Ashe Celeste's Story

Cruising... no, wait, speeding down the highway. And... getting faster... and faster. It was Ashe Celeste's car, and his mother was driving. "First you transfer me to a school for freaks without telling me," the seventeen year old started, "but you make me late on the first day. And what was the reason for that again?"

"Sorry, Hun, but the school specified that you should bring a swimsuit for the opposite sex." Yep. That's exactly why they took so long to get going. Ashe's mother forced him to a mall just to try on women's' swimsuits. The worst of it wasn't that his mother ended up deciding on a white halter-top bikini, but the fact that Ashe had to wear it under his normal clothes. "And hey, it's not like you're going to be that late with the time we're making now."

"With the time we're making now, we're gonna break the sound barrier before we hit the island." The bridge they're crossing now being a long, straight shot to the island, and the car breaking 140mph now, it actually sounded believable. Opening the window... would probably hurt.

"Hey, we're almost there now, so you can stop complaining, alright?" Ashe looked out his passenger-side window and had a clear view of the school as his mother started to slow down the car. The beach wasn't far from the building, so maybe they had some classes outside, too.

Could be pleasant, Ashe thought of the classes as his mother pulled up in the school's parking lot, near the beach. When he exited the car, she started to pester him with typical mom things.

"Now make sure you call now and then; it doesn't matter which of you does it, as long as your father and I know how you're doing." His thoughts were on other things at the moment, though. First of all, this goddamned bikini was unbearable, and there's no guarantee someone wouldn't see the top through his shirt. He looks girly and his voice almost matches anyways; maybe he could keep people from knowing he was a guy if he could get over the discomfort of the swimsuit. Yeah, just... a flat-chested girl. Ouch.

"I'll be fine, Mom," he half-assured her, taking a backpack and duffel bag out of the rear seats. "I'll make sure to call sometime." He shut the car doors and watched his mother drive off, turning around to see the beach. Sun, sand, surf, and a bunch of teenagers, most if not all of them freaks like him. Nothing could go wrong, right? At least now Ashe can say he doesn't stand out. God, I would love to be eating a Fireball right now. Anything to deal with this first day stuff. And this FUCKING BIKINI.

Ashe watched the beach as he started to walk over to the side of the school it was on, and a girl was running over towards the water, but she tripped before she got in. He felt like he should go over and check on her, but another couple teens caught his attention. They just ran past him to a car, didn't pay him any mind. Just the way I like it.

"NOOOOOO!" A drawn-out scream, a male voice, came from the beach, but before Ashe could get a good look, it was just that girl again. She was wearing a pair of trunks now, for some reason. Did she Flicker and try to change her clothes or something?

Yep. Definitely a good way to start the year. Ashe needed the distraction, though; it got him over the swimsuit's discomfort well enough, at least. Even better, the girl running around everywhere turned into a guy; and Ashe learned at least one name now, too. He stopped walking when he reached a table with an umbrella over it, setting his bags down and sitting next to them to ever-so-casually watch what was up. Flicker it is. But which gender's the original? Then the boy who used to be Lavender slipped away behind a few trees.

Is the show over? he asked himself, but he kept watching anyways. Will that boy just come out, or try to run off in the cover of trees? Maybe he'd even turn back into a girl. There weren't any other choices left, or at least any good ones.

Rex's knees shook as he finally got a pair of blue jeans over his legs and put on a shirt with two green strips going down from the shoulder on one side. He walked out from behind the trees and said rather rudely, "I suppose you've all caught me. But my name is pointless to you all; therefore, I'm not going to say another word to you all. This is just a school for special freaks and I refuse to be a part of it. I'd just like to pick a gender and go home, so if you all know where that's possible I'd like to be taken there."

He looked around to see who was there, scanning the people with his light green eyes. Tyler was still near him and now someone else with feminine body and grayish-white hair was watching him too. This was not good.

"Great," Rex thought to himself as he scratched his gray hair and became irritated, "Lavender's gone and probably made me the center of attention. I wish I never had to deal with that other half of me. She can't even remember me when she, I mean I, transform into her. Geez, I just get the sense these sudden gender flips are going to confuse me one day."

Rex stood where he was unmoving and found himself in a staring contest with Ashe. "I don't know what you're thinking, but if I were to flip my gender right now I might be able to read your mind you weirdo. I think my powers have that ability at least, maybe not, but I'll be sure to somehow make my other self mad enough to teach you a lesson for staring at me."

The boy walked out from behind the trees, fully dressed. Probably still had that swimsuit on underneath. "I suppose you've all caught me," he noted pretty clearly, refusing to say his name along with it. "I'd just like to pick a gender and go home." Ashe wished it could be that easy. He remembered when he'd pop an Atomic Fireball in his mouth every now and then the first two years of high school, either to get out of going to school, to screw with people, change things up, or sometimes it was just from inadvertently eating the spicy jawbreakers he couldn't break a habit of sucking on. The swapping ended up so frequent that his family enrolled "Celeste" in the same school to avoid any possible problems.

Ashe was never a popular guy; "low exposure" was practically the mantra he lived by in public affairs, including in school. Made few friends (and even fewer friends that stuck), did whatever he could to avoid sticking out like a sore thumb. Whenever he was Celeste, though, Ashe pretty much flipped. "She" was everyone's friend, she didn't need to give any effort to be popular, alongside having Ashe's intelligence to get through classes. Everything she did, though, Ashe originally believed that he made those choices himself, wanting to be a different person and see what it was like; it certainly felt like he was conscious. But the "real" Ashe slept through everything Celeste did, and vice versa, like they were living in dreams. The memories as Celeste were blurry to him when he woke up, just as Ashe's were to Celeste.

He eventually found that Celeste was, to sum it up, her own person in the same consciousness, and they had to share it like two teenage brothers share a bedroom. With the currently-nameless boy otherwise collected and composed compared to Lavender, maybe the two could relate, even if it was just a little.

Rex looked around the area, likely to make sure other people weren't coming in, and made it obvious he was annoyed. Then he ended up staring at Ashe, with Ashe staring back.

My my, the star of the show's breaking the fourth wall! "I don't know what you're thinking, but if I were to flip my gender right now I might be able to read your mind you weirdo." Rex was confused. And he was specifying a few more things about him, from psychic powers (that he didn't seem to know the extent of) to the fact that "Lavender" was the Flicker half. He can even interact with Lavender, judging by what he's saying.

Don't answer him; don't say a word. He was talking to himself, yes, but he went with it. Just walk away, chances are he'll follow you to find out what you're up to soon enough. Finally, without a change of his normal straight face, Ashe grabbed his bags and stood up from his chair. Then he ignored Tyler's obvious presence, walking by Rex and down the trail behind him for any sight-seeing he could get in.

"So you're just going to walk away huh?" Rex stated before glaring Ashe down some more. He watched Ashe go and decided to follow him, walking a few feet behind him in order to see if the guy would even continue to notice him. Rex stuffed his hands in his pockets and he was actually slightly glad he was free from his nightmare of being Lavender. He'd stayed transformed as Lavender the past few months over summer vacation and because of how things worked out he had been unable to convince Lavender to bonk her own head against something. This left him stuck as Lavender in the presence of his parents and gave him little time to figure out a way to escape them before being shipped off to Nouveau High School.

Now that he was here he was intent on staying as a guy and annoying every other flicker on the campus. This was because he had a low self esteem for himself and hated his girl form with a passion. Especially since he kept all her senses, but never ever was able to remember he was a originally a guy while transformed as Lavender. This left him having to taunt Lavender mentally so she'd change back into him by patting her head or bonking it somehow. It was actually kind of fun he'd found to make fun of someone who he didn't really think represented him. Yet at the same time it left him physical pain which he'd had to get used to.

He wondered about his most recent self inflicted pain and rubbed his head. There was a small bump on the top of his head, but nothing he could not handle. "I hope I don't have to jump off a building or something one day just to hit the top of my head so I can remember who I am." he thought as he continued to follow Ashe.

(Eh, this is kind of lame, my post that is.)

Bryte Island had some nice scenery to it. This trail would be a nice place to lounge on the weekends; much more relaxing than the beach, if not only to Ashe.

Second set of footsteps following his own. Hit the nail on the head. But it didn't take long before the guy talked again. "You know... we're in a school setting." Rex didn't want to be late, and frankly, Ashe silently agreed and followed behind when Rex turned back to the school.

"So," Ashe asked as he caught up, "why's your name so pointless, Lavender? Or would you prefer to be called something else...?" His voice matched his effeminate body rather well; it was soft, and a mixed American-British accent gave it decent clarity. He added his own name after a moment of silence. "Ashe."

They were back in the lot now, and Ashe opened up one of the doors to go inside. He felt like popping a Fireball, letting his other half have some fun. Maybe let her go to class in his stead and just have her leave a note with their class schedule. A note... I'm an idiot, why'd I never think of that?

Memories may have been blurry, but Ashe could write a note and Celeste would see it, and vice versa. And classes; he needed to find wherever he was going to stay while he was here. And now he was drifting off in his thoughts again. He set the worries and ideas aside, opting for listening to anything the guy next to him had left to say.

"Is the word Ashe supposed to be your name or something?" Rex asked as he looked towards Ashe with stern light green eyes. He watched him open the door and step inside the school building, "If it is then my name's Rex. That's why I pretty much have this nasty attitude towards everyone here. I'm related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex after all."

Rex followed him inside and said, "I'll have you know since you're throwing around my other name that I'm definitely a flicker. I don't like it one bit though. Lavender never remembers she's me when I transform into her, but I suppose that's thanks to the huge amount of energy she gains amount transformation, mentally and physically. I don't suppose you're a flicker too? It's almost like this school was made for them."

Rex smirked and said, "I'll be going now. I feel like coming to class as the gender I put on my application. I'll see you in class but probably won't remember you though." Rex placed his left hand on his belly and gently rubbed it quickly turning Lavender right in Ashe's presence.

Lavender blinked before realizing she was standing in front of Ashe. She looked down and saw she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and inside the confines of a school building. She could have sworn she was at a beach, though or nearby one earlier. I must have left the beach, Kylie and Tyler and changed without realizing it. She thought to herself.

In front of her was an effeminate boy with grey white hair and a two different colored eyes, one violet and the other green. He looked somewhat pleasant so Lavender introduced herself quickly, "I'm Lavender Queen-Heart and you are?"

Ashe almost chuckled at Rex's joke. And the former was right: they can at least somewhat relate, concerning memories. "I don't suppose," Rex asked, "you're a Flicker, too? It's almost like this school was made for them."

"Not like I got a say in whether I was sent here or not anyways," Ashe answered, half-sarcastically despite the fact it was true.

"I'll be going now. I feel like coming to class as the gender I put on my application." He said that he wouldn't remember him, nor himself. Then he rubbed his belly, turning into a girl right in front of Ashe. Rex's short gray hair turned a golden blonde and grew out even longer than Ashe's. His eyes went from green to a bright and lively blue, and he-- she was immediately confused.

She seriously didn't remember a thing about being Rex; amazing. She stared at the young man in front of her and introduced herself as if they'd never met before. With how Rex described things, it was exactly that. "I'm Lavender Queen-Heart, and you are?"

He couldn't help but crack a soft smile. "Ashe." The introductions were shortly interrupted by the girl from before and... her... half-naked friend.... Either way, Ashe's new acquaintance was dragged off. Oh well, he thought. Perfect time to see if that note thing was a good idea after all. He needed a way to talk with his other half, even if the method was considerably primitive.

Then, as if it were something totally normal, Ashe casually walked into the nearest girls' bathroom and locked it behind him; he didn't seem to care who saw him going in. Then he reached into his bag, pulling out a mini-notepad and pen, along with a single-wrapped Atomic Fireball which he stuck in his mouth right away. He really used to each them so much that his saliva adapted, and they were halfway dissolved after ten seconds on a good day. As he was sucking on it, he wrote a rushed message to his other half and put it in one of his pockets.

"Make sure to figure out the living arrangements here. And remember the name 'Lavender Queen-Heart'. If you understand this, leave another note.

- Ashe"

Barely enough time to put the notepad away, and the spicy jawbreaker was already gone.

Ashe's hair darkened from the scalp down, going almost entirely black save an inch or so at the end of each strand, which remained its normal grayish-white. He could see it happening in the mirror next to him. His eyes' colors alternated with one another, fading his left eye to green and his right to violet. Then he could feel his chest expanding and a separate notable body part being replaced by another, but the only thing he worried about was that it was almost entirely painless, like a growth spurt in a kid. All this happened in just a matter of seconds, and Ashe closed his eyes. His personality was the last to go, swapping itself out for another.

-

And Celeste had a bit of a headache. It was normal for them, and disappeared pretty quickly. Everything that happened in the past few days felt like a (long) dream, but when she opened her eyes her senses were instantly cleared up. Everything that happened really did, she knew it, but it was too blurry to remember thoroughly. Celeste did, however, remember the last thing that happened and went to checking her pockets. When she found the notepad, she opened it up and flipped through a few drawings before finding the message. It said to remember someone.

Lavender, Lavender.... She had to think about it for a bit; at least the recent interaction made it easier to memorize. That Flicker you met just a bit ago, right. Celeste flipped to the next page over and wrote a note back to her counterpart.

"It worked. But why did you want me to remember who Lavender was?" She'd probably have figured it out soon enough, so she crossed out the second sentence.

Then Celeste put the notepad back in her pocket for later, picking up her bags and leaving the bathroom. She didn't want to turn back to Ashe, yet. She looked around for a moment, and saw a girl rushing into the boys' room nearby.

Lavender having walked but unfortunately saw no one there, not even a teacher. She knew it was a school day, or so she thought so maybe they were in a different room. She had second thoughts on whether or not it was a holiday though and left the room. Sauntering down the hallway she thought she saw a girl who looked an awful like Ashe Celeste, or the boy she'd seen earlier. She walked up to her and said, "Have you seen a boy with grayish white hair around here?"

Lavender didn't realize it fully, but as she stood there and asked the girl this question her breasts were sticking out much further than she had anticipated thanks to her initial desire to make them "grow" by shifting the muscle composition in her body for a short period of time. She looked down in time to see her cleavage was more visible than usable and silently thought, "Bet she can see them too... I hope she's not thinking lowly of me right now."

Celeste started walking toward the main office, the halls empty for some reason, and looked at Lavender as she came by. Something seemed off when she approached; her chest looked a little fuller than in Ashe's memory. But it's not like Mr. "I'm Not Attracted to Anyone" notices the size of a girl's bust. This girl, Lavender, was practically the essence of being cute; long golden hair, wide blue eyes, and a generally positive disposition. Then, to top it off, her clothes are doing absolutely nothing to argue with it.

"Have you seen a boy with grayish white hair around here?" She must have meant Ashe. And, well, he just turned into a girl.

"I'm sorry," Celeste answered, "I haven't." At least it was honest; she didn't specifically 'see' Ashe around here. Maybe Lavender'd know something to answer one of her own questions. Celeste still needed to get settled in, and drop her bags somewhere. "Hey, before you run off, do you know anything about the living arrangements here?" And what about the school's emptiness? Granted, neither of them would probably know a thing about it, but it couldn't hurt to ask. "Also, do you know why there's no one here? Does the school have an orientation or something?"

"I don't know about other people's housing arrangements, but I'm currently living in a dorm by myself I think. On the school' emptiness, well I don't really know that either. I'm guessing that people are still getting oriented in dorms or something. I walked into a classroom just now, but I didn't see anyone. Its almost like they were abducted by aliens." Lavender told her. "You look about as lost as I am though so you must be new because I've got nearly the same questions actually that you do. I asked some girls earlier and that led me here. I was so hoping to impress people with my new, altered figure, but no one is here."

Lavender looked around after saying what she said and pointed towards Ace passing through the hallway on the way to the library, "Or I could be wrong... There's that guy walking through the halls. Maybe he could help us out?" She stood there after saying this and waited for Celeste to respond. She just thought she'd point out Ace walking through the hallways, even though she didn't know him because Celeste was clearly looking for people too in this school. All she'd come across is students so far and that wasn't a good sign to her. What if the teachers were playing some kind of game and hoped to ambush all the students. She'd never heard of it before, but with the emptiness of the hallways around here it seemed like something that ridiculous was going on.

"I'm currently living in a dorm by myself, I think," Lavender answered. She didn't have a clue on the school's lack of people. "I was so hoping to impress people with my new, altered figure, but no one is here." Altered look? So something did look different from what Ashe saw! Must've been the breasts, since everything else in Ashe's memory was accurate to a T. Annoyingly, that made the girl even cuter, making her breasts look bigger.

Lavender looked around, and they both saw a young man wandering around. "There's that guy walking through the halls. Maybe he could help us out?"

"Alright, let's go..." Celeste realized Lavender didn't know her, and she wasn't supposed to know Lavender. "Sorry, I don't think we know each other's names. I'm Celeste." And before they could go and meet Ace, the flat chested girl that dragged Lavender away before ran up to him and started talking to him rather loudly.

"Excuse me, but have you seen a girl with golden blonde hair and a big, um... bosom, out to here?" Tyler used her hands to look like she was holding a pair of breasts, it was both funny and disturbing at the same time. Funny that she was actually doing that, and disturbing because it actually looked like she was groping a pair of invisible breasts.

"Um, looks like the guy's preoccupied, but maybe we can still talk to him if not..." Lavender leaned over and whispered into Celeste's ear, "I'm Lavender by the way, and I think we should leave the two be and head on to out to do some things like prepare for classes if nothing else. If it's like a day before classes then the teachers who are supposed to be here will get mad at us because the moment we show up for their real classes they will ask us where we've been and where our materials are if we come in mostly empty handed."

Lavender then straightened back up and watched Tyler and Ace interact. "I think that's Tyler over there. She's pretty nice and so is her friend Kylie. I just wonder what she's trying to do is all with him. Surely Kylie couldn't have gotten lost already here if that's who she's looking for."

Lavender stuffed her hands in her pockets thought heavily on the matter. However, no real thoughts came to mind as she pondered where Kylie could have gone if she were lost. They had just come to the school today so getting lost was dangerous right now, well maybe not entirely dangerous but just really bad.

"Hey, are you asking me if I want jelly beans?" Lavender asked Ace curiously, "If so I'd love to have some." She stepped towards him, reached out her hands to have some placed in her palms. "If you're having trouble looking for the jelly beans I could always use my telekinetic powers to move some stuff around in your bag and help you. It'd make your search much faster. I'm Lavender by the way," she introduced herself while patiently waiting for Ace to find his jelly beans.

She looked back at Celeste and said, "I think he's pretty friendly, if you need a room I think I may have one so we could share one together here at the school. That is since I doubt the school would allow boys and girls together. My only question continues to be where the teachers are. You wouldn't happen to know that would you, Celeste?"

Lavender turned her head back to back to Ace and studied his features. His blonde hair was darker than hers, almost dirty blond. It seemed to be a rather common feature at the school as far as she could tell. A rather normal feature.

Celeste went up with Lavender to the others and took up the offer of jelly beans from Ace, cheerfully extending her free hand with a thanks. The blonde-haired girl seemed proud of having psychic abilities, and Celeste actually wanted to see that in action.

"If you need a room I think I may have one so we could share one together here at the school."

"That could be fun, thank you," Celeste replied with a smile. Then Lavender asked about the teachers. "Sorry. I don't have a clue on their whereabouts either." A little after hearing the notion of jelly beans, something rustled around in Celeste's hair. Giggling, Celeste fidgeted, "Selen, stop, it tickles!" Then a little black nose stuck itself out from behind her neck.

She set down her bag, reaching up to pet the creature's nose. It nudged itself out and into her hand, a small wolf cub with perky ears and fur that contrasted its owner's hair color. Celeste forgot she was even there, and the fact that she had a pet on school grounds.

"Wow, is that a fox? No, it's gotta' be a wolf!" Lavender said as she watched Celeste pull a wolf cub out of her hair and pointed at it. "What's a wolf doing in your hair? Isn't it illegal to own a wild animal, especially at a school?" The wolf was awesome looking though since it had black and white fur and also reminded Lavender of a black and white tabby cat. Just for fun she held out her hand with splayed fingers and said, "I command you to rise and leave your owner! Join me wolf cub and I shall treat you as my pet forever and ever."

Psychic energy formed around her hand as she used mental power to try and pull Celeste's wolf away from her. She wanted to pet the wolf, hold the wolf, and basically keep it forever. She had no doubt Celeste would object to this, but she really just felt like messing around with the girl to see how far she would go to protect something of hers. She wanted a rather good roommate and this felt like an excellent test to judge her true capabilities.

Tyler speachless at what is happening around her finally decides to speak up, "Does anyone else want a drink from the vending machine, I'm so parched after chasing after Kylie?" she asks as she walks up to the machine. She bends over trying to decide on what type of drink she wants, "Yippeee they have lemonade!!!" she happily says before she uses her power to walk through solid objects to reach into the machine and grab her lemonade. She then opens the can and starts to drink it casually as if nothing had just happened.

"Ahhhhh, thats refreshing. So does anyone else want something, its my treat?" Tyler says in a soft voice "Oh ya, Hey Lavender you haven't seen Kylie around have you I was chasing her down the halls but I lost her around this corner. Also, Have you seen any teachers or other students I haven't seen any?"

Lavender seemed excited at Selen's appearance, asking why Celeste had her, and about the school's policy on having animals around.

"She's my pet," Celeste answered happily. "And I'm not sure about the legality, but Selen's always hiding in my hair anyways." Then Lavender almost made her bust a gut.

"I command you to rise and leave your owner! Join me, wolf cub, and I shall treat you as my pet forever and ever." The "forever and ever" really added an adorable childish note to the command, and that didn't help any case against Lavender in the slightest. Somehow, energy surrounded Lavender's hands, maybe the display of psychic power Celeste was wanting to see and obviously meant to pull the little wolf away... but to no avail. For some reason, Selen was able to keep herself on her owner's shoulder, mostly unfazed by Lavender's telekinetic abilities. Her ears folded in and she hid back in Celeste's hair, like the energy was irritating her.

Giggling at Lavender, Celeste tried to comfort her for her efforts. "If you wanted to pet her, you could just ask. But trying to get her to leave me for someone else is impossible. Even my parents can't keep her away from me."