Ring 4.4: Kellvin

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Ring 4.4:

Kellvin

Liam was waiting at the court by the time Rolf got there; they started playing right away. He reserved conversation for when they had a break, concentrating instead on the game. By the time they were exhausted, an hour had passed, and they had managed to get an even tie.

They sat down on a bench. “Whew. Man, you're better than I thought you'd be,” said Liam.
“..Yeah. You too,” said Rolf.

They sat in silence for a minute or two, each catching his own breath. Then Rolf said, “Hey, uh. I've been wondering about something..”

“Yeah? Wha'd that be?”
“Well, it's about Kevin. The stuff that's been going on, with his body changing and all. I figure you're around him a lot more than I am.”
“Yeah.”

“Do you think..I mean, he looks kind of like a girl these days. Doesn't he?”

“Hah! Directly to the point, huh?”
“I don't mean it as an insult, I mean..the way his changes make him look actually is kind of like a girl. Isn't it?”
Liam nodded. “Yep, you got it on the head there. We're pretty sure that's what's goin' on too. 'Specially since he told me yesterday he actually is a girl now.”

“Um..he is? Or, she is? Or..?!” said Rolf, looking flustered. “I-I mean..should you be telling me this? It seems kind of..”
“Nah,” said Liam, shaking his head and waving a hand. He was grinning, apparently enjoying Rolf's confusion. “She gave me permission to tell you an' Cole this mornin'. Pretty soon your whole school'll know about it. I mean heck, her chest's getting' kinda hard to hide, you know?”

“Well, okay. But, um. Is..is she okay with this? I mean, if there was some way Kevin could not have to be a girl for the rest of his..her..life, would--?”
“I dunno, man. That's a pretty personal question. She seems pretty okay with it right now, though.”

“So..if I ask her that..like..Monday afternoon. Is that okay with you?”
Liam shrugged. “Sure. I mean, as long as you ain't plannin' ta tease her with the idea and not be able to follow through on it.”

“I don't know how it all works. But..I think we have something that could help.”

“For that, ya'd need some kinda magic, wouldn't ya?”

“Sure,” Rolf nodded.
“Are ya admitting to having some kinda magic, then?”
“I don't know..would that be a bad thing?”

“Nope,” said Liam, standing up. “Kev won't have much trouble believin' it either.”

“..Why not?”

“'Cause I'm magic, m'self. Don't feel like goin' into detail 'bout it now, though, I can explain it to all three of you guys later if ya like.”

“I think that would clear up some confusion, at least.”

“Sure, sure. For now, how 'bout another match, eh?”

Rolf stood up right away. “You're on.” Liam nodded, and walked back to the court.

After all this time alone with him..Liam was sure of it now. This was exactly what he thought he'd sensed before..the only question was when, and how, to break it to him. Not now, he decided at once. Not here. Not yet.

---

“Hah! No way.”
“Yes way! And then he was all like, 'You didn't win! Youuu cheated.' And I tell ya, if you haven't seen the look of stone cold righteous fury on Rolf's face..it's pretty terrifying when it makes sense, but it's just hilarious out of context.” Akio was hanging out Lauren again, out at the arcade. They weren't playing anything just now, instead leaning against one of the walls on the side and just talking. Really, they were waiting for the game they wanted to play to be open again. And since they'd already paid, nobody was going to kick them out for loitering or anything.

“But you really did win. Nobody ever said you couldn't set traps,” she said.

“That's what I said. 'Just because I'm being creative with water balloons, and you're not, doesn't make me a cheater.' And then Cole shot both of us with a hose.”

When Lauren finished laughing, she said, “They both seem like pretty cool guys, you know.”
“Sure. I mean, they are, once you've known 'em for a while.”
“It's too bad, really. A lot of the girls think he's kind of a jerk. I mean, he's cute, and on five or six different sports teams. He could have a date every Saturday for all of high school if he wanted, but he just shuts down anyone who even tries. I mean, I didn't think he was a jerk. I know what jerks act like, and he's different from that. I thought he was just shy or something.”

“Hmm, nah, he isn't shy. He's just focused. If he wants to do something, you know, he has to go in and do it all the way, no distractions.”

“...Say, have you ever wanted to be a girl?”
“Uh..” Akio just managed to hide the real source of his surprise under a layer of confusion at the question's sudden, random appearance.
“I mean, like, not forever. Just sort of, temporarily, to see what it's like.”

“Well, maybe it'd be fun or something..um..why?”

“I just wanted to know what you thought. I mean, anyone can describe what it's like, but it's not the same as actually being one for a little while, you know?”
“I guess so. I mean, I wouldn't know unless I'd actually turned into a girl at one point,” said Akio.

Lauren shrugged. “It was just something I thought of, is all. Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable.”

“No, no, you're fine. Uh..just threw me off a little bit, is all. Wasn't expecting it. Yeah.”

“Well, to be honest, I actually started wondering about it after watching Kevin the last few days or so..uh, you know who that is, right?”
“Sure.”

“I thought he kinda looks like he might be turning into a girl. And it got me wondering, I mean, if it's possible for that to happen to him, what if something like that happened to me or..I dunno, one of my friends? Turning into a guy somehow. I think it'd kind of suck to have it forced on you, and permanent, though.”

“Sure. Or at least, it'd be really weird and awkward.”

“Mmhm. But yeah, that's where that came from. Oh, I think he's getting off now.”
“Is he? Good, my fingers are itching.”

---

Monday morning came along, and Kevin walked into school wearing clothes that weren't big and baggy for the first time in a while. It was just a t-shirt and jeans, both clothes he'd worn plenty before the last few weeks. But now it was rather hard to miss that the person wearing them bore little resemblance to Kevin, or any male, for that matter. The bright red, long hair framed a decidedly cute face; the shirt hung over a pair of unmistakeable breasts, now about average size for an adult; and the jeans hugged wide hips and hung a bit awkwardly loose between the legs.

She was blushing now and then, but spoke with only slight stutters or nervous pauses, and in an undisguised, lilting alto tone, explaining when asked that yes, this had actually happened. Kevin had somehow slowly turned into a girl. Many people had suspected it by now, but the conversation brought quite a bit of talk to the school. The faculty had been notified ahead of time, and while there was some talking between them, they kept the students busy with classes as usual.

After school, Kevin walked out of the building to find Rolf, Akio and Cole all waiting for her a few steps outside. “Hey,” said Rolf, “can we talk?”

“Sure,” she said, smiling, “what about?”
“Well..not here,” said Cole. “We kind of want to show you something, but it's still at my house, so we'll need to talk about it there.”

“Sure,” she said, nodding. “I don't have any plans this afternoon.”

“All right then, follow me,” said Akio, starting to walk immediately. The other two glanced at each other before following him, and Kevin fell in behind them.

---

I know, this one's pretty short compared to all the other parts. But what comes next really, really needed its own section, and it couldn't be jumped straight to without this setup. Not that all of this section is setup for that specifically, of course.

Ring 4.3: Telephone

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Ring 4.3:

Telephone

“Um..Sam, I think I, uh..need your help.”
Sam had given Kevin her number yesterday afternoon, before they went their separate ways. Since Kevin was officially a girl now, it was hardly a romantic gesture or anything. Certainly, though, she hadn't expected her to call the very next morning. “Well..what with?”
“Umm..I-I'm sort of, uh. Well, I'm starting to..my chest is getting a little, um..heavier. A-and I don't think I can hide it at school, anymore. I-I-I think I need, some support..for them..” She could practically hear Kevin's face turning red.

“Uh-huh..”
“S-so, I need to go buy some..but it's k-kind of weird, I know I'm still g-growing so I need a bunch of different sizes, and..I really want some moral support for this, um..you know, a girl. Liam w-wouldn't be, um..much help.”

“Kevin. Did you ask your mom to help?”
“W-well...she's at work today, and um, I was hoping I could go with someone..a little closer to my own age, maybe?”
“Okay. I'm not too busy today, so I guess I can go with you. As long as your parents are okay with it.”
“Y-yeah...honestly, they sort of were the ones to suggest I get someone my own age to-to-to help.”

“All right, as long as it's fine with them. Now..you know the shopping center with the Japanese restaurant and the gaming store on it?”

“Um..I think so.”
“I know a place there that's pretty good on prices and stuff..and there'll be a lot less witnesses if we go there, rather than the mall. Meet me in front of the restaurant in about an hour?”
“S-sure, thank you.”

---

Cole had planned to sleep in another hour or two past when his phone woke him up, he grabbed it and hit the 'answer' button, holding it to his ear. “What?”
“Hey Cole! Guess what?” It was a girl's voice, which his groggy mind didn't process as at all familiar.

“Who is this..?”
“It's me, silly!”
“Yes, that clarifies everything.”
“We've been friends for, like, forever?”
“Oh..Akio. What do you want?”
“Guess what guess what!”

“I am too sleep-deprived to guess.”
“I went to bed as a girl last night.”

“Okaaay..and?”
“Well, I thought you'd appreciate it since you did that, too, a couple of weeks ago.”

“It was not a big deal. I'm going back to sleep now.”
“Nono, waitwaitwait. I also ran into Liam yesterday afternoon.”
“How?”
“I was wandering around the neighborhood and he was standing there. Did you ever notice how cute he is?”
“...Akio, we are not having this conversation on a Saturday morning.”

“Well, you're no fun.”
“I reserve the right to be no fun when my sleep is interrupted. Goodbye.” He hung up, and then turned the phone off, and turned over so his eyes were on his pillowcase and not the sunlight coming in through the shades.

---

“'Ey, Rolf.”

“...Liam? How did you get my number?”

“Ehh, blame Kevin. Sh—er, he put it in my phone for some reason last night. I dunno how he got it in the first place.”

“Gave it to him this week, in case Morley pestered him again.”

“Real kind of ya. Anyway, I was wonderin' if you were gonna be busy this afternoon, or if maybe you'd like to shoot some hoops or somethin'.”

“..Sure, I can do that. You have a court in mind?”

“There's a park 'round where I live, if ya don't mind comin' all this way. If that's too much trouble, I ain't opposed to goin' somewhere closer to you.”

“No, that's fine. I don't know where you live, though, so I need directions.”

“Sure, sure. You ain't worried I'll have the advantage or nothin'?”

“You already have an advantage: Your height. If I'm good enough that shouldn't matter.”
“Hah! I wish everyone had that kinda attitude.”

“..Hold on, Akio's calling.”

“Sure, I'll text ya the directions so ya have it in writin'. From that place we ate at last week.”

“That works.”

Boop

“Hey Rolf! Did I wake you up?”

“You're two hours late for that. Why are you still a girl?”
“Because I wanted to try sleeping as one. And Jen—er, Cole did it before. It sounded like fun!”
“..Was it?”
“I dunno, I mean, it was sort of exciting, but not really all that much..”

“It's just sleeping, Akio. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference if you turned into a wolf halfway through the night.”
“Mmmno, I guess not. Except I'd find a bunch of fur in the sheets, and be super confused about that. But also, guess who I ran into last night!”

“Who would that be?”
“I ran into Liam, and then Kevin showed up. He has a huuuge house..between that and the meal last Friday, I think he might be even richer than you are!”

“Wait. Liam, or Kevin?”
“Oh, yeah, I mean Liam. I guess they both hang out there a lot, though, she was pretty familiar with the layout.”

“...She who?”
“Um..she..?..er, no one! I meant Kevin, he, my mistake!”

“No, wait. Kevin's weird body changes lately..do kind of..is he actually turning into a girl?”
“Uh, um, nope, no way! Sh—he didn't tell me anything like that at all, and I definitely saw zero evidence that anything like that was going on last night. Nope.”

“..I think being a girl makes you an even worse liar, Aki.”
“H-hey, I'm a great liar. I just..need..time to prepare, is all. But no, seriously, Kevin is not turning into a girl.”

“He obviously is.”

“W-well, then, you decided that on your own if anyone asks, okay? You didn't hear it from me!”

“..Sure.”

“A-a-anyway, the next time you're Flora, I kinda want you to think of something for me, and let me know what happens.”
“..What do you mean?”
“Well..when I met Liam, and of course he never recognized me or anything, I kind of started flirting with him. I-I mean, without really thinking about it, I thought he seemed sorta, you know, kind of attractive and stuff. And I want to know if you'd feel that way as Flora too, you know, if he's just sort of attractive all on his own and it's not some kind of personal thing going on. So you'll need to think about what he looks like, you know, and how he talks and stuff.”

“..Akio, calm down. You're a girl, so of course you think he looks good. You thought I looked good the other night, too, didn't you?”
“Oh, y-yeah. Sure. But, what if this is different?”
“Maybe you should turn back into a guy if it bothers you that much. You didn't lose the ring last night, did you?”
“Umm..nope! It's still right here in my purse. Look, I'm holding it up to the phone even.”
“I can't see through the speakers, dummy. Just put it on and turn back. Then bring it to Cole's place before you actually do lose it. Now, Liam asked me to meet with him today, and I'm gonna get the truth out of him about Kevin. I was gonna ask about that anyway. So don't worry about telling me by accident.”

“I didn't tell you a thing~!”

“...Sure you didn't.”

---

Rolf put down his fork at lunch to get the phone. It was Cole. “What's up?”
“Hey, um, while I was taking a shower just now I thought of something..”
“You just took a shower?”
“Yeah, man. I have to catch up on my sleep some time, you know. Anyway, I thought, you know, the way Kevin's been looking lately kinda..reminds me of someone.”
“Go on.”
“I thought, you know, with the red hair, and the height. And his body shape looks kind of..you know..feminine? It sort of reminded me of Kell.”
“Kell...oh, yeah, from the arcade! You're right.”

“Yeah, I'm not sure I get why he would be looking like Kell. But that also means he's turning into a girl, doesn't it? He told me his doctor said something about hormone imbalances going on, you think that could be it?”
“Yeah, that makes sense. Look, Liam invited me to play basketball today, so I'm gonna ask him about it. Maybe Kevin's told him something he hasn't told us, you know.”
“Right. And if it turns out he is turning into Kell, and doesn't want to..maybe we could offer to let him use our ring.”

“What do you mean?”
“Well, if you were slowly turning into a girl with no idea why..wouldn't it be nice to 'disguise' yourself as how you used to look? And if the becoming the mask thing works the way we think it does, maybe he could eventually turn all the way back, too.”
“Hmm..yeah, that's a pretty good point.”
“Don't talk about the ring until we're sure of what's going on..and, actually, don't mention the ring at all. We should just tell Kevin we might have a way to help him with the whole changing-body problem, and then demonstrate that the ring can actually do that. He might not believe us otherwise.”

“Hm..yeah, sure. If I don't run into Kevin this afternoon we can catch him on Monday.”
"Sounds like a plan."

---

I think this may be the most appropriately-titled part of the Ring story ever. Guess this makes up for 4.1.

Ring 4.2: Some Half-truths

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Ring 4.2:

Some Half-truths

Aki went off, walking through the residential streets at random. She kept mental track of about where she was in relation to the neighborhoods she knew best, and tried to get a little more familiar with navigation of the ones she didn't know so well. Eventually she wound up in a very ritzy-looking community: Big houses, well-kept yards, with the biggest surprise that this area wasn't gated in. And somewhere in this bunch of streets she caught sight of a very tall guy..in fact, a very familiar tall guy.

Liam seemed like a fun guy to hang around with, right? But of course he wasn't going to recognize her, and it was pretty important to keep it that way. Her feet were already carrying her toward him, so not talking to him wasn't looking like an option. But hey, he was the only person out on the sidewalk right now.

He waited until she was a yard or two away before waving at her. “Hey. You don't look familiar.”

“Well, maybe I'm not familiar,” she said in retort. Man, seeing his face way up there made her feel tiny; even the 'growth spurt' had left her noticeably shorter than Akio, and Liam was, of course, tall. “How's the weather up there?”
He looked for a second or two like he was going to get offended and refused to answer, but then stopped himself. “..Humid. Down there?”

“Cold. Heehee.” She wasn't exactly sure what made her giggle.

“It can't be cold, it's near summer,” he said.

“But hot air rises,” Aki countered.

“..Got me there. I guess that outfit proves you were feelin' cold sometime, at least.”

“I wasn't really paying that much attention to the weather, I just thought it'd look cute.”

“Eh..you do pull it off pretty well,” he said, nodding.

“Heehee, thanks!” Aki became aware of a mostly unfamiliar, yet pleasant, feeling between her legs, and the heat of a slight blush in her cheeks. “You don't look too bad yourself. I mean, as much as I can see without craning my head so far up I fall over.” The feelings calmed down, but her chest was still thumping a little more than usual. “What's it like being so tall, anyway?”

“Harder than it looks. Some doors ain't too friendly. And everyone's always askin' how the weather is.”

“Well, I couldn't resist that time. Promise I won't do it again!”

“If you say so. Whatterya doin' here, anyway?”

“Exploring. I thought I should get to know the area a little better. You?”

“Nothin' big, just waitin' on a friend. Usually he'd be here a lot earlier, but he had some stuff to take care of first. You new around here?”
“Yep. Well, new this month anyway, it's not like I moved in yesterday or anything.”

“And you're just gettin' 'round to this neighborhood, I guess?”
“Uh-huh. Guess I have good timing, to meet you here.”

“If ya say so,” he said. She though she could see a tiny bit of red in his face...

“I don't think I caught your name.”

“Oh, sorry. It's Aki.”

Liam was certain of the familiarity, but couldn't quite pin it down until she gave him a name. Last time, of course, there had been all of them, and this time there were a few differences, the kind that would normally tell one person from another. The differences were too few for siblings and too many for identical twins..which obviously wouldn't be the case anyway, with two different sexes involved. “Hm. You might be int'rested in meetin' my friend, then.”

“..How come?”
“Weellll, he told me just last night he had some kinda dream of bein' at an arcade and meetin' some people, one of 'em sharin' your name.”

“Huh. That's weird.”
“Nah, not that weird. Just means you were meant to meet up. And I ain't gonna foul up fate.”

“Yep, I hear fate can be really mean when people defy it and stuff. Is that him?” Aki pointed off toward the end of the street, and Liam put a hand over his eyes to look.

“Whatayaknow, it is. Huh, thought I'd spot him first, height advantage and all.”

“Well, you know, it's 'cause of your hair.”
“My hair?”

“Yeah. It's short, so it doesn't block the glare of the sun as well.”

“That sounds like horsehockey to me.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, probably.”

Liam grinned and waved. “Yo, Kev! What's up?”

“Um..hello.” Kevin had expected to find Liam alone, and to be able to talk to him about the whole dream thing a little more, but it looked like that was going to have to wait. She didn't exactly recognize the girl who was with him..she looked familiar, but the connection to the memory Kevin knew her from wasn't quite there. “..Who's this?”
“This here's Aki. Didn't you say you met a girl by that name in your dream last night?”
“Oh! Um, yes, I did. Uh, she looked..a lot like you, I think. But kind of..umm..shorter?” She didn't want to say what else was bigger.

“Well, I did have a bit of a growth spurt these last two weeks,” said Aki. “Um, no offense, but you don't look exactly like a Kevin to me.” She knew, sure, about Kevin's weird body changes lately..but it had just now occurred to her how girly he looked, and besides, a stranger like Aki shouldn't be privvy to something like that, right?

“Oh, well, um. That's because..uh, lately..” Kevin wasn't sure how much she should say, and looked at

Liam.

He crossed his arms. “Go on and tell her, you'll have to explain it to a lot more people pretty soon.”

She nodded. “R-right. Well, the last few weeks my body's been having some, umm..weird changes, the doctor said a hormone imbalance among other things..and um, today those changes kind of, started to make a lot more sense because, well, I sort of..went to bed last night a guy, and then when I woke up this morning I found out I was a girl..” Kevin's face was flushed by the end of the explanation.

Aki blinked a couple of times, taking this in. “Wow. That's pretty crazy. And..the dream you had last night, do you know who else you met?”
“Umm...well, some other people at school, I just told one of them about it before coming here..and two other girls I haven't seen s-since, ahm, Flora and..Jenn, I think?”
“Jenna! Those are two of my friends. And we were at the arcade a couple of Fridays ago.”

“Did..was there someone there named Kell?”
“Yeah! Red hair, tall, with a great figure..”

Kevin's face had started to get its natural color back, but more red came in now. “Um..that was who I was, sort of, in the dream.”

“So you're turning into her now?”

Kevin shrugged. “I g-guess so.”

Liam nodded, grinning. “Yeah, Kev told me about all that this morning.”

Akio—or Aki, either way—had a way of occasionally saying or doing things without thinking them through. He (or she in this case) liked to think this spontaneity was an advantage over people who over-thought stuff, like Cole. Kevin's embarrassed face was kind of cute, she thought, and she wanted to see it again, and that was really the only thing running through her head. “So if you're a girl now, does that mean you're attracted to guys?”

“Umm...”

“Like, do you think Liam is cute?”

“Uh..” Beet-red, as predicted. And every bit as cute as before. It wasn't the kind of cute Aki would call someone she was attracted to; it was a special kind of cute that she wasn't sure she would have appreciated quite as much as a boy.

Liam thought Kevin needed to get used to the idea, not in spite of but in support of their earlier agreement..but for the moment decided to rescue the poor girl. “Who's Liam?”
“Huh?” said Kevin.

“What do you mean? That's you, isn't it?” asked Aki.

“I don't think I ever told you my name,” he said.

“Well..I just think you look like a Liam, is all.”

“Come on, you think I'm gonna believe that?”

“I can't think of a more believable explanation; can you?”
“Hmm, not unless you're someone I already met, and you somehow turned yourself into a girl.”

“But that's even less believable. I mean, it assumes I have some way to completely change my whole anatomy and genes and stuff.”

“Mmmnah, I think it's pretty believable if you know about magic. Right, Kev?”
“Um..yeah. Her name sounds a lot like 'Akio', too.”

“How d'ya explain that, huh?”

“Hey, coincidences hap..wait, did you say magic?”

Liam looked at Kevin for a few seconds, letting Aki hang for a second or two before laughing. “Hah! Heh, heh. Oh man, that was fun. I wish I could do that more often.”

“No, seriously, what do you know about magic? Because I'm pretty unfamiliar with it myself.”

“Well, I don't know all that much about magic. But I am magic, and I do know that you feel a whole lot like Akio does to my extra senses.”

“Okay..but what does that mean, that you're magic?”

“It means one or more of my ancestors were magic—really both my parents, if you gotta know—and I inherited bein' magic from one a them. Now--

“That doesn't really explain anything..” Aki muttered.

“Now, don't go spreadin' that to your friends just yet. They can know, but I gotta be the one to tell 'em.”
“Sure, but..uh, why?”
“'Cause I'm picky about what people call me, an' if you explain it wrong they'll have the wrong term in their heads from the start.”

“So I'm guessing you already know he's magic?” she asked Kevin, who nodded. “Wait..if Kevin's slowly turning into another person, can't you, like, do something about that?”
Liam shrugged. “Maybe, but Kevin's made it pretty clear he's okay with this. New experiences an' all. Besides, she's still the same person, just a little more confident.”
Kevin nodded. “L-like I always wanted to be.”

“So you think there's some kind of weird wish-granting thing going on with someone we don't know about?”
“Maybe,” said Liam. “But let's drop it for now. I ain't gonna ask you how you turned into a chick.”

“Well..what are you gonna do, then?”
“Hmm..I dunno. Kevin and I were gonna go play some games or somethin' over at my house, if you wanna join us.”

“Sure! I mean, if that's okay with you,” she said, looking to Kevin.
“Yeah, no problem,” she answered.

It turned out that DDR was among the games the two of them had planned on playing. Aki wasn't nearly as good as the two of them, but she did manage to keep up on lower difficulty. When Kevin stopped deliberately bunching up her clothes, as she must have been doing at school to hide her body a little better, they shook out and showed just how girly her body had become. The shirt hung over small bulges on her chest, and it would wave around her very slim, flat stomach; the pants rode a bit strangely on her hips, and the front side was much flatter than looked right because they were, after all, made for a guy.

During a break, Kevin walked over toward the bathroom. “Remember to sit!” said Aki, and she blushed that cute blush again.
“D-don't worry, I know,” she said, and went on ahead. When she came back a while later, Aki could swear her breasts were a little bigger...

At some point, Aki asked Liam, “So..you said you could sense somehow who I was? How does that work?”
“Well, it's that everyone has magic, ya see,” he explained, “and folk who are magic, at least the way I am, can sense other people's magic. It's a real unique kinda signature..or, scent I guess I could say. Super hard to disguise.”

“But, then..can you sense magic being worked on a person?”
He shrugged. “Little bit, sometimes.”
“What I'm getting at is, was there some point where..or can you, like, now..sense whatever is changing Kevin?”
“Hmm..nah, not really. I figured it out by watchin' the changes with my eyes, see. It's probably low-key 'cause it's so slow-actin'. If I looked at it real hard I mighta seen a little somethin', but not near enough to figure out what was goin' on.”

A little later, she said, “Can you actually do any kind of magic? I mean, besides the sensing magic thing?”
“Mmh, I know a few spells. Not much safe to use indoors, though.”
“You've got to show me those some time.”
“Eh, if you insist. Maybe borrow a firin' range some day or other. You wanna come, Kev?”

“Um..maybe. It would be interesting to see..”

“Great. I'll arrange it. Might not be 'till summer, though.”
“That's fine,” said Aki.

When she was playing DDR, and smiling and laughing and having fun, Aki felt like she could actually see Kevin as Kell. Once, when they were left panting on the floor sitting across from each other, she said, “Man, you really are turning into Kell. I'm gonna have to start calling you Kellvin.”

“If you do, you have to let me call you..um..Akiko? Er, something like that..”

Aki giggled, and got Kevin laughing as well, somehow.

When they had both calmed down, she said, “But, um..when I do finally..finish..changing, I think I am gonna call myself Kell. It sounds like..well, it's a nice name, i-isn't it?”

“Yeah. I think it's a cute name. Especially if you're gonna be a tomboy like the girl I met at the arcade.”

When Aki had finally left to go home, Liam and Kevin were left alone in front of the former's house. “Um..why didn't you just tell her everything?” said Kevin.
“Eh, I wanna wait and tell all three of 'em. Maybe by the time arcade night comes around we'll get 'em all in one private place at a time. Meanwhile..ancients help me, Kev, I think the two of us were flirtin' before you showed up.”

“F-flirting? Y-you mean, um..”
“Yeah, even though she knew darn well who I was, and I suspected her..confirmed when she told me her name. No worries, though, it ain't major, especially now the air's clear. An' if somethin' does come of it..we'll figure it out, I'm sure.”

“Um..”

“What? What is it?” Kevin was blushing.

“I-I don't, um..well, when you said that, for a second there I sort of had a though cross my mind that, umm..y-you two would be a cute couple,” she said nervously.

“Hahah! Ya think so? Well, we'll see, anyway.”

---

I would like to thank everyone for commenting. It really does make me feel better; I was a little worried I'd seem annoyingly needy or something asking for that.

In case you were wondering (and mostly because someone made a comment about it), Aki(o) got the purse to appear in the last one simply by thinking of Aki as wearing that particular set of clothes, including the purse as a piece of clothing. Changes to what clothes one is wearing are minor enough that they tend to happen without even asking (like what happened with Jenna and Flora's clothes the week before), unless one specifically tries to be in the same clothes as last time; this means that directing those changes is super easy, much easier than altering the body shape or personality of the disguise. There hasn't really been an appropriate in-story moment to fully explain those mechanics yet, but I don't feel doing so is at all any kind of spoiler.

Ring 4.1: Girls

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---

Ring 4.1:

Girls

Technically healthy, nothing bad in his system, but with some kind of strange hormone imbalance. The changes observed were more rapid than a normal understanding of human anatomy allowed for. Attempts could be made to repair the balance, or stop the changes, but this is uncharted territory, so just randomly guessing what kind and degree of changes to make could do more harm than good. Wait and see if it works it out naturally, since it seems to be internal in the first place..and if the condition changes in a way that may be damaging, come back at once. If it stops at some point, come in for another checkup for sure.

Kevin couldn't help but grin in the mirror. His hair had stopped growing a little past the shoulders now, and it was the perfect, bright shade of red. His face looked rounded and small, like a girl's. He'd finally stopped getting taller..or rather, stopped getting shorter when changing back. It was late Thursday night, and the lights were off, but he could still tell all of that. He put on the ring as usual, slowly turning into Kell, and when it was done she put the ring on again, and turned back. It wouldn't do for the changes to stop too soon, after all.

But when Kevin's body stopped, it was impossible to miss something that hadn't changed back this time. Even though it was pretty obvious, he checked to be sure. And indeed, it was done: She had permanently stopped being male. Tomorrow morning was going to be a little awkward. This was going to have to be a shock to her, then. For now, though, she set the ring back in its place, got back under the covers, and went to sleep.

---

Sam was at her locker after school on Friday when Kevin walked up. He looked so weird, so different from just a week ago..and yet there was still that nagging feeling that she'd seen him before. Not him--obviously she'd seen Kevin before--but someone who looked like he did now. “Um, hey,” he said. It was like talking to a different person: His voice was so high for a guy now, and his stuttering seemed to have all but disappeared throughout the last few days, from the few times she'd heard him talking lately.

“What's up?”
“Er..I kind of, there's something I want to talk to you about, but maybe somewhere more, umm, less in front of everyone.”

“Mh. Okay, lemme finish this up and then follow me.”

Among the several routes home, Sam knew one that almost nobody else walked down most of the time. That should be private enough, right? Once they were there, and nobody else seemed to be around, she said, “Okay, so what's up?”

“Umm..this is kind of weird. I don't really know how to explain it, but..well, last night I had a dream. It was kind of..well, it was like I was actually in a real place, umm..you know, no dream logic or physics or anything? I walked into..um..an arcade, and everyone there was a girl. A-and, I was a girl too. My name was Kell.”

“Kell?” Of course, that was it! “Did you..was I there?”
“Uh, yeah. That's why, I wanted to talk to you about it. And, um, some other people from school, you know, and some other people who weren't..”

“Okay, that is really weird. Because two weeks ago..well, there's an arcade in town that lets girls play free on the first Friday of every month. And, I went to that two weeks ago, and I met someone named Kell there! You look almost..like her.”

“And..um..was there an Aki, and a..Flora, and a..um..”

“Jenna! Yes. This is really weird. So you're remembering something that actually happened, but to someone else..and you're..are you turning into her?”

“Uh..um..I don't know. I hadn't heard of a Kell who looked like, um..like in the dream, before last night.”
“Me either, before that Friday. Man, this is unbelievable. Really weird.”

“Yeah. Um, I know. But..er, don't spread it around, please..but, speaking of turning into..umm, uh.” Kevin was blushing, and Sam paused, looking at him seriously.

“What? What's wrong?”
“Well..this morning, wh-when I woke up, I found out that I..um..wasn't a guy anymore.”

“So..so you are turning into a girl. Or, you sort of already did. Wow..I'm sorry, that's gotta be weird..”

“Um, yeah. B-but, um, it doesn't...hurt or anything. And Liam's being cool about it. I'm more worried about what people at school will do..so I want to keep it a secret as long as I can.”

“Alright, if you say so. I can do that. But if you ever need help with something, let me know, okay?”
“S-sure. Thank you.”

---

Rolf, Akio and Cole were walking on their way home.“So, I was hanging out with Lauren yesterday..” started Akio.

“Whoa, hang on,” said Cole. “You're hanging out with another girl now? That's, what, three this last week?”
“Yeeeaaah, what's the big deal?”

“Well, this isn't exactly normal for you,” said Rolf.

Akio shrugged. “Well, you know, I used to think of girls as being all different and hard to talk to, but after turning into one to go the arcade and actually interacting with a bunch of them, you know what I found out? They're just people! No harder to talk to than you guys..easier, sometimes. Anyway, so apparently she met a couple of new girls in town last Saturday at the mall..?”

“Oh, yeah, that,” said Rolf.
“I was trying to get him more comfortable with being 'Flora' so he won't freak out about it next month,” said Cole.

“..And you needed to turn into a girl too?”
“He started changing a lot slower than the other day, so I had to make sure you hadn't bought a defective ring or something. And after that it was moral support.”

“Well, I'm disappointed in you guys,” said Akio.

“..Why?” asked Rolf.

“You went and had fun as girls, with the ring I bought with my own hard-earned money..”

“..If taking out the trash once a week is hard work,” said Cole.

“Quiet you. And you didn't invite me to come along.”

Rolf said, “Well, we didn't exactly plan on it to happen..and I didn't think you'd want to.”

“And in that you thought wrong. So tonight I want to go do something as Aki.”
Cole said, “Something..like what?”

He shrugged. “I dunno, I'll figure it out when I get there. First thing's first though, I'm gonna need the ring.”

“To my house, then,” said Cole. “Is this going to involve us?”
“Mmmmnah. I'm gonna figure out something to do on my own, if that's all right.”

“Good,” said Rolf. “Just be careful.”

“You don't need to worry about me.”

Rolf went on home, and Cole handed over the ring. “Don't lose this thing,” he said.

“No worries, I'll just keep it in my purse,” said Akio while putting it on.

“..You don't have a purse.”
“Not yet I don't.” with the ring still on, Akio got everything out of his pants' pockets and put them all down on the nearest table; the ring started glowing somewhere along the way. The instant he took the ring off, his hair changed color all at once and poofed out, growing a couple of inches longer than before to drape over his shoulders and back a bit. Then his body squeezed and shrank, his clothes tightening on him, and a vest appearing over his shirt. His hips pushed out and back as the top of his pants spread out into a pleated skirt, the leggings breaking off and crawling down a little bit, turning to a thin cloth and squeezing the girly legs tight. The skirt swished around as Akio's underwear shrank and shifted, and pulled flat between 'her' legs. A bra appeared under her shirt just in time to catch her breasts growing out, completing her petite, girlish curves. She held up a hand expectantly, and a purse slid down off her shoulder, stopping at the elbow.
“See?” she said, taking the things off of the table and filling the purse with them.

“..Yeah, the ring clearly isn't running out of energy,” said Cole. “Let me know if you suddenly develop superpowers.”

“Will do!” said Aki, grinning, and then strode on out the door.

---

Had trouble coming up with a title for this one. Still not sure I like the one I ended up with...

By the way, there's been sort of a dearth of comments on the posts around here lately..why is that? I really like to read what people have to say about what I'm writing, even if they don't like it, and for some reason not seeing comments makes me feel like not very many people are reading, even when I know that isn't true. I'm weird like that.

The "Best" RPG Ever-4

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The victim's directions were clear enough, and before long the pary of two were hiding in some trees a few yards out from the cave's entrance. There were two short creatures, which by their appearance may as well have been fashioned out of mud by a poor artisan, standing guard. "This probably is the only entrance," said Zack. "So much for sneaking in. They'll raise an alarm the instant they see us, and have the whole group attacking us at once."

Kath shook her head. "No, no..we can still sneak in. We just need a good plan. There's two of them, and my powers have a pretty sizable range. If I stun one of them and then you take out the other before it realizes something is up with its partner, we can get inside without alerting the rest of them."

"...I guess I could get around closer to them. But if I'm not fast enough to kill the second one before it stops being stunned we're in trouble. You really should have bought a knife or something in town."

"Oh, don't worry about that. Check this out." Katherine held up her right hand, and seemed to twitch her fingers a certain way. The fingernails on that hand shot out with clicking sound, growing to longer, much more dangerous-looking claws. "Figured out how to do this on the way here."

Zack looked at the hand sideways for a moment. "..That shouldn't be physically possible. Where did those even come from? If they were in your fingers you shouldn't be able to close them, but if they were behind the knuckles you'd need some kind of..."

Katherine withdrew her claws and put an index finger to Zack's lips. "Shh, Zack. It's okay. This is a video game. Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, okay?"

He jerked back reflexively. "Don't do that," he said, wanting to yell, but making an effort to whisper.

"Okay, okay, mister sensitive. Let's just get this raid started. You go around to the left, and I'll be over on the right. Attack when you see one of them acting funny."

Zack nodded, and started on his way around.

Predictably, he was pretty bad at not making noise. His ears were better than he was used to, and he could pick up every miniscule metallic rattle in the armor and the sheathed words now that he was focusing on it. He tried to walk more slowly and carefully to reduce the noise, becoming more aware tactilely of the clothes' movements. The cape was billowing around a little bit, the skirt swishing around his legs..his top was cloth, and he could feel his..chest moving around a little bit, up and down in response to the walking. It was disconcerting being too aware of that; it brought a small bit of heat to his cheeks thinking about it so much.

Thankfully, by then he had reached the closest tree to the two guarding goblins, and could focus on getting ready to fight. They were both looking around suspiciously; clearly they had heard something, but it made more sense to hold their posts than to go chasing after some sound in the forest. He put a hand to each sword, preparing to strike..and then the goblin farther away suddenly looked dazed, as if it had been punched pretty hard in the face.

On cue, Zack charged forward, drawing the wider sword straight into the nearer golbin's side, and making a swift roundabout motion to stab it in the throat with the thinner blade. It twitched once or twice as he lowered it to the ground, but it wasn't moving by the time the sword was out of it. His ears, at the same time, picked up the sound of Katherine tackling the dazed goblin, and now she was on top of it, trying to stab it in the chest..'trying' being the operative word.

He moved over and hit its head with the flat of his blade before it could come to its senses. "Those are made for scratching, not stabbing..and you don't have enough force to put behind them anyway," he said, as quietly as he could manage.

She pulled back, allowing him to stab the chest much more effectively, and then the goblin was dead. "Yeah, that stupid. Sorry."

The two of them looked to the entrance. "..Hm?" Zack's ears turned fully toward the cave, picking up something inside.

"What?" Katherine leaned toward the entrance, her ears tuning toward it as well. "Is that..someone fighting in there?"

"Probably." Zack sheathed his swords again, keeping a hand on the wide one, and ran in, the psychic catgirl right behind him.

---

A blond-headed young man hopped straight to his feet in the class select room, and looked around excitedly, grinning. "Oh wow, this is so neat! How did they do this?" He went around and knocked on the walls, poking at some of the room's corners. "I wonder if this light ever has to be changed..since it isn't coming from anywhere?"

He returned to the middle of the room before too long, looking at the pedastal thing and what was floating above it. "Huh, so, what class..?"

He stopped on the very first untaken one, a broom, and read its description. "Those who are willing to go to any lengths to obtain power become witches. A witch can only truly grow in power by absorbing the essence of defeated demons into herself. The ultimate goal of a witch is to become an archdemon, a being with incredible, unique power which no witch can steal from her."

"Ooo..that sounds like fun! Hmm, but it looks like only girls can be witches in this game? I wonder if I'm even allowed to take this class.." He tried to take the broom, expecting some kind of physical resistance, and knocked himself back onto the floor as it offered none.

"Ow..okay, so this is fine, I guess?" he said, getting up and looking back at the message box.

"Step into the summoning circle to begin your journey."

"Hm, alright."

He hopped into the circle, and the room faded out around him. He still seemed to be standing, and then all of a sudden a creature appeared before him.

It looked like a carved pumpkin had been given a pair of bat wings and a thin, black tail. It had a light inside, and its wings flapped, keeping it afloat despite what physics would have to say on the matter. He looked around, and noticed that the broom had gone from glowy-holographic to normal wood and straw. After a few seconds, a message box appeared above the weird pumpkin creature, saying, "Absorb this demon's essence to continue."

"Aww, I don't want to hurt that guy. He seems so cute and harmless. But I guess this is the 'any lengths to obtain power' thing at work, huh?"

He walked up to the strange vegetable-demon creature, and raised his broom. "So I guess you just kinda..?" He swung the broom at its center, and smashed straight through the hollow pumpkin. The creature fell to the ground, its main body crumbling apart a little more when it landed, and left behind an orange glow floating where it had been before.

"So, this is the essence, I guess. Is it always this easy to spot?" He reached out to try and pick up the glowy stuff, and it absorbed into his hand as soon as it was close.

"Whoa.." A strange, warm feeling gently made its way from his hand to his shoulders, down to his stomach, and from there spread out to the rest of his body. Once it had spread everywhere, he suddenly felt a squeeze all over his body, like shrink-wrap had suddenly wrapped around him and was being pulled tight. He could see and feel his body getting smaller and shorter, his arms, legs, and stomach all thinning down in response to the squeezing.

His shirt's collar tore off as the part between his shoulders suddenly folded down over his chest; the shirt also tore apart at his midriff and spread out wider across his hips. Soon it was long enough to hang down to his thighs, not because it was longer, but because of how short he'd become. The collar's material changed, and it became a choker clasped tight against his neck; the shirt itself turned mostly orange, with a couple of black spots and some purple frills just above the chest. His pants tore apart at the thighs, the lower part slinking down to just above the knees while his shoes grew up to just below them. The denim turned to cloth, black for the top part and orange and purple stripes going down the leggings.

The shrinking finally stopped with one last push between his legs. As the top part of the pants lost their middle part and the leggings fused together at the front and back, his underwear beneath pulled tight against an unfamiliar flatness between her legs. And then the growing began. She could feel her hips pusing their way out to either side and the back, her chest pushing forward into the unfamiliar garment behind the top. Her hair suddenly shoved its way out, framing her face, falling across her shoulders on the sides and all the way down her back to the hips, the tips of bright white bangs falling in front of her eyes. And as the two bumps of her chest continued to expand the front of the top, she felt something else long and slim pushing its way out from her lower back and swinging around, and two more appendages grew out of her upper back, spreading out to either side as they went. And just when everything seemed finished, a hat plopped on top of her head, and a pair of gloves appeared on her hands.

"Wow, this is neat!" she said, spinning around and getting a good look at the orange/purple/black dress--and more importantly the new appendages. They were the same kind of black wings and tail as the pumpkin demon, and she seemed to know how to use the wings to float or glide for brief bits of time. "So what kinda powers does a pumpkin demon give me anyway..?

There wasn't time to answer that question, as the blackness around her seemed to brighten up a little bit, leaving her in a small cave of some sort. While the strange void she'd been in before had allowed her to see herself perfectly, this area had a more normal kind of darkness to it. The light source was weak, and seemed to be coming from the only exit, an opening slightly shorter than she was. "Hmm.." she muttered. "Let's go spelunking, then."

She moved carefully into the opening, and found another small chamber, this one with five or six different openings. The glow was coming from just one of them. "Hmm.." She held up her broom experimentally, and tried to make a light. A small, spherical orange glow appeared just above the tip of the broom, and she got it to move around just by wanting it to. And then she dismissed it, just as easily, before poking her head into the lit opening of the cave.

It was a much bigger, taller chamber, and in it there were four little ugly yellowish-brown creatures sitting around a fire. There was another opening just above the fire, which was apparently where most of the smoke was going. They were making some kind of grunting noises she wasn't quite ready to accept as a legitimate language at each other, each pair sharing food from a leg of some sort of meat, and occasionally sticking them toward the fire to heat them up again.

The witch carefully stepped into the room, and one of the creatures took notice, looking up at her. She grinned waved. "Hey there! I'm sorta new in town, could you point me toward the way out please?" By now all four of them were glaring at her, the nearest one getting up and the one that had noticed her first growling. She frowned. "Come on, haven't you guys ever heard of hospitality?"

Apparently not; they all got up and drew weapons, mostly—mostly knives, but the one farthest away had a crossbow.

"Well okay, I guess I'll have to teach you!" she said as they approached. On another whim, she swung her broom as if it were a baseball bat, and suddenly a full-grown pumpkin appeared at its end and went sailing toward the nearest goblin. It landed with a splat, shattering and knocking him over.

The other three goblins looked at each other, the first one slowly getting up, and then another one slowly approached her. "Lesson one: Don't pull knives on your guests!" she said, pointing above the approaching goblin. Another pumpkin appeared a couple of feet above its head, and then gravity took over, sending the creature tumbling down. Its knife went clattering along toward the witch, ending up right in front of her feet. She didn't even notice a crossbow bolt heading for her until it had already sailed right above her when she bent over to pick up the knife.

She got back up and hopped to one side, away from another goblin charging at her with its knife, and it managed to knock its head against the wall above the opening she'd come in through. "Whoops!" she said, "careful there."

Then, all of a sudden, two more people charged into the chamber from a taller opening. The goblin with the crossbow was distracted by their arrival; the one that had been hit by the first pumpkin came at the witch and started swinging around wildly at her, forcing her to back up. The bigger stranger, a woman with wolf ears and a sword, held up the wide blade to block a bolt, and then the smaller one, a catgirl, pounced on the crossbow-goblin, scratching at it with one hand and wringing the crossbow out of its hand with the other.

The witch ducked under one more shot from the goblin's knife and then caught it with her own, which fortunately had some kind of hook built into it. She dropped the broom and pulled against the goblin with both of her arms, but wasn't nearly strong enough to get it out of the creature's hand. So she let go with one of her hands to point off behind it, saying, "Look over there!" and making another point of light appear right just above the goblin's shoulder. It looked, she ducked, grabbed her broom and smacked its knife arm all in one movement. The goblin let go, and the effort of her pulling her own knife sent both of them away.

The two goblins that had been stunned by pumpkins had gotten back up by now, the one whose knife the witch had taken drawing a spare dagger, but they had the newcomers to contend with. The armored woman blocked an attack from one of them while the catgirl did something with her fingers on her head that made the other one stop. Then the one with the sword drew another, smaller sword, stabbing the goblin in the stomach when it couldn't block, and the catgirl took the stunned goblin's knife, twisting it into its neck.

The goblin in front of the witch drew a spare dagger, too. "It didn't work the first time, or the second.." she started. It jabbed at her and she summoned a pumpkin right in the path of the dagger, causing it to stab that. The goblin grabbed the pumpkin with its free hand and started pulling its weapon out again; the witch ducked back and drew back her broom. "..What makes you think it'll work now?" she finished, swinging at the goblin's side as hard as she could.

The goblin dropped the pumpkin and dagger, kneeling over and holding its side in pain. Then the stranger with the swords walked up and stabbed it in the neck with the thinner one. It fell over, for good this time.

They all stood there for an awkward moment or so, still panting from the fight. The witch gave a winning smile and said, "Hey, that was pretty cool, you guys. But I think I could've handled it..really!"

The catgirl, with an eyebrow raised, said, "You picked witch?"

---

Phew, this one took a while. I think it's longer than any of the earlier ones, too. Please ignore all the extra stuff in the witch image, by the way, it isn't relevant other than being partial inspiration for what the first demon would be.

In response to some comment or other I remember there being about class progression..each class actually has a unique gimmick to progression, as clearly seen with the witch here. All classes have skill trees, and gain skill points through battle and quests and whatnot, but unlocking a skill for most of them is never quite as simple as being the right level and having the prerequisite skills and enough points to "buy" it with.

The "Best" RPG Ever-3

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---

They were nearly to the town, and Katherine had been remarkably quiet for the past few minutes, when she suddenly said, "Got it!"

Zack turned around. She looked satisfied with herself, but otherwise nothing was different. "..Got what?"

"I figured out how to look at my stats and skills and stuff. Turns out all you have to do is close your eyes and think about it. Apparently this game uses DND stats or whatever. Oh, and I actually have a passive skill that adds an intelligence-based bonus to my charisma, because as a Psion I can read people a lot easier. Should be good for getting better prices in shops. Also, I think we share money now that we're in a party."
"How did you come to that conclusion?"
"Well, it said 'party gold'. It was slightly more than two hundred, which makes the most sense if we each started with one hundred, and you add what that wolf dropped."
"Right. Well. Let's move on, then." Zack turned around and started walking. His ears flicked around, which he still wasn't quite used to yet, and picked up the sound of Katherine's feet moving behind him.

"By the way, why aren't you wearing any shoes?" he asked.

"I dunno. When I got turned into a girl they disappeared. Maybe it's some kind of Felis racial trait that lets me walk better without them or something. And yet socks have no negative effect."
"Felis?"
"Oh, that's apparently my race now. Real creative, right? They're part cat, so give them the same name as the genus! I bet you're, like, a Canis or something. Why don't you check?"

"Because I'd rather be sitting down somewhere relatively safe before I close my eyes long enough to read all that information," he said.

"Okay. By the way, since I am effectively more persuasive than you, let me do the talking whenever there's something important going on."

"You do realize you still have to talk persuasively or that probably doesn't matter, right?"
"Don't you worry about that. I know how to roleplay."

The town they entered was of about a medium size, not a tiny village but no city either. The citizens didn't take too much notice of their entrance; the place didn't have a gate or any guards to get by, either. The people in the town were about an even mix of Felis like Kath, people with dog-like (or more accurately, wolf-like) traits like Zack, humans with no animal traits, and people with more fox-like traits. It was hard to get a fix on what made that last group different from him, but Zack got the distinct impression they were part fox all the same. Mixed in with all of that, there were maybe one or two people with pointed ears..elves, possibly. There weren't any obvious tensions between the various races here, but appearances could be deceiving.

Eventually they found what looked like an inn. Katherine looked up at the sign, proclaiming it to be the "Broken Dragon Tavern and Hotel". "Say, this looks like a good place to rest our feet a few minutes. We might even be able to find a tip on a job here. This could be the gateway to a great experience, don't you think?"

"Sure, whatever." Zack wasn't sure if this was her idea of roleplaying or not. She wasn't exactly being subtle about metagaming, after all. At any rate, she led the way in and found them a booth in one corner of the place. It was probably afternoon or so, so the tavern wasn't in its peak time, but there were a fair number of people eating there. The backs of the booth's seats were slanted so that the bottom was farther back than the top, which proved remarkably helpful to Zack and Katherine sitting in them with their new tails.

Eventually a human waiter showed up. "Hello, welcome to the Broken Dragon Tavern and Hotel; my name is Milo. What can I get you two?"
"Well, what would you recommend? Is there a special on today?" said Katherine.

"Why yes, actually. A fresh catch of trout came in recently; our cook knows how to make a fine filet with them."
"I think I'd like that."
"Good, good. And for you, ma'am?"
Zack tried not to glare at him; explaining his situation to anyone who wasn't in a similar one just wasn't going to work. "..Same."

Once the waiter left to handle their orders, Zack said, "Really? Fish?"

"What? I'm allowed to like fish. I liked fish before I got into this game. Besides, it's apparently the best thing on the menu right now. And, you ordered it."
"I didn't want to bother with asking for a menu. You didn't even ask for prices?"
"Relax, I'm sure we have enough. And if we don't, we'll find some other way to repay them. Or we'll just have a tab. I'm sure we'll be hanging around this town for at least a little while, anyway."
"Yeah, probably...we should have gotten something to drink."

Milo returned a couple of minutes later. "Would you ladies like something to drink while you wait?"
"Hmm..do you have any sort of tea?"
"Ah, certainly. And you?"
"Just water. If it's clean."

"Oh, of course. We have our own private well here, very sanitary. I'll be right back!"

"You do realize the tea here is probably bitter and hot," said Zack.

Kath shrugged. "It's an adventure; I'll try new things. Besides, I don't want water, and I'm not ordering milk. I'm still technically underage, you know, so alcohol is out.

"You don't look underage to me. The drinking age is probably lower here anyway."

"Yeah, but..I also don't think anybody wants to know what happens when you mix psychic powers with weak inhibitions."

"Point made."

Zack took some of the time waiting for their food and drinks to close his eyes and try to get a look at his own status screen. Strength and constitution were his highest stats, followed by agility and dexterity. Intelligence was the lowest, but still not all that much lower than the others. The weird "gem of brightness" was in his inventory, as well as a scroll labeled "instructive information". They would bear looking at later on. He tried bringing one gold to his hand, and found that it worked before dismissing it back to the inventory. Did this mean any party member could do that? What if they had someone who was always trying to spend all of their money on stupid, expensive items?

Milo showed up when they were part-way through their meal. "So, is everything alright?"
"It's great," said Katherine. "By the way, we're kind of new in town. The two of us are..explorers, you might say. Adventurers. You know of any way we could get that kind of work around here?"
"Oh, sure. There's a board on town square, people with monster problems or other kinds of tasks to do put up bulletins there, and anyone can come take one to say they're gonna try and do the job. I mean, within reason, but you two look more than fit enough to deal with most of the small-time problems we have around here. If someone takes a bulletin and doesn't come back or contact the person who put it up, they usually replace it after a day or two. Of course, once people disappear or give up on a job, the guard marks it as dangerous or difficult; enough of that, and they won't let just anyone take the job anymore. Tough jobs like that are kept on a board in the guardhouse, but they won't let strangers even attempt them..no offense."

"None taken. We're pretty new to this, so starting slow is probably a good idea anyway," said Katherine. "Thank you."

"Sure, no problem."

Their meal cost 20 gold, and Katherine added a five-gold tip, explaining to Zack that having a friend in town would be a good idea..as if he didn't already understand that. And then they went to have a look at the board.

Zack got out the scroll while she looked over the board. "Hmm..window cleaning? No way. We need something that involves a fight to get better."

"You are the party leader," said the scroll. "Your approval is required to add new party members, and your menu alone contains permissions for money and other shared inventory. Key items are placed in your inventory regardless of who picks them up. Seniority is the guiding principle for who leads should you leave a formed party or become incapacitated."

"Here's one!" Zack put away the scroll and looked at the bulletin she was kneeling over to point at, down near the bottom of the board. "A gang of eight or so goblins stole some guy's engagement ring...mugged the caravan it was on, rather. He paid a scryer to find out where it was, and discovered the location of their hideout. I bet if we find anyone else with stuff they stole, they'd be happy to repay us for that, too."

"Two-on-eight? Sounds like a little much," said Zack.

"Well, we just have to sneak in, take them out one at a time."
"I don't know if you've noticed, but my armor makes a little too much noise to sneak effectively."
"Well, we'll figure something out, I'm sure. Maybe level up mid-battle or something? Your main sword's big enough you can probably cut down two or three of 'em at once anyway." She pulled the bulletin off the board, and stood up, grinning at him. "Come on, live a little! If this is a game, it shouldn't let us actually die anyway."

"..Oh, alright. So should we talk to the person who put this up to get better directions first, or is it clear enough there?"

"It gives his name and address, and doesn't say where the hideout is, so we'll have to talk to him."

---

Next part will be them going to the hideout. I don't really feel like writing out the conversation with the employer, I mean, unless you have some really brilliant idea for them being a recurring NPC or whatever.