So, good news, staying up all night watching cartoons while in succubus form didn’t tire me out. Sure, I had to take a few breaks to perform adult activities, I guess to recharge batteries, but I didn’t need to sleep. Another bonus. I was expecting a crash the moment I switched back, though. And it would probably do me good to actually sleep. But the nightmare I had earlier had left me shaken still.

Especially the part with Mom. How unquestioningly supportive of dream-me she was. Made me wonder how she would have reacted to having a succubus for a child... Would she be fine? Would she be scared? Would she disown me and run away, leaving me alone to face Father in my new form? To face his scorn, his berating of me and my choices, his disappointment at not meeting his expectations? I really hoped Father would never find out. Well, he never visits me; mostly I see some money from him show up on my account every month to live off of. We don’t even see each other for the holidays. But it would be just me and him since my grandparents are dead, Mom was an only child, and Father never mentioned any siblings of his.

I got off my chair and stretched, deciding it was time for Peter to do stuff again. With a deep sigh, I transformed. The only thing I really missed was the foot of height and personhood. The lack of a dick was comfortable, the breasts were fun, the way my hair felt on my head and being smooth everywhere else was wonderful. Really, if I didn’t have obligations as Peter, kept my height and looked human I’d probably stay in my succubus form all the time. And it felt really weird to admit that.

Can’t be thinking those thoughts now though, those are probably what lead to the nightmare, which will definitely happen if Father knows. Okay no he definitely doesn’t have magic, he would have mind controlled me… actually does magic allow mind control? I guess I could ask the local magic user downstairs. The moment I reached the ground floor I sharply knocked on his door. Leonard looked ragged when he opened it, like he just got out of the shock that Ayano caused him. “Oh, hey, you’re being him now huh.” Leonard scratched his desperate attempt at facial hair, and I shrugged.

“Figured Peter should show his face at the Question for food. Hey, uhm, just been thinking over some stuff-”

“You want me to call you Lily all the time and use she pronouns for you?” Leonard interrupted me, I blinked in stunned confusion at him a bit.

“What? No, not that kinda stuff what why would you think that?”

“So switch names in-between forms and they pronouns then?”

“I... guess? Anyways not important right now, got a magic related question because my thoughts turned to my Father.” Leonard nodded at that, seemingly reading something into my choice of title for my sperm donor. “Can magic do mind control?”

“Why did your thoughts about your Father lead you to that question?” Leonard finally let me in, and I crashed down on my favorite armchair while he laid down on the semi-couch thing you see in psychologist scenes in movies & shows that he seemed to have dug out of his piles of books.

“Doesn’t the person in therapy usually lay down on those?” I chuckled a bit at my deflect.

“That’s a myth, none of them have offices this cozy and we both know it I’m sure. Anyways, please answer before I answer.” I rolled my eyes at his reply.

“Yeah I wouldn’t know, Father never sent me to one. Even though I definitely needed counseling after mom passed. He has huge expectations for me, and a specific idea of how I should be, that I’m honestly not meeting right now but he’s decided to let me - in his eyes - fail, so as to see the error, quote unquote, of my ways. So I’m wondering, if he had access to mind control magic, would he have been able to mold me with it?” I turned to Leonard, who rubbed his face, sighing, mouthing something that looked like ‘fucking dads and the bullshit they cause their kids’.

“Humans don’t have access to mind control magic, the mind is sacred, anyone who attempted to figure it out got offed. The CIA used to have a magic division, before it got wiped out of existence for their attempts at it.” Leonard straightened himself out to continue explaining. “When it comes to the non human groups, well… Demons can intensify emotions but not have you have different ones. The Fae don’t mind control you, they trick you with illusions and rules they don’t reveal or establish until it’s too late.” He pointed upwards, laughing a bit. “Funnily enough, Angels are the only ones capable of proper mind control. Only over full humans though. Everyone else they’re like an annoying voice in the head to. It’s hilarious that Demons and Fae both ask for consent in their own ways, one directly one while hiding details. But Angels can just make you do what they want without care. Pretty scary stuff.” I nodded to reply to Leonard.

“Alright yeah that uhm that kinda helps ease my mind. You want anything from The Question or should I just get the craving stuff and my usual?” I got off the chair and moved to the door.

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“Uggggghhhhh cheeseburger. Just get me a burger. It’s gotta be better than the remnants of the franchises.” I finger gunned and clicked at Leonard and left to grab the grub.

He definitely ordered the burger to flex on me with his lactose tolerance. Little greasy bastard... Sighing, I entered the apartment complex once more after getting some burgers, and heard a weird noise coming from the basement apartment. Against my better judgement, I walked down the stairs and looked around, not really seeing anything that could have made the noise. It had sounded like someone slowed down audio of sneakers skidding across the floor, and added an underwater effect. And then I noticed the movement and heard the sound. And upon seeing it, I turned around and booked it to Leonard’s, rushing through his door and into his apartment.

“Slime downstairs. Slime in the basement. Person sized slime down there.” I was bracing against the door. Leonard walked over and took the bag of food I was holding. Zero reaction. As if he hadn’t heard me freak out. But the moment he was looking through the bag, it hit him. His expression went from ‘oh hey cool food’ to ‘wait what the FUCK a SLIME in the BASEMENT???’ in such a perfect way, I wished I had it recorded to point to the exact frame his brain pumped the brakes. He put the food down on, ironically, a stack of recipe books and jumped to his laptop.

“Okay, alright, okay, yeah, there is one. Slime ancestor. So. Basement got hit too, I guess?” He turned to me, dazed eyes, shaking his head to calm down.

“Basement got hit too. I hope they’re not a bad slime.” I relaxed a bit, letting the tension leave my body.

“How old are YOU to make that reference?!” Leonard shot an accusatory glance at me as I rolled my eyes.

“Irrelevant. Slime in the basement, I get to be Lily again!” I sounded more excited than I probably should have been. I caught Leonard smiling at that, just a little bit. “Shut up. Not a word.”

“I’m not saying anything.” He threw his hands in the air. “But I mean, the slime has been there for three days now, I think it can stick around long enough for us to eat.” As he gestured to the bag of food, I sighed and nodded, and joined him for the meal.

“On the one hand, I don’t really go outside like this, on the other hand…” I was thinking out loud, getting dressed in the one complete feminine outfit I had. I felt like the dress Leonard had given me would work better for lounging around, not so much for dealing with someone transformed. As I left my apartment and caught up with Leonard on the stairs, we descended down.

“Oh. There they are. They look like spilled jello, you got scared of that?” Leonard teased, and I punched him in the arm.

“Sh-shut up. It was the noise. And the surprise.” Blushing, I looked towards the slime. They had shuffled closer to us, looking us over. “Uhm. Hey. Sorry about the state you’re in, he’s the idiot who caused it.” I gestured to Leonard, who awkwardly waved. “And we’re gonna help fix it.” The slime jiggled somehow, still spread out like a spill on the floor.

“Hello. You, uhm, can you change your shape? Become more solid and get a form? You should be able to, with a clear enough image.” Leonard tried helping with an explanation, but it was hard to tell whether the slime understood him or not. For at least the next minute we all just stood there quietly, after which the slime seemed to start coalescing into a more recognizable shape. Turning from a puddle on the ground, into a pink blob with cat ears and tail out of slime.

“Nya!” Was the first thing they said with their mouth. “Meow. Nya. Purrrrr.” They were just making cat noises and bouncing around now, giggling.

“Are you okay?” I had to ask, to be sure. They bent over a bit in response, probably nodding. “So, uhm, we can help you out if you want, get a human form back.” At this point, they jumped up, and changed shape in the air within seconds, going from a simple blob to a cat girl made out of goopy pink slime.

“Ooooooh!!!! Show show show show!!!” They were very close to my face, before jumping back a bit. “Oh right oops, personal space. I don’t quite care about being human again but if you got more magic, I wanna see!” Their enthusiasm at the prospect was intoxicating.

“Alright, sure you gummy cat or whatever you wanna be. I’m Lily, this here’s Leonard, and he’s the wizard that messed up.” I pointed towards me and then towards our local source of magic, whose hand the slime cat girl quickly grabbed and started shaking.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Félicie! Please tell me more about magic.” She stopped shaking his hand and was just holding it up, her… okay I guess those count as eyes. Her eyes sparkling with curiosity. And I thought I was the anime one with the fire fists. Irrelevant for now though!

“Okay, sure. Just, we need to go to my apartment first. So I can summon your ancestor for them to fix you up.” Leonard was definitely blushing and trying to look away.

“Ohmygod Leonard, you furry weeb, she’s a dream come true for you isn’t she.” I teased him, sticking my tongue out at him and winking as he got even more flustered.

“Sh-shut up! I’m not a furry weeb!” He desperately tried to lie.

“And I’m not into men, so he doesn’t have a chance anyway.” Félicie winked towards me and I had to hold back a snort. “But, okay, Demon Summoning! Gosh I’m excited to see it. Please tell me you got something on magic I could read or watch!” She let go of Leonard’s hand, as we started making our way up the stairs. “Gonna become a cat girl witch and help eggs hatch!” Félicie pumped her fists in the air, before reverting to the blob form. Leonard shot a quick glance towards me and then towards her. I was sure I didn’t become a bird demon. I wasn’t stuck in an egg I had to hatch from, as far as I could see...

“Good luck with that.” He said as we walked into his apartment, Félicie immediately jumping into the stacks of books, probably to look for stuff. Good luck with what, Leonard?

“Oh wow you got the graphic novel version of Mice Tea? I love that story! Can I borrow it?” Félicie hopped up to be visible from the stacks of books, holding the one she mentioned with a little appendage, kind of like a nub of slime sticking out from her. Cute.