Chapter 11: Chapter 10: Jools’ turn

“Close the door, Jools.” I say in a calm, but firm voice and he does so, AFTER stepping in.

“You have a lot of tattoos.” he says while I put on the same outfit I wore yesterday with the help of my inventory.

“Wow, you are so observant. Why did you just walk into my room?” I continue at the same time as I put my hoodie and pants back into my inventory.

“How did you do that?” he mumbles, before answering himself with “probably magic” then continuing slightly louder “You just disappeared after we ate, so I thought I would check in on you. You seemed to be more than a bit stressed today, so I was worried and thought you might want to talk about it. Also, what is up with all the mirrors?”

“I have been reflecting. Pun intended. Sorting through my memories and adjusting to the fact that this is not the body I remember having. Having more than one set of memories has kinda been messing with my head over the last two days and I finally decided to untangle that mess. Turns out I am some combination of George and Zena, my mind being mostly George’s, but not fully and my body being mostly Zena’s, but again not fully.” I answer, kinda summarizing my recent thinking.

“Wait, you mean that even the bodies are mixed?” he says, probably louder than he intended.

“Yes, that’s what I said”

“Do you mind if I borrow the mirrors?”

With a nod, I step away and sit down on the bed, leaving the hovering mirror such that he can use it. What follows is him throwing away his clothes as fast as he can manage and doing several poses in the middle of the mirrors.

“Aren’t you worrying about me seeing you naked…” I trail off, realizing how stupid my question is, given that he walked naked through the town yesterday.

“I’m not naked, and not really. Besides we are all guys here” He answers, not even turning too look at me.

“I’m kinda not, though” I answer as calmly as I can.

This causes him to turn to face me and say “wait. Really?”

“And here I called you observant earlier.” some exasperation seeping into my voice.

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“Hang on, I thought it was all a mind thing? Should I start treating you as a woman?”

“The body affects the mind, and my mind isn’t strictly George’s. Also it’s not like you haven’t treated me like a woman before.”

“Well, yeah. I did with your roleplay, but to be honest I have never thought of you as a woman.”

“To be fair, I didn’t either, but being in this body, I find it hard not to. I kinda also don’t mind it, maybe even like it, but I need some more experience to be sure. Two days is just not enough time.” I feel my face reddening a little bit as I feel awkward saying it out loud, but if we are going to make it in this world, hiding stuff like this is going to cause problems down the line.

“I see… I’ll take note.” his voice almost trailing off at the end, before picking back up “Do you want me to get dressed again?”

“Nah, just continue. You probably need to figure it out just as badly as I did. By the way, want me to anti-drunk you?”

“Alright, and no, I didn’t drink a lot today.”

With that out of the way, he continues with poses and inspecting his body, occasionally adjusting the floating mirror manually. Periodically he just freezes and stares, which looks kinda weird, but I just did it a few minutes ago, so who am I to judge? So I just lay back on the bed and relax.

At some point I dozed off, and when I woke up the sun was shining in through the window and Jools was nowhere to be seen. Sitting up, I realized that I fell asleep with my clothes on. Standing up and walking in front of the big mirror, I find the hovering mirror laying in front of it. Sending a bit of mana to it, raises it into the air, after which I stow it away into my inventory. Seeing my reflection, I find it more like me, now that I did some introspection. Also my already messy hair has become worse yet again. I wish I had a brush. Looking through my list of vanity items, I find none, which is weird, since I could have sworn that I had one. Widening my search to the other categories, I finally find it listed as a weapon, specifically a wand. Taking it out, it looks like a decorated hair brush and if I remember correctly, it was meant to go with a magical girl style outfit. Not really my style, but I collected it anyway. Whilst brushing my hair, I decide to run some mana through the brush, which feels nice, but doesn’t do anything else. After I’m done, my hair still looks slightly ruffled, but it’s as good as it’ll get since my hair isn’t straight. Feeling nature’s call, I realized my mistake after entering the bath. This outfit doesn’t have any seams, which makes it impossible to do it without taking it all off. Sighing, I magic the clothing away and sit down naked. 

Feeling relieved and ready for the day after casting cleanse on myself, since I still refuse to touch the cloth, I walk out in front of the mirror again, only to realize I'm still naked. Sighing yet again, I start the process of selecting what to wear. Dressing up is something I still very much enjoy, so I try a fair few outfits, only to settle on a green wizard’s robe with golden patterns. Technically it’s an outfit for men, but the gender barrier never stopped me before.

Stowing the triple mirror in my inventory, I head downstairs for some food and water.

To my surprise, Jools is already sitting there eating what appears to be leftovers from yesterday's dinner, chatting with the proprietress. She turns and smiles knowingly at me, which kinda confuses me.