Miriam fidgeted with the ring.  Finn flickered, vanished, reappeared looking slightly less dazed.  “This thing’s really on a hair trigger.”

Finn nodded.  “Mom said it gets that way as you learn to use the ring, but with more practice you get better at not accidentally doing things.”

Miriam made a face.  “Too much practicing, studying, bleah.  Let’s go for a walk.  And...” she focussed carefully, and the hot fudge sundae reappeared in her hands.  “Enjoy our treat.”

They walked in silence for a minute, trading off the sundae so each could have bites.  When Finn suggested Miriam could pop bites into the ring and then into her mouth she frowned at him.  “That sounds too much like more practice.”

“Think of it as playing with the ring in a way that can’t mess with either of our minds?” asked Finn with a careful smile.

Miriam considered that while Finn scooped out another bite.  Instead of eating it, he held his spoon up in front of her.  “Bet you can’t take it from me.”

Miriam’s eyes narrowed, and a moment later the spoon vanished from Finn’s hand.  It reappeared in her mouth... bowl facing outward.  Finn got over his surprise first, so he leaned forward to lick the ice cream off the spoon before Miriam figured out what she’d done.

Miriam tried to look vexed with Finn, but soon started to giggle.  When he next tried to take a bite of ice cream, his spoon vanished from his hand, and reappeared in her mouth the right way around.  Finn grinned.  “There’s the spirit.  Can you do it without taking the spoon?”

To Miriam’s frustration, that proved impossible.  No matter how carefully she tried, the spoon always vanished with the ice cream.  She did learn how to separate ice cream from spoon inside the ring after a few tries, and popped the spoon back into Finn’s hand empty.  “Close enough?” she asked around a pilfered mouthful.

Finn grinned.  “Works for me, can you... Mmpf!”  He suddenly had his own mouthful of sundae to swallow.  Once he’d done so, his grin grew wider.  “Sneaky.”

They kept at the game for a bit, Finn would scoop out bites to have them stolen by Miriam, and Miriam’s spoonfuls would end up in Finn’s mouth.  Or, in one case, all over his face because he closed his mouth unexpectedly.

Miriam impishly licked the ice cream off Finn’s lips, which led to a drawn-out kiss.  Afterward, Finn’s knees were shaky and he leaned on Miriam for support.

Miriam watched him worriedly.  “Are you okay?”

Finn nodded, cheeks still flushed from the kiss.  “It just... hit me.  The taste of ice cream on my tongue while...   I remembered you in my mouth and...”  He looked away, blushing more brightly.

“Good memories, I hope?”

“Oh yeah,” replied Finn, distantly.

Miriam glanced downward and smirked.  “Oh, I see!  Have I given you a fetish for ice cream kisses?”  She took a bite of the sundae conventionally, then leaned in for another kiss.

Finn responded even more eagerly than the last kiss.  When they broke apart he stumbled back a step, wild-eyed.  “Holy...”

Miriam giggled giddily.  “That was...  More?”

Finn whimpered.  “I fear I’ll do something rather... improper.”

“Like shrink me and let your tongue have its wicked way with me?” asked Miriam, eyes sparkling.  “Too bad I’m the one with the ring.”

Finn chuckled.  “Probably for the best... wait, ‘too bad’?  You liked it too?  Even now, when the compulsion has faded?”

Miriam studied the pretty blue ring on her finger.  “I don’t feel like diving down your throat is this burning need, like it was then.  But now that that has faded, it... wasn’t in any way an unpleasant experience.  Even being in your stomach was nice, I guess a projection doesn’t have previous meals or stomach acid.”

Finn shrugged.  “I probably should ask Mom about that.  If I can bring myself to admitting the part where I swallowed you whole, anyway.”

Miriam finished the last bite of the sundae, then tossed the spoons and bowl in a garbage bin by the park entrance.  “What should we do with the rest of the day?”

“Study?”

Miriam stuck her tongue out at Finn, a little bit of ice cream still clinging to it.  “That’s no fun.  But I have my Chem exam tomorrow.  You’ll help, right?”

“Of course.  Want to go do a practice exam?”

Miriam sighed.  “I guess.  Wait, do you mean with you in the ring to feed me answers?”

“Yeah, just like we did for my exam today,” replied Finn, as if the answer should have been obvious.  “We’ll take turns.  You have Chem... when, again?”

“Tomorrow afternoon.  Then we both have exams Wednesday, but you won’t have trouble in Calculus, and I won’t have any in Literature.  Thursday, though...  Math.  Ugh.”

“English, double-ugh.  But then we’re done.”

“Yeah!  School’s out forever!” sung Miriam.

“Haven’t you applied to any universities?”

Miriam stared at Finn in confusion.  “Oh.  Uh...  All the stuff with Mom’s health has kind of overwhelmed any planning.  I figured I’d stick with her until...”  Her face froze for a moment, then she shook her head.  “Exams first.  Deal with everything else after.”

They made their way back to their neighbourhood.  Their first stop was at Miriam’s to gather up her study materials and half a closet of clothes, and some other necessities.  The ring made short work of that, and soon she was using it to pop her clothing into what space was left in the closet of the Engstrom’s guest room.  

“All done,” said Miriam with a satisfied smile.  Then she sighed. “I guess it’s studying time.”

“Got your Chem text handy?” asked Finn.

“Already in the library, with some pens and notepaper.”

Finn nodded, tapping his foot nervously for a bit before straightening his back.  “OK, let’s do...”

He vanished.  This time, his clothes went with him.

Finn trotted over to the library, and found Miriam’s texts set out at the main reading table.  “Good to go here.  Do you have a practice exam?”

“Uh...  Should be one in with my notes.  Can you dig it out?”

Finn flipped through Miriam’s binder of neatly-written notes, and held up a sheaf of papers from the back.  “Here.”  They vanished from his fingers.

Miriam started in on the exam.  The first part, multiple choice questions on general knowledge, she was fine with.  Finn watched in surprise as she powered through them, answering questions about various compounds and their uses with ease.

“What do you need me here for?” asked Finn.  “You’ve got this.”

Miriam projected her self-image into the ring beside him, bringing a copy of the practice exam with her. “This is all just memorizing.  I’m great at that.”  She flipped to the next page, full of chemical equations that needed to be balanced.  “These...  I don’t get these.”  Miriam slumped into a chair beside Finn.  “Help?”

Finn diagrammed the first one on a sheet of paper, patiently trying to explain the concept of having the same number of each letter on each side, and how subscripts and prefixes multiplied together.  “It’s basically just algebra, with different symbols.”

Miriam snorted.  “I suck at algebra, too.  Can’t you just give me the answers?”

“I will if I have to in the exam,” promised Finn.  “For now, can we try it my way?  This stuff is pretty simple once you get it.”

Miriam muttered but agreed.  She started working on the first problem, and Finn gave a running commentary of how to approach it.  “There’s one carbon on each side, so that balances.  Four Hydrogen on the left, but only two on the right means...  Miriam?”

“It means we need to add Hydrogen to the equation?”

Finn sighed.  “No.  It means we need another H₂O.  Then we end up with four Oxygen on the right, and two on the left, so...”

Miriam glared at him, then at the paper, and wrote down a 2.  “I can get that last bit.  But figuring out which order to go in always confuses me.  Why Carbon first?”

Finn shrugged.  “You kind of... look at it, and see which bit’s easiest.”

“That’s no help!”

“Look, just try the next one,” soothed Finn.

Miriam did so with ill grace, and after three false starts glared at Finn.  “Just tell me where to begin already!”

Finn rolled his eyes.  “You’ve tried three of the four elements already.  Obviously the fourth...”

“Obviously!” growled Miriam.  “None of this is obvious!”  She glanced up and saw Finn’s incredulous look.  “Just because I’m a girl doesn’t make me stupid.”

Finn held up her hands defensively.  “I didn’t say that!  Hey, my...”  She looked down at herself.  “Why’d you turn me into a girl?”

Miriam grumbled and looked away.  “Didn’t mean to.  But it’s an improvement.”

Finn laughed softly.  “Hey, if it works for you, I’m game.  Don’t fret.  C’mon, one more go.”

With a few more nudges Miriam finished the question.  Once she was done, Finn grinned.  “See?  Now... as a reward, you have my permission to change my clothes.”  Finn’s shirt and jeans became a copy of the sundress they’d found in the guest room.

The next few questions went a little better, once Finn started suggesting which element to start with.  After each success, Finn ended up in a different outfit, each a little frillier or pinker than the last.  A particularly ornate extravaganza got Finn giggling, and that set Miriam off.

Once they’d calmed down, Miriam turned to the next question.  Finn tried to figure out where to start, shook her head, then rubbed her eyes to try to make the figures focus.  “I...  This one...”  She shook her head.  “I should know this.”

“Are you okay?” asked Miriam.

“Rrr, stupid girl brain,” Finn grumbled, bonking his forehead with a balled up fist.

“WHAT did you say?”  Miriam’s eyes narrowed.  “I’ll show you stupid girl brain...”

Finn stared back dazedly.  “Like... what?  I don’t get it.”  She turned to face the paper in front of them, and her pretty face screwed up in confusion.  “What is this?”

Finn drew a smiley face in one of the oxygen symbols, then added petals to another.  Miriam started snickering.  “Come on, isn’t the answer obvious?”

“Answer?” asked Finn in a lilting voice.  “Answer to what?”

“The Chemistry exam.  You could do these a minute ago,” gloated Miriam.  “Is something wrong?”

Finn balled the paper up and threw it over her shoulder.  “Nope!”

Miriam started to giggle.  “You don’t care about the exam?”

Finn shook her head, staring into Miriam’s eyes.  She leaned forward, lips almost brushing Miriam’s.  “All I care about is you.”

Miriam suddenly looked alarmed.  “Oh, I...”  Finn’s lips found hers, and silenced her protests.  Miriam soon found herself kissing back with interest, and as their tongues tangled Finn’s hands roamed over her body, expertly pulling off her dress, then her bra.

Miriam didn’t even bother doing the same, she just disappeared Finn’s clothes.  Her last coherent thought was to summon a mattress as the two of them tumbled to the floor.

As Finn’s attentions grew more intimate, Miriam’s breathing grew ragged, and she lost focus.  Her projection vanished from the ring and she slumped back in her study chair, breathing hard.  “Holy...  What the hell was that?”

Miriam peered into the ring, looking without projecting, and saw Finn writhing on the mattress, one hand on her breasts, the other between her legs.  Part of her wanted to stop Finn before he went too far, but what she was seeing was turning her on, and she lacked the will to force it to end.  She watched mutely as Finn writhed and moaned, until Finn’s soaring voice reached its crescendo and the impossibly sexy girl she’d crafted of her boyfriend slumped to the mattress, spent.

Only then did Miriam pull Finn out of the ring, making sure to bring his clothes with him.  She made him appear lying on the bed, and he dozed there for a few minutes before he sat up.  “Oh!  I...”  His cheeks blazed.  “Woah.”

Miriam blushed as well. “You put on quite the show.”  One hand went to her chest, found rock-hard nipples there.  “Uh, can you give me a few minutes alone?”

Finn chuckled as he rolled nimbly off the bed.  “You watched me.  Now you want privacy?”

“I...  I’m not sure I’m ready to have a boy watch...”

Finn looked down at himself in confusion.  “Oh!  Right.  Uh...  I could put a dress on?”

Miriam giggled so hard she snorted.  “You still think you’re a girl!  Oh God, I turned you into a total ditz, and you’re not mad at me?”

Finn shrugged.  “She was such a firecracker.  Did things with you that I want to do, but...”  Finn covered his mouth.  “Stop talking,” he muttered.

“No, do go on.  What do you want to do to me?” asked Miriam earnestly.

Finn licked his lips, tried to remember that other self’s certainty.  He leaned in close, lips brushing against Miriam’s ear as he whispered his reply.  Miriam shuddered, her flush deepening once more.  “Please?”

That’s when they heard the front door open, and the voice of Finn’s mother calling out.  Finn darted in for a quick kiss, then stood up and brushed down his clothes to make sure he was presentable.  Miriam did the same, but they emerged from the guest room to a skeptical look even so.

“Studying, was it?” asked Agnetha with a sly grin.

Finn and Miriam acquired matching blushes as Finn stammered out that it had started that way.  “We got a little distracted during the chemical equations.  That brings up a question about the ring, though...”

Agnetha’s grin grew to a smirk.  “Do tell.”

“We’ve noticed that if you’re projected into the ring and things get... distracting... it’s hard to keep focussed and the projection tends to vanish.  Is there a way around that?”

Miriam stared at him with a panicked expression.  “Why are you...”

Agnetha patted her hand.  “It’s okay, dear.  I’d rather you ‘play’ in the ring where there are no consequences.  No physical ones, anyway.”

Miriam’s eyes went even wider.  “What?  You’re okay with...  What?”

“You two are grown adults.  If not in the ring, you’ll find somewhere furtive and likely far less pleasant.  The back seat of a car, perhaps.”  She made a face.  “Not as much fun as it sounds, other than the illicit joy of risking discovery.  Which is all fun and games until a police officer taps on your windows.”

“Why are you telling us all this?” asked Miriam in a strangled voice.

“Because you’re still holding my son’s hand.”

Miriam stared down at the hand she was clenching.  She tried to let go, but Finn’s grip was as firm as her own.  She found she preferred it that way, and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “Ah.”

“Amusingly, you already have the answer you seek.  Remember the first time you used the ring, Miriam?”

Miriam nodded.  “Was that really only a day ago?  It feels like weeks.”

Agnetha reminded Miriam of how she’d accidentally projected her entire consciousness into the ring, losing awareness of the outside world.  “Do that, but push a little harder.”

“Won’t I risk getting lost in the ring?” asked Miriam.  “It sounds like I could forget there was an outside world at all.”

“Your body goes on regardless.  If you’re truly worried, only try it late at night.  Once your body falls asleep, you’ll automatically return.”

Miriam nodded slowly.  “I see.  So I should go to bed, with the ring and Finn inside it...”

Agnetha’s smile had a touch of pain behind it.  “That would work.  If only Finn’s father saw it the same way.”

Miriam pulled Finn with her as she closed the gap to the older woman, and put an arm around her.  “Not a fan of the ring?”

Agnetha shook her head.  “I pushed too hard, too fast, when I first inherited it a few years back.  He has made his opinion of it very clear.  So...  I ended up using it for practical things instead of fanciful ones.  Having all the extra storage has been a blessing.”

“Sounds like poor compensation,” said Miriam.

Agnetha shrugged.  “You have to take the good with the bad, you know?  He’s a wonderful man in so many other ways.”  She took a step back to eye the two youngsters speculatively.  “And he’s been... quite appreciative of the absence of a certain power imbalance.  So much so I’d rather you two hang onto it for a while yet.  I’ll want it for garage sales on Saturdays, but otherwise...”

Finn boggled at his mother.  “Are you saying we get to play with it as much as we like?”

His mother nodded her head toward Miriam, who was smiling giddily.  “Someone seems to like the idea.  Concerns?”

“She turned me into a bimbo!” protested Finn.

“You got better,” said Miriam with a grin.

Agnetha raised an eyebrow at Miriam.

“He said something about stupid girl brain and I got mad.  I...  Oh!  I guess maybe I...  Can the ring really make people dumber?” asked Miriam.

“Last night you couldn’t talk for five minutes because you still thought you were a cat,” noted Finn.  “And when you tried to make me stupid, I couldn’t even figure out what chemical equations meant.”  Finn looked into the distance.  “It’s weird.  I can remember looking at the equation and struggling, but now it seems obvious.”

Miriam snorted.  “Obvious to you.”

“Now, yes.  Then... no.  Maybe if we split the difference, it’d be easier to explain?” mused Finn.

Agnetha studied her son curiously.  “You’re willing to let her damp down your mind... so you can explain at her level more easily?”

Finn nodded.  “Sure.  If it helps.  We should try that, finish up the practice exam that way.”

Agnetha cautioned them that the ring could as easily change the emotions and desires of the ring’s occupants as it could their intellect.  She got knowing smiles in return, and ruefully noted that they probably had more practice than she did, at that.

At her suggestion, Miriam and Finn set up at the kitchen table, so that Finn’s father would be sure to see no “funny business” going on when he got home.

It took some trial and error to settle Finn at an intellectual level that let him solve the equations without great leaps of insight, but still quickly enough to be helpful.  That Finn also ended up female in the process seemed inevitable to them both.

At the end of the exam they ran into a particularly tricky question that took them several tries to find the starting point.  When they finished it, both of them cheered,as they’d both contributed to the solution.

Miriam appeared inside the ring, and hugged Finn tight.  This time, their kiss did not immediately devolve into a clothing-divesting frenzy.  Miriam stepped back from their clinch.  “How do you feel?”

Finn twirled in place, her skirt flaring out.  “Oddly normal.  We’ve been at this for how long?”

“About an hour.  The same routine would work for the test, can I do this to you then, as well?”

“Of course.  You should practice making me smarter in case we hit another hard question like that last one.”

Miriam hesitated.  “How about later?  You seem happy like this.  Want to go try more dresses on?”

“Sure!” chirped Finn, jogging out of the library and up the street.  As she got to the boutique Miriam had created, she noticed the name.  “Miriam’s Mysteries?  Cute!”

Miriam grinned.  “After you had fun with the slip, I figured I’d roll with the theme.  So... dresses or lingerie?”

Finn immediately made a beeline for the rack of pretty intimates.  “C’mon, you have to try them too.”

“Yep, you’re definitely the same person under all of this,” Miriam observed with a chuckle.

“Yeah,” Finn agreed.  “I still think you’re cute, and like seeing you in sexy stuff.  But I can still remember that we have exams to do, and my Dad will be home for dinner soon...”

“So no funny business?”

“Exactly,” agreed Finn as she dropped her bra onto one of the chairs.  She pulled out a shimmery purple outfit that was little more than thin strips of fabric.  It wasn’t entirely obvious how to put it on, so Miriam helped her settle the straps in place.

Miriam surveyed her handiwork with a broad smile.  “Damn, girl.  You look hot.”

Finn turned to study herself in the mirror.  “Sweet.  You should put one on too.”

Miriam snapped her fingers, and her clothes were replaced with an identical outfit.  Finn pouted playfully and claimed that wasn’t fair.  Miriam moved to stand beside her at the mirror, distracting Finn from her protest.  “We look amazing.  Twinsies!” giggled Finn.

A moment later, they were.  Finn looked exactly like Miriam.  She chuckled at that.  “I’m surprised it took you this long.”

Miriam waved her hand, sending Finn back to her prior look.  “Focussing on the exam helped, then you’d spent an hour like this, stabilizing your look in my mind.  But now that I’ve changed you... shoot.”

“What?” giggled Finn, vamping in front of the mirror.  The outfit was suddenly much tighter, and her hair longer than before.  “I’m too sexy for this dress,” she sang, and as she did the dress vanished and was replaced by a skimpy pair of panties and two tasseled nipple pasties.

Miriam looked away as Finn started singing again.  The singing cut off mid-word.  When she turned back, Finn was gone.  In her place was a very ordinary looking mannequin.  “There.  No more suggestions out of you.”

Miriam put a less suggestive but still sexy outfit on the mannequin, and set it in the boutique window.  She smiled at the display, and two more mannequins of the same design appeared in similar poses.  

“Miriam, could you help with dinner?”

Miriam blinked, opening her eyes to the Engstrom dining room.  “Of course, Mrs. Engstrom.”

“Too formal.  You’re my honorary daughter now.”

Miriam smiled at that, as she got up to follow Anetha into the kitchen.  “I can’t call you Mom.”  She shuddered and looked away.  “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, sweetie.  I understand.  Here, can you peel the carrots?”


When Finn’s father arrived, dinner was ready to serve.  He smiled at his wife affectionately, and gave her a hug and kiss that went a few steps past simply affectionate.  Miriam blushed and looked away.

“Where’s Finn?” asked Mr. Engstrom after a minute.

Miriam started and looked down at the ring.  “Uh... we were practicing for my Chemistry exam.”

“And you left him in there?”  The question was gentle enough, but there was steel in Mr. Engstrom’s gaze.  Miriam couldn’t tear herself away from it.

Miriam stammered out an explanation.  Despite the outrageousness of the situation, all she got was a half-raised eyebrow.  That made it worse when she came to admit that Finn was stuck as a mannequin and she’d forgotten about him for half an hour.

“Bring him back.”

Miriam dove into the ring, and a moment later Finn was back to human, and male.  But still wearing the cute little slip she’d put on the mannequin.  Miriam giggled briefly, then summoned Finn’s real clothes.  “Snap out of it, okay?  Your father wants to see you and I’d rather you not spend five minutes standing there mute.”

Finn nodded.  “I... think I can manage.  I feel mostly like me.”

“That was quick.”

“I guess we’re more plastic while we’re inside the ring.”

Miriam snickered. “You were all plastic.”

Finn rolled his eyes.  “You know what I meant.  Just get us out.”

When Finn appeared, he shot Miriam a smile before reassuring his father that he hadn’t come to any harm.

As they ate, Finn was questioned on how his exam had gone that day.  He tried to credit Miriam, but she pointed out he’d done most of the work himself, she’d just checked it.  That led into another discussion of mutual exam schedules, and left both well aware of the need to study.

The ring saw no more use that night.

In the morning Finn helped his mother make breakfast, much to her surprise.  When Miriam found a fruit-decorated bowl of oatmeal waiting for her, both women grinned.

The wait before it was time to go to Miriam’s afternoon exam seemed interminable.  Both agreed that using the ring to pass the time was a terrible idea, as it would be too easy to get distracted.  Finn started studying for his exam Wednesday, and with ill grace Miriam spent the remaining time reviewing her Chemistry notes.

When Finn finally announced it was time to leave, Miriam cheered.  She popped him and her text into the ring a moment later and was off like a shot.

The exam itself proved anti-climactic.  Miriam was careful to limit her changes to Finn, though she did turn him into a girl early on.  She claimed she found him easier to listen to that way.  Finn didn't argue the point, and admitted that it made things more interesting.

The toughest chemical equation was nowhere near as bad as the worst one from the practice test, and Finn noted the time when they got to it.  There was over half an hour left, so she left the problem entirely in Miriam’s hands.  “You’ve got time, you know the method.  Show me what you can do when I’m just cheering you on.”

Miriam sighed softly, and looked over her exam book.  She was pretty sure she’d secured a decent enough grade even without the last question.  “You’ll check my work?”

“Of course.”

Miriam nodded and set to work.  In less time than she’d expected, she set her pen down and stared at the result.  “Is that really right?” she whispered softly.

“Ah, no.  Check the oxygens again.”

Miriam grumbled, but saw the error and started over.  It didn’t take her much longer to find the correct answer.  She wanted to leave, then, but Finn urged her to use the rest of the time to check answers, so as not to look suspicious.

Once time was called, Miriam was the first to the front with her exam, and out to her car as fast as she could go.  After a short drive and a few questions from Finn as to why she’d stopped feeding her vision into the ring, Miriam parked the car, tilted her seat back as far as it would go, and dropped as fully into the ring as she could manage.

Miriam prowled toward Finn, who was back in the boutique trying on dresses.  “You don’t need to know where we are.  We’re safe from prying eyes, for as long as we want.”

Finn glanced at her, then his eyes went wide.  “Your clothes...”

Miriam gestured, and Finn’s dress evaporated.  “Will get in the way of what I want.  You’re mine, little pretty.  Alllll mine.”