An uncomfortable silence passed after Amanda had finished her story. Enough to prompt Flora to raise her hand timidly. “Well, if nobody else wants to go, I can tell one?”

The silence that followed told Flora everything she needed to know. With a sigh, she stood up, kneeling over by the bucket of water she’d filled earlier. “Alright, well… Our story begins in the world of Alteria, a VRMMO where-”

Jose chuckled, cutting her off. “Of course your campfire story takes place in a video game. Lemme guess- the main character is a catgirl?”

Caught off guard by the callout, Flora responded in kind by splashing some water in his general direction. “Oh, just be quiet and listen! Sheesh.”

Propping the bucket of water up on a log, Flora began producing a wide variety of flowers, leaves, and other weeds from her bag. She began adding them to the bucket, stirring her concoction with a stick as she began to tell her tale. “Where was I… ah, yes. The VRMMO known as Alteria, where a party of four friends had just begun on their journey to be one of the few to beat this year’s summer event…”

---

A Mermaid’s Advent by Ninichu

The mermaid looked at us with hopeful eyes, pulling her upper body up to the pier to bow low to our party. “So please… I beg of you travelers, please help me reclaim the nacarbesent pearl from the sea witch!”

“Sure, nothing to it!” my hot-headed friend said, flashing his signature thumbs-up pose to the mermaid NPC. “We’ll deck 'em all in no time flat, just you wait.” Standing at an even six feet tall, Axel began to make wild swinging motions at the sea, the imaginary axe in hand bashing sea monsters like there was no tomorrow while his spiky red hair and equally spiky half-plate armor cut through the wind. His real name was Rob, my childhood friend and college roomate. He’d made a friend out of me, relentlessly inviting my introverted self to hang out or study over the years until I’d finally agreed… and enjoyed it.

A green-haired rouge ducked under a few of Axel’s swings, shoulder checking the warrior and nearly pushing him off the pier. “Cut it out, Rob. You’re going to scare her away!”

That’s Maya, or Mocha, as she’s known in game. She’s pretty hotheaded, but a steadfast friend. Despite the constant bickering she got into with Rob, she really did care for the lot of us idiots.

But right now, she didn’t spare another glance towards Axel, instead kneeling down to address the mermaid. “Don’t worry, miss. We’re happy to help out. I promise I’ll keep our resident meathead in check.”

Said meathead was not amused, stumbling and catching himself right before he toppled over. “What the hell, Maya!? Are you trying to drown me!?”

The rogue snorted. “Oh please, you’d float with all that hot air in your lungs. And it’s Mocha while we’re in-game, dumbass.”

“Hah!? You literally just called me Rob!”

“Cause you’re not in character at all!”

“I’ll show you in character!”

A blonde-haired paladin in full plate mail stepped between the bickering duo. “Mocha, Axel, cut it out. Do you really wanna be known as the party that failed this year’s summer event before even getting the quest?”

Charlotte. In-game name Cocoa, our tank, and resident group mom. She’s the one who got us all into this game, and dragged us into doing the summer quest we’re about to start. She and Maya are roommates in the same dorm Axel and I live in. I’m really glad that we’re all still friends, and that we can still squeeze out time in our lives to play together. Probably cause the four of us are the only four in the dorm who play Alteria online, and cause we’re all equally sick of partying with randoms.

“Come on Cocoa, he’s being a total dick right now!” Mocha whined.

“Cause you tried to knock me into the sea, dipshit!” Axel shot back. “You tell her, Eden! You saw, didn’t you?”

I instinctively gripped my cleric staff tighter, taking a step back. “Wha-“ I stammered out. Socializing has never been my strong suit, and I have the prescribed anxiety meds to prove it. A meaningless argument like this is already way out of my league.

Cocoa put a hand on each of our friends. “Hey now… Leave Eden out of your bickering, or I’ll let the next group of mobs beat the crap outta your squishy butts. Come on, let’s get back in character.”

“Sure, sure, Charlotte. Um, where were we…? Ah!” Mocha cleared her throat. “We accept, miss mermaid.”

The mermaid’s glazed-over eyes (a common tactic for most modern VRMMO games to employ when people start talking about the real world) refocused as our party got back into character to continue the conversation. “You will? Oh, thank you so much! The sea witch currently resides in the Oceanheart grotto. I can guide you there, but the door only opens to the denizens of the sea.”

Cocoa smiled, seemingly expecting this. She was always scanning the game’s forums, especially so after the recent patch update. Though a lot of it was hidden from view until after your yearly attempt, hints could be snuck into forum posts. All you needed to know was where to look. Alteria was infamous for its incredibly difficult summer events, after all, and she was determined to get us a win this year.

“Well, we’re adventurers of the land, as you can see,” Cocoa mused. “Surely you must have some sort of workaround if you’re asking for our help?”

The mermaid nodded in confirmation. “Indeed I do.” With speed and grace, she dived under the waves, reappearing a moment later with four flasks filled with a sparkling, deep blue liquid. “These potions were made at the heart of this sea by our most powerful shamans, and are capable of transforming the imbiber with the powers of a mermaid. However, it is only temporary and will hold only as long as the user remains in contact with the waters of this sea. I believe your people have a name for potions like these, correct?”

Cocoa nodded. “An Alteria. Rare artifacts capable of temporarily transforming the user into a more powerful form.”

I didn’t hear any of the conversation after Cocoa’s revelation. She didn’t tell me this quest would involve an Alteria! I mean sure, they were like, a main part of the game, and you were supposed to use them during several of the main story quests and all… but something about transforming into what amounted to a superpowered, hypermasculine, and/or pointlessly sexy version of a demigod or a monster or whatever always felt unsettling and sounded incredibly uncomfortable to me. 

When I first started playing, I’d frozen up at the first story quest involving an Alteria. You were supposed to borrow the power of the kingdom’s legendary jewel and use it to transform into a massive stone golem capable of leveling the bandit king’s hideout in just a few minutes. Thankfully for me and the achievement hunters who didn’t want to have a temporary experience as a hulking earthen construct, the game devs had also included a way to complete all the Alteria quests without actually using the relic, as an extra challenge for the achievement hunters. So despite having played Alteria Online for about a year, I’d never actually used one of the game’s namesakes, and right now, I really didn’t want to be forced into the body of a sexy merman for the next couple of hours.

Alteria Online’s fanfare music snapped me back to reality. [Quest Accepted: The not-so-little Mermaid (Event)].

Oh. Oh no.

Before I could start to panic, I felt Axel clamp his hands down on my shoulders, beaming at me with a grin. “Sorry Eden, looks like your Alteria-less streak is finally gonna be broken,”

“I- Well- I’m sure there’s a way to finish this one without using those potions?” I stammered in response.

Mocha looked over at me with a glance of pity. “Not unless you can hold your breath for over an hour while fighting off hordes of sea monsters. Weren’t you listening?”

“Um…”

“I know you don’t like transforming, Eden, but we really need you for this,” Cocoa pleaded. “And, if I know you as well as I think I do… I think you’ll actually like this Alteria. I promise nobody will make fun of you, and we’ll stop right away if you feel uncomfortable. I think you should at least try, okay?”

I fidgeted uncomfortably as I glanced at my childhood friends. When we were kids, we’d always promised to have each other's backs no matter what. That always seemed to translate to them helping me with one thing or another. Whether it was Rob chasing off my bullies, Maya showing me how to be more confident, or Charlotte helping me with my studies, they’d always been there. But for the life of me, I couldn’t think of a single moment where I’d been there for them. But here was a chance to be useful to them, even if it meant using an Alteria. I could handle this, right? What was the worst that could happen?

I took a deep breath to calm myself. “Yeah, okay, I can do this. We can do this. We shouldn’t let all our prep work go to waste, right?”

Cocoa smiled, pulling me into a hug. “Thanks, Eden. No hard feelings if it’s too much for you, okay? Your mental health is a lot more important than a cash shop reward.”

Despite the honesty of her words, I couldn’t help but feel like Cocoa was just trying to make me feel better if I ended up failing the quest for them. To be honest, I was already having second thoughts. I needed to do this before I lost my nerve. 

“J-Just gimme the Alteria before I change my mind, okay?” I half-shouted.

“Here,” She said with a gentle smile, placing one of the potions in my hands. Axel and Mocha each grabbed one of their own, too. “Alright team, here’s the plan: we take the potion on the count of three and jump into the ocean. After we’ve transformed, equip whatever water-mobile weapons and armor you’ve got, then we’ll go from there. Sound good?”

Axel and Mocha responded with grunts of affirmation while I just nodded shakily. Am I really about to do this?

“Alright then. One…”

Oh god, oh fuck. I’m about to do this. Why am I about to do this!?

“Two…”

I shakily raised the vial towards my lips. I shouldn’t be scared. This is safe. These people are safe. Why am I so nervous?

“Three!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, downed the shimmering blue drink, and stepped off the pier into the depths of the ocean. The accompanying splashes nearby told me that my friends had done the same thing, as planned. As I felt my body begin to shift, I made sure to keep my eyes firmly shut. This was already nerve-racking enough- I didn’t want to watch the transformation, too. My plan was to keep my eyes shut until one of my friends told me to open them. At least the transformation wasn’t painful.

A deep, strong, and unfamiliar feminine voice came from my right, startling me. “What the fuck?” She shouted. “Why do I have tits!?” 

Mocha, who was evidently on my left, spoke next. “Axel…?” There was a pause, then Mocha seemed to lose her composure, breaking into all sorts of laughing and jeering. “Holy shit, it is you! Ha! How’s it feel to be a girl, sister?

“It’s not funny, Mocha! Fuck off! Is this some sort of bug?”

Before I had time to process that Axel had apparently been turned into a girl, a pinging in my ears altered me to a new mail in my inbox.

“It’s from the devs,” Cocoa said, opening her inbox and reading the letter out loud. “Welcome to Alteria Online’s summer event. If you are receiving this letter, then that means you or one of your party members have been affected by a known bug with the heart of the sea Alterias, causing a temporary change in body form from male to female.”

“So it is a bug!” Axel shouted. “Fuck this, then. I’m not doing this quest as a girl. Let’s abandon now and wait for them to give us another attempt.”

“However,” Cocoa continued, “In light of this event being one of our most difficult each year, and as a part of our ongoing effort to represent the diverse experiences of our player base, we have decided to implement this bug as a feature and double the rewards for any party that manages to complete the ‘hard mode’ version of this quest. An updated ‘normal mode’ will be released on a future date with this bug fixed, and an extra attempt at this quest will be given to all players who have not claimed hard mode rewards before this update. We apologize for any inconvenience this feature may have caused.”

“Double the cash shop coins…?” Axel squeaked. He (she?) sounded further away now.

“And a free attempt at the hardest event of the year, to boot.” Mocha noted. “Swim your butt back down here, Axel, unless you plan on leaving your favorite rogue all high and dry?”

I felt the current around me ripple- Cocoa had pulled me into another hug. This one felt different, though. It seemed a lot softer and gentler than before, at least from the waist up. Below that, it felt a little rougher, but not irritatingly so. “Hey, Eden, are you alright? Do you want to open your eyes?”

I shook my head no. I wasn’t the brightest, but I certainly wasn’t the densest, either. By this point, I’d pieced together what’d happened to me and Axel, and it felt like I couldn’t even trust my own voice now.

“Okay… Do you want to abandon the quest and do it later?”

I shook my head again. Transforming was already weird enough, and now I’d never have the nerve to use an Alteria again. I just wanted to get this done and forget it ever happened.

Cocoa laughed softly. “Well then, you’ve got to open your eyes, silly. Can you do that for me? I’m right here.”

Something about the gentleness of her voice convinced me. Slowly, I opened my eyes, not daring to look down at myself, and instead kept my focus on the face of one of my best friends. Her dark green eyes were as brilliant as ever, and her blonde hair was splayed about in the water, dancing through the current.

“Good girl,” she breathed, giving me another reassuring smile.

“Wha-!” I closed my mouth as quickly as I’d opened it, covering it with my hands as my cheeks went bright pink. Did that sound really just come out of me? It was so gentle, so pretty… so femimine.

Cocoa watched my reaction carefully, as if searching for something. An answer, perhaps? She opened her mouth as if to say something, but quickly closed it a moment later, releasing me from the hug. As she stepped (swam?) back, I finally got my first look at an active Alteria form. To my surprise, it wasn’t nearly as over-sexualized as I’d feared. Cocoa still looked like herself, but her legs had become an emerald-colored mermaid tail. No shell bra, no impossibly proportioned waist, just my usual pretty friend wearing a scale mail tunic crafted from the remains of a sea serpent.

 “Are you sure you’re going to be okay, Eden?” My friend asked again. I nodded in response, opening my status screen to find something more appropriate to equip for an underwater raid, remembering just too late that doing so automatically opened a window with a mirror, too. Then I saw it. Then I saw her.

“Pretty.” That was my first cognizant thought. Her face- my face- was rounded and soft instead of the sharp featured face I’d grown used to. My short brown hair had elongated down to my mid-back, and been styled into an adorable half-ponytail. It’d even taken on this wavy look near the ends that seemed to ebb and flow like a gentle current around me. Even my eyes seemed to have gone from their usual dull brown to this deep blue color that reminded me of the potion I’d just drank. At some point during this new fascination with myself, I’d drifted closer and to the mirror to catch every little detail. I must’ve fat fingered the auto-equip button, cause the next thing I knew, I was floating there wearing a flowy, light blue mantle that left just my navel exposed. I gasped again, and the blue-tailed mermaid in the mirror mimicked me perfectly. My heart was beating fast as I struggled to decide whether I needed to have a panic attack or cry for some reason. That was me. Holy shit! That was me! I had all of ten seconds to process that before my brain refocused on the argument between our two DPS members. 

“Would you quit laughing at me, Maya?!” Axel groaned. I turned towards his (her??) voice, finding a short-haired, redheaded mergirl yelling at a mermaid-ified version of Mocha laughing her ass off. Axel was flushed a fiery shade of red, likely due to the embarrassment of having to wear a cropped breastplate that left his midriff completely exposed. At least it still had spiky shoulder pauldrons, and matched his fiery red tail, so his cool warrior look wasn’t completely ruined. Mocha was wearing a modest ocean-blue tunic, and were it not for her yellow tail, I’d have had trouble spotting her. 

“Now you know how it feels, Axel. Or should I say… Roxi?”

“Yeah yeah I’m sorry for laughing at you every time a cool piece of armor you get turns into a stupid metal bra! Now cut it out! This is so embarrassing…”

“Oh no, you’ve laughed at me far too many times to let you off the hook that quickly.” I caught Maya glancing at me, a mischievous smile clear on her face. “Right, Evelynn? Back me up here.”

It took me a solid minute to process that Maya was talking to me, then another to process the fact that she’d called me “Evelynn,” and a third minute spent verbally keysmashing in her general direction while all sorts of weird feelings welled up in me.

“Enough teasing, Mocha,” Cocoa chided. “Axel and Eden are probably experiencing all sorts of dysphoria, right now. Right?”

“Yeah, lay off. Geez…” Axel looked all sorts of uncomfortable as he fidgeted. “I’m only doing this for the chance at double rewards, okay!?”

Mocha frowned. “Ah, yeah, sorry. I went too far. My bad, Rob, Er-”

“I didn’t mind it!” I blurted, stopping her before she could say my real name. When everyone turned to stare at me, I froze up. Quick, come up with an excuse, brain!

“Uh-! Well… I… want to stay in character…?”

Good save, me.

My outburst was followed by my friend’s stunned silence. Oh god. Why’d I say that? What was I even so bothered by? I wanna crawl into a hole and die. Why-

Cocoa gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “Sure, we can do that, Evelynn,” She says, as calm and collected as ever.

“You sure?” Mocha protested. “It was a joke, you don’t have to take it seriously.”

I nodded, “I-I’m sure. It’ll, um… be a good change of pace.”

My friends all exchanged glances with each other as if silently communicating something that I wasn’t privy to. In the end, it was Axel that broke the silence.

“Well, hell. If he-” Axel caught himself, stopping momentarily to correct. “If she’s gonna do it, I’m fine with it too. But only until the end of this run, okay? After that, we’ll never speak of this ‘Roxi’ again, you hear?”

“Hell yeah, all-girl party!” Mocha cheered, then caught herself too, looking at me and Roxi with a concerned glance. “Er, sorry. I’ll try to keep my teasing in check. Just, let me know if I go too far, okay? We’re friends, after all.”

“They’re honorary girls,” Cocoa decided, equipping a blue jellyfish shield and matching trident. “So, are we all good to go? Our destination is the Sea Witch’s Grotto to recover Namiella’s Narcarbescent pearl.”

“All good here,” Roxi stated curtly, testing out the weight of her crab claw battleaxe. 

“Me too!” Mocha chimed, a pair of sharpened coral daggers hanging from her hips.

I equipped my own water-themed weapon, a coral staff set with a large pearl at its tip. “Uh-huh! And, um… thanks, everyone. I’ll… I’ll do my best!”

***

“Crushing claw!” Roxi screamed, smashing her axe into the head of a shambling, humanoid squid monster. The thing squealed, raising its tentacle arms back to counter our warrior’s attack. Cocoa was faster, however, moving to cover her ally and deflecting the flurry of blows onto her jellyfish shield.

“Ebb…” She chanted, pulling downwards to get her body underneath her shield. As she did, the current pulled back with her, staggering the monster and knocking it off-balance. “And flow!” Cocoa heaved her shield with the full weight of her body, sending the monster flying backwards towards its friends on a visible ripple through the water.

“Good aim, Cocoa!” Mocha called out, riding the riptide towards the shattered enemy line. In a flash, she’d quickly traced a line through our opponents. “Coral cuttings!” She called out as the fishy humanoids met their end, falling to the grotto floor in a heap that quickly dissolved into a loot pile.

I sighed with relief, dropping concentration on my buff timers. After about an hour of flailing our way through underwater combat with new weapons and limbs, we were finally starting to get the hang of things. We’d gone from nearly wiping against one of these monsters to quickly taking out an entire pack of them.

I was finally starting to understand the appeal of Alterias, too. This form was so freeing to move around in. It didn’t feel like I needed to hide under the folds of my robes anymore- I was just free to be me. It was like there were all these invisible walls around me that suddenly didn’t exist anymore. Hell, even the mid-battle “Thanks, Evelynn!” and “Thanks for the buff, girl!” left me grinning like an idiot while my friends bashed sea monsters into the grotto walls. I was using an Alteria, and having fun!

“Good work, girls!” Cocoa said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “I think we’ve finally got the hang of this.”

“How the hell do you tolerate wearing this shitty armor for so long?” Roxi complained, rubbing the exposed portion of her back. “My back is killing me.”

Mocha just shrugged, “I dunno, an entire lifetime of getting used to it? Just be glad you’re not gonna wake up with sore boobs tomorrow.”

The warrior flinched in response, holding her arms above her chest protectively. “They really do only aim for the shiny bits, huh?”

A giggle escaped my lips before I could stop it. “It’s so nice to finally see Roxi knocked down a peg.”

“Wha- whose side are you on, Evie!?”

“Ours,” I replied, pretending to get defensive. “You know, the girl’s side?”

“Wow. Girl takes one Alteria and suddenly she’s the brattiest little thing in existence.”

“Much better than being the big muscular warrior dude winking at every woman he sees.”

“I do not-” The words died in her throat. “Alright, you got me.”

We all shared a good laugh. It was nice to participate in the party banter for once. Normally, I’d be much too shy and afraid of actually offending someone to even think about speaking my mind. But now, it just felt natural. These were my friends, after all. We literally just finished clearing an underwater cave of creepy humanoid fish monsters. As mermaids. Who says we couldn’t enjoy each other’s company in this already crazy scenario?

“I’ve never seen you smile so brightly, Evie,” Mocha commented, sporting a grin of her own. “For the one who was so hesitant to use an Alteria, you really seem to be enjoying yourself.”

I blinked, processing what she’d just said. “Yeah, I guess I have, huh? Well, having that speed bonus is really freeing, you know? I can like, really move all of a sudden. Definitely gonna add a few points to dex in my next level ups.”

My friends looked at each other. “What speed bonus?” Roxi asked. “This Alteria doesn’t change your stats.”

My smile fell from my face as I tilted my head in confusion. “What? No, that can’t be right. I’ve been feeling a lot more nimble ever since we’ve changed… and my body moves the way I expect it to now.”

Roxi, no… Rob looked at me again, looking at me with concern. “Seriously? It’s been the opposite for me. I’ve been bumping and scraping myself on stuff this whole time. Everything feels just slightly off, you know?”

A quick check of my status screen confirmed what my friends had said: Not a single one of my stats had changed. If it wasn’t the game that made me feel lighter on my feet- well, fins, then… it’s something in me. Several gears started to turn in my head. I liked being a mermaid, sure, but I definitely still felt awkward about not having legs. So if it wasn’t that…

Maya chimed in, quietly, breaking character as well. “Um… I don’t know if this helps, but… what Roxi described is the typical reaction cis guys have when they play VR games in a female body, Evelynn. According to what I’ve read online, anyways.” 

“Oh.”

“Is that why you were so insistent about staying in character?” Charlotte asked me. “Evelynn, are you…?”

“Am I…?” Everything finally clicked into place, and there was a hint of panic in my voice as I scanned my friend’s faces. “A-Am I… trans? That’s the term, right? Oh god. Shit… guys, I think I’m trans. What am I gonna do!?”

Charlotte and Maya immediately swooped in to smother me in a hug. After a moment, I felt Rob awkwardly join in the hug pile too.

“Shhh… It’s okay, Evie. We’ll figure this out,” Charlotte cooed. “Take a few deep breaths for me, okay?”

“It… It all makes so much sense now…” I said, still reeling from a mixture of panic and disbelief. “Holy shit.”

Maya gently pats my shoulders, helping ground me. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re still your friends, okay? This doesn’t change anything.”

“Yeah, we’ve got your back, always,” Rob adds. 

“I… Okay. Thanks, everyone.” I squeezed the hug pile tight. “Thank you… really.” I sniffed and wiped my eyes. I think I was crying, but I couldn’t really tell, being underwater and everything. “What am I gonna do? There’s so much paperwork involved, and-”

Maya cut me off. “Hey. One step at a time, okay? For now, let’s focus on getting your game avatar corrected.”

“But a permanent genderswap Alteria costs so many paid shop coins- Where am I gonna get all that money from?”

“Lucky for you, I know a group of four mermaid adventurers about to complete the quest to get you just enough dough for your big purchase,” Maya grinned, thrusting a fist in the air. “All that’s left is the Sea Witch, girls. Let’s win this thing!”

Roxi smirked, mimicking Mocha. “That’s gotta be the cringiest thing you’ve ever said, Mocha. But… you’re not wrong. Let’s win this. For Evelynn!”

Charlotte laughed, joining in. “Yeah, let’s do it! Ready, Evelynn?”

Seeing my friends rally together for a cause almost brought me to tears again. I loved them all, and I sure don’t know what I did to deserve them.

“Yeah, ready.”

***

“Gah!” Mocha’s figure went sailing backward, having lost a huge chunk of her HP from the giant octopus tentacle attack the final boss had swiped at the party. We were fighting what amounted to a giant octopus girl… if the octopus girl was an old hag instead of a cute anime girl.

“Bubble rescue!” I called. A spiral vortex of bubbles reached out to grab Mocha before she could hit the wall, and deposited her safely by my side. 

“Phew, thanks, Evie,” Mocha said as she repositioned herself to get back into the fray. “Fuck that hurt!”

As expected, the final boss of the event had been giving us considerable trouble. We’d brought the boss down to 50%, enraging her as she started throwing new attack patterns out at us. I was keeping everyone alive for the moment, but we were definitely going to lose the battle of attrition unless we made a major play.

Cocoa didn’t have time to recast her self-buffs, taking blow after blow of dark magic to her jellyfish shield. Roxi was too low health to take aggro, and Mocha was too far away to make it in time. That just left me to turn the (literal) tides of battle.

“Ultimate Weapon Arte: Heart of the Sea!” I chanted, casting my class ultimate. Immediately, tropical fish of all the colors of the rainbow encircled me and my party, applying every positive buff and a regeneration effect to us. The regen effect wasn’t going to be fast enough to save Cocoa, though, so I made my one and only mistake of the battle, getting a little too greedy.

“Multi-Heal!”

As I revitalized my friends, a red arrow marker flew from the Sea Witch to me, indicating I’d drawn her aggro. Shit. The multi-heal was too much. I should’ve just healed Cocoa. I shivered reflexively as I felt the witch’s gaze on me.

“Foolish Adventurers!” the witch roared. “Relying on the gifts of the ocean to defeat me? That power is mine!” She clutched a glowing white pearl, raising it above her head. As she channeled power into it, the pearl darkened in color until it was a miasmic purple. “My subjects, I command you, put these miscreants in their place!”

I cwatched in horror as the tropical fish that had been buffing and healing us turned the same miasmic purple the boss was using, and started to attack us instead. All of my positive buffs turned into their negative variants, and the regen effect had been replaced with a DoT poison. I’d thrown the run. We were going to lose. 

The boss laughed with maniacal glee. “Hahaha! Do you see now how foolish it was to try to defeat me? Now watch as I torment your blue-tailed friend for an eternity!” 

Before I could react, the witch had enveloped me in a ball of shadows. My UI disappeared, and I wasn’t underwater anymore. I was standing on my own two legs. My own two male legs.

Oh god. It felt wrong. It all felt so wrong. I hated it. I wanted it to go back. Fuck, this can’t be happening. It wasn’t happening- it was something else. Logically, I knew it had to be.

“Can you believe he actually wanted to be a girl?” I heard Axel’s voice say. “How pathetic is that?”

Those words were like a knife in my back, and hit me and hit me harder than I was expecting. My mental shield of logic tore down around me as I grieved. How could he? He was my friend, wasn’t he? He’d said not 20 minutes ago that he’d have my back. So why?

“I only went along with it cause I didn’t want to deal with a blubbering crybaby during the event,” Cocoa’s voice said.

“Oh, thank god. I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought it was super weird.” Mocha’s voice agreed. “Good call, you two. I’d hate to miss out on the rewards.”

No. No no no! This can’t- it’s not real! These are my friends. Surely they weren’t merely just tolerating me the whole time? They wouldn’t just up and abandon me in the middle of nowhere, right? We were always supposed to stick together, play games together, why would they leave me? What was I even doing with myself? Thinking I could just be a girl? It’s not that simple! It’s-

“Leave her alone, you crook! Evelynn’s our friend!” Mocha- the real Mocha, said. The voice was distorted, but I just could tell it was really her, and not some paltry imitation of her.

There was banging outside of my shadowy prison. three distinct rhythms of banging.

“As soon as we get her out of here, you’re so dead, bitch!” Roxi snarled.

“Try all you like, adventurers, but nothing can break that curse. The only way she could escape is if you all had total faith in each other, but what adventuring party nowadays has that? You’ve lost. My fishy minions will eat you alive!”

“I believe in her!” Cocoa yelled back. “We grew up together, we’ve been through hell and back together, and she just came out to us on top of it all! We’re friends, and she really needs this quest reward, so you and your asshole-ish meddling can go… fuck off!”

The rhythmic smacking stopped momentarily. “What?” Cocoa said. “I can swear too!”

A giggle escaped my lips. Then another, and another, until the silence and shadows dissipated all at once. It was a melodic, beautiful laugh that echoed against every wall of the grotto. My friends stared at me for a moment, bewildered by my insanity. And then they started laughing, too. And for a moment, the only thing that mattered was me and my friends, giggling like madwomen. As our voice bounced around the grotto, the purplish miasma cleared, and the fish began buffing us again. By some miracle, we’d turned this back around!

“No!” The witch cried in true evil villain fashion. “How did you escape my curse?”

Charlotte swam back into formation, ready to see this battle through. “With the power of friendship, apparently! It’s over, sea witch!”

“That is the stupidest boss mechanic I’ve ever seen,” Roxi commented, joining Charlotte in a battle stance. “But hey, I feel like a shonen protagonist now, so that’s cool.”

“No matter! The power of the narcarbescent pearl is still mine!” The witch raised the white pearl over her head once again. “With this, I can-”

“Yoink!” Our yellow-tailed rogue had taken advantage of the witch’s surprise, and snatched the pearl right out of the enemy’s grasp, clearing her grab range before the witch had even noticed.

“Grrr! Give that back!”

Mocha laughed, tossing the pearl up and down like a ball. “No can, do, evil lady! This thing filled my ult bar, and I owe you some payback. It’s chain attack time! Roxi, catch!” Mocha tossed the pearl towards her DPS in crime and launched herself at the boss. “Ultimate weapon arte: Watery grave!” With astonishing speed, Mocha disappeared from her current position, reappearing above the sea witch’s head, smashing a giant coral rock on top of the boss. The witch roared in pain as she stumbled and fell towards the floor, right where Roxi was waiting.

The warrior grinned, continuing the assault. “Ultimate weapon arte: Crablauncher!” Roxi swam upwards as her weapon expanded into a massive glowing crab claw. With a mighty warcry, she slammed the claw into the witch’s body, delivering a brutal uppercut that launched her upwards into the open water, right where Cocoa was waiting. “All you, Cocoa!” Roxi said, tossing the pearl her way.

Cocoa caught it, throwing her shield downwards. “Ultimate weapon arte: Jelly slam!” The Jellyfish shield expanded, glowing like a meteor as Mocha brought her trident down, smashing the sea witch on the seafloor with a satisfying crunch as the boss health bar hit zero.

“My… empire… No…” With her last dying breath, the witch fell silent, poofing into a gigantic loot pile. We’d won!

“Hell yeah!” Roxi cheered. The frontliners all exchanged high fives, then swam over to smother me in another hug.

I enjoyed that hug more than I thought. “That chain attack was awesome! Y’all are incredible!”

“Don’t discount your contribution!” Charlotte chided. “We would’ve lost for sure without that ult.”

“Well, I drew aggro by accident…”

“Hey, don’t worry about it!” Mocha replied, patting my head. “It all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

“I guess so, but-”

“No buts! Come on, no more dilly dallying. We have a gender changing, permanent Alteria to buy, and a trans girl to celebrate!”

My heart soared. What a crazy adventure, and I’d seen it through with my friends, just like always. As I watched the three of them swim away to divide the loot pile, I felt warm. Whole. My name was Evelynn, I was a girl, and I was loved by an amazing group of people.

This was going to be the best summer ever.

---

“The end,” Flora concluded, clasping her hands together.

Evan leaned back a bit, stretching. “Wow, no catgirls. Honestly, I’m impressed, Flora.”

“Oh come on,” she laughed. “Not every story I tell involves catgirls, does it?”

The campers stared at Flora with judgemental silence.

“Alright, alright. Most stories I tell involve catgirls. Happy?”

The campers nodded, snickering amongst themselves.

“Jeez… y’all are so mean.”

“Too bad Alteria isn’t a real game,” Amanda said. “I’d love to play through an event like that.”

“How’d you come up with all those game mechanics, anyways?” Stella asked. “It’s all a bit complicated for a campfire story, isn’t it?”

Flora grinned at Stella just as the water she’d been stirring turned a deep blue. With a quick flourish of motion, she turned the bucket of water over, dumping it over herself. A small torrent distorted her figure for just a moment, yet she emerged completely dry. A set of moving cat ears adorned her head, a matching black tail on her back. Her shorts and t-shirt combo had changed too, replaced by an ocean-blue mermaid dress.

Stella blinked, then rubbed her eyes. “How did…”

“Nya-uh-uh…” Flora teased. “A catgirl nyever reveals her secrets~”

Her demonstration and story concluded, she sat back down on one of the logs, smiling to herself. “Ah, that was fun. Who’s nyext?”

---

Ninichu (she/her) writes video game inspired TG fiction short stories as a hobby. Her novel, Soulseeker online, as well as her collection of short stories can be found on ScribbleHub!