The Magic Box, Saturday

[livingartifact]

Whatever force on the island had decided to . . . play had apparently passed Jenkins by, for which he was eternally grateful. He made a spectacularly unattractive woman. He hadn't noticed anything was amiss until he went out for a breakfast snack and found the staff at J,GOB arguing over who was doing a better job of dealing with having different parts.

So now Jenkins was back in his shop, a large box of donuts and muffins open on the counter, and a pile of various potentially gender reversing powders, potions, and spells set out in prominent positions throughout the store.

You know, just in case anyone came in for a magic solution.

All body-modification spells half off if you're willing to try them in the store!
We also have free donuts!

There. He was merely providing a public service. If it just so happened to help further his knowledge of the local magical effects, well. He couldn't be blamed for making the most of a strange situation.

[open!]

Comments

[era_two_triangle]

For a being from a matriarchal society, Peridot's grasp of gender was... thin, at best. It helped that technically, she didn't have one. And so she really had no idea what was all that different today. Just that most of the island's humans seemed to be acting weirdly about something, and the particulars of it were driving her insane.

The sign in the Magic Box window, though? That caught her attention. She pushed the door open and made her way inside, eyes wide.

"There are spells that can make people shapeshift?"

This was kind of a thing with her.

[livingartifact]

"Certainly," Jenkins said. "Why wouldn't there be?"

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot couldn't think of any offhand, admittedly, so she shrugged her shoulders a little as she attempted to see, from her spot on the floor, what it was that Jenkins was up to. Her view was... admittedly not great.

"I'm still familiarizing myself with this planet's concept of magic," she pointed out, the very model of a reasonable alien. "Especially around here, I find that the separation between magic and technology can be... hazy."

Not like back on Homeworld, where things made sense.

"How do these spells work?"

[livingartifact]

"That entirely depends on the spell," Jenkins said. "Most of them should have a single, particular effect, such as growing one's hair or changing the color of one's skin. . . . That sort of thing. Though with the island-wide effect added to the mix, there's no guarantee of anything at all, really."

Which was exciting.

He leaned over to get a closer look at her. "Have you been affected by it at all? Do gems have any sexual dimorphism?"

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot squinted a little at Jenkins at that, trying to puzzle out the question. She understood 'sexual,' if only because of the books that Lucille had recommended to her, most of which just left her further confused on the practical applications of human anatomy through liberal usage of purple prose. And of course she understood 'dimorphism.' That was actually the easy part of that sentence. But the two together?

"... What's that?"

Yes, she was going to ask.

[livingartifact]

"I gather that's a 'no', then." Jenkins took a bite of doughnut. "How familiar are you with biological reproduction?"

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot gave her head a little shake in reply to that.

"In a practical sense, not at all," she confessed. "Gems like me are manufactured, there's nothing biological about us. I have read a few books at the suggestion of a classmate, but the accuracy of the methods portrayed within them seems... suspect."

Terribly suspect.

[livingartifact]

"Unless those were textbooks, which I rather doubt, they were likely full of metaphor and florid, obscuring language. Entertaining, if that's what you're into, but hardly informative."

[era_two_triangle]

"Not very informative at all," Peridot agreed with a sigh. "Then I suppose I really have no real familiarity with biological reproduction at all. And people tend to act weird when I ask about it."

Humans. Honestly.

[2_old_for_this]

Peter frowned at the sign and pointed over his shoulder at it as he came in. "Is that really responsible?"

[livingartifact]

"That depends entirely on your perspective," Jenkins said. "From the perspective of furthering knowledge of magic and science, it's highly responsible."

[2_old_for_this]

"And from the perspective of not maiming people?" Peter asked.

[livingartifact]

"Well, in that case I would do my best to help counteract any permanent effects. So it'd be . . . at worst moderately irresponsible."

[2_old_for_this]

Peter sighed. "So you're basically being a mad scientist with magic."

Jenkins, did people often want to hit you over the head with your books?

[livingartifact]

"You are not the first to say so," Jenkins said. "Shall I take it you won't be taking me up on the offer?"

[2_old_for_this]

"No, thanks. It wouldn't do anything, and I'm not sure I should encourage you." Peter twitched his chin toward Jenkins. "How'd you escape this, anyway?"

[livingartifact]

"I have excellent karma."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker was walking by, trying to get used to her new weight distribution, and then veering sharply right when she saw the sign. Hmmm. Could magic, maybe, make this a little more bearable for the next couple days? She was mostly wary of the stuff, but this kind of seemed like one of those fight fire-with-fire cases.

So she pushed open the door, then brightened. "Oooo, muffins!" And made a beeline for the treats.

[livingartifact]

"Please, help yourself, Mr. . . . Or I suppose, possibly Ms. . . ?"

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Parker," which probably didn't help any gender confusion, but then, Parker didn't really care about being misgendered anyway. "These are good. You get them from Jeff, God of Biscuits?" She took another bite, then pointed at the window poster and made inarticulate noises that probably sounded inquiring.

[livingartifact]

"Of course." Jenkins frowned at the noises and pointing. "I'm afraid I didn't catch that, Mx. Parker. Perhaps if you finished chewing first."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker rolled her eyes, chewed, admired his grammar, then swallowed and said, "You can really make this whole being a guy thing easier? 'Cause I don't want to turn it off, that wouldn't be fair to Hardison and Eliot. But my balance is all over the place. I don't think I should jump off any roofs while I'm like this unless that gets fixed."

[livingartifact]

"I honestly have no idea, not knowing the precise mechanism used to turn you into one." Jenkins shrugged. "I am very interested in seeing what will happen if we try to find out, though."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"No turning me into a ferret, Mister Magic Man," Parker said, gesturing with a donut. The muffin was now gone. "You can undo the stuff you'd do, right? Like if you accidentally give me a tail or even longer toes? Oo. Wait. Long toes might help me hang from the ceiling. Yeah, that'd be cool."

[livingartifact]

"It's magic," Jenkins said, as though this should explain everything. "I guarantee nothing. But so long as you don't pick up anything with a monkey on it, I suspect you can avoid prehensile tails and extraordinarily functional toes."