I came to laying on the couch with the apparent goddess of music rubbing a damp cloth against my forehead. Her arm with the tattooed lyre (that quite suddenly made a LOT more sense) was clearly in my view along with her bright blue eyes that were currently looking quite worriedly at me. 

“Hey,” she said. “Are you still alive down there?”

I mumbled an ‘I think?’ and tried to blink away the dizziness. “Are you really…?”

“Yes, yes I am.” She was almost laughing at my reaction.

“So I’m… the great grandchild of a goddess?”

“Yes, you are.”

“Should I call you grandmother?” 

This time she really did laugh. “No, that won’t be necessary. I doubt it would look good to outsiders either. Just call me Allie. Since I am out and about amongst mortals, I can’t just use the same name for millennia, you know?”

I took several breaths to steady myself and then sat up. I was still slightly dizzy but was able to keep my balance enough to be able to look at the goddess properly. Seeing that I was doing better, Allie took the same chair I had been using before. 

“So if you are a muse, what are you doing in Chicago? Shouldn’t you be… I don't know, inspiring musicians everywhere?” 

She snorted. “Yes, I am a muse, but that doesn’t mean I can be everywhere. Besides, am I not inspiring people with my music here? Even you said that you were a big fan.”

I blushed. “Okay, fair enough. Still though, why live here when you don’t have to?”

“Staying around Helikon gets boring. I have fun playing music and living around people. As for why here, have you heard of the westward movement? A number of us ended up around North America, mostly what mythology sees as minor deities, though. Dad is still in Greece. He enjoys working around the museums where people still feed his ego.” Her eyes rolled and I stifled a giggle. 

The first part of what she said then struck me and the disbelieving realization covered my face. “Mount Helicon is where you were born according to mythology, is that why you named your band…?”

Allie chuckled. “A bit on the nose isn’t it? It’s nice to keep that connection to my roots though.”

“So,” I questioned. “If I’m some kind of demigod, do I get anything special? You’re a goddess, so you must be powerful, right?”

That got a sigh. “Ari, I may be a goddess, but it's not like I’ve got an entire cult of followers like some of my cousins. I do have some level of power, but it has its limits. To be honest though, I’m not entirely sure what is going to pass to you. The divine blood in you should be diluted enough that there wouldn’t be much beyond similar talent in music to your mother. Whatever magic is on that plushie interacted strangely with the latent divinity.” A shrug. “Just don’t expect much.”

I grinned and held up my hands in a ‘meh’ gesture. “Oh well, I just got turned into an adorable catgirl. I don’t think I could ask for anything more. I always wanted to do music, but dysphoria made it hard for me to get on stage.”

My simple joy brought a smile back to Allie’s face. “Maybe I’ll get you up with us sometime. I think you ought to get some clothes that fit a bit better before then though. The oversized hoodie is definitely a look, but not one I think you want to go out like that.” She laughed.

I looked down at myself with widening eyes and grin. “I… I can go shopping now!” I looked back at my great grandmother. “I can go get all of those cute clothes I always wanted!” My hands began flapping inside the sleeves of my hoodie as my excitement became too much to contain. 

Allie tossed her head back and laughed loudly. “Oh skies above! You’re going to be one of those girls, aren’t you? This is why I always love coming to these kinds of bars to play. The LGBT community is just so darned cute to watch. Would you like to go today? I might as well help you out a bit. Since you are family, it seems that I owe you a few years worth of birthday gifts.” 

“Today?! Yes! Yes!!” I was nearly bouncing in my seat and my guest laughed all the more. 

“Well, let’s see if I can’t help you at least be decent for the day. Put on some of your old clothes. I know they won’t fit but I should be able to help that much with the power I have.”

Dizziness gone, I practically danced my way to the closet and quickly pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I couldn’t care less that Allie was in the room while I was changing, I was too excited. A pair of underwear went on first and out of habit I went to put on a bra, but my sizable breasts wouldn’t even fit inside the cups, causing me to laugh madly.

Apparently my new family member was watching and giggled at me. “Pull on a tank top if you have one. I’ll work with that. Make sure to get shoes too!

It was a quick change to pull out the requested article from my wardrobe and pull it over my head. When I buttoned up the pants I found myself tripping on the jeans that were most of a foot too long for my legend nor did I care that I was almost swimming in the t-shirt with the good texture. I tugged on my work flats too, but found them to be hilariously big on my tiny feet.

“You shrunk a bit, didn’t you hun?” My smile was apparently infectious as she wore a similar one. 

I nodded enthusiastically.

“Alright then, let’s see what I can do with this. Stand still for me.”

It took real effort to reign in my wiggly excitement but held still as best I could. To my surprise, Allie didn’t wave her hands and speak magic words or anything of the like. Instead, she closed her eyes, began humming a beautiful melody and then began singing softly. Incredibly, the hummed melody continued echoing through the room even after she switched to singing.

Just as when I had been in the office, hearing the music from the stage, my enhanced ears took in the music with mind blowing clarity. It was made all the more amazing an experience by the literally divine voice of the woman in front of me. 

Her words were impossible to decipher, I could only imagine that they were in her native Greek tongue but it didn’t matter. The sheer rapture evoked by the music brought about feelings of love and acceptance, beauty and grace. 

I was, in fact, so distracted that I almost missed the warm glow coming from my clothes. Once I did notice, I was able to watch as they changed drastically in a wash of gold and blue light. When it faded, what was once a simple blue t-shirt and black jeans had become a comfortable pair of black leggings and a gorgeous top with a scoop neck that was colored blue on one side then faded to white on the other with a stylized musical motif. 

It was quite obvious by their lifted state and the gentle pressure around my chest that my breasts were now contained by a bra that I imagined had come from the tank top. My shoes had also shrunk into a pair of simple black flats. 

The music faded and Allie opened her eyes to look at her work. “Well that turned out quite nicely. I hope you don't mind the design on the top. My magic leaves my mark on just about anything it touches in one way or another. Yours too, it seems.”

“Huh?” 

“On your shoulder,” She said. “Here, turn around.” I did so and I felt a gentle hand pull my right sleeve down and I heard her phone click a picture. “See?”

I turned back and looked at the phone and sure enough, next to my curtain of hair on my right shoulder, a treble clef with cat ears and whiskers was seemingly tattooed into my skin. It was just as adorable as the rest of me, but it was also odd since I had never gotten inked before. 

“It's super cute, but where did that come from?” 

“Like I said, Ari, the plushie magic interacted strangely with your heritage. You marked yourself when you changed. I would imagine you got some other benefits too.”

My head tilted. “Well, my hearing got a lot better. I can hear music a lot better and clearer now.” 

She nodded. “I figured as much. You probably got the same level of natural musical talent your grandmother did.”

“Wow…” I hadn’t known my grandmother well. She had died in a car accident when I was still quite young. All the stories and memories I had of the woman described the woman as wildly talented with any music. 

Having seen my expression, Allie nodded gravely. “Yes, real shame what happened to her. I had already had to move on from that life by then, but I was heartbroken when I heard.”

“Sounds depressing. I can’t imagine having to leave your family like that.” I frowned.

She shrugged apathetically. “It is, but after having to do it so many times, you do somewhat get used to it. I do avoid having children too often though. It's only happened a couple dozen times in the last three millennia.”

Silence reigned for a minute while that sadness sunk in. Allie’s expression was forced into a smile again though. 

“Well, all that aside, you are still family, and I promised a shopping trip.” 

Being an easily influenced newly minted catgirl, it wasn’t hard to turn my frown upside down and get me bouncing in place again. 

“Shopping!”