Glancing into the mirror, Olivia Warthen saw herself, a woman in her early twenties, dressed in baggy shorts and a light t-shirt. Nails without paint, face without makeup, brown hair running down her shoulders. She grabbed the canvas, taking it with her into the living room among her other art supplies, stopping along the way to give her German Shepherd, Wilbur, a hug. A few landscapes and paintings of family hung from the walls, not her usual work, but they were the kind of thing she wouldn't mind guests seeing.
Speaking of guests, there was a knock at the front door, followed by barking and the sound of paws sliding across the floor as Wilbur rushed through the living room toward the sound. With a smile, she got up.
“Wilbur, shh!” Olivia patted her dog and opened the door. “Hey Nick.”
The young man at the door smiled as he stepped inside. “Hi Oliva.”
Olivia had first met Nicholas Owens at a local furry event, where she had intended to sell some of the art she had really been passionate about creating. He'd been more into writing, while she preferred drawing and painting, but the two had nonetheless gotten along, as they'd talked about the fun and frustrations of the furry art community, what got them into the fandom, and soon, other details of their lives. Since they both lived in the same town, the two of them went on to meet up, chat, and review each other's work.
“How're things going at the bank?” Olivia asked.
“More 'interesting' than usual. Had some drunk try to come in and pass off some of the most blatant counterfeits I'd ever seen. Got rowdy when we asked him to leave, but security dealt with him quickly. How was your day?”
“Uhg, just terrible, as usual. Higher-ups let the rentals get overbooked for the third time this week, so I had a line full of angry clients not getting the cars they'd paid for, taking out their rage on the only scapegoat they had on hand, me. But on the plus side, I picked up a few art supplies.” She gestured toward the canvas. “Wanna be my model again, today?”
He shrugged. “Eh, why not.” Nick had always been a patient guy, able to sit still and listen attentively for hours. Perhaps it was simply part of his easygoing nature. He pulled up a stool, and, at Olivia's prompting, struck a few poses, until they'd found one she liked.
“Good, just hold right there for a bit, at least long enough for me to finish the sketch.” She took a seat on the other side of the canvas, chuckling to herself as she saw that it looked so worn, you could nearly see straight through it. On a whim, she decided to start by drawing right over him.
She drew in a rough outline of his human form, first, composed of basic lines and shapes. Of course, it wouldn't be merely a basic human that she was drawing, and she added in a quick curved line behind him to begin the tail.
But when she'd lifted her pencil, she was shocked to see Nick squirming in his seat, as a long, thin appendage, the same color as the rest of his skin, instantly appeared on his back, in the same pose she'd drawn. At least, until Nick yelped, (prompting a bark from the confused Wilbur) and leaped off the stool in understandable surprise; then to Olivia's greater surprise, the sketch she had drawn mimicked the movement in perfect sync. Within the canvas.
“Wh-what on Earth is going on?” Nick gasped, feeling at the new limb. “It that a TAIL? How'd I get a tail?”
Olivia backed away from the canvas. “I don't know! I was drawing on you and...” She gasped. It didn't seem possible. But neither was a drawing coming to life, or her friend growing a tail. “...I think I know what did it! Hold still!”
Nick complied, and Olivia grabbed an eraser. With a few quick swipes, the line for the tail had been rubbed out, and the real tail followed, shrinking back into Nick without a sign it had ever been there.
“How?” Nick shivered, and shook his head. Olivia couldn't help but notice what was left of the outline she'd drawn still mimicked the motion. “How did you DO that?”
“I don't know!” Olivia raised her hands defensively. “I think it must be something to do with that canvas. I got it from a magic shop. Can you see the drawing from this side? The sketch I'd made of you came to life at the same time.”
“I can't see it from here, let me have a look.” He walked around to take a look at the other side, the figure she'd drawn, again, staying in sync with his movement. As he came out from behind the canvas, however, the figure vanished off the edge without a trace. Nick looked at the canvas. “I don't see it here either.”
“I think the drawing's stuck to you, somehow. Try holding your hand on the other side.”
Nick did so and saw a simple ball shape superimposed over his right hand, with a stick over his arm. It pulled away the same time he did. “That's freaky. So... you drew a tail, and I got a tail, but why aren't any of these lines doing anything to me?”
“I guess, because they're just a kind of skeleton, I hadn't drawn anything on them you don't already have. Do you want me to try and erase them, to be safe?”
“Hmm... Not yet...” He rubbed his chin. “I think I know a way we could test it. Try drawing on something else, here. Like the stool. Sketch it out, and then maybe add a back to it.”
“I get you.” Olivia nodded, and quickly copied an outline of the stool on the canvas. Then, she drew a bar coming from the back of the stool, and a circular shape on that. A wooden seatback, in the same white color as the stool’s legs, grew out from below the seat and curved up as she drew it.
Olivia blinked. “Holy... Okay. I'll just erase that then, set it back to normal.” She grabbed her eraser again, and erased the seatback, accidentally removing the sketch of the seat, as well. She gasped as she saw only the four legs standing upright, held in place only by the horizontal bars connecting them.
“Woah…” Nick shook his head. “Okay, good thing I didn’t take up your offer. Wouldn’t want to get erased.”
“Sorry,” Olivia blurted out. “I didn’t know it’d do that!” She sketched the seat again, and watched as it reappeared in reality once more, if a little less… detailed, than before. “At least we can fix it. But I wonder…” She began sketching again, this time drawing an object on top of the seat; a series of simple, rounded shapes, looking like a little teddy bear.
As she drew the first circle, the torso appeared in what looked like a clockwise screen-wipe in reality, a simple brown sack stuffed with cotton. The head and limbs all appeared the same way as she drew in their shapes, as well. The end result was a teddy bear that looked very cheaply made.
“You can make entirely new stuff with this?” Nick said, rushing over to feel the toy, confirming it was real. “That’s awesome!”
Olivia continued to add on detail to the sketch, using little lines to imply a fluffy texture. And as she did, the toy began to grow more cloth fur, looking both more cuddly and carefully made. She smiled to herself.
“Hey,” Nick spoke again, “how about you try drawing me again? Maybe make me into my fursona?”
“What?” Olivia stared at him. “You were freaking out a minute ago, and now you want to try it again?”
“Well, I’d been taken by surprise, that’s all. Now that we know what’s going on, I’m feeling ready to take a risk. Besides, you’ll be able to paint me back to normal again.”
“Well…” Olivia tapped her pencil to her chin. She did kind of like the sound of this, and if Nick was willing, who was she to turn down a chance to test this magic. “Sure. Let me just move Wilbur to another room so he doesn’t freak out, okay?”
Once the dog had been taken care of, Nick got back on the stool, and Olivia got out her paints, keeping a picture of Nick’s old self on her camera to reference for drawing his old self again. With his sketch lines still in place from her first attempt, she started painting over his body in black, beginning at the legs. He shivered slightly while parts of his pants looked as if they were simply wiped away to reveal smooth, jet black skin underneath, stroke by stroke of the paintbrush.
“Woah, this feels weird… But don’t stop.” Nick did his best to hold still.
With practiced motions, Olivia carefully covered Nick’s legs, then moved to his feet, his shoes vanishing as a pair of small feet with long, skinny toes took their place, which Nick couldn’t help but wiggle experimentally.
She began painting over the torso next the remains of his pants, and all of his shirt, vanishing in a few quick strokes, leaving just smooth, bare, black skin.
“Hey!” Nick shouted, reaching to cover himself. “If you really wanted to see me naked-”
“Your salamander character didn’t wear clothes,” Olivia responded flatly. “I was keeping accurate. Besides, your reference says he naturally hides his junk until he needs it.”
“Er, right.” He lifted his still-human hands to see that the spot between his legs did indeed look bare. “That could take a while to get used to.” Despite this, he still moved to cover up.
A long, black tail was added next, exenting behind him and wrapping in front of the stool. The real counterpart then began to move, as Nick carefully tried it out, swinging it back and forth behind him.
Olivia continued down his arms, painting away what had been left of his sleeves, leaving his skin the same black color that most of his body had become. Besides the change in color, the only change to his fingers was the loss of his nails. Then, finally, came the head, a wide smile on a short snout, big, bulging black eyes, little ear holes in the side of the head, and no hair.
Nick shook his head a few times, blinked, and open and shut his jaw, and moved his lips around slowly, while Oliva cleaned her brush, and reached for her yellow paint.
“Feeling alright, there?”
Nick stammered a couple times, flexed his lips and tongue to make several practice sounds, then finally spoke “Yeah, I think so. You gonna get to my spots?”
“I’m on it.” Olivia began to flick and dab her brush, creating yellow, irregularly spaced and shaped splotches over his arms, legs, torso, tail, and head. “Now, turn around and-” Olivia stopped when Nick turned around to reveal that the splotches continued onto portions of his body she hadn’t been able to paint from that angle. Even the sketched version on the canvas displayed the same thing, moving in time with him. “Huh, it looks like it kinda fills in the blanks on spots you can’t see. Handy.”
“So we’re done?”
“I think so.”
“Good.” Nick got up and stretched. “‘Cause my skin’s feeling really dry, and-”
“Oh!” Olivia dipped some white paint on her brush, then quickly applied a few white streaks near the edges of his body on the can, giving the appearance of a moist sheen. Instantly, Nick felt a little more at ease, his skin feeling cool as a thin film of mucus secreted from his skin.
“That’s better, thanks!” He grinned, and looked himself up and down. “I can’t believe it! It really worked! This is awesome! Thanks!” He rushed over and hugged Olivia. Then he backed up, his hands wandering to “cover” himself again. “Er, sorry, kinda got too excited there.”
“It’s okay,” Olivia said. “I get it. I’m glad you’re liking it, and it doesn’t hurt.” She looked back at the canvas, deep in thought. So many possibilities, and this was just a basic test. The fact that the magic was at least able to fill in a few of the things she didn’t know, like how mucus production actually worked, and filled in spots she couldn’t reach, had huge implications for what it could do. Could she, say, make a portal to another place by drawing a landscape? Make something like a comic sequence to suggest something gradually coming into existence rather than having the change come all at once when she painted it? Use thought bubbles to change people’s minds? Add hearts or swirls to people’s eyes to make them lovestruck or hynotized?
So much to try out.