Victoria's Big Secret

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 26, Post Number 637

-Sabertooth Guild Hall, early morning-

Waking up in a tangle of green bedsheets, Victoria woke up and faced the bare wooden ceiling of her room. Something about her felt... off, for lack of a better word. Her legs felt different, her hair felt different, and her chest felt really different. She had not had anything alcoholic to drink last night, so unless someone had done something to her Strawberry Slam soda, this feeling could not be blamed on drinking too much. The brunette had no idea what had happened to her, but she was going to find out soon enough.

Putting on her white Steel Matron t-shirt to at least have some clothes on, Victoria made her way to a mirror in the top right corner of her room to take a look at herself. When she finally got to the mirror, she saw that a lot about her had changed overnight. For one thing, her hair was a lot longer and styled differently... it used to be short with an "antenna" near the back, but now Victoria's hair extended down to her waist. It was also a chestnut brown color instead of a brown that was very close to being black. Her body had undergone other, more drastic changes as well.

Victoria's arms and legs had gotten somewhat longer and she had grown four inches taller. However, the biggest change was that her chest had gotten a lot bigger. It had gotten so big that her Steel Matron t-shirt was a bit tight around the chest; to add insult to injury, it now barely covered her midriff. Victoria would need to undertake an emergency shopping trip to assemble an outfit or two for her new, taller, form.

First she needed to find some shorts that could fit her new body type.

Victoria pulled open the wooden dresser where her shorts and skirts were kept and began trying on each piece of clothing in the hope of finding something that could literally cover her backside. After trying on each skirt and each pair of shorts that she had, Victoria had finally managed to find a pair of khaki cargo shorts that almost fit, but they were more like short shorts now that her legs had gotten longer and her backside had grown larger. This was so awkward.

Victoria was not sure how the mages of Sabertooth would react to her new form. Would they mistake her as an intruder and attack? Would they take it in stride? Or would there be more... interesting reactions to Victoria's drastically altered body?

Victoria would need to get out of the guild hall without attracting too much attention, but she would be virtually guaranteed to run into Ratatoskr, that tree-dwelling squirrel who always made it a point to harass Victoria about her limited wardrobe, her flat chest, or some other shortcoming that Ratatoskr could use to troll the brunette for a cheap laugh. Victoria frowned. She was going to have to get past him, which was nigh-impossible because the overgrown squirrel was always on the watch for intruders. Since she did not want to fight him despite his obnoxious behavior, she would just have to run past him and weather the storm of acorns that he was going to chuck her way.

Victoria had always wanted to have a more feminine body type like Gaia, Masha, or Itori had, but now that she had it, it was causing her a lot of unforeseen difficulties.

She would just have to deal with it and make an emergency shopping trip in Ace of Spades.

Victoria's New Appearance:

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[Total Word Count: 600/3,500]

Having done up her greatly lengthened hair in a ponytail with a rubber band and having put on her shoes without socks because none of her socks would fit, Victoria was ready to make the dash past Ratatoskr and out of Sabertooth Guild Hall. The squirrel was fast on the draw and could hurl acorns with accuracy, but Victoria had spent years running for her life on the streets of Capital Crocus and was thus able to move quickly when it counted. Victoria put a hand on the doorknob and took a deep breath. Once she stepped into the hall Ratatoskr would be onto her and begin throwing acorns along with any insult he could think of. Victoria exhaled and twisted the doorknob to the left.

This was it.

-Inside the Guild Hall-

Victoria shut the door to her room behind her and began walking briskly towards the teleporter which would deposit her in the grand ballroom. The tree that housed the guild pet was not too far to her left and she needed to move quickly before he was roused to action against someone he might perceive as an intruder. She was taking care not to move too quickly so that she could keep the noise down and get out of here without making a scene. Victoria had taken roughly twenty steps when a voice called down from the tree followed by an acorn lobbed at her head. Victoria blocked it with her left arm, suffering a bruise from the velocity of the thrown object but otherwise avoiding serious injury.

"Stop right there!" A high-pitched voice ordered.

The jig was up.

Victoria broke into a run and began the game of dodging expertly thrown acorns while enduring insults from an angry squirrel who had no filter. She was tempted to shoot a Taser Spark at the ornery tree-dwelling creature, but she did not want to cause any more trouble than she already had by running from him instead of talking.

"Get back here! I'm not through with you!" Ratatoskr shouted. Victoria would do no such thing, not until she had clothing that fitted her new body. She ducked under an acorn thrown at the back of her head and felt one hit the back of her left shoulder with a dull THUMP and a jolt of pain. She would deal with Ratatoskr later... right now she needed to get away.

Victoria continued to run and weather the storm of acorns and insults until she reached the teleporter door. She quickly pried it open and felt an acorn hit her on the backside. She quickly shut the door behind her and heard a THUMP of acorn hitting solid wood, then heard high-pitched cursing. She had survived the guild pet's fury but now faced a new problem. He was going to be pissed when she came back and she would probably have to deal with curious Guild Aces too... explaining to Imai the circumstances behind the brunette's transformation would be awkward, to say the least.

"Damn. My ass hurts." Victoria said to herself, rubbing her expanded backside to dull the pain. She stepped towards the teleporter and walked until she had reached the middle of it. Once she stopped a bright light engulfed her and the brunette was on her way to the grand ballroom.

-Inside the grand ballroom-

Once the light faded Victoria was standing in the grand ballroom that Ryo had shown her many months ago. She was safe from the angry squirrel, but she would have to deal with both him and the Guild Aces when she got back. Victoria rolled up the left sleeve of her shirt and saw that the guild tattoo Ryo had given her was still there, so that should help smooth things over with the higher-ups. Maybe she should have shown the tattoo to Ratatoskr to begin with, but no one had ever accused Victoria of being smart. Besides, she did not want to be seen by the higher-ups dressed in ill-fitting clothing.

Victoria strolled towards the door to the ballroom and felt a sense of anxiety about her body. It had finally become what she had always wanted, but now she wondered about the nature of her existing relationships with everyone she knew. Gaia, Itori, Sarah, Imai, that green-haired musician guy... how would they handle her new form?

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[Total Word Count: 1,326/3,500]

-Outside the guild hall, Ace of Spades-

Dressed in ill-fitting clothing and trying her best to avoid making any more of a scene than she already had, Victoria began looking for a clothing store that she could dip into to buy clothing that better fitted her new body. She was glad to be unmistakably feminine as opposed to constantly looking like a guy in drag, but she had neglected to consider the needs of her new form, namely clothing that actually fit. Then again, when she went to sleep last night the brunette had not counted on waking up taller and curvier. How did this happen to her anyway?

Victoria played it cool and walked down the main street looking for a clothing store. She did not need anything special like sports clothing or military surplus clothing... yet. All she needed was some basic everyday wear to get her through today and the next few days until she could either expand her wardrobe or find a tailor who could cast a spell to get her small clothing to fit her. Despite her efforts at playing it cool the brunette managed to attract a bit of attention from a black-haired teenage male in a green sports jersey and blue jeans leaning on the corner of a cafe and sipping a canned energy drink.

"Damn girl! Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" He asked Victoria, using a well-worn pickup line that was worn out long before she was even born. Victoria was amused by this interaction and chose to indulge his curiosity.

"Who ever said I was an angel?" Victoria flirtatiously asked him while walking by without slowing down. He spit out his energy drink and began to look down and blush as she kept walking. She hoped that she would not regret saying that by making him believe that he had a chance to get with her, but judging from his reaction she did not have to worry about him becoming a stalker. He was too embarrassed to even make a response as Victoria kept walking.

She kept going down the main street until she could find a clothing store for women and found one named Femme Royale, which had an upscale appearance and upscale attire for sale. Most of it was focused on dresses and long skirts, but Victoria was not in a position to be picky about what she wore. She had enough Jewels saved up to afford something decent and urgently needed something decent to wear, so now was the time to spend them. Victoria opened the glass door and slipped into Femme Royale to buy some new clothes so that she could go back to Sabertooth looking better than she currently did.

-One hour later-

After an hour of careful shopping Victoria exited Femme Royale while wearing a completely new outfit of black long-sleeved shirt, green knee-length skirt, and matching green high heels. While it was not very elegant and not the finest apparel that Femme Royale had to offer, the outfit suited Victoria perfectly since everything fit and it was comfortable to wear. In her left hand was a royal blue shopping bag with the store's name spelled in silver letters containing the clothing she had worn to the shop plus one or two other new outfits for a little variety.

Victoria could not wait to get back to Sabertooth Guild Hall and smooth things over with the irascible guardian Ratatoskr, whom she had fled from earlier without bothering to give an explanation. That was due to her ill-fitting clothes threatening to expose more than she would have liked, but the squirrel did not know that. He only saw her as an intruder who had somehow eluded the elaborate countermeasures set up to keep outsiders out of the inner sanctum. She would have to talk to him and make amends for what happened; if her luck was especially bad she would also have to explain what had happened to the Guild Aces and maybe even Kenna herself.

Victoria was not overly worried about any of that.

For the first time in years she felt capable of taking on anything without needing the courage drawn from holding a magic weapon in her hands. It was sad that it took a literal transformation for the brunette to find self-confidence, but it was what it was. Victoria had long ago learned to roll with the punches.

Victoria would go back to the guild hall and smooth things over with everyone and she would do it with confidence.

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[Total Word Count: 2,086/3,500]

-Inside Sabertooth Guild Hall-

With her shopping bag of clothing that also held some new bras and underwear firmly in hand, Victoria sauntered into the castle that housed the portal to Sabertooth Guild Hall like she was the Guild Mistress herself. She had nothing to fear from Ratatoskr or the Guild Aces; the squirrel's bark was worse than his bite and she could assuage the concerns of the Aces by simply showing her guild mark. As far as she knew there was no way to duplicate guild marks, so there was little possibility that they would take her for an intruder. If the squirrel had managed to call a Guild Ace or the Guild Mistress herself Victoria would smooth things over with them as well as with the guardian rodent.

Victoria sauntered through the hallway towards the ballroom with the teleporter and met no challenge from anyone in the immediate area. Whether it was due to the confidence she exuded or her sheer magical power, the tall brunette had made it through without difficulty. She opened the double doors to the ballroom and walked inside, then shut the doors behind her. Soon she would be talking to Ratatoskr and back in her room to try and make sense of what had happened to her.

-Inside the Guild Hall-

Victoria had teleported into the room in a beam of light and as soon as her vision cleared she was on the way to her room. Ratatoskr was likely on full alert, so there was no possibility of sneaking by him this time. This time Victoria did not need to sneak by him because she had resolved her clothing problem and thus was not worried about stealth. In fact she wanted to meet with the irascible guardian of Yggdrasil and smooth things over with him so that she would not be classified as an intruder and treated like one every time she left her room.

Victoria calmly walked towards the area that Ratatoskr called home and had taken twenty steps when saw him descend the tree with an acorn held in his front paws. He yelped something in Angry Squirrel language and threw the acorn at her. The tall brunette simply dodged the acorn by tilting her head left.

"You're kinda slow, Ratatoskr." Victoria joked with the angry rodent about his throwing speed. The rodent cursed in Angry Squirrel and readied another acorn as she continued to approach him without a care in the world. Ratatoskr tilted his head and appeared to recognize her... he lowered the acorn and spoke to her in Normal People language.

"You've got a lot of nerve showing yourself around here after what happened earlier. Don't think that I've forgotten!" Ratatoskr scolded her. Victoria simply laughed.

"You don't recognize me, do you?" Victoria asked him.

"You're SOOOO smart! Did you figure that one out all by yourself?" He snarked back. Victoria laughed again.

"I'm Victoria Sheridan. You know, the short brown-haired girl you make fun of for being flat-chested and for only having a few outfits to wear?" The tall brunette re-introduced herself to Ratatoskr. He tilted his head again and looked her over, trying to figure out if the brunette was telling the truth or not. He straightened his head and looked at her again.

"Ha ha ha! You can't fool the mighty guardian of Yggdrasil with your words! If you're that flat-chested girl who's in Sabertooth because Ryo felt sorry for her, then I'm the leader of the Magic Council!" Ratatoskr retorted. Victoria turned her left shoulder to him and began to roll up the sleeve of her shirt to show off the guild mark of Sabertooth. That bit of proof should quiet his doubts.

"Then how did I get the guild mark?" Victoria pointedly asked him, showing the tattoo on her left arm. The normally garrulous rodent was at a loss for words and tilted his head.

"Wait a minute! How did you... how did you get the guild mark?" He asked her.

"Because I'm Victoria Sheridan. Here, check out this shirt. You'll recognize it from my limited wardrobe!" Victoria told him before setting the Femme Royale bag down and pulling out her white Steel Matron t-shirt, then holding it up where he could see it. The confused Ratatoskr calmed down a little bit and spoke to her again.

"Well... um... this is interesting, really interesting! if you really are Victoria, you've grown up a lot and you're not flat-chested anymore!" Ratatoskr said as he tried to come to terms with the fact that the tall brunette in front of him really was Victoria Sheridan. Despite the source being an excitable and foul-mouthed squirrel with a superiority complex, Victoria chose to take those two statements as a compliment. She was amused by his reactions so far because the talkative rodent now had a hard time forming sentences consisting of more than a few words. It was at this point that he decided to back off and reassess the situation.

"OK then... I think you're that Victoria chick, but I'll still be keeping my eye on you! Nothing escapes the watchful gaze of the mighty Ratatoskr!" He said to her before scrambling back up the tree, leaving Victoria standing unharmed in the Guild Hall. Victoria laughed as she put away her Steel Matron t-shirt and picked up the royal blue bag. She then began to walk to her room to figure out what to do about the rest of her clothing, which still fit her smaller form. Maybe Victoria could find a mage who could somehow make it able to adapt to whatever form she took... she would have to deal with that later.

Right now the brunette wanted to get back to her room and begin to figure out how to explain things to the Aces. It would be only a matter of time before they came knocking on her door looking for answers and she would need a good explanation ready to go.

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[Victoria's Word Count: 3,086/3,500]

-Inside Victoria's room-

It had been an hour since the talk with Ratatoskr and so far no Guild Aces had come to Victoria's doorstep looking for answers. That was good because the tall brunette did not have any to offer. She would need to come up with some good answers because it was only a matter of time before the guild's leadership would find Victoria and want to know what all the earlier commotion was about, but for now the brunette could not help but to admire her new figure in the mirror. The shirt, the skirt, the shoes... all of it looked so right on her.

Victoria felt good about herself for the first time in years. She did not even need alcohol or a good fight to feel like a winner. Something about her new form was immensely appealing to her despite her disinterest in anything overly feminine. Still, she had a few questions about how she came to acquire the new look.

Did she always look this way?

Was this her real form that had been disguised by some kind of long-lasting illusion magic?

If it was all the work of a mage, who had cast the spell on her and why?

Victoria had no idea and did not even know where to begin looking for answers. There were mages all over Earthland... she would need some sort of clue to narrow down where to begin her search for answers. She would need something like a letter, an old newspaper article, anything from her past that could jump-start things. However, Victoria was not sure if anything from her past remained at this point. It could have all been destroyed or hidden away and she would not know any better.

Still, she wanted to know what had caused her to become taller and curvier. The new form looked and felt good. Victoria could get used to this, but the other mages of Sabertooth might not take to "Tall Victoria" so well. They might think that she was an imposter who somehow took the memories and guild mark of "Short Victoria" so that she could hatch some plan to destroy Sabertooth from within.

Nah. That was ridiculous.

That was impossible. While someone could steal the memories of another person with magic or magic items, there was no way on Earthland that someone could steal guild marks. At least Victoria hoped that that was the case. With magic a lot of things were possible... how else could there be panty bandits, zombie cats, or children's toys that could become war machines at the drop of a hat?

Victoria continued to look at herself in the mirror and marvel at how she looked. This was dangerous because like in the story of that dude who was so attracted to his own reflection that he did not want to do anything else but stare at his reflection until he died, she could easily spend all day looking at herself in the mirror. She needed to get away from it and start trying to find out what caused her to look this way in case it was the start of a deadly curse that had been cast on her.

She would look for answers later.

What was the harm in looking at herself for a bit longer?

Looking at oneself was what a mirror was for, right?

Victoria shook her head and felt her greatly lengthened hair fly about and tap her shoulders. She needed to get away from the mirror before she ended up like that dude from the story and died from neglecting to do things like eat, drink something besides alcohol, sleep, and use the bathroom. The tall brunette pulled herself away from the reflective surface and began to put her newly purchased clothing away into her closet and drawers, but her eyes stole one last look at herself and she muttered a phrase to herself.

Damn, she looked good.

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[Total Word Count: 3,746/3,500]