NOT MY ART!

Another ych comm by the ever amazing AlanZX! He was doing a YCH on TwoKinds and I decided to grab one, I knew nothing of the comic so had him suggest the character of Nora the dragoness. This was months ago, by the way! What took so long to write the story? Well, I made the foolish mistake of reading through all 1300 pages of the webcomic IN THREE DAYS. This also includes the spinoff prequel comic. So not only did I have to process that, but when writing the story I went overboard and did a detailed flashback depicting an alternate fan-made ending I came up with in my head to justify why Nora was in Jam's world now.

Suffice to say, adapting this pic into a story became a needlessly complicated task due to my inability to simplify the process. I still think the story rocks, of course. And I think a lot of people will enjoy it, just note it's pretty long! As always, please comm Alan! And also support the TwoKinds webcomic run by Tom, his comic is truly amazing and inspiring. It does have some issues, but I think it's a pretty solid comic and you can read through the entire series on his website.

Nora is property of Keenspot and Thomas Fischbach! Please support the official release!

Chapter 1: Nora’s Borealis!

There are a lot of things all over the world considered undeniably “cool”, such as: Skateboards, Digimon, or sideways hats. However, the coolest thing by far are dragons! Imagine being a powerful dragon, wind against your scales as you sore the sky and fill the world around you with an unimaginably powerful stream of flame. For someone who swapped bodies all the time like Jam, these kinds of experiences are all too common to him!

One such event occurred one night at his lab, when he was sleeping in his hammock. Unfortunately, this peaceful sleep did not last long as Jam was awoken by the sound of a device firing up. He slowly opened his eyes, “Ugh… What now?!”

Jam hopped out of his hammock and ran into the main part of the lab, only to find his interdimensional portal opened and Peppermint standing there in shock. Peppermint was Jam’s robo-moth daughter, a metallic anthropomorphic insect that Jam built himself. She had a green and purple color scheme, along with neon wings.

Jam walked up to his daughter and looked up at her, before tugging on her wing, “Hey, Peppermint, what’s the big idea?! I told you not to open the portal while I’m sleeping!”

The moth let out mechanized gulping sounds, “That’s just the thing, dad, I didn’t! It opened on its own!”

Jam scoffed at the notion, “No way, it’s hard to open a portal from the outside. You’d need your own portal, plus our exact coordinates.”

Peppermint rolled her digital eyes, “And yet strangers from other universes always find their way here.”

“Look, those are happy accidents and coincidences! And usually, those are from portals that aren’t my own or made by accident. For someone to hack our portal and open it from the outside would need the power of a god or something.”

“Well, I’m not a god, but I’m close enough to one I suppose!” Said a deep feminine voice from within the portal.

Peppermint gasped as the portal started to shake, “Oh no, whatever it is, it’s coming through!”

“Brave yourself, Peppermint, we have no clue what this godlike being is capable of!”

“Sure thing, dad!”

After a few seconds, the portal stopped shaking. A silhouette appeared in the swirling purple energy inside the portal, growing smaller and smaller the closer it got to the portal’s edge. It then walked through the portal, revealing itself to be a tiny white cat with horns. “Sorry, that took a bit! I had to shrink down to fit through that tiny thing.” Said the cat, somehow speaking without moving its mouth.

“Dad, how is it talking?!”

“I think it’s communicating telepathically!” Replied the monkey as he stared down at the cat.

The cat batted her paw at the pair, “You would be correct, my two animalistic friends! I am an all-powerful dragon, speaking telepathically is one of my many abilities.”

Peppermint let out a digitized laugh, “Ha, yeah right! Why would a dragon disguise herself as a cat?”

“I just explained it, I had to fit through the portal!”

“Yeah, but if you were a dragon with all-powerful shapeshifting abilities, you could’ve just shrunk yourself down while remaining in your original form.”

The cat flicked her tail, “I know, but I just LOVE being a cat!”

“Yeah, but being a cat doesn’t get your point across as being all powerful.”

The cat let out a mischievous purr as she approached the pair, “You don’t say, do you?”

Jam tapped on Peppermint’s leg, “You know, I’m not usually the cautious one, but it’s probably best we don’t mess with a dragon CLEARLY more powerful than I am.”

“Yeah right, Dad! If she’s a dragon, then I’m Ms. Claus!”

The cat’s eyes started to glow, “If you say so!” The cat focused her magical power onto Peppermint’s metallic frame, beginning a strange change in the robo-moth. Her metallic skin turned into flesh, wrinkly old human flesh to be precise! She grew long white hair, which styled itself into a bun. Her body became rather rotund, with a large belly and flabby arms and legs. Her face lost its digital display, turning into a human’s face with round cheeks and a large nose.

Clothes appeared around her body, white included a red dress with a fluffy white trim and matching red high-heeled shoes. Peppermint gasped as she grabbed her new wrinkly human face, “I’m Ms. Claus now?!”

The cat smirked as she circled around the old lady on all fours, “Well, that’s what you said you are, so I’m just making your form is true to your words!”

The Claus-ified Peppermint grabbed her big belly in dismay, “But I can’t be old yet, I’m only 20!”

Jam nudged his “daughter’s” flabby side, “Technically, you were over 40 in robot years!”

“Dad, you don’t need to remind me that robots age faster than flesh-and-blood beings, I’m already WAY older than I should be right now.

The cat shook her head, “Actually, you are not! I used my illusion magic to make you look and feel like Ms. Claus, but you’re actually still your old self.”

“Huh?! But I’m clearly Ms. Claus now!”

“Just some fun trickery, my friend! Notice how you’re not out-of-breath, nor do you actually feel that heavy or weak?”

“I mean, I guess not… Still, I can’t do lab work when I can only feel TWO of my four arms! Besides, we don’t celebrate Christmas in August in this household.”

“I dunno, I think it fits!” Jam said with a snicker.

“Well, I don’t! How long until this wears off, Ms…?”

The dragoness-in-disguise grinned like a Cheshire cat, “Lady Nora, but you can just call me ‘Nora’! And it should wear off in a few minutes. I typically like keeping my ‘playmates’ in their forms for at least a day, but business transactions come before pleasure.”

Jam raised an eyebrow, “What kind of ‘business transaction’ are we talking about here?”

Nora winked, “Well, you see I’m clearly not from around here. I come from a fantasy world where magic and swords are all too common, and where prejudice exists tenfold. For you see, I wasn’t always a traveller of the multiver-”

Jam cleared his throat, cutting Nora off, “Sorry to interrupt, but long-winded expositions through dialogue can sometimes bore the reader. How about we switch to a first-person perspective instead? Doing it that way makes it more dynamic!”

The dragon snickered, “Ah, a fellow breaker of the fourth wall. Very well, let me restart here…”

–

I’m Nora the Dragoness, I come from the mystical land of “Mekkan”. Within this world exists many races, these include humans, Keidran (a race composed of anthropomorphic animals of various species), dragons like myself, and the rabbit-like Basitin. The one being in this universe that mattered to me most was Trace Legacy, a young blue-haired man who became the Grand Templar and changed the world… For the worst.
He let his power corrupt him and he became an antagonistic force, killing and enslaving many Keidran. However, he was given amnesia by a living mask and started a new life free of his tainted memories. Now a force for good, he fell in love and befriended a tigress Keidran named “Flora”. He was also joined by the ever-annoyed Basitin Kevin and Natani, a wolf-like Keidran of male mind and female body.

Together, Trace and Flora set out to a land where they can be free of the oppression of the Templars and allowed to live out their life as a family. This was especially important for Flora, who had recently become pregnant with Trace’s child. Unfortunately, the world has a funny way of stopping its inhabitants from truly being free.

The Templars found out about their attempts to escape them and tried to stop them at every turn. The group beat them back each time, until the new Grand Templar, Brahn pulled out his “ace in the hole”. This was the uncreatively named “Grand Templar Tower”, a vastly improved version of their regular Templar Tower. A normal Templar Tower can boost the magical power of all those around, but a Grand Templar Tower (true to its name) can only increase the power of the Grand Templar. The advantage to this was the tower could grow the Grand Templar’s power to godlike levels, making that person the most powerful being in the world.

Trace and friends set out to stop the Templars, defeating each of them one-by-one. It was in vain, however, as Brahn opened a portal using the power gained from the tower. This would prove to be a dangerous mistake, as “Black Mana” was required to do such a feat, a special kind of magic which would eventually cost the user its life.

While the final battle was unfolding, I was currently flying overhead transforming the various Templar goons into harmless pigs and chickens. I flew over to the tower just as Brahn had Trace on the ropes. The blonde-haired Grand Templar laughed, “I can’t believe you gave this up, this power! You were the greatest of us, now just an empty shell of a man desperately trying to ‘write his past wrongs’.”

Trace clutched his sword, blood pouring out of his left arm from his wound, “I don’t care what you say, Flora and I will live as a couple free from the tyranny of the Templars. No one should have this power, not you nor I!”

Brahn laughed, “Power is needed to change the world, my friend. With this portal opened, I can pull Mana in from across the ENTIRE universe, even worlds beyond our own. I can remake this world to one that exists for only humans, and erase the ‘failed races’ off the surface of the planet.”

Trace slowly walked towards Brahn with his sword drawn, “You’ll die before you can!”

“As if you have the nerve to kill me!”

“You’re right, I can’t kill you! I don’t like the idea of taking the life of a Grand Templar, as I’m proof that they can be redeemed. But the truth is, you’re already killing yourself!”

Brahn looked at his blackened hands, charred by his overuse of Black Mana, “You don’t frighten me, I’ll absorb the mana of all universes before that can happen and restore my body!”

I then swooped into the battle and released a volley of fire from my mouth at Brahn, who proceeded to shield it using Black Mana. “Your flames cannot touch me, you elderly beast. You may have lived thousands of years, but you’ll never be as strong as the Grand Templar.”

“Neither will you, as the real Grand Templar is Trace! And his will to change the world and fix things for the better are more powerful than any of your dark magics!” I shouted as I continued to blow fire onto Brahn, who continued to weaken his body using Black Mana. His entire body was taken over by the corruption, burning himself out as he eventually fell to the ground barely alive.

I sighed as I looked over at his broken body, “He’ll live, but probably not in the best condition due to overusing Black Mana.”

“Thanks, Nora, I was afraid you’d kill him there!” Trace said while nervously patting himself on the back of the head.

I winked at my blue-haired friend, “I wanted to, but the censors won’t allow it!”

Just then, Flora, Keith, and Natani (who had been fighting past the various Templars) arrived just in time. “Well, we’ve dealt with the ground troops and I see you’ve handled things here. But I have no idea what we’ll do about that portal!” Said Keith, narrowing his eyes as always.

“There’s nothing you all can do, it’s only something I can do.” I said solemnly.

Trace shook his head as he ran up to me, “Please don’t sacrifice yourself, Lady Nora!”

“Ha, you read me well even if you forget most of your past. I’m well past my prime, young Trace. 2000 years is a long time for a dragon to live. And I feel the only way that the portal can be closed is from the inside.”

Flora leaped onto my legs and clinged to it using her claws, “Nya, we won’t let you do that, Nora! You mean a lot to Trace, and to all of us.”

I laughed as I plucked Flora from my leg gently using my claws, placing her back on the ground, “Sorry, Flora, but I’m the only one who can. Princess Reni is the only other dragon, and she’s too young to use the kind of magic I can. Not to mention the fact she’s currently asleep.”

“Please don't do this, Nora!” Trace shouted, tears welling in his eyes.

I opened my wings wide as I prepared to fly, “Do not fret, Trace. With the Templars defeated, this world can finally start healing. And I think you and Flora can be the medicine that helps it along. So cry not for me, save your tears for the harpships of tomorrow and let hope be the thing that fills your thoughts for now.”

With that, I took off into the air and flew into the portal. Everything went black once I was inside it, I knew not where the portal took me or what universe it led to. All I knew was that I had to seal the portal, which I could still feel even while being temporarily blinded by my entry into this new world. I concentrated and closed the portal to my universe, only for the dark haze to clear and to find myself not where I thought I would end up.

I thought I’d be in a hellish alternate universe, but instead I had ended up in a nexus between dimensions! No matter how hard I concentrated or how long I tried, I couldn’t re-open the portal. I had foolishly sealed off my way home, due to my misconception about what it was. Now a stranger among the multiverse, I travelled the transient worlds, seeking a way home and playing many transformation and body-swap pranks along the way! However, any attempts to find a way back to my universe failed…

–

Jam and Peppermint collectively sobbed at the story. Jam wiped the tears from his eyes, “I’m usually not mushy about this stuff, but I honestly feel terrible about what you're going through!”

Peppermint nodded her metallic head as she tapped on her display, “Yeah, that was awful!”

Jam noticed that Peppermint was back to normal, “Hey, the illusion magic wore off during Nora’s story! You’re you again.”

Peppermint quickly took notice and looked back at her wings, “Yay, I’m back to normal! No offense to Ms. Claus, it’s just not my kind of look.”

Nora laughed, “You two sure do have mood-swings, huh? I’m glad my story could tug at your heart-strings, at least for a little bit.”

Jam shrugged, “What can I say? Like father, like daughter! So, this business position is getting you back to your own universe, I take it?”

She nodded, “Of course! I’m told you’re a genius when it comes to figuring this stuff out, at least from the people of the various universes I visited.”

“Looks like I’m a multiversal celebrity, it’s about time!”

Peppermint tapped on her dad’s shoulder, “Wait, I don’t get it! If Lady Nora can’t re-open the portal to her universe, why can she open ours?”

Jam scratched his chin as he thought about it, “Well, my portal may be hard to open from the outside, but there being a portal gate allows there to be at least an entry point to our universe that can be tapped for entry. That entry point is now non-existent for Nora’s, meaning we’d have to create an entirely new one from scratch. And I don’t even think we have the proper number for her universe regardless.”

Nora tilted her feline head at him, “So you’re saying it’s impossible!”

“No, buying a Switch 2 for an affordable price is impossible! This is just very difficult and would require most likely a year’s worth of work to pull off.”

“That’s fine! If you’re alright with me living here in the meantime, I’ll give you my body in return, at least until you can find a way back to my world.”

“It’s a deal! I’ve always wanted to be a shapeshifting dragoness that’s all powerful!”

“Great, now let’s do this outside! That way, you won’t accidentally destroy your new lab while gaining all that power.”

“That’s fair, this lab does have a tendency to blow up because of me!”

The two then went outside as Jam and Nora prepared for the swap. They stood apart from each other on the grass as Nora’s eyes started to glow once more. “Alright, stand still, monkey boy! Let me grab hold of your essence!”

Jam smirked, “Sure, take your time!”

“Can do!” Nora shouted as she concentrated, causing both her and Jam to be encompassed in a blast of light. This light caused both Jam and Nora to feel much lighter, followed by their souls quickly drifting out of their bodies. The pair’s souls drifted high up into the air, Jam smiling as he “swam” through the sky.

“Ah, I forget how fun it is to have out-of-body-experiences!”

Nora (whose soul was dragon-shaped) giggled, “Well, you’re about to have an ‘into-body experience’ here, monkey boy!” Nora then grabbed Jam’s soul with her spectral dragon paws and threw him into her body, before floating towards Jam’s body and entering his.

Once Nora was inside Jam’s body, “he” opened his eyes and looked down. His body was covered in mangy brown fur, which hadn’t been cleaned in quite some time! He had a long prehensile tail which could function as another limb, along with a second part of hands for feet.

As soon as he was in Jam’s body, he began to scratch himself uncontrollably, “Damn, this monkey body sure is itchy, eek eek!”

Peppermint let out a digital giggle, “That’s dad for ya! He’s as hairy and itchy as any monkey you’d see at the zoo! Though a lot of that comes down to bad hygiene.”

“Duly noted! I’ll have to give this body a shower then.”

Just then, the eyes of Nora’s cat form opened with Jam now in full control of her body, “Did you say ‘shower’?! HOW DARE YOU?!” Just then, Jam’s new body started to grow, her white cat fur turning into scales of the same color. She grew massive wings as her body took on a bipedal forms, all while her cat paws became scaly dragon hands and feet.

Once fully transformed into her anthro dragon form, Jam turned to the sky and released a billow of fire from her mouth. “I AM DRAGON!” Jam shouted with glee, fire spraying out from her mouth into the sky.

Peppermint gasped, “Oh no, I was afraid this would happen! Dad’s gone mad with power in your body!”

Nora tapped his hairless chin with concern, “This might be a bit bad…”

Peppermint angrily put her hands on her hips, “Only a ‘bit’?!”

“Now that I have ALL the power…” Jam said with a malicious smirk as he looked down at Nora and Peppermint.

“Dad, don’t do this! I’m your daughter!” Peppermint screeched.

“I know we just met, but I’d rather you not use my body for evil!” Pleaded Nora.

“...I’ll have as much fun as I want!” Jam shouted, finishing her sentence and shrinking back down to cat form in an instant.

Peppermint and Nora both blinked in surprise. “Wait, so you were in control this WHOLE time?!” The robo-moth asked as she crossed her arms.

Jam nodded as she strutted about on all fours with all the grace of an actual cat, “Of course! I’m always in full control of any body I take, including all their powers. I just like to be a bit dramatic!”

Nora breathed a sigh of relief, “Phew, I thought you’d gone mad with power!”

The cat cackled as she rubbed up against her former body’s leg, “Oh, I’m going to definitely go mad with power! Not yet though, I gotta save the chaos for when it’s truly needed. For now, let’s start trying to figure out how to get you home!” The cat then scaled the tree with ease using her paws and re-entered her lab.

Nora shrugged her shoulders, “Well, what’s done is done! Here’s hoping he doesn’t end the world using my powers.”

Peppermint scooped up the monkey in her arms, “I doubt it, though he’d probably get pretty close with the ability to body-swap anyone he wants whenever he wants! I get the feeling that this is the start of a very crazy saga…” Peppermint then flew into the air using her bug wings, bringing Nora back into the lab.

And so, Jam and Nora got to work figuring out a way to open the portal to Nora’s universe. Peppermint would watch with bated breath as the pair worked hard over the next few weeks trying to come up with a solution. They would hit dead ends again and again, but would keep trying. Things would get a lot trickier when Jam would visit a friend with Nora in tow, though that is a story for another day…