Such a fun and relatable scene. I do worry how things turn out for Felix and his new friends given his transformation comes later down the line. Much enjoyed.

Thanks for reading and faving. It will all be revealed in good time.

Fun story. Felix and co. have certainly awakened some college memories in me, both pleasant and not-so-pleasant.

My equivalent experience would be an Animal Behavior class that suddenly threw a bunch of advanced statistics at us, despite only requiring a basic Stat course. Thankfully, I'm much better at Stat than Calc. My brain can't even imagine a college level Calc IV.

Thanks for faving. I think the fact that it awoke some memories makes me feel like I did a good job with that. It's been over a decade since I graduated so I've been trying to reach back into my mind and conjure up those memories to recreate them. I do remember something similar happened to me with the aforementioned physics class in that I ended up getting invited to a a study group because the homework was so difficult that we all banded together to have a chance. I just couldn't remember how I got invited in the first place.

My high school college teacher had actually taught us bits of Calc III and Calc IV (the easy parts really) and so I was the only one who ended up having a fighting chance with those and the rest of the group was shocked. Luckily those questions didn't come up very often, but there was quite a bit of Calc I and Calc II in the class where only Calc I had been required as concurrent enrollment and they were asking stuff from the latter half of the class in the first few weeks of physics.

I'll be honest, I find it funny that I'm the opposite. Give me the calculus stuff. Those statistics questions always seem like black magic to me.

You capturing an accurate picture of academic life is definitely a plus. I’m only five years graduated and good chunks of it are already blurry for me. Well, persistent anxiety has been shown to screw up memory formation.

I think your calculus preference is more typical. Everything corresponding to graphs and curves makes things a bit easier to visualize. I just had a rather helpful textbook for statistics that covered both the basic and the advanced. On top of that, we were later allowed to use the R software package, which is certainly the most programming I’ve ever done.

It's actually been pretty blurry to me as well. Luckily I have a friend going through it right now and so I'm getting to reexperience a lot of it through them and that's helping me reconjure those memories. Like I had forgotten just how much work I was given and how I was just in a constant state of trying to survive from assignment to assignment after awhile.

nicely done... I never went to college but I bet it was a great experience...

Vix

It definitely had its ups and downs and especially for anyone in a STEM field there was just an insane amount of course work. But there were still times for fun and I made quite a few friends just from our mutual suffering attempting to complete assignments.

Adversity can certainly bring people together, I just hope Rhelki, I mean Rel learns to relax a bit ;)

And as for negative university experiences, close to the start of the course we had a lecturer who mumbled her entire way through her presentation. Come towards the end and we were asked to hand in the research essay that she had set for us, cue stunned disbelief from pretty everyone in the class who like me had not heard her set it. And this was very much needed to pass. I still have nightmares about that one.

Some questions and observations.

That's a fun idea that humans are something out of the ordinary, at least at the university. I wonder what the bear was going to ask for help with?

So Felix was very much interested in those of the feminine persuasion even if he was too shy to do much about it, his new sexuality must be quite difficult to get used to. It must be strange for him not to feel any attraction to Kira, and I wonder if she notices. Also I know you don't like a lot of the aspects of the whole reality-shift theme, and I agree with you, so what happened to the Felix that his lion boyfriend knew from before?

Also I admit I've lost track of the whole Rusin story, can you run it by me again? Is he the one who was vapourised by Felix and Kaj's spell? Do people in general know that reality is potentially so unstable? Because that's a significant amount of existential dread right there.

So fox-folk and Kitsune are seperate beings? How do they feel about each other?

Rel doesn't know anything about shape-shifting, are there potential university courses that would assist? Because I would be signing up for those right away ;) What courses do they offer which wouldn't really have an equivalent in our reality?

"And as for negative university experiences, close to the start of the course we had a lecturer who mumbled her entire way through her presentation. Come towards the end and we were asked to hand in the research essay that she had set for us, cue stunned disbelief from pretty everyone in the class who like me had not heard her set it. And this was very much needed to pass. I still have nightmares about that one."

That sounds like an absolute nightmare. I was in a class once where in the first two weeks we were supposed to give a proposal for a final project in the class that the professor had to sign off on. Problem was that I barely understood what we were going to be learning in the curriculum and was just at a complete loss on what to even ask.

"That's a fun idea that humans are something out of the ordinary, at least at the university. I wonder what the bear was going to ask for help with?"

That got cut because I thought it was kind of funnier without the explanation so the world will never know. ;)

Or the bear might come back and ask again. I don't know yet.

I kind of find it funny that Felix is essentially this world's equivalent of a furry and so he went to furry college and now is entirely overwhelmed by it because he's too shy and everyone else is too nosy.

"So Felix was very much interested in those of the feminine persuasion even if he was too shy to do much about it, his new sexuality must be quite difficult to get used to. It must be strange for him not to feel any attraction to Kira, and I wonder if she notices."

There's a bit more I want to tell with Felix pre-transformation and reality shift regarding this group and specifically his relationship with Kira during that time. Also, I wouldn't say he has no attraction to her post-TF. I'm going to cover that more in future stories, but the short version is that alternate Felix was gay. Pre-TF Felix was straight. So now he's ended up bi because he kept a lot of his old self. Of course it's still very awkward for him since he's now just attracted to everyone. There's also a reason the spell did this to him that will be revealed at some point, but for now I'll just say that the spell itself has its own will in a way.

"Also I know you don't like a lot of the aspects of the whole reality-shift theme, and I agree with you, so what happened to the Felix that his lion boyfriend knew from before?"

So the way I've been kind of envisioning this working is that the new reality that he has found himself in did not actually exist before he cast the spell. It wasn't like there was this parallel universe that him and Kaj just ended up taking over their alternate selves in, but rather the spell itself ended up creating that alternate world right then and there. But of course then they have a full historical context so there kind of was this alternative Felix created... but also not really. It's all very muddled, but in a sense the alternate Felix and Kaj that were generated for the spell could be seen as being taken over and rewritten and thus in a sense killed, but at the same time they also never really existed before that moment. Shrugs

Also, I do have a story planned for Felix's date with that lion that I've just been holding back on to give the other characters a bit more of a chance to shine (as well as do some more build up to that event and lay the framework for things later).

"Also I admit I've lost track of the whole Rusin story, can you run it by me again? Is he the one who was vapourised by Felix and Kaj's spell?"

Yeah, he was the one who ended up being vaporized by the spell and then reformed as a swordsman challenging Keitèl to a duel and getting his ear lobbed off when he lost.

"Do people in general know that reality is potentially so unstable? Because that's a significant amount of existential dread right there."

No. Such spells are forbidden and kept hidden for a good reason. Felix had no idea that magic could produce something as drastic as it did otherwise it would cause panic in the streets.

"So fox-folk and Kitsune are seperate beings? How do they feel about each other?"

Yeah, there's like standard anthros and then other magical beings that may share overlap. In this case there isn't really any hostile feelings or anything. Especially since kitsune are so rare that a lot of people just don't even know they exist. A lot of the kitsune were just considered myths and legends from the untamed wilds for most of history. Instead the odd kitsune here and there in civilized society are usually adopted into some other species' family if they were found in the wilds (which was the case a lot of times) and a lot of times those families just consider them some weird small multi-tailed fox-folk until they just end up never aging. This is actually something I've written about in the Rhelki's parents' story that I'm writing how her grandfather was actually found as a child and adopted by a family of dwarves and so she actually has this extended family of dwarves that she is considered a cousin to.

"Rel doesn't know anything about shape-shifting, are there potential university courses that would assist? Because I would be signing up for those right away ;)"

So the natural more universal shapeshifting abilities that the kitsune and a few other species have tends to be rather rare so she would most likely need private tutelage to help her learn (hence why no one in her family can do it either).

"What courses do they offer which wouldn't really have an equivalent in our reality?"

Really it would be almost anything magic related. Otherwise stuff would seem rather similar to what we'd find on earth, but magic is such a large topic with so many focuses from practical spells, battle magic, creation of magical items, spells in agriculture, magic mixed with engineering (this is what Rhelki and a lot of the others are actually studying), to even a focus on the purely theoretical nature of magic itself (which I think could probably best be described as the equivalent of a pure physics degree). The other thing is that swordsmanship and other melee weapons are not actually useless as magic can negate the usefulness of bullets so there are still people instructing people in the usage of those skills as well as the creation of arms and armor for those who use them.

Yes, I'm glad to be finished with school and university to be honest.

And heh I see, yes that makes sense ;)

I do like the idea that humans are a minority so they're the odd ones out in his story-universe!

And I see, that makes sense, and would probably just be even more confusing - re Felix now being bi-sexual.

"So the way I've been kind of envisioning this working is that the new reality that he has found himself in did not actually exist before he cast the spell. It wasn't like there was this parallel universe that him and Kaj just ended up taking over their alternate selves in, but rather the spell itself ended up creating that alternate world right then and there. But of course then they have a full historical context so there kind of was this alternative Felix created... but also not really. It's all very muddled, but in a sense the alternate Felix and Kaj that were generated for the spell could be seen as being taken over and rewritten and thus in a sense killed, but at the same time they also never really existed before that moment. Shrugs

Also, I do have a story planned for Felix's date with that lion that I've just been holding back on to give the other characters a bit more of a chance to shine (as well as do some more build up to that event and lay the framework for things later)."

Ah OK, yes it can get quite complicated trying to keep things ethical, I'm glad you consider these matters because most people don't or in fact actively approve of it, which is super-creepy.

"Yeah, he was the one who ended up being vaporized by the spell and then reformed as a swordsman challenging Keitèl to a duel and getting his ear lobbed off when he lost."

So he wasn't actually killed, 'just' had his history and life re-written?

"No. Such spells are forbidden and kept hidden for a good reason. Felix had no idea that magic could produce something as drastic as it did otherwise it would cause panic in the streets."

You aren't kidding!

"Yeah, there's like standard anthros and then other magical beings that may share overlap. In this case there isn't really any hostile feelings or anything. Especially since kitsune are so rare that a lot of people just don't even know they exist. A lot of the kitsune were just considered myths and legends from the untamed wilds for most of history. Instead the odd kitsune here and there in civilized society are usually adopted into some other species' family if they were found in the wilds (which was the case a lot of times) and a lot of times those families just consider them some weird small multi-tailed fox-folk until they just end up never aging. This is actually something I've written about in the Rhelki's parents' story that I'm writing how her grandfather was actually found as a child and adopted by a family of dwarves and so she actually has this extended family of dwarves that she is considered a cousin to.

"Rel doesn't know anything about shape-shifting, are there potential university courses that would assist? Because I would be signing up for those right away ;)"

So the natural more universal shapeshifting abilities that the kitsune and a few other species have tends to be rather rare so she would most likely need private tutelage to help her learn (hence why no one in her family can do it either).

Really it would be almost anything magic related. Otherwise stuff would seem rather similar to what we'd find on earth, but magic is such a large topic with so many focuses from practical spells, battle magic, creation of magical items, spells in agriculture, magic mixed with engineering (this is what Rhelki and a lot of the others are actually studying), to even a focus on the purely theoretical nature of magic itself (which I think could probably best be described as the equivalent of a pure physics degree). The other thing is that swordsmanship and other melee weapons are not actually useless as magic can negate the usefulness of bullets so there are still people instructing people in the usage of those skills as well as the creation of arms and armor for those who use them."

You have a really interesting story-universe and setting, I've always liked a mix of fantasy and modern settings, but usually they're all grim-dark and cyberpunk so this makes a refreshing change.

"I do like the idea that humans are a minority so they're the odd ones out in his story-universe!"

I'll have to introduce another human character eventually just to keep this stuff up since Felix will cease to be one.

"And I see, that makes sense, and would probably just be even more confusing - re Felix now being bi-sexual."

That was one of those things that I really wasn't planning ahead with and I mostly just wrote it in as a joke initially. The more I've thought about it the more fun idea's I've had for it though. Like now he has to actually pretend he is gay because dating a woman would create suspicion.

"So he wasn't actually killed, 'just' had his history and life re-written?"

Yeah, pretty much... which in a way could be seen as being killed with how much of his life was changed. I think following him will be a bit easier in my rewrite rather than having me just give bits of his story as a side character over three separate tales that I ended up writing and publishing in reverse chronological order. When I first wrote him into Tooth and Sword I didn't actually have all of this planned out and then as I was writing Helping Hands I actually far better formulated his backstory and direction. In my rewrite so far he has a far better introduction and quite a bit more screen time.

"You have a really interesting story-universe and setting, I've always liked a mix of fantasy and modern settings, but usually they're all grim-dark and cyberpunk so this makes a refreshing change."

Thanks. I really love fantasy when taken away from the more standard mediaeval trappings that it usually finds itself in, which is why almost all of my settings are some flavor of that. I would say that overall this one is the most lighthearted and the other ones are all far darker. In general though even when I make the background and world dark, I never try and make it too grim-dark and even when it does get dark, I want to focus on lighter stories within the darkness. Probably Howard's cheetah-TF story is the only real exception, but in many ways with that one I am trying to make it so over the top dark in places it isn't supposed to be taken seriously.

That's a good point about Felix and the need for a new human character, and yes that could be something interesting to explore. And I'm glad Rusin 'just' had his life changed, though that's still really major.

Ah OK, I need to read Howard's story!