and wriggled in place a bit, but didn't wake up. Good.

After that, he changed clothes and then opened the door for Katherine when she telepathically announced her arrival. Zack wondered why just changing had taken her as long as he had to do all of that, but when she came in he had his answer. She had taken everything else off to put on full-body pajamas: a fairly tight, long-sleeved top and long pants both in pitch black with a pattern of pink pawprints all over them. "...Do you wear that every night?" he asked after taking it all in.
"Not the same one," she said, annoyed. After a second or so of further staring, she crossed her arms. "Look, I just wear what I find comfortable, same as you."
"It's cute." He sat down on the bed slowly, his face and most of the rest of him calm but his tail whipping back and forth wildly.

"You really just have no filter when you're tired, huh?" Katherine sat next to him, giving a sour look at the slight grin on his face. "Well, fine. The nothing-but-a-shirt look is cute too, you know."

"..That's fair," he shrugged, and then reached an arm up to rub the base of her ears again. The catgirl purred and let herself be pulled around onto him, winding their tails together once more.

This time she ended up under him by the time they were lying down, but she didn't particularly mind; at least it meant she got the pillow. After she psionially pulled the sheets and cover up over them, she let one of her hands wander down and along his arm, feeling the solid muscle hidden by its slender appearance, then past that and on down his side, tracing the curves of the wolf-girl's generous hourglass figure through the loose-fitting shirt. It finally went around behind those amazing hips to gently stroke Zack's tail from the base to as far back as she could reachd, drawing a much higher-pitched yip than usual from her mouth, followed by a soft, deep, relaxed "Mmm~mh."

You like that?
Feels..really weird, but yeah, he admitted, still churring contentedly.

Katherine giggled aloud, in between her own purrs. It's like a big, warm, fluffy pillow. I should hug it sometime.

Whatever. Then: Hey..can I...go to Aria's dream thing tonight?

Sure; anytime you want.

I usually prefer having normal dreams, but...at least that way I can't get nightmares, right?

Guaranteed! Katherine punctuated this with a confident "Mrr~row."

---

If it wasn't enough that she had a decent head-start, it turned out that Rose could also fly really fast when she put her mind to it. Even going at full tilt once she was in the air, Mira lost sight of the distant dragon-girl pretty quickly. It didn't really matter; she knew pretty well where the forest was, and that was the only logical destination. It didn't take long for the trees to come into view, so the witch slowed down as she approached in hopes of identifying just where Rose had landed.

This was not a difficult task, it turned out, as a certain portion of the forest looked very different from usual.

The normally bright greens were dark, the rainbow of flowers missing entirely; many of the plants were covered by thorns or replaced entirely by some sharp-looking, abnormally tall and thick briars. Toward the center of that dark patch, the trees themselves were twisted into bent, spiraling shapes, and in the center was a bunch of briar and long, thick thorny vines all looking uncomfortable twisted together into a rough, dome-like shape. Well...one's magic was supposed to be empowered and affected by especially strong emotions, so...this probably wasn't a great sign, Mira thought, pulling up to just above the dome and off to one side a bit. If she was in there, she hadn't noticed the witch quite yet.

"Rose?" she called, just loudly enough to be heard at that distance.

"Go away!" her voice cried back; some of the vines picked themselves up off of the central mass to whip around at the general area the witch's voice had come from. They weren't particularly fast, likely not even intended to actually hit her—just drive her off—so Mira easily dodged around to another side.

"Not until you come out here and talk to me," she said insistently. It was unusual for her to talk to someone who didn't have the option of instantly disappearing on her, but her instincts said this was what was needed: Someone to talk to, whether she wanted it or not.

"RrrRRRgh!" The dragon-girl roared in frustration, sending the vines up and out everywhere around. Mira moved higher up to avoid them, and with all the vines busy elsewhere she could see Rose through the dome of briar left behind, suspended half-upright in the middle of the twisting thorns.

"Please, just...tell me what's wrong," she said in kind, calm voice.
"You know what's wrong!" One of the still-thrashing vines threw itself back inward at the dome on the emphasized word, staying there after it landed. "Just leave me alone," she said in a less angry—more sad—tone. "I'm not worth being nice to."
"Humor me? Maybe I don't know as much as you think I do," Mira said.

"Fine! I'm a freak! I'm a loser! And I'm a liar and a fake!" Each of the louder words came with a few more of the vines crashing inward onto the dome, some with enough force to smash or tear into the briar. "I don't deserve anyone's kindness, or friendship, or...anything." The mass of briar shuddered from this last impact, starting to fall apart. "I'm just some stupid pervert who doesn't know how to talk to real people!" Finally, it collapsed in on itself, dropping Rose herself roughly out onto the ground on her back. The vines went limp and fell down afterward, landing on the ground around her yet jerking themselves away at the last second when they would've otherwise hit her. She ended this speech by curling up into a tight fetal position and loudly sobbing, practically wailing her lungs out. This allowed Mira a slightly better look at her: While she didn't appear to be hurt, the clothes she'd had on before had been torn mostly to shreds by all the sharp plants.

Mira pulled herself down and landed a short ways off, carefully placing her feet between the patches of briar. "Well, I just don't see how any of that's true," she said, poking some plants gently out of the way with her broom while stepping slowly toward her friend. "If you are some kinda imposter, then you're really good at it."

Rose gasped loudly, as if she was taking in her first breath since she'd started shouting. "No, noo, you don't geeet it," she sniffed. "None of this is real or like...me. It's just something someone else handed me. An' I dunno why or, or how, but...it's just not..." This was interrupted by an awful choking sound, and then more tears and incomprehensible blubbering. By now the witch was almost to her, and considering how best to climb past the gigantic throny vines covering the rest of the way.

"You aren't the first person to have that complaint," the witch pointed out, taking her first careful step at a vine. To her surprise, it actually wriggled out of her way before she could plant her foot on it, leaving her with a clear patch of grass to step into instead. "What you have and how you got it, isn't nearly as important as how you use it. And you've always wanted to help people. Right?" More of the vines in front of her slid around to give another clear patch, so she stepped up into it, and continued on in this way.

"O-only 'cause it's the only way I know how to make friends." Rose sniffed loudly again, and raised one hand outward, waving it around. "Show everyone how...impressive and, and useful I am now, and...then they'll like me." Some of the vines in front of the waving hand picked themselves up, waving back and forth with the thorns blooming into bright, colorful flowers briefly before the entire vines suddenly withered into dust and fell apart as she dropped her hand and pulled it back in to herself again. "They don't really like me though, just...what I can do for them."

Finally reaching her, Mira slid down onto her knees next to the dragon-girl, keeping her arms to the sides for the moment. "I'm sure there are lots of people like that," she said quietly, "but...do you really think that's how everyone sees you? How I do?"

"No..." Rose uncurled just slightly, still sitting on the ground with her knees pulled up to her face and her arms around them, but not pulled quite so tightly together. "I just don't think anyone would like who I was b-before any of this happened. A-and that's still me, no matter how hard anyone tries to hide it."

"Why don't you tell me who you think 'you' are first?" Mira suggested. "You've already got me liking you now, so we don't have to worry about meeting 'before', right?"

After sniffling again, she pulled her head up just enough to turn and face the witch. Her face was a mess of tears and snot, but her expression was at least not totally despondent. "Alright." Just kind of..dead. Numb. It was still an improvement over sobbing and screaming. " M'name's Rob. Or..was. 'm..boring. I, uh. J-just keep to myself all the time 'cause I don't know how to meet people. Sometimes I go outside and walk around, and...I just avoid anyone who looks like they might talk to me. I'm scared they won't like me, or even worse, that they will until they find ou-ut..." Her voice cracked and cut out at this point, and she turned away again, burying her face into her knees hard enough to pierce a hole in them with her horns—if her skin wasn't far tougher than it looked.

"Find out what? It can't be that bad," Mira said. "What, are you a serial killer? D'you eat children for breakfast?"
"Wha? Noo..." It took a second for the incredulity to turn into laughter, and Rose started giggling too hard to talk after that, slowly pulling her face back out into view. "I..don't hurt anyone. Never, would, unless like I had to," she said finally. "I just...like to look at pictures of pretty cartoon girls. You know..have pretend relationships with them, through a screen...that sorta thing.

"It's...weird...right?"

"I don't think it's that strange. People have gotten really good at drawing attractive figures," Mira said. "You know what? Any game I can pick who to play as, I'll almost always choose the cutest girl so I have something nice to look at. Or, really what games I even choose to play in the first place is hugely influenced by, let's say, an 'attractive' art style. I'm a sucker for that stuff."

"Heheh..really?"

"Yeah. I mean, I was a guy and picked witch for my class anyway, more or less expecting this kinda result. I thought it'd be interesting. And it is, honestly. Before I was sure how real this was, and even now, if it turns out we have to go back to our old lives once this is all over, the wildly different perspective is interesting and valuable. People look at you and talk to you differently if they see you as a girl. Even more so a demonic witch or a scary dragon. Right?"

"I-I guess so."

After a moment, Rose turned her head forward and down, and making a weird choking noise halfway between a sob and a laugh. "I guess I look pretty stupid, throwing a huge tantrum over this. After eight other people admitted to who they really were no problem." She took in another huge sniff. "Not too mature for like a million-years old dragon, huh?"
"Sometimes a girl just needs to scream and cry," the witch said patiently. "Better than keeping it bottled up forever."

"You knew all about it already, anyway, too. I-I mean I blurt everything out anyway, an'..you could barely be more direct about f-figuring out I wasn't really, from here..."
"Actually, Aria was the one who worked that out," Mira said. "Kath can't read your mind, but she noticed you not being confused about some expressions from Earth that they don't have here."

"Hmmh."

"Um, I..." The dragon-girl hesitated for a long moment. "...T-tried to uh, make some of my plants hurt me. W-when I first got here," she said. "I don't...know why. Can't explain, what I was thinking at all."
"Are you hurt?" Mira asked, concerned. "You look okay..."
"I'm fine." She sniffed. "They wouldn't do it. Vines and stuff wouldn't pull tight, nothing dangerous I made would let me near it. The most I could do was mess up my clothes. Like, out of spite or somethin'..."
"Your plants don't have a mind of their own, you know," the witch said. "It's your magic animating them. Just you. I don't think you really wanted to hurt yourself."

"Maybe not. I was j-just..angry and sad and..." Rose shook her head. "...Embarrassed. I felt like I let everyone down, a-after how cool Aria and Zack were. I'm supposed to be strong, but I was so...helpless."

"You didn't get all of the mental chatter...Zack was only able to get up with her help," Mira said. "She wanted to do the same thing for you, but Kath still couldn't reach you. None of us can do it all alone."

"Mmh."

"...You fixed it for me, right?" Rose said. "Thanks. I'm sorry I just..ran away like that. I couldn't..." Her voice faltered, like she was going to start crying again.

"Hey, it's okay." Mira risked putting out a hand and slowly placing it on her shoulder. "I came after you because I care about you. I'm sure everyone else was worried too. Nobody blames you for getting hurt. It's far from the first time someone's taken a hit."

"Thanks..." She placed a scaly hand over Mira's, and turned slightly toward her again. "Um. C-could you..stay with me..a while? I, I want to tell everyone else about..myself...even if they already know, but I'm not...ready."

"I'll stay as long as you want," Mira nodded. "We can talk, or sleep, or just stare at the stars. I don't mind."
"...Okay."

While the dragon-girl quietly looked upward at the sky, Mira took a moment to examine their surroundings again. The thorny vines seemed to have disappeared entirely, leaving a patch of bright grass around where the dome had been, and the surrounding briar had turned into rose bushes—no less thorny, but dotted with bright flowers that shone faintly in the moonlight.

Gene's Jacket

Now, here's the first of the other two captions I wrote (see the previous post). As you can see, even this one's kind of hefty, but the others were even longer, and I wanted something I could accurately claim was a "caption" according to my own unnecessarily strict identifiers, so...let me know if you're having difficulty reading it, I guess.

Knowing Not One's True Desires

A little explanation before we begin:
I had a sudden, intense burst of inspiration over the past few days, and was able to channel it into no less than five captions! Wow. Three in one sort of loose series, and two in another. (There was also significant progress toward another part of TBRE, although I guess not many people are as interested in that.) But as I went to actually turn the captions I'd written into images, I realized the former were all probably too long to make readable image-style captions out of. So they're three "standalone stories" instead, and this is the first one. Expect the rest of that output to show up over the next week or two as well.

Anyway, hope you like them.

---

Miranda was the girl everyone came to when they had problems. She was a tall, gorgeous, fiery redhead with a mysterious aura about her, and somehow she always seemed to know the right thing to say or do to get people past their problems. Rumors had it that sometimes, even when her advice itself wasn't particularly great, the troubles people asked her about would simply...go away all on their own afterward. That was why, when he asked her out on a date and she said yes, Dan was the happiest he'd been in his entire life. The second date was like a dream, too, and when she agreed to a third...he started to think they might start going steady.

Unfortunately, these were the very same reasons he was crushed when she confessed to not really being interested in him—at least not romantically. Like anyone his age, Dan took the words "just friends" the way a criminal would a death sentence, and spent the night in his room sobbing and barely even speaking to his roommate. "It's just not fair," he said. "She doesn't know what it's like!" After all, someone as beautiful and well-liked as her could get a date with anyone. Dan, on the other hand, was a loser, something of a nerd, tall but thin; by no stretch of the imagination was he attractive.

Eric tried to comfort his roommate that night, and had both of them convinced he'd be over it before too long—after all, there was a lot more to life than being with a girl. But it had been a week, and Dan was still completely despondent. It was so bad, his classwork was starting to suffer. Ironically enough, this was the very kind of situation Miranda was supposed to be good and remedying—but it wasn't like he could ask her for help when she was the one who'd caused it! As much as he tried to simply get his mind off of the whole thing, it just wouldn't take. That Friday night, Dan went to sleep in quiet tears. At least his roommate didn't need to suffer just because he was.

When he did finally go to sleep, Dan found himself in an unusually lucid dream. He was aware he was asleep and dreaming, and he was standing—or perhaps even floating—in a perfectly white void. In a strange, undefinable motion that could only make sense in a dream, a speck in the distance appeared and instantly/slowly approached until its form became fully clear. It was Miranda, standing before him and looking just as she had the night she'd broken up with him. Or—since maybe that wasn't a fair way to put it—the night she'd decided they should stop dating.

"What do you want?" he said, in some anger. Even though it wasn't really her, the sight brought up all of the sadness and frustration he'd felt ever since that night at once.

"I want to clear the air," she replied quietly, in a calm but firm voice. "I didn't mean to lead you on, Dan. But the truth is that I was merely interested in getting to know you, and saw agreeing to a few dates as an expedient way to accomplish that. Once I realized that you thought it was serious, I knew it would only harm both of us to continue. It was my mistake to misread your feelings for so long, and I am sorry. But you cannot force someone to feel something which they do not."

“I..I know that," he said, tears starting to come down his face. "I know that!"

"So...what do you want?" she asked.

"I just...look at you," Dan waved toward her. "You're so attractive, and smart, and nice...everyone likes you. I wish I could be like that."

"Dan...you're already smart, and really nice," she said, "at least when you're not like this. And I believe more people like you than you believe. Why do you think I was interested in you in the first place?"

"I—I don't know." He sniffed.

"Well...if it's so great a concern to you, then perhaps we can fix that third thing," she said, bringing her right arm up, her hand just within his reach. "Are you willing to give it a try?"

"Um..." He wasn't sure what that meant—how could some dream make him more attractive? Then again, it was a dream, so maybe it wasn't supposed to make sense. Still, the offer was one he would have taken in real life if he really believed in it, so...why not? Dan reached his hand forward and took hers. Giving a small nod, Miranda pulled herself closer and placed her other hand on his chest for a second. It glowed a bright shade of red that rivaled that of her hair, and then she pulled back to where she'd been before, letting go of his hand. "Let me know what you think in the morning."

"Huh?" Dan didn't know what that meant, but that didn't seem to matter to her. She disappeared in much the same way she had arrived, leaving him with a strange, warm feeling where her hand had been. He brought his hand up to that spot, feeling it, and to his surprise the warmth spread to his hand—and also outward from the spot, up toward his neck and down along his stomach. It felt kind of nice, like the warmth of sitting by a fire after being out in the cold on a winter night.

The day before, Eric had approached Miranda in the cafeteria at lunch. "Hello," she said, giving her usual slight smile. "What troubles you?" As usual, it was obvious to her when someone needed help. Dan's roommate took a seat across from her, setting down his tray of food.

"Dude, my roommate won't quit moping!" he said. "Since you turned him down, he won't stop obsessing over it."

"That's...too bad." She shook her head slightly. "I didn't think it was that serious for him. I thought he would be mature enough to move past it, even if it was."

"Is there anything I can do? Or you? I mean, besides the obvious." Eric shrugged. "He doesn't sleep, he barely eats; I think he's getting behind on homework, too."

Once the warmth had made its way all across Dan's body, it seemed to be accompanied by a mild tingling sensation, and then by something tickling his cheeks..? He reached a hand up to try and figure out what it was, and discovered that his hair was actually growing longer. It flitted down across the back of his neck, too, as locks quickly fell nearly in his eyes and past his head, then onto his shoulders. His dark brown hair felt silky soft as it flowed across his hands, as though it had been carefully groomed his entire life. Plus, with his hand up there his eyes caught sight of a motion on the rest of the arm; focusing on that he saw the hairs there getting shorter, retracting inward as though they were growing in reverse.

"Why's my hair..?" he muttered quietly, confused, but then he felt a slight pressure against the top of his head and shoulders, quickly joined by the distinct impression that he was shrinking. He looked around; the blank landscape of the dream made it difficult to really tell, but he could swear the endless expanse of blank white ground was getting closer and the "sky" slowly rising around him. Besides, when he looked down he detected the hem of his shirt sinking lower on his hips, and it was starting to seem looser on his shoulders too, as though he was not merely getting shorter but smaller that way, too.

The heat across his arms, legs, and stomach turned to pressure too—though a much gentler pressure than that on top of him; in combination with that warmth it was like a relaxing massage. "Mn—mmh..?" He shuddered slightly, enjoying the sensation in spite of himself, and when he looked down he could see his arms and lower legs slimming, his hands and feet slowly shrinking; his shirt grew looser across his stomach as it became shorter and slimmer at the sides, further diminishing his size.

"That won't do at all." Miranda reached over into her bag, dug around, and eventually produced a flower with bright red petals before laying it carefully onto a free part of the table. "I think I can trust you with something private, can't I?"

"Well, uh..I guess so." Eric scratched his head, trying to decipher the purpose of the flower in this conversation.

"The truth is that I am a witch. When my advice isn't enough to help people...I usually turn to magic. There's a little of it on this—" she indicated the flower— "enough for me to arrange something I think could help."

"Wha..?" In a daze, Dan ran a hand through his soft hair again; it now ran down to the small of his back, and the hand running through it looked strangely small, with slim, delicate fingers ending in well-manicured nails. He'd finally stopped getting smaller now, but his arms were skinny as rails, his shirt was threatening to slip entirely off his slender shoulders and trailing as low as his thighs, and the tingling—gone from the rest of his body by now—was returning with some intensity between his legs, a sensation both uncomfortable and yet, at the same time, bizarrely pleasant.

"I-I...I'm so sma~all.." Dan muttered, running a hand down the side of his body and finding a sharp inward curve to his stomach hiding beneath the oversized shirt. His voice cracked slightly when he spoke, and then he let out a surprised "Aah!" at a slight, sharp tugging motion between his legs and heard a voice higher in pitch than his own come out. "Aa~ah..?" he tried again, and heard it pull higher still in the middle of the sound. "M-my, voi~ice..." It changed again as he said it. "It's.." This time he sounded like a young boy. "I-I'm..!"

Another sharp tug interrupted him, drawing a startled "Aah!" followed by an unexpected outburst of "Mmmm~mmnnhh..!" as he actually felt himself shrinking all the more rapidly down there..and furthermore, enjoying it more. His voice floated up out of masculine range entirely during this sound, and he began to understand—to consciously realize—just what was happening to him.

"I'm not really sure I believe you, but...at the same time.." Eric mulled it over in his head. "Well—how's this supposed to help, then?"

"I think he needs a confrontation, but it would be embarrassing in anything but complete private. And he isn't the kind of person who would seek that out or agree to it. So I intend to speak with him in a dream." She pushed the flower toward him slightly. "Simply set this next to him once he's asleep, and I'll take care of the rest. Believe me or don't, just try this one thing for me, please? If he isn't feeling better in the morning then you can come back and throw it in my face."

"Well...okay." He picked it up. "I guess it can't hurt to try it out, at least."

Dan's manhood began to melt away, drawing a pleased "Ah, aah...ooh..." from his lips and causing his eyes to slowly close as he squirmed in place. With each sound, his voice deepened again, steadily maturing from a young girl's voice toward that of a woman. And indeed—somehow, impossibly, he was transforming into a girl! Parts of him wanted to fight it, but it just felt so good; and from the moment he'd felt the softness of his hair, the way it tickled his cheeks and run across his shoulders and back...he might not have admitted it right away, but he liked it. "Oo~ooh..!" His face burned with an intense blush as the final tugging, slipping sensation began; Dan was addicted now, too busy enjoying every second of it to question a single thing. "Aa~aaAAAahhh..!" Away it went, then, and a gentle upward push into the pit of Dan's stomach was accompanied by a deeply pleasant, fuzzy, tingly sensation down there as her womanhood all formed into place at once. "Aa~aahhnn~nn!" she cried out in a deep, mature, womanly alto as her newfound sex supplied her with her first taste of its kind of pleasure, and she found herself instantly addicted.

"Hff...ff.." Dan panted, her slender arms pulled close around her. Her eyes fluttered open to see that the space in front of her had turned into a mirror, cutting the impossibly wide dream-space in two and showing her an image of herself as she now was. Her dark brown hair framed a pretty, round face wonderfully; her eyes had somehow changed to a piercing, bright red shade which she immediately took a liking to. "W-wow..." she mumbled, enraptured. However, turning her eyes downward she found that her boyish shirt and pants fit awkwardly across her body, which seemed annoyingly flat to her—at least until she noticed the warmth and tingling starting to reappear across her chest and hips.

"Heheh.." Dan giggled softly. Her shirt split apart at the hips, the lower part fluttering out into a short, yellow skirt; her pants slid down off her hips and split apart, shrinking into a pair of tight black thigh-high stockings. The top of her shirt gained long sleeves and pulled itself close against her slender shoulders and arms as well as her slim, flat belly, but remained suspiciously loose across the chest. The boxers turned into a pair of soft, tight panties in an instant, before they could even be seen past the part of the shirt turning into a skirt.

Then the sensations across her chest and hips grew strong enough to start affecting her, with a loosening sensation similar, yet opposite, to the pressing massage-like one from before. It came with a clearly visible widening of her hips, her butt and thighs plumping outward to give her a shapely lower third of a figure. Dan's chest was not to be forgotten either, as suddenly-sensitive skin pushed its way out across the soft cloth of her top, drawing more of the pleasant tingling between her legs she'd already grown so fond of. "Oo~oh..." she murmured, calmly enjoying the sensation while eagerly watching as a pair of bumps rose up from her chest in the mirror, then began to swell faster and faster, especially once her hips finished up, straining the material of the top and forcing it to grow along with them. Before long the girl in the mirror was grinning down at two large, round breasts that perfectly filled out a lovely hourglass figure.

There was only one word she had for her newfound appearance: Beautiful. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

Eric wasn't sure what he was expecting the following morning, when he sat up in bed and turned around—but it certainly wasn't this! Where his roommate was supposed to be was a voluptuous girl lying on her back, sleeping peacefully despite the fact that her covers were mostly thrown off of the bed, the last bits of them loosely draped around her in a totally unhelpful fashion. The flower from Dan's nightstand was missing, too—except that some of its petals seemed to have scattered themselves around the girl somehow.

"Uh..D-dan?!" He stood up, wondering why his first thought was that this even was his roommate and not a member of some elaborate prank—but then, after all, Miranda had made some wild claims the day before.

"Mmh.." Her eyes opened slowly, her face still alight with a recent blush. Her right arm reached up and patted her hair for a second, her left crossing just under her chest and pushing upward slightly a couple of times, as though checking that the breasts there were real. After this, she turned her head to one side to face him. "Oh, hey Eric," she said. "Um...wha'happened?"

"Dude..!" Despite the expression of confusion, she was smiling...and her blush was a little brighter since she'd looked at him.

"Miranda!" Later that morning, the redheaded witch was approached by Eric, a girl following along next to him. She stopped walking, allowing them to catch up. "Dude, your...flower thing did something really weird," he said.

"Hmm." Putting two and two together, she looked at the girl. "Dan?"

"Yeah. Uh..."

"That is rather strange. The spell I used is only supposed to moderately tweak your appearance to what you'd consider an attractive version of yourself. Nothing so drastic as that is meant to result."

"So you did do this, though?" she said.

"Mmhm. I can reverse it if you like, although...you appear to be rather pleased with it." The new girl's giddy, flushed grin had not escaped her notice.

"Yeah! I um..it's really weird, but I do like this. Like, a lot."

"What's with the eyes, though?" Eric interjected.

"Hmm?" Looking closer, the witch saw what he meant. "I see...my magic having such a sharp effect left a mark. I can reverse that alone if you want, as well."

"I think they're cute, though..." Dan rocked back and forth, blushing.

"All right. You may change your mind about the whole thing in a month or so. But I see no reason to upset things now if you're happy."

After that, Miranda gave Dan something she never had while she was a boy—her number. "Contact me if you need any help...adjusting, Dan. Or if you change your mind," she said.

"Umm...could you call me Dana?" she asked shyly after a second's hesitation.

"As you like," the witch nodded, entering that as her name in the phone. After that, she continued on her way, leaving the two of them alone.

"Thank you!" the new girl called after her, waving. "Well..I guess I've got some new clothes to buy," she said, half-turning toward her roommate.

"I'm still shocked you're so happy about this," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Well—I guess I'll go with you. I-I mean, since the whole thing is a little bit my fault anyway."

"Heheh." He was blushing, and now so was she. This was exciting, Dana thought.