The Magic Box, Saturday

[livingartifact]

Whatever force on the island had decided to . . . play had apparently passed Jenkins by, for which he was eternally grateful. He made a spectacularly unattractive woman. He hadn't noticed anything was amiss until he went out for a breakfast snack and found the staff at J,GOB arguing over who was doing a better job of dealing with having different

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[angry_pie_slice]

For a being from a matriarchal society, Peridot's grasp of gender was... thin, at best. It helped that technically, she didn't have one. And so she really had no idea what was all that different today. Just that most of the island's humans seemed to be acting weirdly about something, and the particulars of it were driving her insane.

The sign in the Magic Box window, though? That caught her attention. She pushed the door open and made her way inside, eyes wide.

"There are spells that can make people shapeshift?"

This was kind of a thing with her.

[livingartifact]

"Certainly," Jenkins said. "Why wouldn't there be?"

[angry_pie_slice]

Peridot couldn't think of any offhand, admittedly, so she shrugged her shoulders a little as she attempted to see, from her spot on the floor, what it was that Jenkins was up to. Her view was... admittedly not great.

"I'm still familiarizing myself with this planet's concept of magic," she pointed out, the very model of a reasonable alien. "Especially around here, I find that the separation between magic and technology can be... hazy."

Not like back on Homeworld, where things made sense.

"How do these spells work?"

[livingartifact]

"That entirely depends on the spell," Jenkins said. "Most of them should have a single, particular effect, such as growing one's hair or changing the color of one's skin. . . . That sort of thing. Though with the island-wide effect added to the mix, there's no guarantee of anything at all, really."

Which was exciting.

He leaned over to get a closer look at her. "Have you been affected by it at all? Do gems have any sexual dimorphism?"

[2_old_for_this]

Peter frowned at the sign and pointed over his shoulder at it as he came in. "Is that really responsible?"

[livingartifact]

"That depends entirely on your perspective," Jenkins said. "From the perspective of furthering knowledge of magic and science, it's highly responsible."

[2_old_for_this]

"And from the perspective of not maiming people?" Peter asked.

[livingartifact]

"Well, in that case I would do my best to help counteract any permanent effects. So it'd be . . . at worst moderately irresponsible."

[whoisalicewhite]

Parker was walking by, trying to get used to her new weight distribution, and then veering sharply right when she saw the sign. Hmmm. Could magic, maybe, make this a little more bearable for the next couple days? She was mostly wary of the stuff, but this kind of seemed like one of those fight fire-with-fire cases.

So she pushed open the door, then brightened. "Oooo, muffins!" And made a beeline for the treats.

[livingartifact]

"Please, help yourself, Mr. . . . Or I suppose, possibly Ms. . . ?"

[whoisalicewhite]

"Parker," which probably didn't help any gender confusion, but then, Parker didn't really care about being misgendered anyway. "These are good. You get them from Jeff, God of Biscuits?" She took another bite, then pointed at the window poster and made inarticulate noises that probably sounded inquiring.

[livingartifact]

"Of course." Jenkins frowned at the noises and pointing. "I'm afraid I didn't catch that, Mx. Parker. Perhaps if you finished chewing first."