A Dawning Personality

==moving to 2nd person narrative==

You look at Dawn's figure once more. The woman smiles back. Her lips are stained pink, pouted in you imagine some minor surgical procedure. She doesn't have a full range of facial motions either; her forehead is smooth, and you suspect she's had a botox injection. Certainly you're now wearing hair extensions, with wavy, black hair bouncing around your nude shoulders. Your whole body is coated in a fake tan, too. You reach down and begin to don her undergarments, pausing when you reach the bra. How the hell do you put one of these things on? You try cupping it under your generous chest, lifting up Dawn's impressive cleavage, but you can't quite get the clasp behind your back. Dawn's fingers don't make it any easier: you've currently got elaborate fake nails attached, which just end up digging in and scratching your false back. Every time you feel you're getting somewhere, another problem occurs: you slip, or her extensions get caught in the clasp, pulling your false scalp back.

You sigh, and are about to give up when another idea hits you. What does the brown pen do? If it's a costume set, it would make sense if it also helped you impersonate someone. You cross the floor, the tiles cold against your bare feet, and return to your discarded clothes. Picking up the pen, you direct it at your claimed body.

"Here goes nothing," Dawn's girly voice chirps. You fire.

The sensation is instantly overwhelming, like a white-hot lightning that flashes to blind you. You blink furiously, shaking your head and moaning a little. Your vision begins to return, blotches of bold color being replaced by the interior of the bathroom. And, as the spots and shapes fade, you find they've left something behind. You remember everything about Dawn's life. Her likes, her dislikes. Every conversation she can recall. Select memories, like broken home movies, drifting in her psyche.

"What the fu..." Dawn exclaims, catching herself from swearing. Dawn never swears. Even about Josh. Gosh, he's so creepy. You're glad you told Michelle about what Terri and Hannah had told you about what Gary and Otis said about what happened in... you shake your head again. This is unbelievable. You know everything Dawn does, from the best foundation of her to use, to private details such as her passwords and history. You're still in the driving seat, but you can instantly call on anything about Dawn, her personality to her memories, as you require. You haven't just stolen her body, you've stolen her life, too.

You laugh, crazed and delirious, as you return to the bra, slipping it on with ease. You cup your breasts with her hands, making an appreciative "hmm" as she marvels at her own body. She has had beauty treatments and cosmetic surgery, it transpires. This image she's created is fake, as fake and as shallow as her personality. Michelle isn't a friend, as far as Dawn sees her. She's an opportunity, a gateway to a wealthy, select group she hopes to join in later life. Michelle is just a stepping stone. But that's how Dawn views most people. Her dislike for you is utterly genuine, stemming from the fact she saw you pick your nose once. You don't even remember that happening.

You slide into her jeans, then pull her work top over her hair, before straightening it and checking her makeup with the compact. "Perfection as always" you state, as she always does, although her tone doesn't usually drip with such enthusiasm. You stuff your discarded clothes into one of the toilet cisterns, pull on her jacket, slip the pens inside, and head for 'home'.

*****

You laugh as you scroll through Dawn's Facebook contacts, reading all the gossip of the day, curled up on her bed in her room. She always keeps in the loop, knowing who's seeing who - and doing whom - on campus. On the back of the door hangs your costume for tonight. Tonight's costume party (hosted by Luke Howard, the college's football star) has a sci-fi/fantasy theme, so the usual choices of costume are out. Dawn, it turns out, is an enthusiastic roleplayer in the bedroom; the sexy nurse and nun outfits are her own. However, not really knowing anything about sci-fi (when she saw the party tag 'get your geek on', she thought it was meant to be Greek and be a toga party), she is planning to head to the local costume store to pick something up. As her, you could certainly use your own knowledge to select something that would play to her stunning figure: a Miranda Lawson costume, for example. Or even some elegant dress from one of the countless medieval fantasy settings. Dawn Cloverdale could be the envy of every girl on campus. Not that you want to help her.

Alternatively, you could forget the party. As Dawn, you could approach any of the others. Maya, Charlotte - even Mrs Francis - and become them instead. They're all closer to Michelle than Dawn, and she's more likely to listen to them. Alternatively, you could get some payback in your current form. Dawn could use being taken down a peg, and as her you could all too easily do something that would land her in serious trouble. Perhaps a little shoplifting, speeding, or even drunk driving is in order.

"Welp," you say, Dawn's bizarre choice of words spilling out on instinct. "I can't sit around here all day, being some kind of stay-at-home loser, can I?"