Naughty Magic - Chapter 12 - Public Appearances

Olivia

Alright, so (as Clarissa said) the best thing to do after picking a fight was to run. The advice she forgot to give me, though? Was to duck.

Any hope I had that these guys wouldn’t wanna punch a girl was basically tossed out the window a second later, when a fist slammed into my mouth, sending me reeling backwards. It… didn’t hurt. Not as much as it should have, at least? It was more like a dull throb, letting me know something had happened, instead of the sharp pain I would have expected. My skin wasn’t even tender when I touched it.

I guess there were some advantages to the whole ‘being made of rubbery ooze’ thing. Being durable didn’t exactly mean I knew how to fight, though - not without relying on magic, anyway. That’s why I decided to take advantage of the newfound distance between me and my attacker to turn tail and run.

“Come on!” I called out to Clarissa and Rachel. The latter mostly just blinked in surprise when I called, seeming unsure what to do, but the former grabbed her hand and tugged her forward as we picked up speed, weaving around other dancers and party goers until my assaulter and his friend were out of sight.

“Girl’s bathroom,” Clarissa declared, moving to take the lead once I slowed down. “We’ll duck into some stalls, and you can… do your thing, before checking to see whether they’ve given up or not. Sound good?”

“Sounds good,” I agreed, sparing a glance for the poor, confused Rachel. She (thankfully) didn’t seem to have a clue what we were talking about, and I had pretty much no plan to tell her any of it. 

I did hesitate a moment when it came time to actually enter the ladies room - I mean, I wasn’t really a lady, after all - but I was mostly just going to use the stall, so… I shrugged, then pushed my way in and found one to duck into.

Now the only question was what form to change into?

You know, you could return to your real form…

‘You mean as a guy?’ I asked, keeping to a mental voice for once. This was not a conversation I wanted anyone to overhear.

Ha-ha. No. I mean as your real self. In all your violet glory. Don’t you think this is the perfect opportunity to introduce the public to their new, sexy menace?

‘Why the hell would I want to do that!?’ I demanded. ‘That’s basically begging to get into a battle with a magical girl!’

‘Not if you rush out fast enough. After getting a hefty amount of lust directed at you, preferably. Enough to last you all school week, even.

‘That’s…’ Not a terrible idea? No. No way I was considering this. ‘Isn’t it better not to attract any attention, though? I mean, I thought we were trying to avoid magical girls, not become their number one enemy.’

You’re already their number one enemy, Olivia. I mean, you’re an intelligent being made of ooze! Not to mention an easy explanation for why Pink and I ‘disappeared’ shortly before your appearance. 

‘Huh? That’s…' No way, right? Magical Girls disappearing was a thing when they got covered in ooze. It wasn’t like it happened that often, but it was a known fact! Why would they shift the blame to me?

The other crystals won’t rest until we’re dead. Letting potential liabilities run around is a big no-no in our programming, you know? 

‘All the more reason to stay quiet, isn’t it?’ I pointed out.

Chrys sent me the mental equivalent of shaking her head - more a vague impression of intention than anything, but it got the message across. If we lay low, they’ll dig deep for us. That’s why you gotta put on a show! Play into the lies they’re already spinning! Lean into the role they’ve prepared! And get them to think of you as a flashy villain they can track down in the moment, instead of a subtle civilian they need to scour the city for. Because they will find you, no matter what it takes.

That… sort of made sense? 

Don’t forget that going into boy mode is going to put out a lot of magical power. Hiding it is going to take even more power, paradoxically enough. You need a large amount of lust fueling you if you’re going to keep this going, and this is the best chance to get some!

‘Yeah, but…’ I hesitated. She was making sense, but… Why was she only telling me all this now?

Plus, it’ll give you plenty of chances to see your beloved magical girls up close as they fight for their ideals and justice and all that crap you love!

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the worst idea. Not because it would let me see magical girls up close or anything! Of course not. Just because… Uh… It would help their image if they had an actual villain to fight? I mean, violet goo was kinda boring by itself, wasn’t it? Nothing at all like the cartoons and shows made it out to be. But if I could bring it to reality…

“Alright,” I decided. “I’ll do it!”

“I don’t know what stupid shit you’re doing,” called Clarissa, from outside my stall, “but maybe do it in a hurry? I ditched that Rachel chick in a stall, but I don’t know how long we’ve got until she comes out and I don’t think you want her to know… whatever it is you’re doing.”

“It’s fine,” I declared, releasing the spell woven into my shapeshifting to make me look like a human. I was pure violet, again, as I stepped out of the stall - not to mention a touch taller, with slightly sharper features, as I distanced myself from my prior form. I was pretty sure my new face could make a great sneer, too, which would be pretty good for my upcoming performance.

“Uh…. Olivia?” Clarissa asked, lowering her voice to a whisper. “You forget something in there? Like your human skin?”

“It’s fine. I’m not Olivia right now,” I whispered back. “I’m the Violet Queen, and I’m here to make some noise and have some fun!”

“Uh-huh… Look, dude, I don’t know what your body impulses or whatever are telling you, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“It’s not my body,” I promised. “Not when I’m like this. It’s just that Chrys made some really good points about not being able to avoid them forever, needing magical power, and making a big show to hide myself better!”

“And you’re going along with her?” Clarissa asked, baffled. “Seriously? I know she’s fun to talk with, but she’s literally corrupted! You’ve got no idea what’s going on in her head, let alone whether she’s got your best interest at heart!”

“It’s fine,” I assured her. “Me and her are basically in this together. She wouldn’t do anything to put me at risk.”

“You say that like you've actually known her for more than a day. I’m telling you, dude, you gotta take this with a grain of salt.”

“And I’m telling you that I know what I’m doing. Trust me!”

“I would, if it wasn’t magical girl shit,” she said. “You have no common sense when it comes to them!”

I opened my mouth for what would have no doubt been a brilliant retort, only to freeze when the door to the bathroom started opening.

“Shit,” Clarissa whispered, glancing at me. I could tell that she wanted me to change back. That she wanted me to play this safe. But… she wasn’t the one stuck in this situation. The one stuck in a body that didn’t belong to her - couldn’t belong to her, even if some part of her wanted it to. The one with powers that almost itched to be used. More than that, though, I itched to actually do something about my situation.

So, I did the only thing I could think of in the moment. I pushed her away from me, towards the far wall.

“Off me, mortal!” I cried, before pulling the door the rest of the way open to reveal a shocked looking blonde. “And out of my way. I have a performance to give.”

I pushed past the blonde, then, strutting forward onto the dance floor. I was aware of eyes on me. Of whispers - more disapproval than fear. They thought I was wearing body paint or something. Thought my (currently) purple clothes were a fashion statement, of some sort. I needed to prove them wrong.

I waved my hand, conjuring a small blob of ooze into my hand, from thin air. Or rather, it was the result of condensing all the ooze particles spread throughout the building. I didn’t know how I’d done it - I’d just suddenly known I could. What’s more, I could feel something approaching happiness from the jiggly blob in my hand. Happiness that I was using my magic, using the ooze in order to do something I wanted to do. To follow my urges, my passions. To act unrestrained from civilized notions of good and evil, as I took on my role.

I… wasn’t really sure what to make of all that, honestly. I mean, it was a lot of information for a mere sensation to be feeding me. It made me wonder just how intelligent the ooze actually was… Assuming I wasn’t just projecting my own feelings onto it. I wasn’t entirely sure what my feelings were, though, so that seemed unlikely.

Regardless, I did have a role to play. I knew just how to play it, too - once I spotted the person who’d punched me out in the crowd. Throwing the blob in their direction, I felt it latch onto their pants. Specifically, the belt buckle. I could somehow tell that he’d rubbed it with an organic compound, in an attempt to make it slime proof, but… he’d only done the front side. My ooze crawled along the back, eating through the belt until nothing remained, and his pants spilled down to the ground.

Then the ooze crawled back to me, bouncing up into the air and onto my palm.

Gasps. Flashes as people took out their phones. That’s what I wanted to see. No screams, though. People didn’t know what they were looking at. The music hadn’t even stopped due to my performance, yet.

So it was time to fix that.

“I am the Violet Queen,” I declared, loud and proud for everyone around me to hear. “She who controls the ooze. She who has ultimate control over the slime that rules your lives with fear. Let me repeat - I am the Violet Queen, and you shall tremble at my feet.”

Now there were more whispers. Tenseness on people’s faces. More camera flashes. Still no screams. 

“Hey bitch!” the man from earlier shouted. I’d honestly forgotten about him, after extracting my minor revenge. He was currently trying to look tough, but the fact that he had to manually hold up his pants made it pretty hard to pull off. “Where the hell do you get off ruining other people’s night out? You dress yourself up in purple, tame yourself a little slime, and expect us to believe everything you say?”

“Because taming slime is so doable,” I shot back. “Is being able to control the ooze not enough for you? Do you need to see some great sign of my might?”

“So what if I do?” the man demanded.

“Then I’ll show you what I can really do,” I declared, walking towards the man. Not that I really had much of a plan on what to do. I didn’t need one, though - thankfully, he flinched, falling back a step.

“S-stay back!”

I smirked. A flash went off. I hoped they’d caught my good side, because as far as villainess smirks went I was pretty sure mine was killing it.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I won’t do anything to you. Not directly, at least - and not today. Tomorrow, at Benhime Park. I’ll unleash a Violet Storm the likes of which this world has never seen. Unless Violet Heart comes to meet me. I want to talk to her, Violet to Violet.”

Saying so, I walked towards the entrance, pushing my way through the crowd. Despite my best attempts to put on a show, the majority of the club hadn’t even noticed my presence. As such, I got more than a few scandalized looks as I made my way to the door, but I ignored them.

As I reached the entrance, I turned my tight shirt into a hoodie, and my skirt into baggy pants, adding the ooze I’d collected to the outfit to make up for some of the extra mass. The rest, I pulled from the atmosphere outside, drawing more and more of the particulates to me until I had enough to cover myself up.

So mind telling me what that whole thing about meeting Violet was?

“I figured I’d make a last ditch attempt to make peace with her… One on one.”

Right… and when it goes bad?

“Well, then I guess I’ll take your advice and lean into the villainy. Just to throw them off… and, y’know, make them look really cool when they inevitably fight me off again and again!”

Uh-huh… Sure…. That’s how it’ll go.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded, shifting my body’s palette back to human skin tones.

Nothing… Nothing at all…

“Uh-huh,” I muttered, reaching for my phone to pull up my rideshare app. It was under my real name, but I figured I could just say some gentleman had called a car for me.

I wondered what my chances of getting home and into bed were - versus running into an angry Clarissa and needing to explain my actions, I mean.

Something tells me the answer is low.

~~~

Author's Notes

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I know I said Demon Queened would be next up on the list, but then we hit Sunday and... Well, to be honest, I just didn't want to skip another week of Sunday releases... Also I got practically no sleep, and this is the only story I can write in a day while also sleep deprived. Oops?