Bonds stronger than steel but more ephemeral than morning mist

“I’ll take the hypnosis.”

“And would you rather everyone who knew you still recognizes you after the transformation and treats it like unusually thorough reassignment surgery or would you rather everyone thought Toby went away for an indefinite time after winning the lottery and there was a new identity waiting for you when you wake up, an identity that Kate gets to assign just like I hashed it out with her earlier. ”

“I’d rather have a new identity. ”

“Good choice. So now the only thing left to do is:” you make a dramatic pause ” Aardvark.”

It was ..actually a bit horrifying seeing Tobys flesh melt like wax as his entire body reshapes itself.

The young woman that is sitting in his place a few seconds later, however is far from horrifying to look at. Quite the opposite. She is hot. Like almost movie-star hot. A button nose, full lips, great complexion, the whole nine yards. Her eyebrows and jaw are a bit more prominent than would be conventionally attractive, but it just gives her features their own unique charm instead of detracting from their beauty. Long, thick hair that shifts between golden and reddish in the flickering candlelight falls down to her back, with side-swept bangs partially obscuring one of her scarlet eyes.

Instead of his – very prominent- chest or his groin, it is the horn protruding from Tobys forehead that the transformed boy goes for first. Running a disbelieving finger along tis smooth and slightly curved length. The candlelight reflecting of the horn makes it look almost as as if it was carved from some deep red crystal instead of bone.

You briefly consider giving Toby a minute to get acquainted with his new body, but with your power keeping him calm it won’t be nearly as amusing as it could be.

“Telephone for sleeping beauty.”

As soon as the words eave your mouth Tobys gaze becomes glassy and he lets the hand exploring his forehead sink back to his lap.

“Listen Toby, when the sun rises the memory of what happened tonight will fade from your memory like a dream. You will never realize I used my power to change you tonight and think it is just chance that I found you first.”

You aren’t sure how much it would mess with Tobys mind to be in love with the one who took his old life and body from him. So you decided to play it safe there. Even with that small mercy Toby was still in for one hell of a ride.

“Instead here is what you think happened: Last year you followed a clue hidden on the university pin-board to a small scavenger-hunt of puzzles that led to a hidden message board belonging to a secret club on campus. You are pretty sure that being part of a secret society was the main point for the members. After all, the name ‘Various Invetigations Pertaining Eldritch Rumors’ just screamed that someone had tried way too hard to come up with an acronym for VIPER.

But silly name aside, for you it was just a place to hang out and share strange urban legends and debate magic systems in roleplaying-games. And it didn’t seem like the other members were taking the occult research angle too serious, either. Not to a worrying degree at least.“

You spend a few minutes expanding on the backstory of VIPER, before coming to the meat of the story

” Then three days ago your friend mailed you the location of a dead-drop. What you found there was a small package and a letter saying that you were one of the members who might like a glimpse behind the curtain and that tonight was the first time in over a hundred years that the stars were aligned in such a way that a truly powerful spirit might make their way into our world if called. The package contained printouts detailing a summoning ritual and a few essential ingredients.

And yes it seemed silly, but as the night drew closer you couldn’t help but ask yourself: What if it was true? What if this ritual was your only chance to witness real magic? That it was a ritual for calling a spirit-bride just added icing on the cake. Because as you had noticed the gifts suggested for courting the most desirable and illustrious bride were probably worthy of a king a few hundred years ago but …well things had changed. Gold and Silver are still expensive but a lot of the other things weren’t. So you maybe your friend was right and you could min-max your way into a one-night stand with what the ritual promised to be a woman of unearthly beauty.

But something went wrong. Maybe the ritual always needed a woman to act as a vessel. Maybe you made an error in the preparations or maybe the instructions were incomplete. Whatever it was, the ritual was successful in calling up the spirit but quite literally became as one with her. You could feel parts of yourself fall away and the void being filled by the spirit in turn and the other way around. So you held on for dear life to the things you valued most.

You managed to hold onto your mind and memories for the most part, but your body and life are a different matter.

You have flashes of memory from the spirits personality. You know she was called Ibara-hime – which roughly translates to ‘the Thorn Princess’ – a nickname she got for her horn just as much as for her the way her frank nature clashed with courtly etiquette. You are aware of a sheer endless line of marriage meetings all ending with her suitor leaving – some in outrage some in shame – after a careless remark of hers. So when your ritual sent out a summons for a bride her parents sent her on her way to these distant shores since all chances of a good match at home were long depleted.

The changes so far are parts of the spirit slipping through and you are instinctively aware of them and that the magic of the ritual is supposed to have changed history to provide a suitable life for the bride to be.

When you see me the first time after the sun rises you will realize that the ritual is not complete yet, because there can be no bride without a groom, and that you are now bound to the first person you laid eyes on. In fact at first your attraction to me will be so overwhelming, that you will be completely focused on doing whatever is necessary to seduce me into sleeping with you. In a strictly no-strings attached way.

You won’t even really question what you are doing or start to notice any changes from tonight until you can feel me inside you. Even as you realize what is happening the lovespell will ensure you can’t bring yourself to give me blue-balls by ending this encounter before I cum. And aside from anything else going on in your head, sleeping with me with me will feel pretty darn good.

And as we are having sex you will feel the spell turn simple lust into so much more. . But just because you know it is a spell doesn’t make the love filling your heart feel any less real.

You can’t stand being apart from me for long. The best you are able to do is go a day, before subconsciously starting to look for reasons to go looking for me. Towards the end of the third day even the flimsiest excuse will do.

The idea of loosing me is unbearable to you, and you’d do anything to keep that from happening. That doesn’t mean you can’t butt heads with me if you feel strongly about something, but making sure our relationship is a good one in the long term will be one of your highest priorities. And if you ever hurt me physically you’ll be beside yourself with guilt and do what you can to make it up to me.

You also have a strong protective streak when it comes to me. Playing my white knight makes you feel manly and needed.

And you want to be needed by me. You want to be the one I turn to when I am in trouble. You want to be the one who makes me smile when I am in the dumps. You want to be the one who makes my heart beat faster when he sees you. You want to be the one who snuggles up beside me when I feel lonely at night. And whenever you are having a good time a part of you wants me to be there with you to share that moment.

If we happen to run into each other looking anything less than ‘nice’ – not sexy or beautiful just nice - will make you anxious enough to subconsciously look for ways to remind me that you have a killer body. You will catch yourself popping collar buttons, opening zippers , ‘accidentally’ giving me a view down your collar or do whatever else you think you can get away with, without being inappropriate or looking desperate. And as much as it may gall you at times, you can’t help but always pay that extra bit of attention to your appearance before you go to meet me or when I am coming over. Unless it is a special occasion you won’t deviate too far from your preferred day to day style, just err on the side of whatever looks most flattering . If it is a special occasion however, you will force yourself to put up with the embarrassment of dressing to impress. You’ll even wear a bit of lip-gloss if appropriate and wear an fancy hair-do.

Realizing a guy is checking you out, will never stop feeling at least a little bit disturbing or embarrassing because you remember all the things that went through your head when the roles were reversed. But with me that awkwardness is offset by a sense of happiness, almost gratefulness, that I see you as a potential lover despite your lack of femininity. Both things are doubly true when it comes to your chest. Your breasts always feel too hefty and prominent for your comfort. But as a former breastman you also feel that is exactly what makes them your body’s most attractive feature. And as established you want me to find you attractive. You want me to kiss you. You want me to desire you. You want to be fucked by me.

Or to be more precise you’d settle for being fucked by me.

Because Oni are gluttonous creatures, and that means your body came with a sexual appetite that can be best described as famished. And in that context I -or guys that remind you of me - are now a truly mouthwatering morsel. But it‘s not the lips on your face that will be getting wet.

But just because your body desperately wants it, doesn’t mean you don’t have very mixed feelings about making out with guys. No matter how pent up you are, you will never allow yourself to be ruled by these urges to the point where you force yourself on someone. “

Because when you turn someone into a woman who is as unnaturally strong as she is sexually frustrated, it is wise to make sure she will be incapable of rape.

“And no matter how much your body wants it, the only way you’d ever do more than kiss a guy is if you are in love with him. But if you are, you will find it very hard indeed to muster the willpower to not give in to his attempts at seduction and make out with him to release some sexual tension.

So yes you’d settle for fucking the guy you like.

But what you are desperately longing for is to make love to him. It can be gentle cuddling or a passionate romp but without that emotional connection you find it very hard to relax enough to reach orgasm.

You are aware that having sex as my girlfriend, or even better my wife- would be the best you ever had, but that formally claiming me as your man and you as my woman would finalize the spell. Your feelings about being a woman or returning to your old life will not change but being a great girlfriend will always take priority while we are dating. And you won't find it in you to go through with breaking up with me.

You know sharing my bed isn’t enough for that to happen. Even admitting you love me isn’t. But the moment you accept the title of spouse, girlfriend, wife or any other that stakes an exclusive claim on me will see you fulfilling that role to the best of your ability. Keeping in mind that a great girlfriend isn’t necessarily a obedient one.

If another girl beats you to the punch in that regard, the lovespell will be broken and you know that. It is just too bad that your heart doesn’t care about that. Seeing me in the arms of another girl sucks. It sucks a lot. But I can not cheat on you if we are not together, and demanding I stay faithful is dangerously close to staking a claim. So you can either suffer through the resulting heartache or channel your jealousy into beating the competition.

Suicide isn’t an option you will seriously consider. And if you ever reach a point where you consistently feel like death might be preferable to your life, you will confide in me.

After you get out of this trance you will not attempt to leave this place before morning and will not act in a way that might draw attention or attack anybody until then.

Telephone for sleeping beauty.“

You can see life returning to Tobys eyes. They snap to your face before gliding over the various candles and magical paraphernalia. You can almost hear the cogs whirring in his head as he tries to figure out what could have changed.

You don’t give him much time to collect his thoughts, and announce “I brought a special guest to finish this. ” Kate stepping out from where she had been waiting in the shadow between the bushes at your cue.

There is an amused grin on her face as she walks over to stand beside you, and why wouldn’t there be?

She doesn’t know about your power. Not in any way that counts. To her this is just a vivid dream about having the opportunity to take a parting shot at her Ex. A dream she won’t recall in the morning aside from a feeling of catharsis. Just as she will no longer recall why it took her so long to get over Toby.

You offered her resolution without getting involved in your revenge scheme, but she was very definite about choosing the version where she got closure by enacting some petty revenge on her own.

So she would put the finishing touches on Tobys transformation as she arranged the details of your henchwomans new civilian identity. If giving her that much power over Toby by making that guy choose ‘a new assigned the way I hashed out with Kate’ didn’t work out you’d just have to give him the choices yourself afterwards.

“Hi there Toby. ” Kate smirks “Let me tell you about your new life…..”