A sunset stroll

"Can we all go take a walk on the beach before the sun is all the way gone?" Ela said with her disembodied voice, eager to not spend much more time in the hotel. "We can go take a walk and then dinner is a good idea too maybe!"

You looked at Kazumi and Chloe. The moment the word 'walk' hit Kazumi's dog-ears, she bolted to stand next to the door, eagerly staring at it, just like Roxie would've done. She didn't even realize she was holding Roxie's leash in her hands, until she looked down at what was in her grasp. Embarrassed, she tossed the leash back toward one of the beds. "I'm not exactly ready for that yet... "

You giggled, and then looked toward Chloe, who nodded with a smile. "If we head north along the shore, about a half-mile from here there's a noodle shop that I think is a can't-miss destination."

You nodded, and then blinked for a moment as you thought about the whole group. "There might only be three bodies, but there's technically six of us, not counting Roxie who would eat stale potato chips out of the garbage if I didn't get the can with the lid."

Kazumi squinted at you. "Well now I know how to use the foot pedal so no potato chip could evade my grasp! ...But I will stick with fresh foods. Roxie might be in the mix but I'll keep some culinary discipline for the both of us. Zoe says she's up for whatever. She says that a lot."

"If you like the noodles, Emily, then I think I'll like the noodles," Ela said confidently. "Just about everything I like is probably influenced by you to some degree, and I'm perfectly fine with that." Ela really was the perfect partner to share a body with, it seemed.

"Amanda's also a lot like Zoe, she's up for anything when I'm inside her," Chloe said. "She'll probably spend at least some of the time this weekend doing her own thing, but in a way she's as if Zoe had a human cousin, very easygoing while someone's inside her to drive her around. There's not a lot of people who are willing to give up every waking hour to another being that isn't their own child, but she's been an ideal fit for a long while. At least until she decides to go work on her own career advancement... anyway. Long story short, she's up for noodles too."

You hurried to the bathroom, pausing for a moment. "Ela, can you make us more like earlier? And... beach ready?" your shapeshifter sharing your form was happy to comply, erasing the illusion that you were still Emily by reverting your body to earlier, where you took on the toned, fit shape of Laura's body, complete with her shapely rear and breasts, but atop your neck was Ela's face and hair, as well as her paler skintone--if you wanted to simulate a tan later, you were sure you could. To top everything off, your clothes shifted to a blue one-piece, hugging tight but not too much to look like it was sized too small. Some shorts and sneakers formed on your lower half, after a little bit of a mental suggestion on improvements to the outfit, since you weren't actually going swimming that evening. The shorts hung low enough that a small window of skin on your hips peeked through just above the shorts and below the swimwear. A few tugs of the swimsuit straps to prove to yourself it was secure--and to watch your larger tits bounce just a little, to Ela's amusement--before you were ready.

You turned back out of the bathroom, seeing the others making adjustments. Kazumi did a quick modification to her blouse, unbuttoning it and then tying it at the bottom to expose her midriff, already in shorts and ready to go. Chloe demonstrated her slime's ability to make fabric, although green was the only limitation in her personal wardrobe. Still, the green bikini top and then the darker green skirt-pants that formed on her body was so impressive, you couldn't help but stare for a moment--causing Chloe to pose for you. "Like what you see, huh? I'm very practiced at this, I've learned some good shapes over the years based on what gets heads turning."

"I'm just surprised you can change from gelatinous to fully solid without big temperature changes," you said.

Chloe grinned, almost shivering--though, not from realizing what you said should make her cold from changing her material solid. "Goodness, Ela, how did you pick just the perfect partner to join with? I love that you pick up on all that, Emily. Inquisitive in all the right ways, just how I want Ela to be. You're right, by the way--it's an athermic phase-shift. Different from a full phase change, which does require energy at different temperature points, I don't need to boil or freeze--I just align my biopolymer's structures at the microscopic level, it's like the difference in a material where the magnetic moments are aligned or scattered. The more scattered, the more liquid I am--aligned, the more solid."

You nodded a little. "So you could be even gooier if you wished? But then also, why not just be fully solid?"

"Well, I'm really flexible when gooey, but it's harder to maintain a consistent surface or do things like pick up objects and whatever. Going too solid, though, I'd have a hard time moving myself, I'd be stuck in a pose unless I did something like constantly shifting back and forth, and then I expend way too much energy. That's where Ela's elastomers are superior, she can become solid and remain mobile, at least as solid as any part of a human except bone, and even fabrics and soft plastics that look like metal are possible. Hard plastics that rival metals, or maybe even behave like metals if we can invent an exotic mixture of elastomer..."

You weren't the only one listening in--Ela was seemingly taking notes in her head, you could hear her mumbling something to herself in your headspace.

"Less science, more walkies!" Kazumi said impatiently, resting her hands on the door.

Realizing you could've had that conversation while taking a stroll, you finally went to the door and opened it to placate pet-Kazumi. She bounded out of the room, hurrying down the stairs while you and Chloe raced to lock the door and keep up with her.

Eventually you all gathered outside the hotel, heading away from the pavement and onto the trail through some of the tall grasses until you reached the sandy beach, and you all spent a good deal of time watching the sun lower itself on the horizon over the ocean, in awe of the beauty, before you began the trek north to find the noodle shop.

As Kazumi and Chloe occupied their time with a game of fetch involving a frisbee Kazumi found in the sand, you strolled a few paces behind, watching as Kazumi sprinted after the frisbee with each throw. She could have simply thrown it back, but she insisted on running back to Chloe each time to return it, although she seemed hesitant to actually let it go each time.

You smiled as you watched, but you realized Ela had some other things on her mind. She projected her voice internal to you two, so you and she could have a private conversation. "I've been wondering something, Emily."

You reciprocated by keeping the conversation to your thoughts. "What's that? I thought you would've been distracted by the frisbee show."

"I mean, yes it's cute! Very cute. But I've had other things to think about. Chloe called me superior. I don't know how I feel about that."

"Well... she meant it in just the sense that your living elastomer can do more than her biopolymer, or that it had fewer restrictions. I don't think she meant it as anything but fact."

"I know, Emily. They have been saying all that since I can remember, how I can be better than them in just about every way. I'm an improvement on the slime from Chloe, and on the bodysuit features of Zoe. I like how I am, but it feels strange. I'd like to... what's the phrase... level the playing field, somehow. And maybe, with your help, we can make things even better for all of us!"

You paused for a moment, needing a moment to process Ela's thoughts before you began to stroll again, needing to jog a little to catch up to Chloe and Kazumi, who had finally decided to just proudly hold onto her frisbee for the time being. Ela was, in theory, a super-intelligent shapeshifting being, but who had only begun to generate her own ideas--with your brain's help--over the past two days. Whatever she was thinking about proposing, it was awfully fast to start coming up with new ideas on the scientific front... although you could be mistaken. She might just be thinking about buying them thank-you cards or giving a passionate speech on their unique qualities that prove their unique construction was not at all inferior to Ela's design.

"Alright, Ela. What do you propose?"