I've been waiting for Charles for two and a half hours. Like I know he said he had to wait and that it was a bit of a walk but come on man. I don't think he got suspicious or betrayed me or anything. I haven't seen or heard any soldiers or defenders, nor have any bombs or missiles been dropped on my house. He probably got lost….. yea, he would get lost in a neighborhood he knows. I also sent my family a text saying I was OK and waiting for them at home. The response, "OK sweety, leftovers are in the fridge." After that check my mana again only to find it had regenerated some. So I decided to do some testing with Mimicry, figuring my mana would atleast regenerate enough by the time Charles got here.
I discovered some interesting things. The initial cost is very steep, but keeping the parts transformed is just a slow drain. The cost varies based on the part, just transforming my wings is cheaper than say, both the wings and the tail. It's exactly as the description says, cost is dependent on how much of the body is being shifted. I can change my look to anything I want as long as it's humanoid, I gave myself pointy ears so I looked like an Elf for a bit before shifting back. Cost isn't affected by what I change it to either. It's just the steep up front cost of changing it again. The exception being that shifting it back to normal costs nothing.
It's so surreal, being able to just change myself like that. There is no way I could use this for more than two to three hours tops with full mana. So I've thought up a few ideas on how I can lower the costs. First I can wrap my tail around my waist and wear a long shirt, as long as no one runs their hand across my midsection they won't know. And if they do I'll just yell pervert, because who would believe a pervert? Another is on sunny or cold days I can maybe wear a hat that could cover the horns. That's a big maybe though, and I won't be able to do that during summer. I might be able to get away with the eyes by saying I'm trying out contact lenses but I'd rather not risk it given how they almost seem to glow.
So now I'm just fiddling with my phone waiting for Charles to arrive while my mana regenerates. The news is blowing up about the attack on our little city, and of course how Grey Spade was here to defend it. Headlines line "The Harrowing day of Feb 24th for Shimerview, VA" and "Grey Spade single handedly saves city and anti demon weapons factory!" Surprisingly there were only a few powerful demons, and even fewer lessers, despite the fact they blew through into our reality early. That would explain why the city is still intact. They say there is no ryme or reason to the placement of reality breaches, but sometimes I can't help but wonder, especially when a demon fucking targets me in particular.
Still, it's over now. The army is searching the city and surrounding area for any stragglers, but most, if not all, the demons died in the initial attack. Still, according to Twitter feeds a lot of people have opted to stay in the bunkers for another day while the cleanup finishes. The city isn't too trashed, but judging from some of the pictures online, some buildings are definitely getting condemned. The fighting seems to have been centered around the down and midtown areas, with uptown, the factory, and the suburbs being spared major damage.
I'm honestly getting bored with the news. Once you read like three articles you basically know everything there is to know, the rest are just repeats. Same with social media, after the first few tweets and posts the rest are just parroting what others have said in an attempt to soak up likes and attention.
I'm debating on whether or not to jump over to Vidshare to watch some funny videos from my favorite gamers when I hear the front door open and close. Oh for fucks sake don't tell me it's looters or something.
"Lucy, you here?" Comes the familiar voice of Charles from downstairs.
My heart jumps for a moment before I get a hold of myself and stick my head into the hallway to call him up. Normally he'd text that he's here and wait, then again no one else is home.
"Hey Charles. Upstairs in my room, come on up."
"Damn, this place is a ghost town. There was literally no one but a few patrols on my way over."
"Yea I know, but at least the city is mostly intact. Just come on in, I'm decent." I say as Charles approaches the door, finishing activating Mimicry and throwing on a shirt just in time for him to open the door. He steps inside and closes the door before I jump on him and give him a big hug, which he returns.
"Thanks for coming, it's good to see you're OK. I'm… I'm way out of my league here." I say.
"Yea, it's OK Lucy. Whatever it is, I'm sure we can get it handled. So what exactly is the problem?" Charles asks while pulling out of the hug and looking around.
Oh shit how do I even begin to explain this!? Stupid, stupid, stupid me! I had all that time to think of how to explain this and I spent it browsing my phone! OK calm down, I'll just…. Start from the beginning and tell him the whole thing I guess. Ease him into it.
"Well, um. Just have a seat, it will be easier to start from the beginning and it's a bit long. So just let me finish before you ask any questions. So to start, I didn't exactly get dropped on a roof." I say while gesturing to my desk and chair.
Charles sits down and I start from explaining what happened going forward from when I was kidnapped by the demon. I tell him how it took me up high and stabbed me, about the soul war dream thing and how fussy it is in my memory, and how little sense a lot of it made. He looked disturbed and wary when I said it had stabbed me with its tail, but his mood brightened slightly when I got to the part of how I apparently won the soul war.
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"After that I woke up in my bed, but I had a few uhhhh, extra bits." I say timidly.
Charles just sits there, staring blankly at me while I sit on the edge of my bed fidgeting. I’m really hoping he doesn't just jump up and spring out of the room. After what seems like an eternity he finally says something, though his expression is unchanged.
“So, you know you sound utterly insane right?” He asks me.
“Charles, I feel utterly insane! I want to just close my eyes and wake up and it will be friday again! But no matter how many times I try I just wake back up in this shithole reality!”
“Ok, fair enough. So, you said you woke up with… extra bits?”
“Yea, so, I kinda have wings, a tail, and horns now, and I need your help in finding out if I can undo it or not.”
“Lucy, you don’t look like you have wings, horns, or a tail.”
“Because I’m hiding them using magic.”
“Wait, magic? Like the magic system defenders use?” Charles asks, his expression brightening up a little.
“Yea, that kind of magic. I had to do the tutorial earlier today which is why I didn't call you immediately after waking up.” I reply, getting a little hopeful myself.
“Ok, so the good news is demons don't use the system. It’s a little tidbit that not many people know about but we have managed to interrogate a few sentient ones. They say, and supposedly our interrogation techniques confirm, that they don't use the system, they just innately use magic. So since I know you don’t know squat about demons for the most part this is easy. Lucy, what does the stats screen look like?” Charles asks, his expression hardening once more as he pulls out his phone and holds his finger over the power button. I know what he’s doing, if I answer this wrong or try to kill him he’ll triple press the button and activate the S.O.S feature. Both the cops and his family members will get a ping of his location and a five second audio clip of what's going on. I have the same feature enabled on my phone in case I get robbed while out and about. It won't save him if I'm actually a demon, but it will get a shit ton of cops, and by extension soldiers here to finish me off as a final act of vengeance. Honestly, the fact he hasn't pressed it yet shows he has a lot of trust in me, or hope at least. I take a deep breath and pull open my stats window.
“It’s um, a bunch of boxes inside boxes. The outermost one is dark blue, followed by a lighter blue one. Inside the lighter blue one are two more dark blue boxes, a small wide one at the top and a fairly big one on the bottom. Inside the top one are four gray boxes that contain, in order from left to right, my name, my race, my class, and my power level. In the bigger box on the bottom are nine gray boxes, with the top three being mana, the word stats, and my free ability points. The middle three are strength, agility, and dexterity, while the bottom three are endurance, intelligence, and attunement. Oh and the whole thing obstructs most of my vision when I open it. Now do you believe me?”
“That's almost spot on actually, supposedly no two people’s stats windows look exactly the same but they all contain the same information. And the window is said to block most of the vision. At least that's what I’ve read, since you know, I don't have magic myself. You also didn't notice me taking your phone did you?” He asks with a hint of mischief in his voice.
I quickly close out the stats screen and look down to my right. Sure enough my phone isn't where I left it, instead Charles was waving it around with a shit eating grin on his face. Charles seems to slow down to only half his actual speed as I lunge for him, he has barely started reacting as I get to him. I swipe my phone back and jump back to my bed, looking back to see Charles flailing and tipping backwards.
“Jesus Lucy! I was going to give it back, calm down!” Charles shouts at me as he attempts to right himself.
“Serves you right.” I sneer at him as he manages to finally throw his weight forward enough to slam the front legs of the chair back onto the floor.
“God damn you got fast. Ok, so you said you got um, extra parts? What does the system say your race is exactly?” Charles questions, getting up from the chair and leaning against the desk.
“It says I’m a Nu, whatever the hell that is.” I reply.
Charles pauses for a second, seemingly lost in thought before he pulls out his phone and starts messing with it. After a few moments of finger swiping and pressing, he starts typing, before finishing it off with another finger press.
“hmmm, nope, nothing in the demon wiki about Nu. So… are you going to show me the…" He trails off while gesturing to me.
I guess I do kinda need to show Charles to get his input. If anything he seems to at least believe I'm still me, so he can help me with hiding this crap.
"Fine, just promise not to freak out okay." I reply while taking off my shirt. The bra thankfully clips together low enough to avoid the wings. The shirt however would die a horrible death by ripping if I tried to keep it on, at least I suspect it would. Thankfully the damned tail comes out high enough above my ass I can keep my pants on.
"Promise…. Lucy, what are you doing?" Charles asks, averting his gaze like a proper gentleman.
"What does it look like, taking my shirt off. I haven't seen if it will survive my wings coming out and I don't want to test it. Don't worry, my bra and pants stay on."
"Oh good…. So…. oh.” Charles starts to say something but stops as I finish taking off my shirt and release the mimicry spell. Still feels weird yet natural having access to magic. He stares at me with an expression of shock and awe as my wings, horns, and tail all come back. I fidget all the while from a mix of the uncomfortable attention and the fear that he’ll freak out on me. After it's done two things happen. First, he just continues to sit there staring at me slack jawed. Second, I feel a new sensation, where Charles is standing. I can feel his presence, not just see it, and to boot I know I can sense how powerful he is. Which is not very powerful at all. After an uncomfortably long time I start waving at him to get his attention. It seems to work as he snaps back into focus and looks me over.
“Earth to Charles. You good?” I sheepishly ask him.
“Uhhh yea, are you good, didn't that hurt or something?” he replies, seeming a little out of it.
“No, just a little discomfort, but it passes once it finishes. Are you sure you're good?” I ask him, slowly standing up and taking a step forward. He doesn't immediately back away or react poorly which I take as a good sign.
“Yea uhhh, sorry, I guess the full realization of it just hit me. So, um…. Wow! You’re a…. I honestly don't know. Those wings are definitely similar to a succubus's, same with the tail. The horns however I’ve never seen anything like. Do they do anything?” He asks, his eyes lighting up in excitement.
“They’re letting me sense you, for lack of a better word. I can feel where you are and how powerful you are. It's kinda weird.”
“That's freaking cool lucy, well, the fact you got turned into a demon or sorta half demon isn't. But the magic, that's so freaking cool!”
“Charles not helping! I don’t want to be a demon, I want to be normal! How do I undo this!?” I yell at him.
“Um well, as far as I know…. You don't.”