Suddenly A Succubus

Deep underneath Lysander Hall, in a subterranean complex only accessible through an elevator with a secret button or a series of hallways hidden with illusory walls, a lone wolf-like creature lay curled up on a pile of threadbare blankets. Its body slowly rose and fell in time with its breath, and each subtle shift of its position caused its thick fur to shimmer and tingle.

The blankets under the creature had been graciously donated by members of the AV Club, and as such, contained an eclectic display of colors and patterns. Items donated by guys trended towards dry, muted colors, whereas items donated by girls were more vivacious, unafraid of more varied and interesting designs. The creature in question was curled tight atop the intersection of two such blankets, which helped shed light on the incredibly strange nature of the beast. Its fur, which had initially appeared to be shades of gray and brown with occasional splotches of green, had completely shifted its coloration to match the impromptu bedding underneath it. Half of the fur on its body now looked exactly like the dark, navy blue that rested beneath its head and some of its paws, whereas its back half was bright purple with bursts of white starlight.

Stranger still, the strange chameleon-esque camouflage appeared to take the angle of onlookers into account. When Tessa had first sat down just outside the room holding the creature, the lower angle meant that the colorful blankets weren't entirely the backdrop of her vision anymore. Now, a small strip of fur atop the wolf's back shifted to match the gray wall now directly behind it, at least from Tessa's perspective.

Rudimentary tests revealed that the change in coloration differed entirely on the perspective of the onlooker. If Chloé floated directly above the wolf, she didn't see the purported changes in color that other people did when they saw the fur change from bright purple to dull gray.

This visual inconsistency, as unusual as it was by Earth standards, was far from surprising given the wolf's home plane. It hailed from The Wilds, a plane of existence overrun with thick jungles, creatures of legend, and an incredibly tenuous connection with rhyme or reason. Rather than attempting to understand more about the creature, which she knew was impossible, Tessa was mostly preoccupied with her attempts to send it home.

Sheets of paper and tattered notebooks surrounded her on the floor as she attempted to decipher the dense, runic language of the magic circle under the Cafeteria: the one circle on campus that connected to The Wilds, and thus the only chance they had of returning this creature. If nothing else, Tessa was glad she had comprehensive notes on all the circles located throughout Aurelius University. She no longer had to skulk around in the shadows when attempting to research the circles; instead, she could hole up in her apartment, or in today's case, the hallways connected to the strange chambers far beneath Lysander Hall. Here, she was able to both iterate on magic theory and keep tabs on the strange wolf they'd previously captured.

Tessa threw her head back, sighed in frustration, then kicked a leg out as she fell backwards against the wall behind her. "Ugh, this is pointless, I have no idea what I'm fucking doing."

A few feet away, equally frustrated though far better at masking it, sat Imani. Her refined poise made her look effortlessly elegant despite her casual attire and pose, and she looked at Tessa with a look of surprising comradery. "You're giving up already? What happened to the witch that built a bridge into the Purgatory circle in a manner of days?"

"That was different! My friends needed me!" Tessa protested.

"Ah, so that's the secret of why you did so poorly at the Academy. The teachers weren't holding your friends hostage in other planes of existence," Imani said, laughing slightly as she set down her pencil.

Tessa glared at Imani. "Ha ha, very funny. Are you telling me you understand this stuff?"

"No, not really," Imani admitted. "I understand what you mean, though. All the planes are inherently complex, but The Wilds operate on rules we don't fully understand, much like our new friend here," she said, gesturing to the wolf patiently sleeping on the other side of a makeshift barricade.

"Okay, see? You do get it, you're just being an ass," Tessa said, rolling her eyes. "This stupid circle has been nothing but problems. Did you know it was the first one I managed to find evidence of tampering on? Of course, I mistakenly expressed the changes incorrectly and got trapped under a thick blanket of vines. Although, that ended up working out in my favor, actually..."

The conversation paused briefly as Tessa recalled her first time fucking Amara, reigniting her frustration at her friend's newfound monogamy.

"This whole chamber was being used by that cult, right?" Imani asked, pulling Tessa away from her debaucherous thoughts. "That's how you found it?"

Tessa nodded. "Yup. They needed access to the Hell Circle, but we're pretty sure a bunch of possessed cultists were living down here. We still haven't cleaned all the rooms out, but at least this complex gives us a place to hide out when we've got nonsense like this guy," she said, looking at the wolf again.

"Certainly a bit of good fortune, I won't argue with that," Imani said.

Silence fell between them again, and after a few minutes, Tessa rallied. She leaned forward again, grabbed a page of magic notes and attempted to bury herself in interplanar physics.

Despite Imani's teasing, Tessa didn't think her friends being stranded in Purgatory was the sole reason she'd successfully built her first bridge. Well, it might have been part of it, but as Tessa stared at her recreation of the Wilds Circle, it was hard to deny the increased complexity of the runic configuration. Purgatory was closer, in a manner of speaking, and operated on rules less foreign to denizens of Earth. According to Amara and Vee, it had even looked exactly like Aurelius University, which made sense; it was commonly seen as a Plane that served as a strange mirror to Earth, or possibly some kind of overlay? Theories on the topic heavily diverged depending on who was talking.

The Wilds represented chaos, change, whimsy, mutation, and a million other things. The only consistent feature was inconsistency, and the potency of the plane meant that its very inconsistency applied to the basic governing laws of the Planes.

The most terrifying creatures from The Wilds were the faeries. Their understanding was so heavily shaped by the twisted rules of their realm that their beliefs were their governing rules of physics. If a faerie believed that rudeness could be punished by turning someone into a tree, then the rules of The Wilds made it happen. The fickle nature of these creatures, however, meant that "rudeness" could be anything from eating a fruit the wrong way or failing to do a cartwheel after taking exactly seven steps into their house. More chaotic fey creatures sometimes made up rules on the spot, which were of course enforced with the same ironclad consistency as gravity.

Attempting to connect Earth and The Wilds, then, was a truly staggering task; Tessa needed to somehow establish a magical link between two wildly different sets of magical physics. Every method she thought of for building flexibility in her runic designs failed to match the space restrictions of the magic circle under the cafeteria, and with each minute that passed, it felt more like she was hopelessly bashing her head against a brick wall with no tangible reward in sight.

"Have you ever thought about what kind of magic you want?" Imani asked out of nowhere.

Her question completely derailed Tessa's train of thought, even startling her somewhat as she pulled her gaze away from the piece of paper she'd been staring at for the last few minutes. "Uh... shit, what?"

"Your magic," Imani repeated. "You've only got basic telekinesis runes right now, but all witches get those. Have you given any thought to what you'd want to get next?"

"No, not really. I mean, with Davenport in charge, I always kinda assumed this was the end of the road, you know?"

"Okay, sure, but Davenport got ousted. Headmistress Bishop is way less cruel, and besides, aren't you two super close or whatever?" Imani asked. "I imagine she'd be rather cross if you told her you weren't planning on furthering your magical education."

"Well, that's... I mean...." Tessa stammered.

Shit, she's right.

"Um, well, my mom had ice magic," she said dismissively.

"That's not an answer, Tess. Is that something you'd want?" Imani asked, sliding a few of their notebooks aside and inching closer. "Ice is a pretty tactile expression of magic, and there are lots of ways to play with runes to obtain some interesting effects."

"Wait, you can get more magic?" Chloé asked, suddenly appearing out of thin air next to Tessa.

"FUCK!" Tessa yelped, flinching backwards and kicking up a pile of papers. In the nearby room, the wolf leapt up from its slumber and started barking at the chaotic events, and it took a minute before everyone managed to calm it down.

Chloé, her face bright red from embarrassment, sighed as the wolf finally settled down again. "I'm sorry! Ugh, stupid Chloé, you keep forgetting to announce yourself..."

After Tessa's heart rate returned to normal, she smiled at Chloé, "Girl, it's fine, really."

"No! I should be better about respecting people's boundaries!" Chloé said, staring at the floor as she floated several inches above it. "I just... I get so tired from manifesting for all my classes, and then, when I'm around you all, I get so excited that I don't have to show myself if I don't want to..."

"Chloé, seriously, it's fine. You just startled me, that's all. My partners do it too, sometimes, and they can't even turn invisible."

They smiled at each other, the conversation pausing for a moment before Imani spoke up. "Is manifesting really that difficult?"

"It's like... hm..." Chloé paused, her eyes glazing over and her hair turning even more white as she turned her attention inward. As she played with her hair, she absentmindedly began tilting to the side. "Manifesting itself isn't difficult, but holding it for longer periods of time is, especially the more present I need to be."

"Like it's a gradient?" Tessa asked.

"Yeah! I can individually control every aspect of my presence, which means my only hope of making it through the day is trying to take advantage of those different aspects. For example, if I get really lucky and score a seat in the back corner of class, I can usually get away with only manifesting visually, and often I can turn off gravity too. However, if there's ever a chance that someone might bump into me without me realizing it, I need to stay physically present or else they might discover I'm half-ghost or whatever."

"Wait, are you technically a ghost?" Imani asked, a flash of worry in her voice.

"Well, no, but it's not like I have any real idea what I am," Chloé admitted. "As best I can tell, I'm suspended between dimensions, my essence able to manifest on either side of the planar barrier, but that's a pretty dense description. Realistically? I can be a person if I want, and I can be a ghost if I want, so I say half-ghost to make my life easier."

There was another pause in the conversation as Imani furrowed her brow for a minute, her curiosity over Chloé's condition more than evident. "What does it feel like? Manifesting?"

Chloé tilted her head for a moment as she thought about the question, then disappeared. A moment later, she appeared again, then she briefly fell to the floor as gravity reasserted itself, then she vanished again. When she finally spoke up, she was still invisible. "It feels like I'm made of falling snow. In my natural state, I'm a loose collection of flurries drifting across the wind, associated only through loose proximity. If I want to, I can reach out to all the different snowflakes and pull them together, making a snowball, and that's kinda like making myself visible or allowing myself to see and hear things. Then, if I try even harder, I can pack the snow really tight, and that's like turning tangible. Holding all that snow together takes a lot of effort, though, and the snowball is constantly trying to return to its natural state."

"You said the Lysander Circle helps things, right?" Tessa asked. "If you take breaks to visit there, does it make it easier to recuperate?"

Chloé shook her head. "No, it doesn't work like that. Whatever you did, that bridge thing you made, it just makes it easier for me to pack all the snow together. If I'm in my neutral state, it doesn't matter if I'm in the circle or not. So, unless you have a way to pack up the Lysander Circle and let me bring it from class to class, it's not gonna do much for me."

Tessa paused for a moment, turning Chloé's words around in her head.

Pack up the Lysander Circle... huh. I wonder if--

Her thoughts were disrupted when her phone buzzed in her pocket. Stranger still, as she pulled out her phone to check the message, she saw Chloé do the same thing. After a few seconds of reading, confusion and apprehension appeared on both their faces, and they looked at each other with worry as they realized they'd received the same message.

---

Vee collapsed on Amara's couch with a heavy sigh, happily closing her eyes as she sank into the warm embrace of the cushions. She grabbed a nearby throw pillow, hugging it tightly to her chest as she tried to ignore the unusual aches and pains that plagued her body, a result of all the sleep she'd lost the last few days. Relatively speaking, the physical discomfort was nothing in the face of all the other physical trauma she'd experienced over the last few months. The most disquieting fact about this pain was that it existed at all; in all the preceding years of her life, her angelic heritage had given her inhuman levels of resilience to simple mortal annoyances. Now? Now she struggled to sleep at night, her body protested even light physical activity, and worst of all, Amara's apartment smelled painfully normal.

Demons were supposed to smell like sulfur, an unavoidable remnant of their demonic origins in Hell, but for whatever reason, Amara's natural sulfuric musk somehow didn't affect Vee. Instead, Vee always smelled hints of cinnamon and patchouli when around her girlfriend, and the smell often permeated her things as well. Here on the couch, as she lamented her weakened state, she failed to smell anything at all.

Well, anything supernatural. As Vee relaxed on the couch, Amara shuffled around the kitchen as she prepared lunch for the two of them. In time, Vee caught whiffs of fresh deli meat and bacon, and she tried to take refuge in the simple joy of spending time with the love of her life.

Lunch itself was amazing, and even helped to dispel a few of Vee's dull aches. This was most likely a result of her skipping breakfast this morning, opting to simply pour herself an extra strong cup of coffee. She'd heard stories that other people got headaches when hungry, but it wasn't something she'd experienced herself until just a few days ago.

Coincidentally, around the same time her powers had started failing her.

Each bite, on top of being absolutely delicious, made Vee feel just a little bit better. She happily listened to Amara recount her day, talking about her various classes and the humorous things she'd noticed in other people's auras. She'd also found several new influencer trends on social media, and was excitedly talking about how she wanted to incorporate them into her photoshoots, while also participating in the trends themselves, of course. Vee didn't fully understand the appeal of the infinitely spinning wheel of social media content, but seeing Amara bubbling with excitement over a new dance or challenge always brought a smile to her face.

After the two of them finished lunch, Vee returned to her spot on the couch. Amara didn't quite join her, she was in the middle of testing out ideas for her newest post, and she wanted Vee's assistance in picking something out.

"Okay, what about this?" Amara asked, her clothes magically shifting from comfortable daily wear to an outfit halfway between a bikini and lingerie.

"Hm... I mean, I want to say it looks amazing on you, but that's perhaps the least helpful thing I could say. Turn around for a second?" Vee asked. Her eyes carefully raced up and down Amara's perfect body, and she did her best to focus on the spirit of the question, judging the clothes on their own merits rather than how much of her girlfriend they showed off.

Of course, isn't showing off Amara part of the point of these challenges? Wait, was this one a dance or something else? Ugh, way to go, Vee, ignoring your girlfriend as she talks about her passions.

"What do you think? I could alter the straps to sit higher on my waist, maybe?" Amara asked.

"Doesn't Instagram have rules about how much skin can be showing? I can see most of your ass, and I seem to recall them being jerks about that last time."

"It's all in the presentation," Amara said, striking a few poses as she continued talking. "See, if I'm sideways like this, but I kinda shimmy back and forth, I can show off my ass without getting into trouble with their TOS. The trick is to wear an outfit that's obviously revealing, but hiding just enough to get people thinking that they can see more if they buy my stuff."

"Gotcha," Vee said, trying to commit these rules to memory. "So if you were to start twerking at the camera with nothing but a thong on, they'd count that as nudity and shadow ban you again?"

Amara nodded. "Yup! And I'd really like to avoid that; my numbers took a huge dip last time. Of course, so long as I don't post anything to them directly, there's no reason I can't, say, give you a little dance of your own..." Amara walked closer, seductively moving her hips side to side before turning to face away from Vee. She spread her legs, one at a time, then sat down in Vee's lap with practiced precision. Her nearly naked ass pressed against Vee's body, and Vee immediately clocked what Amara was hoping for.

Habit drove Vee's hands to Amara's luscious hips, and Amara eagerly leaned back to show off her cleavage. As much as Vee wanted to meet Amara halfway, however, she just didn't have it in her.

"Love, as much as I'd want to have some fun today," Vee said, almost tripping over her words slightly, "I don't think I'm really feeling it. Is that okay?"

The mood of their interaction shifted, and Amara immediately turned to her side to take a better look at Vee. "Of course, Vee. You know I'd never try to push that on you if you weren't in the mood. Classes kicking your butt today?" After kissing Vee on the cheek, Amara jumped to her feet to change her outfit one last time, now wearing fluffy pajamas and an oversized tee shirt.

"A little bit, yeah," Vee admitted. "I don't think I slept all that well last night, either."

Sitting next to Vee on the couch, Amara paused for a moment. Vee looked over and caught her in the middle of her thinking face, her expression slightly scrunched as she chewed on the inside of her lip. "Is, um... is everything okay? I understand if you don't want to talk about it right now, but... I don't know, it seems like you've been a little off recently. You're not sleeping well, you're complaining about headaches, and you've been a bit distracted the last few days."

I should've known she would notice. God, I love her so much.

Vee hesitated, taking a deep breath as she tried to find the words she needed. Before she said anything, she reached out and grabbed Amara's hand, squeezing it tight for support. Even thinking about speaking made her shake with apprehension, and her face flushed with heat as she prepared to admit something she hadn't even fully accepted herself yet.