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Perspective: Julia

I could feel the sweat trickle through my fur as I weaved the soccer ball between my legs, adrenaline pumping through my system as I focused almost all of my awareness was on the goal at the end of the field, but slivers of it reserved for-

A doe slid down on the grass to try and kick the ball away from me to a waiting owl teammate. I shifted my legs, kicking the ball backward to leave her lunging for air as I detoured around her.

-Other players that wanted the ball to not make it inside the goal just as badly. I used my spry yellow-furred legs to dodge past similar assailants until she was in the best position, and then reared back to smack the black and white checkerboard ball with the side of my foot. It was the perfect angle as it veered off to the side and the diving goalie was just out of reach, landing in the grass as the ball stretched the fabric of the net. With that point scored, the defender huffed before she dragged herself out of the grass, and positions on the field reset. The ball was tossed toward the center of the field, and I waited with the rest of the team on their side of the field for kick-off to take place and the frenzied movement of the ball by either side to begin again.

I took a sip of my water bottle as the other players made their way to the gate out of the field in front of the library, padding my forehead with a towel.Huh, usually I didn't sweat that much for these.

As I tried to think of why, my best guess rolled around to Emmet's little game session last night. We had gone pretty late, right? Not enough so that the "star player" for the soccer team had fallen behind, no way; But enough to make her consider maybe asking Emmet if they were gonna do those "Dungeons and Dragons" sessions again, to try and cut them a little shorter. I didn't really care too much about the sport, but I was good at it, so I guess I'd take the prestige that came with the gold trophies decorating the shelves of my room.

It'd been nice trying out the game, I guess. Not like I had a lot else going on outside of classes and this, especially since I'd turned down the opportunity to go pro anyway. And I mean, sure the other girls were nice, but there always felt like there was a feeling of separation between me and them as they had to work harder than I did to be good at the game. For them, it was a passion, but for me...

I dunno. It was more like a time filler, ever since I was a kid that's what it'd always been for me. I mean, doing it kept me fit at least, and people at least knew me for it, but still. Between the public health degree I was working on and this, it felt like something was...missing. Something I couldn't describe. I sighed as I directed my thoughts away from that. I had another reason for still being here after all.

I looked up to the towering front of Jacob University Library. The clock was massive, looming over the soccer field, and casting a shadow that reached to the other edge of the grass as the setting sun framed itself in a glow behind it. The library was practically a staple of the collegetown aside from the stadium the football team played in. Made around the 1800's and weathered the waves of time with a couple renovations to serve as one of the visit sites they usually took potential students to in the fall.

I wiped some more of the sweat off my yellow and black-spotted fur as I tried to consider what I was trying to find. It'd figure they'd have something dungeons and dragons related, right? The game had been around since the 80's, so the library probably had some of the sourcebooks or something. Even if Emmet had found his game at the back of some thrift shop or whatever, there was still probably something I could draw from to play her wizard better. I'd grab that quick, then head back to my room to get started on my calc homework (bleh) before the day wrapped up.

It was dry at first, but after getting a little further into the manual the hours seemed to blend into minutes as I read. I turned a page from the manual as I sat by one of the tables at the entrance, the clock ticking idly by. I'd been lucky they'd had a sourcebook on hand, the other ones were either checked out or midway through ordering for the other people at the school interested in the game. Flipping another page I read more of the basics for how to play, and I'll admit it held my attention, my eyebrows staying raised with each new piece of information.

So she could actually switch out her list of spells everyday? That was kinda cool. And the fact that in the game she needed to have a free hand or staff for her spells to work was at least something to keep in mind when she was playing again, she guessed. Though, remembering her sheet, some of the ones she wrote down almost definitely needed components she probably didn't have as a level one character? She'd talk to Emmet about it. And looking at what the "dexterity" stat did had revealed that maybe leaving the five she'd rolled as a dump stat probably wasn't a good idea...

But still! For finding out what she did wrong, she'd found some nice tidbits of trivia and all. And she'd even been able to think of an example name for her character's wizard school! "Evergriths Institute of Magic." That kinda rolled off the tongue right?

I rubbed my eyes before I checked the time on my phone, before wincing slightly. Okay, I'd definitely failed at the "grabbing quick" part. If I left now maybe I could get a start on her calc stuff and then bullshit some answers for the morning class. Picking the book and the rest of my stuff up, I moved to the exit, but not before freezing in front of one of the windows. I couldn't stop myself from huffing, frustrated. Since last night I'd felt kind of bloated, but looking in the mirror-image of the window made me stop for a second and feel over minor amounts of tone on her stomach. I was still pretty skinny overall, but that poochy bit of fat covering the tone on my stomach from the last night was still there from when I'd looked at it unbelievingly last night. I mean, I wasn't die-hard for cardio when I could breeze through most of it, but I still couldn't have actually put on some weight, had I?

I shook my head. Whatever, it was still probably bloating from the chips or whatever. I wasn't gonna think about it right now, I still had to get home and get started on the homework. And eat, most importantly. She may not have had a light lunch, but the soccer game must've taken more out of me than I realized with how starved I felt. Shoving the book under my arm, I considered what to try making tonight as I walked towards the checkout counter. Maybe some egg-fried rice? That sounded alright.

Still, despite being hungry, my mind couldn't help but drift back to the sourcebook in my possession and the new information about the game I'd learned. There hadn't exactly been instructions on how to really "play" my wizard, mainly set piece information, which to be fair, was what I had come here for in the first place. Still, I could feel a sort of itch of curiosity grow from what the handbook had provided me.

There were the podcasts I'd heard about before, right? Maybe I'd try finding one or two I could stand to listen to...

---

"...And Eric, that ends your turn! Julia, you're up."

I straightened up in my seat, putting down my second soda of the night.

My turn. I tried to take stock of the situation first, more than just calling an attack on a random enemy like it'd felt like I'd done the first time. Four of the undead in the dungeon were down. Eric's last action had shoved the last one to the floor as the two were trying to overpower Aster's barbarian and Luke's warlock. The paper map on the table reflected that, with their icons spread around a low-res printout of a dilapidated town with a square overlay. "...Emmet, are the undead within 15 feet of each other?"

"Well, like I said before, the squares are 5x5." He explained again. "And they are pretty clustered, so...yeah! You got something big?"

I checked my spell list, moving the chip bowl from where I'd been cleaned out see. Next to it was the spiral I'd started bringing to sessions for writing down notes for the sessions alongside the main bits of the sourcebook before I'd had to return it to the library. "...Could I move back a bit and cast Thunderwave without hitting everyone else?"

Emmet nodded. "Go ahead. Those are constitution saves on me, right?"

As he got the dice rolling I sat up a little straighter, proud of myself. The next few weeks of playing had left me in a much better position playing wise as I began to pick up how to best play my character. Re-orienting my character to have better fitting spells was her first action of the last session, and as they cleared out the bandits from their first quest, Emmet had given us level two to get more of the ball rolling with their roles within the party. Two more sessions later exploring around Gerem and investigating some undead hordes popping up and it felt like I was really starting to get the hang of what a wizard could do. And how fragile they could be if they had to go last on the turn order.

Stupid dexterity. At least later I'd be able to use my intelligence stat as a substitution for it later. Emmet raised his eyebrows as the dice finished clattering behind the screen, before looking back up at me. "...So how do you wanna do this?"

Ooh! Big coup de grace moment! "Okay, so first-"

I blinked as I considered how I wanted to describe my action, but when I opened my green eyes again, the table was gone. The scenery around me was the dilapidated village surrounded by forest Emmet had described us arriving to as per the old innkeepers directions. The smell of the rotten flesh mixed with the humidity of the forest was as real to me as the smell of the cheap snacks and the must of the basement carpet from the room before. In my mind, I could feel my other self, my player self, describing what I was doing, but standing there it felt like I was really more narrating my own thoughts as she raised her staff and pointed it at the cluster of undead. Julia, too, could feel the evenly carved oak of the heel with the leather wrapped around it to hold, as real as the plastic of the dice was a moment ago.

I could even see everyone as their characters! Well, to a degree at least. Eric clad in some sort of ill-fitting armor, Aster almost comically undersized in the loincloth of his barbarian, and Luke certainly filling out an odd image as his masculine frame stretched out the black cloak of his warlock. I could almost feel myself struggling to fill in the dense robes of my sage, almost made for someone much, (or at least wider) and a pair of large spectacles over my nose, able to see through them crystal clearly despite the thick lenses inside.

Ignoring that, I focused back on following my own narration. Hefting the staff, a sphere of air seemed to manifest itself at the end of the arcane focus, pressurizing itself smaller and smaller as I kept my attention focused on them through the ovoid lens, until-!

The sphere launched itself like a softball out of a pitching machine, compacting briefly into the ground between the zombies. There was only a brief second for them to notice before the sphere quashed, and the tension ruptured. A thunderous boom rang out, and I had to lift the sleeve of my coat to cover her face as gore was sent flying. As the undead flesh splattered, I put the sleeve back down to see her handiwork. The zombies were-

"-All defeated! Nice job guys." I was snapped back to reality as Emmet outro'd the fight. Taking a second to blink, I even shook my head as I got my bearings. I could feel the gaze of the table on me as I rubbed my green eyes with my hands.

"...Hey. You're okay, right?" At first, I couldn't tell who had asked, but looking across the table I was surprised to see everyone else look at Eric as if he was the one who'd asked. The bull, from the few times I'd had to interact with him at the table, seemed more like the type to laugh at someone for that and make a joke about them having some dust in their eye or something than ask if they were alright. True enough, I could see him look up and roll his eyes afterwards. "Well, we can't keep playing if you're having a fuckin' mini-stroke over there..."

I blinked again, looking back up at Emmet and the table. My vision seemed a little...less clear now, as I tried to focus on the border collie. Almost blurrier? I blinked and my vision seemed to return to normal, though it still felt like some of the pictures on the edge of the mantle far away were still sort of cloudy. "...Yeah, I'm fine. I just think some dust got in my eye there, my bad." The grandeur of the hallucination faded as well as I convinced myself that the sights and smells she'd just witnessed were the consequence of letting my imagination run a bit too wild there. I took a deep breath. "Let's just keep going."

...

The next morning was a groggy one to wake up to. The weight on my stomach served to get me the rest of the way lucid as I was met with my stickered laptop cracked open, sitting on my midsection. Why had I...? A quick tap on the spacebar revealed the answer as power fluttered back into the screen. A reddit thread about the specific kinds of builds for wizards with her stats sent the memories of the last night back to me in a rush. As well as the realization there was a half eaten granola bar sitting on my chest that I'd forgotten to finish last night. With a hand I brushed off into the garbage can next to the bed, the smaller crumbs smattering on the sheets.

In any case, the end of the session had gotten rough with us being swarmed by more of the zombies as the town's necromancer revealed himself. My-her lack of a good initiative and weak armor had led to her getting KO'd during the fight, though Aster had been willing to step up with his barbarian to carve them a path out. Still, it had been a wake-up call to see how I really wanted to build my wizard since "spell slinging acrobat" was kind of proven to be out of the question now. Might as well go in the other direction, right?

I snatched up the journal to my right that I'd knocked away in my sleep, and set the computer off to the side so I could get up and get ready for classes. I'd really been on a high note with my studies, for some reason. I thought about it a little more.

Maybe having some kind of background noise or story distracted me from getting flustered with the new material? Acting as a sort of...distraction while the thinking part of my brain could try and piece everything together. Studying felt better with it in the background, at least.

Standing up, I stretched out in her pajama bottoms before moving to the wardrobe. Surprisingly, the weight on my laptop kinda hadn't left? As I pulled off the old t-shirt I used for sleeping in, I noted how my stomach stretched just a little over the waistband, and the creamy dappled thickness of my thighs as I pulled off my pants. I pressed a hand into the pocket of fat on my stomach, feeling it press in, something setting off alarm bells in my brain, but at the same time I couldn't quite place why.

I guess I'd always been kind of chubby, right? Sure it made me a little slower but I could still keep up with everybody else when I had to do sports over the summer growing up. And I mean, sure I'd put on a little during freshman and sophomore year, but who didn't? Wasn't that why I was part of the soccer club anyway?

If not that, at least it filled up an afternoon I'd just use for listening to more podcasts anyway. Assuaging the tingle in my nerves that something was off, I continued getting dressed, until my gaze to the bed where I could see my phone vibrating as it received a text.

Huh, it was the team again. They were asking if I'd be at practice today after I'd skipped the last one. With fair reason! I thought defensively. I'd been on a roll with studying and hadn't noticed the time. Sure I liked playing for the team but I did have a degree to focus on. The elemental table poster on the back was a good study tool for that as I prioritized the STEM parts of my public health degree. Better to just get them out of the way, right?

I looked to some of the trophies I'd kept on the shelf of my room, but did a double take as what I thought were gold first places were bronzed 3rd place and qualifier trophies instead. Again the feeling that something was off ticked again in my head, but at the same time as I tried to remember when I'd gotten them, the memories of losing at districts and getting knocked out of the early brackets again during soccer tournaments reared it's head. Most of the time, the teams I was playing on were at least average, and no one person had the skill to really elevate us beyond that. I certainly didn't anyway, with the pudge on me inhibiting my fitness at least a bit.

Shaking those old memories away, I focused back on the club, the guilt from missing the practices replacing the confusion.

...It also probably didn't help last week I'd been listening to a podcast in the background that got me into the groove of things. Maybe it was weird, but lately it'd just been so easy to lose myself in the monotony of studying, almost like I had won something as after enough repetition and studying synapses in my brain lined up chemistry formulas or equations into something that made sense.

Gah, that felt so nerdy to say.

Feeling bad, I texted them back to let them know I'd be there today at the usual start time, and finished getting dressed, tying my bedhead back into a bun so I could get a move on. I could still see my more slim fitting tank-top from freshman year. Maybe keeping at it with soccer would help me fit into that a little better, heh. Opting for a better fitting shirt instead, I hefted my bag up over her shoulder, leaving the apartment for my first, and usually most dreaded class of the day: Calculus.

The lecture hall was as loud as it usually was in the mornings. People grumbling about having to get up early, pouring coffee out their thermoses, people hurriedly trying to get down some answers to say they'd done the homework (like I'd done a few weeks ago), that kind of thing. To my surprise, I spotted Aster come through the entrance to take a seat near the middle of the class. Had I always shared the class with him?

I walked over to his row, sitting next to him as the class started. He had kind of a sour expression as he looked back over the already filled out problem sheet. I tapped him on the shoulder. His surprise was easy to see as he looked up.

"Julia! Hey, I...uh. Didn't know you had this class?" He said, confused. "Uhm, with me, I mean." He seemed less nervous than when I'd met him in the first session of Emmet's game. Still nervous, but didn't trail off quite so often when he wasn't sure of a sentence.

"I didn't know either! Maybe we just missed each other or something?" I sat down next to him, scooting in the chair to press into my stomach, before I adjusted it. "I kinda thought you'd be in physics or something, not general calculus."

He looked at me confused. "General calculus? This is Calculus Two."

I blinked. "Calc tw- it's 10am, right? That's...that's when I'm supposed to have general, I think."

Aster showed me his worksheet. I knew the equations from when I worked on them last night, but near the top it did say it was the second level calc class. I pulled out my own worksheet from my backpack. Sure enough, it had the same heading.

I frowned. "Huh, that's...weird." I could've sworn I was in the basic class. Or...was that last year? Had I gotten them confused?

I felt Aster nudge me. "Professors ready," he said quietly.

Shelving that for later, I dug around my backpack to get out a notebook. I came out with the spiral I was using for my DnD notes, but as the professor started over the powerpoint of notes, I realized it'd have to do for now. Flipping to an open page I tried to write down the information on the screen but the blurriness from last night seemed to return as I was squinting to make anything out. I rubbed them again, to little effect. Why was my eyesight still so bad?

"Hey, Aster, do you mind if I- Aster?" I stopped, seeing him. The calico seemed to be struggling to get down what the professor was saying, scrunching his eyes together like he had some kind of headache. "Are you okay?"

He rubbed his face. "I- yeah. I'm fine. Just a migraine or something from staying up playing last night, I guess? Having a little trouble focusing is all. Don't worry about it."

I nodded. "Well I'm...having some trouble seeing the presentation, so I think I'm gonna move up a bit, if that's fine."

He nodded, and I pushed out my chair to find somewhere I could see better. The middle sections were all occupied, so it really only left the front for me to find an open space as I sat down while the teacher was on the other side of the hall. Briefly, there was some worry as I remembered what Aster had said. The class was definitely second level calculus, but as the professor flashed between slides I found myself being able to follow everything like I did on the worksheet, and again my memories felt like they lined up as the kind of presentation felt vaguely familiar to the one I attended last week. It all lined up so...I guess I really must've been mistaken about the level I was at?

Regardless, I cracked open the journal again and got to writing, following along as he moved to the next slide. Still though, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

---

I browsed down the section of the library, trying to find the manuals I hadn't read before. Xanthar's guide to monsters, Contanmiak's collection of characters, the United Realms guide manual, all ones I'd practically devoured with my interest for DnD. It was almost redundant considering how I'd been playing since I was in highschool anyway. I could do a cursory re-read but really what was the point? I'd studied most of them so much I'd memorized the rules anyway.

My perusing continued down the shelf until I landed a couple I hadn't seen before. 'Gerem's Line of Kings: a Documentation of Past Rulers" and "Malthussian's Guide to Arcane Expertise'. Some kind of...lore book and additional spellcaster content?! I gasped, but couldn't stop the twinge of excitement as my boulder of tummy bulged against my legs from bending down to peel the two off the shelf. My robes were usually pretty snug, custom made for my weight, but there was the light feeling of strain as my belly rode against the stitches. Ignoring the feeling of the robe as it pressed into me, I stood up quickly with the books both in my grasp.

I picked up the two, finding a free table to sit down in before I cracked them open. I greedily open 'Malthussian's Guide to Arcane Expertise' first. There were dozens of wizard spells laid out cleanly, with components the chants for cantrips and spells large and small, from prestidigitation to Meteor Swarm. I frantically dug out my spellbook, flipping past the bookmarked and dog-eared pages full of my writing to begin taking as many notes as I could for the incantations listed in the tomes pages. The specific circuit patterns for the spells, substitute components, notes from previous practitioners

As I was looking over Gerem's Line of Kings, something suddenly struck me. Gerem was the land of our module, wasn't it? At first I assumed they could've been related, but then I remembered what Emmet had said about not finding any materials for the module outside of everything in the chest itself. So what was this doing here...?

My questions faded as I started reading, adjusting the thick glasses on my nose. It was fascinating as the book detailed the old nobility of the land and its history. Land wars between old families that escalated to absurd sizes, descriptions and artistic depictions of nobles and dignitaries from times past, obituaries of despots kind and cruel that managed the lands with their respective wisdom and iron fists. There was the unmistakable sound of a dice being dropped onto a table that caught my attention briefly. Was someone having a session here? I craned my neck around, but didn't hear or see anyone else that looked like they were. I ducked my nose back into the pages as I went back to the book.

As I did, a certain name caught my attention: 'Larrachis', the lost city of King Bren. It was revered for its practice of magic, to the point of being thought of as the 'Eternal City'. Though, it didn't seem the name had helped considering the next passage remarked to its sudden disappearance over a hundred years ago. It reminded me of something Emmet had described during the campaign when we'd gotten through the zombie overrun town. Wasn't the necromancer at the head wondering something about it? I couldn't help the curiosity that flooded me as I tried to find out more as I flipped back to the index trying to find more mention of it. Was it an earthquake? Were the ruins ever discovered? I flipped to another page, hungry for more.

My stomach growled, interrupting my search under the curve in the robe it filled out. I blushed. It appeared I was hungry for more than just knowledge, really, but for now I needed to stay focused. There had to be more-

"Ah hell, so they have advantage on me for this?"

It was like waking from a dream as the voice of Eric seemed to slam like a freight train against my thoughts. The library gone, the walls reduced to the confined space of Emmet's basement again as the books in front of me, and the light drifting in from the windows darkened to the yellow of the fluorescent bulbs above the table. Instead of the thick stacks of leather-bound paper like they'd never been there in the first place, one hand resting on my character sheet, though marred with grease stains, while the other one was reaching into one of the 3 pizza boxes in the middle of the table that was already half-empty, me and Eric getting our own with how heavily we tended to snack during Emmet's sessions. I retracted my hand as I tried to get my bearings but I couldn't stop from eyeing it as the hunger pangs from the daydream had followed me.

Emmet shrugged apologetically. "I know you've got a good con modifier my man, but low rolls are low rolls."

He huffed begrudgingly. "Nah, I get it. I'm just getting dogpiled from the other guys here with their fuckin' bard getting me too. You sure there's nothing I can do?"

Emmet looked down at his own paper, and then stood up to try and glimpse Eric's sheet. "Noooot that I'm aware of? I'm a little unsure of the advantage call myself, though."

...Right. Tonight was game night. I felt something on my face as the two talked, something unfamiliar. I gently removed them, but my vision immediately worsened as I did- almost totally unable to see the bull and collie as they conversed about the call. Despite the blurriness, I was able to recognize them as glasses. Sure my vision was bad, but did I really need these?

Well I kind of did, really I begrudgingly accepted. My contacts had run out last night and even though I didn't usually wear them, I needed something to see.

"Uhm." My voice wobbled a bit, unsure as the dream's last remnant broke apart. There was an almost nasally quality to my voice too, and despite my attempt to clear it, remained afterwards. "...I think I spaced out for a second. What's happening right now?"

"I believe they started a fight dear," Luke- I paused correcting myself- Lily mused; Blinking innocently and showcasing the black eyeshadow across their eyelids. "Some tempers might've been raised when Aster beat one of the patrons in an arm wrestling competition."

"...Oh yeah, right." Slowly it came back to me. We'd split up, me and Lily going to check out the library while Eric and Aster went to check out the pub to see if there were any whispers going around from other people who'd had to fight the undead.

"He started it..." Aster grumbled, the muscular calico sitting back in his tank top that showed off the curves of his hard earned muscle from countless nights in the gym.

"That didn't mean we needed to escalate it." The beefy older bull said firmly. "Especially when we came looking for information."

"Well I ain't just gonna get punched!" The tough feline growled irritatedly. "If they wanted a fight, I'll give 'em-"

"Az?" Emmet interrupted, flipping through the book again. "I...actually don't remember if it's advantage or not for someone attacking a prone target in 5e. It's automatic, right?"

The question seemed to knock him off his game as he had to take a second to think. He took on a familiar expression as he rubbed his temples again. "Uhh...I guess? Don't really remember. This fuckin' migraine I've had for the last week has been killing my memory lately." He waved his hand over dismissively. "Yeah, sure."

Wait, that was...wrong. I found myself raising a hand before I could stop myself, getting Emmet's attention. "Is it a close-range attack or a long range one more than five feet?"

"...Long range? At least six feet."

"Then if Eric's been knocked prone, the attack actually has disadvantage," I said, pushing the glasses up my nose. "By 5e, the logic is since he's on the ground and therefore a smaller target, he should be harder to hit."

"Eyyy!" Eric leaned over, his gut moving the table as he leaned over to give me a high-five. "Give me five for that, Jules!" I stood up too, feeling a brief sense of freedom as I wrenched my fat thighs free from the seat, feeling them jiggle under my sweatpants. I'd need to switch chairs soon with how difficult it was getting to fit my overall tubbiness in the chair. Leaning on the table too, I high-fived him, but sat back embarrassed as the table creaked under our combined weights, and feeling the texture of the paper as met my soft tummy spilled out onto the table. At least Eric's was a combination of fat and muscle, a firm roundness highlighted by the bulk of his arms as the t-shirt over it kept the bearded bull's soft yet muscle-lined stomach covered. If Aster was focused on some roided out bodybuilders routine, Eric must've been doing the same one for powerlifting with the power his bulk exuded. Meanwhile, mine was almost pure lard as the graphic tee emblazoned with my favorite fantasy novel barely covered the roll of my stomach peeking out from the bottom. I remembered poking into it once before, and feeling my finger sink in like it was just one big marshmallow.

Nervously, I grabbed another slice box closest to me on the table, chewing nervously through the greasy, cheesy confection while Emmet rolled for the bar fight. "Huh, looks like he misses the disintegration spell, thank god. You'll be able to get up on your next turn." Under his breath I could hear him muttering. "I gotta go back and look at the spell lists of some of these NPC's, I swear."

I could feel Lily nudge me with her shoulder next to me. "It seems like we're gonna do the brunt of the info gathering again it seems. Seems like you got more than enough, Julie-bear."

I looked down at my DnD journal. It had gone from a normal spiral notebook to a faux-leather bound journal, almost like the one my character ingame used. I could see my notes on Gerem, Larachis and the spell forms I'd written down safely tucked inside alongside my other notes from school that surprisingly, didn't seem out of place among the arcanic fantasy equations. "Um, yeah!" I said, recounting what I'd figured out to the table. "The books there mentioned this ancient city I think might be connected to the undead we've been seeing recently, and the runes for some of the city's language seemed to match-"

"Julia." Emmet interrupted me, raising an eyebrow. "Metagaming?"

I flushed, and sheepishly rubbed my scalp, feeling my hand go through the long frumpy curls of my hair. "Sorry, Emmet. Got a little excited there n' all..."

"It's fine, just wait 'til these clowns are back, alright?"

Eric chuckled while Aster seemed to huff at the poked fun. "Just lemme know when it's my turn again, okay?" The calico said. "I gotta pay these dudes back for messing up my drink."

The session continued as usual, as we were able to reconvene after their little bar fight incident with me and Lily returning with what we'd learned, but I was kept from completely immersing back into the fantasy as I started another bite, and had to scoot my chair back again. I could swear I could almost feel the overflow of tummy fat push out a little more like an encroaching landslide as I continued my snacking. Well, c'mon; It was game night! I assured myself as I hungrily took another slice. Emmet already picked up the individual pies for me and Eric knowing our appetites, so really the damage was already done.

Besides, soccer practice was tomorrow when I could (well more would have to) work it off, so why not live a little?

...

I looked myself over in the mirror of my apartment, making sure I at least looked presentable, pulling down on my shirt to try and cover my stomach, to little effect as the clothing reformed back to it's original shape and my gut wobbled out in plain view below it. I hadn't even remembered the last time I'd worn this workout gear before. My bra wasn't doing any favors as my pancake tits forced the shirt to ride up over the navel.

The basketball around my hammy thighs both felt too short for my legs and too small as I felt the weave pressing into my thighs uncomfortably. I reached a spare hand to pull the wedgie out of my ass as the seams had an almost conscious intent to find their way there. I tugged at the hairband around my forehead, keeping the long tangled curls from becoming completely unmanageable as I knew the exercise would make them bounce around.

Had the last time I'd worn this been in highschool? Glancing back at the few sports participation trophies between all my academic excellence ones on the shelf, that seemed like the best guess. Still though, the memory was hazy as I tried to recall it, feeling more like it could've even been closer to middle school the last time I tried. I almost felt embarrassed I still had the trophies the more I considered their place along the shelf next to ones announcing honor roll and stellar attendance. I must've signed up for the club more out of a fit of nostalgia than anything else, remembering how it at least didn't seem like I was bad at it before.

But then again, the last time I'd played, I probably wasn't over 300 pounds of cheetah, so...

Ngh, c'mon. You need to do this, I told myself. You can't just keep dodging the emails for the practices. I'd been skipping out on the club for a while now, and a part of me loathed leaving the room to go outside, but there was some nagging part of me that felt like I at least needed to try out for the team. I kept trying to hype myself up for it as I emptied my physics notebooks and extra credit homework out of my bag. It'd been...easy enough before when I'd done it in highschool or something, right? And anyways, I'd just be inside anyway, right?

The last thought was more forlorn as my gaze drifted to my laptop. I remembered the 'Fantasy Theater' fanfic I'd saved last night before I went to bed. It had over a thousand upvotes, and I'd already gone through some of the comments that praised it as 'true to the characters' and 'one of the lewdest things I'd ever read.' I bit my lip just thinking about it.

...But the soccer club, first. I was...going to try the soccer club. And have fun or something. But once it was over I could sit down, order a pizza and take my sweet time with the raunchy coupling of Ven Digero, Knight of Tazria and Ronna Simaro, herald of Helios. His wavy locks draping over her inviting form as she ran a hand down his rippling abs...

I shivered, snorting in delight before I calmed myself down. C'mon Julia, I raised my hands and slowly pushed them back down like I was pushing an imaginary lever, Keep it together. You just...gotta make it through practice first.

Heaving the backpack over my shoulder, I left the room, at least determined to get through it to come back for my fanfiction and studies. Who knows, maybe I might even have fun?

I'd been here an hour and there was no way I was having fun, I thought to myself as I was bent over, gasping for air. I was caked in sweat and I could barely hear the yells of the other players past my pulse pounding in my ears. The stares and the whispering had been humiliating enough as they'd seen me in my ill-fitting athletic clothing, and it felt even worse as the sweat forced the already too-small clothing to cling to every part of my body like a damp cling wrap. as the game had started, and it must've been either pathetic or laughable to see the 'fat girl' try and keep up with everyone else, having to stop one sluggish, body-jostling step after another before I was forced to come a sweaty halt and change direction as the ball was stolen by the other team. I felt more like an obscene parody of the speed cheetahs were known for, too slow to even keep up with the pace of the game. It was like every fold on my body flopped around as I forced myself do more running than I usually ever did in a single year, and my legs screaming, begging to know why I would subject them to this torture.

I was having trouble providing a solid answer to that, as I felt drip sweat drip onto the grassy field. I must've been deluding myself before if I thought this was 'fun'. You know what was 'fun'? Curling up on my bed with a nice video to watch and banging out hours of studying for an exam of complex equations relating to the forces of the world itself, while you listened to a team of masterful writers craft a heroic tale that could inspire generations of storytellers. Fun was researching the deep and complicated history of a land with a history so unique to your own it was practically alien, and then the sumptuous thrill of beginning to understand the lore as every individual tangent fit together. Fun was curling up on my bed with some nice greasy food, and reading about about two of my favorite fantasy characters fucking each other r-

The soccer ball suddenly came into my line of sight a couple yards away, bouncing to a stop in the middle of the field. I could almost see the sun cast god-rays around it as it was perfectly placed in the center of my vision. Still wheezing, I stood back up and pushed my sore legs forward, fuelled almost purely by my determination to ignore the swaying of my stomach and chafe of my thighs as they rubbed together with every step. I needed something out of this. Eventually I got close enough to the ball, and almost in slow motion, I raised my leg back as far as I could to kick the black-and-white checkered sphere and actually contribute something-

Before another player, a lean lynx slid down in front of me, jackknifing the ball to her teammate before I could follow through. I stumbled forward as she slid out of the way, trying to regain my footing but to little avail as my wide girth had been given momentum and little warning to stop. I tumbled down into the grass, feeling my body ripple in waves as I hit the ground with a hard thud, my glasses flying out in front of me.

Steadily, I pulled myself up from the ground, eyes blurry with tears from both the humiliation and the loss of what I needed to see. As I slipped them back on, I could hear some barely concealed laughs from the far end of the field, with some hushes from the other players. By then, I supposed it didn't matter too much as my decision was made. Sore, tired, sweaty, dirty, and utterly humiliated, I plodded off the field as the game resumed, ignoring the sounds of the players yelling amongst each other again as the frenzy for the ball continued without me.

I picked up my backpack, and ripped open one of the chocolate chip granola bars, shoving it inside my mouth as I plodded off the field. Already I could feel my embarrassment beginning to drown beneath the honeyed oats and the sweet chocolate chips. Digging my phone out of the front pocket along with another granola bar, I deleted the group chat for the soccer club. I didn't need the reminders for when practices were happening now, I definitely wouldn't be going back. I could feel the chocolate stain my whiskers as I kept walking, and my stomach strain against the shirt as I dug through bar after bar to avail my shame, but I didn't care as I kept moving. Driven now to get back home and do something I'd actually enjoy.

Pushing through the entrance to the apartment, I peeled the greasy workout clothes off me, leaving me in my underwear as I continued my preparations for the night. Walking over to the fridge, I elbowed over the other leftovers as I sought my prize: the greasy chinese food I'd had a couple days ago. Elbowing the fridge shut, I finally gave my stressed hamstrings some relief as I plopped down on the bed, digging a fork into the day-old chow mein while my other hand deftly swiped over the keyboard to log myself in. As I clicked on the fic's link, one hand moved to shift my panties down for easy access but only a little for the early stages, readying my puffy stubbled sex for easy access as it laid unseen beyond the soft wall of my stomach.

Had I been paying attention, I might've noticed how the room shifted, the participation trophies almost melting into the shadows as their form changed to minor trophies for more academic achievements and the walls filled with more nerdy posters for obscure fantasy series. My last pair of workout clothing on the floor seemed to unravel, bunching up into a bigger pile as the slim pair of shorts and dry-weave shirt became another large t-shirt with a character from my favorite isekai emblazoned on it, just big enough I could barely squeeze into.

The next hour was a rush of noodles, pleasure, and words as I followed along with the fic. True enough to the reviews, the author had done a good job of maintaining their personalities as they seduced one another. It almost enhanced the experience by how easy it was to imagine them in character. As the story's lewdness made itself aware, I put down the fork I was using to shovel noodles into my maw, and hiked my underwear down further to relieve the lust brewing inside me, sliding a finger inside to toy with myself as my mountain of a stomach seemed to swell larger as the cheap noodles digested.

The memories of the humiliation from the practice seemed to slowly fade away as the words on the page replaced them and the mounting lust steadily brought to a climax, their process quickening as the story viscerally described the knight and the prophets' sex, until in the haze of lust and my imagining of the erotica scene could barely remember why I had been so upset in the first place.

---

My hand brushed aside more of the graphic tees and loose-fitting sweatpants I usually wore as I dug around for the final pieces of my wizard costume. I had everything else ready; I just needed the finishing touches. I tossed some spare dirty clothes aside as I dug around the bottom of the wardrobe. If it wasn't there, then where had I left it?

I stood up, walking with thumping footsteps over to the mirror, checking behind it briefly before I left to try somewhere else. Had I actually looked at myself in it, I might've noticed how I'd ballooned even more from my binge night a month ago. My doughy stomach hung over the edge of the pants I usually wore now, the landslide of dough fulfilling its promise as it cascaded over my thighs. Again my largest shirt was reduced to a mockery as it was forced to ride up on it like a cowboy barely staying on some sort of amorphous bull, and the definition of my bra was visible as my shirt clung to it, making my breasts bulge embarrassingly through it. The back was just tight enough to see the clips and straps through it, and the rolls of back fat curling over one another like thick stacked pancakes.

My hair was about as unruly as it always was, a curly rat's nest that I managed to finagle into a ponytail every morning so I at least didn't have strands getting in my eyes when I was trying to study. I'd considered a haircut, but lately it'd been harder and harder to try and see if I could fit the fizzy mess into some kind of braid like 'Tyrene from King's Game: Oath of Shadows' wore.

I'd closed the thigh and knee gap as my thighs brushed up against each other, filling out my sweatpants XL to the brim with my bulbous ass as the slack was completely used up, making them look more like ill-fitting tights than anything. Huffing as I bent down to knock aside some pillows, I felt a stitch on the back of my sweats break before I could stand back up.

"Okay, calculations definitely support the hypothesis that I need to go shopping again..." I grumbled, vainly trying to close the tear with one hand, before it spilled open with pany-clothed assflesh again. Well, shopping was a strong word. Walking around the mall at my size was humiliating, so I just tended to order the largest sizes online anyways. Left me more time for studying anyway.

"Ah-ha!" I bent down as far as I could with my stomach squishing against itself. The last piece of my costume, the arcane focus I needed to cast my spells, was poking out from underneath the bed. After a couple failed swipes, I grabbed it- pulling the long solid branch I'd found a couple days ago on my trip to the library out from under the bed. What was a wizard without her arcane focus, after all?

I put that next to the rest of the costume on my bed, and got started on the arduous task of getting dressed. I piled up my casual clothes near the end of the bed, while I leaned back on the mattress to slip into the robe. Lilith had done a great job at sewing it together, though I supposed with the level of goth she was usually displaying, the heavy purple scarf over the wide blue robe was certainly in her wheelhouse, even if it was a lot of material. Sliding the dress over my head, I felt the thick wooly robes settle over my lard-laden body. It was nice, but...

I shifted, that familiar feeling of cloth riding up on me felt. Lilith had measured me for this a week ago, I couldn't seriously have put on more had I? Statistically, that was...

I glanced over to the trash can in the corner, piled full of takeout containers and old ice cream cartons.

Maybe more likely than I cared to admit. It wasn't like I meant to binge so often! It's just y'know...once I got into something, I sort of didn't care what I was stuffing in my face. And y'know, it just so happened most of the time that stuff wasn't particularly...super healthy.

Well, whatever! I could talk to Lilith about maybe getting some adjustments anyway. I wasn't trying to be mountains of muscle like Eric or Az anyway. Tooling the belt around my ponderous gut, I clipped my "spellbook" onto it, i.e., the journal I used for sessions. Really it'd just kind of become my journal for everything. Thermodynamic physics notes and abstract algebra notes tabbed with red while the spell notes sat side by side along my adventure notes from the sessions and the intricate circuits and forms for spells and rituals from my journey as my arcane sage in game. It was really amazing how much I could fit inside it, like as soon as I filled in one page another one was available, almost like the book was expanding itself.

Aside from its vastness, probably the weirdest thing was how it didn't feel like much was separating the fantasy from reality. Really if you followed Aether's theory from edition eight of Culrineer's 'Arcana Unveiled', theoretically you could convert the natural energy from into something measurable with Ohm's law by-

Agh! I shook my head, feeling my double chin wobble with me. Theorycraft for the forum later. Still got ready for the game tonight.

I focused from there, making sure I had everything on me. The robes, the scarf, I had the same coke bottle glasses per prescription so that was already settled. Had my book on my belt, and my "staff" was ready to go as I thunked the endpoint on the ground. I giggled and snorted simeultaneously, remembering the planned a little verbal quirk for roleplay once we were "in person."

...

"Does ye olde stairs seem just a bit longer *huff* ye to all of you?" I asked wearily, though I could feel my little 'joke' getting old as I puffed along down another step. We'd all arrived at Emmet's house and squeezed down the landing as the corridor felt just a bit too small for all of us. Me and Eric too wide while Aster was too tall. Lilith seemed fine, but she was trapped between us, and I could feel her bustline rub against my back for that tight section as the stairway groaned under us. Tolkien knows I signed up for online classes specifically so I wouldn't have to haul myself around campus. My usual grocery visits alone left me winded at my size.

"A bit, but the sunken city's a-waiting Jules!" I heard Eric call back. "I sighed as I continued my slow pace, not seeing how my sneakers seemed to morph around my legs to at least marginally more comfortable travelling boots. Well, as comfortable as they could be with the amount of 'me' weighing on my legs.

I looked around, seeing how the corridor had opened up to the wide cavern of a cave below, with old stone stairs leading down into it replacing the oak ones I was on before. Menacing stalactites hung from the ceiling as I looked up, and the memory of passing through tight cave walls was rapidly replacing the memory of the white plaster of the stairwell. Supporting the cave system seemed to be floating pillars stretched up to the top, kept afloat by rings inscribed with some kind of runes arcing purple electricity into the ground. Beneath it all awaited Larachis. With more research and following some leads, we'd discovered the entrance the undead were funneling out of, and utilized a handy side cave to sneak inside.

Already my faint sense of where I had been a moment ago was replaced with my newfound curiosity for the ancient structural supports. I shifted my glasses trying to make out the inscription a little more. Some kind of ancient graviturgy? Or just simple magnetism? I waddled closer, trying to get a better look. Judging by the pattern and the purple arcs, it definitely seemed to be a modified version of graviturgy-

"Ey, Julia. Stone's 're pretty 'n all but c'mon!" Aster hefted his axe up onto his over muscled shoulder. "We got an old king t' kill!"

"And a cult." Lilith added quietly, not stopping.

"And a cult!"

I tore myself away from the pillar support. "Ah, keep thy fears in thine breast. I'm coming!"

I blinked, as did Aster before he shrugged to turn and around and keep stomping down the steps. That was...considerably more than the 'ye olde' I'd planned there.

Then again, why was I talking so...basely anyway? I was a scholar of prestige from the lauded Evergrith's Institute after all. My speech should have a layer of complexity to one who'd studied the intricacies of the magical arts, shouldn't it? I unclipped my spellbook, and jotted down the face and some of the underlying ancillary runes behind it, before I resolved to come back later, beginning my slow descent behind the majority of my waiting team.

...

"Take that, fiends!" I yelled, arcing half of my prepared magic missile hail directly into the chest of the cultist flanked by undead minions. The other missiles dispersed similarly, ripping apart the already worse for wear zombies. Behind Me, I could hear the din as Aster roared and cut through another swath, Lilith summoned a dozen black tentacles to rip the undead apart, and Eric simply disintegrated the undead guard with holy magic before bashing the robed scoundrels head in. At the head of the precipice, the shriveled corpse of the forgotten king moaned once more on his throne of rotted gold as more, surrounded by flesh golems of discarded pieces of undead, and more gathering up the steps. I could see the leader of the aiding cult up by him, directing his subordinates while keeping an eye on the undead king himself. I considered slinging something up there to disrupt him, but seeing the fire in Lilith's eyes as she focused on cutting her way up to the throne platform, it was obvious that was her battle to face. Mine would be keeping the hordes from approaching.

I channelled my power through my staff, closing my eyes and murmuring the incantation as I felt the energy from the world course through me again, waiting to be directed. A spare robed assailant leapt up the steps, bringing a shortsword down to strike at me. What should have met soft flesh instead snapped the blade off as it bounced off the field of arcane deflection protecting me. With that, I began to channel my arcane focus into my staff, yielding it's protection for only a moment as the spell charged.

"Oh, please." I couldn't help but scoff, insulted that he thought that would be enough to hurt me. "Did doth thee very much bethink such a bawbling blade would hurt me? Mine magic is of a sage of Evergrith's. Thee wilt needeth much more than that to even coequal a scratch upon mine form!"

He stumbled back as my force of concentration grew into a tangible, visible blue field of crackling lightning. "...What?"

"Deflecting shroud!" I screeched, tearing my staff across the lighting, and sending it surging forward into a wall of pure force that threw both undead and cultist alike from the throne platform's steps.

Though the horde, even with that wave of energy, the horde didn't seem to diminish, as more rotten bodies and robed figures seemed to climb the steps from the depths beneath us. That was fine though, as I readied my book and gathered my focus into the staff again. If I wasn't having to move, I would be glad to toss them into the abyss beneath us as many times as they'd like. As Aster and Lilith fought their way closer to the top, I could feel the battle reaching its end.

There would surely be gold aplenty, and perhaps some useful books from the cult leader, but as my mind worked in the meantime to the graviturgy rings from earlier, and theories began to form to their applications, there was only one thing I truly desired from the sunken city after this was all over.

---

I rubbed my eyes, feeling the weariness settle across my massive form in the one area of my apartment bathed in light. My eyelids were beginning to sink downwards on their own as the intoxicating idea of sleep badgered at the back of my subconscious. I growled, shaking my head, feeling the thick frizzy braid of hair behind me waggle with motion of my head and wobble of my chins. I could feel the curve of my stomach brushing against the thankfully varnished wood, my melons for breasts squashing against the desk as it barely held me even doing my best to keep my full enormity off it.

Which I felt should've been the least a quality-made desk could do for a mage of my size. I was surely massive in my obesity, thick hocks of cellulite filled meat on my limbs, a great sagging mass of a stomach and pillowy breasts from the pounds that seem to come so easily but refused to leave- but still! Honestly, these days it felt like there was just no real craftsmanship anymore...

Four of the supports from the pillars from the sunken city lay in pieces in front of me on the workbench, dissected as I had tried to find the underpinnings for their magic. My spellbook, my journal, my archive of the energies that governed the world, lay open with the latest scribblings from what I'd been able to figure out. The graviturgy aiding them was truly ancient, in spell forms I'd never seen from modern magical reproductions. It was like I was trying to speak another language of magic entirely, as the runes possessed different inflections and meanings counter to what I was familiar with.

"Damnable progenitor magecraft..." I swore under my breath as another attempt for inscription fizzle out, the energy dispersing into the open air.

Still though, I was determined. The fact that the effects of the ancient spell-forms contributed the same levitative effects as typical schools was no coincidence, and I would find some way to bend it to my will. Granted, to fully utilize it, I'd need multiple magic forms to complete the ancient magecraft, but that was the easy part. I'd practically figured out all the alternative arcana I'd need to graft on while I was gathering the structural rings from the collapsed pillars after the fight.

I dove back into it, sliding my bloated bingo-wing of an arm over to grab another leg of mutton to keep me awake. Ripping into it while my other flabby arm went to the inscribing knife as I pulled over one of the cloth straps I was trying to apply the magical cuneiform to. Ripping into the leg of meat, my gaze briefly drifted to the accolades from my professors at Evergrith. Plaques for assistance in the contribution to spell theory, commendations from my teachers for top of my year in the application of evocation, and more. My comrades at the university often lamented how the struggle through the undergraduate courses was agony dealing with the stuffy professors and studying old books, but not for me. It practically filled me with life as I discovered a new potential theory for a fireball or the hypothesis for using some variation of Imprisonment for potential transportation across realms. How could anyone not find that utterly fascinating?!

More than that, this creation would be a breakthrough for more...gravity challenged individuals like myself, let's say, who didn't have valuable time to waste with training their strength like Eric. The veteran knight had offered to give me training to shed the weight before, which I graciously declined due to my studies. But soon, if I succeeded, that offer would no longer be necessary with magic to shoulder that burden instead.

Pride filled me, and I focused once again on my work, diving with renewed fervor back into my work etching the runes into the padded leather and drawing from extant translations to see if the same effect could apply. The thrill returned to me as it responded as I finished the last carving of the circuit, floating upwards slightly of its own accord. I snorted with glee, and grabbed out to pull it back down, while I began my testing on the other padded leather rings I'd been preparing to use for this exact moment.

I scarcely noticed how my apartment behind me changed. The walls melding from the cheap plaster of the apartment to the thick mahogany of the inn my 'character' or really just me at this point, had been staying in with the rest of the party. The sweatpants and tees morphed to more of the thick, tent like robes I wore going out, with some paltry casual clothes interspersed between. My bed, indented from where I crashed to sleep on it every night, stayed mostly the same, but the window behind it was filled in like it was painted over with the same mahogany that spread across the walls, my location moving from 2nd floor to the basement, where the tremorous footfalls of my steps were less likely to anger residents, not that I hadn't been suffering the same complaints before. My laptop stretched out, before wrapping around itself to create the visionary orb I used to catch up to the latest bard's tales of fantasy and romance I couldn't help but listen to as a guilty pleasure on my own time, and the posters warped as alongside the sheets of notes were illustrated posters of the same characters. My room was gone, replaced with a facsimile of itself as an occupant of the lands of Gerem.

Not that I noticed, really. I rubbed my glasses as the steam from my breath fogged up the lenses, only making the problem worse as grease stains marred the glass, making me growl in frustration as I persevered through it regardless. The night would be long, but as the hints of my success grew closer and closer, I knew I'd crack through it eventually, my motivation at its peak as I went back to work.

After all, where was the fun if I didn't need to struggle for it?