“So…do ya notice anything different about me?” Troy rumbled to Lancer.
The Leonin rolled his eyes.
“For the last time, Troy. No, there’s absolutely nothing different about you.” Lancer huffed, crossing his bulging biceps.
Troy’s wide rhinoceros-like lips twisted into a pleased smile.
He’d finally done it, somehow. He’d successfully altered reality and with very little mental alterations to himself. Troy had found himself slipping into less intelligent thoughts and speaking with lax pronunciation in a way similar to his new boss had from time to time, but other than that, he was fine.
The entire incident at the park had taken up about twenty minutes, so they would be about ten minutes late for the pizza. He’d checked his phone and apparently he’d ordered some vegetarian pizzas-several of them, just for himself, alongside what he’d ordered for the group before his transformation. Hi phone was now a massive tablet with a reinforced screen so he didn’t crush it by poking it too hard.
Apparently, he’d always been a Rhox, and everything around him had shifted to match. Even a different job-in this reality, he’d quit his job after the dragon incident. Rhox’s parents were very disappointed in his choice of pursuing a career in manual labor and wasting his degree. If he were really a Rhox, he was sure he’d be ashamed, but he wasn’t…so he wasn’t.
“I can’t believe it really worked.” Troy muttered and shook his massive, horned head.
The horns were weird at first, but his eyes quickly adjusted to them and he found himself simply not noticing them in his field of vision.
“What did you do, Troy?” The massive Leonin he was apparently dating asked.
Yeah, that’s right. They were a couple now. He’d been summoned and the reality shifts had made it permanent. Troy could always send him back to his world when he wished, but the Leonin still seemed keen on exploring the modern world and their relationship.
“Whoa, attitude, big cat!” Troy guffawed, then blushed, weirded out by how..more robust and outgoing his personality had become.
“I caught you in the restroom with another man’s…” The furry paladin shook his head. “In the middle of a disgraceful and treacherous act, and you wish to correct my attitude?”
“Oh.” Troy sighed and hung his head. “Hormones from the change kicked in and I kinda let it carry me away. I’m sorry, Lancer.”
“Whore moans?” The Leonin blinked, “Are you joking?”
“No.” Troy spelled out the word for him.
“Ah. What change do you speak of?” Lancer asked.
“Ya don’t remember me havin’ ya plug yer ears at the park?”
“No.” Lancer shrugged.
“I broke reality.”
“Explain.” Lancer’s brows fell. “Carefully.”
Troy explained, in excruciating detail, exactly what happened.
The Leonin listened, eyes widening as the story turned to what happened afterwords, when the gear on Troy’s body became his. He actually started to tremble.
“What’s wrong?” Troy asked.
“Troy, you can’t do that again.” Lancer spoke quietly. “Not ever. You have no idea how lucky you are to exist right now. And not just mentally.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The only reason you survived that much power was because you summoned me.
Troy trundled silently along besides him. It had become a familiar gait for him. His hand closed around the big lion-man’s paw. He would have absolutely hesitated any public displays of affection before the park incident, but now…now he just felt fine with doing whatever he wanted.
“What if I want to be something else? Or a human again?” The overgrown Rhox asked.
“You were human?” Lancer’s eyes widened. “Troy, you know how I feel about humans. Why wouldn’t you want to be soft yet rugged with smooth skin?”
“I…” Troy blinked. “I knew you had a preference but I never realized it was a fetish.”
Lancer’s tail flicked and he looked away.
“I can’t allow it, Troy.” Lancer looked back at him. “I don’t care what you are. I couldn’t bear losing you.”
Troy was glad that he had put the Game Store’s address in his GPS.
He’d been down this street a dozen times and he’d never seen a game shop there. It turned out, that was because it was literally a hole in the wall. There was only a small sign lining a railing that led into a basement floor shop.
The sign read:
Random Encounters Cards and Games
Beyond the tiny sign, there was no way to know a store even existed here. The rest of the street was residential apartments. This was a basement with a metal storm door from the 1950’s and a green door with a damaged paint job. Someone had been creative and marked the door with stickers of comic book super heroes, some half-peeled off and all of them sun damaged.
The stairway was wide enough that he could waddle down it without tripping. The door knob was bright gold, in stark contrast with drab concrete landing. Troy gripped it and pushed the door open. He had to duck so as not to catch his horn on the top of the door and turn sideways to pop himself through the small entrance, but once he was inside and got a proper bearing of his surroundings, he jaw dropped.
Despite the store’s rundown exterior, the interior was enormous-tall ceilings, tall enough that he didn’t have to duck. He could see the tables in the far back. The shopkeeper must own the entire subbasement of this apartment complex, he realized, because the floor space was mind boggling.
Display cases and comic racks lined the entranceway, a glass counter running next to the door had a cash register and tons of playing cards, both unwrapped and in the glass display case. Other cases held anime and DnD figures running upwards of $100. The entire store was fully loaded, even had old game cartridges.
In the back, he could see make-shift booths set up with walls that reached the ceiling and several tables with people playing card games. Another table was just as busy, two nerds playing BattleAnvil 50K.
“Never seen guys like you around here.” An alluring, feminine voice said.
Troy looked over the counter and saw a woman dressed in full-on goth gear resting her arms on the glass counter. She clearly loved fishnets as she wore them over her tight-fitting tank top and too-short jeans. The goth chick topped her outfit off with a pair of black combat boots.
“Never been here before.” Troy rumbled.
“Not talking to you, bud.” The woman’s black painted lips curled at the edges. “More talking to your friend over there.”
Her hips did an odd sway as she spoke. Troy heard a hiss of frustration and turned to see Lancer struggling in the doorway. The Leonin had caught his pants on a twisted bit of metal sticking out of the storm door and was trying to carefully extricate himself so he wouldn’t damage his new clothes.
Troy turned to help him out and bumped the glass case, making it rock.
“You break it you buy it.” A surly man announced from behind the goth chick.
The man didn’t even bother to look up from his comic book. Troy thought he must be the store owner and more likely than not, the property owner. It was the only plausible explanation for being rude to a customer. The man turned a page and kept reading. Troy wondered how such a small man like him could enforce any rules on people like him and Lancer.
“That’s nice.” Troy said. “I’m looking for Mark Vender. We’re supposed to be playing DnD with him tonight.”
“Mark?” The balding, surly man raised his voice. “Tell him that if that shit head comes by, he can call me and I’ll be the one who takes care of it.”
Troy nodded, thick brows furrowing.
“So...is he here?” Troy asked.
“He’s over there.” The woman spoke up first, pointing at one of the booths. “You don’t need to leave just yet.”
The woman’s hand reached for Lancer’s arm. The Leonin clung to Troy as a shield.
“Oooh!” Her devilish smile only broadened, showing off very pointed teeth. "I rarely get to see this outside of the internet. You two need to come by," She made a show of letting her long black hair with a red stripe in it down, "A girl can get so lonely..."
Troy's brow furrowed.
What the hell was this chick supposed to be? It could be something simply like succubus, yet he felt no sexual compulsion. Not vampire, too many teeth. A fey, perhaps? Red stripe...maybe a Red Cap? That didn't sound right either.
"Come on Troy, stop frowning at the lady and let's go." Lancer nudged Troy.
Troy shook his head, snapping out of his reverie, and realized he had been staring at this chick for like, a minute. Lancer took his elbow and guided him away from the counter and the mysterious goth girl. He glanced back just before they reached their privacy booth and caught her sticking her tongue out at them.
Made thoroughly uncomfortable, the couple made their way over to the booth to see their new friends.