So the story isn't dropped or anything, but I recently moved and got a new job...so time and all that. I have another story I'm writing as well, but it's to help me with conveying certain types of material, to help my writing. I'm hoping it's working, so here you go, and as always, thanks for reading and let me know if there are any issues.

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The day hadn’t turned out the way I was hoping it would. About half an hour after I left ‘Hope’ to bathe and get ready, not that I thought she needed a bath but she had been without real world contact for a while, I heard a high pitched scream coming from our bedroom upstairs. Moments later I saw a rather oddly built Ethan bolting across the second floor before reaching an empty bedroom, and slamming the door shut.

Concerned, I raced up to my bedroom to find Hope fuming. The girl was livid as apparently Ethan had barged in on her naked, and had been ‘ogling’ her. Hope had been so angry at the ‘violation’ she said she had ‘punished’ him. What that meant became clear after I managed to get Ethan to open the door to the bedroom into which he had stuffed himself.

My first impression, when I saw him fleeing our room, was that Ethan was oddly shaped. Ethan’s hips and thighs had ballooned out some, and he was sporting a set of breasts that looked like cantaloupes. Ethan’s frame was always fairly lithe, likely due to the fact that he was a sylvan elf. Between his height and build he now looked like a playboy centerfold. A quick scan of him showed that the changes were all superficial. Hope hadn’t changed his sex, as I didn’t imagine Sylvan elves were built like that, she had simply adjusted his outer characteristics some.

“Hope, you can’t leave him like that. It was a mistake.” I said trying to calm Hope down. I could sense through our ‘connection’ that she was still very upset, but the anger seemed to be muddled with a lot of trauma from her childhood...and a hint of betrayal. I was starting to get the impression that Hope really liked Ethan, but opening the wrong door at the wrong time had set her off.

“NO! He barged in on me naked, and then just kept staring at me!” Hope yelled. “Let him see how it feels with people leering at you all day.” she spat, wrapping her arms under her bust. She had thrown on one of the outfits I had ordered from the shop a couple of weeks back, resplendent in tight blue leather pants, white silk blouse, a black vest, blue jacket, and black hat that looked like it belonged to a musketeer. There were armored plates worked into the pants, vest, and jacket.

“HOPE! Your affect on the people who look at you has changed. He was probably stunned. If you hadn’t noticed, it’s taking effort for everyone to act normally around us, and they’ve known you for years.” I said, trying to talk some sense into her. I had considered reversing her alterations myself, but something told me I should speak to hope first.

Hope glared at me for a while, and we stood there in silence. I couldn’t tell if the silence was a good or bad thing. “He can come shopping with us.” she said after a moment. “He should have to see what that feels like...all of those stares.” she said looking down.

I looked at her for a second, before sighing and waving a hand. “All right. One shopping trip, and then you turn him back...and don’t do that again. You’ve probably traumatized Ethan...more than he already was. Besides, I think Lily likes him the way he was before.” I said with a grin.

I felt a spark of jealousy from Hope’s corner of my mind...something that I was only now able to differentiate since she had shifted parts of her consciousness to her current body. For my part I was trying to keep my emotions to myself, at the very least to leave her some space to work through her problems.

Ethan wasn’t at all happy about being dragged out into public like that. Less so once Hope showed up with Ethan's ‘outfit’. To call the clothes revealing would be putting it lightly. It looked like some of the ‘lady of the night’ clothes that the girls had been wearing before coming to Caliburn. I managed to talk her into letting Ethan wear a dress instead of stockings, though his breasts still looked like they were going to pop out of the satin corset. I honestly felt bad for Ethan, but it was a shopping trip...I’d just make sure to get him something he’d like to make it up to him.

Aisha joined me, Hope, and Ethan on our trip to the market shopping. Before we left, I decided to create a storage area using the magic bag spell, attached to pack pack I was carrying with me. Aisha and Hope apparently became conspiratorial and decided to ‘do’ something with Ethan’s hair...which now hung down past his ass in braids. Why they would bother I have no idea, since I didn’t think anyone would be looking at his hair. “God, lets just get this over with.” I muttered as we left.

The first place we stopped was at a materials shop for blacksmiths and other crafters. I procured a large quantity of iron, copper, zinc, coal, charcoal and sulfur. Hope wasn’t really alarmed until we hit up an alchemist shop for some more specific ingredients. I had decided, since I couldn’t sit there and train Ethan in magic and he needed a legitimate way to protect himself, to build him a gun. Normally the potassium nitrate would be a pain in the ass to make, but my crafting system allowed me to perform the chemistry automatically. After which I produced potassium perchlorate, since it technically the simplest compound I knew how to make for a blasting cap, and then mixed up the gunpowder. The copper and zinc I used for brass, and then messed around with the steel composition. I went with the values I had for 4150 steel, since I knew it had a. .5 percent carbon content, and would be very durable. For the designs I went with an AK-103 since it was probably accurate enough for his needs, and a pistol that was more or less a .40 Glock I used to own.

After I finished with creating bulk ammo, and the guns for Ethan, I opened up the menu for adding magic effects, and saw my spells listed. Going with magic bag, I loaded each with about a hundred thousand rounds, and put a counter on the side of the magazine that would tick down as the ammunition was expelled. I had underestimated the effects of my intelligence boost, because I had managed to finish the design and fabrication of everything by the time we got three blocks from the stores. I was enthused because thought Ethan would like the guns.

Ethan had been in the back of our little group, and when I turned around to check on how he was doing, he was missing.

“...Where did Ethan go?” I asked concerned. We had only traveled a few blocks, and most of the time I was focused on my building, while Hope and Aisha were gossiping about the girls back at the castle. Hope looked upset, but Aisha started calling out for him. A minute later I heard a scream coming from down the street. “Ethan.” I said, and bolted over the crowd, moving across walls at my enhanced speed.

There were three men surrounding him, and they seemed to be groping him. “What the fuck is it with this city?” I asked amazed. This had been the second attempted rape I’d seen in the streets in so many days.

One of the men was trying to get Ethan’s dress up when I was arrived. “Fuck off bitch!” one of the men said, glancing my direction for a moment. When I pulled the veil up I tend to wear in public, I got a round of gasps...I had to figure out how to turn that beauty thing off...should have stuck with masks.

“By the gods...what...” one of them said looking at me stunned.

“You should probably walk away now, before things get dangerous for you.” I said with a sweet smile. The wind caught up with me, kicking my hair around, as I considered how I was going to deal with these guys. I really wasn’t in the mood to hold up my whole day for this stuff, and we still had errands to run.

“Come ‘ere girl, why don’t you join your friend here, and we can all have a good time.” a second man said leering at me as he moved toward the street from the alley.

Seriously...did people on the streets just not give a damn? Woman screaming in an alleyway, and the street cleared out. “Last chance.” I said with a sigh.

“Nay girl, we’ll have many chances...we’ll make this last.” the second man said as he kept coming toward me.

“All right. If that’s how you want to play it.” I said, looking at Ethan who was as white as a sheet, and being pressed against the wall. Pulling the AK103 out of my bag, I leveled it on the men, and opened fire. I had forgotten to turn it off of automatic.

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Time slowed as the bullets left the chamber, my eyes slipping to the vital spots of Ethan's assailants. I had two interesting traits that came with my increased dexterity, increased accuracy and extreme precision. Normally letting loose with an automatic weapon tends to generate more of a scattering of fire, mostly due to recoil. I didn’t seem to have that problem. The bullets flew through the air in tight patterns, though the rate they were being expelled was faster than I had intended. A second or so later there were three men riddled with holes, falling to the ground. A dozen had gone through one man’s sternum, one went through the second one’s head, and the third was on the ground gasping for air...I had put a few holes in his lungs. As for myself, I was grasping my ears and screaming profanities. “MOTHER FUCKER!” I blurted out as I remembered my heightened senses.

The pain receded and my hearing returned a second later, Ethan had curled up onto the ground and was staring at the bodies of the dying men. Picking the gun back up, I switched the safety on and handed it to Ethan as I picked him up. About this time Hope and Aisha caught up with me to see the bodies in the alleyway. “...what happened?” Aisha asked her eyes wide.

“Sorry...some men tried to rape Ethan, and didn’t leave when I told them to.” I explained, dragging Ethan back toward Aisha and Hope. “This is enough Hope.” I said, placing Ethan in front of her. Ethan was staring distantly still in shock, tears on his face. “Aisha, escort Ethan back to the castle. We’ll catch up when we finish shopping...and Hope will fix him.” I said, putting an edge on my words, staring at Hope who looked upset. She tried to reach out to comfort Ethan, but he stepped back. Hope looked hurt, and Ethan looked to be in shock. I really fucking hated this city.

“...but, the bodies...two of them are still alive.” Aisha said as she tried to move futilely to help. Seeing her reaction to the attack, I was struck with the sudden realization that...I had just executed three men I could have easily subdued. Hope was looking at me aghast as well...and I realized there was probably something very very wrong with me. The anger...it was there, burning at the back of my mind...and then there was Hope, no longer shielding me from it.

“Shit...” I muttered as I looked over the men. I pushed some mana through my senses and began to perceive the souls of the dying men. They still clung to their bodies, even the one whose head I put a bullet through, if tenuously. For the first time since I came to this world, I had the creeping sensation that I was turning into some type of monster...something driven by hate and apathy.

Aisha dragged Ethan away from the scene while Hope kept staring at me. I felt afraid that she would hate me for this...and I was also afraid that she wouldn’t. If I saved these men, they’d just do this again. Coming to a decision, I took my cue from Hope, probably not for the first time. Stepping to the dying bodies, I shifted my senses again, and began to perceive the nature energies flowing through them. With a wave of my hands I began to reweave their bodies. The ‘adaptations’ were more involved that what Hope had done, and I needed the assistance of the crafting system, which had proven itself adept at dealing with organic materials.

As I gripped at the magics, the dying men began to shrink in on themselves. Their wounds closed quickly, and their forms shifted. It took me a few minutes of tinkering, but when I was finished there were three young women in their early twenties. I decided to base their appearance on a few actresses I remembered, and had decent lookalikes for Angelina Jolie, Kate Hudson, and Keira Knightley. If I saw them again, it would be easy to pick them out of a crowd...for me at least. Magic alterations tended to adjust a natural state at the cost of sustained mana. As I finished the spells I altered reality to change the current state into the natural state. I would check up on them in a few months time to see if they were still alive, and if they had learned their lesson.

Hope had been watching Ethan leave, and looked at me somewhat torn. We walked in silence to the adventurer’s guild, and took a seat at one of the cafe’s outside. Hope still ‘felt’ hurt to me, and I could sense resentment...though toward what, or who, I wasn’t sure.

“He should have known better. If he had stayed with us, and not run around alone, he wouldn’t have gotten attacked.” Hope said after a cup of tea was sitting in front of her.

“Sure. He could have done a lot of things. Could have gouged at the eyes and ran. Could have stayed in a tight group…if it’d been ten minutes later he could have mowed them down with bullets.” I said, looking at Hope passively. “Or he could have been raped in the alleyway, or worse once they found out he wasn’t a woman, and hopefully lived through it.” I said, taking a sip of the chamomile I ordered.

“We would have gotten to him in time...” Hope said with a pause, “I mean it’s not like other women don’t deal with the same thing...I’ve...” she said trailing off.

“Did you want Ethan to experience that? Was that what you were hoping for?” I asked seriously, staring at her.

“Of course not! I just...I didn’t want him to look at me like...a whore.” Hope said, holding the teacup in her hands, and staring down at it. She was silent again while I drank my tea. “He...he hates me now, doesn’t he?” she asked in a low voice.

“Would you hate you?” I asked, looking at Hope, her eyes staring down. I could feel the sadness building in her in waves. She was reliving traumas...a lot of them that I knew she was hiding away from me. I watched her in the quiet of the Cafe, simply sipping my tea. Hope was almost trembling when she finally answered.

“Yes...I hate me.” Hope said, putting the cup down on the table and leaning over to put her head in her hands. This was really not how I envisioned the day going.

As Hope cried in her chair, moved over to her and pulled her up into a hug. I could feel her trembling in my arms, a bundle of raw emotion being torn open. I wanted to tell her to let it go, but I wasn’t sure she could just ‘let it go’. Some things only time heals. “Well, I don’t hate you Hope. I care about you deeply. No one else hates you either...Ethan will probably be upset, but he’ll know this wasn’t your fault...eventually.” I said hugging her tighter. “Now...maybe someone can explain to me what’s with all of these rapes, robberies, and assaults. It’s like no one gives a damn about the laws in this city.” I said with a sigh.

“Why should they? There aren’t really any police. The city guard might investigate if a noble or a city official is bothered, but they move around with guards...or hadn’t you noticed?” Hope asked, wiping her eyes a few times. “As long as they target men or women of low standing, like whores or street urchins, no one will say anything...If I hadn’t had Ethan dress up like that, he wouldn’t have been attacked.” She muttered, still crying.

“It’s not your fault.” I said as something registered with me. “Being alone or dressed provocatively isn’t an invitation to be raped or murdered. You weren’t responsible for being raped, because of how you were dressed...” I said staring at her, knowing where her mind was going.

“...Maybe...” Hope said, looking down. She took a few seconds to catch her breath before speaking again. “Before...it happened...I...I had asked Aisha to give me makeup...I mean, Mother never let me wear any...but I was going to join the adventurer’s guild...and I wanted to feel grown up...If I hadn’t..” she said, before I pulled her into another hug.

“Listen very carefully Hope. You Are Not Responsible For The Actions of Others. You wearing makeup didn’t give someone permission to do that, any more than what Ethan was wearing gave those men permission to assault him. I...I’m going to do something about this, when we get back from Montevue...This is all insane.” I said, just hugging her.

“...You promise?” Hope asked, her voice growing weak as her throat tightened.

“With god as my witness.” I said, taking her hand.