Gourmet Deviled Egg

Chapter 10 - It’s a kind of magic

“Oh so that’s the magic circle you used, interesting.” Félicie was bouncing around, looking at the circle from all angles as Leonard altered it. “Hey, if magic is as simple as drawing a circle and saying words, why isn’t everyone doing it?” She stopped bouncing so as to form a question mark from herself. That Time My Upstairs Neighbor Turned Me Into A Slime, a sequel to the hit series.  

“You know I’m wondering too now, why that’s the case.” I plopped down on the armchair, settling comfortably, and Félicie in her blob form bounced onto my lap. It felt a little bit forward; I had just met her, after all. Having her sit on my lap suddenly was not something I expected. But then she just used her little slime paw to point to the top of her head, a bright smile on her little blobby face.

“Apply pets here, please,” she said quietly. After a bit of apprehension, I complied with her request. She began purring softly. But not like a regular cat purrs. Like cat purrs filtered through water. There was the slightest jiggle to her as well. Leonard finished editing the circle just as I got into a good rhythm of petting, and he faced us. 

“Well, magic isn’t that simple for humans. I hyperbolically said something about really thick manuals to you, Lily. Humans can only do it with a lot of guidance.” He dusted his hands off. “Somebody has to figure out the right combination of words, gestures, symbols, ingredients, locations and times for a spell to be discovered. And then they have to write it down so other people can copy it.” He made his way over and picked up Félicie against her protests, putting her in the smaller circle for the summoning. “While non-humans can just do magic. Usually a specific kind of magic related to their bloodline, but still, they can just do it. Think of an effect with enough conviction, it happens.” 

“So you tried demonic heritage rituals to get inherent magic?” I scratched my chin in thought. “Didn’t you mention Angels and Fae also have kids? What’d you call them again? Nephilim and Changelings? Hope I didn’t butcher the pronunciation there. Why not try and see if you have their heritage?” 

“Oh, trust me, I’d love to, but those aren’t as simple as Demonic heritage. You need to get, in effect, knighted by an Angel to awaken that heritage.” Leonard handed Félicie the piece of paper with the summoning instructions. “And for Fae? You need to spend some time in the Fae Realm. I haven’t found a way in there yet.” He almost sighed the next sentence out. “Master won’t tell me a way in, because according to him they’d eat someone like me right away. No clue if it’s the trans thing or the turned into a twink thing, though.” 

“Bubble forth my parental ooze, rise like dough left to proof!” Félicie yelled out. God, those were goofier words for summoning than what Amy had. The lines of the circle glowed a subtle green before a goop began seeping out of them, more and more of it. And it all came together to form a perfect cube.

“Well, I’m glad the rumors of D&D being Satanic are compleeeeeeeetely false.” I tried to sound sarcastic. I figured I nailed it.  

“What are you talking about, Solid One? Lucifer runs a campaign every Friday. Plays with the people who sold their souls to make sure their parties always showed up,” the Cube said. The Cube sounded like a very eloquent Elmo. The Cube sounded as if Elmo had gone to Law School. “Nevermind that, however, why have I been summoned?” I couldn’t tell if the Cube was looking around or anything. It just kinda stood there, jiggling, the voice coming out of it without an obvious source. Félicie, still in blobcat form, waved her little paw at the Cube. 

“Hello! You’re supposed to be my grandparent from what I’ve been told!” I think the Cube turned to face Félicie. Again, impossible to tell, it was just a block of gelatin in the middle of the room. 

“Yes. It does appear to be so. You may call me Gel. It is nice to meet you. I should probably follow human protocol for this.” Gel made a sound like sucking in a jello shot, coalescing into a humanoid form. Well, really, It was a human torso and arms and head, but with a single eye as the only facial feature. And a… slug? In place of legs. They bent down to shake hands with Félicie, who offered a paw. 

“Nice to meet you, too. My name’s Félicie!”  Her little slime blob kitty face was heart-meltingly cute. She was definitely being Like That on purpose. 

“Are you stuck in this form, child?” Gel inquired, their eye shifting to reflect this. 

“No, I just feel kind of comfortable like this right now. No need to think about limbs or such. So, you’re supposed to unlock all my magic, because Leonard messed up the ritual. At least that’s what he told me.” Félicie turned to shoot a hopeful look to Leonard, who awkwardly nodded.

“I see. It is unfortunate the ritual hadn’t been performed properly. I do wonder what the specific mistake was.” At Gel’s question, I checked Leonard’s laptop once again. 

“Oh, that’s cute, Leo, new commission of your fursona for your wallpaper.” I stuck my tongue out at him as he got flustered. 

“I-it’s not a fursona! He just has the ears and tail. And stop just casually scrolling through my laptop like that!” Leonard pointed an accusatory finger at me.

“Oh please, Leonard, maybe if you didn’t keep all your grimoires on it and s**t I wouldn’t have to.” I rolled my eyes at him and looked through the ritual file. “Uhh… okay, yeah, probably should have listened to Dad and gone to law school to understand half this stuff. How the hell do you decipher this into a ritual? I don’t think the person who worked on these… localisations? Translations? Simplifications? Of rituals understood it either.” I showed the page to everyone around, as Gel straightened up with their chest pushed out and arms behind their back. 

“I had left exact and specific instructions on the process of awakening one of my descendants. I do not understand what the issue is in regards to my wording.” If they had a nose I’d expect it to be turned up. 

“You spend a whole page describing that you need to use a slurry of chalk dust and water instead of just drawing the circle as usual. From what I can gather.” I shot back, sighing and stretching a bit. “Aaaaanyways, mind unlocking Félicie’s powers and stuff so we can just do our own things afterwards?” 

“Yes, I was about to perform the necessary steps for that.” Gel placed a hand on top of Félicie and hummed for a second, their slime going through all the colors of the rainbow before settling on the same pink with darker pink stripes that Félicie had. And then they removed their hand and eased into a lime green color. “The deed is done. The full transformative capabilities of a slime have been granted to you. You are not only able to change your shape, but also texture, material and color.” 

“So Félicie’s now Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” I cheekily asked, to be met with confusion from everyone. Well, almost everyone; Félicie gave me a look of utter disgust. “Oh come on, it’s a classic, barely over a hundred years old, still holds up!” At my comment, Félicie stretched over to me, and bapped my face with a big paw.

“No,” was all she said before easing into blob form. 

“I’m sorry about the joke.” She bapped me three more times, probably to shut me up. Leonard was trying to keep himself from laughing from what I could see, and as for Gel, they coalesced into a cube form once more. 

“If that is all you require of me, I think I shall be on my way.” The circle lit up once more, and they oozed through the lines, disappearing and leaving the three of us youths alone in Leonard’s apartment. 

“I didn’t want to say anything while they were here, but Elmo talking like a legal document is f*****g hillarious,” I admitted, sighing deeply. “So that’s… four people you’ve f****d over with magical hijinks. Good job, Leonard. Hey, is there like a wizard council that deals with fuckups like this?” 

“Ooooh, wizard council, yes do tell!” Félicie had quickly returned to her former enthusiasm at the prospect of finding out more about magic. 

“The human magical community is a loose knit bunch of magic users without proper leadership. It’s like trans people; being trans isn’t a set ideology or political movement, more of an identity and a set of traits that vary between people.” Leonard walked over to check a shelf. “That is to say, there isn’t a specific wizard council, but there are authority figures in certain spaces. Like the mods on that forum I use. Or experienced magic users that teach the new kids.” He pulled out a book and handed it to Félicie. “So I won’t get in trouble if people don’t find out I awakened four people by accident.” Félicie’s eyes lit up upon seeing the book. I peeked over to see what it was. The cover had a very adorable cartoon kitten witch on it, the title being My First Magic Book. 

“That’s gonna be me!” Félicie giggled to herself, bouncing a bit, holding the book in her paws. I raised my eyebrow at Leonard in confusion. 

“Is that a legit magic book? It looks like something for kids to play pretend with.” I pointed towards it. Leonard reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of glasses, put them on, and did the ‘poke nose to adjust glasses’ move. Ah. That’s why he had a pair buried away. The weeb.  

“I will have you know Miss Tabby Fairweather’s Textbooks For Aspiring Magic Users is a very popular and informative series that doesn’t talk down to it’s intended audience, being friendly to both children and adults trying to study the Arts.” He crossed his arms and huffed, as if I had hurt his feelings. He then turned to Félicie. “It covers the basics of preparing a kit, a couple simple transmutation spells, a couple simple everyday spells like a flashlight and such. Let me know once you finish with it and I’ll lend you the rest.” I didn’t expect Leonard to smile, but he did. 

“Or. Oooooor.” Félicie switched from blob mode to catgirl mode, her paws now hands attached to proper arms. She had also changed her texture, from a slime one to a much more solid fabric one. She had turned herself into a plushie. I wasn’t sure if that was more or less cute than her slime form. “You give me the full series now, I go down to my basement apartment, I read through the whole thing and learn all I can, and then you give me all the stuff on alchemy you got. Please?” She batted her eyelashes, Leonard blushed like crazy and took out all the books from one shelf, about eleven of them, twelve total with the one Félicie was already carrying. 

“They’re numbered on the side.” He handed them to Félicie, who nodded and skipped out of the apartment.

“Leo, she’s not into men, no point blushing like your wolfboy here you dork.” I rolled my eyes at him, as I looked through his image gallery on his laptop absentmindedly. “Oh wow, I’m surprised that one fit. How many pictures of your fursona do you have? Is there a cloud folder I haven’t found yet that has them all?” 

“He’s not a fursona! And stop that!” He yanked the laptop away and closed it. “Out of my house, foul demoness! And come back when you find another victim or when I message you for help!” He pointed to the door, and I laughed as I left. 

“See you later, Leonard.” I winked at him, still laughing. 

“Yes, see you later, Lily.” He kept pointing, now with his eyes closed and blushing even harder. Come on, Leonard, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s not like he had a father figure that utterly destroyed his sense of self worth. I hoped.