Roughly two and a half years ago... ———————————————
Danny Capano was taking off his number twenty-two jersey in the locker room for the last time that school year. It was June of 2018 and tomorrow, the 4th, was the last day of school. P.E. had only been fun-and-games as there was nothing left to be graded on, and there was a little bit of time before last period. What they'd played was not football, of course, but 'floor hockey' had been really fun. Much more than he expected.
"So it's Zelda's party, but it's your house?" Danny asked as he finished taking his shirt off up over his head. "And it's a video game party? What does that mean exact—"
"James's asking you to the party?" Gary asked, standing only in his underwear by his locker at the corner of the room. It was clear from his body hair that the bright blonde atop his head was not his original color. Lean and tightly muscled, Gary would tell you he wasn't trying to show off. Still, those bright blue eyes met James' hazel when he continued. "I'd come, but Taylor and I have plans. Finally getting around to Detective Pikachu."
James watched the shocked look on Danny's face slowly fill in, creeping in on him, those brown which slowly went wider. The last James had heard, Danny was going to ask Gary if he wanted to hang out this summer. Apparently he'd missed his chance. "OK," James said, cutting off Danny's thoughts and breaking the momentary silence. "Who is Taylor and where do I know him from?"
Gary rolled his eyes, turning to face his locker as he bent over to check his backpack for something. "For your information, Taylor is our Flyer..." he said, thicker, muscled as being shown off as he leaned over.
James blinked, unsure of Gary's positioning. "I'm sure those words made sense to you but—wait... Flyer. The cheerleader position 'Flyer'? The person who's at the top of the stunts having to keep proper balance and all that?" Gary Lambert grinned and nodded. "I thought you were the only guy on the squad, Gares. Congrats, I guess."
Danny put a hand on his face before slowly running it through his brown hair. Had to state the obvious, both for James and for himself so that he could hear the words out in the air on their own: "Taylor Fuller is a girl, James."
James, number twenty-three, was standing in navy blue boxers next to Danny with a towel over one shoulder. "Dude... I'm sorry," he whispered out the side of his mouth. However, Gary was standing right there, and he caught those words.
Stuffing his backup cheerleading clothes into his backpack, preparing to take them home for the summer, Gary felt compelled to ask: "Sorry for what?" He didn't even look back.
Ted and Harry walked around the corner, towels around their waist. They'd just gotten out of the showers and were having their own conversation.
For a moment, Danny didn't answer. "I was going to ask you out," Danny said softly.
Harry looked over, between the two. "Missed your chance?"
"Who's the lucky guy, then?" Ted wondered as he pulled a mirror over towards his face and dabbled on some shaving cream.
Gary threw up his arms. "Goddamnit, guys, I'm Hetero!"
"What's that mean?" Harry asked.
Ted poked Harry in the shoulder. "It means he's straight, unlike Danny."
"As in... not gay?" Harry blinked, trying to wrap his head around the idea as he looked over at Gary. "No. You're kidding, right?"
"Yes!" Gary shouted, "I mean no! I am not kidding!" Shoving the rest of his clothes into his backpack before pulling on his tight sweats. "I'm into girls! I have a girlfriend! Her name is Taylor! Damnit, guys..." He was grumbling all the way out of the locker room as he pulled on a pink shirt and left.
Danny sighed, giving a verbal signpost to change directions back to the conversation they were originally on: "So, video games?" James nodded. "We all end up playing computer or console games in multiplayer while Zelda does the same at her place with some of the girls, and we all play together?" Danny asked. "What'll we play?"
James shrugged, looking slightly down at Danny. "Halo M.C.C., StarCraft 2, Minecraft, Forza Horizon 4, Diablo III, hell, Zelda can hook us up with a server and we can play older multiplayer games in emulation like Bomberman or StarFox. Oh! But, Stellaris! I think it's, like, 32 Players... I didn't think it would be my kind of thing but it really is. Have you ever heard of it?"
"Monster Hunter World?" Danny probed.
"Oh, dude, yes," Harry chimed in at that. "Have you ever played it?"
James shook his head no. "You know my parents are weird sometimes. I remember asking about it when it came out a few months ago and they were like... they said something like they didn't want me to get the negative stereotypes in my head or something."
Harry squinted, not following what James had just said. "Stereotypes... from Monster Hunter?" He was applying some deodorant until his sizable arms as he spoke. "Like for the people? Because I see that newsletter Matthew's parents pass around from their church and apparently Monster Hunter World is OK." He chuckled. "So is Mortal Kombat 11, so I've no idea what 'Christian Standards' they're going by..."
James put up his hands. "Dude, I don't even know..." he said, defensively. "They get weird about monsters, and monster is in the title." He waved his hand to one side as if resetting the conversation again. "But I'm sure I could get copies if you all wanted."
"Party's this weekend?" Danny reconfirmed.
"Friday to Saturday, sleepover," James nodded. "Don't tell Matthew, and don't tell Andy."
Ted finished shaving his peach fuzz and looked over towards James. "Why those two, specifically?"
James smirked behind the red-brown circle goatee he had even back then. "Don't tell Matthew because I don't want him to know he's not invited... both because he's a dick, but also because he drank one of my mom's six-packs the last he came over."
"And Andy?" Harry asked.
"Because... dude is. I mean, you've seen him. He's... He's not well," James sighed. There was an understanding in the air while everyone else just quietly nodded. "He lost his whole family. Even the ones in Belarus," he added. "Political dissidence..." He took a breath. "The Faminga's were always good to me and my snobby rich-ass. Without them, you guys wouldn't be able to stand me as much as you do," he chuckled, but believed it to be mostly true. "My parents are my parents, but a rich white family doesn't know how the world really works. I've learned so much from the Faminga's, from all of you really, but most of all them."
Ted just shook his head. "Ah. So you get to live vicariously through our life stories to experience the dysfunctional nature of the common folk you intend to rule over one day?" asked the running back, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
Danny smirked. "Poor people are people too? You didn't know that?"
"I literally live in a mansion on a hill, my dudes," James pointed out. "You know any other family with a car elevator in their home?" he wondered. Ted nodded. "Personally?" And Ted grinned, then shook his head. "That's what I thought. And, what I'm saying is... I owe them a lot... and I'm not going to say you all do too, but—"
Harry caught what James was getting at and interjected: "Elena Faminga... that little girl used to sit and play checkers with my grandma on Saturday afternoons until my gram passed away," he said. "All while Andy was visiting Ahmed helping each other with math. And, we all played croquet in a big group. Little girl had a mouth, I think partly due to gram, but she was a joy."
Ted nodded. "Like a sailor," he agreed. "But, like, when drinks got too costly from the machine, Andy would sell me 24oz bottles for fifty cents so I'd have something to drink," he said. It was small, but it clearly meant something to Ted. He loved his soda. Ted looked to Danny.
Danny looked at James and offered: "They say when you've got nothing, it comes easier to share everything. I only met Andy last year, but Rudy always used to say learning Spanish with him was fun." Danny took a breath. "But I think I get you, James... this is your party, yours and Zelda's, but it's Andy's Surprise Party, yeah?"
"I mean..." James began as he folded over his jersey on the bench next to him, placing it so the "D'ARAGON" across the shoulders was facing upwards.
Ted sighed, really digging in to what everyone else was dancing around: "We've all been rather fuck-ups, haven't we?" He looked at everyone who was in various stages of undress. "Put in a fuckin' weird place where a guy who was our friend... who went missing... gone for months... probably dead... wakes up outta'a fuckin' coma and we all just be... we're too... it's too fuckin' awkward for any of us to say 'Hey, man... we're still friends, yeah?' because dude's family is fuckin' dead," Ted said, slamming his locker. "It's been two months, guys," he added, looking to everyone. "Shit, yeah. This party is for Andrew. Bitch needs some goddamned joy in his shit life!"
There was a silence over the lockers for a few seconds until James grinned big. "You're a good guy, Ted. You know that?"
"Fuck yeah, I do, but don't tell no-one. I have a shitty appearance to keep up," he declared, putting both his hands through his wet black hair to mess it up again.
Harry chuckled. "Don't worry, Teddy, your secret is safe with us." Ted frowned deeply. In truth, he hated any and all nicknames, but now wasn't the time for stern correction. This was a serious moment, so the worst he could muster was slugging Harry in the shoulder for a minor bruise. "Ow!"
"So you'll come?" James wanted to reconfirm, looking to Danny. As he did so, his phone made a sound that sounded like a knife stabbing metal. Text message. Fumbling through his backpack, he eventually found it. "What the fuck!" James yelled, looking at the message on the lock screen.
"What!? What is it?" Harry asked, easily telling the situation was serious since James rarely reacted with that much anger and they'd all been somber just four seconds ago.
James held up a finger towards Harry, silently asking him to hold his question. With his other hand he swiped the screen of his phone and called the sender back. It took four rings before they picked up. Opening his mouth to say something, it was clear the person on the other end shut him up. He grumbled into the phone:
"If you didn't want me to call you back asking what was up, mom, you shouldn't have texted me while in a meeting. That's on you," James snapped at his mother. Everyone stared. James' parents were often overprotective and overbearing, but none of them had ever heard him talk to his mother that way before. "No, no. You've known this was the plan... you can't just say at the last moment that Andrew can't come over," he yelled.
Ted's light-brown eyes went a bit wide as he looked at Harry, Danny, and Jorge who had just walked back in, apparently having forgotten a car magazine on the bench near his locker. They all listened in as, out of nowhere, James' mother had apparently decided that, in addition to Matthew, Andrew couldn't come over either.
None of them knew this had been going on since Andy returned to the States in April. James was keeping under wraps that his parents were reacting adversely to Andrew ever since he returned, constantly saying he couldn't come over on the weekends. The further context to that was that this party was going to be the first time... and they'd agreed to it weeks ago. Now his mom was canceling just days before?
James, however, didn't look defeated. If anything, his anger was a boiling rage. This was important! From what Emily told him a few days ago, she'd been looking to talk to Andy... his school locker was at the corner of Science and English wings on the English hall side. She heard his phone speaking to him as she approached and it had said "—line, also servicing the Veterans service line. If you are in emotional distress or suici—" and she guessed that he hung up so fast because he heard footsteps.
Would it be a breach of trust to tell his mom and everyone present that Emily told him that Andrew had just dialed the Suicide Prevention Hotline (1-800-273-8255) in the middle of lunch hour? It felt like it would be, so... instead he expanded this sleepover into a party idea that Emily and Zelda had come up with. Why is she canceling it now!? he wondered desperately, keeping the details of Emily's confession to himself for the moment. He didn't know why Emily knew the message on the phone so well and had been a little afraid to ask at the time.
By the time James got off the phone, tears were streaming down his face. He wasn't sniffling, though, so it would be hard to say he was crying. Likely, he didn't even know his face was wet.
Danny put a hand on James' shoulder. "It's probably just too soon after school for a party."
Feeling his voice rumble in his throat, James revealed: "She's not canceling the party... just Andy."
Harry put his hands out towards James. He dramatically asked the question everyone had in their minds: "Why? Like... Why!?"
"I don't know," James said. "But the show must go on," he said, gritting his teeth.
Ted punched one hand into the other's palm. "Crimes?"
James nodded, wiping tears from his eyes as he started to grin. "It's a big house... it would be easy to miss counting one extra guest."
Ted did actually look a little surprised. "Dude. I love the passion, but you've never once defied your parents... especially your mom. Do you have the guts?"
Taking a long, deep breath, James nodded. "Guys," he began in a deeply serious tone, "This is really important. More important than I feel comfortable saying... but if we're friends, it's'a must. Otherwise... by the time summer is over..." James trailed off before finding the energy to say: "We might have one less friend."
Years later, just before the orgy on the bus... ———————————————
Andrew had been leading the cheer: "Let's go blue! Let's go black! Washington ][Wolves][ are on the attack!" while Kyle, Nate, and James all joined in, you see. But there was an underlying issue that none were aware of just yet. Something was specifically different in this instance, more than any rulebook reveal would notes for later. But, all the while, time's arrow pointed ever forward.
Andy stepped off the bus.
Gregory'd been mostly asleep in his seat for the last hour or so, but Nate couldn't rest with one of the team cheers stuck in his head, so he just kept repeating it until the other boy was forced to sit up. After giving Nate a dirty look, he turned his his head towards Kyle who was drawing something in his sketch pad with a mechanical pencil. Leaning over towards the other seat, he caught the form of a detailed Western Dragon.
Nate had been watching while repeating the cheer to himself, but he felt he had to ask: "What is it with you and dragons?"
Kyle just smiled before reaching up and pushing his dreads out of the way of his dark face. "Good money in it," he said with a grin, clearly trying to outdo himself with horns upon the creature's crest atop his head. "D'Aragon over there has one of those big family crests where they're featured prominently," he explained. "His money's good, and he tips well."
Nate turned his head to look over at James as he argued with Matthew about some horror movie situation. It was pretty clear to Nate that James wanted a way out of the conversation based on his body language, so he called out to him. "Hey, James!" The brown-haired young man with the red circle goatee turned to look towards Nate. "Where in Europe is your family from?"
"One second," James said, holding up a finger towards Nate as he tried to finish his point to Matthew quickly. "'Don't fuck with the original' is a great line," he told Matt. "See, every Scream movie has had a theme: 'don't blame the movies, blame the parents' for number two is a big one, explained by the movie's two killers."
Matthew groaned: "But 'reboots suck' isn't a hot take."
"That's not exactly the point of Scream 4, Matt. It's more like: life isn't a movie. It understood internet influencers and viral videos and made fun of the torture porn of Saw and others. Just saying 'reboots suck' isn't the point... like blaming ]Boomers[ for all our problems when it's really the politicians," James continued, though he flinched for a second as if having a moment for a headache before shaking his head and letting it pass. "The line 'don't fuck with the original' works both in the movie itself, because it's pointing out to the audience simultaneously that things both do and don't ever change... making them see that it's the world and context that alters how their actions are perceived rather than them alone... because people, on the whole, don't really change. We're mostly good."
Matthew groaned and rolled his eyes. "Whatever man... I liked the Friday the 13th Reboot." The linebacker shook his head, turning back around to face the others at the rear of the bus.
"Jason Voorhees, the casual hunter in the woods B.S.? You would," James choked back further comment. "As for your question, Nate," the brown-haired wide receiver remarked, looking back to him and Kyle. "We're—"
"Dowd," was Coach Bank's deep voice interrupted when he spoke across James to the policeman. James turned to his left to see the dark-skinned Thad putting on his yellow rain slicker. The cop gave the coach one nod. Opening the bus door, Banks went down the stairs and out into the heavy rain. He could be heard saying "Can I help you girls?" Soon after, Gregory moved from his seat to pull the door shut before returning to his former position.
"We're from all over Europe," James began again, looking back at Nate. He smiled. "Our clan has ties in just about every country," he explained, ready to have this other conversation instead. "My father's family is mostly Spaniards, my mother's French, but I have a grandma who's super-British, another from Portugal, a grandpappy from Germany, a great from Italy, and so on..."
"And State Senator d'Aragon, that's your uncle?" asked Kyle without looking up from his work-in-progress.
"Sadly, yes. Ironically, that's what inspired me to get into politics," James said, thumbing at himself. "Well, partly anyway. His corruption is immense."
Eddie, who'd been trying to sleep, opened his eyes and looked over at the group talking. He pulled his hood back away from his cornrows and black face. "You volunteered for Sanders's campaign, yeah?"
"Both last year and in 2016," James nodded. "I just can't stand the idea that a super-racist like Frederick d'Aragon is forever ruining the name of my family. The 'dragon clan' might as well be the 'league of assassin's' for how many revolutions we have ties to. German, French, uh, some countries which no longer have names..."
"And I guess you commissioned Kyle," Eddie asked.
James smirked. "Hey, guys, you know I try to do right by my privilege. My family makes decent money, and I get a slice... and with that slice I can commission awesome artwork of my avatar. Honestly thinking it'd be cool to have art of them with an American flag-pin and stuff in a nice suit and tie. I could be the SonicFox of politics."
“Oi!—" Kyle interjected, realizing the terrible smell and smoke coming at his face was being caused by Officer Dowd, "—Can you not smoke in a non-smoking area, which is to say, the bus?” Motioning towards the front of the bus with his mechanical pencil, he added: “Go outside, man.”
Office Dowd just grumbled: “Boys, sit down and shut up. I need my smoke."
"Excuse us?" James asked, looking across at the officer. Nate actually stood up and pointed at the white sign at the front which displayed the 'No Smoking' symbol while staring Dowd in the eyes.
Matthew said "Oink" but he was facing away from the man and so Dowd didn't know who started it because soon enough the whole bus had joined in. No one on it respected Dowd so for a moment there, everyone was chanting. In the end, he called them a bunch of brats and stormed off the bus like a child taking his ball and going home.
Taking a few steps forward, Nate shut the door behind him. In the next moment, he was passing Eric who was heading that way to turn up the heat.
All the while, Matthew's attention was on Harry and Christopher talking loudly about porn or something at the back of the bus, but, at that moment, he looked back and just had to ask: "You a Furry, James?" Presumably this was in relation to the pre-smoking remark about SonicFox, a famous and professional fighting game player... who was also a Furry.
"Eh. I wouldn't use that term, but I do appreciate the community and what they can do. Like... all but completely throwing out Nazis and running other lowlifes out of the fandom." James shrugged. "But, no. I just really like dragons. It's in the name, after all."
A commotion had begun at the back of the bus, audible over the sound of the downpour. Each of them turned and looked in the direction of the back of the bus where Ted, Eric, Christopher, Harry, Jorge, and others were all gathered. Somewhere beyond the front seats where they all sat, the first lust wave was pushing itself over and into everyone.
As James' head lifted a little, he caught sight of Matthew's elbow as he stood up, but it was too late to do anything about it. To James, it seemed like Matt had been shoved, due to the force at which his head jerked backward. There was a distinct popping sound from James's nose. Half a second later, the back of his head impacted with the front dash of the bus as he flew backwards and James went limp on the floor. Before he slipped out of consciousness for a few moments, he felt a firm pain at his lower back as well.
James' 4th Birthday, February 29th, 2020... ———————————————
"I don't know what child you're referring to, but it's not ours," came a male voice from up on the second-floor overlook to the main living space. The room was spacious with a chandelier up above three couches all laid out in a lowered central area with a hard wood floor around a giant 85" 4k TV. The space was two stories tall, spacious with tall glass windows with stained, colored designs and overhead skylights.
The woman standing down near the front archway that led to the foyer and eventually out to the parking cul-de-sac looked up towards the voice of her husband. "James defies us all the time now," she said, pushing her shiny purple gloves down against her similarly-colored dress before reaching up and fixing the white and gold-inlay pearls around her neck. "He doesn't think in terms of what's best for the future..."
"Firstly, he's a teenager," remarked Lonnie as he fixed the red bow-tie around his neck. He was an adonis of man, standing six foot three with a light tan to his skin. Broad shoulders and a thick neck looked like it might break the collar of the white dress shirt he wore underneath his black tux. Beneath his black slacks were shiny red boots that came up to his shin and which clicked a little as he walked. The boots color matched his belt-buckle, and the wristband of his Titanium Apple Watch.
"When I was a teenager, I was loyal to my parents," Eda said, placing her hands on her hips as Lonnie came down the stairs in the living room. "We made investments in the surrounding land like we're doing now... We supported the community so that the community could support us back. That's how we managed so much wealth and sway. What's he doing?" she asked. "He's literally hoarding horror movies and video games."
Lonnie approached his wife, reaching out with one hand to take her's, placing his other atop it and meeting her lavender eyes. "He's making friends and allies. He's young, and he's thinking towards the long-term like you keep asking," the man explained. "We brought him into this world in this century and that was our choice. From his perspective, mankind is in danger... climate change is going to alter the globe and none of his friends are going to make it to, well, our ages."
Eda sighed, leaning in and nuzzling her husband's neck before pulling back and kissing him on the lips. "He's not wrong," she nodded, ending up back upright on her thigh-high boots. "You were right about the whole internet-thing... there's something to be said about younger generations being better informed than the ones who came before... but it's also dangerous for the status quo. At some point, the peasants will roll out the guillotines again."
The man took a long breath, holding his wife's hands between his own as his deep hazel eyes met hers fully. "Imagine if he rides this new wave of technology like we cannot. He already stands toe-to-toe with Frederick and his arguments and construction are improving," he said. "By his next birthday, he could be mayor of Washington, Montana. By his thirties a governor... and riding a wave of his 'progressive' forebears."
The woman shook her head, pulling her hands away. "Progressives," she almost spat the word. "This country almost finally had a female President and no one showed up to vote."
"Hun... let's not talk politics until we get to the party," Lonnie said to Eda with a smile. "But, as a reminder, Hillary did win the greater majority of the people's vote... and James would point out to you right now that if ranked-choice voting were how Presidents were picked, then we wouldn't even have had to worry about the result. This country is progressive, like James, they're just told that they aren't by their media."
Eda shook her head, moving into the foyer. "You've been better at business than I... I should have listened when you advised I invest in Hollywood... or Disney," she sighed. Reaching for the drawer of the table near the front glass door, she removed two N95 face masks... one rimmed in purple to match her dress, the other rimmed in black and red.
Taking his red mask from his wife, he smiled at her. "Well, you've always been better at defense than I have," he said, wiggling his fingers next to his head as she put on her mask. He glanced at his expensive watch. "Now, c'mon. Let's leave James to his party... we should have left ten minutes ago."
He reached for the door handle to open it, when Eda grabbed his arm. She looked to the mirror beside the door but only her and Lonnie were reflected. Still, she grumbled. "He's brought the Faminga 'boy' again," she said, knowingly. In an instant she had turned on her high-heels and was stepping in the direction of James' playroom.
"Eda!" Lonnie called after her. "Let's not do this... not tonight."
"He defies us again," there was a tension in her voice. He had eleven people over tonight, and she hated making a scene in front of the lot of them. But the point had to be made:
Andrew Faminga was not welcome in this house.
As Eda stepped up to the double-doors that lead to the large playspace, she could hear people mulling about. The old billiards table was in there, as were four televisions with a plethora of game consoles each. Most everyone had been here now for two or three hours, and it was clear they were caught up in some happy commotion concerning one of their 'shooter games'.
She placed a hand on the door and listened... listened intently for a moment as her husband stood ready at the far end of the hall, waiting to see how his wife handled the situation this time. The door shook with impact sounds of shotguns, but she could clearly pick out James' voice among the group when she focused her attention on him and him alone:
"I don't know how she knows, but I know she knows," he insisted. "I wish I could explain it, but she loves me... and she's worried. My parents are sometimes superstitious and, like I said. I think they think your Ruska Roma grandparents literally put a hex on your family or something for, like, escaping to America." There was a pause. "It's not religion, it's superstitious," James said. "What it's based on, I don't know..."
Eda sighed as James went on. "Trust me. She's going to come up to the door, and there's going to be yelling. I half expected you to Batman Arkham from the big tree over the wall, not run the yard," he offered. Eda frowned and began to turn the door knob. "They love me, dude. Just try to think about if your parents thought what happened to them would happen to you, what would they do?" There was a moment when someone else was talking. "Exactly. From her perspective, she doesn't understand how you're still here... and if she can't explain it, she assumes it's danger. That's just how she is."
James' mother's hand paused. When she was young, she recalled yelling at her father something to that effect... that if he didn't understand something, he thought it must be dangerous. It was a different context, but it had the same meaning. All these years later, her moment of defiance brought her riches of family and friends. Without her defiance, she never would have met Lonnie... never would have had James.
Glancing back to her husband, he eyes softened. Taking a breath, she opened the door to the playroom. There were numerous couches, and an entire wall of Blu-ray and DVD's, as only James' collection was in this room. The couches and chairs were leather, and there was an old brown and tan rug under the table at one side of the room. On that table was a large, partially chopped up strawberry cake with a partly melted number four in the middle, surrounded by sixteen smaller candles.
As for the people, Kyle was showing Danny his latest image set against an easel in the corner. Jorge was yelling Spanish expletives in Rudy's general direction as the two played Fortnight on two of the TV screens. Eric, Ahmed, Francis, and Ted were clustered around the billiards table playing a game of eight-ball. And, at the furthest, main TV, Gary, Zelda, and Emily were setting up for some Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
All the occumpants seemed to freezeframe as Francis pointed out to the room that Mrs. d'Aragon was at the double-doors. She nodded to Francis who was a good boy, if a little jumpy. "Evening," she began, and her tone commanded the room with enough gravitas that Rudy found himself slyly reaching for the remote to turn down the volume of the TV he was using. Jorge did the same.
"Hey, mom," James' voice came from beside the walk-in closet that it was clear to Eda was currently housing Andy out of view. "Car problems?" he asked, well aware his parents were usually punctual and should have left minutes ago.
"I can help," offered Jorge, who's character had just died on screen when he looked away from the game. He raised his hand as if getting a teacher's attention in class.
"James," Eda began. Her tone indicated she was going to lay down the law, but she began again: "James Aleta d'Aragon—" she began. The full-name use was a parental classic, used to let you know you're about to be in big trouble. "—I know Andrew's here," she said. "And I have something I want to say to him."
To his credit, James tried to look confused, but the moment was broken when Andy pushed open the closet door and stepped into view. "I'm sorry, Mrs. d'Aragon," he said. "Completely honest... James didn't sneak me in. This was all my idea."
Eda shook her head as her tone softened. "Our security is a little too good for you to simply sneak in, Andrew. But I'm not mad." She paused. "No, I suppose I am mad, James," she reconsidered, looking at her son in his bright hazel eyes, just like his father's. "But, I understand... and I know you know I just want to protect you," she said but with no desire to explain herself.
Her eyes turned to face Andrew and Eda addressed him directly: "Andy, what happened to you and your family clearly isn't your fault. And it was never my intention to treat you like it was." She smiled. "You're a good boy, and I wish you the best. I hope you know that." Faminga nodded politely. "If you need any support, we shall try to help... and, again, I'm sorry. You're just a child and you've been through a lot," she said. "When I was your age, I too lost—" She stopped as even James' ears perked up. His mom didn't speak much about her youth and she wouldn't do so even now. "People I cared about—" she began, "—having the support of friends was how I made it through and turned my life around. I don't see why I should deny you my son's love and attention."
With that, she turned away from the door and looked to Lonnie who had put his hands on her shoulders. Danny was grinning when she looked back, remarking on the words 'love and attention' towards James and Andrew. He straightened up when Eda's eyes fell back upon him before eventually turning to James. "Andrew Faminga is no longer warded from this house," she said to her son, waving hand in the air. The gems of the rings on that hand shining in the hallway light as she did so. "Enjoy your fourth birthday," she smirked at James as she turned and shut the door behind her.
"Love and attention?" Gary asked with a chuckle when he was pretty sure James' mom wasn't in earshot anymore.
James didn't shy away, hugging Andrew closer while raising a can of soda into the air with his other hand. "Hells yes," he grinned as he squeezed Andy close.
Andrew pushed James away from him. "Dude, don't hug me right now... for serious, I think I need to change my pants," he said, finally letting go of the breath he'd been holding for the last minute or so.
Harry nodded at Andy's remark, his tone serious as well: "I thought we were about to be witnesses to a murder."
"Guys, guys," James put his hands up, waving them in disagreement. "Why in the world would you think my mom would leave witnesses?"
Everyone looked at James, then each other, then they all started to laugh...
After reading The Little Black Book... ———————————————
James reached out for the backpack that held the various journals of those who had been victims before. He reserved himself the responsibility of reading them, having been thus far uncursed, or so he thought. "Those journals are probably lewd as hell," he said to Zelda, making a grabby motion with his fingers. "None of the three of you should read them," he added swiftly.
Zelda held out the backpack that had all the books to where James could reach it. When he tried to take it from her, she bent her elbow and pulled it out of his reach. "Don't read them aloud," she advised. "Especially if you don't know a word," she added, "It might be an animal you've never heard of."
James nodded, finally taking the backpack into his arms after Zelda held them back out to him. "Duly noted." He took a breath. "Guys... it really is hard not saying any animal. I'm having to devote a lot of mental energy to it, so, like... wish me luck?"
"Good luck," Andrew smirked. "Avoid peer pressure."
James nodded and moved back towards the cabin in the woods. Approaching the building, he could hear yelling to his left. If he remembered the last layout of the building, that would have been the office area, adjacent to the main lobby desk. It sounded like Coach Banks was yelling at someone. "Wonder what that's abou—" James began, but couldn't finish.
For a moment, he thought someone had struck him from behind, a pain reaching up from his tailbone, going up his spine, and then literally breaking out his nose. An audible pop and there was blood coming from his face again like earlier tonight. But instead of Matthew knocking him out, James stumbled forward, pushing his way through the front double-doors.
"What happened?" called Christopher from further down the walk, pulling his eyes away from Andrew's tail as it slowly lifted. Something was electric in the air. Over to one side, Mr. Katz and Mr. Eddington were smoking near a picnic table not far away. Apparently Officer Dowd was not the only one who had a fix that needed satisfying.
"Is he alright?" came Mr. Katz's voice, and James spared a look towards him and Mr. Eddington who looked at each other. Before James could say anything, the two men embraced, kissing each other on the lips. The look on their faces said neither had planned it, and James was taken aback by the reaction. Pain and confusion rippled though his body as he stumbled in, towards the reception desk. It felt like his body was being buried by a ton of tiny stones, but still he pushed forward through the air.
Zelda, Christopher, and Andrew all followed James inside as he turned towards the office, as if Coach Banks could help him. His eyes rolled to one side as he felt a blast of hot air pass over him from back to front and towards the locked door of the office. In the next moment, Thaddeus Banks stopped yelling at his player and James knew that something was badly wrong.
"I'm dying," James whimpered. In that moment, it felt true. His skin was on fire, and his head was swirling. He moved towards the unisex bathroom and bumped into Emily. She stumbled back out of his way as the three other friends hurried after him. "I'm dying," James repeated so that they all could hear, just a little louder. This was the worst pain he'd ever felt.
"What!?" Emily yelped, shocked at this revelation as James bumped into her. There was a shock, like static electricity, and she felt pushed back against the wall. All the while, he was taking wide, drunken steps, and it was clear by body language that he was about to eject his day's worth of food. The five all hustled into the bathroom as James bashed open the wheelchair-accessible stall that wasn't there earlier when Andy had been in the room.
"He just started bleeding and feeling ill," Zelda said, putting her arms onto Emily's shoulders. Their eyes met and while James retched nearby, the two girls realized in the same moment something was deeply wrong. Andrew felt it too and stopped, leaning back against Christopher, hiking his tail up, and putting his hands to his waist. "Ooo... oh, I feel really warm," Zelda remarked as she leaned in and kissed Emily square on the lips.
"This is what happened—" Andrew's shocked voice failed to finish his thought: this was a lust wave! His thumbs worked down into his waistband, getting ready to pull down his khakis. "We have to... we have to stop," he said, reaching up under his shirt to tweak a new nipple on the front of his torso. Fur began traveling over his ass out from his tail, and it plumped up slowly as he pressed against Christopher.
Christopher's hands went to Andrew's sides, slowly pulling down the other man's pants to reveal that glistening wolf pussy he knew was there, barely contained in Andy's boxer-briefs. "Oh shit... oh no," Chris said, worried, but aroused. His eyes were fixated. Andrew's tail remained lifted, and he turned, putting his hands onto the nearest sink and standing on the toes of his feet as Christopher pulled down his underwear from behind.
"We... we have to stop," Emily said, leaning in to Zelda as she started reaching under her own shirt to unlatch her bra... but Zelda's hands were already there and the lesbian was one step ahead of her. "What about James?" she asked, and there was almost enough fear in her voice to break her and everyone else out of the new wave that was striking them... but, sadly, it wasn't enough, and the group was locked into roles.
The bathroom was surprisingly clean. It was as if it had been completely refurbished that very day. There was a hardwood bench near the front entrance meant for waiting like a high-class resort or movie theater might have where Emily had repositioned Zelda. Zelda was on her back, her new short furred tail pushing her panties down and out of the way as Emily leaned over top of her.
Christopher felt Andy move away from him. "We... we can't do this... even if I want to," Andy said. He was talking to no one and everyone. "I need—no, want that cock inside of me," he groaned, refusing to turn around to face Chris. Or was that on purpose? He couldn't tell. His vulva was plump and ready.
"I know I want your cock," Emily growled back towards Andy which broke his mind for a moment. Years ago, Emily and he had shared their first sexual encounter together as friends. She had said the same thing then as now, and though it truthfully wasn't much of a turn-on for Andy who just didn't feel arousal that same way, the intimacy and caring of that memory made him step forward towards Emily all the same.
Her pants were pushed down by her new black wolf tail... a tail just like Andy's. The boy reached out and stroked her tail, and she arched her back. In the next moment, Christopher leaned over Andrew's shoulder, a long wet tongue licking over Andrew's neck. Slowly, in the same way as Andy had, Chris pulled softly against Andy's tail as he once again aligned his forearm-sized lupine dong with the other man's cookie. Slowly, the linebacker teased the edges of his assistant coach's vulva before pushing in slowly.
At the same time, Emily leaned forward over Zelda upon the couch where the barely transformed smaller girl had her legs up and out, revealing her wet snatch to her best friend as Zelda put her legs around Emily's head. As Emily leaned in to give Zelda's cunt slow lick, Andrew used his hold on Emily's tail to position his still human dick. Emily teased Zelda's clit with her tongue before diving in on her. A lustful moan escaped from Zelda's lips as she fondled her own breasts.
For the moment, all thoughts of James had been lost.
Christopher's tongue was now human-wolf length as it extended to lick across Andrew's face. His cock was as hard as steel, pushed most of the way up inside of Andy and seemingly creating new space for itself as Andrew's belly distended forward. One of Andrew's hands squeezed the shaft at his front, behind his skin there. It mostly aligned vertically between Andrew's four new sets of nipples.
Zelda was in bliss, only ever having fantasied about Emily going down on her before now. As far as she had known, Emily was straight, so either she was a natural carpet eater, or the lust wave had imbued her with a dramatic understanding of what would most please another woman. Still, it was scary for Zelda, being her first time... and that noise that was now permeating the room. It didn't hurt, per se, but as her ears shifted upwards into golden-orange-furred, curved points, whatever sound it was seemed to be emanating from the stall where James was retching.
Emily's internal dialog was screaming. She knew Andrew didn't think of her in that way, nor she him, but here they were again years later, fucking... but boy, he certainly seemed a lot more into it than the last time! And then there was Zelda! This poor girl must have been so pent up... and now here Emily was, serving her friend like a pro. Her newly wet black nose poking Zelda softly in the stomach while she watched each of their breasts grow bigger. In fact, Emily's breasts seemed to be pushing up from beneath by a second set.
Andrew was in, debatably, the best position... filled beyond filling by Christopher's lupine member, he took a real pride in knowing all twenty-one inches of it could fit inside him... and that was without the knot which would soon lock them together! No, no, no! Andrew screamed internally. We have to stop... but I... I can't! Those thoughts felt like they were being yelled in a din of pleasure and desire, drowned out by everything his body wanted more than his mind did.
The group was in a motion of body and mass, and Andrew felt more changes... his ass plumping a bit more made him lean forward a bit, his tail lengthening further. Already standing on his toes due to Christopher's height, he felt himself grow larger still when Christopher too gained some inches of height at his back. Now, Andy wasn't just standing on his toes... his toes were all that there were to stand on...
His legs ripped out from his pants and there were but shreds left of them. His shoes, seconds from becoming the same, ripped from the inside out as thick black claws ripped out their front. His pinkie-toe shifted backwards on his foot until it was absorbed, flooded over by a wave of deep black fur that traveled up from both feet and downward from his ass, leaving a blank patch of light human skin along only the front of his upper legs.
Zelda felt the golden fur begin to crawl up her lower arms, and gasped and shook as she came to Emily's assault. Taking deep breaths, she forced herself to push backwards away from Emily's blue-lipped face and into the corner where the couch met the wall. A part of her brain knew she could cum multiple times quickly, and she had to fight that if she wanted sanity above all else.
Emily's original breasts had increased in mass slightly, and her second set was about where her first had originally been. Losing Zelda at her front, she leaned backwards to face the now taller Andy and melted with a loving lick from Christopher across her canine nose. She squirmed, but if felt so right! She pushed back against Andrew and soon enough the two of them were cumming, locking in their new normals.
But they weren't totally done... because as Emily leaned back against Andrew, she felt as if Christopher was pushing his prick up and down her back as it pushed outward against Andy's front. With Emily now leaned back, Andrew leaned in to whisper into Emily's ear: "I hope I did better this time," he said wistfully.
Years earlier, Andy really felt like he'd hurt Emily's feelings and he thought about it a lot. When your friend is naked before you, and they simply look lovely as a human specimen... how does that not get a proper rise out of you? The answer, Andy discovered later, was that he was ace... asexual. He just didn't get turned on in the normal way... and that is not something you want to figure out as a result of having sex with your best friend.
Having said that, Andrew was leaning the full force of his lower body back against Christopher. Andy was some kind of wolf-satyr now. His legs bulked heavily, muscles rippling in new and decidedly inhuman ways as each thrust seemed to add a bit more mass. As his tail was pushed out of the way, he used his new strength to push back against Chris with a thrust in one direction and push into Emily with a thrust in the other. She leaked of his cum, and soon he would do the same from Chris'.
In fact, that time was now. Even as Emily began to wind down, she could feel Andrew's arms around her waist, lifting her up as Christopher lifted Andy. As they had thrust, Chris' oversized balls had ballooned in their furry sack, little by little. Each shove added more size to the ocean of white that covered his crotch which now hung behind him, through his legs, each the size of basketballs.
Taking a step back, Christopher rammed his girthy rod hard into Andy's tri-fold entrance as the slightly smaller man pushed back with his new digitigrade feet against the clean tile floor. They both let out a gasp as the grapefruit-sized knot at the base of Christopher's sizable cock impaled Andrew, locking them together. From both his dick and his bitch-bush, Andy came... Soon enough, a torrent of cum began filling Andy to the point where his expanding front actually pushed Emily off Andy's still human dick and hands-first onto the bench.
Andrew cackled at the joyous, stretchy feeling of his belly becoming bloated with cum. It was amazing if only in this moment, his head lifting back as if he might howl, but instead he just moaned.
Zelda's eyes went wide, tears at the side as she realized what they had just done... her hands reaching up to her new ears. Emily, for her part, rolled over to face the two young men still knotted... Andrew's lower body contained shreds of his pants, held up by his belt. His vagina was filling up with Christopher's warm spunk, and the knot was keeping it all inside.
Zelda was softly speaking now, one hand rubbing her new right ear. "Anything... I may have said earlier... That 'lust wave' is fucked up!" she groaned. "We're all... literally fucked."
Andrew, still impaled on Christopher's oversized cock, was the next to come around. Standing on tip-toes and legitimately loving the feeling of being filled this hard, he tried to turn his attention to the stall at the end. "James," he said. Christopher's head laid against Andy's neck, his long tongue lolling out... but his eyes shifted to where Andy was looking. "James," Andy repeated, but it was softer the second time... no movement from the stall.
"James!"
Over the course of the last hour or so... ———————————————
"Lonnie!"
To his credit, Lonnie quickly opened his bright hazel eyes to meet his wife's lavender ones. "Yes?" he asked, a bit more lethargic than he would like. Though, in his defense, he had just been sleeping. Pushing his body up on one elbow, he saw the fear in her eyes. "What is it?"
The two of them were under silk red and gold covers, a quilt covering over the third of the bed that'd laid over their feet. The room was, as you'd expect, well furnished with hardwood furniture... dresser, armoire, and end tables. Eda was already upright, her feet ending up beside her slippers next to her bed's side. She didn't bother reaching out to turn on the end lamp as would become clear why shortly.
"James is in danger!" she said urgently. Quickly, without question, Lonnie was upright too. He was in his white boxers with red hearts while she was wearing something black and lacy he liked. His head turned back around to face her as she moved towards the doorway of the bedroom. "I can't tell what... it feels otherworldly," she revealed. "Here," she said, waving her hand out to one side as if flicking a switch in the air.
Suddenly Lonnie could hear a sound... like the soft whine of a dog whistle, but with longs, shorts, and stops. "The S.O.S.?" he asked. Those hazel eyes shifted up to look at his wife, and she moved towards the doorway.
Eda's voice was serious. "It's the locator. It's soft now because we're so far... maybe two hundred miles or so by the tone." Putting both her hands on her head, she pulled them through her long auburn hair. "What... what are you doing?" Lonnie was looking at his phone. "You're checking for his arrival message for getting to the hotel?" He nodded. "The locator wouldn't be repeating like that if it knew where he was. This is the tone of last known location..."
The family group text was indeed empty of any response from James. When Lonnie looked up from his phone, he saw Eda hurrying out the bedroom doorway. "I thought the spell was supposed to lead us right to him if something happened?" he called after her as he ran out the door behind her.
"If he's in this plane of reality, yes," Eda responded. Lonnie's eyes went wide, but Eda was a woman on a mission. No looking back, just more words. "It's telling us where he last was when it had lost him," she explained. "I wrap my spells deliberately. One tags him to find, one notifies if he leaves reality, one will suspend him if he would die, one protects him from moderate curses—"
"—and one keeps him in human form without hurting him," Lonnie nodded as they approached the kitchen. "Otherwise, he'd know—what's that then!?" Lonnie called out a warning to his wife. Eda almost tripped from the very obvious indication that something was behind her. She spun around, her purple fingernails suddenly magenta talons. There in the opposite doorway to the kitchen was a wispy, ghost-like wolf... it was black, blue, and silver with a red tongue and bright hazel eyes... just like Lonnie... and just like James.
"It's a wolf."
"I can see that, Love," James' father groaned. The beast wasn't attacking and, in truth, looked happy. There was a grin to its face and its tail was wagging. "I see the energy connected to you, Eda. And its tone is traveling the lines over the S.O.S."
"It's a, how you say, Metaphor," she offered, looking to her husband. "Someone tried to curse James... perhaps into the appearance of a cartoon, the team emblem? Something to do with the football team symbol and team spirit, together." She waved a hand through the air as she turned and headed back the way she'd come, towards one of their back doors. "Don't touch it and it won't hurt us... it will fade after a moment now that the message has been delivered."
Eda threw open the double doors at the back of the home, stepping outside in just her underwear. The high stone walls and trees beyond would keep any casusal onlookers from seeing what they were about to do. Turning on her heel, her eyes caught sight of a ghostly beaver standing to the side of the doorway as Lonnie exited. She pointed to the creature which had on khaki pants and a blue dress shirt.
"A beaver?" Lonnie asked.
"Mountain beaver," she offered, thinking. "Based on it's meme-level clothing, I suspect it was evoked by James saying 'boomer'. Could have been a chicken, a kangaroo, or a squirrel." She sighed, putting a hand to one side of her head. "May be tied to literal wording, if a tad arbitrary in its determination..."
"Honey, please," Lonnie said standing out in the night's air in his boxers. "You have some idea what's going on. I come from a royal family and physical-based warriors... you're the magic user. I'll understand, but you have to take a moment to explain!"
"James has been cursed!" she yelled. "Twice! He's not in this plane of existence but these messages are still getting to us which means he's in a pocket dimension off of this one, rather than an alter-planer location." She growled, her hands balling into fists. "His location is under reality, otherwise we'd just have the S.O.S."
Lonnie had a suddenly narrow long tongue with a forked tip which licked the air. "I taste Andrew... or, what he smelled like when he came back two and half years ago," Eda nodded. "So either he did something, or something just like that is happening again."
"Or never stopped happening in the first place," Eda explained. "Come on, dear. We have to go..."
And with those words, Eda spread her arms wide, wide enough to reach either side of the porch railings several feet to either side of her. The tink-tink of purple, metal-plated scales rolled down her growing arms as thick muscle pushed out from underneath in waves. Her torso elongated and legs pushed back towards the house, shifting muscle and mass.
Already twice her previous size, a tail pushed out from above her ass, thick and powerful. It went off along the path around the house, wrapping around a tree at the end. She grunted and flames belched from her mouth. Her face pushed out into a snout and her ears melted back into her head. A heavy crown of chrome magenta horns began pushing out of her head, the same color as the thick talons that came from her toes and fingers in place of nails.
With a roar, her wings burst outwards from her shoulders. Thick and veined-like leather and bat-like in design, they extended out further north and south than the length of their large home. In truth this prismatic metallic purple dragon was only one fourth of her real size, but she was already larger than the entire building. Her front hand/legs gripping the railing of the far end of the long porch... a porch which might now have looked to others as a short runway.
Those lavender, reptilian eyes looked back to her mate, and she licked her sharp white teeth. She spoke in Draconic this time, to Lonnie. "I will wait for you in the air and I will hide us from sight as always," she implored. "We will hunt those who have harmed our child and any others and we will feast upon them like old times." Her long, spindly tail whipped hard with its two rows of six metallic spikes as she thrust it downward as Eda leapt into the air and flapped her wings.
Moments later, a well built if slightly smaller and less shiny male flew up on her side. Lonnie was of red and black scales, a true fire dragon. Atop his head were black horns which crackled with heat, red energy sparking off as if the embers of a fire. The mane atop his head was the red-orange of flames, magically burning from his crown, down along his spine, and ending only at the mass of spikes that made up his tail. His body was made of more muscle than hers, though it was lithe and gave him staggering agility. They were both dragons, though their born abilities were somewhat different.
Lonnie swept up under one of her wings as they flew. "The sound grows louder," he said from her other side now. "They were to be in Billings this year, yes, since the championship was canceled last year."
"Correct," Eda rumbled back to her mate. "Flying the highway will take no time. I am glad you did not insist on the car."
"I am not gifted in magic, my love, but I know a magic of this size and purpose, taking our child to a pocket realm means that what is there is not unaware of the supernatural." He huffed a brief puff of black smoke. "I suspect, however, that they would not be ready for dragons protecting their last child nor the wrath they've brought upon themselves."
Eda growled, something clearly concerning her further by the way her wings moved, the set of her tail, and the way she clenched her jaw.
Lonnie swung in closer at the next flap of his wide wings. "What's more?"
"My spells are connected," she explained in Draconic, but his golden reptilian eyes said he did not gather enough from that simple statement. She then went on: "The locator spell will cease after a handful of hours... I knew our little egg would be within flight distance, easy. The curse reflection is a Rule of Three. After a third strike, it too will be gone," she explained. "If one of these curses would kill him—or the reflection of such a spell has a built-in component to do so—then it will not... but it too is a Rule of Three..."
"Leaving only the spell that leaves him in human form," Lonnie realized. "You've had to recast that repeatedly?"
"Every season, though it lasts for twice that," she said. "The winter solstice is in one week. That means in roughly three months that spell too will end."
Lonnie huffed, raising his head. "My dear, we shall find him this night! Three months is out of the question," he spoke with bravado.
"You miss my meaning," Eda confirmed. "Love... The spells reinforce each other as part of a whole... as one spell is defeated, the cohesion is lost. This is the truth for most magicks."
The male dragon in red and black rolled that around in his head for a few seconds before understanding what his mate had meant: "Three months under optimal conditions." She nodded. "The locator spell will end tonight. The curse protection—"
"Reflection," she corrected.
"What's the differ—oh dear. You're saying if he would be cursed, instead someone near to him would be cursed."
"And that it may amplify aspects of a curse they were already experiencing, modified by my reflection spell into something... less intentional."
Which, as you might have guessed, explains the lust waves that James has already experienced. The orgy on the bus was one, with all the participants being people in front of James as he faced the back of the bus having it worse off than the same effect on the cheerleader's transport. This was built of two failed curses, the 'wolf' and the 'boomer'. But there was one more, wasn't there?
"Another curse," Lonnie motioned down towards the Earth as a minuscule wispy figure was running the earth beneath them... like a NPC with poor path-finding trying to get to a player without a course. Pulling his wings flat behind him, he plummeted towards the trees of the Helena National Forest, a Montana state park. There was an open grassy area near a small wooden building that housed some bathrooms within it. That clearing had enough space for Eda to land near to him, though just barely. "There," he said, pointing into the tree line.
This ghostly figure was a cat. A black house cat, to be specific. It was wearing a black outfit and sunglasses. "Ah," Loonie said, nodding his head. The bright purple dragon at his side tilted her head. "Deja vü... I know a Matrix reference when I see one. This little Metaphor is that." Indeed, when Andrew had spoken of his sensation just moments ago now, James had mentioned such a cat from the film.
Shaking her head, she looked to the woods. "We are actually closer down here," she spoke, tilting her head to the other side. "Can you hear it clearly now, the tone?" Lonnie nodded, pointing with a thick black talon up the mountainside. "Then let us hurry. Only the death prevention and his human form remain."
"So he can be cursed?" Lonnie asked.
Eda shuttered, her metallic scales jingle-jangling in the night as she shook. "If it is stronger as a spell than his innate power as a dragon, then... yes. It would be possible." She huffed smoke from her nostrils. "Or, perhaps, it will try to work and fail, hurting him. Perhaps badly."
"Then let us make haste," said her mate as he pushed up off of the ground once again, leading the charge towards the hill ahead, low, just barely above the treetops.
Canonically, just a while later... ———————————————
Emily Clark was holding a dear friend in her arms. James was barely breathing, but he wasn't moving. The blood from his nose had stopped and was drying on his lips. Her wolf tail still behind her as she carefully observed every facet of his form. As she held him against her body and under her lower of two sets of breasts, she had to wonder: Why isn't James—
He coughed and she rolled him to the side as he spit out something white from his mouth out and onto the floor. Her thought interrupted, she rubbed his back and gave him a moment to breath in deep. Her black tail wagged back and forth behind her as he started to move and open his eyes... but her tail wasn't normal. Uh. I mean, obviously it wasn't normal... but more not normal than usual in these trying times.
Along the outermost edge of the tail were two stripes, each one a centimeter thick. One stripe was royal blue, the other silver... the full three team colors, and laid out in the same way as they might have been on the school mascot uniform. The first Metaphor that James' parents had seen was a wolf not unlike this... and when Emily and James had impacted in the entrance to the bathroom, the first reflection spell had expelled and hit her. It was the 'wolf' of the curse, modified by James' subconscious and Eda's spell, which completed its route when physically passed to Emily.
"James?" came Andy's voice. It sounded the same, but the body that produced it was greatly different. Andrew's entire lower-body from his waist down was a large, muscled, hermaphrodite, hybrid of human and a wolf. His thick thighs were ripped with muscle, the black fur covering down their back and stopping in lines along his front, leaving human skin around where his average human penis was. If it weren't for the four new sets of nipples along his torso, an upper-body picture of him would have shown him still looking human.
Christopher and Andy each had a wide stance for different reasons. Andy's was because he had a gap for his plump lupine womanhood. Chris, though, was because his balls were so big and fluffy that he currently had to have them positioned behind him while he and Andy were tied. And knotted they were. As Chris's red schlong was still hard, moving against the surface of Andy's front from the inside. Out of view, inside his head, Chris' new tongue was three times as long as it had been before, and without a muzzle to hide it, one might wonder where it fit.
Zelda had stopped focusing on her own long, thin bat tail. It was her golden ears which bothered her... they moved and changed shape as she focused on different sounds, though right now her focus was on hearing James. She stayed back from the two men knotted together. Turning away from Christopher's new height and muscle mass, she looked back towards the front of the bathroom, wondering if anyone had seen them enter.
"I think I died," James groaned. His hands were shaking as he tried to pull himself up using the toilet seat. "I really did," he said, pained. "That was the worst feeling... ever."
Emily reached an arm around James, helping him to his feet. He caught the sight and scent of his turkey dinner and garlic bread filling the porcelain throne, as were bits of dissolved cheese crackers from lunch earlier. He groaned and turned away, looking Emily in the face for the first time. "Your nose," he blinked, taking in her new, wet, canine nose on her face. "And why are your lips blue?"
Helping him from the stall and over to the sink, Emily took in her facial appearance for the first time. Indeed, she had blue lips... royal blue, like she had on lipstick. "I don't know," she said. "But thank you for not focusing on my breasts... all of them."
James turned the faucet and began splashing cold water in his face. After a moment, he cupped his hands and filled them with water. Lifting them up to his mouth, sucked in the water, swished it around, then spit it out into the sink. Turning to look at Emily, he managed a smile... though his face was red and he looked warn out. "Not the first thing I usually look at... more of an ass-man... but they look... good?" he asked.
She smirked, her tail wagging. "Fuck if I know," she shrugged. "I think I'm in shock," she offered, reaching up with her hands to bounce her lower set. "I think it's more weird this doesn't feel weird... and that weirds me out."
"Please stop," James said, pushing away from the sink. "I don't know how long this all is supposed to take, but not saying an animal is hard enough without having to refer to—Andy's fabulous ass," James interrupted himself, stepping over besides Andy. His eyes took in that fabulously inhumanly androgynous ass and whistled to himself.
Andy frowned. He was now six foot four with all of that new height added from his overly muscled, half-wolf legs. "I feel a little compromised right now, James, could we not?" he asked politely.
The younger man ran a hand through his brown hair. James' reflex was trying to break the tension with jokes and so he said: "I'd feel compromised too if I had a dick that big up my ass."
Andrew clasped his hand together underneath his still rounded belly, full of cum. Christopher hugged him from his new and muscled height of six foot seven, leaning into Andy. It helped, and Andy Let loose a breath he didn't know he was holding. He confided in James: "It's not in my ass."
James' eyes squinted for a moment, before slowly widening. "Oh." He said. "Are you... are you on your period?" James asked.
"How would I know?" Andrew barked, exasperated. He blinked.
Emily was staring at her face in the mirror. "This isn't right," she said. The four others all turned to look over at her as her tail finished swinging back and forth and went still. "I mean, even less right than it would have been two hours ago. I didn't say an animal," she insisted. "I didn't cheer, I didn't... I don't think I nicknamed one, nothing..."
Zelda figured now was as good a time as any to point out what no one had said to Emily: "You're tail is striped," she said. "You're school colors."
Twisting her tail around to her front, she grabbed it with her hands. Sure enough, it was black with each a silver and blue stripe. "See!?" she yelped, shaking her tail as if to strangle it. "There's no wolf on the planet with bright blue fur!"
James moved back to Emily, looking at her tail closely. "Sparkledog?" he grinned, trying to bring in some levity.
"James, for fuck's sake!" Christopher yelled out.
"What?" James blinked.
"You just said dog!" Chris barked.
Zelda's eyes lit up. "Hey, hey! He said cat too!" she said, pointing at James.
James looked taken aback. "What, when? When did I say cat?"
"Your Matrix reference earlier," she accused.
Christopher nodded. "Yeah, yeah... the deja vü cat."
James put a hand to his mouth, covering his circle red goatee. In the next moment, he felt a searing pain in his tailbone and once again fell over. "Fuck!" he screamed out. His hands slipped on the tile floor, still wet from having gathered water in them a moment earlier. In the next moment, a white furred, narrow tail with black spots erupted from his back.
Then, in the next moment, the tail exploded in blood and bone... as if he was going to begin turning into a Dalmatian and an otherworldly force had stopped it from happening. A moment later, a tube-like black cat tail pushed out and did the same. Both of the gory events shocked everyone assembled, but nothing compared to the pain James felt. Those were real tails, and the blood and bones painted the wall... and also Emily.
"The fuck is happening!?" she yelped at the first, but meat from the second tail ended up in her mouth and she just started spitting.
Andrew's default reaction did not work, as he tried to move to James, but ended up just pulling against Christopher's massive knot which refused to budge. Zelda moved to help James up instead, but he saw her coming and waved her off. "Damnit, that hurt," he hissed between his teeth. "It felt like... like... like..."
Zelda offered: "Like growing a tail and having it explode? Twice?"
"Yes!" James roared, placing his hands over his ass. Carefully, he stood back up. "But... but it's gone now, so... so it would be like falling out of'a building onto your ass, then standing up like everything is fine with no pain," he offered. And, with that, he managed to get back to his feet. "What is hurting me? What is this magic bul—loany... baloney—I said baloney!—do-doing?" He put his hands over his ass, truly expecting someone to reach up his anus and pull out a blade shaped like a cow-tail.
The internal muscles inside of Andy pulled against Christopher's knot, testing it for strength and finding it still blocking his passage. He was trying to distract his mind, but now there was a new question. "There's something obvious to this that we're missing. The rules are what they are, but... if Emily didn't say anything and James has said many things, and also has fucking exploding tails... then maybe it doesn't work like we think..."
Emily groaned, wiping off blood from James' exploding tail from her chest. "Then we'd be back to square one... and everyone's on the chopping block if you don't have to say an animal in the first place..."
There was silence for a moment as the room felt newly depressed.
"Unless," Andy began, wiggling his butt to try and free himself from Christopher. Chris put his hands on Andy's waist and tried to use his strength to lightly push at the slightly smaller man. "We're wolves because we did the cheer on the bus," Andy said, reaching a hand back to press against Christopher's waist. "Didn't you?" he asked James. "You did, didn't you?"
James leaned back against the sink next to the one Emily was leaning against. "I... I mean, I thought that was before the tree falling. Isn't that our cutoff?"
"It was after," Christopher assured him, slowly getting into a rhythm as he pushed against Andy softly.
James rubbed his head. "So that's three times I said an animal at least? This is even harder than I thought..."
Zelda rubbed her hands together, standing near the bathroom entrance still. She groaned as she was tired of no one mentioning what was bothering her: "None of you were talking about Emily's stripes. Are we going to do the same routine about James' glow?" The other four looked over at Zelda. "Do you seriously not see he's glowing purpular... like a City of Heroes aura?"
Standing right next to him, Emily looked James up and down. "I mean... he's hot," she began. Various comments about how James was 'OK' or 'average' from the other four indicated to Emily that she'd used the wrong description. "Like, he's on fire. I thought it was because he was sick, but it's seriously five to ten degrees warmer just standing next to him." She moved a hand into James' personal space again, then pulled it back in pain.
Andrew's head tilted a little to the side. "Aura, heat, that's the feelings stuff Heather told us not to ignore. Maybe this is a James-centric spell?"
James frowned. "Lot of wild assumptions going on here. Besides who the fuck would put a spell on—"
"Your mom." "Mom." "Eda." "Definitely your mom," came all the replies at once from each of the four other occupants.
Bright hazel eyes went wide very, very slowly for James and he put both hands over his mouth as a chain of revelations came to him in quick succession: The way she growls at bad drivers; the thing she has about humans killing monsters; the fearlessness of mortal danger when that burglar held her at gun-point; the super-weird way she responded to Andy—who had apparently been cursed!—and treated him like a pariah; and those weird ritual-like positions she had him take every season and drink that weird protein drink that tasted like kelp. James tilted his head back slightly, looking at each of his friends. "Oh, shit. I think my mom's a witch."
Zelda smirked. "Well, I could have told you that." That brought a frown from James and she rubbed one ear nervously as she spoke. "But that does simplify things," she admitted. "Let's say you're mom cast some Final Fantasy-style Reflect Spell. The first time you invoked the curse, the cheer, was team-spirt wolf-stuff... which you then maybe somehow passed on to Emily...?" She shook her head. "I'm just spit-balling here."
Emily looked James up and down. "When you ran into me on the way into the bathroom... I felt like I'd been hit by electricity or something... a hotness for a brief burst. Like our own little explosion, but... it passed." Emily took a step away from James. "Did you curse me with team-spirt wolfieness?"
Andrew, who was now actively rocking against Christopher, chimed in at this point. "Maybe you're keeping the reflection as, like, it needs a target... someone who hasn't said an animal yet. Which means, in addition to not saying any more animals—" he growled, "—you also have to avoid contact with non-cursed. Physical contact."
"OK. OK. I can do that."
Andrew rocked slowly back against Christopher, originally trying to get free of the knot, but now seemingly just teasing it. "But worse," he added. "Because if the tail you just grew is any indication, and someone—we'll just assume you mom for the moment, but that is an assumption—has made it so a curse won't take... it really does seem like it's hurting you instead. So, like... stop saying animals."
"I'll try," James insisted.
Emily tilted her head, then hummed. "Or... if it doesn't kill you, you can be that immortal guy we test words on to see if they count as making us animals."
"I don't want to explode," Jame clarified. "Exploding was not good."
"Just an idea... turn a negative to a positive."
Christopher chimed in at that point. "This is the first two times he got a tail and they fucking exploded... what if each subsequent time it's worse for him than the last?"
"Yeah, that," James agreed, motioning at Christopher who was slowly rocking against Andrew, supposedly to try and get unknotted.
Andrew returned to the situation they'd all be derailed from: "Now, please... we need to pass on what we learned to everyone else. That's what we were going to do before all the fucking," he reminded. "You three... start getting everyone together. Christopher and I... uh... Chris, this is a great feeling," Andy admitted, "But I'm not even a fan of everyone present seeing us like this."
"I understand," Chris nodded, holding Andy's sides as he thrust inside that deep wolfen vagina once more. "I'm starting to get visions of your belly filled with pups." Andrew's body relaxed, as if he were admitting that he'd been wondering the same thing.
"Guys," James interjected, taking a step towards them.
"We'll be OK," Andy insisted, glancing back at Christopher. "The lust wave is over... we just have to not orgasm again." He said, leaning back against Chris' chest. "You guys, gather everyone while we hopefully don't take half an hour to get free... and we can all make a presentation of it."
"Boys," Zelda said with a shake of her head and then turned to head out of the bathroom.
Andrew tilted his head, calling after her: "Does that even still work!?"
James frowned, looking to Chris and Andy, then Emily. "If I did that to you, I'm real sorry... But at least you're not exploding."
Emily shrugged. "As animals go, it could be worse. I could be a duck," she offered as a thought. "And, you know, I can stand out with the blue, I guess..." Shaking her head, she kept her distance from James as the two of them exited the bathroom. "But social distance because seriously, your fire-aura hurts." James' hazel eyes looked back at his two friend slowly thrusting against each other, then simply looked away and exited.
"So..." Christopher began softly after the others had departed. "We can get close, but not orgasm?" As he asked, he leaned in and licked along Andy's neck.
"Absolutely..."