“Today marks five months since the bizarre event when, what the internet has dubbed the ‘Magic Mist,’ swept across the planet and caused people around the world to transform and awaken to mysterious powers. Hello, and welcome back. This is Gabrielle Torres with Channel 12 news,” the news reporter stated with a professional demeanor. “It’s been a chaotic time for many. With many jobs and services being disrupted due to changing needs of workers and confusion among administrators; many have desired a return to some form of normalcy. And today we will review the substantial upheaval we’ve seen the past several months.
“To begin, the mysterious transformations of numerous people, animals, and even plant life, has been under continual research by scientists across the globe. While the exact cause is still unknown, medical professionals have continued to caution people to be careful with any new abilities they may have developed as they may be dangerous. However, new information from the CDC has revealed that many of the transformed have exhibited enhanced capabilities, putting particular emphasis on endurance and natural healing.
“These changes have also caused major disturbances for governments around the world as agencies have had to adapt to a changing workforce and urgent requests from individuals seeking aid. This is in addition to many politicians also transforming as well, resulting in heated fights on the floor to become more dangerous, and several congressmen and senators taking a leave of absence as they adjust to their new circumstances. Among those is Arizona state senator Gloria Thomas, who confirmed her leave of absence in April after her transformation changed her body and prompted her to come out as transgender. This political chaos has been amplified by international pressure on the United States after it was confirmed that the Magic Mist phenomena was triangulated, identifying that it originated from the Western United States.
“All of these significant changes have resulted in the excitement of many as schools across the country prepare to open schools back up after the nationwide shut down in March. Many are watching Arizona school districts as our schools begin earlier in the year than other places in the country. Still, many have questioned if this will be a return to normalcy, or another reminder of how much the world has changed.
“That being said,” Gabrielle said as her posture loosened and she began leaning in toward the camera. Her demeanor shifted, albeit in a subtle way. Her eyes softened slightly and her clasped hands released, her fingers coming flat against each other. It wasn’t much, but the natural energy she gave off shifted. Her feline ears stood upright and her tail rose behind her, curling upon itself. “In this reporter’s opinion, while the world has changed, and will continue to change, so too will we continue to learn. It is likely that the normalcy that many have hoped for will not return, and a new normal is here in its stead. We need to remain resilient and compassionate so we can work together and make it through these tumultuous times. Continuing on to our next segment.” Gabrielle’s demeanor returned to how it was before. While the rest of her body tightened and resumed its professional stance, her ears and tail relaxed, the latter exiting the frame.
* * *
“Not bad,” Cleo chuckled. “She’s really made something of herself since the fight at the highway. Oh, speaking of...” She grinned as the next headline flashed on screen, reading ‘Investigation Into Police Captain Continues.’ As she read it, her eyes fell upon the time. “Shoot.” She got up and walked to the hallway. “Girls, are you ready?”
“Not yet!” Vivi answered. “I’m finishing up.”
“Hurry up a bit, we need to leave soon.”
“Right!” Vivi returned her attention back to the mirror in front of her. “Let’s see. Next I dab it along my upper eyelid, like this,” she explained, “and now that it’s set, I use this brush to blend it with the other colors, and… Tada!”
“They’re so pretty and sparkly!” Wisp gawked at Vivi’s eyes. Vivi smirked as she glanced at her handiwork in the mirror. The pink and purple hues of the eye shadow blended seamlessly, giving her an elegantly smokey yet cute look to her, complimented by her long pure pink hair which now fell to her butt, granting her a new sense of confidence. “Can I try!”
“Well, uh...”
“Wisp!” Cleo’s voice echoed from down the hall. “Not until you’re older.”
“But Momma...!” Wisp whined.
“It’s okay Wisp. When you’re a little older I’ll help you learn,” Vivi reassured her. She glanced back at the mirror, giving her make up a final once over. A sense of comfort and confidence blossomed within her as a prideful smile took root upon her lips. She took a deep breath as she gazed at her eyes, the warmth seemingly igniting them with a red hue. “Huh?” Her mind caught on the observation.
“You promise?” Wisp asked, pulling Vivi’s attention back to reality. She glanced at her eyes’ reflection, confirming they were still in fact blue. She shook her head.
“Of course! Now let’s go. We have a lot to do today.”
“Kay!” Wisp gave a bright smile as she followed Vivi out. “We’re ready Momma!” She declared with an eager hop, her soft frilly purple dress bouncing around her as Vivi emerged beside her with a matching number with fewer frills… but not by much.
“Look at you two, you’re practically sisters,” Cleo said with a warm smile. “Well, that’s enough idling. We should get going.”
“Wait, isn’t big sis Leah coming with us?” Wisp asked.
“Not this time, sweetie,” Vivi said, gently patting her on the head. “She’s shopping with Chi and Tommy today.”
“Really, it would’ve been smarter to have me take Tommy and have you go with Leah, y’know,” Cleo observed. “You all have closer shopping lists you know.”
“Sure, but I want to support Wisp, and she didn’t want to shop with Tommy.”
“I still don’t get why. They’ve gotten together rather well the past few months.”
“Yeah, but Tommy’s a boy!” Wisp answered with confidence.
“That’s...”
“I get it.” Vivi chuckled. “She wants to go shopping and get girl stuff with just girls around. Right, Wisp?”
“Yeah!” Wisp nodded with a smile.
“Oh, is it one of those affirming things that Mel was talking about?” Cleo asked as they approached her car.
“Pretty much. Wisp prolly always had to go shopping for boy stuff with her brother around and she didn’t feel comfy wanting girly things.”
“Sounds like you’re talking from experience.”
“Sorta.” Vivi gave a light chuckle as she got into the car, Wisp getting in behind her. “It depended on the year. Sometimes Dad would take me, sometimes Mom would, and they were both pretty hands off. Still, there’d be this pressure, y’know? And if I had friends around, then I’d be surrounded by other girls which only added to it, but it really got stressful when one of their dads were around. Some of them were pretty insistent about that stuff.”
“Really? Carmen’s dad has seemed rather cool...”
“He’d be chill, but I still felt pressured. And then there was Erika’s mama. She hadn’t hatched or anything, and she tried to compensate a lot back then. It was really stressing their family until… y’know.”
“Geez. Who’d expect school shopping to be so stressful for trans kids,” Cleo commented. “Well, none of that this year. You’re both free to get whatever you want this time. No holding back, got it?” Vivi and Wisp answered with an eager ‘yes ma’am’ as she flicked on her sunglasses.
* * *
“Big sis, big sis! What about this one?” Wisp excitedly lifted another backpack.
“Aww, good find, little sis. It’s really cute.” This one was the third one and equally as vivid and bright as the previous two. This one had a bit more of a floral theme with a famous fairy from a cartoon. Vivi chuckled as she thought about how funny the resurgence of the character’s popularity was. After all, the tiny fairy was nothing but a silent side character who pouted at the young boy she was always around. She initially thought the character’s recent popularity was a little tacky, but seeing Wisp get so excited was a strong argument to reconsider.
“Do you want that one?” Cleo asked.
“Umm…” She looked to the competition, particularly the two she looked at earlier. One was a combination of pastels, notably pink and cyan with a picture of mermaid swimming through some sea life. The other one was themed after a particular pocket pal with brown fur and a fluffy white-tipped tail. She looked at Cleo with a pleading look.
“You can only take one, Wisp,” Cleo stated firmly. “You only need it for school.” Wisp looked to them again, clearly stumped by the decision. She looked back and forth multiple times, the situation unchanging. “Should I pick one for you?”
“No!” Wisp shook her head. “I wanna pick it.” Her voice fell to a whisper.
“Y’know Cleo. Maybe having a backup would be nice. She could always pick up a hobby, y’know,” Vivi bargained.
Cleo sighed. “I’m suddenly regretting bringing you. Dammit, you’re right though. Fine. Wisp, you can pick two.” Wisp looked up to her with wonder in her eyes. She looked again to her choices but quickly found herself in much the same predicament. “Wisp...” Cleo began tapping her foot anxiously.
“Hey, Wisp. How about this,” Vivi said as she leaned down to her. “How about you go with these two?” She pointed at the fairy and mermaid themed ones. “I saw a pencil case with Vuivui on it over there. If you go with that then you get to have all three.”
Wisp looked at her with an amazed look. “Big sis is so smart!” Wisp grinned. “Momma!”
“I heard,” Cleo answered with a chuckle. “Go ahead and pick it out.” Wisp nodded excitedly and ran off. “What about you? You haven’t found anything for yourself so far.”
Vivi frowned. “It’s uh… a little hard, I guess. Like, I want something girly, but…” She looked around the store. There were plenty of pink and colorful pastel backpacks, but they all had a certain thing in common. “They all just seem so childish.”
“Welcome to womanhood.” Cleo shrugged. Vivi gave her an unenthused look. “Uh… sorry. That’s not what I meant. I just meant that a lot of stuff for women tends to be played up as childish and stuff. It’s pretty infantalizing.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right. To be honest, I think part of why I stayed away from a lot of girlier things was because of that. Like, enjoying something girly means that you’re not serious or superficial or something.”
“Preaching to the choir there. Still though. You should go with something you like. Screw anyone who wants to judge you for your interests. You only hurt yourself by doing that.”
“My interests, huh?” Vivi repeated to herself. “Um… I guess there’s one place I’d like to check out.”
The three finished their shopping for Wisp, the several bags of her school goodies in hand with a couple bags full of essentials that Vivi would need as well. They tossed the bags into the car and made their way to a nearby mall. Vivi looked at it, a strange sense of nostalgia filling her. “That’s right, this is where we were when...”
“Annie mentioned something about meeting you at a mall. So it was here then?”
“Yeah,” Vivi answered. “Gosh, that feels so long ago now.”
“Like a whole lifetime ago,” Cleo teased.
“Yeah, kinda.” Vivi giggled. She took a deep breath and focused on her goal. She made her way into the mall, Cleo and Wisp following behind her. She looked around the familiar hall. It was still beat up from the events of that night. The space where she fought the man-turned-minotaur was still barricaded, hiding a few gashes in the floor.
It was such a bizarre and crazy night. Everyone was scared and confused, and she was no exception. She passed the window where she and Carmen were when the mist passed over them. She could still remember looking in the mirror, seeing herself for the first time. It was such a common occurrence now, but she could still recall how overwhelmingly amazing it was. She tried to ignore the pure euphoria that coursed through her at the time, instead hiding away in rejection of her own identity. But now there was no more denial, no more rejection. There was some embarrassment, sure, and some thoughts still got her nervous, but she could accept the girl in the reflection now. It was just her and her cute self smiling in the window.
She shook her head trying to focus on her objective again, this time succeeding all the way to the store she had her eyes on. She could never retain the name of it. Or maybe she refused to. It was something like ‘Otaku Head’ or ‘Anime Craze.’ It was unabashedly nerdy, both in the best and worst ways. They always had the coolest and worst things for sale, including the bewildering ‘yaoi paddles’ that her sister talked about. But more importantly…
She came to a selection of backpacks. Some were imported while some were from more dubious channels. The origins didn’t really matter though, she just wanted one that looked good and expressed herself better than the drab and dull mono-colored backpacks sold everywhere else.
Of course, most of the bags were immediately written off. She didn’t really have any interest in a black bag with some shonen hero on it, which to her chagrin, was what comprised most of the selection. But the others that remained were still plenty tempting. A few were themed after older anime she loved as a kid, notably the ones themed after a pair of magical girl shows, including a few based on the one with the girls in sailor uniforms. There were also a couple newer ones, such as one that was clearly fanmade based on a recently teased magical girl show, although the early information made it seem too bleak for her tastes. Another was themed after a sci-fi game with an android lady and her creator. There was yet another that featured a beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes dressed as a knight, a summoned spirit of a dead king who combated other historical figures.
There were ultimately two that stuck out to her though. The first was one based on her favorite anime as a kid, a magical girl anime about a girl trying to collect magical cards. The backpack was especially appealing since it had the main girl and her best friend, who she both identified with a lot, especially in retrospect, and shipped her with the main character. The other was a pretty clearly a fanmade bag of a beautiful anime girl with long lavender hair and a white dress floating in the moonlight.
“Find one you like?” Cleo asked, snapping Vivi back to reality.
“O-oh, yeah. There’s a couple,” Vivi said, looking at the pair of bags she wanted.
“Oh, those are cute. I think this one is more you though.” Cleo pointed to the magical girl one.
“Y-yeah. I think I agree, but...”
“But what?”
“Don’t you think it’d be kinda tacky?” Vivi wondered aloud. “I mean,” she lowered her voice to a hush, “a magical girl having a magical girl backpack.”
“With gay girls on it?”
“I mean… they aren’t...” she noted with a sad voice. “Still, don’t you think it’d be kinda weird.”
“Not really.” Cleo shrugged. “If anything, it’s the kind of thing I’d expect Carmen to do.”
“That’s not really helping.”
“I still think you should go with it. The other one is nice and all, but it’s kinda dark and serene when you’re a lot brighter and cutesy.”
“You think I’m bright and cutesy?” Vivi muttered as her cheeks lit up.
“Girl.” Cleo stared at her. “You’re literally the girliest girl I know. And we both know Melody.”
“T-thanks...” Vivi stammered with a bright blushing face.
“What about me?” Wisp interjected.
“It’s a tie, sweetie,” Cleo answered.
“Yay!”
“Yeah. Okay. I’ll go for it then.” Vivi nodded. She took the bag to the front and placed it on the counter. The girl behind the counter had been busy shuffling things around on the back table, bobbing back and forth on her long snake-like tail, completely oblivious to Vivi. “Excuse me.”
The cashier practically jumped. “Oh, sorry,” the cashier apologized as she turned around, revealing her long scaly ears. She stared at Vivi for a second looking as if she wanted to say something, but chose not to. “Uh, just the backpack, right?”
“Y-yeah.” After a couple awkward moments of confirming the price and paying, Vivi finally spoke up. “I-is there something wrong? You keep looking at me kinda funny.”
“Oh. Uh. It’s nothing. It’s just...” The cashier mumbled something to herself.
“Huh?”
“I… are you Magenta?”
Vivi stared at her in confusion. “I… Uh… No?”
“You totally are, aren’t you!?” The cashier smiled excitedly. “Oh, my, gosh! I actually get to meet THE Magenta!? In the flesh!?”
“Uh...”
“And you like anime!? That’s so cool! What’s your favorite?”
“Um...”
“Hold on!” Cleo raised her voice and stepped in. “You’re freaking her out.”
“Oh. Uh, sorry. Kinda fangirled there.”
“Obviously,” Cleo scoffed.
“Sorry about that.” The cashier repeated.
“It’s okay. I’ve… uh, just never had anyone be that forward about it before,” she admitted. It was true. She’d managed to avoid any fans during her day to day. The Prism Girls had become local celebrities of a sort after stopping Zeus and the police, and that certainly attracted a number of stares, but she’d made an effort to not draw attention, although it was harder for her than the others with her now bright pink hair. “It’s nice to meet a fan though,” Vivi said with a blush.
“Really?” the cashier grinned. “I imagine you get a lot.”
“Not as many as you’d think.” She frowned. Even after outing the police’s corruption, there were certainly a good number of people who took their side and still lambasted her and the others. “Um, what’s your name?”
“Oh, I’ve been going by Ashley.” She smiled.
“I’ve been going by Vivi.”
“Wait. Going by… then… are you like me?” Ashley gawked. “Oh, my gosh that’s so cool!”
“Heh, yeah.” The two began to chatter and giggle for a while before Cleo eventually told her it was time to go, shocking Vivi as she realized they’d been talking for almost a full hour. “That was fun,” she said as they left. She looked at her phone, eyeing the new contact.
“Just be careful to not get caught up in anything,” said Cleo.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Girl, you’re popular and friendly. That’s great, but there are people out there who would take advantage of that.” Vivi looked at her with a confused look. And then she frowned. It wasn’t surprising that Cleo would have that kind of view, especially after how many of her friends had been hurt over the years. Just thinking about it made the pain she felt with the witch come right back to the surface.
“I’ll be careful,” Vivi finally said. “I have you, Annie, Melody, Chi, Sis, and Mom to keep an eye on me.”
“Me too!” Wisp cheered excitedly, clearly unaware of the true meaning of their conversation.
“Yes, you too.”
“I notice you didn’t say Carmen,” Cleo noted.
“Carmen is a little too reckless when it comes to that stuff,” Vivi explained. “It helps her out a lot, but not in those situations.”
“True!” Cleo said with a laugh. “Anyway, it looks like we have everything.”
“Wow. It’s actually starting to hit me. Next week I’ll be back at school, and as a girl.”
“Must be exciting,” Cleo chuckled as they entered the parking lot, heading towards the car.
“Exciting… and scary.” Vivi quietly fidgeted, playing at her phone when it buzzed. She looked at it to find a text from Erika.
'Went clothes shopping with Mama today! She got super cute and embarrassed when we went to get her a new bra, and it got me thinking. Do you have any?' Erika's message read.
'Oh, I picked up some after coming out to Mom. Although, I kinda need to get some more soon.'
'Oh? Did your girls get bigger? They were already pretty nice, but I bet they're super fun and soft now. Right?' the dryad teased her. Vivi's face grew warm as she thought about it. Her breasts had gotten a bit big lately, not that she was the only one. Her mom needed to get a bigger bra after her change too. Leah had teased Vivi a bit about having the larger breasts of the sisters now. 'Gosh, I wanna hug you and see how squishy you are now!' Erika teased. Vivi giggled in an unusual tone low tone as they reached the car, causing her ears to perk up. However the curiosity of her voice quickly got lost as she stood in front of the car door, her reflection staring back at her. She shivered, confusion gripping her.
"M-my eyes... they're...?" she blinked, but they didn't change. Two crimson red eyes stared at her, only to vanish, returning to their bright blue. "W-what was that?"