Rosa's expression didn't change at all from the Tanuki's self-indulgent line, keeping the same playful smirk. Martin grinned as he placed a hand on Rosa's shoulder, the kitsune not reacting at all, merely waving her tails in James' general direction.
"So what's a foxy beauty like you doing at a shindig like this?"
"Oh, I came with someone, and their sister."
"Is she as hot as you?"
"There's nobody as hot as me. She's more the cool and elusive type."
"Sounds interesting."
"Interesting, and unreachable, well, maybe not for you," Rosa said, silently laughing at her own private joke at Martin's expense. She brushed one of her tails against him. "But why chase after something when you've got a bonfire right here?"
"Yeah, I can definitely see who the flame of the party is!"
James snorted tiny flames out of his nostrils. He marched straight to the punch bowl, pushing two girls who'd been having a conversation out of the way (one of them the girl with cheap cat-ears and make-up who'd shown up with the guy in the monkey costume), both of them felt a tingle as he did so.
Soon the green dragon was looming over the Tanuki, to James' credit, he did not set Martin on fire where he stood. Instead James gripped a claw into Martin' shoulder, Martin's body not resisting. Martin showed no outward reaction of fear at the sight of James.
"You are handling something that's mine," James growled.
Instead of being upset at the description, Rosa was delighted, and was proud of herself for not laughing out loud.
"Well, I didn't see your name on it," Martin said innocently.
"Boys, boys, I have enough tails to go around," Rosa said a half-hearted performance, that as she predicted, not riled them up more!
"You've got a nose, for now, you think you'd know not to try and tangle with what has my scent!"
"Don't have your wings in a twist. The lady and I were just talking! And if we were going to have fun, I think there's one place I've got you beat lizard boy!" Martin grinned so wide it was a wonder his head didn't fall off. Martin's eyes gazed at James' smooth reptilian crotch, while patting the lower half of his apron.
"That just makes a bigger target! You're just bluster!" James barked flames. Rosa stood strategically between them, loving the show.
"Abby stay behind me," Kacey said calmly and maturely.
"Yes," Abby said, having the strong urge to add, 'my lady', to the end. Kacey carried herself with such calm, such control, such utterly natural confidence, Abby found herself looking to the mighty unicorn.
"Elder brother, please do not do anything too thoughtless, lest we attracted unwanted attention to our gathering," Kacey said.
"Don't lecture your big brother, I've got this," James said, not impressed by his sister's elaborate style of speaking, but he held back his awe at the amount of power she was radiating that rivaled his own.
"Yeah, I'm sure you've both got this," said Brad, the phoenix said, none of them showing outward reaction that this was their first time speaking to each other after their transformations into something more than human. "But if you guys are gonna compare measurements, would you mind doing it in the backyard? I don't want the living room trashed and having to explain to the fire department a dragon got angry at a raccoon making moves on his fox!"
Rosa only smiled more. She spread out her tails, the flames on the tips flickering in people's eyes.
"Oh yes! I think a wrestling match between a tanuki and a dragon! It would be quiet entertaining for us guests! Wouldn't you agree? A chance to show off your strength dear! Unless you're scared of a little tanuki with a giant weak point!"
If James won, she'd congratulate her dragon on his victory in her name... and if he lost... she'd tame the wild beast, as only she could, and then maybe explain Martin was only her plaything, and could never hope to handle a vixen like her.
The other guests, helped along by Rosa's subtle magic, were all intrigued by this act of apparent ad lib showmanship between furries. Kacey was relieved that Rosa had apparently civilized the conflict, though suspicious of the fox's motives.
Most of the party guests began to shuffle out to watch the show. Rosa, in spite of being the instigator and moderator of this event, slowly back pedaled, focusing on the two cat girls who'd struck up a conversation that James' had touched. Already awakening and becoming one with their new and improved selves.
She saw it, that look of confusion and alarm in their eyes, giving way to excitement and glee! The things that had been human about them being neatly wiped away like dust from a statue.
The woman who had come in a furry costume had dressed up as a purple and white cat woman with long hair the same fur color with impressive features... of course, assuming it HAD been a woman in there, the world was full of cross-cosplayers and cross-furries. With the costume becoming skin tight, and becoming the woman's furry skin period, there was no way to tell if it had been a suit like Rosa's had been, or was something more elaborate. Not that it mattered anymore. Her body became lithe and alluring, accented by toned muscle. Rosa also noticed how the woman's tail forked into two… the mark of a nekomata.
Rosa held back a laugh, she felt no shame or humiliation in showing her furry body to others, it was hers to show off as she pleased. But she did wonder if whoever or whatever had brought forth this gift, was either a passionate nudist, or just a perv, Rosa held back a laugh at the second one, men were driven by one thing, and that made them all the easier to play around with! Like dolls. She knew the human Rosa would have been turned off by such thoughts, but she didn't exist anymore.
But interesting, for the girl who had come only with the cat-ears headband and make up, her clothes DIDN'T vanish into thin air, making the first mythic so far created who wasn't a nudist (Martin wearing the apron simply to keep humans from seeing his 'tanuki pouch.').
The lass became a regular black furred feline anthro (Rosa was amused at how she so easily used the word 'regular' and 'anthro'). Her eyes became green with narrow pupils, her hands claws, and her expensive designer boots vanished as they could no longer fit her digigrated legs.
Her outfit hadn't been anything too spectral, dress, shorts, red jacket... though Rosa did notice that the girl now had a furry tail as white as moonlight, a bakeneko. Without thinking, the girl took out a cloth with two holes in it, and wrapped it around her head, her replacement ears poking through. Oh right, Bakenko liked to wear those. Then again Nekomata liked to wear kimonos and that wasn't the case with this one.
Speaking of which, both feline yokai began to look at each other with instinctive agitation and growing hostility. Rosa had never heard of any rivalry between Bakeneko and nekomata in any myth she'd ever heard of, most of the time in fact they were mistake for each other in various stories, even if nekomata were in general considered much more malevolent (not that bakeneko were saints of course), and Nekomata having a habit killing their caretakers after their tail split. But it seemed these two were feeling a sense of animosity towards each other. Fangs and claws were beginning to show.
As much as Rosa was loving things to get stirred up between James and Martin, a cat fight was going to be bloody and ugly, and WAS going to get the attention of the humans, and explaining THAT away was going to be near impossible, even humanity’s ability to burying their heads in the sand had limits!
Rosa fully spread her tails, the flames floating above the tips in a way that no springs or motors could have.
"Ladies, could you look this way please?" She said in her most charming voice.
The feline yokai turned to look at Rosa's dancing flames, the flames dancing in their eyes. Like a laser pointer playing with a kitty.
"Do you like the pretty lights kitties? Aren't they nice? Just keep your eyes on it. Seeing how it dances? Can you keep your eyes on it? Isn't it beautiful? The way the flames flickers? Making you more relaxed? More peaceful? And with flicker of the flames, you feel more at peace, nothing is wrong, there is nothing to worry about, nothing to think about it. Just the pretty flames. You can hear my voice, in fact, it's just my voice you hear, you feel so at peace with my voice, it feels so safe, feel so right, just listening to my voice. No reason to fight, no reason to struggle, just the beautiful flame and my voice."
Rosa has no delusions about this trick working on any of the others, and by 'the others' she naturally meant her fellow mythics, these two however were still in the transition stage, her minds still putty being remolded, which Rosa intended to take full advantage of. She might have been able to use this trick on humans, but that felt BORING.
Rosa also knew she didn't have long before she was missed and Martin and James started their brawl without her (and that wouldn't do at all, both because she'd miss the show and the two of them WOULD get things out of hand!). So she'd have to be as quick as possible with these two.
Rosa wondered about how far to go, but decided she'd go as far as possible! Why do anything half baked?
"Now, you two are relaxed right? Completely relaxed. Now you are more relaxed. And now more relaxed still. Nothing to worry, nothing to think, nothing to feel, just the voice and the flame... You two are relaxed right?"
"Yeah." "Uh-huh." They relaxed.
"Good. We sink deeper and deeper into your minds. The flames guiding you. You can hear my voice in nothing else. The rest of the universe doesn't exist right now. It's just me, you, and the flames... "
The two feline yokai stood, their expressions slack, their posture likewise limp, their eyes glued on Rosa's flames.
"And now, in your mind, put everything that makes you you, your personality, your identity, your sense of self, and put it into a little doll ... do you see the doll? In your hands?"
"Yes..." "I do..."
"Good. ... " And Rosa struck the hammer. "Now toss the doll out. It's gone. And everything with it... Smash it."
The two shuddered, their eyes glazed over. "Yes... it's gone." They echoed.
"Good... now, place a new doll, identical to each other, it's of a pretty maid, a servant, a minion. The doll doesn't feel fear, worry, concern, shame, humiliation, anger, and so you don't, you and the doll are one and the same. Then empty out the doll of all the useless things. You feel obedient. The doll doesn't feel tired, exhausted, hateful, lustful. You feel duty. You feel servitude. The other things you throw away, they aren't part of the doll, aren't part of you. The doll is well behaved, obedient, loyal, subservient, obedient, dutiful, these are what you are."
The two stood up at attention, with identical posture, their eyes losing their centers.
"You are standing on a cliff. Before you is a vast emptiness. You leap off the cliff, entering the void. You sever all ties. The void fills you, it is you. You serve, you obey. Other things don't matter to you. You are whole and complete. There are no distractions from your purpose, you serve and obey."
"We serve and obey," the two yokai said, Rosa's flames swirling around them, burning away the bakeneko's clothing, and placing a bell collar around both their necks as they stood like reflections of each other.
"The two of you are the same. Identical. Take your memories, and put them into a filing cabinet, lock them away, only take them out as you have practical use of them. You don't hope and dream, you serve and obey."
"We serve and obey," the dolls echoed.
"What do you do?"
"We serve and obey."
"What is your purpose?"
"To serve and obey."
"And what else?"
"There is nothing else."
"And what is there?"
"To serve and obey."
Rosa extinguished the flames. "Perfect. Now come along dolls, there are many guests who are in need of good servants to tend to them during this party. Distract them from all things that might disrupt the fun and games until all are transformed."
"We serve and obey," they echoed and bowed.
Rosa walked out to where Martin and James were biting at the reigns to get their wrestling match started.
Meanwhile, the monkey cosplayer walked back in, Rosa brushing against his leg with one of her tails as she passed.
"Hey! Fanya! Ya in here! Whoa! Did everyone bring a second costume except me?" He declared. "I thought you said you weren't into this sort of thing!"
He said, looking her over, and noticed her lack of expression. "Hey, you okay Fanya?" Said putting a hand on Fanya, the bakeneko's, shoulder as the purple nekomata continued to march along without missing a beat.
"There is no Fanya, only service and obedience."
"WHAO!" He grinned. "I didn't think you were interested in doing THAT kinda role playing!" He put an arm around her shoulder, she didn't react at all. He admitted he was kinda excited at how quickly she pulled this off, and being able to stay in character. "Where did you get this new and improved costume?"
"There is no costume... just as for you too there will be no costume."
"Geeze! You really are hammering this home. Okay kitty cat, come along with me, and stay by yer king's side!"
"We serve and obey," she said in monotone, not seeing herself as a person.
Dwayne reached down and held her rear as they walked outside to see the show that Martin and James had thrown together, again, Dwayne was impressed by her lack of reaction. If this was how she wanted to swing it, he wasn't about to argue, a king was nothing without his faithful servant after all. He was gonna have to ask after the party how she got that tail to be so lifelike though.