Chapter 21: 21 – Interface

“Soo… these are real,” Frank said, eyeing my big fox ears. “Like really real real?”

“Well… yeah…?” I replied, touching one of my ears.

The two froze for a moment after I spoke. Casey opened her mouth but then shut it again.

Frank spoke up instead. “Man, you just keep coming out with these weird and crazy revelations! What’s next? Are you gonna turn us into foxgirls, too?” He sighed.

“Um…” I recalled the dream. Frank had been some kind of bull guy and Casey a bunny girl. Not quite foxes, but…

Frank stopped in his tracks when he saw I wasn’t denying his wild joke.

“Oh, come on! You can’t be serious!” He threw his arms in the air. “ Alright, You know what? I should just shut the hell up! What’s the point of coming up with crazy hypotheticals as a joke if they aren’t hypothetical at all?!”

“No, no! It’s… uh, this is the true form skill.” I pointed at myself. “You remember the one, right?”

“The…” He frowned for a second before realization brightened his face again. “Yeah, I remember! You could give yourself all sorts of things like tails, wings, animal ears…” He pointed at me again with his eyes wide. “Wait! Are you saying that we could learn that skill too? As… regular non-magical people from regular non-magical Earth?!”

“I mean, yeah, I think so.” I nodded. My ears had nodded with me, I realized. “I wanted to visit Elyssa with you. That’s the old woman in the Golden Woods who teaches the skill.”

“Yes! All the Yeses! That’s so cool! I can’t wait!” Frank pumped his fists. “Aaah, what should I get? Maybe some stylish horns? No, it has to be wings, right? Or maybe…” Frank soon departed into his own world of listing everything he wanted his true form to look like.

Casey, on the other hand, looked at me. Or rather, my ears. “So… Why did you choose… this…?” she asked, not knowing what my in-game avatar looked like.

“Aaah, you see, Casey, he’s one of those guys, you know? He always picked the girl characters in games.”

Something twisted itself inside me as Frank spoke. He wasn’t wrong, and yet, the way he said it made me want to beat him up to a pulp.

“I didn’t choose this,” I stated, sounding a bit more aggressive than I intended. Frank even took a step back at my intensity.

“I…” I sighed, trying to rile back the anger. “It’s not like in the game. When Elyssa taught me the skill and I used it, this is what I turned into.” I gestured at myself. “But even if I didn’t get a choice… It still feels… better to be in this form. Somehow.”

By the end of that sentence, I’d completely deflated and opted to look to the side rather than into my friends’ eyes.

“Oh, uh… Sorry about that. I just kinda assumed…”

“It’s fine…” I mumbled.

A moment of uncomfortable silence followed. I felt like that had been happening a lot with this visit.

“So anyway…” I finally spoke up to break up the awkwardness. “Wanna go visit Elyssa and learn the skill?”

After a second of hesitation in Frank’s expression before he turned back into his usual self. “Sure! But man, if I can’t choose like in the game, I hope I don’t become something weird. Like… a caterpillar, or… a cow or something.”

A cow…? Well, a bull was pretty close…

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I walked up to my closet, opened it, and pulled out my good old fox-eared robes.

“Wait, we’re going right now? What about your mom?” Casey spoke up whilst glancing at the door.

“It’s fine. She went grocery shopping. That always takes her an hour at the minimum.” I waved my hand at Casey as I donned the robes. “And anyway, we’re only gonna be gone for a couple of minutes. We should make it back before she does, no problem.”

“Alright then…”

“Sooo what’s up with the hyper-suspicious outfit?” Frank pointed at me as I faced them with the robes on.

“Suspicious?” I frowned. “It’s… well, I initially wore this to hide my identity before I could transform. And I guess I’ve gotten used to it at this point.” I shrugged whilst taking out two more similar robes from the closet.

“Well, I mean, if we are to create a secret shadowy conspiracy organization to fight another secret shadowy conspiracy organization, it totally fits.”

“Secret… What?”

“What? If we go by theory number one, then the devs are totally an evil conspiracy organization, invading and enslaving worlds.”

“Well, I mean…”

“And since we are the rebel force set on stopping them, we must also wear very mysterious dark clothing that draws attention!” He pumped his fist with a triumphant smile.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. Thinking about it, he was right. Rather than help me stay hidden, it drew attention. Heck, the trio had probably recognized me partially because I always wore the same thing.

“Right… We’ll get something less conspicuous next time. For now, I don’t have much to choose from, though,” I said whilst handing my friends the other robes. 

“I’m just messing with ya.” He laughed. “Alright, so… It’s still there, right?” He pointed at the space where the portal was.

I nodded and walked up to it. “For some reason… It doesn’t shock me when I’m in this form.” Then I frowned, realizing that I had no idea why. Was this form shock-resistant as well? That wasn’t one of the quirks of my game character. 

“Alright, I gotta see this…” Frank whispered and positioned himself to the side with his eyes peeled.

Once again, I grabbed the portal and tore it open. My fingers were still hurt from the previous opening and closing, but at least they didn’t get hurt even more now.

“Dammit. That’s so trippy!” Frank exclaimed. “One second you are grabbing the air, and another there’s a hole in spacetime!” He shook his head.

“It really is surreal…” Casey added.

“Yeah… It is.” I agreed. “So? Are you ready to go?”

“Sure! Let’s go get transformed into caterpillars!”