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Chapter 8: A Big New World

Liam never considered himself well-off. Affluence and wealth did not run in his family; a family that was really just himself and his aunt. Even though it was just the two of them, there was still little enough money to go around, not with aunt Jo's teacher salary. It's not like the two were poor, they were comfortable. But bills needed to be paid, Liam needing to help with a fair share of them. So when money did come his way, he knew it would be wise to save it.

Fifty dollars is fifty dollars. But fifty dollars to let someone else watch him turn into a petite fairy girl? Liam couldn't rationalize such a thing. On one hand, the price was low enough that he didn't really mind paying fifty. Sure he didn't have any passive income at the moment. Not yet. But this was a REAL magical artefact he would be buying. On the other hand, he could have it for free, but subject himself to the humiliation.

'I came all this way to buy something to read that book. My stupid fucking fetch quest. I don't care if I can get it for free' Liam thought.

"Are you sure that you don't just want to give them to me for free? You are my RA after all."

"I am giving them to you for free. Just so long as I get to see how it works! Call me curious!" Lucas said with a hearty smile. The two were still deliberating at the check-out counter of 'Pawn & Prospect'. Liam was making very little progress in persuading his new acquaintance otherwise.

'Fifty dollars be damned'.

"I'll just pay up." He said, sliding Lucas cash and grabbing the goggles.

Lucas raised an eyebrow at him, "It's that bad huh?"

"Well, I'm not super keen on being three inches tall right now. I might show you some other time.", like hell Liam would show anyone anytime soon.

"Show who what now?", a head popping up from behind one of the shelves proclaimed. June, her name was.

"You're too nosey, you know." Lucas huffed at her.

The girl sashayed her way out from behind the shelf, a shelf that was overflowing with crystalline orbs. She strutted as if she was a predator honing in on a kill, completely at odds with her face that expressed nothing but gleeful intent. "Your fancy little necklace that I can't get a read on?" June leaned up against the counter, "Lucas I wouldn't buy it off of him if I can't even tell what it does."

"I'm not buying it off of him. I just want to see it in action. 'sides, he already knows what it does, turns him into a-" Lucas turned to see Liam giving him a borderline death glare, even complete with an eye twitch. Liam didn't even realize that he was so tense. But June's reaction seemed to melt away any tension he had built up, and replace it all with... confusion.

"A transformation trinket! Oh, I'll show you mine if you show me yours!" She said.

"Uh, Phrasing?" coughed Lucas.

June rolled her eyes and held up her own pennant dangling around her neck. Unlike Liam's simple gemstone, June's trinket was made of multiple pieces. Most obviously: a seashell. "Mermaid charm. Cost only twenty bucks. Bought it off of a guy over the summer. I did nothing for fun but SWIM for like, a week after I got it!" She said with a dumb grin on her face. Clearly over the moon with her magical artifact and the transformation that comes with it.

Liam was taken aback. Seeing and hearing June act so positively over her own necklace, probably reveling in the fact that it could change her into something else. It was like the two were some folklore creature yin-and-yang of one another. Sure it was different. She likely grew up with magic her whole life. She probably even knew what she was getting into when she acquired that necklace. Liam was tossed into the deep end with no warning. No, worse than that. He was purposefully kept from the knowledge of magic. But still, her enthusiasm was infectious. In a very round-about way, it did ease reservations about his own magical artifact. After all, if anyone was to understand the plights and problems he was facing, it'd be these people.

"Mermaid huh?" he paused, "This one turns me into a fairy... a... girl... fairy." Liam added the last part, quietly.

Evidently, not quiet enough. June stared wide-eyed at Liam's comment while Lucas was bellowing laughter from behind the counter. "A girl!?" He exclaimed, "Now I HAVE to see it!"

"Lucas!" June exclaimed slapping him on the side, "control yourself!" She said as if she was talking to a puppy that had just chewed through her favourite shoes. "That is interesting though."

"Interesting? I'd say insane is a better word." Liam scoffed, "But I'm sure you all are used to stuff like that."

"No, what's interesting is it might be charmed in a similar way to my own necklace! If you were to change into a fairy I might be able to read the charm this time!" June chimed in.

"As nice as that sounds, I don't really want to go to class tomorrow as a little fairy. I think it takes a while for me to change back. Like the necklace has a charge or something."

"Oh, well we could just change you back!" Lucas added, still recovering from his fit of laughter.

"You can just undo this necklace. Make me normal again like *that*?" Liam said with a snap.

"Oh sure, I'm positive we have something around here that could shift ya back. No problem!"

Liam turned, once again, back to June, "And you can re-read the necklace when I change? Actually understand why it does why it... does what it does?"

"I can give it a try!" She cheered.

"Oh I can't believe I'm doing this." Liam said as he redonned the necklace. The whole time he was keeping it away from his neck, as if putting it on was a surefire way to unexpectedly change. He would sooner be less careful with a live bomb or a vial of deadly pathogens. Almost immediately after putting the necklace on, Liam was enveloped in a bright green light.

It took all but a second, and soon after a little fairy found herself lost standing on the Pawn-and-Prospect shop floor. She dared look up at the two booming voices coming from above.

"Where'd he go? Is he down there?"

"Umm... Oh! Yeah! Wow, an Instantaneous change!"

"Well, get him back up here."

"Can you fly there little fairy?" June inquired.

Liam couldn't even muster a sound. She was stuck looking up at June like a deer in headlights. It was like a skyscraper had come to life, and somehow managed to be... 'June shaped'.

June leaned down over Liam's tiny body, looming like a positively gargantuan monster, "Clothes change too, that's considerate. My necklace doesn't do that." She held out a palm for Liam to only stare in terror at. "I'll take that as a no." She said as Liam gingerly stepped onto her hand.

'Her hand is bigger than me. It's the size of a goddamn car.' the newly feminized, and fairy-ized, Liam thought.

"Awww you ended up so cute!" June said as she lifted her up to the counter, Liam thereafter stepping off.

Lucas leaned down to further observe Liam's diminished stature. Liam could only freeze in terror as she the gravity of her reduced size fully hit her. This was the first time she had been transformed around other people. Not fairies. Humans. And they were massive. She felt so weak, far weaker than the fairy form had made him her feel earlier. Liam couldn't tell if Lucas could sense her fear, but if he could, he got the message and stepped back. Finished with his analysis, Lucas leaned back again and began rummaging around through some boxes boxes. All the while June rested her arms and chin on the counter.

"So darn cute!" June reemphasized. June's perceived magnitude wasn't much better than Lucas's. Liam should be taller than this girl, but now June's head, which again was resting on the counter, was still above Liam's eye-level. June still had to glance down to even see the fairy.

Lucas came back around, this time wearing eyewear that didn't look too different from the fairy goggles Liam had just purchased. The spectacles and their magnification had the effect to make his eyes look positively buggy, at least from Liam's vantage point.

"Huh, the necklace didn't change size. It just wraps itself tighter around you. You still have all of that loose string."

"I've noticed." Liam attempted to say with volume. Regardless, it sounded more like a whisper to Lucas and June.

"Awwww he even sounds cute!" June added.

"Are you even able to read charms that act instantaneously?" Lucas asked, turning his attention to June, much to the relief to Liam who was hoping she would stop fawning over her.

"Oh sure. They still leave an imprint for a while after they're used." She returned back to eye-level with Liam. Well, her eyes were level with Liam's entire head. "Excuse me little fairy miss, can I borrow your necklace for a second."

"And this is why I didn't want to do this." Liam huffed as she began unfurling the pendant's chord from around her shoulders and waist.

"Oh my apologies." June responded, "Excuse me strong powerful fairy man! Please let me borrow your manly medallion, and don't pummel me for taking it or insulting your manliness." She said in a deep voice.

"Now you're just patronizing me."

"I get that a lot!" June winked as she delicately took the necklace out of Liam's two hands, her eyes glowing once again as she began deciphering the magic within.

"I've never actually seen a live fairy." Lucas called from behind Liam, "and you've... seen others? The ones that live in the forests around?"

"Yeah," Liam said rubbing her hand underneath her long locks of still braided hair, the style seemed to have kept from the last time she changed, "there's one tribe, or village, I don't really know. But they looked after me when I first changed."

"Hmm, lucky they found you. I wouldn't want to be three inches tall stuck out in the woods. Definitely not these woods!"

June let out a heavy sigh. "I'm stumped. Never seen anything like this before."

"What's wrong?" Asked Liam.

"Well... what's the best way to put this in Mondae terms... Remember how I said I could only read half of the charm?"

Liam nodded.

June continued, "I was hoping that by using the magic in it, it would unlock the other half I couldn't see. But-", she paused. "It's still like I'm only reading half of it..." Just then it seemed as if a lightbulb turned on above her head. She quickly darted off back behind one of the shelves, eyes still glowing. It's like she was trying to read the magic in every object sold here.

"Uh, June? Lucas called.

"Found it!" She answered from behind one of the rows of artifacts. Liam couldn't see her, but she could see her brandishing... something. She had something in her hands that she was waving about. To Liam's tiny eyes, it looked like a brown or black blob being flaunted about. Jun trotted back to the counter, gave quick glances to both the store clerk and the fairy, "I think you're missing half of that necklace." She said with a grin.

"What, like a friendship necklace that connects with someone else's?" Lucas inquired.

"No, no. Here! Let me show you what I mean!" She slapped her discovered item down on the table, "Ohoho I can't believe I figured this out." She said with her continued grin.

The item landing on the same countertop Liam currently found herself on sent shockwaves through her legs and up to her head. It wasn't too much of a jolt. She saw the thing coming after all. Liam's continued reminder of the difference of scale between the fairy world and the human world sent shivers up her spine. But after collecting her composure and allowing her nerves to settle, it didn't take long for Liam to figure out what this mystery item was. It was a pair of shoes. Plain, normal looking leather dress shoes.

"'Shoes that make you dance good'?" Lucas read aloud from the label. "Shouldn't it be 'Shoes that make you dance well', who labeled this thing?"

"Probably Robin, but that's beside the point." June answered. "The charm on these isn't applied to each shoe individually. It's applied to both."

"So?"

"So!?" June said picking up the left shoe and throwing it across the room. "If you read just one shoe, it gives you half the charm! I think that's what's happening with your necklace. It should be in a set of two!"

"That spell. The shoe spell. Does it look identical to how my thing's spell... looks?" Liam piped up from down on the counter.

"Well... no." June began to explain. "Not identical because they're two very different spells in two very different fields of magic. But aside from all of that, your necklaces charm... How do I put this." She said rubbing her chin, "It's frayed? Damaged? The spell looks torn in half. Or it feels torn in half. The shoes that I just separated, they're a clean cut! I think your trinket there is either so old or been apart from it's twin for so long that even if you put the two back together it wouldn't read properly."

Liam paused at that, "My Aunt. She has a necklace. It's identical to this one! Do you think that's the other half?"

"That could be it! Weird that the pair of them were charmed with the same incantation and not independently. Maybe they-"

June was interrupted, "They were originally earrings!" Liam belted, still far too small to make a genuine room-filling-yell, but the other two could hear her well enough. "The man- fairy- whatever! He said they were a pair of earrings first."

"Hmm. That's... something. Still doesn't answer why the charm looks so... pardon my French, but shitty." June finished.

"And I don't know what that would have to do with it being on such a hair-trigger. Or your 'girl-problem'." Lucas added, with thick exaggeration at the end of his statement.

"Well," Liam shrugged, "I came here for... something, so I guess all of that is better than nothing. Thank you!" She said with a blush.

"Good work as always June. Now," Lucas said turning his attention down to the countertop, "let's see if we can force you out of that fairy-form!"

Finally, Liam would have an actually reliable way to return to normal. An ability to make his life normal whenever he needed.

"I think we should have some reversion potions in the back-" Lucas said to no one in particular as he left the other two for wherever the potions were stored.

"You guys do potions too? How much of pop culture magic is real anyway?" Liam said to June.

She replied with a shrug and quickly changed the topic. "So. The whole girl thing?"

"Yeah?" Liam said, unsure where she was going with her remark.

Truth be told, June didn't know where she was going with it either, but after putting the words out there in the air she had to own up to the awkwardness. "Does it feel different? Y'know from normal?"

Liam scoffed, "Well it's pretty hard to tell when you also get wings and end up only a few inches tall. That's my bigger concern."

"Yeah, yeah. I figured that'd be pretty... weird." She said with a heartful smile.

"You said your necklace changes you too?"

"Yeah! I love this thing," She said giving it a little twirl between her fingers.

"You said mermaid?"

"Pretty cool right. Maybe once you're done giving fairy-dom a try you could try this on for a swim?"

"I think one fantasy creature body is enough for me right now. But thanks for the offer." Liam tried to answer as genuinely as she could. As lighthearted as June's implication seemed to be, the only thing Liam cared about right now was getting back to normal. Future magical hijinks could and the transformative implications that came with them had to wait.

Lucas returned no later carrying a small vial full of clear liquid. Despite being clear, the fluid maintained some sort of holographic film, almost like a rainbow pattern someone would see in soap bubbles or gasoline on the ground. The tube was small. Small for a human and no larger than a roll of coins. But the vessel and it's contents were the same height as Liam.

"Do I... drink the whole thing?" Liam asked as Lucas carefully pulled off the cork stopper.

"Uhh. No?" He said unsurely, giving a glance over to June who only shrugged her shoulders. "No. NO. Just a few um, 'fairy-gulps', should do the trick."

"You're sure? You don't sound that sure." the fairy replied with a worried glance.

"Yes... Absolutely!" Lucas said with a renewed focus, "Reversion potions are the most effective way to reverse transformation spells."

Liam continued to grimace at the sight of the reflective liquid.

"Just take a sip! A full sized human doesn't even need to finish that whole vial for it to work." June said from the other side of the counter. Meanwhile, Lucas continued to impatiently hold the potion in front of Liam's entire body.

Liam tentatively dipped a finger in the strange substance. The liquid was far more viscous than water. Proportionately, at Liam's size, water would be able to be 'picked up' a drop at a time. But this fluid was so runny, so thin, that it's tension gave way to microscopic droplets. Liam didn't care enough to ask if this was just how this potion worked, or if this particular vial was filled with 'fairy-sized-safe-fluid'. Regardless, she dumped her hands in the stuff, brought a pool up to her mouth and poured.

Miniscule texture aside, the liquid tasted like an incredibly unsavory concoction of different herbs, plants, even a bit of iron. The chef-side of Liam could pick out a strong minty and ginger taste. Truly an awful combination. But she still managed to stomach all of that and swallow.

...Nothing happened...

Liam looked around at the other two, unsure if there was a latency period. The others shot a quick glance at each other, then back to Liam. She was about to say something cocky about how it was a bad batch of brew, but then the pit of her stomach felt as if it had been ripped in two and sewn back together.

She keeled over, completely oblivious to June crying out to Lucas. Either the potion batch really was tainted, or something worse was happening. Even with her eyes closed, Liam could sense the glow of her necklace's gemstone envelope her. The green light poured in through her shut eyelids. She could feel the magic within her taking hold.

Though this was not the normal instantaneous flash transformation Liam was used to. This was long. It was a continuous and tedious pulling and swelling on every morsel of her body. It was pain. A burning that filled her from the core of her very being and spread from the inside out to the tips of her limbs, the wings on her back, her ears, her head, everywhere. Liam tried to grit her teeth and bear it. But the forces were far too much. She let out a cry. A plea. Anything to make this process stop. Anything to go back to normal. Hell, even spending the rest of the day as a fairy didn't seem like the worst idea anymore.

June and Lucas could hardly acknowledge Liam's torment or cries for help. They too were transfixed on the glowing, growing silhouette of Liam Greene. Suddenly, sparks began to fly off of Liam's form, bouncing every which way around the shop at incredible speeds. A sharp screeching sound ruptured the eardrums of June and Lucas, bad enough that the two couldn't resist plugging their ears. The two were blown back, as well as many of pawn and prospect's merchandise. A strong force began emanating from the center of the light. More sparks. More noise. The ground began to rumble and Lucas and June found themselves cowering behind one of the shop's many shelves. All of the shelves were shaking at the mercy of the unrelenting force. Crashes and electric bursts could be heard occasionally over the continuous shrieking as June, who was being covered entirely by the body of Lucas, watched blasts of magical arcs dart around the room, ricocheting off and shattering everything in their path. Suddenly. Almost entirely at once... the noise, the light, the shaking, all stopped.

Liam, who had been cowering in the fetal position; half out of pain and half out of fear, realized he was still standing on the countertop. A quick glance of his surroundings confirmed, he was back to human size. He immediately shot up in excitement and proceeded to bang his head on the cupboards above the clerks counter in the process.

"It wor-", he called. Only... something was wrong. Something was caught in Liam's throat. A symptom of the potion he drank. No. He patted himself down, feeling very similar to how he felt prior to his 'lightshow'. But... he was human sized? He looked around the shop, still hunching over so as not to hit his head again. But... he wasn't as hunched as he would normally be. An overwhelming fear had cause Liam to freeze in his tracks. He dared not look down at what he knew was still a female body.

"What the hell just happened?" Lucas said recompiling himself from behind the shelf.

"It didn't work! You're still a fairy." June said as she slowly stood back up on her two feet.

The duo then glanced over at the girl hunched over on their countertop. June was wrong, she wasn't a fairy. Instead it was just a normal sized human girl, wearing a jacket and pants far too big for her.

"Um," was all Lucas was able to muster.

"What the hell are you doing!" Came a voice from one of the side rooms in the shop. Maggie re-emerged to the main room, a frail old woman standing behind her. "I'm trying to help a customer, what on earth are you guys doing?! And who's that!?" She said pointing to the girl on the counter.

"That's.... Liam? You, um... missed some things babe." Lucas replied with a nervous chuckle.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?!" Liam screamed, as if the events that had just transpired finally caught up to her. "WHY AM I-?!", she quickly patted down her back. No wings. She ran over to the nearest mirror. No pointed ears. Not three inches tall. She was a normal, human girl. The only thing that seemed to have changed besides her scale was her hair, now shaggy and short.

"Liam... j-just get off the counter." Lucas said as he observed around the shop, noticing all of the damage and displaced items.

"Why am I still a girl!" She screamed. To that, Maggie and the old woman turned around and returned back to their original place of discussion.

"I- I don't know! I've never seen anything like that!" Lucas blabbered. "June?"

Her eyes were wide and mouth aghast. "I could try to read the charm again but, I don't know..." She simply put her hand out as her eyes started glowing. She didn't even need to get near Liam or the necklace to put her hand down in defeat and exasperation. "The necklace did NOT like that! It's aura completely shifted when I tried reading that."

"It can do that!? Is that bad!?" Liam said on the verge of panic.

June paused. "I don't- know... You'll be fine. The necklace will be fine. I just think it just doesn't like changes stacking on to it. You should change fully back once the necklace would've normally run it's course. You know, back to a normal human man."

"What if I don't!? What if... What if I take more of that potion!?" Liam inquired before quickly turning back around to the counter, the potion vial shattered and liquid spilled out onto the floor.

"No!" Lucas belted, "Whatever happened to you just there... I've never seen that before. We shouldn't try it again."

"Well what about a normal gender-reversal spell? Not reverting. Just changing girl-Liam to guy-Liam?" June inquired.

"No, June let's not push our luck." Lucas replied, but before he could even finish talking. June was brandishing a wand and shot a purple arc directly at Liam. The blast of violet energy pierced right through Liam, but the desired effect did not take. Instead, Liam was filled with a magic that channeled immediately to her hair. Her short hair was equally short-lived as it exploded out into an ungodly long length. Proportionately it was the same length as her hair as a fairy, brushing against her calves. The magic may have been caught by Liam, but it was not finished. The necklace still had it's say. The purple light was drained away from Liam's form as it accumulated at the focal point of the necklace's gemstone, before once again shooting out in a beam of spells. The dart of magical energy continued to bounce from wall to wall until blasting Lucas in the chest.

"June!" Lucas called out, voice already cracking. Though not as fast as Liam's necklace. The spell acted quick. Hair cascaded down his back. His frame diminished. Breasts developed. Truly, it was all one of the less weird things Liam had seen today.

"Don't try that again! Look at my hair!" Liam said holding up long locks to either of her sides.

"Your hair! Look at me!" Lucas said gesturing to his, now her, entire feminized body. She now stood only a few inches taller than June.

June could only help but give a nervous smile. That smile quickly tuned off though when loud footsteps could be heard coming down the attic stairs.

"What the hell is going-" Marcus stopped in his tracks seeing the carnage that had befallen the shop floor.

"What did you do!" He turned to face June, the only face he currently recognized. "Is- Is that Lucas!?" His confusion did little to mask his anger.

Lucas gave a dumb nod. "We had some complications trying to change Liam back from a fairy."

"Yeah, no shit! I was in Otherstance and I still heard and felt you. How hard is it to reverse one transformation spell."

"No, Marcus, you don't understand!" June chimed in, "We've never seen anything like it. The whole place just... erupted when we gave him the reversion potion."

To that, Marcus paused. Maggie, meanwhile had managed to reappear behind Marcus, no longer with frail-old-lady in tow. She gave a nervous glance around the room, noticing the damage and how Marcus's anger was only growing more apparent.

"Out. NOW." Marcus bellowed. "I don't want him. Or that necklace in this shop." He said pointing to Liam.

"Marcus!" June called back.

"If I don't understand it, I don't want it near me or this shop. OUT." He said point to the door where Liam and Lucas first entered.

Lucas collected her composure as much as she could, turned around and pointed directly at Marcus. "You don't own this place."

"Don't go there." Marcus said back with a fierce demeanor.

Lucas turned back around, surveying the damage. It was, indeed, bad. She stormed off past Marcus and only barely caught the 'looking good Lucy' comment from Maggie. "Come on Liam, let's fix this somewhere else."

Liam followed suit, head down as if not to incur more wrath from these strangers.

"June, call up Robin and Chel. Tell 'em to get back as soon as possible, we're gonna need a full inventory and---" Liam heard Lucas's voice as the duo re-emerged in Lucas's dorm room, though it quickly got muffled out once he crossed the actual threshold of the door.

"Are you going to get in trouble for... all that?" Liam asked the still female Lucas.

"Hmm, nah." She said casually resting her side on the wall. "Marcus teleported half the entire store to Vermont a couple years ago. I think I'll be fine."

"He's not your boss, is he? You said something about him not owning the store when we left."

"Uhh yeah..." Lucas said brushing the underside of her hair, "he's not, but let's best leave that topic back at the shop."

"Right..." Liam said, trying to distract herself from the fact that he was now, again, stuck as a girl. Stuck as a girl the afternoon before his first day of classes, and likely stuck as a girl into that first day of class. The fact that he had to continuously hold up her pants only kept reminding her of that fact. "So, what should I do about this whole girl situation? You know, since I might be stuck until tomorrow afternoon?"

Lucas was too busy rummaging around her closet to fully pay attention to Liam's inquiry. "Unfortunately for you Liam, once you enter the magical world. You kind of have to learn to roll with the punches."

"You call this a punch?" Liam said gesturing down to her oversize clothes.

"That's magic for ya," shrugged Lucas, "Welcome to the rest of your life." she then stood up, holding two hangars. One with a red t-shirt. The other with a grey sweatshirt. "Quick question though," Lucas continued. He gave the hangars a shake and almost immediately the two tops unfurled and shifted to, much to Liam's dismay, a pair of dresses. "This one?" Lucas said holding up the red dress. "Or this one?" Same, but with the grey.

"Why?"

"Oh wait, green's more your colour isn't it?" Lucas said with a shake and the grey dress was immediately washed in a deep green shade.

"WHY?" Liam continued with more emphasis.

Lucas gave a half earnest smile and shook the two dresses "Girl's night out?"

Description
Chapter 8: A Big New World

Liam never considered himself well-off. Affluence and wealth did not run in his family; a family that was really just himself and his aunt. Even though it was just the two of them, there was still little enough money to go around, not with aunt Jo's teacher salary. It's not like the two were poor, they were comfortable. But bills needed to be paid, Liam needing to help with a fair share of them. So when money did come his way, he knew it would be wise to save it.

Fifty dollars is fifty dollars. But fifty dollars to let someone else watch him turn into a petite fairy girl? Liam couldn't rationalize such a thing. On one hand, the price was low enough that he didn't really mind paying fifty. Sure he didn't have any passive income at the moment. Not yet. But this was a REAL magical artefact he would be buying. On the other hand, he could have it for free, but subject himself to the humiliation.

'I came all this way to buy something to read that book. My stupid fucking fetch quest. I don't care if I can get it for free' Liam thought.

"Are you sure that you don't just want to give them to me for free? You are my RA after all."

"I am giving them to you for free. Just so long as I get to see how it works! Call me curious!" Lucas said with a hearty smile. The two were still deliberating at the check-out counter of 'Pawn & Prospect'. Liam was making very little progress in persuading his new acquaintance otherwise.

'Fifty dollars be damned'.

"I'll just pay up." He said, sliding Lucas cash and grabbing the goggles.

Lucas raised an eyebrow at him, "It's that bad huh?"

"Well, I'm not super keen on being three inches tall right now. I might show you some other time.", like hell Liam would show anyone anytime soon.

"Show who what now?", a head popping up from behind one of the shelves proclaimed. June, her name was.

"You're too nosey, you know." Lucas huffed at her.

The girl sashayed her way out from behind the shelf, a shelf that was overflowing with crystalline orbs. She strutted as if she was a predator honing in on a kill, completely at odds with her face that expressed nothing but gleeful intent. "Your fancy little necklace that I can't get a read on?" June leaned up against the counter, "Lucas I wouldn't buy it off of him if I can't even tell what it does."

"I'm not buying it off of him. I just want to see it in action. 'sides, he already knows what it does, turns him into a-" Lucas turned to see Liam giving him a borderline death glare, even complete with an eye twitch. Liam didn't even realize that he was so tense. But June's reaction seemed to melt away any tension he had built up, and replace it all with... confusion.

"A transformation trinket! Oh, I'll show you mine if you show me yours!" She said.

"Uh, Phrasing?" coughed Lucas.

June rolled her eyes and held up her own pennant dangling around her neck. Unlike Liam's simple gemstone, June's trinket was made of multiple pieces. Most obviously: a seashell. "Mermaid charm. Cost only twenty bucks. Bought it off of a guy over the summer. I did nothing for fun but SWIM for like, a week after I got it!" She said with a dumb grin on her face. Clearly over the moon with her magical artifact and the transformation that comes with it.

Liam was taken aback. Seeing and hearing June act so positively over her own necklace, probably reveling in the fact that it could change her into something else. It was like the two were some folklore creature yin-and-yang of one another. Sure it was different. She likely grew up with magic her whole life. She probably even knew what she was getting into when she acquired that necklace. Liam was tossed into the deep end with no warning. No, worse than that. He was purposefully kept from the knowledge of magic. But still, her enthusiasm was infectious. In a very round-about way, it did ease reservations about his own magical artifact. After all, if anyone was to understand the plights and problems he was facing, it'd be these people.

"Mermaid huh?" he paused, "This one turns me into a fairy... a... girl... fairy." Liam added the last part, quietly.

Evidently, not quiet enough. June stared wide-eyed at Liam's comment while Lucas was bellowing laughter from behind the counter. "A girl!?" He exclaimed, "Now I HAVE to see it!"

"Lucas!" June exclaimed slapping him on the side, "control yourself!" She said as if she was talking to a puppy that had just chewed through her favourite shoes. "That is interesting though."

"Interesting? I'd say insane is a better word." Liam scoffed, "But I'm sure you all are used to stuff like that."

"No, what's interesting is it might be charmed in a similar way to my own necklace! If you were to change into a fairy I might be able to read the charm this time!" June chimed in.

"As nice as that sounds, I don't really want to go to class tomorrow as a little fairy. I think it takes a while for me to change back. Like the necklace has a charge or something."

"Oh, well we could just change you back!" Lucas added, still recovering from his fit of laughter.

"You can just undo this necklace. Make me normal again like *that*?" Liam said with a snap.

"Oh sure, I'm positive we have something around here that could shift ya back. No problem!"

Liam turned, once again, back to June, "And you can re-read the necklace when I change? Actually understand why it does why it... does what it does?"

"I can give it a try!" She cheered.

"Oh I can't believe I'm doing this." Liam said as he redonned the necklace. The whole time he was keeping it away from his neck, as if putting it on was a surefire way to unexpectedly change. He would sooner be less careful with a live bomb or a vial of deadly pathogens. Almost immediately after putting the necklace on, Liam was enveloped in a bright green light.

It took all but a second, and soon after a little fairy found herself lost standing on the Pawn-and-Prospect shop floor. She dared look up at the two booming voices coming from above.

"Where'd he go? Is he down there?"

"Umm... Oh! Yeah! Wow, an Instantaneous change!"

"Well, get him back up here."

"Can you fly there little fairy?" June inquired.

Liam couldn't even muster a sound. She was stuck looking up at June like a deer in headlights. It was like a skyscraper had come to life, and somehow managed to be... 'June shaped'.

June leaned down over Liam's tiny body, looming like a positively gargantuan monster, "Clothes change too, that's considerate. My necklace doesn't do that." She held out a palm for Liam to only stare in terror at. "I'll take that as a no." She said as Liam gingerly stepped onto her hand.

'Her hand is bigger than me. It's the size of a goddamn car.' the newly feminized, and fairy-ized, Liam thought.

"Awww you ended up so cute!" June said as she lifted her up to the counter, Liam thereafter stepping off.

Lucas leaned down to further observe Liam's diminished stature. Liam could only freeze in terror as she the gravity of her reduced size fully hit her. This was the first time she had been transformed around other people. Not fairies. Humans. And they were massive. She felt so weak, far weaker than the fairy form had made him her feel earlier. Liam couldn't tell if Lucas could sense her fear, but if he could, he got the message and stepped back. Finished with his analysis, Lucas leaned back again and began rummaging around through some boxes boxes. All the while June rested her arms and chin on the counter.

"So darn cute!" June reemphasized. June's perceived magnitude wasn't much better than Lucas's. Liam should be taller than this girl, but now June's head, which again was resting on the counter, was still above Liam's eye-level. June still had to glance down to even see the fairy.

Lucas came back around, this time wearing eyewear that didn't look too different from the fairy goggles Liam had just purchased. The spectacles and their magnification had the effect to make his eyes look positively buggy, at least from Liam's vantage point.

"Huh, the necklace didn't change size. It just wraps itself tighter around you. You still have all of that loose string."

"I've noticed." Liam attempted to say with volume. Regardless, it sounded more like a whisper to Lucas and June.

"Awwww he even sounds cute!" June added.

"Are you even able to read charms that act instantaneously?" Lucas asked, turning his attention to June, much to the relief to Liam who was hoping she would stop fawning over her.

"Oh sure. They still leave an imprint for a while after they're used." She returned back to eye-level with Liam. Well, her eyes were level with Liam's entire head. "Excuse me little fairy miss, can I borrow your necklace for a second."

"And this is why I didn't want to do this." Liam huffed as she began unfurling the pendant's chord from around her shoulders and waist.

"Oh my apologies." June responded, "Excuse me strong powerful fairy man! Please let me borrow your manly medallion, and don't pummel me for taking it or insulting your manliness." She said in a deep voice.

"Now you're just patronizing me."

"I get that a lot!" June winked as she delicately took the necklace out of Liam's two hands, her eyes glowing once again as she began deciphering the magic within.

"I've never actually seen a live fairy." Lucas called from behind Liam, "and you've... seen others? The ones that live in the forests around?"

"Yeah," Liam said rubbing her hand underneath her long locks of still braided hair, the style seemed to have kept from the last time she changed, "there's one tribe, or village, I don't really know. But they looked after me when I first changed."

"Hmm, lucky they found you. I wouldn't want to be three inches tall stuck out in the woods. Definitely not these woods!"

June let out a heavy sigh. "I'm stumped. Never seen anything like this before."

"What's wrong?" Asked Liam.

"Well... what's the best way to put this in Mondae terms... Remember how I said I could only read half of the charm?"

Liam nodded.

June continued, "I was hoping that by using the magic in it, it would unlock the other half I couldn't see. But-", she paused. "It's still like I'm only reading half of it..." Just then it seemed as if a lightbulb turned on above her head. She quickly darted off back behind one of the shelves, eyes still glowing. It's like she was trying to read the magic in every object sold here.

"Uh, June? Lucas called.

"Found it!" She answered from behind one of the rows of artifacts. Liam couldn't see her, but she could see her brandishing... something. She had something in her hands that she was waving about. To Liam's tiny eyes, it looked like a brown or black blob being flaunted about. Jun trotted back to the counter, gave quick glances to both the store clerk and the fairy, "I think you're missing half of that necklace." She said with a grin.

"What, like a friendship necklace that connects with someone else's?" Lucas inquired.

"No, no. Here! Let me show you what I mean!" She slapped her discovered item down on the table, "Ohoho I can't believe I figured this out." She said with her continued grin.

The item landing on the same countertop Liam currently found herself on sent shockwaves through her legs and up to her head. It wasn't too much of a jolt. She saw the thing coming after all. Liam's continued reminder of the difference of scale between the fairy world and the human world sent shivers up her spine. But after collecting her composure and allowing her nerves to settle, it didn't take long for Liam to figure out what this mystery item was. It was a pair of shoes. Plain, normal looking leather dress shoes.

"'Shoes that make you dance good'?" Lucas read aloud from the label. "Shouldn't it be 'Shoes that make you dance well', who labeled this thing?"

"Probably Robin, but that's beside the point." June answered. "The charm on these isn't applied to each shoe individually. It's applied to both."

"So?"

"So!?" June said picking up the left shoe and throwing it across the room. "If you read just one shoe, it gives you half the charm! I think that's what's happening with your necklace. It should be in a set of two!"

"That spell. The shoe spell. Does it look identical to how my thing's spell... looks?" Liam piped up from down on the counter.

"Well... no." June began to explain. "Not identical because they're two very different spells in two very different fields of magic. But aside from all of that, your necklaces charm... How do I put this." She said rubbing her chin, "It's frayed? Damaged? The spell looks torn in half. Or it feels torn in half. The shoes that I just separated, they're a clean cut! I think your trinket there is either so old or been apart from it's twin for so long that even if you put the two back together it wouldn't read properly."

Liam paused at that, "My Aunt. She has a necklace. It's identical to this one! Do you think that's the other half?"

"That could be it! Weird that the pair of them were charmed with the same incantation and not independently. Maybe they-"

June was interrupted, "They were originally earrings!" Liam belted, still far too small to make a genuine room-filling-yell, but the other two could hear her well enough. "The man- fairy- whatever! He said they were a pair of earrings first."

"Hmm. That's... something. Still doesn't answer why the charm looks so... pardon my French, but shitty." June finished.

"And I don't know what that would have to do with it being on such a hair-trigger. Or your 'girl-problem'." Lucas added, with thick exaggeration at the end of his statement.

"Well," Liam shrugged, "I came here for... something, so I guess all of that is better than nothing. Thank you!" She said with a blush.

"Good work as always June. Now," Lucas said turning his attention down to the countertop, "let's see if we can force you out of that fairy-form!"

Finally, Liam would have an actually reliable way to return to normal. An ability to make his life normal whenever he needed.

"I think we should have some reversion potions in the back-" Lucas said to no one in particular as he left the other two for wherever the potions were stored.

"You guys do potions too? How much of pop culture magic is real anyway?" Liam said to June.

She replied with a shrug and quickly changed the topic. "So. The whole girl thing?"

"Yeah?" Liam said, unsure where she was going with her remark.

Truth be told, June didn't know where she was going with it either, but after putting the words out there in the air she had to own up to the awkwardness. "Does it feel different? Y'know from normal?"

Liam scoffed, "Well it's pretty hard to tell when you also get wings and end up only a few inches tall. That's my bigger concern."

"Yeah, yeah. I figured that'd be pretty... weird." She said with a heartful smile.

"You said your necklace changes you too?"

"Yeah! I love this thing," She said giving it a little twirl between her fingers.

"You said mermaid?"

"Pretty cool right. Maybe once you're done giving fairy-dom a try you could try this on for a swim?"

"I think one fantasy creature body is enough for me right now. But thanks for the offer." Liam tried to answer as genuinely as she could. As lighthearted as June's implication seemed to be, the only thing Liam cared about right now was getting back to normal. Future magical hijinks could and the transformative implications that came with them had to wait.

Lucas returned no later carrying a small vial full of clear liquid. Despite being clear, the fluid maintained some sort of holographic film, almost like a rainbow pattern someone would see in soap bubbles or gasoline on the ground. The tube was small. Small for a human and no larger than a roll of coins. But the vessel and it's contents were the same height as Liam.

"Do I... drink the whole thing?" Liam asked as Lucas carefully pulled off the cork stopper.

"Uhh. No?" He said unsurely, giving a glance over to June who only shrugged her shoulders. "No. NO. Just a few um, 'fairy-gulps', should do the trick."

"You're sure? You don't sound that sure." the fairy replied with a worried glance.

"Yes... Absolutely!" Lucas said with a renewed focus, "Reversion potions are the most effective way to reverse transformation spells."

Liam continued to grimace at the sight of the reflective liquid.

"Just take a sip! A full sized human doesn't even need to finish that whole vial for it to work." June said from the other side of the counter. Meanwhile, Lucas continued to impatiently hold the potion in front of Liam's entire body.

Liam tentatively dipped a finger in the strange substance. The liquid was far more viscous than water. Proportionately, at Liam's size, water would be able to be 'picked up' a drop at a time. But this fluid was so runny, so thin, that it's tension gave way to microscopic droplets. Liam didn't care enough to ask if this was just how this potion worked, or if this particular vial was filled with 'fairy-sized-safe-fluid'. Regardless, she dumped her hands in the stuff, brought a pool up to her mouth and poured.

Miniscule texture aside, the liquid tasted like an incredibly unsavory concoction of different herbs, plants, even a bit of iron. The chef-side of Liam could pick out a strong minty and ginger taste. Truly an awful combination. But she still managed to stomach all of that and swallow.

...Nothing happened...

Liam looked around at the other two, unsure if there was a latency period. The others shot a quick glance at each other, then back to Liam. She was about to say something cocky about how it was a bad batch of brew, but then the pit of her stomach felt as if it had been ripped in two and sewn back together.

She keeled over, completely oblivious to June crying out to Lucas. Either the potion batch really was tainted, or something worse was happening. Even with her eyes closed, Liam could sense the glow of her necklace's gemstone envelope her. The green light poured in through her shut eyelids. She could feel the magic within her taking hold.

Though this was not the normal instantaneous flash transformation Liam was used to. This was long. It was a continuous and tedious pulling and swelling on every morsel of her body. It was pain. A burning that filled her from the core of her very being and spread from the inside out to the tips of her limbs, the wings on her back, her ears, her head, everywhere. Liam tried to grit her teeth and bear it. But the forces were far too much. She let out a cry. A plea. Anything to make this process stop. Anything to go back to normal. Hell, even spending the rest of the day as a fairy didn't seem like the worst idea anymore.

June and Lucas could hardly acknowledge Liam's torment or cries for help. They too were transfixed on the glowing, growing silhouette of Liam Greene. Suddenly, sparks began to fly off of Liam's form, bouncing every which way around the shop at incredible speeds. A sharp screeching sound ruptured the eardrums of June and Lucas, bad enough that the two couldn't resist plugging their ears. The two were blown back, as well as many of pawn and prospect's merchandise. A strong force began emanating from the center of the light. More sparks. More noise. The ground began to rumble and Lucas and June found themselves cowering behind one of the shop's many shelves. All of the shelves were shaking at the mercy of the unrelenting force. Crashes and electric bursts could be heard occasionally over the continuous shrieking as June, who was being covered entirely by the body of Lucas, watched blasts of magical arcs dart around the room, ricocheting off and shattering everything in their path. Suddenly. Almost entirely at once... the noise, the light, the shaking, all stopped.

Liam, who had been cowering in the fetal position; half out of pain and half out of fear, realized he was still standing on the countertop. A quick glance of his surroundings confirmed, he was back to human size. He immediately shot up in excitement and proceeded to bang his head on the cupboards above the clerks counter in the process.

"It wor-", he called. Only... something was wrong. Something was caught in Liam's throat. A symptom of the potion he drank. No. He patted himself down, feeling very similar to how he felt prior to his 'lightshow'. But... he was human sized? He looked around the shop, still hunching over so as not to hit his head again. But... he wasn't as hunched as he would normally be. An overwhelming fear had cause Liam to freeze in his tracks. He dared not look down at what he knew was still a female body.

"What the hell just happened?" Lucas said recompiling himself from behind the shelf.

"It didn't work! You're still a fairy." June said as she slowly stood back up on her two feet.

The duo then glanced over at the girl hunched over on their countertop. June was wrong, she wasn't a fairy. Instead it was just a normal sized human girl, wearing a jacket and pants far too big for her.

"Um," was all Lucas was able to muster.

"What the hell are you doing!" Came a voice from one of the side rooms in the shop. Maggie re-emerged to the main room, a frail old woman standing behind her. "I'm trying to help a customer, what on earth are you guys doing?! And who's that!?" She said pointing to the girl on the counter.

"That's.... Liam? You, um... missed some things babe." Lucas replied with a nervous chuckle.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?!" Liam screamed, as if the events that had just transpired finally caught up to her. "WHY AM I-?!", she quickly patted down her back. No wings. She ran over to the nearest mirror. No pointed ears. Not three inches tall. She was a normal, human girl. The only thing that seemed to have changed besides her scale was her hair, now shaggy and short.

"Liam... j-just get off the counter." Lucas said as he observed around the shop, noticing all of the damage and displaced items.

"Why am I still a girl!" She screamed. To that, Maggie and the old woman turned around and returned back to their original place of discussion.

"I- I don't know! I've never seen anything like that!" Lucas blabbered. "June?"

Her eyes were wide and mouth aghast. "I could try to read the charm again but, I don't know..." She simply put her hand out as her eyes started glowing. She didn't even need to get near Liam or the necklace to put her hand down in defeat and exasperation. "The necklace did NOT like that! It's aura completely shifted when I tried reading that."

"It can do that!? Is that bad!?" Liam said on the verge of panic.

June paused. "I don't- know... You'll be fine. The necklace will be fine. I just think it just doesn't like changes stacking on to it. You should change fully back once the necklace would've normally run it's course. You know, back to a normal human man."

"What if I don't!? What if... What if I take more of that potion!?" Liam inquired before quickly turning back around to the counter, the potion vial shattered and liquid spilled out onto the floor.

"No!" Lucas belted, "Whatever happened to you just there... I've never seen that before. We shouldn't try it again."

"Well what about a normal gender-reversal spell? Not reverting. Just changing girl-Liam to guy-Liam?" June inquired.

"No, June let's not push our luck." Lucas replied, but before he could even finish talking. June was brandishing a wand and shot a purple arc directly at Liam. The blast of violet energy pierced right through Liam, but the desired effect did not take. Instead, Liam was filled with a magic that channeled immediately to her hair. Her short hair was equally short-lived as it exploded out into an ungodly long length. Proportionately it was the same length as her hair as a fairy, brushing against her calves. The magic may have been caught by Liam, but it was not finished. The necklace still had it's say. The purple light was drained away from Liam's form as it accumulated at the focal point of the necklace's gemstone, before once again shooting out in a beam of spells. The dart of magical energy continued to bounce from wall to wall until blasting Lucas in the chest.

"June!" Lucas called out, voice already cracking. Though not as fast as Liam's necklace. The spell acted quick. Hair cascaded down his back. His frame diminished. Breasts developed. Truly, it was all one of the less weird things Liam had seen today.

"Don't try that again! Look at my hair!" Liam said holding up long locks to either of her sides.

"Your hair! Look at me!" Lucas said gesturing to his, now her, entire feminized body. She now stood only a few inches taller than June.

June could only help but give a nervous smile. That smile quickly tuned off though when loud footsteps could be heard coming down the attic stairs.

"What the hell is going-" Marcus stopped in his tracks seeing the carnage that had befallen the shop floor.

"What did you do!" He turned to face June, the only face he currently recognized. "Is- Is that Lucas!?" His confusion did little to mask his anger.

Lucas gave a dumb nod. "We had some complications trying to change Liam back from a fairy."

"Yeah, no shit! I was in Otherstance and I still heard and felt you. How hard is it to reverse one transformation spell."

"No, Marcus, you don't understand!" June chimed in, "We've never seen anything like it. The whole place just... erupted when we gave him the reversion potion."

To that, Marcus paused. Maggie, meanwhile had managed to reappear behind Marcus, no longer with frail-old-lady in tow. She gave a nervous glance around the room, noticing the damage and how Marcus's anger was only growing more apparent.

"Out. NOW." Marcus bellowed. "I don't want him. Or that necklace in this shop." He said pointing to Liam.

"Marcus!" June called back.

"If I don't understand it, I don't want it near me or this shop. OUT." He said point to the door where Liam and Lucas first entered.

Lucas collected her composure as much as she could, turned around and pointed directly at Marcus. "You don't own this place."

"Don't go there." Marcus said back with a fierce demeanor.

Lucas turned back around, surveying the damage. It was, indeed, bad. She stormed off past Marcus and only barely caught the 'looking good Lucy' comment from Maggie. "Come on Liam, let's fix this somewhere else."

Liam followed suit, head down as if not to incur more wrath from these strangers.

"June, call up Robin and Chel. Tell 'em to get back as soon as possible, we're gonna need a full inventory and---" Liam heard Lucas's voice as the duo re-emerged in Lucas's dorm room, though it quickly got muffled out once he crossed the actual threshold of the door.

"Are you going to get in trouble for... all that?" Liam asked the still female Lucas.

"Hmm, nah." She said casually resting her side on the wall. "Marcus teleported half the entire store to Vermont a couple years ago. I think I'll be fine."

"He's not your boss, is he? You said something about him not owning the store when we left."

"Uhh yeah..." Lucas said brushing the underside of her hair, "he's not, but let's best leave that topic back at the shop."

"Right..." Liam said, trying to distract herself from the fact that he was now, again, stuck as a girl. Stuck as a girl the afternoon before his first day of classes, and likely stuck as a girl into that first day of class. The fact that he had to continuously hold up her pants only kept reminding her of that fact. "So, what should I do about this whole girl situation? You know, since I might be stuck until tomorrow afternoon?"

Lucas was too busy rummaging around her closet to fully pay attention to Liam's inquiry. "Unfortunately for you Liam, once you enter the magical world. You kind of have to learn to roll with the punches."

"You call this a punch?" Liam said gesturing down to her oversize clothes.

"That's magic for ya," shrugged Lucas, "Welcome to the rest of your life." she then stood up, holding two hangars. One with a red t-shirt. The other with a grey sweatshirt. "Quick question though," Lucas continued. He gave the hangars a shake and almost immediately the two tops unfurled and shifted to, much to Liam's dismay, a pair of dresses. "This one?" Lucas said holding up the red dress. "Or this one?" Same, but with the grey.

"Why?"

"Oh wait, green's more your colour isn't it?" Lucas said with a shake and the grey dress was immediately washed in a deep green shade.

"WHY?" Liam continued with more emphasis.

Lucas gave a half earnest smile and shook the two dresses "Girl's night out?"