Whitewood: Mystic Medicinals

Welcome to another new and fantastical shop in the magical town of Whitewood! Other titles for this story were 'Read Label Before Use' and 'Side-Effects'. Either way, this was fun to write.

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Simon was bald. He shouldn’t have been bald, but he’d been stricken by it before he was even out of his twenties! One day he’d simply woken up and his hair had started falling out and dramatically thinning! There wasn’t anything wrong with him health wise, just early onset male pattern baldness! At first the overweight man thought maybe it had been his poor diet and had made the commitment to working out and eating better, but his hair continued to disappear! Seeking professional medical help, Simon had gone the medical route, afraid that he might have had something might have been wrong with him! But thankfully, and especially now that he’d lost all the weight, Simon was perfectly healthy! The doctors had tried putting the rather distraught man on supplements, suggesting some more holistic approaches though cautioning that there really wasn’t anything that could be done to stop the hair loss, much less reverse it. All Simon could do was buy time before every last hair on his head was gone! Already he was dealing with good (and cruel) natured ‘cue ball’ jokes, and apparently the idea that women found bald men sexy was a straight out lie, and Simon found himself falling into a depression over the entire ordeal.

That was, of course, until he had gone out for an evening walk through The Cauldron, Whitewood’s local ‘supernatural’ themed outdoor shopping district. Now that summer was on the back-end, the stores were gearing up for their busy fall season and, of course, the supreme holiday of Halloween. There were the usual stores, the Third Wish novelty knick-knack shop, the bookstore, Wandy’s, but a store Simon hadn’t seen before seemed to catch his eye. ‘Mystic Medicinals’ it was called, though it looked like just a normal pharmacy, save for the displays. Specifically, the large cardboard flyer that read ‘TRY OUR NEW HAIR GROWTH POTION TODAY!’. And in the storefront’s window were all manner of jars and vials and canisters that were gently glowing, growing brighter with each passing moment as the sun sank closer towards the horizon. Feeling something of a compulsion to check it out (perhaps just due to desperation), Simon entered the store. He didn't really know what to expect but somehow a generic looking pharmacy left him feeling...disappointed? He at least had expected some kind of a theme to fit with the other stores in The Cauldron! Well, at least the clerk looked thematically appropriate. Somewhat.

"Ah, welcome welcome! What can I do for you this evening, young man?" The wrinkled and bespectacled older man behind the counter said with a wave, his voice oddly high pitched. Aside from a more aged bald pate and the massive glasses, the older man was wearing some kind of a grubby looking...tunic? underneath a rather stereotypical lab coat. Large ears and a large nose dominated his features, and even from the front of the store Simon could see thick gray hairs sticking out of the nostrils and from within theose weirdly large ears.

"Uh yeah, I, uh, saw the sign for the hair growth, uh 'potion'?" Simon said, rubbing his bald head as he moved towards the sales counter. This was ridiculous, potions weren't real! Magic wasn't real! He was just going to enhd up wasting more money on chasing a lost dream tonight, wasn't he? But still despite his doubts, Simon continued until he was face to face with the clerk. From this close distance Simon could smell the man, and there was a distinctly earthy aroma to him. Not bad but definitely different from all the other doctors and pharmacy techs he'd been around. Also? This clerk was SHORT. Crazy short, as in the only reason the older man was even visible was because he was perched on a tall stool!

"Ah, a fellow wise man I see hehe! Well worry not for my patented Full Follicle Fluid will end your problems with a single swig! Come this way my friend!" The clerk gave Simon a large smile before hopping down from his stool, vanishing behind the counter. Simon heard some rummaging, the tell-tale tinks and clattering of glass being moved around, but just as he leaned over the counter to see what, exactly, was happening, the clerk returned with a large vial of glowing green liquid! "Ah, here we are! I've distilled this personally over the last three decades, a rather interesting formula! I started with female hormones, you see, and..." Whatever the clerk seemed to say after that was lost on Simon. Instead his eyes were drawn to the glowing green liquid as the world around him faded away. It was entrancing, mesmerizing, and the desperate man could swear that there was a voice in his ear whispering "drink meee". Whatever the small, strange clerk said was nothing but a mumble that Simon just nodded to, even when the small man's face turned serious and pulled up a list of potential side-effects and something to do with multiple sips over several days. But Simon couldn't care less, and eventually, some fifty bucks lighter, Simon left 'Mystic Medicinals' with a dazed wave and the green vial in his hand. It was a short enough walk back to his apartment, and when the strange haze seemed to life, Simon was standing in front of his bathroom mirror, vial in hand.

"Well, here goes" He muttered, popping the corked stopper off the vial with his thumb. With a nod to his reflection, Simon tilted the vial up towards his mouth and down the entire concotion in a single gulp, with only one drop splashing on his shirt. It tasted like mint, and the effects were near-instantaneous. Long, rich and full brown hair began falling from Simon's formerly hairless scalp in a wave, and he had only a moment of wide-eyed excitement and a cheer that suddenly became very high pitched. His face cracked and crunched as it shrank, his eyes throbbing as they grew larger, his nose shrinking as his lips plumped. Simon's breath was taken away as his chest suddenly expanded outwards, breasts growing from his torso as his shirt began to ripple and change into a flower printed dress, the changes having spread from the tiny droplet that had landed on his shirt! A rumble in Simon's stomach filled the apartment as his abdomen compressed while his hips flared outwards, a wet void replacing the dangling appendage that had been there moments before. Through the pain and his, or rather HER high pitched groans, Simon watched as her arms, legs, hands and feet slimmer and became much more dainty and woman-like, her hands now ending in longer pink nails similar to her tiny feet. And then it was over, the transformation left Simon gasping for air in a new voice as she collapsed on the toilet and passed out for a short while. When she awoke, Simon groggily realized that the painful change hadn't been a dream, and she staggered back to the bathroom mirror and took in her gorgeous, but definitely female new body.

"Oh, what the hell!?" She swore, her voice like a song as she grabbed at the vial and peered at it with new eyes. There, on the back of the vial, was a tiny warning label that read 'Warning: If male take only in recommended timed doses. Failure to do so may resulte in PERMANENT gender change! There were other side-effects, such as mental changes to sexual orientation and desires caused by the female hormones that the potion had been made from, but Simon didn't really care. She was too entranced with her new reflection and more importantly, all the beautiful new hair she had! "Huh. Guess I can't be called Simon anymore. Guess I'll have to get used to people calling me...Simone" The new woman ran a delicate hand through her rich, lush new hair and smiled to herself. She hadn't expected to turn into a woman...and maybe she was experiencing more side-effects, but she honestly didn't really care. She couldn't wait to visit a stylist and play with all this beautiful hair! And maybe find some hunkto play with her...Though that DID spook her just a bit...

Simone shrugged and floofed up her hair with a perfect smile that was reflected in the mirror, "At least I'm not bald!" She giggled.