To say Project Return did not cause disruptions to 'life as normal' would be untrue, as with
any major sociological event it made waves. In particular when you uncover a conspiracy
over a thousand years in the continuation. But contrary to the warnings of nay sayers it
did not cause the collapse of human civilization. This was due in a large part of eastern
culture's tendency to accept things for as they are, and western culture innate talent for
staying true to one's sacred routine of 'wake up, go to work, go home, read a book/watch
TV, go to bed.'
There were of course the practical problems that would come up, such what bathroom
should asexual and bisexual lifeforms be allowed and not allowed to use? And the
question of weather certain central pieces of popular culture and sociological wit
(including "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) could now be considered
prejudice or slander given the testifying existence of certain entities (to the credits of
many a fantasy author's lawyer, no one was found guilty of anything in light of the
enforced ignorance of the existence of said beings' existence).
Not to mention people now turning slightly and so slightly paranoid and taking (perhaps
overdue) extra precautions learning the things that went bump in the night were actual.
Thank Heavens (literally in some cases) this was balanced out by the assurance that the
things that skipped during the day were actual as well.
This is not to say there were not good things, in particular the inner circle of corporate
vampires (which was much smaller than the conspiracy theorists thought) could no longer
suck the life out of a business rival then leave their bleeding corpse in a bath tube to pass
it off as suicide. While some vampire hunters missed the thrill of always hiding in the
shadows along with the curse enslaved being they targeted, many found it a breath of
fresh air no longer having to waste half their time making up BS cover stories to explain
while this man who owned a strangely large estate in spite of not legally existing ten year
prior had a stake through his heart (the fact that vampires were technically already dead
with the soulless corpse going through the motions via a curse also let a couple vampire
hunters out of death row). And of course being dead, meant trying their hardest to keep
their business empires from crumbling around them as it was logically pointed out the
dead could not own property or shares.
Project Return also annoyed many drug gangs who could no longer simply bite someone
and wait till the next full moon for the new recruit. This also however meant resources
used for cover ups could now be used to help said people overcome their curse's
programming. This was particularly challenging for those born into a were family had
heard 'The Voice' (their curse) all their lives.
And the precious few dragons that still existed in the world (but still just as beautiful and
frightening) saw a chance to increase their cash reserves by renting their services to
certain armies to the highest bidder, and the face of war changed. (This had the secondary
motive and added bonus that as long as they were under a flag when burning something,
they had nothing to fear from being attacked by dragon slayers in their own lairs since
they were as much razing the landscape for their own profit as the next mercenary
company and thus were protected by law).
Atheists as a rule stated repeatedly how they had never been a united group, merely a way
of thinking: however, they now found themselves frantically pulling themselves together
and quickly shifting their philosophy from 'The gods don't exist' to 'we don't need the
gods.'
For older kids, this amounted to more to learn in class (the horror) of what to and what not
to expect from certain life forms that were now identified as having not been fictional. For
a large number of said older kids, this meant though they didn't have to pretend to be
something they weren't every time they went to school or hung out with their friends.
The advocate of over human overpopulation found themselves having to back to their
charts.
For some younger kids it was like the characters of their story book had walked off the
page (in a way, the innocence of fairy tales had been lost since these kids would learn
most as these races were as diverse as they themselves were) and of course for another set
it was time for "I knew it! I knew it!" in their friend's and tormentor's faces.
Jennifer "Jen-Jen" fit into neither of these two categories, she had figured as much from
the story told her mother and the transfiguration of her parents that such entities were in
all likely hood very much real. She was of course disappointed when she learned none of
her friends were mythicals in disguise. Her own friends were also surprised and maybe
disappointed when they learned Jennifer herself was not a mythical in disguise in spite of
her parents being foxes. She also had to explain repeated that no, she was not adopted,
though it was getting annoying to having to explain that to everyone. More so for her
parents.
"No, I'm very certain my daughter was -not- switched at birth thank you." Her mother had
explained to more than a couple of her work buddies.
When Jennifer had heard the news she was going to have a new little sibling, she of course
made the European connection that her mother was pregnant, they were not Americans
after all, they didn't have the same phobia surrounding sex education.
Then Jennifer had said it, surprisingly the first one to say it, then again, she had become
more curious about foxes given her parent's fate, but they on the other, got all the foxes
they needed to see in the mirror and each other. "How big a litter are ya gonna have?"
This had stopped both foxes cold. 'A litter? As in more than one?' Andrew thought his tail
standing on end.
Neither Charlene nor Andrew had the slightest intent of rethinking their decline to King
Tommy, but the realization that Charlene might be carrying more than one kit hadn't
occurred to either of them. More than that, while they had known logically that their
children would be kits, it had just never been a conscious fact, rather like when Charlene's
foxiness had been filtered from her co-workers.
Jennifer looked at her parents oddly, they looked like they might have both swallowed a
bug. It was hard to tell underneath that fur, but she could swear they both looked a little
green. The humanoid European and fennec foxes took one look at each other and nodded.
Andrew made one phone call while Charlene made another. Jennifer wondered why no
one bothered to answer her question.
The next day, after her parents had succeeded in getting a expedient Doctor's
appointment and had gone off to check something important, Jennifer was reminded of
another disappointment, in spite of the elves, and the fae in general having ceased their
performance or out right hiding, Jennifer's baby sitting as it turned out had -not- been an
elf or fairy in disguise, she had simply been very good at being cheerful and knowing her
way around kids as good as some parents.
Jennifer behaved herself more often than not and thus was given a relative amount of
autonomy by her sitter, including being allowed to simply be in her room to her own
devices. Thus she was alone in her room when a polite if slightly effeminate voice said
behind her, "Hello niece Jen-Jen."
Jennifer turned around a snowy white fox with five tails with four legs laying lazily on the
door frame to her room.
"Who are you?"
The fox looked actually a bit surprised, "You don't know? Geeze louise we really need to
have all of us introduced to each other's families... You could say I'm your uncle, call me
Akira."
"Akira?" She said the weird sounding name.
In a puff of smoke the fox appeared next to her sounding now female, "Or Akane,
whichever you prefer niece. I'm you're mom's brother/sister.." Another puff of smoke and
the fox was sitting up on her bed and said in a effeminate voice again. "Ya know how yer
mom said she was held captive by an evil king? I was one of the captives too, and we all
sorte forged a bound among ourselves in that time. I came by to say hello... so... where is
she?"
"She's... not here... there's just the baby sitting down stairs?"
"Really?" The fox hopped off the bed and circled her, tickling her with her tails, "Too bad, I
really wanted to say hi... still... it would be impolite for me to visit all the way from Japan
and not come bearing gifts..."
Jennifer's ears perked at this, "You mean like presents?"
"Exactly like presents, or more like a present." The fox assumed a sitting up stance in front
of Jennifer on her carpet. "I heard that you're having some confusion about people
believing your mom and dad are your mom and dad... nothing wrong with being adopted
mind you, but there's no reason to go around with people always making that mistake...
and I can understand how you can learn that magic is real but it still doesn't directly relate
with you." In a puff of smoke again a little charm appeared on one of the fox's tails. It
looked like a necklace with a little gold chain perfect for Jennifer's size and had a little
blue, red and yellow singular gem in the center and three little gold spokes evenly going
out from the gem. Jennifer noticed the gem had a purple facet in the center.
"This is a gift to my new niece... in this case meaning you." The fox smiled. Jennifer
reached for the necklace of Akira pulled it back.
"You said it was mine."
"I said this is a gift for you. I thought about it, and I thought about it again, and I realized I
couldn't make up my mind about which gift to give you, so I chose to break the rule of a
surprise gift to let you decide." He began to sway his tails moving the necklace along with
it, Jen-Jen kept her eyes on the prize. "If you look into the blue side of the gem, you'll see
a reflection of yourself as a fox boy: you'll fit in with your parents, you'll be special with
your friends, you'll fit in with any kits your parents will have. All you need to do is look
into any of the facets and say 'This is me' out loud while consciously and willingly looking
at any facet of the gem for the spell to take effect and you'll become the way you're
reflected in the facet. If you look into the red facet, you'll see yourself as a kitsune."
"What's a kitsune?"
"A magic fox with lots of tails like me. You'll have magic, you'll be more than a little unique
around you're friends, you'll still be a girl, until you get your magic down enough to
illusionary shape change in a few decades and it'll be more up to you though at you're
core you'll still be a kitsune no matter what. You'll also find having fun a lot LOT easier as
one.... If you look into the red facet, you'll see yourself as.... you seen CardCaptor Sakura,
MewMewPower or Sailor Moon?"
"Yep!" Jennifer said with pride.
"Okay that makes this easier, looking into the red facet you'll see yourself as a magical
girl. You'll look mostly like you are now, but a bit cuter and prettier with fox ears and tail
to boot! For that form the necklace will become your transformation Item, appearing and
vanishing from your person at your whim. With none of these choices will you be able to
become one of the other forms later girl, so remember that." Akira included that warning
mostly cause he knew that Charlene would buy a ticket to japan, buy some sutras, and
personally turn him into a throw rug if he didn't... and she was family after all... like Keiko
said. "You'll be able to ditch the fox features while in 'non-magicial' form, but you'll keep
the cute pretty look mostly. What magic tricks you're able to perform and how potent your
magic becomes if you chose the red facet depends greatly on -you- and how the magic
reacts with you. Even I can't predict how it'll turn out."
"Do I get to have you as my Magical Pet?"
Akira actually shuddered at that idea. "Familiar girl, the proper term is Familiar, and nope,
sorry, not gonna happen, don't count on it, but you'll find one soon enough or one will
find you given how magic's no longer in the closet. Now, after you use this baby, you
won't be able, like I said, able to go back and chose one of the other forms... but.. as an
extra added bonus, if you think you'll ALIENATED your friends by changing yourself, I
grant you, absolutely free, this special trick. You and a friend of yours, and it has to be a
friend, just don't ask me to define friendship, just have to hold the necklace at the same
time, and you say intentionally and willingly 'This is you' and they'll take on the same
changes as the ones you chose for yourself. Be that fox gender flop, kitsune, or magic
semi-fox kid, though of course for the last one you'll remain in the lead of any 'magical
girl club' you form. Like you, they'll be no reverse switch.' Akira knew this last bit might
cause some havoc, but he was a kitsune for crying out loud! If he didn't do at least a
LITTLE chaos for each good deed he might actually go SANE!
"Look girl, I know you were worried about yer mom back when she was yer dad, and she
got taken away by a very bad man, but if you want, you can with the third choice be able
to protect your friends and family maybe from some of the things that go bump in the
night. This won't be for ya chasin' robbers with guns, got it?" Akira's eyes actually flashed
color for a moment as he said the last part.
Jennifer nodded. "What does the purple part do if I look into it?"
Akira laughed, "That's... a secret... it won't reflect anything... but if you do look into it and
say the magic words, all the previous rules apply to the form you get."
"You aren't gonna tell me?"
"I want to see if you have the trust, or the courage, to take a risk...you're gonna find in life
sometimes it'll be a matter of choosing the unsure thing sometimes... for us Kitsune the
unsure thing is always the sure thing. Jake Fox Boy. Junko the european kitsune. Jen-Jen
magical girl? What shall it be niece? This one belongs to you alone little girl."
Akira dropped the necklace into the little girl's hot little hands. "You're auntie Keiko let
your mom become your dad, so they could be happy together... consider this my way of
seeing you're happy."
Jen-Jen held up the gem and looked at it.