Commission by  La-Frugele and a story by Lazyusername1

Another pull, another chance of success…

Then the all-too-familiar visage of a common Blade filled Zeydaan’s screen.

“Dammit, not again!”

They had been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 of late, although perhaps “marathoning” would be the more accurate term. One hundred percent completion would take hundreds of hours, but they were up to the task.

Except for the fact that a large percentage of content was locked behind pure luck. A number of unlockable characters, known as Blades, could only be achieved through a gacha roll system. The game’s rare Blade gallery even taunted Zeydaan with the silhouettes of the myriad blades they had yet to unlock. A few were recognizable (KOS-MOS in particular constantly tormented him) but so many more unknowns were left to be unlocked.

They were out of core crystals now and the grind would have to begin again. It was getting frustrating. What difference did it make if they took a bit of a shortcut? It wasn’t as if any meaningful content was being skipped.

Fortunately Zeydaan had already jailbroken their console, so access to a cheat engine was easily available to them. All they had to do was find some sort “unlock all Blades” cheat, or so they thought.

It turned out that the cheats available were rather primitive, consisting only of inventory modification. At the very least their core crystal count could be topped off at will, but this meant still more potential hours of mindlessly rolling the gacha, releasing the common Blades, booting up the cheat engine again…

Still, though, even if it wasn’t perfect, the time saved from not having to grind was far better than nothing. So it was that Zeydaan ended up spending more hours mashing through menus, burning through core crystal after core crystal, only occasionally striking gold.

Little did they know, there was far more to this process than they thought. The cheat engine had modified the game in a way that should have been impossible. In the game’s universe, each new crystal released a large burst of ether, a type of magical energy. Somehow, trace amounts of ether began to emit from the game itself with each crystal used. Wispy and undetectable to those unfamiliar with it, the ether seeped into Zeydaan’s body without notice.

There was even more to that ether, though. When rolling the gacha for Blades, the player is also required to decide which party member the Blades should be assigned to. Over the course of the many hours they had spent playing the game, Zeydaan had gotten a bit of a soft spot for the party member Nia. She was cute and they found her personality endearing, so they couldn’t help but end up playing as her for the whole game. Of course, that made it all the more fun to load her up with all of the rarest and most powerful Blades. So it was that each core crystal was being released in the game by Nia, each accompanying burst of ether modified and mixed with Nia’s own soothing ether energy, a small bit of concentrated Nia essence flowing into Zeydaan with each pull, putting them into a mental haze as they devoted themselves entirely to their task.

Hours passed as Zeydaan unwittingly soaked up more and more ether, the energy starting to pool within their body. Finally, though, the game’s unfairly low drop rates gave in and each rare Blade was unlocked. With a sigh of relief, Zeydaan decided to take a well-deserved break and hopped on their computer.

Even though they were taking a break from playing the game, they didn’t end up really taking a break from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. After a short catchup with a few friends, Zeydaan almost instinctively found themselves tabbing onto their usual art websites. They browsed fanart of the game, narrowing their search down to anything they could find with Nia. While they had already saved more than a few images of her in the past, this time the search was faster, more frenetic, dozens of tabs opening and closing as countless images were saved. It was a bit of a strange burst of behavior, but still Zeydaan didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t entirely unusual for them to build up large folders of characters they liked.

What was unusual about this scenario was the pool of concentrated ether within Zeydaan that was subconsciously amplifying their appreciation for Nia. Eventually, Zeydaan ended up focusing on a few open tabs, each with images of different Nia cosplayers.

They were a bit jealous. It was so cool to be able to actually dress up as one of your favorite characters. They were left with a lot less options for cosplay considering tailoring, sizing and, oh, right, the fact that they were an anthropomorphic wolf.

Yet, something struck Zeydaan as they continued looking at all the different cosplay photos. Jealousy was shifting to motivation. So what if they weren’t a perfect fit for the costume, or that Nia was a human catgirl and they were a wolf? They were tired of not being able to even try out cosplaying. That would end tonight, they decided as they typed in a search for Nia cosplay costumes, trying to find one that would even remotely come close to fitting. The best one would still be noticeably small on them, but they would just have to deal with it as they went through with the sudden impulse buy, even shelling out extra for expedited shipping.

In the midst of all this, the evening had turned to night and Zeydaan became aware of the late hour. They retired to bed, thoughts of finally trying out cosplay, reason be damned, fresh on their mind.

At the very least, those thoughts were how their mind had justified the sudden massive desire to dress up like Nia welling within them.

---

Of all conveniences, the expedited package was waiting on Zeydaan’s doorstep the next day. With fervor they opened the box, but that fervor gave way to a slight sheepishness as they laid out each piece of the outfit on their bed. The reality of their impulse buy was catching up. The pieces were all there, gloves, boots, forearm and shin guards, accessories, and, of course, a ribbed yellow jumpsuit. It was abundantly clear that getting all of it on would be a struggle—impossible, actually, considering the boots were designed for human limbs and not paws with sharp nails.

Still, though, they could at least try out the main components. They nearly started to slip on the jumpsuit before remembering that a hole had to be cut to accommodate their large tail. Cutting a hole like that would definitely make it more difficult to return the outfit, but it was a point of no return they were willing to cross.

Putting on the jumpsuit was even more challenging than they had initially imagined, as both the larger bulk of their frame and the extra fluffiness of their fur threatened to stretch the garment to its limits. From within, though, the ether swelled once more. It was like a soothing hand, slowly sapping away mass where the outfit risked stretching, ever-so-slightly thinning out fluffy patches of fur that were interfering. The zipper on the front even managed to zip up seemingly without getting caught in any fur, the overflowing strands simply evaporated away to allow it to close shut, with only some excess fur pushing out the top. Before they knew it, the main garment was on and they stood just a couple of inches shorter.

They were surprised at how it managed to fit, even as their arms and legs were still just a bit too long to fit completely beneath the jumpsuit. Even more surprising was how comfortable they were finding it. They typically didn’t even wear clothes, let alone an ill-fitting cosplay, yet some aspect of wearing the outfit just felt soothing. With hurry they gathered up the remaining accessories, strapping the armored plates to their forelimbs and buckling the belt around their waist. They even managed to throw on the white gloves, which at first glance definitely should not have fit at all, but once more the guiding hand of the ether ensured that they would. The look was practically complete, save the boots and one final detail.

The cosplay had come with one other thing: a wig. Trying on the outfit was one thing, but the thought of completing the Nia look, hair and all, made them blush a bit. Wouldn’t it look ridiculous? Yet, once more, that driving urge pushed them forward. They were just trying it on in their own home, so what difference did it make?

It was hard to properly fit it atop their head, their own wild hair getting in the way. Still though, there was something authentic about the way their ears poked up out of the gray hair, even if they were that of a canine and not a catgirl. Fully completing the look, however, would require flattening and tying back their hair to get the wig to entirely fit, which they elected to try out later. As they set the wig back down, any intention of removing the rest of the cosplay quickly evaporated. As Zeydaan examined themself clad in the outfit, another surge of happiness came to them. They had spent all this money on it without much consideration. They didn’t even have any plans for upcoming conventions. It wouldn’t hurt to wear it around the house for the day, especially with how comfortable it had proven to be.

---

Any initial awkwardness subsided rather quickly as the costume started to feel like a second skin throughout the day. The minor annoyances of where fur still seemed to brush up against the costume faded with time, as it somehow managed to feel even more comfortable as the day went by. The ether imparted the slightest amount of pleasure for each passing moment, rewarding them for continuing to dress like Nia. It was only as the sun set on the day that they considered finally removing the costume to sleep for the night. This thought was equally punished by a sudden chill reverberating throughout their body, causing them to shiver.

They wondered aloud in-between shivers, "What gives? Why is it so chilly tonight?"

They dove into bed, cozying up against the blankets and hugging the cosplay close to their body, enjoying the warmth it was providing, especially in the wake of their thinned fur. The prior thought of removing it for the night was pushed from their mind by the comfy warmth as sleep eventually overtook them.

They awoke feeling especially refreshed, the warmth of the outfit having granted them an uninterrupted night of sleep. Stretching as they got out of bed, they realized that it had been a full day and they did need to take a shower. That would necessitate finally removing the cosplay, the thought of which came to them with reluctance. Questions arose internally as well. What were they to do with the impulse purchase? Stow it away in the closet until some future event? Surely wearing it regularly would be weird, right? Pondering these notions, they removed the outfit and left it laid out on their bed at least for the time being, then headed over to the bathroom.

Showers typically came and went as an uneventful part of their daily routine, but something felt different this time around. Nia's natural affinity for water welled up within them as they stepped inside. The ether that had built up internally was at its most powerful here, the steamy water acting like a conduit encasing their entire body. The ether managed to evaporate even more mass off their body, further shrinking down their frame, expelling the excess as natural steam leaving them none the wiser. Every routine action felt ten times as invigorating as normal, the ether ensuring that each further push towards their new identity felt wonderful and rewarding. The affected water that had seeped into their fur was like dye, strands lightening up as more water soaked into them. The red highlights atop their head were pushed out in favor of a light gray that further spread into the top half of their face in addition to their ears. Even as the water ran off their form, it still eroded away more of their body, wearing down the thickness of the pads on their paws and making them more sensitive to the ground below.

Zeydaan exited the shower looking and feeling quite different than when they entered, an overwhelming sense of bliss encompassing them. Fur felt softer and less matted and messy, especially due to how its volume had been reduced all over their body. Upon leaving the bathroom, though, the chills of the prior night returned again, even more intense than they were before. The reduction of their fur coat was designed to make them more reliant on outside warmth and served as a driving force that led them right back to where the cosplay still laid atop their bed.

Again the leaps of logic were in play in their head. Surely it didn't really make a difference that the outfit they were wearing was a Nia cosplay, right? It was just a set of clothes at the end of the day, a set of clothes that just so happened to be the only one they had on hand to deal with these random chills they were experiencing. Plus, they had proven to be such a comfortable fit, so was it worth the trouble of getting other clothes when these had already confirmed their worth?

It didn't take long for them to start zipping the jumpsuit back up over their body, the whole ensemble taking far less time to put on again than it had the previous day, especially considering that their arms were now short enough to be entirely covered by the sleeves. Immediately a strange sense of separation anxiety departed, like they were incomplete without the outfit, as if it was an integral part of their identity. In fact, consciously or not, they were absolutely loving every second of wearing it.

In the midst of this, however, they were starting to become aware of the new sensitivity of their paws, the cold floor beneath affecting them far more than it should have. This led to another lookover of the boots, where they found that upon closer inspection, the boots really weren't too far off from their size, unlike what they had prior thought. Everything else had managed to fit fine, so maybe the boots would too. Without much further thought, they managed to squeeze their paws into the human-sized boots, aided once more by the slight shrinking effects of the ether, finally getting them to fit... well enough. Their paws didn't fit all the way in, but a quick walk test showed that the boots did manage to stay on their feet without falling off, and the chill they felt before was now appropriately warded off.

All the mental gymnastics in the world, however, could not explain the way their attention was continually drawn back to the gray wig, but at this point, they didn't even care to have a reason. Being clad in the cosplay once more had something of a grip on their mind, no reason required for the somewhat frantic pace at which they shuffled through their cabinets and belongings, looking for anything that would help them keep their messy hair down and be able to properly fit the wig on. Luckily, they managed to find a few rarely used hair ties, and before long the wig sat directly atop their head to complete the Nia look.

It was only after they were fully dressed in Nia's garb that the rush in their mind settled and they went back about their daily routine, as possible as it was to return to their daily routine at this point, anyway. They hadn't escaped the prior day's obsession with Nia, and it only continued as they sat once more at their PC. This time a video popped up in their recommendations, a compilation of Nia's dialogue from the game, and they didn't even question the decision to open the video in another tab. Nia's voice was pumped into their ears on loop, hours worth of her cadence seeping into their brain. This was accompanied by an appropriate alteration to their vocal cords, a slight uplift in pitch for each minute of continued listening, each change a step closer to granting them an all-too-familiar voice coated with a thick Welsh accent.

Morning turned to afternoon when a notification appeared on their desktop, a DM from their longtime friend Bean who happened to also be an anthropomorphic white poodle moth. It simply read, "hey it's been a bit. wanna drive over to my place today? I just bought the pyra and mythra dlc for smash and I wanna try them out"

"Sure, I'll head out now" was the equally simple reply, although their keystrokes were slightly slower and more awkward than usual.

It was only by the time they in the driver's seat that they realized they were still fully dressed up in the Nia cosplay. Although, as much as that fact should have phased them, the only consideration that came to immediate mind was the fact that their paws were still encased in boots that were not meant for them, which they knew would make handling the pedals quite awkward. Far worse, however, was the fact that all the various knobs and lights before them on the dashboard suddenly looked very... foreign. Their newly changed voice slipped from their mouth, "Agh, wot's with this thing? It shouldn't be this bloody complicated..."

A fleeting thought also formed in the back of their mind, an early sign of a new personality that was starting to bubble forth. "I can't believe he really expected me to just figure out how to use this thing!"

Before long, another DM was sent by Zeydaan. "...Hey, can you come pick me up?"

"car trouble?"

"Something like that..."

---

A bit later, the meeting between the two was awkward, to say the least.

"So, uh, is this a joke you're doing, or...?"

"Wot?"

"...The outfit? What else? I mean, I mentioned I just got the Xenoblade DLC for Smash and you're greeting me out here wearing a Nia cosplay."

Zeydaan responded with a slightly unusual pout on their face. "No, I didn't think of that, it's just... I got it a couple of days ago, and I like wearing it, okay?"

"...If you say so," was the response, although Bean also muttered out of earshot, "Wow, and they even have the voice down, too..."

---

The ride itself was mostly uneventful, although the logistics of how an anthropomorphic moth successfully operates a vehicle might be best left to the imagination. In any case, the two were now hanging out as planned, playing against each other as Pyra and Mythra.

"So, Zey, you've been playing Xenoblade 2, right? Do you like Pyra or Mythra more?"

"Oh, it might surprise ya, but I actually like Mythra more. She can be a bit abrasive, but she means well, even if she does her best to hide it. I did get tired of how often we were all woken up by her yelling after she somehow accidentally sleepwalked into Rex's bed for the hundredth time, though."

Bean's ears perked up. "I don't remember that happening more than once in the game..."

"Oh, yeah, she did it all the bloody time. Sly girl, she may have said otherwise but I think it stopped being an accident after a while."

The discussion was having a distinct effect on their mind, conversation about characters they were familiar with warping into real experiences with real people they were beginning to believe they actually knew.

"Pyra's a sweet thing, of course, but I wish she showed some more backbone sometimes. That's wot Mythra's there for, I guess."

"Zey, you're talking kinda like you actually know them for real."

That short sentence flipped a switch in their mind, pushing them past a veritable point of no return, sending them plummeting over the edge of Nia-dom. "...Because I do? And who's this 'Zey'? Is 'Nia' so hard to remember?"

Bean was left with practically no idea what to say, but he did his best to gather himself. "Okay, the costume, the voice, and now this. You said this wasn't a joke, but if it isn't, I don't get what you're doing at all."

She responded with an indignant expression. "Didn't I just explain this to ya? Rex dug up a whole stack of Core Crystals from who knows where and asked me to activate them all for some stupid reason. A couple hundred in, a big blue light flashes, and next thing I know I'm in someone's bedroom in a completely different world with a giant overgrown bug claimin' to be my best friend. That's the short version, don't make me bloody repeat it again."

If he was prior left with little idea of how to continue the conversation, the "explanation" left him beyond speechless. With that, the wolf in Nia's clothing continued, "Now, it's kinda late, isn't it? Late for me, anyway, I usually get up at the crack of dawn. If you'll stop gaping at me like that, I need ya to take me back to that place that's apparently my home now."

Bean wordlessly complied for even the entire drive home, the only words he managed to produce being a stuttered "good night" upon their parting.

---

The next morning meant yet another shower for her, although as she stripped out of her outfit, she came to the realization that she was going on a couple of days of wearing it. Wadding everything up in a ball under her arm, she wandered over to the washing machine, vague memories from the fragments of her former identity warping into a fuzzy recollection of an explanation someone in this world had given her. "Was it this knob, or this one, or this button here...? Ugh, it's like Tora made this thing."

She eventually managed to make it work, although the machine's cycle was accomplishing more than just its intended purpose. The welling spring of ether within her body had seeped into the cosplay, the outfit having proved suitable for her needs to this point but lacking true authenticity to accompany her shifting identity. Just as the shower had done to her body, the water of the machine was fundamentally changing the nature of the attire, the cheap, machine-woven material giving way to a sturdy, handmade cloth. Missing details appeared all throughout, the belt gaining buckles, diamond-shaped accessories turning into real crystals. By the time things were finished, what awaited her was an imperfect but far more accurate version of Nia's clothing.

The clothing was not the only thing changing during this time. Once the shower's hot water hit her fur, it activated changes that were far more aggressive than the previous time. The ether within her concentrated to a physical form, a sharp heat in her chest swelling as the beginnings of a blue, diamond-shaped crystal subtly arose in the center of her chest, still hidden behind her fur. Said fur was thinning more than ever, water purging the darkness of her arms, the ashen color of her legs, and the light gray of her torso with equal prejudice. An almost peachy tone universally replaced them all, giving her a more human-like appearance despite the presence of her remaining fur coat. The thinned fur did reveal how much further her body had feminized, with widened hips and a narrowed waist; she let out a small series of gasps as the particularly bushy patch of fur on her chest was washed away, her new body's small, perky breasts rising up in the aftermath. In her lower half, thighs plumped out with fat and her paws shrunk down even more, pads wearing down to the point that they were only vague impressions slightly raised from her soles. Her tail was trying its best to remain standing tall and proud, but wave upon wave of ether shed off much of its floofy fur, the structure itself becoming leaner and practically cat-like in comparison to before.

In the midst of this, she allowed the water to pour directly on the top of her head where the wig still stood, as she, of course, had no inclination to believe that her hair was anything but natural. All at once it merged with the tied hair beneath it, fusing into a combination of Nia's trimmed locks and her former body's messy style, settling into a mixture of Nia's gray that faded into highlights of black. Her ears, canine as they still were, also adopted the same gray that had melded into her hair, fur within them shifting to a brighter shade. Even her eyes were changing shape, rounding outwards and growing thick eyelashes above them, a dull yellow forming in her irises that served as a symbol of her incomplete transformation.

The girl stepped out of the shower, looking far more Nia-like than ever, to the degree that she may have answered the question "What would Nia look like if she was an anthropomorphic wolf?" Her reformed outfit only further helped the resemblance, the girl wasting little time in retrieving it and putting it back on, any remaining moisture evaporating due to the influence of the ether.

With a shocked expression, she remarked, "Wow, this whole getup really is lookin' better than before. I gotta give that machine some credit!"

---

Clean outfit in tow and feeling even better than if she had just taken a bath at a Mor Ardain hot spring, she returned to her room to hear an incoming voice call on her PC. There was only one person she figured it could be, and she decided to answer.

Bean's voice came through: "Zey, I have to talk to you about yesterday-"

"First of all, it's bloody Nia, I don't know how many times I have ta' tell you."

"That's what I mean! This Nia cosplay thing, I don't know where you got the idea from, and I thought it was just some weird joke at first, but now it's going way too far! I mean, you're still doing it to me now! Is this like a full-time roleplay thing all of a sudden, because you're getting me pretty worried! Even yesterday, was that thing with your car you pretending like you don't know how to drive? Because if Nia was magically transported into our world like you were going on about, she wouldn't know how to drive?"

The girl did little to hide the frustration in her voice. "Roleplay? Pretendin'? I keep tellin' ya the truth and yer the one who isn't bloody listening! My name is Nia, I'm from Alrest, I activated some strange Core Crystal, and next thing I knew, I was in this crazy world surrounded by weird technology and walkin', talkin' critters!"

Bean let out a defeated sigh. "Zey, please, I can't say I get anything at all about what you're doing, but this is who you are. Not some video game character. Remember?"

A picture of another animal-like person popped up on her screen. It was of an anthropomorphic wolf with gray fur and black hair with red highlights. Not a hint of recognition flared in the girl's mind as she stared her former self straight in the face. "I have no bloody idea who this is. And I'm sick of hearing about how I'm from some 'video game,' like I'm a jellyfish that just stepped out of Tora's bloody 'Tiger! Tiger!' machine!"

One last futile attempt came from Bean. "If you're so certain you're Nia, well, last I checked, Nia wasn't also a wolf. Look at yourself. You've got fur all over your body, right?"

The girl patted her face, feeling the fluffiness of her fur press up against her glove, a wave of inexplicable confusion washing over her brain. "I... you don't know the first bloody thing about me! Just leave me alone, will ya?!"

She ended the call, rocketing herself up from her chair and sprinting into the bathroom to look at herself in front of her mirror.

"Stupid idiot... callin' me a wolf of all things. Wot, is it 'cause I'm a Gormotti?"

She rubbed at her ears as she monologued, the echo of each word reverberating both in her eardrums and throughout her ears themselves. Her ears began to grow taller, pointier, tufts of white fur growing from them, the changes stimulated by the ether that was unintentionally emanating from her fingertips.

"He oughta get his eyes checked, because if anything... these look more like cat ears than some mangy mutt's."

Indeed they did, the formerly canine ears now standing tall and proud atop her head, Nia's signature Gormotti ears having completely replaced them.

She opened her mouth wide to examine next, fingers prodding against the wolf-like teeth she still possessed. "Oh, or does he think my teeth are a bit too sharp? I've got some fangs, sure, but I'm not some big dumb drooling monster. Ha, just imagine how I'd look if I had giant, scary canines!"

Her touch shrunk each tooth, blunting them down to normality, leaving only some extra sharpness and length in her canines relative to the rest to indicate that she wasn't entirely human. Upon completion, she grinned to show off the full set of Gormotti teeth she now possessed.

"I just don't get it. He sent me a picture of that dopey-looking wolf like it was supposed to be me." She put on a mocking impression. "'Last I checked, Nia wasn't also a wolf!' Great observation there, buddy! Yeah, last I checked, it's true that I don't have a bloody giant snout and a big wet nose and a body covered in fur- ahhhh!"

It was as if the ether built up in her body had been waiting for her to make that final observation, her mental state in complete disconnect with the current state of her body and the identity that it considered itself to be. That disconnect was about to be rapidly corrected.

It began with her paws, the soft, faded remnants of her pawpads finally disappearing into nothingness on her soles. Four toes became five, all the while shrinking down to a much more appropriate size, claws receding into plain toenails atop them. Another sharp Ah! was forced from her mouth as two incredibly loud SNAPs coerced her digitigrade legs into those of a human, heels of her new feet falling into place in the soles of her boots, footwear now fitting perfectly.

The floofiness and size of her tail had already been reduced so, but there was no longer any need for the appendage on her changing body. With almost minimal fanfare it receded back into her body, its remaining clumps of hair shedding off and evaporating in the process. When it was just a nub above her tailbone the hole she had cut into her jumpsuit so long ago patched itself over, good as new. Before long, even that nub receded fully into nothingness, the tail disappearing as if it had never been there.

As the ether concentrated again on her head, it became clear that her "giant bloody snout" and "big wet nose" were not long for this world. In the trance she was in, she barely noticed both hands subconsciously reaching up to massage her face. The dull, numbing sensation of both the massage and the ether caused her eyes to glaze over and her long tongue to droop from her maw. If she still had a tail to wag, perhaps it would have wagged in response to the slow circles her hands were taking around the sides of her face, each motion wearing down her snout that much more, hanging tongue shortening into a more proper size for a human all the while. As her muzzle was nearly reduced all the way down to a proper Gormotti mouth, she scrunched her nose, feeling it start to separate and develop a bridge beneath it as it became an independent feature of her face. From there, all it took was one more boop on the tip of her wet nose to cause it to diminish all the way down to an ordinary button, one that was barely even visible beneath the fur that still lined her form.

That fur, thinned and dyed as it was, was still the only remaining symbol of her former species clinging to her changing body. Beneath it, the small, blue diamond crystal that had slightly risen from her chest was ready to fully emerge. A bright blue glow radiated from it as it rose up from her chest, appearing to practically burn a hole in her hide as the fur around it melted away, leaving a diamond of soft, human skin in its wake. Its task far from over, the crystal amassed all her ether and pumped it throughout her body in one final Nia-fying wave. The result was a shockwave, a veritable blast of fur from the center of her torso all the way to the tips of her extremities, definitively removing any doubt regarding the androgyny of her form and revealing her to be fully female. Only a small bit of the fur on her torso was avoided the fate of complete evaporation, each strand instead separating itself from her body and weaving together, hugging tightly to her form as they reformed into a soft, white woolen set of bra and panties.

The rush of ether had, of course, removed all the obscuring fur remaining on her face, revealing a slim, feminine jawline and the signature white markings on the sides of her cheeks. The energy did not stop, however, until it reached all the way to the very tips of the hair still atop her head. The energy forced it to grow and lengthen into one uniform gray, straightening out all the remaining messiness into Nia's trademark hairstyle, complete with two yellow ribbons tied into it. The glaze lifted from her eyes, both now fully shining with a bright gold.

Any trace of Zeydaan, in body and mind, was thoroughly erased. Even what cheap, artificial bits still clung to the cosplay after its earlier reformation had been entirely transmuted by the final wave of energy emitted by the crystal, the new Gormotti girl now clad in a completely authentic, perfectly tailored Nia costume. With the haze gone from her mind and her body wholly aligned with her identity, she took one last look at herself in the mirror. "Absolute idiot, can't believe he got me lookin' at myself like this, like I don't know who I bloody am. Maybe it won't get through that thick skull of 'is unless I send a damn picture myself."

She returned to the PC and, after some extensive amounts of tinkering, figured out how to take a picture of herself with the mounted webcam and attach it to an accompanying message.

---

Bean was worried after Zeydaan had so abruptly hung up earlier, even moreso considering the tone their voice had taken on as they departed. It had been over two hours since then with no responses given to the few attempts at follow-up messages he made, but a ping suddenly lit up his desktop. He tabbed over to his chat with Zeydaan to read the latest message.

"Finally figured out how to work this bloody camera thing. Take another look at that picture of that dopey wolf you sent and tell me in all honesty that it looks anything like this one. You're lucky I don't punch you right in the face next time I see you! It's rude to compare a lady to a wild beast like that, you know!"

The message was odd, but it was absolutely nothing compared to the image that came attached with it.

For it was an undeniable truth that, sitting right there in Zeydaan's room, facing the camera, was a complete and utter twin of Nia from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. She was flashing her best smug grin as if to show how laughably wrong Bean was in his belief that she had ever at any point in her entire existence been some silly gray-furred anthropomorphic wolf.