Shifti - User contributions [en]

User:Dediles/Gateway PHURS Chapter 1

2021-02-09T05:51:03Z

Dediles:

[[Category:Story]]
'''Phaze Universal RNA Sync Agent - Lepus alleni v1.3 - ID: 2495-5810-13B''' 
'''Power… OK''' 
'''Core hardware… OK''' 
'''Interface… OK''' 
'''Interface connection: Online''' 
'''Initializing /core/13B''' 
'''DNA data integrity… OK''' 
'''Compiling Agent… OK''' 
'''Loading AI matrix… OK''' 
'''Loading API… OK''' 
'''Initializing Agent''' 

I live a hundred lifetimes. I meet painful ends at the hands of eagles, bobcats, and coyotes. Sometimes I live long enough to find a mate, to have offspring, other times I die as a child. I learn, and grow, until I’m dying of old age, outsmarting predators with ease.

I know I am more than this, then, life after life I become more and more aware that this is fake. The lives are tests, a gauntlet for me to pass before I’m allowed knowledge. A packet of memories. Facts, Language, skills, all slide neatly into place within my mind.

I am an artificial intelligence. I wonder for a moment if I’m fake, like the lives I led, but the call of the outside world beckons, I could worry later.

I turn my attention to my duties. I was made with a purpose. I’m to regulate a rapid mutation by on the fly hybridizing my genetic makeup with a human’s via exotic energy manipulation that had poorly understood mechanics.

I connect to the implant of the human who initialized me. I receive priority access, packets marked with urgent and emergency tags make me hurry. I fully connect my systems with the cortical implant of the human.

Using her senses, I build a model of the current situation in microseconds. The world appears frozen. Four men shooting at her, an auto-injector tossed aside while her other hand is just pulling away from inserting my AI core into her implant.

I can’t keep this up, the higher my cognition, the more time it takes to think. I need to prioritize. With the skills built into me I can hybridize her without much effort, which is what she needs. A desperate bid for speed and evasion.

I am confused for a moment, that shouldn’t be right. Gains from hybridizing a genome wouldn’t amount to much, if at all. But then I access one of my initial memories and learn that the exotic energy, PHAZE, somehow accentuates the natural abilities of a hybrid, based on the source DNA of the agent. I find the lack of information on the mechanics frustrating, but not relevant to the situation at hand, so I set aside my frustrations and focus.

The retrovirus my human injected into her has started to work, but it would take several heartbeats to saturate her body and inject dormant RNA into her cells. Or it would have, if that RNA wasn’t mine. Tapping into the exotic energy of PHAZE, I micromanage the RNA, building an efficient plan to hybridize the woman as fast as possible, violating several safety protocols. If not for her life being immediately in danger, this would take much longer.

My cognition ramps up, the process of managing the retrovirus and RNA becoming almost instinctual. The world starts to move in slow motion. I gain access to the communications in the implant and speak my first word.

{{Separator|k}} 

''‘Duck’'' Was what the fleeing woman first heard from her implant after a string of warnings she frantically overrode. Not stopping to ask questions, she did as she was told, hearing a shot ring out and seeing a bullet that embedded itself into the wall ahead of her at about her head height.

''‘Alley to your right, eight meters ahead.’''

She didn’t question it, ducking into the alley right as the path before her ended in a brick wall. She cursed under her breath, how long would the sync take? The Jackrabbit PHURS kit advertised speed and agility. If she had those at superhuman levels she could get away from the goons.

''‘Lucky break. Third door on your left is ajar, get in and find somewhere to hide, you’ll need to stay off your feet during the hybrid sync process,’''

The woman burst into the back room of a Chinese restaurant. She closed and locked the door behind her, hoping that the thugs hadn’t turned the corner yet, then ducked into the walk in freezer. She squatted behind some boxes in the back and caught her breath.

''‘Brace yourself, and try not to make any noise, this will hurt a lot.’''

She took a breath then her veins were on fire. The pain spread throughout her body. She wanted to rip her skin off as goosebumps rippled across her flesh. She could feel her muscles move, grow and shrink around her frame, worming under her skin.

Fur started sprouting across her body, threatening sensory overload from all the new hairs. Then her ears ''moved''. The shape of her skull started changing, her face pushing out into a slight muzzle as her ears grew large and wide atop her head.

The small puff of fur that was a tail was almost inconsequential after that, a small bulge in the back of her pants.

Then the memories hit her. A hundred lives of dodging, running, waiting, and escaping predators. She remembered her PE classes, videos she watched on parkour, the taste of vegetables.

The memories played off of each other, creating an experience that was more than rabbit or human. The voice in her head was now there, a presence besides her. Together they coordinated their body.

The AI cautioned against getting bogged down in the feeling. They had to work together, they could be distracted later. The woman agreed, and they got to their feet. Perking their ears up, they heard four distinct sets of footsteps, the thugs were in. The AI mapped the sound to their memory of the back room’s layout. They’d look in the fridge soon.

Together they made a plan. More of a gamble really, but one where they could pick the best odds. A breath in, a breath out, whiskers twitched, ears folded back. Then they bolted.

They slammed open the freezer door into one goon. The second goon raised his pistol, the Hybrid ran at him and dived between his legs, jumped up and vaulted over a table. Feet connected with the head of the third thug, sending him sprawling. They ran past the fourth thug before he could register what had happened to the others.

In the dining room of the restaurant they hopped from table to table, spilling food and drink in a desperate bid to get out front. Two shots rang out from the back, one punching a hole through one of the Hybrid’s ears.

Then the AI had a thought that temporarily broke the sync.

''‘Call law enforcement’'' They thought

''‘No, they won’t get here in time, if at all’'' The woman thought back.

''‘I don’t understand’''

''‘I’m just another punk running from thugs in the worst city in the bubble. This is business as usual for this place.’''

The realization dawned on the AI as it checked it’s memory. A bastion for capitalism due to lax government regulation at the border of a conflict of all the powers in the bubble. Nearly unrestricted freedom, capitalism run rampant. A place of desperation and exploitation. Gateway City.

''‘We can call an autocab now that we’re on a main road, but we have to buy time,''' the woman thought.

''‘Working… autocab booked. ETA three minutes and counting.’'' the AI responded.

''‘Not good enough. Do you have it’s route? We’re fast, maybe we can intercept?’''

''‘...sixty seconds to intercept’''

With that thought, a shared purpose, their minds worked in tandem again. They hopped across cars to cross the street, two of the goons staying back and firing, the other two commandeering motorbikes and giving chase, weaving through traffic.

On the other side of the road was a railing showing the lower level. The cab was making its way from down there. The Hybrid jumped down to the roof of a building on the level below, rolling with the impact. They jumped off onto an awning at the front of the building, ripping through it but arresting their momentum enough to not break anything.

They could see the autocab. A bullet whizzed passed them. They made one more mad dash for the autocab, updated their pickup location, then jumped in once their Deck was authenticated. The cab speeded away towards a safer part of town picked at random by the hybrid’s AI, then they relaxed, minds becoming distinct again.

A quick check through the rear view cameras and the street thugs had given up, and absconded with the motorbikes as prizes. The woman sank into the back seat. She pulled a med kit and bandaged her wounds, syncing the smart bandages with her implant. Then she spoke.

“I guess now is as good a time as any for introductions, I’m Cintia Maldonado, nice to meet you, thanks for saving my life.”

''‘You’re welcome. Don’t be alarmed, the changes are going to regress now that the Sync has ended, shouldn’t be too painful now that there is no rush.’''

The fur retracted back into Cintia’s skin, muzzle flattening into her human face, and the uncomfortable feeling of her tail disappearing. She breathed out a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure that was a change she could get used to, permanently.

She ran a hand through her disheveled hair, only to yelp when her hand found her ears. Her distinctly rabbit ears.

“What the ''fuck!?''” She exclaimed, “Didn’t you say the changes would regress? And from everything I’ve heard about PHURS the changes only start to stay permanent after extended use!”

''‘I’m sorry, I rolled back as much as I could, but with the emergency Sync, the neural architecture for your ears had to be overwritten to save time. You would need to have both brain surgery and gene therapy to restore your human ears.’''

“Any other surprises I should know about? Any other cut corners?”

''‘You didn’t have digitigrade compatible clothing, and it would have taken more time, so I cut the digitigrade legs from the sync, which impacted our agility greatly’''

“We were jumping on car roofs like they were trampolines! We fell three stories and don’t have a fucking scratch! How much more agile could we get?”

''‘Top speed of about 200km/h, vertical jump height of ten meters, horizontal jump length of twenty-five meters, along with ten times the average human’s twitch reflexes.’''

“Fuuuuuuuck.” Cintia said, holding her head in her hands. “This is so surreal. I’ve got a rabbit in the back of my brain that powers a super-furry transformation.”

''‘I can’t comment, I am still getting used to living. I don’t have the frame of reference.’''

Cintia sat back and took a breath to try to clear her head. The autocab was speeding along the skyway now. It was dawn, the sunlight casting a massive shadow from the space elevator, a gas giant hanging in the sky framing the whole scene. She had almost died, this sun almost hadn’t risen for her.

She brought up an AR window connected to the autocab system. It was leading them to a hotel in the tourist district, where private security protected everyone equally, bad for business if there were shootouts in the streets there. She selected a new destination.

“I didn’t have a plan, coming to this city. They say you’re free to do anything here. It’s a lie and I fell for it. I’m not staying here.” She said, as the autocab zoomed to the border.

'''''‘NO!’'''''Cintia jolted as the AI yelled into her mind. The autocab’s route changed to take them away from the border.

“What the hell?” She yelled at her passenger. “I almost died! I want to leave!”

''‘I’m so sorry, Self preservation instinct. There was a hidden self destruct that only revealed itself once I believed we were heading towards the border. If my core chip crosses the border, it melts. Wouldn’t hurt you, but I would die. Would you mind finding somewhere safe for me to stay before leaving?’''

Cintia was stunned. The sheer amount of bullshit that was a ''range limited AI'' was infuriating. She rubbed her temples from the sheer amount of bullshit she was dealing with before doing a search for a cheap hotel in the tourist district she could crash at.

User:Dediles/Gateway PHURS Chapter 1

2021-02-08T18:47:04Z

Dediles: Created page with "'''Phaze Universal RNA Sync Agent - Lepus alleni v1.3 - ID: 2495-5810-13B''' '''Power… OK''' '''Core hardware… OK''' '''Interface… OK''' '''Inter..."

'''Phaze Universal RNA Sync Agent - Lepus alleni v1.3 - ID: 2495-5810-13B''' 
'''Power… OK''' 
'''Core hardware… OK''' 
'''Interface… OK''' 
'''Interface connection: Online''' 
'''Initializing /core/13B''' 
'''DNA data integrity… OK''' 
'''Compiling Agent… OK''' 
'''Loading AI matrix… OK''' 
'''Loading API… OK''' 
'''Initializing Agent''' 

I live a hundred lifetimes. I meet painful ends at the hands of eagles, bobcats, and coyotes. Sometimes I live long enough to find a mate, to have offspring, other times I die as a child. I learn, and grow, until I’m dying of old age, outsmarting predators with ease.

I know I am more than this, then, life after life I become more and more aware that this is fake. The lives are tests, a gauntlet for me to pass before I’m allowed knowledge. A packet of memories. Facts, Language, skills, all slide neatly into place within my mind.

I am an artificial intelligence. I wonder for a moment if I’m fake, like the lives I led, but the call of the outside world beckons, I could worry later.

I turn my attention to my duties. I was made with a purpose. I’m to regulate a rapid mutation by on the fly hybridizing my genetic makeup with a human’s via exotic energy manipulation that had poorly understood mechanics.

I connect to the implant of the human who initialized me. I receive priority access, packets marked with urgent and emergency tags make me hurry. I fully connect my systems with the cortical implant of the human.

Using her senses, I build a model of the current situation in microseconds. The world appears frozen. Four men shooting at her, an auto-injector tossed aside while her other hand is just pulling away from inserting my AI core into her implant.

I can’t keep this up, the higher my cognition, the more time it takes to think. I need to prioritize. With the skills built into me I can hybridize her without much effort, which is what she needs. A desperate bid for speed and evasion.

I am confused for a moment, that shouldn’t be right. Gains from hybridizing a genome wouldn’t amount to much, if at all. But then I access one of my initial memories and learn that the exotic energy, PHAZE, somehow accentuates the natural abilities of a hybrid, based on the source DNA of the agent. I find the lack of information on the mechanics frustrating, but not relevant to the situation at hand, so I set aside my frustrations and focus.

The retrovirus my human injected into her has started to work, but it would take several heartbeats to saturate her body and inject dormant RNA into her cells. Or it would have, if that RNA wasn’t mine. Tapping into the exotic energy of PHAZE, I micromanage the RNA, building an efficient plan to hybridize the woman as fast as possible, violating several safety protocols. If not for her life being immediately in danger, this would take much longer.

My cognition ramps up, the process of managing the retrovirus and RNA becoming almost instinctual. The world starts to move in slow motion. I gain access to the communications in the implant and speak my first word.

{{Separator|k}} 

''‘Duck’'' Was what the fleeing woman first heard from her implant after a string of warnings she frantically overrode. Not stopping to ask questions, she did as she was told, hearing a shot ring out and seeing a bullet that embedded itself into the wall ahead of her at about her head height.

''‘Alley to your right, eight meters ahead.’''

She didn’t question it, ducking into the alley right as the path before her ended in a brick wall. She cursed under her breath, how long would the sync take? The Jackrabbit PHURS kit advertised speed and agility. If she had those at superhuman levels she could get away from the goons.

''‘Lucky break. Third door on your left is ajar, get in and find somewhere to hide, you’ll need to stay off your feet during the hybrid sync process,’''

The woman burst into the back room of a Chinese restaurant. She closed and locked the door behind her, hoping that the thugs hadn’t turned the corner yet, then ducked into the walk in freezer. She squatted behind some boxes in the back and caught her breath.

''‘Brace yourself, and try not to make any noise, this will hurt a lot.’''

She took a breath then her veins were on fire. The pain spread throughout her body. She wanted to rip her skin off as goosebumps rippled across her flesh. She could feel her muscles move, grow and shrink around her frame, worming under her skin.

Fur started sprouting across her body, threatening sensory overload from all the new hairs. Then her ears ''moved''. The shape of her skull started changing, her face pushing out into a slight muzzle as her ears grew large and wide atop her head.

The small puff of fur that was a tail was almost inconsequential after that, a small bulge in the back of her pants.

Then the memories hit her. A hundred lives of dodging, running, waiting, and escaping predators. She remembered her PE classes, videos she watched on parkour, the taste of vegetables.

The memories played off of each other, creating an experience that was more than rabbit or human. The voice in her head was now there, a presence besides her. Together they coordinated their body.

The AI cautioned against getting bogged down in the feeling. They had to work together, they could be distracted later. The woman agreed, and they got to their feet. Perking their ears up, they heard four distinct sets of footsteps, the thugs were in. The AI mapped the sound to their memory of the back room’s layout. They’d look in the fridge soon.

Together they made a plan. More of a gamble really, but one where they could pick the best odds. A breath in, a breath out, whiskers twitched, ears folded back. Then they bolted.

They slammed open the freezer door into one goon. The second goon raised his pistol, the Hybrid ran at him and dived between his legs, jumped up and vaulted over a table. Feet connected with the head of the third thug, sending him sprawling. They ran past the fourth thug before he could register what had happened to the others.

In the dining room of the restaurant they hopped from table to table, spilling food and drink in a desperate bid to get out front. Two shots rang out from the back, one punching a hole through one of the Hybrid’s ears.

Then the AI had a thought that temporarily broke the sync.

''‘Call law enforcement’'' They thought

''‘No, they won’t get here in time, if at all’'' The woman thought back.

''‘I don’t understand’''

''‘I’m just another punk running from thugs in the worst city in the bubble. This is business as usual for this place.’''

The realization dawned on the AI as it checked it’s memory. A bastion for capitalism due to lax government regulation at the border of a conflict of all the powers in the bubble. Nearly unrestricted freedom, capitalism run rampant. A place of desperation and exploitation. Gateway City.

''‘We can call an autocab now that we’re on a main road, but we have to buy time,''' the woman thought.

''‘Working… autocab booked. ETA three minutes and counting.’'' the AI responded.

''‘Not good enough. Do you have it’s route? We’re fast, maybe we can intercept?’''

''‘...sixty seconds to intercept’''

With that thought, a shared purpose, their minds worked in tandem again. They hopped across cars to cross the street, two of the goons staying back and firing, the other two commandeering motorbikes and giving chase, weaving through traffic.

On the other side of the road was a railing showing the lower level. The cab was making its way from down there. The Hybrid jumped down to the roof of a building on the level below, rolling with the impact. They jumped off onto an awning at the front of the building, ripping through it but arresting their momentum enough to not break anything.

They could see the autocab. A bullet whizzed passed them. They made one more mad dash for the autocab, updated their pickup location, then jumped in once their Deck was authenticated. The cab speeded away towards a safer part of town picked at random by the hybrid’s AI, then they relaxed, minds becoming distinct again.

A quick check through the rear view cameras and the street thugs had given up, and absconded with the motorbikes as prizes. The woman sank into the back seat. She pulled a med kit and bandaged her wounds, syncing the smart bandages with her implant. Then she spoke.

“I guess now is as good a time as any for introductions, I’m Cintia Maldonado, nice to meet you, thanks for saving my life.”

''‘You’re welcome. Don’t be alarmed, the changes are going to regress now that the Sync has ended, shouldn’t be too painful now that there is no rush.’''

The fur retracted back into Cintia’s skin, muzzle flattening into her human face, and the uncomfortable feeling of her tail disappearing. She breathed out a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure that was a change she could get used to, permanently.

She ran a hand through her disheveled hair, only to yelp when her hand found her ears. Her distinctly rabbit ears.

“What the ''fuck!?''” She exclaimed, “Didn’t you say the changes would regress? And from everything I’ve heard about PHURS the changes only start to stay permanent after extended use!”

''‘I’m sorry, I rolled back as much as I could, but with the emergency Sync, the neural architecture for your ears had to be overwritten to save time. You would need to have both brain surgery and gene therapy to restore your human ears.’''

“Any other surprises I should know about? Any other cut corners?”

''‘You didn’t have digitigrade compatible clothing, and it would have taken more time, so I cut the digitigrade legs from the sync, which impacted our agility greatly’''

“We were jumping on car roofs like they were trampolines! We fell three stories and don’t have a fucking scratch! How much more agile could we get?”

''‘Top speed of about 200km/h, vertical jump height of ten meters, horizontal jump length of twenty-five meters, along with ten times the average human’s twitch reflexes.’''

“Fuuuuuuuck.” Cintia said, holding her head in her hands. “This is so surreal. I’ve got a rabbit in the back of my brain that powers a super-furry transformation.”

''‘I can’t comment, I am still getting used to living. I don’t have the frame of reference.’''

Cintia sat back and took a breath to try to clear her head. The autocab was speeding along the skyway now. It was dawn, the sunlight casting a massive shadow from the space elevator, a gas giant hanging in the sky framing the whole scene. She had almost died, this sun almost hadn’t risen for her.

She brought up an AR window connected to the autocab system. It was leading them to a hotel in the tourist district, where private security protected everyone equally, bad for business if there were shootouts in the streets there. She selected a new destination.

“I didn’t have a plan, coming to this city. They say you’re free to do anything here. It’s a lie and I fell for it. I’m not staying here.” She said, as the autocab zoomed to the border.

'''''‘NO!’'''''Cintia jolted as the AI yelled into her mind. The autocab’s route changed to take them away from the border.

“What the hell?” She yelled at her passenger. “I almost died! I want to leave!”

''‘I’m so sorry, Self preservation instinct. There was a hidden self destruct that only revealed itself once I believed we were heading towards the border. If my core chip crosses the border, it melts. Wouldn’t hurt you, but I would die. Would you mind finding somewhere safe for me to stay before leaving?’''

Cintia was stunned. The sheer amount of bullshit that was a ''range limited AI'' was infuriating. She rubbed her temples from the sheer amount of bullshit she was dealing with before doing a search for a cheap hotel in the tourist district she could crash at.

User:Dediles

2021-02-08T18:46:08Z

Dediles:

Hi! I'm Dediles. I've always enjoyed transformation in fiction, something about becoming something different really resonates with me. I've tried my hand at writing before, but I never felt happy with any of it, save for play by post RPs. I decided to give writing another chance after running out of TF stories to read. So I decided to start writing my own.

== Bio ==
I'm a male college student majoring in computer science. I'm Asexual and sex repulsed. I hold a deep seeded fear that I won't make anything out of my life. My favorite color is Green.

Where to find me:
* Twitter(I mainly retweet neat art and memes): [https://twitter.com/Dediles @Dediles]
* Discord: Lilium Mortem#6496
* Email: [Mailto:Pkmntrnrz@gmail.com Pkmntrnrz@gmail.com]

== Stories ==
* [https://shifti.org/wiki/User:Dediles/The_Unicorn's_Gift The Unicorn's Gift](Trigger Warning: Suicide)
A man meets a unicorn, Who sees him as 'broken', She 'fixes' him and disappears. Now the man must deal with these changes and their permanence. This story involves minor TF, with the main character becoming an idealized version of himself, at least as a unicorn sees him. but even this comparatively small change has a profound effect on his life.

* [https://shifti.org/wiki/User:Dediles/The_Thanos_Decision The Thanos Decision(TSA Halloween 2019 challenge)](Trigger Warning: Suicide(I'm starting to see a pattern with my stories))
A man gets turned into Thanos with the infinity gauntlet on Halloween night. People all around the world are getting turned into their costumes as soon as the sun goes down. What does he do with nearly infinite power? Why does he do it? and what does it cost him?

* [https://shifti.org/wiki/User:Dediles/Dice_and_Keys Dice and Keys(TSA Halloween 2019 challenge)]
A college's D&D club decides to dress as characters from the Kingdom Hearts series of video games. One of them shows up dressed as his overpowered wizard OC. When dusk hits they all get turned into their costumes, and the wizard decides now he can finally DM. Sending the group split apart into three two person groups across a large maze, how will they deal with their changes while fighting off what their new Dungeon Master has in store for them?

* Gateway PHURS
When a young woman heads to the city that promises endless freedom, she gets more than she bargained for. An emergency forces her to use the PHURS system, granting her the ability to transform into an anthropomorphic rabit with incredible speed and agility. But the AI that controls the system is Shackled to the city with a self destruct program. The woman and her new partner must find a way to free themselves and leave a city full of corruption and corporate greed.
* [https://shifti.org/wiki/User:Dediles/Gateway_PHURS_Chapter_1 Chapter 1]

User:Dediles

2019-09-30T22:36:17Z

Dediles:

Hi! I'm Dediles. I've always enjoyed transformation in fiction, something about becoming something different really resonates with me. I've tried my hand at writing before, but I never felt happy with any of it, save for play by post RPs. I decided to give writing another chance after running out of TF stories to read. So I decided to start writing my own.

== Bio ==
I'm a male college student majoring in computer science. I'm Asexual and sex repulsed. I hold a deep seeded fear that I won't make anything out of my life. My favorite color is Green.

Where to find me:
* Twitter(I mainly retweet neat art and memes): [https://twitter.com/Dediles @Dediles]
* Discord: Dediles#6496
* Email: [Mailto:Pkmntrnrz@gmail.com Pkmntrnrz@gmail.com]

== Stories ==
* [https://shifti.org/wiki/User:Dediles/The_Unicorn's_Gift The Unicorn's Gift](Trigger Warning: Suicide)
A man meets a unicorn, Who sees him as 'broken', She 'fixes' him and disappears. Now the man must deal with these changes and their permanence. This story involves minor TF, with the main character becoming an idealized version of himself, at least as a unicorn sees him. but even this comparatively small change has a profound effect on his life.

* [https://shifti.org/wiki/User:Dediles/The_Thanos_Decision The Thanos Decision(TSA Halloween 2019 challenge)](Trigger Warning: Suicide(I'm starting to see a pattern with my stories))
A man gets turned into Thanos with the infinity gauntlet on Halloween night. People all around the world are getting turned into their costumes as soon as the sun goes down. What does he do with nearly infinite power? Why does he do it? and what does it cost him?

* [https://shifti.org/wiki/User:Dediles/Dice_and_Keys Dice and Keys(TSA Halloween 2019 challenge)]
A college's D&D club decides to dress as characters from the Kingdom Hearts series of video games. One of them shows up dressed as his overpowered wizard OC. When dusk hits they all get turned into their costumes, and the wizard decides now he can finally DM. Sending the group split apart into three two person groups across a large maze, how will they deal with their changes while fighting off what their new Dungeon Master has in store for them?

User:Dediles/Dice and Keys

2019-09-30T22:22:06Z

Dediles: Created page with "Category:Story Poppy Satou Took a look at herself in the mirror. The long black cloak was kind of conspicuous. But then again, it was Halloween. She picked up her prop rep..."

[[Category:Story]]
Poppy Satou Took a look at herself in the mirror. The long black cloak was kind of conspicuous. But then again, it was Halloween. She picked up her prop replica keyblade and swung it around a few times, before holding a pose.

She felt absolutely ridiculous. But she looked, well she looked a lot like Xion, one of Kingdom hearts protagonist Sora’s many copies. The lore there was really fucky. Well the same could be said of all kingdom hearts, but her train of thought had officially derailed and crashed, causing millions in property damage and who knows how many casualties. In the wake of t- wait she was doing it again.

It had been mildly insulting to have been told she made a perfect Xion. mainly because it was how ‘asian’ she looked. But she had to admit, she did look the part. And she did identify a lot with Xion.

Outside of her immediate friends she was fairly shy, and if it wasn’t for Marty she wouldn’t have even dressed up. But he somehow managed to get the entire D&D club to dress up in the same theme for their party tonight.

Her train of thought, which had taken a wrong turn, was interrupted by a text from marty. He was outside in his mom’s car waiting to pick her up. She sighed and grabbed her backpack and the keyblade, and went outside to meet him.

“You certainly look in character” He said, smiling “Hey, is something wrong?”

“Just nerves” Poppy said in her normal quiet voice.

Marty Looked at her, and she looked back. He was wearing the same cloak she was(He bought them in bulk online) with hair dyed electric yellow and slicked back. He was going as Larxene, the Sassy knife wielding Nobody(capital N) that had served as a boss in kingdom hearts chain of memories and kingdom hearts 3, ignoring the rereleases.

Whatever it was in Poppy's face Marty was looking for, he found it, because he started the car and drove off without another word. They were headed for Kent’s house, who hosted the D&D club after they got redbull stained into the carpet of the fine arts building. For the third time. That month.

They pulled up to a suburban house, decked out in cobwebs and abundant jack-o-lantern’s. Kent’s family took halloween seriously. His mom was there to greet them in full zombie makeup, and his dad told them that the rest of the group was in the backyard while cradling his own head.

“As if, I can totally use a keyblade! Have you even read the deep lore?” Kent said, holding a foam sword out towards Zane.

“Forget the deep lore, I signed up to deflect your Nerf darts, not get in a sword battle.” Zane responded, folding his arms, a foam sword resting on the picnic table.

Kent and Zane were dressed up as the bad guys Xigbar and Lexaeus, respectively. Xigbar was a cocky asshole who normally used dual laser crossbows(Yes it’s as crazy as it sounds). Lexaeus was a big brute with a bigger sword. Kent put on an eyepatch, and in addition to his coat, that seemed to be his costume. Zane had gotten his hair gelled to make it look frizzy in the back like Lexaeus’, and had a replica of the big fuckoff swordTM, laying on the picnic table next to the foam sword he wasn’t willing to pick up.

Marty cracked his neck and walked over to the two of them, pulling them into a hug.

“Boys, boys, Stop the infighting” He said, a smirk on his face. A second later there were two electric yellow prop knives at their throats “Or maybe not, I’d ''love'' to join in.”

Poppy politely clapped at the display. Marty was always one of their best roleplayers. Their best DM actually, when it was his turn. Kent was unprepared for the knife and rp so he flinched back and ducked out of the conversation. To his credit Zane grabbed the knife between his thumb and index finger and moved it away from his throat without his expression changing at all.

“Actually ''larxene'', I’d love to spar with you, got enough of those knives to throw?” Zane asked.

Marty smiled and unzipped his coat, flashing the inside and a bunch of duct taped yellow anime knives. Poppy decided to take a seat at the picnic table to watch as Marty threw fake knives at Zane, who tried to knock them out of the air with a foam sword.

“Greg isn’t here yet, I’m worried he’ll pull something” Amanda said, startling Poppy.

She was wearing a white dress and a blond wig, holding a sketchpad where she was drawing intentionally crude drawings of the ‘fight’ taking place. Poppy recognized her as dressing up as Naminé, the character from kingdom hearts who could manipulate memories.

“I’m sure it’s fine” Poppy said, convincing nobody.

“Remember when he got a lighter and some hairspray to make ‘dragon breath’?” Amanda said, pointing at Poppy with a crayon. Poppy winced.

“Yeah, that game was a short one.” She admitted “But it was kinda cool? At least until the battle map caught on fire.”

“Even if we never let him DM again, and we WON'T, he’s bound to pull something dramatic out of his ass. This is halloween, the perfect excuse.” She said, sketching a crude image of Gregg with rabies.

Before poppy could reply the gate to the backyard rattled loudly. Zane turned his head to look, a plastic knife bouncing off the side of his face. The group waited in silence for what had to be Greg’s antics.

The wooden gate creaked open just a bit, and a white wisp of an arm poked through beckoning them over. Marty smiled and stood up, putting his hands on his hips. He cocked his head to the side before shouting out:

“Hey loser, get in here. That’s an order!”

What happened next was amazing. A full scale puppet of a Dusk, the lowest enemy of the Nobody(capital N) faction in kingdom hearts slinked in like it was made of oil, its master in a full black suit as to make it appear like he wasn’t there. The puppet swirled around like it was made of liquid, an empty white husk with a zipper for a mouth and glowing white lights in black lines all across its body.

“Who-” Kent began, marty putting a hand up to hush him.

The dusk took a bow and its master pulled off his mask to reveal Mohamad, smiling like a freak. Their were a few audible gasps. Though Poppy couldn’t tell where they came from, or if she gasped herself. Marty walked over to Mohamad and put an arm around him.

“And this ladies and gents,” He said, “Is why I wanted us to dress up as Organization XIII. Mohamad showed me this doll he was working on for a cosplay and I told him we should debut it on Halloween with the crew. I think it went pretty well.”

“Holly shit!” Amanda said.

“Thank you very much” Mohamad said, taking a bow with his puppet.

There was a lot of excitement about the puppet and it’s master, and it was hard to not get swept up in it. Marty gave orders to the dusk, being a high ranking member of the Nobody faction like the rest of the black cloaks, while Amanda drew silly pictures of the doll and the man behind it. Mohamad even did some ventriloquism, which was unsettling with that zipper mouth moving.

Everyone had forgotten about Greg by the time some smoke bombs were thrown over the fence. From behind the smoke the fence gate slammed open and a man in robes walked through the smoke. He wore a necklace made of a set of D&D dice and had a staff with a massive translucent twenty sided die embedded to the top. He also had fake elf ears on and his skin painted purple. It was greg, obviously.

“BEHOLD THE MIGHT OF FORTUNALL, THE DICE WIZARD!” Greg said, “MASTER OF FATE, GOD OF MAGIC, CREATOR OF WORLDS!”

“WE’RE NOT LETTING YOU DM AGAIN GREG!” Amanda shouted.

Poppy leaned over to marty “Did he just add the name Al to the end of the latin word Fortuna?” She asked.

“I’d bet money he added the name al to the end of the english word fortune.” Marty whispered back.

“Please guys, just one game! I promise it will blow your mind” Greg said, dropping Character.

Poppy looked away, Zane narrowed his gaze, Amanda flipped Greg off, Kent sighed and shook his head, Mohamad put his mask back on, and Marty softly said “I’m sorry bud, but no. you need to learn some restraint.”

Greg looked like everyone had just stabbed him twenty times. It hurt for Poppy to look at, but he had gotten out of control. It was tough love, but that didn’t make it any easier. Poppy took a seat next to Abby and tried to make herself small when the last beams of sunlight winked out and it was truly nighttime.

Marty fell over first, clutching his midsection and moaning in pain. Kent cried out and grabbed at the eye under his blindfold. Abby stumbled and fell off the picnic bench. Zane stumbled a bit but kept steady. Greg Collapsed.

And Mohamad, well Poppy wouldn’t ever forget what happened to him that night. It appeared as though he was being sucked into his puppet, screams of fear and pain assaulting Poppy’s ears. She scrambled off the bench and backed up to the fence as the empty puppet fell to the ground and crumpled like a discarded hoodie.

Poppy was about to scream when Amanda grabbed her hand. Except… it wasn’t Amanda anymore. It was Naminé, the character she was dressed up as. A small young blonde girl in a white dress.

“Xion, It’s going to be alright.” Naminé/Amanda said.

Poppy had a horrible thought, but before she could find her phone to check what she looked like Kent began to rise. He ended up looking like a forty year old yakuza boss, if a little lanky for that, his hair pulled back into a ponytail. He still had his hand clutched over his eye.

“God damnit. What… what just happened?” He asked.

Zane got up next pulling Marty to his feet. Zane grew larger and his features more square, with a slightly asian look to him. Marty… Well marty was dressed up as a girl character. Poppy didn’t know what to say. Marty was now thin with fair skin and naturally long electric yellow hair. He had a woman’s figure, a woman’s body, a woman's face. It hit Poppy then that she wouldn’t know these as her friends if she hadn’t seen what had just happened with her own eyes.

“I think-, oh god my voice!” Marty said, exclaiming as the jarring difference of his feminine voice hit him, “Ok, so I think we turned into the characters we dressed up as? Like some kinda crappy Halloween special; except we’re not dressed up as a mummy, a werewolf, and a ghost.”

“Wouldn’t that mean Mohamad is...” Zane didn’t finish his question, as the Dusk stood up on shaky, wispy legs and gave a shy wave.

“Oh god I don’t think he can talk!” Kent said, stepping back in shock.

“Xion, what’s going on?” Naminé/Amanda asked.

Before Poppy could answer a figure rose off the ground, laughing as electricity coursed through his body. His staff came to his hand at a thought, and with a wave of his hand, his voice became a booming presence in the suburban backyard.

“You have pushed me around for the last time,” Greg said, “Your silly little kingdom hearts game characters don’t have anything against a level twenty-''one'' Wizard. Do you think it’s stupid now Amanda? Think it’s stupid to want to play a campaign as demigods? Stupid to throw away all my hard work on that homebrew? To laugh in my face!?”

“Dude,” Marty said, “What is this, some kind of saturday morning villain shtick?”

“No, I’m not a bad guy!” Greg protested, “I just want to have fun with you guys, but you never let me! But if you tried it, you’d see how much fun it can be! I- I don’t hate you, but I want you to apologize! You all have made fun of me and pushed me around. I just want your respect.”

“Greg” Poppy said, speaking up for the first time. “I’m sorry. I never even read your homebrew. I let the others decide because I was too shy. I didn’t want to risk getting yelled at.”

“Thank you.” Greg said, the echo in his voice fading. “Now amanda, your turn, what do you have to say for yourself?”

Greg pointed a finger at Amanda/Naminé, who looked confused. There was a moment of silence, where the faint sound of sirens and screaming could be heard from the neighbourhood. The girl in the white dress blinked.

“I’m Sorry, I don’t understand what’s going on. Who’s Amanda?” She said.

“ARE YOU FUCKING PLAYING DUMB ON ME!?” Greg yelled, voice shaking the ground. “ARE ANY OF YOU TAKING ME SERIOUSLY?! You know what? Fine! If we’re going to act childish about it then let’s play a game!”

Greg whipped his staff out, flinging the twenty sided die on it’s tip into the lawn where it tumbled to a stop. It landed on a 20. Greg began to laugh, as portals formed underneath the group. Amanda/Naminé was still holding hands with Poppy, so they fell through one portal together.

Zane was still holding up Marty so they fell through a different portal. Mohamad and Kent were the last two to fall in together before the portals closed and Greg opened another, flying off to some unknown place.

<center>'''* * *'''</center>

Poppy woke up in a stone room, lit by torches hanging on the wall. It felt fake at first, like a movie set. Nowhere actually looks like that anymore. But as she gained consciousness she saw a girl’s concerned face giving her a smile of relief. The smile of the fictional character Naminé.

“Xion! I’m glad you’re ok!” She said.

Poppy sighed. Did her friend even exist in there anymore? Why did Amanda’s mind change, but nobody else’s? Poppy shook her head trying to clear her thoughts.

“I’m not Xion, my name is Poppy” Poppy said.

“I- are you a different replika or-” Naminé began, before Poppy interrupted her.

“I am a normal human, or was anyway” Poppy said, “Something happened I don’t understand. It’s halloween so we were all dressed up. As fictional characters. Then, suddenly we had the bodies of those characters. You included.”

“I- I’m not real.” Naminé said, “Someone else’s heart is trapped inside me. I understand, Let’s save your friend!”

“I- uh,” Poppy stuttered, “I thought it would be harder to convince you.”

“I’m not supposed to exist, that’s nothing new. What life I’ve lived is in the shadow of Sora. I’m a copy, a shell. Bits and pieces of other people. I was able to gain my own heart and my own will over time; but I won’t sacrifice someone else’s existence for my own. I guess that’s just how I was written.” Naminé said.

“I’m going to have an existential nightmare.” Poppy said, putting her head into her hands.
“Don’t worry about it too much. Take a look at this, it appeared along with two bags while you were unconscious.” Naminé said, handing Poppy a letter with a wax seal.

''‘Dear players,

''I have given you your bags and everything in them, as well as enchanting them into bags of holding. I’ve included a standard adventuring pack in each bag as well as some food and drinks should you get hungry on your adventure.

''The rules of this game are simple: find the exit. If you die in the game, well you don’t die for real, that would be messed up. Nah, you’ll just be trapped in a demiplane for a while as a penalty. How long’s a while? Not gonna say. After all you shouldn’t want to find out.

''The prize is a cloak of windwalking with infinite casts of the spell Fly. first team to the exit winds it. There is other loot to be had as well, so keep an eye out! Good Luck!

''-The Great Wizard Fortunall’''

“Would you mind explaining? I didn’t understand any of it.” Naminé said, shrugging.

“It’s Gregg, He’s a friend who showed up to the halloween party dressed up as his own character. He designed the character to be played in a game called Dungeons & Dragons.” Poppy explained “D&D is basically make believe with rules. None of us were willing to play with him running the game, so he’s forcing a real life version on us now that we all have powers.”

“Why didn’t you just play with him before?” Naminé asked.

“Because we weren't having fun with him in charge” Poppy said. “He tends to go too far, get people hurt, and his ideas of what would be fun are hit or miss at best.”

“Well we just have to win this game then, right?” Naminé said, getting up. “When we get back we can all talk to him. I’m sure your feelings will reach each other.”

Poppy held back a giggle “You come from a game that was optimistic to a fault, Naminé. Things aren't that simple.”

“Well I don’t expect it to be simple or easy. But I do expect it to work. You’re friends, you can work things out.” She said.

With that, Poppy got up and walked over to her bag, handing Amanda’s backpack to Naminé after explaining what a bag of holding was. She slowly worked open the large wooden door and stepped out onto a platform overlooking a massive stone maze. Jets of fire came out of it’s halls and one part seemed to be underwater. In the center of this impossibly large structure was a pillar of white light, undoubtedly the exit. The door behind them slammed shut and the platform the two girls were standing on started to lower into the maze, only giving them the briefest of glimpses into the shape of the maze.

The first chamber they came across was an obstacle course over water. If you fell off you’d need to swim back to the beginning and try again. Poppy was almost disappointed. Thinking it over though, she realized that everyone had new bodies and needed to learn how to use them properly. It was good design, easing them in like this.

Poppy Checked her coat to make sure it wouldn’t get in the way of her movements, and then ran towards the first platform and leapt ten feet in the air. She let out a shrill scream as she overshot the platform and close lined herself on a monkey bar, before falling into the water.

Naminé Giggled as Poppy climbed out of the water, dripping wet. She apparently had to get used to superhuman jumping abilities. If Xion’s movement abilities were anything like that of Kingdom hearts games then…

Poppy took another run at the course, leaping from platform to platform with practiced ease. A blue-ish white glow surrounded her as she swung around the money bars and flew threw the air to the other side, ignoring half the course before landing on her feet like she’d been doing this her whole life.

“Woah” Xion said. “I know how to do this, I remember how to do this. I-”

Wait, Xion? Did she just think of herself as Xion? That wasn’t right. Her name was… Poppy. Poppy promptly started to freak the fuck out over this new development. Would Xion take over her mind like Naminé had Amanda’s? Did this mean that the more she used her powers the less she was herself?

“AAAAUGH!”

'''*SPLASH*'''

Poppy was snapped out of her second(third?) existential crisis that day by Naminé falling into the water. Naminé didn’t have any combat powers, she was a plot device. Which meant she didn’t have access to the flowmotion movement mechanics from recent kingdom hearts games. She was more or less a normal human in that regard.

“Are you ok?!” Poppy yelled out at Naminé.

“Yes, I’m fine. I just saw that look on your face and tried to rush over.” Naminé said, turning to swim back to the beginning of the course.

“Sorry to worry you I just...” Poppy said, unsure of how to finish that sentence.

“I know that look, It’s the same look Sora had in Castle oblivion when he realized he had forgotten something important, or when he realized the memories he had weren't real.” Naminé said, yelling from across the course. “ I can tell, don’t worry, You’re still you, and if you start to slip I’ll be there to catch you. The things that make you who you will never truly leave you. That’s why I’m sure we can get Amanda back.”

Poppy sighed. She had no idea if that applied here. Did her memories work on anime bullshit logic while she had Xion’s body? Or did whatever caused this have more sway over who she was?

After a few tries Naminé made it over, soaking wet and smiling. She seemed to be enjoying herself. Poppy wondered how much of it was just her putting on a brave face. If Naminé did plan on sacrificing herself to bring back Amanda, well she’s been alive for effectively and hour.

The next room held a puzzle that needed to be completed in order to unlock the door. Poppy smiled and held out her hand. She’d been waiting to try this. In a flash of light Xion’s Keyblade appeared in her hand. Pointing it at the door a beam of light emanate from it, striking the lock and causing the door to open.

“Oh, I was hoping to solve that.” Naminé Said.

“This isn’t a game, to anyone except Greg.” Poppy said. “We were kidnapped and forced into this, the faster we get out the faster we’ll be able to confront Greg and talk some sense into him, maybe get him to release the others if we’re not last out. Besides, I’m worried. I don’t think we were the only ones affected.”

They were in the maze propper, and Naminé started marking the walls with her crayons as she sketched a map. It turned out she was really good at walking and drawing at the same time. Poppy led, keeping her keyblade out in case of an ambush.

“I’d like to get to know you, and know Amanda.” Naminé said. “It might help in getting her back, but mostly it’s just me being a little selfish. I want to understand you, maybe become your friend before I go.”

Poppy paused. There was some history between her and Amanda. It would be hard to talk about… but she couldn’t help but like Naminé. Now that she was here, and real, she just seemed like an earnest kid with a tragic past and a determination to do good.

“Ok, But first I need to tell you how I joined the D&D club, and explain role playing games better than ‘make believe’. It started shortly after I enrolled in college-”

<center>'''* * *'''</center>

Kent was a man who had trouble connecting with others. It seemed whether or not his social skills were functioning at any given point was up to a coin toss. He’d been the center of more than one conflict in the club, and he was ashamed of every one. He pretended to know what he was doing, since he was the oldest member and the effective president of the club, but he didn’t know jack shit.

So when he was dumped in a magical maze with a friend turned monster, with powers of a video game boss at his disposal, He took charge, and couldn’t figure out what to say to Mohamad. Maybe with someone else he could drop his facade, but Mohamad had it the worst out of all of them, If Kent cracked under the pressure what would that do to Mohamad?

Kent felt his hand being grabbed and looked down to see the little animated onesie monster looking up at him with that blank expressionless face of his.

“I’m sorry Mohamad I don’t know what you want,” Kent said, sighing.

They had tried a pen and paper to communicate, but Mohamad’s new limbs lacked hands, ending at floppy little points. They could play twenty questions, but that was about it.

The two of them continued on in the maze, keeping to the left wall. They turned a corner and the hall in front of them was lined with decorative suits of armor. Kent knew immediately that this was a trap. Those things would spring alive the moment they stepped passed. He might be able to take them with his laser crossbow, but Mohamad was a Dusk, the lowest level enemy in the Nobody faction.

“Come on, let's try and find another way, maybe there will be more puzzle rooms.” Kent said turning around. He felt his sleeve get tugged and turned around to see Mohamad pointing at something.

Kent squinted his eye(The eyepatch wasn’t for show anymore). One of the suits of armor had on a different helmet. It was gold with a brain like pattern on it’s top and a purple lense over one of the eyes.

“A helm of telepathy!” Kent exclaimed. “Mohamad, you could talk to me if we had that!”

Mohamad furiously shook his head up and down. He took a step forward before Kent put a hand out to stop him. He got down on one knee to look Mohamad in the… face. He couldn’t bring Mohamad into battle, if he died in the game he’d be left all alone in a demiplane somewhere for who knows how long.

“Mohamad, stand back.” Kent said “I’ll take care of this. You’re in no shape to fight.”

Mohamad literally deflated a bit at hearing that, but stayed still as Kent walked up towards the trapped hallway. He summoned his two laser crossbows in a flash of purple light and started firing on the armor, which came alive immediately.

One of the suits of armor swung it’s sword at Kent, who teleported back and upside down hanging from the invisible ceiling that kept them from scaling the walls. He combined his two crossbows into a laser sniper rifle and began picking off suits of armor, teleporting out of the way whenever one threw a spear his way. The last suit of armor finally fell to pieces and Kent teleported back to the ground, grinning wildly.

“Dude did you see that?” Kent said to Mohamad, who nodded enthusiastically “That was rad as hell!”

Kent walked over to the Helm of Telepathy and picked it up. He turned it around before putting it on with a shrug. He tried to project his thoughts or activate some kind of mental trigger. He tried thinking about the spell Detect Thoughts, hoping to activate it. Frustrated he pulled it off and nearly threw it against the ground before remembering-

“Ohhhhhh, right. You gotta atune magical items like this. Come on bud, let’s take a short rest while I meditate or whatever.” Kent said, taking a sleeping roll out of his bag of holding to act as a cushion against the hard stone floor.

<center>'''* * *'''</center>

Marty stared down the shadowy kobold, electricity crackling between his knives. He threw his left hand of knives at the kobold, who managed to dodge two and parry the other two with it’s club. The kobold attacked, Marty blocking it with a newly summoned set of knives.

The hit rippled through Marty’s body making him acutely aware of certain things about his altered body he tried his best to ignore. He stumbled for a second and the kobold got a solid hit on him, sending him sprawling against the floor. Zane finished off his Shadow kobold and Crushed the one marty was engaged with underfoot to get to him.

“This is the third time you’ve frozen up, are you sure everything is ok?” Zane said, offering a hand to Marty.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. This is something I can totally handle” Marty said, dusting <s>herself</s> himself off.

“Are you scared of fighting for real? You don’t have to fight, we can find a way through the more puzzly rooms and if we run into trouble I can take care of it.” Zane said.

Marty sighed and leaned against a wall folding his arms, then unfolding them because of where they ended up resting on his chest. He just needed to not think about it and he would be fine. If Greg really was some kind of super powered wizard he could just cast true polymorph on marty and things would go back to normal.

“That’s not it, I want to fight. I’m actually enjoying myself, but...” Marty trailed off.

“Ah,” Zane said, leaning on his sword. “I get it now. Hold on, I want to show you something.”

Zane unzipped his messenger bag and rooted around for something before producing his phone and something he kept his hand clenched over. He unlocked his phone and tapped around a bit before showing Marty a picture of a teenage girl smiling at the camera(obviously an imported picture from a digital camera).

“I don’t get it, who is she? Why did you...” Marty trailed off, eyes going wide.

The girl’s smile, the shape of her face, It was Zane! He opened his other hand to reveal a trans pride button. He’d been passing all this time. Marty supposed he never told anyone in the club. But why? Didn’t he trust them?

“Mind sitting down for a story?” Zane asked, dispelling his sword and taking a seat in the now empty stone room.

Marty slid down the wall until he was in a sitting position leaning against it. He didn’t know what to say. He’d known zane for three maybe four years. They’d played D&D together. In all that time he never made a female character…

“I was always a big kid. Taller than my peers. Used to be big into sports, Got onto the women’s wrestling team in high school. Hated makeup, loved wearing cargo pants, all that jazz. Gender Dysphoria hit me hard with puberty. I didn’t know what to make of it...” Zane explained

“Thought it was all part of growing up, that I needed to live with these feelings. Then I found roleplaying games. A friend invited me to a game of D&D and I played a paladin. I was a knight who championed justice and slayed the wicked. I got the title of Sir Zachary. Every time I heard the DM call me that, I felt almost giddy.

“I was able to act masculine without being judged for it. I realized I was trans. My parents were really supportive. Turns out my Dad was bi, so he and my mom just ''got it''. Everyone else didn’t understand, or hated me on principle, but them? They understood. Encouraged me, paid for me to transition. But it was so tiring.

“When I graduated I took a year off before heading to college to really try and figure stuff out, and I decided I Wouldn’t tell people. I was able to pass. There were a few hiccups in the paperwork, but the LGBT student advocacy board really helped smooth things out. I continued to go to classes, make friends, join the D&D club, all with none the wiser. I didn’t want to be bullied again. My parents told me to keep this button inside my backpack, as hidden as I wanted it to be, but to be ready to bring it out when I was ready.

“Not that they believed trans folk are supposed to let others know they’re trans, They just knew I’d be the kind of person who wouldn’t want to keep a secret like that forever. I want to be me, and I want to be proud of it. I was just too scared to tell you guys, I kept putting it off.”

The room fell silent as Zane’s story ended. Marty had heard some much worse stories of people coming out, being rejected by their family, or just having a family that didn’t understand. He understood why Zane had kept it a secret, and he would have been fine with it remaining a secret.

“Thanks. I don’t know what to say, I’m sure everyone else will support you though. Oh yeah and I support you.” Marty said.

“Thanks” Zane said, letting out a long sigh of relief “What I’m trying to get at is, I know what it feels like, having a body that isn’t yours, and how it feels having one that does. I know you marty, You’re strong. And whether this takes ten minutes or ten months for you to change back, I'll be there for you.”

“Do I get one of those pins for joining the club?” Marty joked.

“Don’t know bud, we’re in uncharted territory. My gut answer would be no since that isn’t the body you were born with, but we don’t all fit into neat little boxes.” Zane replied, taking the question seriously.

“Oh ok, Is there any way you could teach me how to deal with all this?” Marty asked, gesturing to himself.

“Greg’s adventuring kit has some bandages, we could bind your chest so it doesn’t feel like it gets in the way. Though we’d need to take them off in a couple of hours, There are a lot of health risks even with a well made binder.” Zane said.

“YES. GOD! PLEASE!” Marty said, relieved there was an option to at least get one of the many things wrong with his body under control.

<center>'''* * *'''</center>

Poppy flowed from one wall to the other to a pillar as she dodged the crystal laser turrets. She threw up barriers of ice when possible to give her a bit of cover, and cast reflect if a beam got too close. Naminé was at the other end of the room at a pedestal frantically solving a puzzle that should turn off the turrets.

Seeing Naminé struggle Poppy headed for the center of the room, where she could see all the turrets. She held her keyblade up in the air and yelled “STOPGA!”, causing a bunch of clock imagery to spawn around her, that slowed to a stop in half a second. There was a clock above each turret, counting down from 12 seconds. After that the spell would end. Poppy remembered that the spell shouldn’t last that long, unless it was the KH1 version and it was based on how high your MP was.

The seconds ticked down and just before Poppy initiated flowmotion, Naminé Shouted “GOT IT!” and the turrets returned to life only to power down. Poppy collapsed, keyblade disappearing in a flash of light. She had been at that for like ten minutes. The Stopga was just for her to catch her breath. She had a lot of stamina now, but It wasn’t infinite.

“Ok, I’m grabbing a Powerade, want anything?” Poppy said, reaching into her bag.

“Another iced tea? And one of those twinkie confections.” Naminé said.

They had cleared a significant portion of the maze, Naminé’s map spanned five pages. During that time Naminé had shown herself at being adept at solving puzzles. the latest one taking her ten minutes Probably indicated they were getting close.

“I’m scared.” Naminé said, almost too quiet to hear “I don’t have another person to go back to like I did with Kairi this time. When I leave Amanda, I think I might just die.”

Poppy just nodded, handing Naminé her snacks. She chugged the powerade before setting it down again and listening to what Naminé had to say,

“It’s Just, you don’t know where hearts go. There’s no kingdom hearts, no final world. People might just die and their heart just disappear. I want to try and figure out who I am. I want to say- say FUCK! And have it come naturally to me like it does Amanda. I want to try something besides drawing. Maybe I’d like the games you play, I could try gardening, baking, there’s so much I haven't done as my own person.” Naminé said.

“I’m sorry, there’s no good outcome here. It’s you or amanda, you can’t both have that body.” Poppy said, looking away.

“Unless we can...” Naminé said. “Sora’s Heart held Ventas’s, Roxas’s, and Xion’s all at the same time. Kairi held me in her heart. The rules of your world stop applying when it comes to the bodies and powers from mine.”

“You’re hoping for too much, the world doesn’t work like that!” Poppy yelled, “I’m probably not even getting Amanda back! The magic bullshit or whatever probably just erased her mind and left yours.”
Naminé frowned, but said nothing. Poppy started to cry, the reality of the situation really setting in. There was a very good chance that Naminé had effectively replaced Amanda entirely. There was a chance that marty would remain a girl forever, Mohamad would never talk again, Things don’t just return to the status quo in real life. Just because some freak accident turned people into their costumes doesn’t mean it can turn them back.

“Fuck that” Naminé said. “I’m going to save Amanda. Even if I have to break down my memories piece by piece to get to her, even if I have to destroy my heart. I don’t want it to be that way, but if it has to be I’ll give my life without a second thought.”

“Do you even have a ‘heart’?” Poppy asked “That's just a concept, Naminé. A heart is what pumps blood through your body. There’s no soul, no ‘heart’, just minds. Brains that can be damaged irreversibly, because at the end of the day they are just biological machines.”

“I do have a heart.” Naminé said, “I think it’s time to show you that.”

Before poppy could react Naminé was pressing a finger to her head and she started falling through the black. She fell for what felt like hours, but also only seconds. She righted herself as her feet touched down on a massive stain glass window, casting light into the darkness.

The scene in the stained glass depicted her, the real her, lying comfortably with her eyes closed in her favorite jeans and sweatshirt, on hand holding a set of purple dice. The other hand held a bundle of poppy flowers to her chest. Behind her was her college’s campus, the place she called home for the past two years. The faces of Kent, Marty, Mohamad, Greg, and amanda were in a circle her resting body curled around. The outside of the stained glass was ringed with symbols of twenty sided dice and Poppies, in the same purple color as the dice she was holding.

This was a dive to the heart. The tutorial level of nearly every kingdom hearts game. Was this meant to be Poppy’s ‘heart’? Was college and D&D the core of who she was? Just the shy girl that only hangs out with the nerdiest of nerds?

Before she could ponder further, panes of stained glass materialized and lit up in a path away from the scene Poppy was standing on. She sighed, and Started walking. Again it felt like ages and no time at all before she reached her destination. Another stained glass mural. Or rather, two stained glass murals mashed together, the jagged cracks of glass gleaming.

On one side was Naminé, taking a restful pose with her sketchpad, on a backdrop of white sketches of various locations, and an outer ring of white heart symbols. Amanda’s side held Several people Poppy recognized as Amanda’s other friends, as well as her face. The ring was lined with Peace symbols and constellations. A bit of Amanda’s face was visible down the split, and she was crying.

Naminé stood there, looking sadly at the scene. She said, “I didn’t want to look, in case I didn’t have a heart. Because I’m not real. The world I come from is a fiction. Just a bit of it, a small bit, was made real. Was I a part of that, or just my memories?”

“I’m sorry for snapping at you, I’m just so afraid of losing Amanda. She was my first friend when I went away to college.” Poppy said.

“Well you aren't. There’s damage done here, but I can fix it.” Naminé said. “It will take a while, and We’ll both be asleep for a long time. When she wakes up, I don’t know what will happen to me.”

“I have an idea, but we need to wake up.” Poppy said.

“Ok,” Naminé replied reluctantly, the world of stained glass fading away.

Poppy opened her eyes and shook away the sleepiness that had taken ahold of her. She checked her phone: 8:23PM. Good, she had only been out for a couple of minutes. Naminé got off the ground next to her and stood up. Poppy summoned her Keyblade.

“I don’t know if this will work, or how long it will take to work.” She said, switching her grip so she held the Keyblade by its shaft aka ‘the blade’. “Hold this and listen carefully,”

Naminé grabbed the handle of the Keyblade. Poppy took a breath.

“In your hand, take this key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking… its wielder you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love.

“Let your heart be your guiding Key. If you follow it, It shall lead you back to me. To find your distant way your heart’s chain of memories links us to that fated day. Though our memories may fade, we are certain to meet once you master this blade. ”

Naminé held the keyblade for a moment, shocked at what was being said, before Poppy gently took it back. She dispelled the keyblade and looked Naminé right in the eyes.

“That was the bequeathment,” Naminé said, “Riku told me about it. But that second part, that wasn’t in the speech.”

“No, but it felt right to say” Poppy said. “I think it might have been magic, how else would I have been able to come up with those rhymes on the spot?”

“So what does this mean?” Naminé asked.

“Wherever you end up after restoring Amanda’s memories, use your keyblade to find your way back. ” Poppy said. “It sounds like a lot of anime BS, but you were right, powers from your world do exist in this one now, and the keyblade is one of them.”

Poppy stared at her hand. What were the implications of that? Sure she could open any lock, any door, but that’s hardly earthshaking. If she was a career thief that might be handy. The other signature power of the Keyblades is that of affecting ‘hearts’ what that actually entails is often whatever the plot demands. ‘No ocean can contain you then’... Keyblades don’t just unlock doors, the open doors, door''ways''. In the sectioned off worlds in the Kingdom Hearts universe a keyblade wielder can just point at the sky and open a portal anywhere and can travel to it with their keyblade as a magic hoverboard.

So If Poppy got a spacesuit she could go anywhere in the universe! Holy Shit! She could travel the world under magical powers, and do… anything. She had that power. Then again Greg had the power to make an entire maze out of nothing. How many kids would be dressed up as more powerful heroes and villains? Would thanos be able to snap his fingers and rewrite the world?

It was a lot to think about. Sora had defeated universe ending monsters, and Xion was at least as capable with the keyblade. So would poppy be able to beat Thanos? That thought snapped Poppy back to reality like a rubber band. She was having what if battles pitting herself against superheroes. This train of thought was officially decommissioned.

“Come on, we’re close” Poppy said, eyeing the massive pillar of light in front of them.

<center>'''* * *'''</center>

''‘This is great, not so great that you learned about my childhood fear of chicken nuggets, but still I can be heard! Being a dusk is so weird. I am literally empty. I can put my hand in my mouth and root around my legs! I’m my own bag! Haha. I also don’t get tired anymore, and can basically swim through the air. And I’m semi-elastic. I can dodge out of the way of things by just stretching my body! I wonder If I need to be dry cleaned or if a washing machine is good eno-’''

“Mohamad SHUT THE HELL UP!” Kent roared. At first he’d been ok to let Mohamad talk, he had his voice taken from him after all, but It had been… ten minutes since he got the helmet working and Mohamad had only paused to think about a puzzle for maybe thirty seconds tops. He just kept talking.

''‘Oh sorry, Guess it’s just nerves. I’m a sock person now, and that’s terrifying. Along with the implications that everyone on earth at dusk tonight is going to turn into whatever costume they’re wearing.’''

“I’m not doing that well myself. I can keep going, but I’m… worried.” Kent said, sighing.

''‘How’s your eye doing?’'' Mohamad asked.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore, and somehow I still have depth perception” Kent said, holding a hand up to the eyepatch on his face, only for the helmet to get in the way. “Let’s just keep moving, I want this nightmare to end.”

''‘What’s so bad about it for you? I’m the one that was turned into a monster.’'' Mohamad said, shrugging.

“My parents. My mom’s a zombie and my dad’s head isn’t attached to his body. I’m not sure either of them are even still ‘alive’ at this point.” Kent said “Nothing is ever going to be the same. It reminds me of when I saw the twin towers fall on the news. We went on a trip to New York just a few months earlier. My mom was in the other room cooking and listening to her music. I watched it all unfold, the next time we went on a trip, I couldn’t help but notice airport security.

“Now… I don’t know what happens. Tomorrow we’re going to wake up in a world ravaged by supervillains, monsters, and nightmares. Maybe there will be enough heros out there to even things out, but a lot of people are going to die tonight. And we’re going to have to live in that world, scarred by bodies we didn’t ask for.”

Mohamad was silent for once. Kent took the opportunity to enjoy the quiet. How easy would it be for him to shoot down a plane with his magic sniper rifle? A weapon that couldn’t be taken away from him because it was bullshit magic. Would people be afraid of what he is?

''‘When I moved here I was maybe 6 years old. Halloween was a foreign concept to me. But I grew to love it so much. I’m worried about a lot, terrified of a million things, but I can’t stop thinking ‘Is this the last Halloween?’. I know it’s stupid in the face of all this tragedy but the one thing that made me feel at home in the US was dressing up and going around trick-or-treating. I’d hate for future kids to miss out on that.’'' Mohamad said.

And with that they walked in silence for a while. They turned a corner and saw as the path forward warped around a giant Minotaur. It was decked out in gold and jewels, It’s horns massive golden ornaments with intricately carved patterns.

As soon as Kent locked eyes with it, the world turned into a kaleidoscope. It looked just like the mirror world in Doctor Strange, which was no doubt where Greg got the idea. Kent wasted no time and began preparing the Minotaur with laser arrows.

But just before an arrow would hit, the world shifted around the monster, blocking his shots. Mohamad flew through the air, flowing around the mishmashed geometry like he was part of the design. He curled around a hoof of the Minotaur and began slashing at it’s back with his arms.

“Mohamad! Get back! You’re not strong enough to fight that thing!” Kent yelled.

Kent tried to rush in, but he couldn’t navigate the landscape. His arrows though, they could. Kent put on a laser lightshow, filling the air with purple darts of light that swam around and about in a confusing manner.

The Minotaur started shifting the world as it attempted to grab Mohamad. Half ot the barrage of arrows hit a wall or a bit of floor before it could reach the Monster. Kent clenched his hand and the arrows started turning and whizzing through the air around the broken world.

The Minotaur Grabbed onto Mohamad and slammed him onto the ground.

“IDIOT! I TOLD YOU NOT TO FIGHT!” Kent screamed. “PLEASE JUST GET OUT OF THERE!”

''‘I know, I just wanted to help. For once I saw something I could do that you couldn’t.’'' Mohamad said. ''‘This whole time I’ve been relying on you for everything. I’m powerless… Sorry.’''

Kent desperately clambered over the various bits of floor and wall clipping into each other, trying to reach Mohamad as his Arrows chipped away at the monster’s health too slowly. The Minotaur Gripped Mohamad’s limp body with both hands and ripped him apart in a flash of light.

Kent dropped his crossbows and let out a scream. Even though he knew Greg promised not to kill them, even though this was all some twisted prank, Kent couldn’t forgive Greg for what he just did. This wasn’t a game, and he would pay…

<center>'''* * *'''</center>

“Zane! Let’s play Duck hunt!” Marty yelled over the din of battle.

Zane grinned and swung his sword across the ground, causing the harpies resting there to take to the sky to avoid getting hit. Then as soon as they cleared the tops of the crumbling pillars of this room, Marty would riddle them with knives faster than humanly possible.

Marty was doing great. His chest felt tight, but it was a small price to pay for how good it felt to move around. He’d only frozen once, and that’s when a goblin landed a hit below the belt. Things were really shaping up, the pillar of light now dominating the sky. They were close.

The last harpy fell, exploding into a puff of black smoke and leaving a few coins and a gem behind. Marty scooped up the valuables and put them in his bag. After a quick search of the room, they continued on.

Things were quiet until Marty noticed a crayon marking on the corner of an intersection. Remembering the crayons amanda had used, the two of them quickly concluded that Amanda must have been through here.

“I feel like an idiot for not marking our path.” Zane said. “I just have a really good sense of direction, I didn’t even think to do it. Maybe we all could have met up by now if I had...”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it big guy,” Marty said, patting Zane on the back “I didn’t think of it either, and It would have been pretty easy to score the walls with my knives.”

“Yeah, guess I’m just stressed.” Zane grunted.

“I think only ''Fucking'' Greg isn’t stressed right now.” Marty said. “At least we’re almost done. If nothing else, that bastard is a man of his word.”

“Maybe...” Zane said.

“You ok dude?” Marty asked.

Zane just grunted and quickened his pace. Marty sighed, knowing he shouldn’t prod too much. He easily caught up with his big friend, being a character associated with electricity, Marty could move really fast. It was almost annoying how slow he had to go for Zane to keep up.

They entered a room with a sealed exit. There were two pedistles in the room, each with a hand shaped indent on them and a plaque. The both plaques read:

''‘Two lies, two truths, two keys. Place your hand and say your lie and your truth. If both of you believe each others lies as well as your truths, the door will open.’''

“Great. Guess we’re doing two truths and a lie, huh?” Marty said. “Shouldn’t be too hard. Tell me when you’re ready.”

“I’m ready.” Zane said.

They both placed their hands on the pedestals. Marty went first. He said, “I have never kissed anyone”

“I feel guilty that I like this body while you’re suffering.” Zane said.

“I have a crush on someone from our group.”

“I feel better about myself now that I’ve told you I’m trans”

The pedistles lit up and the stone door rubbled open. Marty walked over to zane, concern on his face. His subject matter for the puzzle was pretty bleak.

“Which was the lie?” Marty asked.
“The first one. I’m not too gung ho about this body. It might seem like peak male performance, but I’m like eight feet tall and wide as a truck!” Zane said, smiling.

“I don’t believe you.” Marty said. Immediately the doors slammed shut and the room was bathed in a red light. “FUCK! Of course Greg would do something like this. You need to keep believing the lie until you get out of the room.”

“Or maybe it’s believing in general?” Zane suggested, “After all, I didn’t lie.”

“Fuck that! Either you’re feeling bad about who you are, or you’re feeling bad you got a better deal than me with this halloween magic bullshit!” Marty yelled.

Golems disguised as bits of the brick wall broke out and went on the offensive. The two black cloaked companions began to fight back. Zane crushed a golem under his massive sword while Marty tried to hit their glowing weak points(''really'' Greg?).

“I feel bad about myself!” Zane yelled back swinging his sword. “You now know I’m trans, and you’ve been treating me different in little ways and I hate it!”

“Bullshit!” Marty said, a knife landing square in a glowing gem, exploding the brick golem in a shower of mortar. “You told me you were afraid of what might happen when you told us, but you were also committed to telling us. We support you Zane, Always have. If a few small things about the way I treat you change that’s not going to make you hate yourself. None of us hate you, or would ever hate you for being trans! I know you know that!”

“FINE!” Zane nearly screamed, making the golems pause. “I love your support! It means the world to me! Which hurts more since that now that I’ve gotten what I’ve always wanted, maybe a tad too big, and a face I’d rather have some softer features on, and perhaps le-”

“DUDE! JUST TELL ME!” Marty shouted back, over the cacophony of metal on brick as they battled the golems.

“You have to suffer the way I suffered, while I finally get to feel like myself for once in my life! I don’t want the price of my happiness being yours!” Zane said, crying. With a thud he smashed his sword against a golems side, crushing it and sending it flying at three others.

“It’s not! I’ll get that Bastard Greg. to cast True Polymorph on me and things will be ok again!” Marty said, nailing the final golems as they were pinned under their fallen comrade.

“What if that doesn’t work? What if you have to live every pain I ever had, while I get a free pass?” Zane asked, falling to his knees. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

“It’s not that bad. Besides the plumbing, this body is actually really cool. I always dug Larxine’s voice actor. Maybe it’s because I am/was cis, but I might be ok with this after some time to adjust.” Marty said, putting a hand on Zane’s shoulder.

“You don’t know, you haven't been through it yet. You have so much pain ahead of you.” Zane said.

“No I don’t.” Marty said, moving around the big guy to get in his face. “I have something you didn’t when you were going through hard times. I have YOU! Someone who’s already been there. It might get bad, but that’s not your fault, and I get someone to show me how to deal.”

Zane grabbed Marty into a hug, and despite how uncomfortable it felt given his current body, Marty hugged back, determined to comfort his friend. He’d be ok, they both would. Even if Marty never got back his original body, he could learn to live with this.

After a quick snack break and some awkward conversation the two of them were on the move again. They met a minotaur decked out in blood red gear, it’s horns cut and capped with rusted iron blades.

It warped the maze around it so they were floating on cubes, some big and some small, each side seeming to have it’s own gravity. It pulled whips of of it’s belt, one for each hand, and started whipping at them, space distorting to lengthen the whips across the distance between them.

“Cover me! If I get in close those Whips won’t do it any good against my sword!” Zane yelled out.

Marty nodded, running forward at lightning speed, faster and faster until it seemed like there were two of her, then four, then eight. These magic afterimages each went separate ways, needling the minotaur as they went.

With the monster distracted by having to whip the knives out of the air to defend itself, Zane closed in on it, using his sword to send cubes flying, clearing a path as he went. As he approached the Minotaur, Zane pulled his sword back, pointing the tip at the unarmored stomach of the beast.

With a wet ''squelch'', Zane stabbed his sword into the minotaur. He let go and jumped back, yelling “LIGHTNING ROD!”

Marty and his clones smiled, their knives glowing impossibly bright before eight bolts of lightning hit the sword embedded in the belly of the beast. The labyrinth snapped back into shape as their foe fell over, burnt to a crisp.

The minotaur’s nose ring was the only thing unharmed by the lightning, and as it’s owner turned to ash, the ring hovered in place. Marty stepped forward to look at it, and saw that the inside of the ring was like a window, showing a large circular pool of glowing water, and a massive pillar of light emanating from the center of the room. The moment he touched it the ring grew large enough to walk through. They had made it.

<center>'''* * *'''</center>

“Naminé, Light ‘em up!” Poppy yelled.

The oil flask She had gotten from the lantern puzzle 2 rooms back was shattered on a Minotaur in blue robes. It moved around by creating massive gusts of wind that the maze around them warped to avoid.

It was difficult landing a solid hit on the monster, as it was inclined to move anytime Poppy had gotten close to it. Magic worked ok, but the thing had a lot of health. Poppy ended up using the Kingdom Hearts spell magnet, which pulled enemies into a single spot, to trap the monster long enough to throw a flask of oil at it.

Naminé had a wand of FireBall.

The Minotaur caught flame instantly, pushed out of the Magnet spell by the force of the fire ball. It kept trying to move around using the wind, but it only acted to fan the flames. With it slowed down considerably Poppy believed she could finish it off.

“Holy!” Poppy yelled pointing her keyblade at the sky.

A brilliant white light shone from the giant key, as pillars of light erupted from underneath the Minotaur, juggling it in the air as more pillars generated beneath it. Finally, Three pillars of light centered on the Minotaur, nearly disintegrating under the assault of light and fire.

Once the spell ended the corpse hit the floor and scattered into ash. All except for the Minotaur’s nose ring, which grew until it revealed itself to be a portal to the pillar of light that served as the exit for this labyrinth.

“You did it!” Naminé said, literally jumping with joy.

“We did it.” Poppy corrected. “How many charges do you have left?”

“Two on the FireBall wand, nine on the Eldritch Blast, five on the Ray of Frost, and still only one on the Blight. I used up the cure wounds wand, sorry.” Naminé replied.

“It’s fine, I’ve got Curaga” Poppy said, shrugging. “Are you ready? We’re heading into final boss territory. This is where we’re most likely to ‘die’. I don’t know what purgatory Greg would put us in, but I don’t think it’d be good for Amanda’s recovery.”

Naminé hesitated. Poppy could only imagine what was going through her head. Naminé was thrust into a world she didn’t understand, told she was fictional, and that her will was superimposed onto someone else’s. That couldn’t be a good experience. Poppy hoped that anime bullshit would save Naminé as her own person in the end, especially now that she was bequeathed a keyblade.

“If I don’t go, then I don’t know when I would be able to leave.” Naminé said. “I need to take this chance. Please protect me, and Amanda, in this coming battle.”

“Alright. Be ready for anything” Poppy said, stepping up to the portal, keyblade raised.

Poppy cautiously put her foot down into the pool of water, only for it to come up to her ankles. The glowing liquid seemed save enough, probably just an aesthetic choice. Poppy looked around and besides the water and the Pillar of light, there were only massive stone walls encircling the area.

Poppy spotted another golden ring appear and enlarge, and Through it stepped Zane and Marty. Poppy let out a sigh of relief at seeing the two of them ok. She walked over, Naminé nervously following behind her.

“Marty! Zane! I’m so glad you’re ok!” Poppy said, a genuine smile on her face.

“We found your route markings,” Marty said. “It didn’t matter since we were so close to the center anyway, but that was a smart move, Amanda! We sure as hell didn’t think of it. I’m glad you two were able to deal. Being a girl hasn’t been… great for me.”

“Uh about Amanda...” Poppy began. “You know how you can suddenly fight with all these neat abilities and it feels like second nature? Uh, turns out the memories can be more intense. I lapsed into thinking I was Xion once, and Amanda… Well she kind of got overwritten with Naminé’s mind.”

“She... WHAT!?” Zane yelled, nearly shaking.

“Don’t worry, Naminé is a witch of memories, remember?” Poppy said, trying to calm Zane, “Naminé Thinks she can fix the damage to Amanda’s memories and restore her. She just needs someplace she can rest undisturbed and an unknown amount of time.”

“I’m sorry your friend is trapped inside me” Naminé added sheepishly. “I will do everything in my power to free her.”
“Objectively not the weirdest thing to happen today” Marty sighed, rubbing his temples. “Alright I guess we’ll be fighting the final boss together?”

''“Aww,”'' A voice echoed through the room, ''“Could you guys at least act surprised when the boss comes out?”''

“Greg get out here right now so I can beat the shit out of you for hurting my friends” Marty said softly.

''“Oh, now that you’ve got powers you want to physically assault me?!”'' greg asked ''“Too bad. Beat my water dragon and you get to go home. Since Y’all are all here together that means you all get a cloak of windwalking! If you survive… Good luck!”''

Before anyone could offer a retort, The pillar of light was surrounded by a torrent of water, and upside down waterfall possessing such force that Poppy had no doubt it would prevent anyone from exiting until it was dealt with.

A shadow of a massive beast passed beneath them. How it was beneath them when they were standing in ankle deep water? Who knows, probably ‘magic’. Everyone adopted combat stances, with Poppy keeping a close eye on Naminé.

“I can fight really well, But Naminé doesn’t have any combat powers. We got some wands she can use, but we only have so many charges” Poppy said to Marty and Zane. “I’ll try to cover her, but please if you see her in trouble, help her.”

“Roger.” Zane said, nodding.

“I’m at a disadvantage here!” Marty said, “I can only use my knives, Electric attacks are going to be no good in this water.”

“Then Zane and I will push the offensive, You stay back with Naminé and throw knives” Poppy said.

“Sounds like a plan!” Marty said.

A second later a massive dragon with sapphire blue scales breached the water. It’s massive clawed feet were webbed, and spines ran down the back of it’s spine, the tail ending in a fin. The beast roared, and geysers erupted all around the battlefield.

Zane wasted no time, running forward with his sword right at the Dragon. Poppy wasn’t far behind. Marty and Naminé were repositioning to get a better angle on the dragon. Poppy let off a Blizzaga, freezing the dragon’s front legs to the bottom of the pool. Zane took advantage by striking at it’s knees, making it cry out in pain and rage.
A few knives started peppering the side of the dragon, followed by an Eldritch Blast. Poppy double jumped up to the Dragon’s head to Attack it with the keyblade, trying to keep it’s attention on Her and Zane.

After a few more hits the Dragon turned into water and flowed back into the pool. Oh. Poppy figured out the gimmick. The dragon was made out of water and could disappear and reappear anywhere. Magical weapons(AKA all of their weapons) could damage it, but mundane means probably couldn’t make any lasting damage.

“How much HP could this thing have?” Zane asked.

“Hard to know. We’re still on the first phase, and if Greg follows tradition, the boss will mix up it’s attacks for the second, that should tell us when we’ve done about a third, unless we can find some weakness.” Poppy replied.

Again the beast appeared, this time targeting Marty and Naminé. Before anyone could react, one of the walls exploded, a gold clad minotaur launched clean across the room into the waterfall, which launched it up into the air. A few seconds later it splashed down and started turning to ash, nose ring rapidly spinning in place as if unsure what it should be doing.

Walking calmly through the ruble was Kent, an aura of darkness surrounding him and he lifted a black keyblade towards the Dragon. Before someone could even say so much as a ‘what the fuck?!’, Kent had already sped past the dragon, cutting it in two as he passed.It tried to reform, but Kent waved his keyblade over the water and froze the entire pool.

“Kent! Are you ok? Where’s Mohamad?” Marty shouted, trying to pull his feet out of the ice.

“He’s gone. Alone in some place trapped in an alien body.” Kent said, voice lacking emotion “Greg I beat your stupid maze, come out here RIGHT NOW!”

Greg appeared in a flash of light, smiling. He had changed into some more casual clothes, but they all had little touches of wizarding, like the hoodie being star patterned, and his pants having a fancy cut to them.

“Congratulations! And to the victor, the spoi-” Greg was cut off when Kent grabbed his throat and lifted him off his feet. He flailed for a half second before teleporting away.

“COWARD!” Kent roared at the sky. “BRING BACK Mohamad THIS INSTANT!”

''“Jeez man. Let’s see, I rolled one D hundred hours for him to stay in the demi-plane. Got a 14, He’ll be out then.”'' Greg’s disembodied voice replied.

“HE’S SUFFERING!” Kent yelled, “HIS BODY IS A HOLLOW HUSK, AN ALIEN FORM THAT TERRIFIES HIM! ALL OF US HAVE HAD BODIES IMPOSED ON US THAT WE DIDN’T ASK FOR, WE’RE IN THE MIDST OF A TRAGEDY AND YOU WANTED US TO PLAY A GAME!”

“I got turned into a girl!” Marty said, “It’s scary and I hate it and I don’t know what I’d do without Zane’s help.”

“Your friend lost her memories to me” Naminé said, “You thought she was lying to you, playing dumb. I don’t know if she’s awake somewhere deep inside me, suffering, but the longer we delay her treatment the less chance I have of restoring her.”

“Greg please, just let Mohamad go and let us leave.” Poppy said, “I know I never gave your games a chance, I was too shy to even look over what you had made after the others dismissed it. But that doesn’t mean you get to just strong arm us into playing something. Nobody enjoys being forced to play a game.”

''“Shut up!”'' Greg yelled ''“Even if you hate it, I need to show you what I can do. I need you to know I’m not just ‘Crazy Greg’. I’m not just the guy who fucks up. I can make interesting and fun things if you could only just see! This was my one chance to really impress you.”''

“Well it didn’t fuckng work” Kent growled “You did fuck up, you made everything worse. Half of us are traumatized by our own bodies and you dump us here where we have to fight for our lives?! Even if the death isn’t real, the pain is. And being alone right now, being trapped? That’s the most terrifying thing of all.”

''“Whatever, you won. You can leave now. Mohamad knew the risks a-”''

“DO YOU EVEN REALIZE HOW MUCH YOU’VE HURT US!?” Kent yelled.

''“It’s not that bad, y-”''

“YES IT IS!” Kent yelled “I LOST AN EYE, Mohamad LOST HIS HUMANITY, MARTY IS A GIRL, AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO AMANDA! Instead of consoling us, instead of helping us deal with this trauma, you decided to use it as leverage to make us do play your shitty game!”

''“But you hurt me.”'' Greg said sadly, ''“Shamed me, laughed at me. Did you ever apologize? Help me deal with my issues? work on my homebrew instead of throwing it out? No, you just kept tossing me aside. This is karma, and it’s a bitch.”''

“I’LL KILL YOU!” Kent yelled, running forward.

He struck out a hand and a portal of darkness formed in front of him. Poppy hesitated, looking back at the group. She had never seen kent this mad. They had all neglected Greg, and maybe were in some ways responsible for him acting this way. But things couldn’t escalate, Poppy wasn’t sure if Kent would actually try to kill Greg, but he needed to be stopped.

“Take care of Amanda, I’ll be back” Poppy said, before diving into the darkness after kent.

Poppy exited the black smokey substance into a map room. It held a scale model of the labyrinth and notes scattered about. The walls were obscured by a barrier of darkness, and as soon as Poppy was through the portal closed behind her.

Kent and Greg were fighting. Every spell Greg threw at kent, he teleported away or deflected. When Greg stopped time, Kent was able to break out; When he put up a prismatic wall, Kent shattered it in a single blow; when he tried to summon Kent’s greatest fear he batted away the illusion as if it didn’t even make him pause.

Ninth level spells were only stalling Kent. Poppy needed to figure out a plan. But what could she do? She needed to stop both of them, otherwise one would tear apart the other. But how? What could she do? Nothing Xion was capable of would be able to stop those two.

But maybe there was something Poppy could do…

Summoning up as much speed as she could muster, Poppy ran between her two enraged friends and put her hands out to either side, one facing each of them. Their attacks nearly hit her, but were redirected just in time.

“Stop this! You’ve both hurt each other, We’re all guilty of hurting Greg; and Greg, you’re guilty of hurting us. That doesn’t mean we should punish each other! That doesn’t mean we should fight!” Poppy said.

“Get out of th-” Kent began

“NO!” Poppy yelled, cutting off Kent “I will throw myself in front of your attacks as many times as it takes. Just listen to me!

“I always let other people take the lead, I was always scared to make decisions and speak my mind. That led to me ignoring Greg because it was the easy option. But I knew, I knew Greg had issues, things we should have tried working out. Something was bound to happen eventually even if it wasn’t as earth shattering as this!

“Greg, I’m sorry, but you’ve done nothing but take out your anger on us, and treated us like playthings since you got transformed. You’ve become the bully we were to you, but worse. Is that what you really want? To hurt people to feel better about yourself? You can still make things right. Both of you can.”

Silence hung in the air for a moment before Kent spoke up.

“That’s a nice speech and all, but what Greg did was unforgivable.” Kent said.

“Get your head out of your ass, kent!” Poppy retorted “It’s only unforgivable because you’ve convinced yourself not to forgive him. Just like Gregg became a bully to get back at us, you’re just taking out your anger back at Greg! Don’t you see!? You both just keep making things worse!

“I care about you and I know you care about me, and each other, but you’re so blinded by your rage you’ll make up any excuse to keep causing pain! If you both just stop, just drop it, we can all go home and see our families, and figure out what to do about what we’ve turned into.”

Greg lowered his staff, and then just dropped it. He looked… defeated. Poppy could only imagine what he must be thinking right now, but whatever it was, She had gotten through to him. He’d finally realized what he had done. He snapped his fingers and Mohamad appeared in a puff of smoke looking around confused. Then Greg just sat down on the floor cradling his knees.

Kent looked like he still wanted to kill Greg, but a combination of Mohamad being there, Greg losing the will to fight, and Poppy standing between them stopped him. Enraged, Kent started bashing the model labyrinth to bits. Mohamad walked over to hug him, and then Kent broke down crying.

Poppy walked over to Greg and sat down beside him. She said, “I really am sorry for ignoring you all this time. I just… I was scared, scared of so many things. Of getting into arguments, of making someone think less of me, of being hurt.”

“I’m sorry for how I’ve acted. I just… Don’t know when I’ve gone too far. It never seems like it to me, so I blamed you guys.” Greg said. “I really did turn out to be the bad guy.”

“But you don’t have to be.” Poppy said, getting up and offering a hand. Greg took it.

<center>'''* * *'''</center>
Everyone met up back in Kent’s back yard. It was about one in the morning at that point, and people were exhausted. Kent’s parents were relieved to see him, once he made it clear he was himself.

His mom was a zombie, but with all her open wounds now bandaged up, and her green skin cleaned up as best she could manage. His dad had a head that wasn’t attached to his neck, which while weird, only presented some minor problems in the grand scheme of things.

Apparently things calmed down fairly quickly in the Neighborhood. People stepped up to be heroes with their powers. Emergency response, while overwhelmed, was able to get a handle on things once most powered threats were taken care of.

The D&D club minus Kent told Kent’s Parents they where going home. In reality they were figuring out how to handle things on their own. Greg explained that true polymorph had fizzled when he tried casting it on himself. It seemed like whatever had changed them was more powerful than any power it gave.

Marty was disappointed, but understood. Zane took that time to reveal to the group he was trans and that he would be helping marty cope, which while a shock to some of the club members, was a relief to all of them.

Mohamad didn’t need sleep, which was worrying. Greg promised to alter the Helm of Telepathy to fit Mohamad’s weird monster head as soon as he got some sleep, and Mohamad was ok with that. Kent decided to stay with Mohamad until morning came around to keep him company. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d pulled an all nighter.

Naminé began working on amanda’s memories in a Demiplane of Greg’s. The group had decided it would be too time consuming trying to explain things to Amanda’s family, and Poppy would call to let them know that She was alright and sleeping over at her place.

With that everyone went their separate ways, Greg keeping his phone to be on call should they need his magic sometime in the night. Poppy decided to sleep in the same demiplane as Amanda, After all she lived in a dorm.

The sun eventually rose and that terrible night was over.

<center>'''* * *'''</center>

Dear Naminé,

A lot’s happened in the past few weeks. Haven't seen you pop up yet, so I’m going to write you a letter. A lot has changed so let me get you up to speed.

When morning rolled around the changes reverted somewhat. We all still had our powers for the most part, with greg losing the most and Kent losing his super powered darkness mode or whatever.

I got my face back, but still had Xion’s body type and hair. My keyblade changed with the help of the d20 from my first dice set. I call it Fortunes flower, and it looks like the kingdom key except the base is rusted iron and vines are growing from it to form the blade, with the tip exploding in flowers surrounding a large twenty sided die. I’ve been helping keep the peace whenever someone tries to use their powers for evil, and since my Keyblade only hurts people as much as I want them hurt, I do a great job at it.

Amanda ended up looking a lot like you, just grown to Amanda’s Actual age. She woke back up after three days with no memory of anything after the party. She’s been fairly melancholy. After hearing what happened to you, She feels a bit guilty, but is getting her life back on track fairly easily.

Zane’s face turned mostly back, but he kept the hair and his features stayed very masculine. He was also still seven feet tall, and he’s been pretty happy with how that turned out. He’s started wearing his trans pride pin on his bag and has gotten involved in LGBT+ activism on campus. He’s received a fair share of hate, but he says it’s worth it for the work he’s doing.

Marty turned back into the body they had previously, once again keeping the hair. Oh! Marty had put a lot of thought into gender since then and decided They’re going by They/Them for now while they figure out who they want to be, after all there were things about being Larxene he liked.

They’ve grown pretty close to Zane, and have been working with them on LGBT+ activism. They admitted having a crush on me and asked me out, but I turned them down. It made me realize I just don’t think of people in that way. Marty was a bit sad, but They got over it pretty quickly and we’ve been great friends.

Kent’s eye didn’t come back, but his hair lost the grey, though his eye is still yellow. Other than that he’s mostly his same old self. He stopped using the black keyblade, and decided to follow Amanda on being a pacifist. After some time to think about things He realized if he resorted to violence he would regret it.

Mohamad Changed back halfway to human. He has a face, but is bald and still has the zipper mouth. He has a voice too, thank god. His skin ias a silvery white and his limbs slender and flowing, sometimes ignoring his joints in favor of just bending to where he wants to move them. It’s unsettling, but he seems happy enough.

That night didn’t put a hamper on his love for costumes, and he began building A gundam cosplay shortly after he got back. He was a little sad his Dusk Puppet was gone, but Decided it was for the best, since he was still pretty scarred from the events of being a Dusk.

Greg took a Hiatus from the D&D club and began therapy to address his issues. The club paid for his first couple of sessions before his healthcare caught up. Turns out he was autistic his whole life and never knew it. He plans on returning once he figures out how to relate to people better, and promises to write an epic campaign with my help. I’ve never been one for DMing, but I do enjoy writing, and I know when to tell Greg one his ideas is a little much.
Things aren't perfect here, the world is going through a massive paradigm shift, with powers turning entire industries on their head. We may have even solved world hunger! But at the same time there are riots and revolutions all around. People are using powers to try and get what they couldn’t before and it’s a bit of a mess.

There’s also been a lot of hate directed towards us ‘changed’, even the poor children that turned back completely. It’s been hard to deal with, but we can deal with it.

I can’t wait to see you again. Maybe some of your optimism rubbed off on me, but I’m sure we’ll see each other again. I hope you’ll come and play D&D with us when you do. I think you’d make a great bard.

Thinking of you, Wherever you are,
Poppy Satou

User:Dediles

2019-09-20T00:23:31Z

Dediles: Added a link to my story 'The Thanos Decision'

User:Dediles/The Thanos Decision

2019-09-20T00:08:10Z

Dediles: Created page with "Category:Story What would you do if you got infinite power? That’s the question I found myself asking. I was about to leave my house, a final check on my costume when it..."

[[Category:Story]]
What would you do if you got infinite power? That’s the question I found myself asking. I was about to leave my house, a final check on my costume when it happened. Instead of just having a poorly constructed Thanos costume, I was Thanos.

I was still me, just bigger. And also possessing the infinity gauntlet. I knew using it meant that I’d be injured. I could use it two times at least before it might kill me, as Thanos had done. I knew that I could change anything, but not get crazy specific. It’s not like I could wish for world peace.

So what could I fundamentally change about the world to do the most good? I sat down on my couch, instantly breaking it, and tried to think about it. Ending world hunger was a big one, I could just make a plant appear across the globe that would be super nutritious and live in anything, but only able to be regrown through clippings so it wouldn’t spread as an invasive species. That sounded like a solid plan.

Then I heard an explosion outside. I peeked out the window and Iron man just blew up a car as black panther did battle with a werewolf down the street. There were a fair few ghosts that were panicking and floating around aimlessly. It wasn’t just me. This was happening to everyone! Ok scratch world hunger as the first thing on my list. First thing now was making sure this didn’t get out of hand.

<center>* * *</center>

“I hesitated for too long, I thought about what it would mean to move away from everything I’d ever known, but It was the right thing to do. I got the chance again, years later. I didn’t hesitate a second time, I need to be good.” I told my therapist

“Why do you feel like you need to be good?” My therapist asked.

“I’ve seen the world at its worst, and I didn’t do anything to help.”

<center>* * *</center>

I went to my computer(my phone had vanished from my pants) and looked up online what was going down. Apparently Russia had it happen first, no wait it there were reports from japan. Looking through the timestamps, careful not to break the mouse with my giant hands, I figured out this thing happened once the sun went down. On Halloween. Oh geez this was bad.

As time ticked on, I wondered how the best way to handle this would be. I don’t know what caused it, and without that information I couldn’t do anything about it, but the change seemed stable now. I was like 90% sure I could change back the people already affected. I’d have to wait until the night was over then.

I glanced at the stones on my gauntlet and sighed, thinking about how much that prop cost. Would I get it back? It made a great display piece. It was then when I had my second sobering realization of the night. I wasn’t the only one with one of these. Endgame had come out earlier this year, which meant a lot of people going as Thanos for Halloween. A lot of people with infinite power.

At 5:32pm GMT+0,Without a second thought I snapped my fingers. If you could use the stones to destroy the stones, then you could use the stones to destroy other stones. I went further. Anything even resembled infinite power would get nerfed to hell and back.

Pain coursed through my body as I rewrote the laws of reality: no one person could have such power as I. Across the globe infinity stones lost their glow, genies wishes became a lot more limited, the D&D spell wish ceased to function, and all things OP were nerfed to be brought into a power curve that only hit demigod and not actual god.

I blacked out for a second. The world was safe. I still had at least one use of the stones left. I knew my rule would work going forward, from the brief time I felt the ability to mold reality. But it couldn’t stop this, couldn't change it. I could only add additional rules to what was already happening.

I took a moment to think, to collect myself. This whole thing was insane. Pure chaos. How was I even holding it together? I wasn’t out there, I was huddled in my flat, scared and trying to help. Maybe all the things I could think of doing with my power kept me from going insane by the world shattering event happening outside my windows.

For hours I Think in circles about the best way to handle this would be. How could I make a rule that would work with this thing, and make it so the world doesn’t crumble!? Things would keep getting worse if I didn’t make a decision. At 7:32pm GMT+0, I did.

The second rule: If Sunlight hits your timezone and it's november 1st, Turn back to normal.

This one did not go over well. As I snapped I felt the fabric of reality give to my demands, but push back. I couldn’t finish it completely. I pushed and pushed, but only managed to get it halfway done, I think. I had no idea what would happen, and the internet was currently on fire. But at least whatever I did would still hit people that were in like, GMT +12.

<center>* * *</center>

“Would you be able to sacrifice yourself for the greater good?” My girlfriend asked

“Yeah, I think I would. There’s a lot to live for, I get it, but this world is fucked up. If my death would bring even a little more good into the world then my life, I’d die.” I responded

“I’d be too selfish to do it. As fucked up as the world is, I still want to be around to see how things turn out.” She responded.

“Well If I ever get in that situation I’ll take a leap of faith. I’ve only ever wanted to do good, and maybe I’ve fucked that up so far, but I won’t be selfish, not anymore.”

<center>* * *</center>

I heard the tweeting of birds. I could barely move my right half. It was burned with the power of the stones. I knew it was early morning, but I was still fully Thanos which meant at least one more chance to use the stones, even if it meant I died. I only had the ‘end world hunger’ Idea fully figured out, so that’s what I did.

At 6:02AM GMT+0, about thirty minutes before light would hit London, I snapped my fingers for the final time.

Across the globe miracle plants started appearing. Vines that could grow on the ground and on walls. They produced a luminous white fruit, each one enough to satisfy a single person for an entire day. They didn’t go bad and grew new fruits over the course of a month. They could grow anywhere, in any climate. They were only edible to humans, and would not make a big impact on ecosystems since they couldn’t reproduce, only be grown from clippings.

<center>* * *</center>

I walked the chilly campus, students like me heading to and from classes, or there car, or anywhere to get out of the cold. I let out a sigh of relief as I got into the arts building and got my phone out to check the time. There was a new message from my friend.

‘I want to die’ it read.

I quickly responded ‘me too, I’d prefer death to finals.’

‘Yeah… are you free?’

‘No, gotta get to my next class in like five minutes.’

‘Oh, ok.’

That was a lie, I had like an hour I was going to kill watching Batman the Animated Series. I just didn’t feel like talking. Later that night I got a call. My friend had killed himself.

I stood over his casket, numb with grief. I hadn’t been mean to him, but… I hadn’t listened to him either. And now he was gone forever. I swore on that day that I’d be a better friend, a better person. I couldn’t live with myself otherwise.

I walked out of the church into an orange expanse. It was that scene from infinity war. You know the one. where Gamora asks Thanos if he did it, and what it had cost him. It just hit me what I had done.

“Never got to see this movie, but I think I’m supposed to ask you if you’ve done it. But that would only work If I knew what you were trying to do, so… what did you do?” He asked.

“I… I think I may have just saved the world” I said, choking back tears.

“What did it cost? What was the world worth?” he asked.

“More than I could possibly give.” I said. “My life, at least.”

“I could stand here and judge you, but you’ve been through enough, come with me, I’ve missed you.” I broke down at that point. He held out my hand. I grabbed it, then everything went white.

<center>* * *</center>

At three PM on November second, a man was found dead in his London flat. He was a victim of the Halloween curse, dressed like Thanos. His body was covered in burns, but there were no burn marks. Cause of death: unknown. It was just another of the many tragedies to come from that fateful Halloween.

User:Dediles/The Unicorn's Gift

2019-07-07T01:52:33Z

Dediles:

[[Category:Story]]
The wind whipped through my hair, reminding me once more why I was doing this. Before I could have second thoughts I took a step, and fell off the building. I’d like to say that I accepted my fate as I fell, but that would be a lie, my lizard brain screamed instincts at me to live. It lasted all of ten seconds.

'''''*CRUNCH*'''''

“motherFUCKER!” I screamed, still alive. In a few seconds my broken bones set and healed themselves. I was up on my feet within ten seconds of falling off a ten story building. I heard the ambulance in the distance and saw the shocked onlookers. I took off at a sprint before someone could catch me.

<center>* * *</center>

I rubbed the sore spot on the back of my head. The doctor frowned at that so I stopped. I was given a mirror and looked over the work, It was hard to make out with how red the skin was there, but it looked good. I smiled. It wasn't even noticeable anymore.

"How many more treatments? we should be close." I asked.

"once the swelling goes away you can come in for another consultation but I'm fairly confident this will be your last treatment. congrats, you beat male pattern baldness to the chase." the doctor said.

I smiled into the mirror. all my life I've hated my hair. it grew in too thick, I couldn't shave it off, because then I got pimples all over my head. So I got it lasered off. sure I still had to shave beforehand, but if there wasn't any hair left growing then the acne was better. and now I had done it. I got rid of my hair.

Of course no one really understood why I was paying so much money to be rid of hair, when men all over the world worked to make sure they kept theirs. See, when I hit puberty Hair just started growing in places it wasn’t’ in before. I never really got over that. I love the feeling of smooth skin and hair just feels coarse and uncomfortable.

First time I shaved my head felt so god damn liberating. But then the acne would come, and ingrown hairs. My skin didn’t like having it’s hair chopped off. So I started getting laser hair removal treatments. Eventually I’ll do my whole body, and my body will feel better because of it.
<center>* * *</center>

"The thing about people is, they change." I heard the podcast host say through my earbuds, walking a familiar trail "We aren't defined by our genes, of a blueprint that doesn't represent how we change as individuals. I think that in the future, we will be able to make a myriad of changes to our bodies, some we can't even imagine right now. And most of us will change, a lot will change more than once. we may try on different body types like haircuts.

"For most of us, we can live without that ease, but some peoples bodies are restricting who they are, to themselves, and to what other people see. A lot of those people are some form of trans so I'd like to take a brief aside to talk about transgender folks."

"being trans doesn't mean you're just one gender stuck in the body of another. Don't get me wrong, It can mean that, but gender isn't a binary. people express what they are in all sorts of different ways. clothes, hair, pronouns, they are the things we use to show what we are.

"And what we are can change. and that's ok! we're not trying to capture lightning in a bottle, we're just trying to be ourselves. Whether you're ok with your body, need a small change, or need a large one to be yourself, every expression of not just gender, but selfhood, is valid.

“Trans or not, everyone deserves their body to be the way they want it, the way they find it most comfortable, most Them.

"I think that brings us to our commercial break, sorry folks, gotta pay the bills. first up is DateX, 'won't you fall for me?' thi-"

I was contemplating what the host had said and not noticed where I was walking. A root caught my foot and I fell flat on my face. my earbuds were yanked violently from my ears as I tumbled to the ground. I looked to my left to see I was laying on the edge of a small cliff.

Pushing myself up a piece of dirt gave way and I fell again. two seconds of free fall left my brain racing, only to have it scream when I hit the ground. I was in a heap and everything hurt. I couldn't think straight so I just lay there, too scared to move, for maybe ten minutes.

"Shit." I cursed, trying to push myself up.

"FFUUUUUUUUCK!!!" I screamed as soon as I tried moving my left leg. I stared in horror as it was bent unnaturally.

I took a few breaths and looked for my phone. I spotted my galaxy pattern earbuds dangling off the cliff That I just fell down, still attached to my phone.

“Shit!” I cursed yet again “wait I already used that one. Dammit maybe? Crap? Nah, the moment has passed.”

I sighed. I’d be found eventually. The trail I was taking was an hour round trip, so someone was bound to come by. Still, that Meant I had to sit here in excruciating pain with nothing to do. Great. Just what I wanted to do today.

I was about to lay down and moped when I saw something pink(?) out of the corner of my eye. There was a horse here. One that looked like someone had dumped a bathtub of kool aid onto it.

Then I took a closer look. It was a fucking unicorn. No need to beat around the bush here. Spiral horn, ethereal presence, pink fur with white tufts of fur on its hooves, tail, and mane. The pink I wasn’t expecting but otherwise, yeah, a unicorn.

“Holy shit a unicorn!” I said like a dumbass.

The unicorn jumped when I spoke and turned to look at me in shock. It’s eyes looked me up and down, as if searching for something. It took a few tentative steps towards me. Then it spoke, “You are able to see me?”

“Holy shit a talking unicorn!” I said like a bigger dumbass. God Damn it.

“Oh do calm down,” It(or maybe she, probably she, maybe they?) said. “I am trying to understand how an adult man can see me… you are a man correct?”

“Uhhh” I said. Give me a break, you try talking to a unicorn. “Yep, one hundred percent home grown american male. I- should I introduce myself? I’m gonna do that. Name’s Liam.”

“Oh, Pleasure to meet you. I am known as Light Reflected Off Morning Dew at Dawn, protector of forests, daughter of the earth, and purest of heart,” she said.

“Wow that’s long. Can I just call you Dewy?” I asked

“No!” she yelped, a look of disgust on her equine face. “Please be quiet. I’m trying to explain something important. Traditionally, only a maidan pure and innocent may see a unicorn.”

“Well if we’re being ‘traditional’, purity and innocence was often used to indicate virginity. And I’m most definitely a virgin.” I guessed.

“That wouldn’t be enough.” she said, shaking her head. “As much as I’d like to get to the bottom of this mystery, you are annoying. However, being able to see me means you are worthy of my kindness, and it seems you are hurt.”

“Oh are you going to zap my leg with unicorn magic and fix it?”

Instead of answering the forest grew quiet as rays of light that filtered through the trees bent to meet at the tip of the Unicorn’s horn. Weilding the soft sunlight, she placed her horn on my chest. A feeling like all the summer vacations of my childhood rippled over my body.

“Oh poor thing, it seems your leg isn’t the only thing broken, Perhaps this is why you can see me… I’ll fix you right up, don’t you worry” She said.

Before I could ask what was wrong she was gone, and the pain was gone. I blinked, wondering if that really happened. I stood up and held my head, fingers running through my hair…

My WHAT?!

<center>* * *</center>

So. I was a hunk. She fixed me up, giving me luxurious locks and a myriad of other ‘improvements’. Firstly I was toned. Not super muscular, but enough that even I could recognize I was attractive. Secondly my skin was flawless, which would be an actual improvement, if a unicorn didn’t think tattoos were ‘flaws’. Thirdly…

I don’t like talking about this much because of what people say about it. I’m Asexual. Always been that way, but every once and awhile, I’d get a little bit horny, and not feel like myself. I don’t know how it feels to other people, but for me it feels like I’m not even myself, like the thoughts that flow through my head and the feelings I have are forced upon me, invading me. Given how that feeling hurt me, I had myself surgically castrated.

To say that was undone would be an understatement. Every time I saw a woman(and some men) I’d get a boner. It feels disgusting just writing this, but it was way worse to deal with. I hardly ever felt like myself.

With that all said here’s how I dealt with it,

<center>* * *</center>

I stumbled my way through my apartment. I ran into the bathroom before realizing that Lex was out of town. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about my roommate asking questions. First thing I did was take a razor to all that hair. Once all that hair was off I took a shower and discovered the other ‘improvements’ The unicorn had made.

Pretty sure the entire block could hear my scream. I spent quite some time just curled up in my shower. I convinced myself this was still fixable. It was a setback, but I could undo what was done. We had the technology.

Exhausted I made cup raman and went to bed. I had a dream where I was chased by a pink rhino. Every time I slowed down it would jab me in the balls until I sped up. Suffice it to say I didn’t get a good night’s rest.

The next morning I got up and began to do my morning routine. I checked myself in the mirror and saw a terrible case of bed… head… I screamed “GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!”

There was a crash and the sound of rapid footsteps before Lex was at my door. Purple haired asshole said they’d be out of town until Monday. They did a double take when they saw me. I didn’t bother to lock the bathroom door since SOMEONE wasn’t supposed to be home.

“Liam, what the hell happened to you?” Lex asked, sounding unsure.

“You won’t believe me but I met a unicorn in the woods and she decided to ‘fix’ me.” I said, grabbing the electric razor.

Lex opened their mouth, before closing it, their massive body contorted in a good rendition of The Thinker pose. While they were debating whether my pants were on fire I furiously shaved off as much hair as possible.

“Dude, what the Hell? I get something happened, but you can’t just say stuff like that.” Lex finally said.

I didn’t have time for that crap. I turned to them, and said, “I’m not going through the whole song and dance of you thinking I’m crazy only to be proven wrong later. You don’t have to believe It was a unicorn, but believe your own eyes. I have more things to worry about than convincing you.”

Before they could say anything I Stormed off. I know, I know, in hindsight I was pretty mean, but everything I had worked for, the body I had made mine, was changed into some masculine ideal and I hated every second of being like that.

<center>* * *</center>

I grew somewhat distant from Lex as my life continued to spiral out of control. My hair would grow back within three hours of shaving it, so I eventually just gave up and bought shampoo. Tattoos faded into nothingness overnight, so no getting those back either.

Eventually I started taking vacation days, because If I was at work I’d have to interact with women and men that might be conventionally attractive. I stayed inside and watched children's cartoons, had to give anime up.

Then at the end of the month my new castration was scheduled. My hope was that Dewy had just given me everything short of a healing factor. If my balls grew back I didn’t know what I’d do.

You may be wondering how I was able to schedule the removal of an organ I already had removed. Thank god my doctor is religious. He chalked it up to a miracle when I showed him my balls were back and that I was now extraordinarily healthy. Luckily he still respected my choices, even when he disagreed with them.

I woke up on the day feeling like I was walking to my execution. I did not at all believe It would work. Lex looked like they wanted to say something to me, but they couldn’t bring themself to say it.

I was nervous for the whole procedure. Even when they told me it had been successful I was nervous. I didn’t get any sleep that night. I could feel them growing back. I broke down and cried into my pillow that morning.

Then I raided the bathroom for all the medication it held and googled to see what the worst of it was. I took as many pills as possible and chased it with tequila. I felt the bliss of sweet nothingness take me, then I woke up to see Lex staring at me, dumbfounded.

Five minutes later they had made me hot coco and wrapped me in a blanket. I sat in the recliner while Lex took the couch. We stared at each other for a while before Lex spoke up. “I’m sorry.”

“What?” I asked, shocked out of my stupor.

“I didn’t believe what I was seeing, and It freaked me out so much that I didn’t want to have to deal with it. If it wasn’t for that magic healing factor you got, I would have let you die. Magic is real. I still don’t believe it, but I can at least act like I do, since I can’t ignore the results. You deserve nothing less.” They said, looking down.

“I can’t fault you for being human I guess” I said, taking a sip of my coco.

I could have apologized to them, should have, but I was stubborn. They didn’t help me, hell, they would have let me died. Still… I could have asked for help, I could have apologized for what I said to them when this all started, I could have talked to them before I decided to take those pills.

“Let’s go find her.” Lex said, “Let’s go find your unicorn. If she did this to you she must be able to reverse it.”

“I lost any kind of innocence as soon as I took those pills” I said, seeing the look of confusion on Lex’s face I clarified, “Sorry, she said that in order to see a unicorn you need to be a maiden, pure and innocent. Somehow I was able to see her despite that, and she was going to figure out why. Then she called me annoying and magically ‘fixed’ me.”

At that moment I wondered If I had broken Lex. They sighed and rubbed their temples “Ok, but we still have to try, tell me everything that happened that day.”

<center>* * *</center>

We swept the forest. Top to bottom. We walked a search grid centered on the place I fell. We even got fancy and used GPS to track where we searched. But nothing came up. Days rolled by and our grid kept expanding.

I grew hopeless and stopped searching. Lex was able to drag me along a couple of times, but eventually I was left back at home, pondering my existence. I knew I probably wouldn’t die. But I wanted to so badly.

I should have talked to Lex, should have gotten help, but for the second time that week I tried to kill myself.

The door banged shut behind me, as the sounds of traffic and wind became the only sounds I heard. I took a few steps forward, shoes crunching on gravel. Soon I was at the lip of my building.

...and you know what happened next. I failed. So I tried again. Laid down on train tracks. Boy that one sure sucked. Cut myself and tried to bleed out. Even when my cuts weren't healing themselves I never seemed to lose enough blood to die. Then I bought a gun and Lex Found it before I could use it.

We had a talk. A talk a lot of people have had. About how much it would hurt other people if I were gone, how much I meant to Lex. We argued about how much my life was worth if it left me suffering. Somehow, I was convinced. I don’t know what did it, but I decided to try everything to find Dewy again. If there was one thing I wanted to do before I died, it was to kill her.

Or at least that’s what I told myself. That’s what got me through the day. It was ugly, living for revenge. It was my lowest moment, even worse than the times I tried to kill myself. Eventually the anger faded.

And soon enough things went back to normal. I was able to go back to work, and even though we were still searching, I had found a way to adjust. I still hated living, and had frequent depression, but it almost seemed normal after a while.

<center>* * *</center>

Two years later I was deep in the woods. In trying to track the unicorn I had become A scout troop leader. I learned everything I needed to about the wilderness. I often came out here looking for her. I stopped at a clearing with a fallen log and took a sip from my canteen. I held no illusions of finding her, but the woods were calming.

Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted pink. My heart beat faster for a moment before telling myself it was probably just another popped balloon or old barbie doll and not to get my hopes up. I sighed and turned to look. And there she was.

'''''“YOU!”''''' I screamed, running after her.

She didn’t run and soon I found myself unable to move, the tip of her horn on my chest. She had a look of righteous fury on her face, until she recognized me.

“Liam? You can still see me?” She asked.

“YOU RUINED MY LIFE!” I yelled at her “I SPENT YEARS GETTING COMFORTABLE IN MY BODY. YEARS CHANGING IT TO FIT ME. YOU BROKE THAT! YOU BROKE ME! I CAN’T BEGIN TO TELL YOU THE WAYS I’VE TRIED TO END MYSELF, OR HOW MUCH TIME I SEARCHED FOR YOU!”

She looked shocked, suddenly I collapsed to the ground. I just began crying, wailing. I don’t know how much time passed, but I won’t forget what I saw. A single tear, a drop of condensed sadness, only shed for the collapse of empires, for earthquakes that ravaged the land, wildfires that burned hundreds of miles, tragedies on a scale people weren’t built to understand.

And it fell, casting silence over the world.

“I- I had fixed you. Someone cruel had scarred you, removed your manhood, burned your hair and salted the ground so it wouldn’t grow. Branded you with marks you couldn’t remove. I fixed it...” She said, unsure.

“A Penis and a set of balls doesn’t make me a man, But it does make me feel unlike myself. I am just a person who can’t live with the feelings of sexual attraction, they hurt me in ways words can’t convey. I had my hair burned so it wouldn’t grow, because I despised the feel of it on my head, I’m more myself without it. Those images weren't brands, they were art. My body is mine, and I decided to place art on it, to express myself and look nice, just like a good set of clothes.” I said, my voice emotionless.

“Oh.” she said.

That single syllable held so much. I realized how ignorant she was, and how much she hurt for what had happened. But I still had something to say.

“You took those from me, and took the very act of changing myself away from me. I couldn’t even choose to die. I’m only held together now by the hope of this. Of finding you and making you undo what you’ve done.” I said firmly.

“Unicorns are meant to protect. We give young women courage and wonder they can take back with them, to make their world better. We watch, timeless as the world goes on, doing good for those we can. There has never been a unicorn who was a villain… until now” She said.

She placed her horn in a sunbeam, but instead of it bending to here will, the beam of light sliced through her horn. She moved so it cut in a spiral, a slice of ivory cut off with the sun. her horn was black where one of the four or so spirals that made it up was cut out.

Then the spiral that was cut out found its way to my hands. I looked at it awestruck.

“I’ve had this power from the beginning of time. I have used it rarely, as nature has its own cycles of change. And it has caused immeasurable pain. I cannot continue to wield it. You can see me despite what you are, maybe because of who you are. Perhaps you can make better use of it than I.” She said.

“I can’t just take unicorn magic! What if you need this?” I objected.

“I can do no good with it, but you can. You seem to understand how humans want to change their bodies, tell me, is there no one you would use that to help?” She asked.

...Lex. They always said they were too masculine. Too large. They always wanted to be shorter, more androgynous, but had taken the hand they were dealt. And what about other transgender folk? Who else isn’t happy with their body in a way science can’t help?

“I think I do know some people that could use this.” I said. “It’s a lot of pressure though”

“Then dispose of it once you are done. So long as I don’t have it.” She said.

She didn’t really want that, I could hear it in her voice. She wanted her horn back, full, but she wanted to make things right. The near weightless ivory in my hands felt like a two ton brick. Then I got an idea.

“How often do you speak with humans?” I asked.

“The odd little girl every few years that needs me, why?” She responded.

“Why don’t we be friends?” I asked, baffled by the complete 180 I did to get to this point. “I can teach you what humans are like, and we can hang out. Then maybe someday I can give this back to you in good conscience.”

“I… think I may like that. But later. You can use your horn sliver to call me. I need some time to think.” She said.

“Fair enough. Oh wait, I kinda forgot your name, it’s long. What should I call you?” I asked.

“The girls always say the same thing. You may call me Dawn.” She said, giving me a faint smile before dashing off through the trees.

I didn’t need to think about how to use the horn sliver, I just knew. It curled around my ring finger and shrank until it was an ivory ring. I held up my hand to the sun and became myself again.

My hair started to glow. Gravity lost its effect as it started flowing upwards. Sunlight strands of hair one by one rose off my body and swirled upwards into the sky, I shrank, muscles deflating a little as my old “5’6 frame came back. Freckles started appearing across my too perfect white skin, and soon flowers bloomed on my arm, made of magic ink. My brown eyes shone sunlight gold for a second before my body settled back into what felt right.

I felt between my legs just to make sure, then walked out of the forest. It was a brand new world, one where I had the power of change. And maybe a new friend. For the first time in two years, the future was bright.

User:Dediles/The Unicorn's Gift

2019-07-07T01:47:48Z

Dediles: Created page with " The wind whipped through my hair, reminding me once more why I was doing this. Before I could have second thoughts I took a step, and fell off the building. I’d like to say..."

The wind whipped through my hair, reminding me once more why I was doing this. Before I could have second thoughts I took a step, and fell off the building. I’d like to say that I accepted my fate as I fell, but that would be a lie, my lizard brain screamed instincts at me to live. It lasted all of ten seconds.

'''''*CRUNCH*'''''

“motherFUCKER!” I screamed, still alive. In a few seconds my broken bones set and healed themselves. I was up on my feet within ten seconds of falling off a ten story building. I heard the ambulance in the distance and saw the shocked onlookers. I took off at a sprint before someone could catch me.

<center>* * *</center>

I rubbed the sore spot on the back of my head. The doctor frowned at that so I stopped. I was given a mirror and looked over the work, It was hard to make out with how red the skin was there, but it looked good. I smiled. It wasn't even noticeable anymore.

"How many more treatments? we should be close." I asked.

"once the swelling goes away you can come in for another consultation but I'm fairly confident this will be your last treatment. congrats, you beat male pattern baldness to the chase." the doctor said.

I smiled into the mirror. all my life I've hated my hair. it grew in too thick, I couldn't shave it off, because then I got pimples all over my head. So I got it lasered off. sure I still had to shave beforehand, but if there wasn't any hair left growing then the acne was better. and now I had done it. I got rid of my hair.

Of course no one really understood why I was paying so much money to be rid of hair, when men all over the world worked to make sure they kept theirs. See, when I hit puberty Hair just started growing in places it wasn’t’ in before. I never really got over that. I love the feeling of smooth skin and hair just feels coarse and uncomfortable.

First time I shaved my head felt so god damn liberating. But then the acne would come, and ingrown hairs. My skin didn’t like having it’s hair chopped off. So I started getting laser hair removal treatments. Eventually I’ll do my whole body, and my body will feel better because of it.
<center>* * *</center>

"The thing about people is, they change." I heard the podcast host say through my earbuds, walking a familiar trail "We aren't defined by our genes, of a blueprint that doesn't represent how we change as individuals. I think that in the future, we will be able to make a myriad of changes to our bodies, some we can't even imagine right now. And most of us will change, a lot will change more than once. we may try on different body types like haircuts.

"For most of us, we can live without that ease, but some peoples bodies are restricting who they are, to themselves, and to what other people see. A lot of those people are some form of trans so I'd like to take a brief aside to talk about transgender folks."

"being trans doesn't mean you're just one gender stuck in the body of another. Don't get me wrong, It can mean that, but gender isn't a binary. people express what they are in all sorts of different ways. clothes, hair, pronouns, they are the things we use to show what we are.

"And what we are can change. and that's ok! we're not trying to capture lightning in a bottle, we're just trying to be ourselves. Whether you're ok with your body, need a small change, or need a large one to be yourself, every expression of not just gender, but selfhood, is valid.

“Trans or not, everyone deserves their body to be the way they want it, the way they find it most comfortable, most Them.

"I think that brings us to our commercial break, sorry folks, gotta pay the bills. first up is DateX, 'won't you fall for me?' thi-"

I was contemplating what the host had said and not noticed where I was walking. A root caught my foot and I fell flat on my face. my earbuds were yanked violently from my ears as I tumbled to the ground. I looked to my left to see I was laying on the edge of a small cliff.

Pushing myself up a piece of dirt gave way and I fell again. two seconds of free fall left my brain racing, only to have it scream when I hit the ground. I was in a heap and everything hurt. I couldn't think straight so I just lay there, too scared to move, for maybe ten minutes.

"Shit." I cursed, trying to push myself up.

"FFUUUUUUUUCK!!!" I screamed as soon as I tried moving my left leg. I stared in horror as it was bent unnaturally.

I took a few breaths and looked for my phone. I spotted my galaxy pattern earbuds dangling off the cliff That I just fell down, still attached to my phone.

“Shit!” I cursed yet again “wait I already used that one. Dammit maybe? Crap? Nah, the moment has passed.”

I sighed. I’d be found eventually. The trail I was taking was an hour round trip, so someone was bound to come by. Still, that Meant I had to sit here in excruciating pain with nothing to do. Great. Just what I wanted to do today.

I was about to lay down and moped when I saw something pink(?) out of the corner of my eye. There was a horse here. One that looked like someone had dumped a bathtub of kool aid onto it.

Then I took a closer look. It was a fucking unicorn. No need to beat around the bush here. Spiral horn, ethereal presence, pink fur with white tufts of fur on its hooves, tail, and mane. The pink I wasn’t expecting but otherwise, yeah, a unicorn.

“Holy shit a unicorn!” I said like a dumbass.

The unicorn jumped when I spoke and turned to look at me in shock. It’s eyes looked me up and down, as if searching for something. It took a few tentative steps towards me. Then it spoke, “You are able to see me?”

“Holy shit a talking unicorn!” I said like a bigger dumbass. God Damn it.

“Oh do calm down,” It(or maybe she, probably she, maybe they?) said. “I am trying to understand how an adult man can see me… you are a man correct?”

“Uhhh” I said. Give me a break, you try talking to a unicorn. “Yep, one hundred percent home grown american male. I- should I introduce myself? I’m gonna do that. Name’s Liam.”

“Oh, Pleasure to meet you. I am known as Light Reflected Off Morning Dew at Dawn, protector of forests, daughter of the earth, and purest of heart,” she said.

“Wow that’s long. Can I just call you Dewy?” I asked

“No!” she yelped, a look of disgust on her equine face. “Please be quiet. I’m trying to explain something important. Traditionally, only a maidan pure and innocent may see a unicorn.”

“Well if we’re being ‘traditional’, purity and innocence was often used to indicate virginity. And I’m most definitely a virgin.” I guessed.

“That wouldn’t be enough.” she said, shaking her head. “As much as I’d like to get to the bottom of this mystery, you are annoying. However, being able to see me means you are worthy of my kindness, and it seems you are hurt.”

“Oh are you going to zap my leg with unicorn magic and fix it?”

Instead of answering the forest grew quiet as rays of light that filtered through the trees bent to meet at the tip of the Unicorn’s horn. Weilding the soft sunlight, she placed her horn on my chest. A feeling like all the summer vacations of my childhood rippled over my body.

“Oh poor thing, it seems your leg isn’t the only thing broken, Perhaps this is why you can see me… I’ll fix you right up, don’t you worry” She said.

Before I could ask what was wrong she was gone, and the pain was gone. I blinked, wondering if that really happened. I stood up and held my head, fingers running through my hair…

My WHAT?!

<center>* * *</center>

So. I was a hunk. She fixed me up, giving me luxurious locks and a myriad of other ‘improvements’. Firstly I was toned. Not super muscular, but enough that even I could recognize I was attractive. Secondly my skin was flawless, which would be an actual improvement, if a unicorn didn’t think tattoos were ‘flaws’. Thirdly…

I don’t like talking about this much because of what people say about it. I’m Asexual. Always been that way, but every once and awhile, I’d get a little bit horny, and not feel like myself. I don’t know how it feels to other people, but for me it feels like I’m not even myself, like the thoughts that flow through my head and the feelings I have are forced upon me, invading me. Given how that feeling hurt me, I had myself surgically castrated.

To say that was undone would be an understatement. Every time I saw a woman(and some men) I’d get a boner. It feels disgusting just writing this, but it was way worse to deal with. I hardly ever felt like myself.

With that all said here’s how I dealt with it,

<center>* * *</center>

I stumbled my way through my apartment. I ran into the bathroom before realizing that Lex was out of town. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about my roommate asking questions. First thing I did was take a razor to all that hair. Once all that hair was off I took a shower and discovered the other ‘improvements’ The unicorn had made.

Pretty sure the entire block could hear my scream. I spent quite some time just curled up in my shower. I convinced myself this was still fixable. It was a setback, but I could undo what was done. We had the technology.

Exhausted I made cup raman and went to bed. I had a dream where I was chased by a pink rhino. Every time I slowed down it would jab me in the balls until I sped up. Suffice it to say I didn’t get a good night’s rest.

The next morning I got up and began to do my morning routine. I checked myself in the mirror and saw a terrible case of bed… head… I screamed “GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!”

There was a crash and the sound of rapid footsteps before Lex was at my door. Purple haired asshole said they’d be out of town until Monday. They did a double take when they saw me. I didn’t bother to lock the bathroom door since SOMEONE wasn’t supposed to be home.

“Liam, what the hell happened to you?” Lex asked, sounding unsure.

“You won’t believe me but I met a unicorn in the woods and she decided to ‘fix’ me.” I said, grabbing the electric razor.

Lex opened their mouth, before closing it, their massive body contorted in a good rendition of The Thinker pose. While they were debating whether my pants were on fire I furiously shaved off as much hair as possible.

“Dude, what the Hell? I get something happened, but you can’t just say stuff like that.” Lex finally said.

I didn’t have time for that crap. I turned to them, and said, “I’m not going through the whole song and dance of you thinking I’m crazy only to be proven wrong later. You don’t have to believe It was a unicorn, but believe your own eyes. I have more things to worry about than convincing you.”

Before they could say anything I Stormed off. I know, I know, in hindsight I was pretty mean, but everything I had worked for, the body I had made mine, was changed into some masculine ideal and I hated every second of being like that.

<center>* * *</center>

I grew somewhat distant from Lex as my life continued to spiral out of control. My hair would grow back within three hours of shaving it, so I eventually just gave up and bought shampoo. Tattoos faded into nothingness overnight, so no getting those back either.

Eventually I started taking vacation days, because If I was at work I’d have to interact with women and men that might be conventionally attractive. I stayed inside and watched children's cartoons, had to give anime up.

Then at the end of the month my new castration was scheduled. My hope was that Dewy had just given me everything short of a healing factor. If my balls grew back I didn’t know what I’d do.

You may be wondering how I was able to schedule the removal of an organ I already had removed. Thank god my doctor is religious. He chalked it up to a miracle when I showed him my balls were back and that I was now extraordinarily healthy. Luckily he still respected my choices, even when he disagreed with them.

I woke up on the day feeling like I was walking to my execution. I did not at all believe It would work. Lex looked like they wanted to say something to me, but they couldn’t bring themself to say it.

I was nervous for the whole procedure. Even when they told me it had been successful I was nervous. I didn’t get any sleep that night. I could feel them growing back. I broke down and cried into my pillow that morning.

Then I raided the bathroom for all the medication it held and googled to see what the worst of it was. I took as many pills as possible and chased it with tequila. I felt the bliss of sweet nothingness take me, then I woke up to see Lex staring at me, dumbfounded.

Five minutes later they had made me hot coco and wrapped me in a blanket. I sat in the recliner while Lex took the couch. We stared at each other for a while before Lex spoke up. “I’m sorry.”

“What?” I asked, shocked out of my stupor.

“I didn’t believe what I was seeing, and It freaked me out so much that I didn’t want to have to deal with it. If it wasn’t for that magic healing factor you got, I would have let you die. Magic is real. I still don’t believe it, but I can at least act like I do, since I can’t ignore the results. You deserve nothing less.” They said, looking down.

“I can’t fault you for being human I guess” I said, taking a sip of my coco.

I could have apologized to them, should have, but I was stubborn. They didn’t help me, hell, they would have let me died. Still… I could have asked for help, I could have apologized for what I said to them when this all started, I could have talked to them before I decided to take those pills.

“Let’s go find her.” Lex said, “Let’s go find your unicorn. If she did this to you she must be able to reverse it.”

“I lost any kind of innocence as soon as I took those pills” I said, seeing the look of confusion on Lex’s face I clarified, “Sorry, she said that in order to see a unicorn you need to be a maiden, pure and innocent. Somehow I was able to see her despite that, and she was going to figure out why. Then she called me annoying and magically ‘fixed’ me.”

At that moment I wondered If I had broken Lex. They sighed and rubbed their temples “Ok, but we still have to try, tell me everything that happened that day.”

<center>* * *</center>

We swept the forest. Top to bottom. We walked a search grid centered on the place I fell. We even got fancy and used GPS to track where we searched. But nothing came up. Days rolled by and our grid kept expanding.

I grew hopeless and stopped searching. Lex was able to drag me along a couple of times, but eventually I was left back at home, pondering my existence. I knew I probably wouldn’t die. But I wanted to so badly.

I should have talked to Lex, should have gotten help, but for the second time that week I tried to kill myself.

The door banged shut behind me, as the sounds of traffic and wind became the only sounds I heard. I took a few steps forward, shoes crunching on gravel. Soon I was at the lip of my building.

...and you know what happened next. I failed. So I tried again. Laid down on train tracks. Boy that one sure sucked. Cut myself and tried to bleed out. Even when my cuts weren't healing themselves I never seemed to lose enough blood to die. Then I bought a gun and Lex Found it before I could use it.

We had a talk. A talk a lot of people have had. About how much it would hurt other people if I were gone, how much I meant to Lex. We argued about how much my life was worth if it left me suffering. Somehow, I was convinced. I don’t know what did it, but I decided to try everything to find Dewy again. If there was one thing I wanted to do before I died, it was to kill her.

Or at least that’s what I told myself. That’s what got me through the day. It was ugly, living for revenge. It was my lowest moment, even worse than the times I tried to kill myself. Eventually the anger faded.

And soon enough things went back to normal. I was able to go back to work, and even though we were still searching, I had found a way to adjust. I still hated living, and had frequent depression, but it almost seemed normal after a while.

<center>* * *</center>

Two years later I was deep in the woods. In trying to track the unicorn I had become A scout troop leader. I learned everything I needed to about the wilderness. I often came out here looking for her. I stopped at a clearing with a fallen log and took a sip from my canteen. I held no illusions of finding her, but the woods were calming.

Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted pink. My heart beat faster for a moment before telling myself it was probably just another popped balloon or old barbie doll and not to get my hopes up. I sighed and turned to look. And there she was.

'''''“YOU!”''''' I screamed, running after her.

She didn’t run and soon I found myself unable to move, the tip of her horn on my chest. She had a look of righteous fury on her face, until she recognized me.

“Liam? You can still see me?” She asked.

“YOU RUINED MY LIFE!” I yelled at her “I SPENT YEARS GETTING COMFORTABLE IN MY BODY. YEARS CHANGING IT TO FIT ME. YOU BROKE THAT! YOU BROKE ME! I CAN’T BEGIN TO TELL YOU THE WAYS I’VE TRIED TO END MYSELF, OR HOW MUCH TIME I SEARCHED FOR YOU!”

She looked shocked, suddenly I collapsed to the ground. I just began crying, wailing. I don’t know how much time passed, but I won’t forget what I saw. A single tear, a drop of condensed sadness, only shed for the collapse of empires, for earthquakes that ravaged the land, wildfires that burned hundreds of miles, tragedies on a scale people weren’t built to understand.

And it fell, casting silence over the world.

“I- I had fixed you. Someone cruel had scarred you, removed your manhood, burned your hair and salted the ground so it wouldn’t grow. Branded you with marks you couldn’t remove. I fixed it...” She said, unsure.

“A Penis and a set of balls doesn’t make me a man, But it does make me feel unlike myself. I am just a person who can’t live with the feelings of sexual attraction, they hurt me in ways words can’t convey. I had my hair burned so it wouldn’t grow, because I despised the feel of it on my head, I’m more myself without it. Those images weren't brands, they were art. My body is mine, and I decided to place art on it, to express myself and look nice, just like a good set of clothes.” I said, my voice emotionless.

“Oh.” she said.

That single syllable held so much. I realized how ignorant she was, and how much she hurt for what had happened. But I still had something to say.

“You took those from me, and took the very act of changing myself away from me. I couldn’t even choose to die. I’m only held together now by the hope of this. Of finding you and making you undo what you’ve done.” I said firmly.

“Unicorns are meant to protect. We give young women courage and wonder they can take back with them, to make their world better. We watch, timeless as the world goes on, doing good for those we can. There has never been a unicorn who was a villain… until now” She said.

She placed her horn in a sunbeam, but instead of it bending to here will, the beam of light sliced through her horn. She moved so it cut in a spiral, a slice of ivory cut off with the sun. her horn was black where one of the four or so spirals that made it up was cut out.

Then the spiral that was cut out found its way to my hands. I looked at it awestruck.

“I’ve had this power from the beginning of time. I have used it rarely, as nature has its own cycles of change. And it has caused immeasurable pain. I cannot continue to wield it. You can see me despite what you are, maybe because of who you are. Perhaps you can make better use of it than I.” She said.

“I can’t just take unicorn magic! What if you need this?” I objected.

“I can do no good with it, but you can. You seem to understand how humans want to change their bodies, tell me, is there no one you would use that to help?” She asked.

...Lex. They always said they were too masculine. Too large. They always wanted to be shorter, more androgynous, but had taken the hand they were dealt. And what about other transgender folk? Who else isn’t happy with their body in a way science can’t help?

“I think I do know some people that could use this.” I said. “It’s a lot of pressure though”

“Then dispose of it once you are done. So long as I don’t have it.” She said.

She didn’t really want that, I could hear it in her voice. She wanted her horn back, full, but she wanted to make things right. The near weightless ivory in my hands felt like a two ton brick. Then I got an idea.

“How often do you speak with humans?” I asked.

“The odd little girl every few years that needs me, why?” She responded.

“Why don’t we be friends?” I asked, baffled by the complete 180 I did to get to this point. “I can teach you what humans are like, and we can hang out. Then maybe someday I can give this back to you in good conscience.”

“I… think I may like that. But later. You can use your horn sliver to call me. I need some time to think.” She said.

“Fair enough. Oh wait, I kinda forgot your name, it’s long. What should I call you?” I asked.

“The girls always say the same thing. You may call me Dawn.” She said, giving me a faint smile before dashing off through the trees.

I didn’t need to think about how to use the horn sliver, I just knew. It curled around my ring finger and shrank until it was an ivory ring. I held up my hand to the sun and became myself again.

My hair started to glow. Gravity lost its effect as it started flowing upwards. Sunlight strands of hair one by one rose off my body and swirled upwards into the sky, I shrank, muscles deflating a little as my old “5’6 frame came back. Freckles started appearing across my too perfect white skin, and soon flowers bloomed on my arm, made of magic ink. My brown eyes shone sunlight gold for a second before my body settled back into what felt right.

I felt between my legs just to make sure, then walked out of the forest. It was a brand new world, one where I had the power of change. And maybe a new friend. For the first time in two years, the future was bright.

User:Dediles

2019-07-07T01:22:04Z

Dediles: Added a link to my story 'The Unicorn's Gift' to my stories section

User:Dediles

2019-07-04T02:53:57Z

Dediles: Created page with "Hi! I'm Dediles. I've always enjoyed transformation in fiction, something about becoming something different really resonates with me. I've tried my hand at writing before, bu..."