“What the hell?!” A soft voice spoke from the door.
Troy’s heart sank. Now the shit was going to hit the fan. He looked over to the door and couldn’t help but smile. A very small, very cute, overfed otter wearing a poorly sewn-together outfit glared at the room angrily. He looked absolutely perfect, just as Troy had intended, though the otter clearly didn’t think so. Drew’s tail was stamping the ground in agitation.
“Welcome back, bud!” Mark grinned warmly. “We have a new player!”
“W-welcome back?” Drew growled uncertainly, eyeing up the newest player.
“Hey Drew!” Greg smiled brightly. “Bathroom emergency over?”
Troy watched as the otter visibly deflated under the assault of warm greetings. Literally, his fur had been standing on end when he walked in and it was now settling back on his body. Drew hissed as a little metal plug appeared on his forehead, wirelessly connecting him to the game table.
“I…thought we could only handle 6 players.” Drew licked his lips, eyes darting around the room, finally noticing people weren’t ignoring him or giving him mean looks.
“Have a seat, it’s a custom fit, just for you!” Drake finally spoke, trying to be cheery.
“Custom seating? What is this?” The otter walked forward warily, examining the table with clear interest. “Some kind of VR thing?”
“Duh.” Greg rolled his eyes, “We’ve been talking about upgrading the table for months. Pooled our money together.”
“Right….of course.” Drew said slowly.
“Oh, I have a figure for you!” Drake dug in his bag and held up Drew’s Brenneri Rogue and bent down, handing it to the otter.
Drew inspected it, fascinated. “You made this?”
“Yup!” Drake puffed his chest out.
“Amazing.” Drew breathed, his big eyes bright with curiosity.
Troy’s HUD flashed as a text came through. He reached up, touching the icon, and saw it was from Mark. As soon as his finger ‘touched’ the icon in midair, the message opened. Troy read it.
WHAT’D YOU CHANGE ABOUT HIM?
Troy smirked and responded. He only needed to think about the sentence and it formed automatically, no keyboard necessary. Maybe the HUD was handy after all.
HE WAS BEING OBNOXIOUS AND CALLING ME A FURFAG SO I TURNED HIM INTO AN SMALL CUTE OTTER SORRY
The otter in question walked warily over to the seat, his thick ass bouncing merrily in his pants.
A goodly amount of Drew’s weight had shifted to his hips and ass, making him pear-shaped. Troy bit his lips, enjoying watching the short otter struggle to lift himself into his seat. Drake helped him up, and Drew looked seriously embarrassed, glancing around the room to see if anyone noticed. When no one laughed at him, he relaxed into the seat and sighed.
Troy’s HUD lit up as a new message appeared.
YOU MUST’VE DONE A NUMBER ON HIM BECAUSE THE DREW I KNOW IS SHY AND REALLY NICE
Troy sighed. Drew’s reaction when he first entered the room confirmed that the reality shift hadn’t affected his mind. He thanked every god he could think of that the new technology had managed to pique his interest more than the fact that: a) someone had changed him into a small otter and b) that Drake was obviously a Book owner.
YEAH, WELL, PREPARE YOURSELF, BECAUSE EVEN IF REALITY SHIFTED, HIS MIND DIDN’T CHANGE
The response from Mark was immediate.
ARE YOU SURE? LOOK AT HIM
The formerly angry otter was all smiles now. He was speaking happily with Greg, talking about the character he made and gushing about the table. Greg was actually listening now. It didn’t surprise Troy in the slightest. The reality shift functioned like a do-over. It was up to Drew to not fuck it up.
“So what happened earlier?” Greg asked. “You walked in angry. It’s not like you.”
“I was…struck by something and had to cut up my clothes. Now I’m stuck wearing this make-shift outfit.”
“Makeshift?” Greg snorted. “Gosh, bro, don’t insult yourself like that. You’re a clothing designer and I gotta say, that outfit is rad!”
“What?” Drew blinked and looked down at himself.
The half-stitched and thread-bare outfit he was wearing shifted. The baggy jean shorts bleached white and became shorter and tighter,emphasizing his ass. His tattered geeky black shirt altered, the D20 on it becoming a bright blue homemade print. Shirt brightened to sunset pink as the cotton shifted to silk and tightening around him until it fit perfectly. His socks, still on his paws, shifted into sandals.
Drew’s jaw dropped, not noticing the shell necklace appear around his neck. He did feel a pinch as bright silver earrings pierced his ears and above one eye. As he reached a hand up to rub his sore ear, the fur on his head bleached itself, blue and pink dye streaking it.
Troy watched the otter squirm and take out his phone in alarm, using the camera feature to inspect himself. The shift was very similar to the one he had experienced back at the park. He stifled a laugh as Drew cautiously touched his hair fur and touched his earrings. He clearly liked what he saw despite his protests, because the otter’s pants had started to bulge.
“You even designed my outfit.” Mark smiled kindly. “You really are awesome at LARPs.”
“It is a very cute look.” Jeremiah offered.
“That-this is-” Drew sputtered, shifting uncomfortably, paw adjusting his tight pants to hide his boner and failing. “It doesn’t matter how cute my outfit is! One of you turned me into an otter!”
The table snickered. Drew glowered furiously at them. Mark heaved a sigh and shook his head. Jeremiah frowned, and Troy realized he couldn’t let this go on any longer.
“You guys are taking crazy pills! Where the hell could a table like this even come from!” Drew pointed at the metal disk on his temple. “And data-jacks? Brain surgery is hella expensive, no way any of us could pool enough money to afford any of it. Especially the data-jacks, no insurance company pays for cosmetic surgery!”
Mark glanced at Troy and then to Jeremiah, who was leaning forward with interest glittering in his eyes.
Uh oh.
The dog had clearly found Drew’s arguments persuasive. Drew had managed to give him logical reasons for why reality didn’t make sense. Troy was pretty sure that was what the police were looking for-Magic. Nothing else could make a dragon appear and reappear in an office building. And his suspects were sitting right here at this very table.
Troy came in with a save.
“Oh boy, Mark,” Troy raised his deep, booming voice. “I forgot to ask if they found out who summoned that dragon at your office. The police are investigating that, right Jeremiah?”
“I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.” Jeremiah mumbled. “And we don’t know if it was summoned, per se.”
Drew looked at them both quizzically and then his widened as the implications of what Troy was saying hit him.
“Hey officer, what’s the penalty for using, say, an artifact to summon a dangerous beast or, you know, change reality?” Troy asked.
“Um, prison.” Jeremiah said. “Obviously. And Department policy would be to consider them a terrorist, so probably for a long time. And the artifact-if it was an artifact, this is purely conjecture-would be confiscated.”
“There are laws about that?” Drew’s eyes widened.
“Yeah, come on man. They’d probably send goons immune to magic against them.” Greg snorted.
“Not goons, officers.” Jeremiah frowned.
“Right, sorry.” Greg muttered. “They’d probably have kill-on-sight orders, though. I heard there was this chick who could control people with her voice. Sniper got her, there’s a video of it.”
Drew gulped. “No kidding?”
“I’ll send you the vid-”
“Boys, can we please focus? We’re about to start the session.” Mark clapped his hands, the lights in the room dimming.
There was a sound at the door. Drake stumbled in, arms laden with snacks. He kicked the door closed behind him and took a seat next to Drew.
“Sorry, sorry.” Drake set his snacks down and opened a can of soda, taking a quick gulp. “Did you start yet?”
“About to.” Mark took a breath. “Okay. Computer, initiate campaign.”
As the caravanserai loaded, Drake leaned over to Drew.
“Hey, if it’s any consolation, you make a really cute otter.” Drake whispered.
“Yeah, sure.” Drew snorted.
“I mean it!” Drake insisted. “Look at me, the only boring fat human in a group of strange and exotic creatures. I’d trade places with you any day.”
“I don’t want to have to put in the work myself to fix you up.” Drew eyed him critically and pushed a finger into the fat of Drake’s belly. “So I Command you to lose weight and start exercising once we’re done with the game. I hope my words Motivate you to get healthy and fit. It would be no False statement to say you were fit once and can be again.”
Drake shuddered and blinked rapidly. “Oh, yeah, work out like I used to! Right, who’d want a bod like mine the way it is now?”
Drew smiled. “That’s the spirit. If you ever feel like giving up or slacking off, I Command you to call me so I can Motivate you again.”
Troy listened, tubular ears twitching. So Drake didn't want to be human. He could do something about that...
His thoughts were interrupted when the 3D image beeped as the loading finished.
A Downloading icon appeared in Troy’s HUD. The rhino man wondered if it was going to bring up an overlay of the caravanserai. Troy blinked as his vision whitened.
GAME START