Cover art for a future story I'm getting from  phoboswrites of Zeydaan travelling to the world of Alrest, finding a strange device in Tora's house- designating them to be the new Nia.

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Zeydaan thought it was a stroke of pure luck that they stumbled across such an odd band of companions. For their part they had been struggling to keep up in the wilderness. They’d lost track of where they were going and where the nearest town was. After a few days their supplies had begun to run low and they began to fear the worst. Zeydaan wondered if they’d ever be found, or if the people who found them would know what to do. It was a deeply scary time, one that made Zeydaan feel more alone than they ever had before.

But then Rex appeared. To be more accurate it was Rex and his entire band of friends, but it was Rex who came to Zeydaan first. The whole group instantly was welcoming, helping Zeydaan back on their feet. They got food on their belly, finally had company again, and were even going to travel with the band to the nearest city. It was perfect, true salvation. Things were looking up for them, they started to think that the worst of it was over, that they’d end this journey and be on with things.

Of course, this is Zeydaan we are talking about. And if there is any constant with Zeydaan regardless of what the situation is or what universe they are in at that moment, it’s that something can and will go wrong. And in this case that happened when the entire group left to go search for some artifact or whatever. Zeydaan didn’t exactly pay attention to what they were after, just that it was very dangerous and that they’d return as soon as possible. This left Zeydaan alone at the camp with nothing more than their wandering mind.

It only took about six minutes for Zeydaan to royally mess up. They were just sitting around, minding their own business until their eyes landed on something that intrigued them. It was Nia’s clothes, an exact copy of the outfit she’d worn most of the time around the camp. It made sense that she had multiple copies of it, although what really stood out was that this was sitting along with Tora’s things. Zeydaan furrowed their brow, wondering what Tora was doing with Nia’s clothes.

Of course they lost any right to judge what Tora might have been up to the moment they picked up the outfit and felt the strong compulsion to try it on. It was objectively the wrong thing to do, but some primal part of Zeydaan’s mind willed it to happen. So they did, pulling it on without much of a second thought. It fit surprisingly well, almost shifting to match Zeydaan’s body as they zipped it all up. And it was comfy too.

Zeydaan stood there for a while, admiring the feel of the outfit and the look of the gloves on their hands. But then they noticed just how tight it felt, like the outfit was slowly constricting around them. And then there was this sharp prick of pain right in the center of their chest. Zeydaan gasped loudly, doubling over more in shock than pain. When they looked down to examine their chest, they found the tell tale glow of a core crystal right in their face.

Slowly Zeydaan tried to pull off one of the gloves, finding that it was snugly attached to their body. The outfit had become so tight that there was no removing it.

“Oh… oh no… no no no…”

The situation wasn’t merely bad. A bad situation would have been trying on Nia’s clothes and then having her walk in on them. Bad would have been Zeydaan accidentally breaking some experimental core crystal prototype or whatever it was that was now lodged in their chest. But, no, this was all far worse than that. If those situations were bad then this was downright catastrophic. This was a world shattering, mind melting calamity that was only bound to get worse the moment someone found Zeydaan. If curiosity killed the cat then Zeydaan had found a fate worse than death.

Although they knew it was a futile effort, they couldn’t help but sit down and try to pry the greaves off their legs. Zeydaan had tried this already to no avail. But what else could they do but keep trying? It’s not like they could just run away, once Nia or Tora or lords forbid someone like Morag got back they’d brand Zeydaan a thief or something. And maybe that was a better fate than the one that was in store. Zeydaan just couldn’t bring themselves to have it end like that. And it’s not like Zeydaan trusted themself to actually navigate the wilderness at this point.

Of course, that left the equally miserable and far more likely answer. Someone was going to come back, see Zeydaan dressed just like Nia and then sooner than later see the core crystal embedded in their chest. It was going to raise a lot of uncomfortable questions and frankly Zeydaan wasn’t going to have any answers, at least not any good ones.

So instead they kept tugging, trying to get any bit of this accursed outfit off to somewhat salvage the situation. But nothing from gloves to greaves budged, it was less like they were clothes at all and more like they were a part of Zeydaan’s body. That was a thought they were not exactly comfortable with unpacking further, as accurate as it felt. After all, it wasn’t just the outfit.

There was a reason Zeydaan had stopped grumbling and cursing to themselves. It hadn’t taken very long at all for their voice to twist and shift, pitching up slightly with the accent shifting to sound scarily similar to a certain person. Their voice wasn’t quite Nia’s yet, but it was certainly close enough that it felt embarrassingly awkward for a single sound to escape Zeydaan’s muzzle. And deep down they just knew it was only the beginning.

And then Zeydaan’s blood ran cold with a single unfinished sentence.

“Oi! New guy, the others are laggin’ behind but I-”

There was silence for what felt like an eternity. Zeydaan couldn’t dare look up to meet Nia’s gaze. They had no clue what face she was making, what she was thinking, if she was about to hurl a chakram into their back and kill them on the spot for this.

“Wot the hell is goin’ on ‘ere!?” Nia exclaimed, “you’d best answer quickly!”

“I… uhh… Tora had your clothes and I-”

“Put them on?” Nia asked sharply.

“K-kinda…” Zeydaan stammered out, their own voice betraying them. It sounded so much like Nia’s, down to the accent.

“Kinda?! How can ya kinda put on someone’s bleedin’ clothes?! And quit tryin’ to copy my voice! It’s weird!”

“I ain’t! I mean, I’m not!” Zeydaan shook their head vehemently, “it’s.. It’s doin’ it on its own! I can’t stop it!”

It was then that Nia saw the crystal on Zeydaan’s chest. She paused for a moment, wincing with realization. She walked over, suddenly quite conflicted about the whole situation. Nervously, Zeydaan looked up to meet her eyes.

“Tora had… been trying to help me with a project,” Nia said quietly, “a way for me to both work on the team as a wielder and as a blade for Rex, both at the same time.”

“O-oh?”

“He had to scrap it when he realized the only way to do it was to essentially copy my core crystal’s data and implant this new crystal into someone else. I don’t know why the hell that stuff was just sittin’ out but… I reckon that’s what you’ve stumbled into.”

“A-and what can I do?” Zeydaan whimpered.

“Accept your fate? You’ve got a crystal now, you’re a blade. And, furthermore, you’re me,” Nia explained, “ain’t gonna be too long now until you’re me spitting image, probably gonna think just like me too.”

Zeydaan exhaled sharply, looking down at themself. They tugged at the sleeve of their outfit, finding that it miraculously moved. Of course it didn’t come off, none of it did. All this movement really did was taunt Zeydaan with a look at their arm and all the splotches of bare skin on it.

It wasn’t as simple as Zeydaan’s fur falling out. That would have almost been comforting, in some strange way. Not that they wanted to lose their fur mind you, but at least it falling out in messy clumps would have made sense. Fur operated like that, it was natural for it to fall out with time. They would not have wanted their fur to fall out, but if their fur was going to go anyways, they would have wanted it to be that way. Or maybe even someone shaving them, at least they’d have someone to blame then.

Instead it was as if the hair was growing in reverse. Each singular hair receded into Zeydaan’s skin, vanishing into nothing as soon as the hair was fully internalized. The sensation felt quite a bit like an itch, one that Zeydaan could not and would never be able to scratch. By the time the itch was gone, all that was left in that place was smooth, pale skin.

Nia’s attention drifted elsewhere, not exactly enjoying the visual of watching your face squish flat as it lost its fur. This was good for Zeydaan’s mental state, as it helped slow the inexorable spread of hot headed Gormotti girl thoughts. Their mind was mostly their own, which left Zeydaan in quite a strange- conflicted place. On the one hand, this was most certainly terrible. They were losing their body and their mind, turning into a replica of Nia! This wasn’t good, especially not with the knowledge that mental changes were coming down hard sooner than later.

And then Nia took the words out of their mouth.

“Y’know, the more I think about it, the more I think I’m fine with this,” Nia rubbed her chin, looking over at Zeydaan with an analytical glare.

“H-huh?” Zeydaan asked, their voice sounding like a confused echo of Nia’s by now. It was recognizable, but not as anything that should have come from Zeydaan’s mouth.

“Yeah,” Nia smirked, “having another o’ me running around was the plan in the first place! Tora only scrapped it because it wasn’t right to force someone to be me. Luckily you up ‘n volunteered!”

“Well I don’t want to be you!” Zeydaan insisted.

“Ya put on my clothes, didn’t ya?” Nia cocked her head, “I ain’t blaming ya for that, I get it. But don’t lie to me and say you don’t want to be me!”

“That’s…” Zeydaan exhaled sharply, unsure of what to say.

Nia took this moment of weakness and pounced in for the kill. She got up, sauntering over to Zeydaan and staring them dead in the eyes. Zeydaan flinched, feeling Nia’s hand brush against their now smooth, furless face. No matter how much they wanted to, there was no hiding Zeydaan’s excitement. It was in their eyes, in their body language, it was everything about them.

“Y’know, I think I suit ya well Nia,” purred the gormotti blade.

“D-don’t call me that,” Zeydaan huffed.

“Oh, yer right,” Nia nodded, “too confusin’! I’ll just call ya sis for now.”

“N-no, that’s not what I meant…”

“Aye, maybe ya didn’t,” Nia stroked the side of Zeydaan’s face slowly, “but I think yer gonna find me to be very agreeable very shortly. After all, we’re one and the same now. At least, we’re gonna be real soon~”

Her words were like honey dripping down Zeydaan’s ears. They shuddered, feeling said ears twitch as they shifted in color. Zeydaan’s hair was changing, smoothing out and growing out to be shoulder length. She pressed down on their nose, tracing its soft, small outline with a gloved finger.

“Yer gonna be me soon anyways, why not enjoy the ride?” Nia purred.

“Yer right…” Zeydaan conceded, closing their eyes as they let the feeling overtake them.

There wasn’t much of Zeydaan’s body left at all at that point, a bit of fur here and there that vanished within seconds at most. Their tail was gone, any hints at animalistic claws or paws were hidden beneath those boots, if any traces remained at all. From head to toe it was Nia that stood there in Nia’s arms. And now the mind was fully starting to go, to trickle away down the drain.

It was impossible to deny that some part of them was loving this. Zeydaan was certainly standing in such a way to mask their crotch, to obscure their excitement at the whole situation. And if Zeydaan’s natural inclination to such things wasn’t bad enough, the mental changes were already making them fairly eager. After all, why wouldn’t they want to be Nia? Nia was smart, sassy, practically perfect! It was an honor to be Nia, they just needed to accept it…

And it was as simple as that. When Zeydaan opened their amber eyes again they were no longer Zeydaan. It was just Nia. She blinked, looking at the original with some manner of confusion before her face stretched into a catty grin.

“Oi, that was really clever of ya, leaving Tora’s scrapped prototype for that fella to find,” the new Nia mused.

“I could tell they were interested the moment I laid eyes on ‘em,” the original scoffed, “not that I’m surprised they were so eager to be me.”

“I can confirm, I feel like this is a remarkable improvement,” the new Nia mused, “so, which of us is gonna do what?”

“You get to be ‘Nia’, the Nia they’ve been traveling with all this time, and I’m gonna be Rex’s new blade Nia. Gonna convince him it was a Pyra/Mythra sort of deal.”

“Ooh, now that’s smart sounding enough that Rex’ll just eat it up! That idiot~”

Both Nias sighed wistfully, hiding a blush at the expense of their bumbling yet loveable leader.

“Anyways, the others should be back here soon, I’m gonna change into my proper look and show up later tonight. When you see me, act like yer soul is splittin’ in two or something, really ham it up. We’ll make it work!”

“Aye,” the new Nia nodded, waving off her other half as she disappeared into the woods.

The new Nia sat back and sighed happily. Some part of her was still Zeydaan in there, you couldn’t just fully erase a mind. In fact, that’s probably part of why she was so happy with all of this, she was still Zeydaan to a degree. And now she was Nia, forever linked with someone who was practically the same person. And she’d get to travel with Rex and the gang now, and even be able to fight! She’d never be alone again, and that was pretty great by her book.