A Transformative Journey (Ori/Ghost/Slugcat TF story)

Third Person POV

Upon awakening, he couldn't believe his eyes. Everything around him seemed... unnatural, but he had the feeling he had seen it before.

Aiden was dumbfounded. This world seemed grim, but beautiful at the same time. He looked around and noticed two people around him. It was his friend and girlfriend, Archer and Ava! He was surprised to see them. They hadn't even been together when he fell asleep; he had actually gotten off a call with them a while ago.

Aiden ran up to them and woke them up. They were both surprised to see each other and him there and were completely unfamiliar with the world around them. Aiden was starting to understand where they were while looking around at the structures all around them. This seemed like... it was the Outskirts of Rain World, a game he had played before... and struggled greatly with. He was even more confused, however. This place wasn't meant to exist in the real world. Was this a dream? Or had he finally gone insane and was hallucinating? "Aiden?" Ava asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. "What's going on here? Where are we?"

"I'm not a hundred percent certain, but... I think it's from one of my games," Aiden replied. "It's called the Outskirts, but this place shouldn't exist here." Ava didn't understand what he meant, but took his word for it, as did Archer, who was listening. But as they discussed what to do, Archer noticed something happening to Aiden. "Uhh, Aiden, you've gotten pretty pale," he said. Aiden looked down at his skin and noticed this as well, but it continued getting paler. Even odder, his body felt... furry and slimy. As this was happening, he noticed that the ground seemed to be getting closer to him... no, it was the other way around; he was getting closer to it! He was shrinking! Aiden screamed in fear as his body shifted in order for him to shrink down.

Ava was running to his aid but was stopped by the pain of something else. Her ears... they were beginning to move up her head and elongate. As this happened, horns grew out of her skull as well. It felt as if her head was being stabbed, causing her to shriek.

Archer watched on in horror, not noticing his body going dark. He felt an ache in his hand, and knowing what was happening to the other two, he was afraid to look, but curiosity got the better of him and he looked down, not knowing he was meeting an even worse fate. His hand and arm were disappearing, becoming one with his darkened body. He would have screamed, but some unknown force was stopping his voice, as if his mouth was disappearing.

As this was all going on, Aiden had fully shrunken down, going from 5'11 to 1'8, and was trapped in his clothing. In the middle of his shrinking, his ears shifted up his skull and stretched, becoming small cylinders on the top of his head. His arms and legs thinned out, becoming extremely slim. His fingers merged until two remained, the same happening to his toes, becoming paws. Then something else occurred: his tailbone began elongating out of his body, causing excruciating pain. But what it was becoming was even more shocking. The same slimy fur grew over his tailbone, turning into a short, thick tail that blended in almost perfectly with his main body. His spine shifted into a quadruped state, but he realized that he could still stand up on his hind legs perfectly fine. His face pulled out into a small muzzle, his nose becoming a small black dot similar to that of a cat's, and his eyes lost their pupils as they became completely black. He didn't have the time to get a better look at himself as he heard Ava's shrieking.

He fought his way out of his clothes to see what was going on and was horrified to see that she was meeting a similar fate to him. Ava was receiving very similar treatment to him, shrinking down from 5'2 to 2'6 and being trapped in the same cloth prison of her clothes. Her toes all fused together, becoming similar to that of hooves. Her fingers combined, leaving her with 3-fingered paws. Her face pushed out into a muzzle, her nose shrinking and turning pink as her pupils went white while her sclera went black. Just when she thought this nightmare was finished, her tailbone elongated and created a long, thin tail which made her shriek even louder, and louder still when she saw it. She wrestled out of her clothes with Aiden trying his best to help her, unknowingly spooking her further, wondering what was trying to get at her. Once her clothes were removed, she backed up in fear of the odd creature she saw before her. However, the creature didn't seem hostile. At least, not towards her.

"Are you ok, Ava?" the creature asked before putting its paw to its mouth, seemingly shocked by its voice. Wait! I-Is this Aiden?! she thought, horrified. "Aiden?! Is that you?!" she yelped, putting her own paw to her mouth in reaction to her higher-pitched voice. "W-What happened to us?! What are you? What am I?!" she yelled after she regained her composure. "I-I think I know, and I can explain, but we need to find Archer first," Aiden said, looking around frantically. I began looking around as well until she found another flailing mess of clothing.

Archer's eyes had gone completely white and his entire body had gone as black as The Abyss as he shrank from 5'10 to 2 ft. His head had grown horns and his feet disappeared like his hands had, leaving him floating in the air as his clothes fell around him. He could now see his friends, or at least who he assumed to be his friends as the ears on one of the creatures looked like what he saw Ava's become. His clothes then began transforming, his pants and undergarments disappearing while his shirt turned into a black cloak that surrounded his whole body, save for his head. His hat became a horned mask that set itself on his head which began molding his body into a more human-looking form. He finally had arms and legs, although they were small nubs, and his eyes were made black by the mask. An odd object began materializing on the back of his cloak. Feeling around his back, it felt like an odd weapon. He looked up at his two friends. "..." He tried to speak but covered the spot of his mask where his mouth was when nothing came out, not even a small squeak.

Ava whirled to Aiden. "Can you please explain now?" she asked him. He sighed. "From what I understand, we've all become characters from these games I've played." He put a paw to his chest. "I've become a creature called a Slugcat from Rain World. The specific one I've turned into is called 'The Survivor'. It's not that special in regards to the others, but still has good survivability." He pointed to Ava. "You've become a Gaurdian Spirit; more specifically Ori from Ori and the Blind Forest. They were the hero of their world, helping to save Nibel from destruction." He finally turned to Archer. "You've become a Vessel, specifically one called The Knight or Ghost, a creature made to seal the infection of the world of Hollow Knight, known as Hallownest. That would explain why you seem unable to speak: Vessels don't have a voice." This horrified both Ava and Archer, although it wasn't visible on Archer's emotionless mask. "Ok, this is cool and all, but there's a problem: HOW DO WE GET OUT OF HERE?! HOW DO WE GET HOME?! HOW DO WE TURN BACK TO NORMAL?!?!" Ava yelled in a panicked tone. "I don't know," Aiden said."The only thing I can think of is exploring this world until we find a way out."

"Oh, well that's just great," Ava said. "That's just freaking AMAZING! We have to go through a world we know nothing about in order to find our way back to our world while being in bodies we know NOTHING ABOUT!" Aiden and Archer soothed her, trying to calm her down, but it wasn't working. Then Aiden got an idea. He began scratching behind Ava's ear, causing her eyes to widen before a calm smile crossed her face and an odd sound came from her. She was... purring? As soon as she realized, she swatted Aiden's paw away. "Alright, alright, I'm fine now," she said. "You didn't have to pet me like I'm a cat." Aiden rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, it was all I could think of doing," he said. "But we will make it through this, I promise. This world isn't completely unknown to me. It may be the one I know the least about of the three, but I know about this world." Ava gave a sigh of relief, and Archer sat her down to rest, Aiden joining them soon after. They were trapped in a world that shouldn't even exist, in the bodies of made-up characters. But they were confident that they would survive and return home... eventually.

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Thank you all for reading! I've only just started, but I can tell that this story will be an interesting one!

Before anyone says it in the comments, yes, I'm aware that Ghost's and Survivor's heights aren't game accurate, but Ori is so much taller than both of them to the point that I decided to make them a bit taller. The world will be resized to their heights in order for things to work.

Progressions in this story will be based on how far I get playing through a game before deciding when a world shift will occur.

I hope you enjoyed!