“Halloween was last week.  So why are we having a candy party now?”

Diane grinned.  “Because your dad’s out of town.”

“How did you know that?” protested Tedd.

Diane just arched an eyebrow, then continued.  “And a little birdie told me that you’ve got some edibles you want to try.”  She started laughing at Tedd’s wild-eyed look.  As he sputtered and protested, she waved off his concern.  “I know exactly what you’re thinking, and I also know exactly what Grace meant.  Set up your production line.  This is going go be fun!”

*** *** ***

Diane herded the last of the gang into the basement, then gestured to Tedd.  “Your show.”

Tedd pushed her glasses back into place nervously, then started.  “Right.  I’ve been working on new delivery systems for spells, and someone,” Tedd paused to glare at Diane, “heard that I’d had a breakthrough recently.  To wit... consumable spells.  Grace?”

Grace pulled a sheet off of one of the tables in the room, to reveal a dozen bowls of varying sizes.  In each bowl was a collection of jelly beans.  Most of the bowls had only one colour, but the big crystal bowl in the middle had a mixture of all the colours except black.

“Each jelly bean has a spell in it, by colour.  The black ones are a ‘reset’, so they’ll change you back.  The rest are...”

“Hold up,” interjected Diane.  “Let’s do this the fun way.”

“The fun way?” asked Tedd.  “But people need to know what...”

“Nope.  Each colour does something, that’s all they need to know.  We’ll figure it out, right?”  Diane grabbed a handful of purple jellybeans and ate five at once.

“Um, important note.  The more you eat the stronger the effect.  They’re designed to be cumulative.  Also, ingested items take longer to take effect, so don’t... do what Diane just did and eat more because they don’t seem to be doing anything.”

Diane just grinned at Tedd.  “It’ll be fine.  The black ones will change us back.”

“If you can eat them, yeah.”

Diane burped, and suddenly lost a foot of height.  Purple fur fuzzed out all over her body, and her ears popped up like a bunny’s.  “I feel very odd.”

Everyone crowded around to watch as Diane continued to dwindle, getting fuzzier and... simpler.  “What’s happening?”

“You’re turning into a rabbit.  To be more accurate, a stuffed rabbit toy.  Sorry, Grace thought that in low doses it’d make people cute and huggable, but...”

Diane squeaked a reply then flumped over to her side, still.

“She’s not... dead, is she?” asked Elliot, wide-eyed with concern.

“Nah, she’ll be fine in a few hours.  The jellybeans are good for an hours, she’ll change back then.”

“Uh, Tedd?” asked Grace.  “Did you forget the cumulative effect?”

Tedd blinked at Grace owlishly.  “Yes, all the changes are cumulative.”

“And the durations.”  Grace scooped up the little plush bunny and gave it a hug, before setting it on the table beside the bowl of purple jellybeans.  “She’ll be like this all night.”

Tedd sighed.  “I’ll go get the reversal wand.”

To his surprise, it was Susan who put a hand out to stop him.  “She won’t be hurt, right?”

“Of course not!  It’s perfectly safe.”

“Then perhaps she should live with the consequences of her actions.  How many other colours will immobilize if taken to extreme?”

Tedd watched Grace gobble down a handful of green jellybeans.  “Uh...  Just purple, white.  Well, maybe pink if you take too many, but that’s more ‘too unweildy to get around’ than actually inanimate.”

“These ones are tasty,” giggled Grace.  “Can I have more?”

Tedd watched as Grace started to grow taller.  “Yeah, those should be fine.  Growth still caps at double size.”

As they watched, Grace grew tall enough that she had to sit down to keep her head from hitting the ceiling.

Susan frowned.  “She’s not stopping.  Did you forget something else?  Like how Grace absorbs changes and...”

“Crap!  Grace, we have to get you to the back yard now!”

Grace scrambled toward the stairs, but was already too big to fit up them.  “Uh...  Oh, I know!”  She transformed into a giant snake, and slithered up the stairs.  There was a little creaking from all the weight, but they held.

Getting through the door to the back yard proved more trouble since she couldn’t turn the knob with her snout.  While she tried using her tongue to open it Tedd squeezed and wriggled her way past Grace’s long scaly body and finally made it to the door.  Grace practically burst into the back yard... then realized she was no longer growing.  Everyone gathered around her.  “Now what?”

“Turn into a squirrel?  That should make you somewhat smaller...”

Grace ended up as a six foot tall squirrel.  She giggled and chittered happily, and pulled Tedd into a hug with her tail.

“Why didn’t you just feed her one of these?” asked Sarah, holding up a black jellybean.

Tedd started laughing.  “Because I didn’t think about it?”