Chapter 12: Chapter 10 – It’s a kind of magic

“Oh so that’s the magic circle you used, interesting.” Félicie was bouncing around, looking at the circle from all angles as Leonard altered it. “Hey if magic is as simple as drawing a circle and saying words, why isn’t everyone doing it?” She stopped bouncing so as to form a question mark from herself. That Time My Upstairs Neighbor Turned Me Into A Slime, huh Félicie? 

“You know I’m wondering too now, why that’s the case.” I plopped down on the armchair, and Félicie in her blob form bounced onto my lap, pointing to the top of herself with that little grabby nub she could make. 

“Apply pets here please.” She said quietly. After a bit of apprehension, I complied with her request. Gurglepurrs are the weirdest noise you will ever hear let me tell you that. Leonard finished editing the circle and turned to us. 

“Well, magic isn’t that simple for humans. For us it’s like finding combinations in one of those old alchemy games. You know, mix water and earth get mud continue from there.” He dusted his hands off. “Somebody has to figure out the right combination of words, gestures, symbols, ingredients, locations and times for a spell to be discovered. And then they have to write it down so other people can copy it.” He made his way over and picked up Félicie against her protests, putting her in the smaller circle for the summoning. “While non-humans can just do magic. Usually a specific kind of magic related to their bloodline, but still, can just subconsciously do it.” 

“So you tried demonic heritage rituals to get inherent magic?” I scratched my chin in thought. “Didn’t you mention Angels and Fae also have kids? Nephilim and Changelings? Why not try one of those.” 

“Oh trust me, I’d love to, but those aren’t as simple as Demonic heritage. You need to get in effect knighted by an Angel to awaken that heritage.” Leonard handed Félicie the piece of paper with the summoning instructions. “And for Fae? You need to spend some time in the Fae Realm. And I haven’t found a way in there yet.” He seemed to mumble the next sentence to himself. “And Master won’t tell me a way in, because according to him they’d eat someone like me up right away. No clue if it’s the trans thing or turned into a twink thing, though.” 

“Bubble forth my parental ooze, rise like dough left to proof!” Félicie yelled out. God those were goofier words for summoning than what Amy had. And, truly, instead of a rip like Asano did yesterday, the circle lit up, and the lines started bubbling, an ooze spilling out from them, coalescing into a perfect cube.

“Well I’m glad the rumors of DnD being Satanic are compleeeeeeeetely false.” I tried to sound sarcastic. I have no clue if I succeeded at it. 

“What are you talking about, Solid One? Lucifer runs a campaign every Friday. Plays with the people who sold their souls to make sure their parties always showed up.” The Cube spoke. The Cube sounded like a very eloquent Elmo. The Cube sounded as if Elmo went to Law School. “Nevermind that, however, why have I been summoned?” I couldn’t tell if the Cube was looking around or anything. It just kinda stood there, jiggling, the voice coming out of it without an obvious source. Félicie, still in blobcat form, waved her little...well might as well call it a paw at this point - her little paw at the Cube. 

“Hello! You’re supposed to be my grandparent from what I’ve been told!” I think the Cube turned to face Félicie. Again, impossible to tell, it was just a block of gelatin in the middle of the room. 

“Yes. It does appear to be so. You may call me Gel. It is nice to meet you. I should probably follow human protocol for this.” Gel made a sound like sucking in a jello shot, coalescing into a humanoid form. Well, really, It was a human torso and arms and head, but with a single eye as the only facial feature. And a… slug? In place of legs. They bent down to shake hands with Félicie, who offered a paw. 

“Nice to meet you too. My name’s Félicie!”  Her little slime blob kitty face was heart meltingly cute. She was definitely being Like That on purpose. 

“Are you stuck in this form, child?” Gel inquired, their eye shifting to reflect this. 

“No, I just feel kind of comfortable like this right now. No need to think about limbs or such. So, you’re supposed to unlock all my magic, because Leonard messed up the ritual. At least that’s what he told me.” Félicie turned to shoot a hopeful look to Leonard, who awkwardly nodded.

“I see. It is unfortunate the ritual had not been performed properly. I do wonder what the specific mistake was.” At Gel’s question, I checked Leonard’s laptop once again. 

“Oh that’s cute Leo, new commission of your fursona for your wallpaper.” I stuck my tongue out at him as he got flustered. 

“I-it’s not a fursona! He just has the ears and tail. And stop just casually scrolling through my laptop like that!” Leonard pointed an accusatory finger at me.

“Oh please, Leonard, maybe if you didn’t keep all your grimoires on it and shit I wouldn’t have to.” I rolled my eyes at him and looked through the ritual file. “Uhh… okay yeah probably should have listened to dad and gone to law school to understand half this stuff. How the hell do you decipher this into a ritual? I don’t think the person who worked on these… localisations? Translations? Simplifications? Of rituals understood it either.” I showed the page to everyone around, as Gel straightened up with their chest pushed out and arms behind their back. 

“I had left exact and specific instructions on the process of awakening one of my descendants. I do not understand what the issue is in regards to my wording.” If they had a nose I’d expect it to be turned up. 

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“You spend a whole page describing that you need to use a slurry of chalk dust and water instead of just drawing the circle as usual. From what I can gather.” I shot back, sighing and stretching a bit. “Aaaaanyways, mind unlocking Félicie’s powers and stuff so we can just do our own things afterwards?” 

“Yes, I was about to perform the necessary steps for that.” Gel placed a hand on top of Félicie and hummed for a second, their slime going through all the colors of the rainbow before settling on the same pink with darker pink stripes that Félicie had. And then they removed their hand and eased into a lime green color. “The deed is done. The full transformative capabilities of a slime have been granted to you. You are not only able to change your shape, but also texture, material and color.” 

“So Félicie’s now Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” I cheekily asked, to be met with confusion from everyone. Well, almost everyone, Félicie gave me a look of utter disgust. “Oh come on, it’s a classic, barely over 100 years old, still holds up!” At my comment, Félicie stretched over to me, and bapped my face with a big paw.

“No.” Was all she said before easing into blob form. 

“I’m sorry about the joke.” She bapped me three more times, probably to shut me up. Leonard was trying to keep himself from laughing from what I could see, and as for Gel, they coalesced into a cube form once more. 

“If that is all you require of me, I think I shall be on my way.” The circle lit up once more, and they oozed through the lines, disappearing. Leaving the three of us youths alone in Leonard’s apartment. 

“I didn’t want to say anything while they were here but Elmo talking like a legal document is fucking hillarious.” I admitted, sighing deeply. “So that’s… four people you’ve fucked over with magical hijinks. Good job Leonard. Hey is there like a wizard council that deals with fuckups like this?” 

“Ooooh, wizard council, yes do tell!!” Félicie had quickly returned to her former enthusiasm at the prospect of finding out more about magic. 

“The human magical community is a loose knit bunch of magic users without proper leadership. It’s like trans people; being trans isn’t a set ideology or political movement, more of an identity and a set of traits that vary between people.” Leonard walked over to check a shelf. “That is to say, there isn’t a specific wizard council, but there are authority figures in spaces. Like the mods on that forum I use. Or experienced magic users that teach the new kids.” He pulled out a book and handed it to Félicie. “So I won’t get in trouble if people don’t find out I awakened four people by accident.” Félicie’s eyes lit up upon seeing the book. I peeked over to see what it was. The cover had a very adorable cartoon kitten witch on it, the title being My First Magic Book. 

“That’s gonna be me!!” Félicie giggled to herself, bouncing a bit, holding the book in her paws. I raised my eyebrow at Leonard in confusion. 

“Is that a legit magic book? It looks like something for kids to play pretend with.” I pointed towards it, and Leonard, despite not wearing any glasses, did the ‘poke nose to adjust glasses’ move. 

“I will have you know Miss Tabby Fairweather’s Textbooks For Aspiring Magic Users is a very popular and informative series that doesn’t talk down to it’s intended audience, being friendly to both children and adults trying to study the Arts.” He crossed his arms and huffed, as if I had hurt his feelings. He then turned to Félicie “It covers the basics of preparing a kit, a couple simple transmutation spells, a couple simple everyday spells like a flashlight and such. Let me know once you finish with it and I’ll lend you the rest.” I didn’t expect Leonard to smile, but he did. 

“Or. Oooooor.” Félicie switched from blob mode to catgirl mode, her paws now hands attached to proper arms. Plus seemed to have switched from a slime texture to a more soft fabric like texture. Oh, she went plush. “You give me the full series now, I go down to my basement apartment, I read through the whole thing and learn all I can, and then you give me all the stuff on alchemy you got, maybe?” She batted her eyelashes, Leonard blushed like crazy and took out all the books from one shelf, about 11 of them, twelve total with the one Félicie was already carrying. 

“They’re numbered on the side.” He handed them to Félicie, who nodded and skipped out of the apartment.

“Leo, she’s not into men, no point blushing like your wolfboy here you dork.” I rolled my eyes at him, as I looked through his image gallery on his laptop absentmindedly. “Oh wow I’m surprised that one fit. What was it you said about not knowing or looking at kinky stuff, Mister I-Commissioned-Smut-Of-My-Fursona.” 

“He’s not a fursona! And stop that!” He yanked the laptop away and closed it. “Out of my house, foul demoness! And come back when you find another victim or when I message you for help!” He pointed to the door, and I laughed as I left. 

“See you later, Leonard.” I winked at him, still laughing. 

“Yes, see you later, Lily.” He kept pointing, now with his eyes closed and blushing even harder. What a dork.