6.10 – Sticky

All potions tasted weird at best—not necessarily vile, but certainly ... potent—and going down this one was even more of an experience than usual. Hot and sticky, the viscous liquid clung to the sides of Zoey's throat as she swallowed several times, only barely stopping herself from choking. She felt the hot liquid creep all the way down into her stomach before settling. Then, finally, the effect started to tingle through her.

A wave of vertigo washed across Zoey, making her vision swim. Something weird happened. Not unexpected, seeing how the potion's description explicitly stated what it would do, but nonetheless disorienting. No warnings could have prepared her for the sensations that came with the transformation.

Her body ... softened. A layer of sticky liquid secreted across her body, covering her in a thick sheen of goo-like substance. Zoey held up her hand and looked at it in fascination. And a degree of horror. Because bit by bit, she melted, losing her normal consistency, turning into—something like Mel, maybe.

Except not so pronounced. Not as thorough. She poked her palm, and her pointer finger sank a tenth of an inch into her squishy palm, but stopped there. When she tried to pull back, dark-gray gel—matching the bodysuit's color—clung to her finger, only yielding with a loud squelch after she all but ripped it away to separate.

Looking down at her feet, she tried to raise one, only to discover she was likewise glued to the floor. As in, glued. The effect was absurdly strong. Only after an intense struggle could she yank her foot up—and it came with an even louder, more pronounced squelch.

'Equally as troublesome as it was helpful,' the description had said. Yeah, Zoey could see why. The effect was so strong as to be difficult to work with.

"Oh, wow," Maddy said, her gray eyes widening as she watched the event unfold. "Zoey, you're ... turning into ..."

"Goo?" Zoey asked. "Yeah. I guess that was my goal."

"It was?"

"Kind of."

The general plan had been to make her hands or feet sticky enough that she could cling to walls. It had been a rather inspired goal—probably not where most people's minds would have gone—but it seemed to have worked. At least, the getting-sticky part. The actual usefulness of the effect was yet to be seen.

"What do I even look like?" Zoey asked. She could look down at herself to get a general idea, but she doubted she was getting the full picture. She wished she had a mirror.

"Um. Gooey?" Maddy was practically marveling at her, so Zoey assumed it was a bit of a spectacle. "I've never seen a potion like that. I can't believe you made it so easily." Maddy hesitated. "But is it actually gonna help us cross?"

Good question. "Let's find out."

Zoey spent one more moment taking in her strange new form. The color of goo secreting from every pore depended on whether her skin was exposed to the air or her bodysuit: it seemed to have taken 'her' to have included her clothing, making her entire figure, clothes and everything, melt. Even poking at her hair resulted in her finger coming back covered in black goo.

She wondered if that was going to cause any problems when she changed back to her normal form. The fact she was leaving behind residue of—what, herself? Dragging her foot up from the ground left a glistening patch of goo as well. Was she shedding her actual body with every step? She doubted it, but it was an unnerving thought to have.

Her thoughts went again to Mel. Zoey definitely hadn't transformed into something truly like the goo-girl, even if Mel had been an inspiration for the idea. Only the outermost layer of Zoey's skin and clothing had softened into the sticky, clinging material. Still, there was a definite resemblance.

Realizing that, the transformation inspired some ... other ideas ... for the future. Maybe with some additional effort, she could create something that changed her into something that truly was like Mel. A full goo-girl. Now that she thought about it, using some of mini-Mel's body as a reagent might help create that effect. Or at least something interesting.

Maddy downed the potion, shivering as the liquid entered her. Like Zoey, she cleared her throat several times, the potion unpleasant even by potion standards. Within seconds, her body started melting—which was a rather surreal sight for Zoey, seeing her friend turn suddenly gooey.

Maddy had already watched Zoey and understood the effect, so she wasn't nearly as disoriented. She got straight to testing her new body out, clumsily swaying side to side as she had to forcefully rip her foot from the ground.

She took a different approach to moving across the wall than Zoey, using both her hands and feet rather than just her feet. It turned out to be an ineffective experiment, since separating her hands from the stone was much harder than her legs. The latter were able to produce much more force to yank with.

"Never mind," Maddy groaned, awkwardly stuck to the wall on all four limbs. "This was a terrible idea. Just using your feet is way better."

When the potion expired, they reconvened, assessing the significant gap between them and the exit door.

"We can make it in time, right?" Zoey asked.

"Totally."

"What if a monster crawls out from the pit? While we're trying to cross?" That seemed like the kind of annoying obstacle the shard would throw at them.

Maddy blinked. It was probably the first time Zoey had acknowledged a threat the experienced wayfarer hadn't considered herself.

"Then that would suck?" Maddy suggested tentatively. "I guess it's possible. Maybe make a few spare potions for each of us, in case we get somehow tied up." She peered over the ledge into the inky darkness, again setting Zoey's nerves itching—she really was way too casual about heights. "Honestly, I kind of want to walk down and see what's in there. Maybe there's special loot."

"It's a really deep pit." While Zoey had been putting together a few test brews, Maddy had chucked a few rocks over the ledge. They hadn't even heard them hit the bottom.

"True," Maddy said. "I guess it's not important, I'm just curious."

To be safe, Zoey made another batch of the potions so that she and Maddy had spares. Without further ceremony, they downed the potions and started the trip over. Their fears turned out to be unfounded: no monsters crawled out to eat them. The difficulty of the trek came entirely from having to traverse the gap.

Though Zoey had improved strength thanks to her stats, it still took a lot of effort to run across a wall with superpowered glue sealing her feet to the stone. Maddy had even more of a struggle. Though she benefited from Zoey's bonded shared stats as well, she wasn't strong, naturally speaking. Less so even than Zoey.

By the time Zoey made it to the other ledge, she was gasping for breath. Maddy was a bit behind her. In a way, the potion's short duration helped, since the stickiness effect lessened as it started to fade, and so Maddy's speed picked up considerably as the effect wavered, no longer having to yank her feet up with as much effort. Zoey's heart jumped a few times, seeing the mage not quaff another potion to be safe, but she made it across before the effect expired: she landed next to Zoey without worry. Again, for all her bubbly demeanor, she was made of firmer stuff than probably Zoey herself. Maddy had grown up studying combative magic and learning how to explore deadly dungeons. Playing it a bit close with a potion's duration was nothing to her.

"Woah," Maddy said, doubled over, hands on her knees and panting for breath. "That was exhausting. And weird. I feel dizzy."

Zoey agreed. Walking on vertical surfaces would take more than a few times to get used to. Though she doubted they'd need to do a whole lot more of that.

After catching their breath, Zoey straightened out and looked at the arched exit leading into a hallway.

"Time to see if it was worth it," Maddy said, also peeking that way. "What'd'you think is through there?"