Jessie hitched his pack onto his shoulder, and made his way upstairs. The library was huge, it took up three floors in the tower. There were books of all sizes, scrolls, maps, and even curiosities and artifacts.
Instructions - I write some stuff, give you some options and you vote for it. First option to reach ten votes wins, the option in the lead will win after twenty-four hours. Suggestions will be taken into consideration. Ties may be resolved with branching.
He grabbed a few maps, and some travelling books. He was about to leave when he noticed a large crystal. It was a vibrant lavender and seemed to sing to him. He was about to touch it, but decided to wrap it in cloth at the last moment.
Who knows what kind of weird effects it could have, best to stay safe for now. It could always be tested later if he can't identify it. He stuck it deep in his bag.
There were other things of course, but he couldn't afford to get too greedy. Having a Mage for an enemy is never a good thing.
He left the tower and made his way to the business quarter. Eric Winfred L'etoile opened his shop a couple of years ago, it sold a variety of potions, trinkets, and artifacts.
He was a very skilled spagyrist and herbalist. Jessie knocked on the door. “Eric, you there buddy?” The door opened and Eric popped his head out. “Jessie? What's up man?”
Eric invited him in and started some tea. “I need your help.” Eric looked up from the stove he was fiddling with. “Eh?” Jessie took a deep breath. “I've decided to become an adventurer.” Eric rolled his eyes. “And you want me to help you 'escape' your miserable life as the heir to a wealthy and noble family.”
Jessie frowned. “Everything I have is my father's, I want something to call my own. This store here, it's yours. You made it happen, it's a testament to your life's work.” Eric shrugged his shoulders and poured the tea. “The craftsmen and labourers made this happen, and my old master is the reason I'm as skilled as I am. The only difference between me and you is that I'm happy with my life.”
Jessie frowned, and drank his tea. “But you'll help me right?” Eric nodded. “Of course.”
Eric looked through his inventory. “Well, you have some options.” He walked through the aisles of his store, collecting more and more potions and ingredients.
“Okay, you can either drink these.” He handed Jessie a basket filled with potions of all different sizes, there were at least thirty. “Over the course of eight hours, chugging one potion every fifteen minutes.”
He walked behind his work desk and dropped a selection of ingredients. “Or, you can drink this potion once and be done with it.”
Jessie folded his arms and huffed. “What do they do?” Eric smiled awkwardly. “Well, I don't have any disguise potions as such... But a lot of women come in here asking for things to make their hair longer, give them fairer skin, wider hips, fuller lips... So on and so forth. I have a lot of those kind of potions in stock.”
He gestured to the basket. “If you drink every single one you will be feminine enough that even your father wouldn't recognize you. However, it would make you just feminine enough that you could appear to be one gender or the other based on how you presented yourself.”
Jessie raised an eyebrow. “So it would make me a girlie man?” Eric nodded his head. “Pretty much.” Jessie sighed. “The other potion?” Eric grimaced. “It... will make you a woman.”
Jessie groaned. “Men don't have those kind of potions?” Eric scratched his chin.”Well, I could cure your baldness, give you a larger whatsit, bulk up your muscles, or change your hair colour. But only to blue and/or red. Not the natural hair colour either, I mean crimson.”
Jessie gave him a flat, annoyed, look. Eric shrugged his shoulders. “What? I get like five guys a month coming here for anything other than those, and they are usually willing to wait a few weeks for me to brew stuff from scratch.”
Jessie walked over. “But you can brew a woman potion? How is that easier than just making me a different looking man?”
Eric frowned. “Well, I have a whole bunch of potions based around making people more feminine. I can distill those with a few added ingredients to affect a gender reversal. That would take twenty minutes tops. It would take months to brew the incredibly specialized potions needed to give you a face different enough that someone wouldn't recognize you... And that's if I had the ingredients, which I don't.”
Jessie plopped himself on Eric's couch and thought about his options, he could:
A - Take the many potions needed to make him androgynous.
B - Chug the gender swap potion
C - Examine the crystal with Eric
D - Try to escape the city on his own
E - Explore the town
Comments
Im thinking A
I like A otherwise second would have to be the lavender crystaal
good story so far look forward to more
I Would Think...
I would think that Jessie would want to keep his options open at first.
So, I think that he would pick A and use the multiple potions to change his appearence, but also take the gender potion with him in case he runs into circumstances where he needs to be a complete woman.
In the long term, I don't think trying to masquerade as a woman would be all that effective, even given an extremely feminine appearence. For instance, how much do the multiple potions alter his scent from male to female? There are people and their familiars that can tell the difference between males and females by smell. If Jessie needs to play the part of a woman, its much better to actually be one.
I think C
Examine the crystal and see if it's useful. If not then I'd go with A because you have more options in disguising yourself.
Difficult choice
Now, what I'd done is ask if I can keep the potions (both the feminising and the gender swap) but not take them at this moment, then ask for his help in examining the crystal. Given that is not in your given options however....
Option C.
Option C
As it seems to have the most interesting possibility then there is always the fall back option of a, b, or e. Mostly I like the Jewel because of the many possibilites
Goddess Bless you
Love Desiree
It's all a matter of time... Vote for B, you know you want to
Taking the most cautious approaches would seem best BUT daddy is rich and powerful. Soon he will be discovered and the father must know of his local friends. He can't hide out for long. Time is critical.
D and E are likely to get him recaptured by his dad and put under house arrest and quickly too.
Examining the crystal is an unknown and might release magic's that are easily detected.
The slow change take too long and is it reversible?
IF it is not reversible -- that is a question he should ask about both potions before choosing BTW -- then he might as well take the plunge and go all out and become a compete woman. It is the quickest and offers the most complete disguise available. Plus the slow method risks him becoming stuck in-between sexes, not a safe or desirable state I should think.
Go for "B". You know you want to.
This is BC after all. He will end up a woman eventually.
-- grin --
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. Remember mom was/is an adventurer. What's to say becoming a woman adventurer isn't following in her footsteps. How much do you want to bet she was born a male? Possibly even her husband's childhood friend who became his lover after becoming accidently changed to a woman but then after a while her urge to have adventure overtook her ties to domesticity. Plus dad seems a stick in the mud.
Unless dad is his mom transformed by some mishap on an adventure when he was little? Hum, was the son always a boy? Hum and double hum?
John in Wauwatosa
Hmm
Potions are never irreversible. They just change the state of the body, it would take a lasting magical effect to prevent further transformations.
Jessie isn't under a time limit, his father has no reason to suspect anything is amiss.
C
I would go for C followed by A and, if possible, bring other potions along. The one for gender reversal and, ... some women may have asked to have smaller breasts (back problems), so, some tuning down might be possible in the future.
Adventure Waits for No Man - Chapter 2
C - Examine the crystal with Eric, he can always chug the potions afterwards.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Jessie should try C first,
and if that doesn't help towards his plans, then go with B.
A stranger is just a friend that you haven't met yet.
examine the Chrystal!
best chance to find out what it does, and then take the gender potion.
I agree
C then B
Abigail Drew.
Take A; Carry B in case it's
Take A; Carry B in case it's needed in the future; D next- but instead of trying to do it on his own ask for help first; C after he leaves town - but without Eric. E shouldn't even be there.