Myra was thinking of returning her former artwork to a form resembling its old state. However, as she turned her senses to the task, she suddenly felt herself pause, some instinctual gut reaction she couldn't rationalize.
It was then that the door to her train carriage opened, revealing Simone. The young one, but Myra could still sense the fragment of her older self within her.
"I expected you to be halfway through doing the first now," Simone said, "I can't exactly force you on this issue, but hear me out... All I want is for you to give them time to think."
Myra scowled. "Their hearts, their minds, their very essence... You would deny that?"
Simone shrugged. "Minds and essence, maybe... But, do you really think that's all there is to a person?" she said, "then again... You have made yourself forget at least once already, so maybe you're just worried what that knowledge could do in the wrong hands."
Myra felt every fibre in her body tense up, sadness and anger swelling. "Are you really going to try and bring HER into this?"
"Would you rather I not, and end up repeating her mistakes?" Simone asked. "You've already seen it first hand, a spirit stripped of the essence that gives them their form is still a person, you can see it in any spirit stripped from their bodies... Do you really think that these essence-less spirits wouldn't have a preference on what kind of essence you gave them?"
Myra sighed. "So... What, the life energy she fed of is their true self in your eyes? What if I don't care if their essence and their 'spirit' aren't in agreement? No mortal I've even done it to has ever noticed nor cared."
"Yes... No mortal," Simone said, "but... They're not mortal anymore, they're 'mythics'. This immediately gives them both a greater awareness of the nature of their spirit, of the energy that gives their soul form, but also the time needed to eventually question their essence, and whether they mean to or not, they will wear it away and rebuild it with one that better suits their true self."
Myra scoffed. "Yet you make it sound like it could be thousands of years away, their happiness in the moment seems far more pressing."
"If they were ordinary mythics, that might be true," Simone said, "but they're mythics born of an incredible amount of energy, taken from an entire city of mythics, amplified, and returned even stronger in the most messed up feedback loop you can imagine. You're poking at a bomb, and you don't even realize it since you blinded yourself to it, and only your instincts are left to hold you back. If you'd gone through with what you were thinking of doing, then MAYBE it might be fine if you spent all your energy doing so, but its just as likely that they might rupture a hole in their essence in the middle of a crowded city, and suddenly we'd be dealing with something just like the storm we just left, but without even an awakened spirit to control it."
Myra groaned. "Okay... Lets say I believe you... What then? I'm supposed to just wait for some part of them that's not even awake yet to make its choice on something it doesn't understand?"
Simone smiled. "Some of them have already made... A choice... Not nessacarily their final one but... It fits with the nature of some mythics to spend much of their time in stone, and the rest in flesh... Usually sleeping in stone, with their dreams radiating their energy outwards... Most people just call that 'gargoyles'." Simone walked over to the sleeping baby dragoness curled around the puma's legs, and lightly tapping the scales, giving off dull sound like stone, her normal colours appearing painted on. "I could have led this little talk with this... But I don't think there'd be as many examples if I had."
Myra looked, watching as the tired puma standing above the baby dragoness let out a little yawn, which curled into a stone face of a roar as she felt asleep herself, the winged serpent around her tail tightening as she too changed.
She sighed. "Well... You did tell me to wait, and you succeed in that... But don't be surprised if I dye all your scales pink in your sleep."
Simone laughed nervously. "Yeah... I guess that sounds fair."
---
Meanwhile, Skyla was teasing Curtana with a hand mirror floating with just a hint of Skyla's magic. "Go on, you do have to be true to yourself," Skyla said, "you love yourself now, so you love everything about your new self now, you even love how embarrassing and humiliating it is don't you?"
Curtana didn't think she could blush any harder. "Please Skyla... Not where others can hear," she said.
Skyla brushed up against her. "You can always whisper it... It can be just between us," she said.
Curtana groaned as she shifted a little uncomfortably. "I... I do... I don't want to think about it but... Even though I look like a housepet, even though I'm just a baby who'll pee her own diapers any minute... Even though I look like the girliest little girl, in a dress and bright pink pampers, and scales to match... I... I love this form, and I can't even wish to be anything else, because my maid half loves me for this form, and loves being this form because its given me her love for this form."
Skyla giggled and put the mirror down. "You're so cute when you're embarrassed," she said, "though... I have to ask... Would you have liked the all fours look before?"
Curtana looked up and pouted, letting it sit for a moment before sighing. "Maybe... I mean, if I was as big as an adult human at least... Maybe the size of a horse or more... But its still giving up a bit too much of my human dignity, I could look regal and everything but the moment I have to grab a pencil or something it would be just... Goofy."
Skyla smiled. "Does remembering your old perspective change your new one?"
"No, not really," Curtana said, "if anything, its just a reminder that I'll be lucky if I don't wind up with a humiliation fetish when puberty finally kicks in again."
The sound of the doors opening at the end of the train car suddenly drew their attention, as Myra walked in having taken on her humanoid form to carry Simone back in. "Ah, good to see you both bonding, you both look adorable like this," Myra said at the pair, "interesting to see you stuck like that though my little kit, it only took me a minute to figure it needs to be done backwards now."
Skyla blushed. "The storm hadn't even started when I got stuck like this, how was I supposed to even guess what had happened?" she said, "... In hindsight... I did first get stuck like this due to changing at... Where the storm would start... Right after the event that led to the storm."
"Well, now you know," Myra said, "you planning on giving it a try?"
"I'm not sure what the point would be while we're still this young," Skyla said, "trade four legs and the ability to run quickly, for two legs and two clumsy hands that can't pick anything up anyways, and still having to crawl due to being to young to stand. I may as well just practice telekinesis for a while."
Myra hummed, and took a look over at Curtana. "Maybe you would-"
"-please don't, I have enough of an identity crisis without adding to it... Just like everyone else here," Curtana said.
Myra sighed and placed Simone down next to them. "Well, its beginning to sound like Master Curtie here wouldn't have approved of me turning my creations back to their normal selves either... Maybe you should have got her to convince me, it would have only taken a word from her."
"I still have my pride as a princess," Simone said, punctuating it with a pout. "If I ran to Master Curtie every time I disagreed with someone, nobody would respect me."
Just then, as if to break up the moment, Danielle jumped down from the back of one of the seats with her wings catching the air as she did, carrying a bag in her mouth which she dropped into the seat. "I checked the snack car, it looks like all the food was replaced with baby food... I hope you like apple juice and tubes of yoghurt."
The little group just blushed, while Myra had a Cheshire cat grin like she was going to be the lucky one to spoon feed her adorable little master herself.