Head home

You gave Tori one last look, recognizing that familiar shape she'd taken on even if you'd only seen it for a brief amount of time the day before, and then slowly nodded. "I'm assuming neither of you is being held, uh, mentally 'hostage' in this arrangement? I'm guessing it's voluntary, and you two are consenting for it, so... might as well go home. You can choose to be however you want, I'm not here to judge!"

Tori smiles, and leans back in her seat, taking deeper, more pronounced breaths. Was that just because she had to work harder to counteract the weight on her chest? Or was she getting excited by the thought of whatever she might think of doing at home, either to herself or with you?

"You're right, this is voluntary for me. In this willful channeling, my mind is a democracy--Lucinda and Tori each get equal representation, even if one side still has to do the heavy lifting for the human aspect of things. If one or both sides of the mind veto an idea, then it's done. So if I'm saying yes to something, either both parts of me say yes, or one half is indifferent."

Back on the road, you turned on your windshield wipers as the rain started to come down hard. In a sense, you were saving Lucinda from standing around in the cold rain... if she minded. Hard to know. "You know, when you're able to pre-empt something with this magic, it actually sounds pretty convenient for you."

"Right? That's not the case with everyone in my family, some of them I've met can't figure out how to make the curse work for them." Tori shifted a little in her seat as she thought back. "My aunt Mira, for example, she had one solid month where she just kept running into person after person who needed something that they couldn't do on their own. She said she maybe had one whole day out of that entire month that where she was herself, if you add up the bits and pieces. I didn't want that to be me." She hefted her sizable chest in her hands. "And there can definitely be perks! My theory from some reading I've done is a lot of curses are spells written with good intention, but just used in negative ways. Tools made into weapons. So I think the blue magic is the real spell, and the red magic is whatever was added that makes it a curse... but that's as far as I got in my readings. I can't find a copy the other book where the answer might be, I don't know who in the world might own it."

You shrugged. Magic wasn't your forte, particularly since you thought it was all card tricks and making rabbits disappear until a day ago. "Still, you said that the voluntary magic for channeling doesn't have a time limit. It seems like if you had the right match, you could just channel a creature or person for good and then block the curse."

"Ooh, are you saying you think I should be a human Lucinda forever? Or do you have other suggestions for channeling that would really rev your motor?" Tori giggled, removing her glasses to clean them on her shirt. "I've thought about that. In theory, it would work. But that means taking another being, regardless of who or what they are, and expecting them to walk on my path until the end. Speaking as Lucinda, being a human seems great, at least to a degree. It feels nice, I like riding in cars like this, I like talking with you, Pete! But humans sure seem to have a lot of anxiety too from everything I've seen in these memories. Sometimes I'm gonna want to stand out in a field and... just be. That's all. Birds don't want to stay grounded, dogs don't want to pay taxes, and other people have lives of their own to follow. At some point, everyone has to go their own way."

That was pretty deep. You two didn't talk much about it for the rest of the drive, instead Lucinda wanted to gossip about how her farm just installed a new free-standing cow brush in the field, and Tori apparently had no intention of interrupting. When you pulled up to your house, the rain was still coming down pretty hard, it obscured visibility of anyone who looked in your direction pretty well. You and Tori braved the a brief moment of heavy rain to get inside. Safe!

Tori unzipped her hoodie, since it was rain-soaked even from the short walk in the heavy precipitation, almost revealing her mammoth chest to you once again. The blouse underneath had remained entirely unbuttoned, there was no way that garment would have survived the trip otherwise, and its fabric draped over the free-hanging chest, providing some modesty but letting you see a very shapely silhouette when the light passed through the fabric in just the right way.

With a hand on a hip, Tori smiled at you. "Thanks for letting me do this. As for what happens now... well, I'm yours! Kind of. Uhh, maybe that sounds a little too aggressive, I know you've got your girlfriend and all..." Tori blushed and looked around. "My channeling subject can really ramp up my drive for certain things when they get curious. I guess, I'll let you set the pace here. On a scale of one to ten, with one being that I go change clothes and we just sit around and watch TV, and ten being that we go into a bedroom and don't leave until sunrise, where are you? I won't be offended with whatever choice you make. But I will be really honest here: I want to continue where we left off earlier. And it can be our little secret!"