Journal of a Demi-god: Mask of the Stars AP TF

Journal of a Demi-god: Mask of the Stars
A Costume Transformation Story by JanusDaGuardian  

It was clear night, the moon only a thin line of light as it returned from it's slumber during the new moon cycle. The majesty of the many constellations and planets that allotted their countenance to the small town of the eastern coast state during the summer on full display to any who stopped to gaze up at them. Amongst the few who dared to put life on hold was a young girl with curly brown hair and chocolate eyes, standing atop the flat roof of an old orphanage, equip with a small telescope, which she had just adjusted to find the star “Vega”, using it as a guide to find the other stars making up Lyra, the Lyre. Kayla, the little girl, smiled; a small, warm kind of smile, full of happy memories. It warmed Pollux's heart so much that he didn't announce his presence until she went to adjust her telescope once more.          

“They're beautiful, aren't they?” he said softly, hoping not to startle the small child, who, upon hearing an unfamiliar voice, she turned to look at him. “The stars?”

Pollux's face was only partially-revealed, his face shadowed in the low-light of the stars, which fought though the bangs of auburn feathers to reflect off his forest-green eyes.    

Kayla smiled and nodded her head. “Uh. Absolutely! I've been looking up at them ever since I was little.”

Pollux stood next to her, gazing up at the stars as well. “As was I... The stars used to be my source of stories in the late hours of the night... I haven't had the luxury to gaze upon them recently... but the stars... they contain many stories; Of peasants who became heroes, of conflict and death, of conquests of both riches and of flesh, tales of of triumph and glory, and even of the sins committed by the gods and by mere mortals... My story is up there, along with those of my parents and my numerous half-siblings...” Pollux looked down at the little girl with the curly red hair with a thin smile. “Fear not. I have an incline that your story shall be displayed in the heavens one day,  and it will be amongst the most beautiful.”

The little girl, Kayla, giggled. “You're a silly, Mr.”

Pollux paused for a moment, caught somewhat off-guard by the little girl's witty statement, another soft, amused smile crossing his features as he snorted and turned away, out into the small, eastern coast town. “I've been called many things over the centuries, but I can't remember the last time anyone has called me a 'silly'...”

“Ah! A shooting star!” Kayla pointed to the sky, and, sure enough, a glowing mass of space-rock streaked across the sky, burning up in the atmosphere  overhead.

The little girl bowed her head and clapped her hands together. With eyes closed and mouth moving, the girl uttered near inaudible words as if to recite an important prayer, but Pollux knew better, hints of a smile working their way onto his features in response to the child's enduring innocence. When she raised her head once more, an adorable smile on full display on her face, Pollux inquired about the desires she had just whispered to the heavens, to which she blushed and stuck out her tongue, saying, “It's a secret...”

Of course it was...

A moment of silence passed, Pollux collecting his thoughts and wits for the request he was to make. Meanwhile, Kayla shifted between gazing through her telescope and eyeing him with blushing curiosity. Clearly, she had some questions for him, but the scene was a little too awkward for either individual to initiate a conversation without skipping a heartbeat.

After nearly a minute of uninitiated conversing, Pollux broke the silence first, feigning a small cough.

“I feel that I should get to the reason behind my sudden presence here; You see, recent events have prompted me to correct a disruption in a place far, far away. A princess, a keeper and protector of the Cosmos and mother to a numerous race of star children, known only to this world as the Luma, had her existence, her life-bound essence near extinguished by a monster who's cunning onslaught I am currently seeking to put an end to. This princess...” Pollux paused as he reached into the folds of his cloak and retrieved a folded, teal dress and a matching pair of heels, “I have managed to preserve with what power has been granted to me. However...”

Pollux, who's attention was drawn upon the proof of his failure and verbal explanation, glanced up to find Kayla, the little girl now standing right in front of him, her glistening eyes gazing in wonder and excitement over the garb resting in his hands.

“Uh...” Pollux offered Kayla the dress. “Do you wish to try it on?”

“Can I?!” The little girl gingerly accepted the small pile of clothes and rushed behind the  little door hut that led to the stairway leading down. “No peeking.”

Another amused smile appeared upon Pollux's face as he sat down on the small roof's air vent nearby. While he waited for Kayla to reappear, he gazed once again upon the splendor of that night's sky, making out the constellations of Lyra and Hercules, recalling the myths that were inspired by their creation and musing over just how much of their stories, amongst many others, have been lost to the aftermath of time and ignorance.

Kayla's reappearance wasn't as energetic as her retreat. The court-style dress Pollux had offered her was far too big for her prepubescent-frame, her tiny hands holding tightly to both the top and wide shoulder straps through the bundled, oversized sleeves and frilly cuffs whilst attempting to grasp as much of the front skirt to prevent her from tripping in the ill-fitting heels. The rest of the dress's skirt slid across the roof's paved cement like a bridal dress's caboose.

Pollux regarded the little girl's clumsy appearance with a soft smile similar to that of a father gazing upon his beloved daughter who delighted herself by trying on her mother's dresses.

“I think it's a little too big...” Kayla giggled.

“Perhaps... It looks rather becoming though. Ah... it appears that the dress likes you. I had a feeling it would...”

Kayla did not understand what Pollux was implying, at least not until she noticed the cement blocks beneath her feet getting farther away and, in turn, the difference between her height and Pollux's height lessening rather quickly as the slack of the dress rose and became even.

Kayla's frame elongated, her arms and legs growing with a smooth yet startling speed. Her hands slid out and past the frilly cuffs, her arms now long enough to bear the full length of the sleeves, her fingers extending along with a slight change in her fingernails as they were graced with a lilac-purple polish. Her shoulders broadened ever so slightly to allow the billowy gown to rest on her now tall, maturing stature.  

Although her original height was 3'7”, Kayla was easily 5'9” by the time the vertical changes had ceased, plus a good inch or two with the heels that were quickly becoming a much better fit as her young, petite feet grew into them. Her legs, though hidden beneath the folds of her long, teal attire, appeared to be the greatest contribution to her new height.

An unmistakable blush appeared on Kayla's cheeks as the magical essence within the dress influenced some of the primary growth hormones within her body to further mature some of the most noticeable areas that undergo such a transition during the stage of  pubescence. Beneath the folds of the dress came the figure of a mature woman,  a slight horizontal difference developing where and below where the lower-part of her abdomen was now, coupled with the budding of her maturing mammary glands that, in turn, filled the sagging fabric before her chest.

With slight reluctance, Pollux placed a pointy, silver crown possessing star-shaped patterns and red and blue gems on the girl's head. The girl herself, looked justifiably puzzled by the strange events occurring to her body. Soon though, the influence of the essence within the crown drowned her senses, forcing her eyes closed as final stages of the transformation began.

Kayla's head grew ever-so-slightly and took on a beautiful, angular shape. Her lips were applied with a light-pink gloss ss her eyelashes grew, a set of large, four-pointed star earrings materializing onto her ears. Finally, her hair began to grow, lengthening past her shoulders and down to the middle of her back, maintaining some of its natural curl as parts it begin to curl upwards into an almost "hair-flip" style. Her frontal bangs grew down at an angle, covering her right eye, her hair's color transitioning from a chestnut brown to a beach blonde.

His task nearly complete, Pollux's green eyes began to glow, causing the world about them to disappear into a luminous white void. In mere moments, the young woman before her, Kayla, now Rosalina, Princess, keeper and protector of the Cosmos and mother to the Lumas, would be sent to the time and place the being he was hunting had attempted to extinguish her existence, where she would play her part in the story of a certain red-capped plumber, who was to be tasked with saving someone quite dear to him and stopping a nefarious giant reptile in his attempts to rule and enslave an entire universe.  

Despite his convictions and his duty to ensure that all stories under his care would be completed according to the destined way, Pollux noticed a slight lull in his power...

He was conflicted. Was he doing the right thing? This girl had many years before her. Her story had just as much worth as the next one, if not more, and he had now destroyed to repair another, to fill a gap which he should have been able to prevent.

He was a failure, making others pay the price for said failures. Entire existences extinguished by his own hands just to keep another from following suit. He was no hero, nor was he a saint; He was a beast, a monster... just like his father... Yes, a monster... who's existence would be extinguished promptly once his mission was complete.

A shimmering tear streamed down the side of his right cheek, making it as far as his chin before he felt the warm caressing of a fair-skinned hand on the now moist flesh on his face.

Kayla or Rosalina, Pollux was not sure which, looked into his eyes with piercing cyan-blue eyes(or at least with the one that was unveiled), a smile of kindness and mercy decorating her features and prompting Pollux to halt his magic.

“You are not a monster,” she said.

Pollux was dumbfounded. Could this woman read his thoughts?

“A true monster would never shed tears for the lives of those it has dismantled, yet you shed tears, even for the lives of whom have found greater meaning thanks to your efforts... As for myself and Kayla, we are eternally grateful, Master Polydeuces, for we shall be able to watch over the Cosmos and the creatures they contain, including my family.”

His name; The name his mother given him so many centuries ago. It came from this woman's lips with such a vibe of knowledge that he could never had anticipated. How much did she know? Pollux—no, Polydeuces asked her such.

“I have gazed upon the stars since I was a little girl. I have seen your life; Your glories and your sorrows, your innocence and your corruption... I had seen what was to transpire, my life dispersed by the 'man dressed in white', and my revival,” Rosalina paused as she gently clasped Polydeuce's right, gloved hand with her left hand, “by both your hand...”, and then place her left on over her own chest as she finished with, “and her heart.”  

“A man clad in white... Do you know the identity of your assailant?”

Rosalina nodded her head solemnly, closing her eyes as she spoke her next words. “As do you...”

Polydeuces did not make the connection then, his mind racing in so many directions at once. He attempted to request the name of the beast and inquire about where he might be now, only to have his mouth suppressed by Rosalina's two, soft fingertips.

“To confront this being, you must overcome the weariness in your heart. Your resolve is all but broken. As you are now, you will not succeed.”

Polydeuces paused, letting the words sink deep into his mind before finally asking, “What must I do...?”

Rosalina's soft smile returned as she leaned forward and whispered three small words. “Dance with me...”

Polydeuces wasn't sure he heard her correctly. “What?”

“It has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl to dance with a handsome prince. The girl who resides with me now has dreamed that dream as well.”

Polydeuce's could see the faintest blush appear on the woman's alabaster cheeks. He couldn't tell if it was her or Kayla that was blushing, but he doubted, based on the extent, that both of them were blushing at the same time. “I don't understand...”

Rosalina offered Polydeuces her hand. “Dance with me, and you may...”

Polydeuce's green eyes flashed. Then, all of the whiteness of the void disappeared, replaced by a much darker atmosphere that caused Rosalina to gasp.

There were stars. Thousands upon thousands of them. Red, blue, yellow, all of them were on display, their light gracing both her and her dress as glanced about at all of them, her cyan-blue eyes practically shimmering in their light. However, the one sight she truly marveled at was the gigantic blue sphere, floating in stationary fashion yet rotating ever so slowly as the lands and seas it contained shifted between the cycles of their respective days and nights. The side in which she stood was on the most shadowed side, a thin, crescent line of light creeping slowly across the farthest side as the areas beneath it received their daily, morning cycle.

When Rosalina glanced back at Polydeuces, she was surprised to find a man in a dressed in a rather handsome suit, complete with a gray waist coat possessing a tall, white collar, a red neck scarf, a pair of black slacks, and a long black coat with wide tails. Polydeuces still had his fiery-auburn hair tied back with a thin, brown cord, but it was now styled, as opposed to rugged, the frontal fringes parting perfectly to the sides of his beautiful face, powerful green eyes, and very-thin smile.

Polydeuces bowed like the gentleman he appeared, Rosalina nearly giggling in excitement as she performed a full curtsy in response. The beautiful gentleman then straighten and offered her his left, white gloved hand, which she took with a tender smile.

From a place neither person could see, a happy melody began to play as Polydeuces arranged his hands according to the dance they were to perform, his right hand hovering over the arch on Rosalina's back, nearly-level with her hips whilst his left clasped his partner's right hand off to the side. Rosalina herself placed her free hand, her left, over Polydeuce's right shoulder.

It had been so long since Polydeuces had ever danced with someone other than himself. He feared that his feet would either lock up or accidentally step on his partner's long, ravishing dress, prompting him to face his feet for several long moments as they slowly stepped around in a basic Waltz step, adding only slight variations to the box lines to generate a soft circular-stepping motion.

Eventually, Polydeuces looked up to see Rosalina giving him an almost challenging stare, as if to say, “Is this all you have?”, to which he released her left hip and twirled her off to the side, both of their arms extending to their full reach before he softly twirled her back in with great finesse, to which she looked very pleased, but that wasn't all.

As they continue their circular steps, soft spins, and twirls to the melody resounding throughout the atmosphere, the scenery about them was pierced by the thin, glowing lines of a star shower, streaking through the cosmos and bringing a joyful smile to the young woman's face. Seeing this, Polydeuce's smile grew; not so wide that she might notice, but wide enough to show that it was, in fact, a reflection of what he felt in his heart right then, a certain sparkle appearing in his eyes unlike any they had held in years.





Polydeuces still couldn't understand the young woman's request, nor did he ponder it. In fact, his mission, his duty, no longer had his attention nor his devotion. At that moment, his mind was merely focused on maintaining the light show and gazing upon the beautiful princess he held in his hands, praying that the look in her eyes and the smile on her face would never fade from his memory.