Dressing Room Reflections

In her newly created dressing room, Delia managed to get her new corset off after some slight struggle. Still, she was surprised by how waspish her waist remained without it and by how dramatic an effect it had on her overall figure. She had tried wearing corsets in the past, especially when she’d gone to Renaissance fairs, but it was clear that the effect of the transformation, giving her the benefits of a waist that had seemingly been trained by a corset for her whole adult life, was a very different story. Add in the enhancement to her chest, and she couldn’t deny that the effect was striking. She hated that her body had been altered against her will, but if this was really how her body was going to be shaped from then on, it could certainly be worse. She thought of her sister and how dramatic her transformations had been. This whole situation was already trying enough, but for someone as vain and inflexible as her sister, this situation was nothing short of hellish. Delia was determined to help her employees survive this situation without ending up as slaves. That was her focus, and it was the only thing preventing her from breaking down. The idea that she would never see her home or the Roost again ate at her, but she wouldn’t let that stop her from doing her best to keep anyone from being eliminated. Of all of them, her own sister was the biggest risk. Well, except for Aaron himself, but that was a whole other issue. She pondered the issue as she continued getting dressed.

After she’d gotten the corset off and stripped out of her sleep clothes, she tried to put on the corset again, but felt an instinctive knowledge that, while her transformation would allow her to wear some corsets as underwear in some, limited circumstances, it expected her to wear this sort of corset on the outside of her clothing. She slipped on the suit she’d been provided, which was composed of a white spandex-like material with various clasps and plates. As soon as she slipped it on, it suddenly changed in places to reveal red markings. She wasn’t sure if the suit had changed to match her corset, or vice versa, but she was glad it made the corset stand out a little less than it did when she wore it with her oversized t-shirt. She realized that she’d probably have to get herself some new corsets to go with her other clothing, assuming she wasn’t expected to wear this suit all the time. It was only when she pulled up the final zipper that she realized that, while the collar secured at her neck, the zipper only came to the lower curve of her breasts, leaving a great deal of cleavage on display and revealing the fact that C2 had apparently decided not to include a bra.

“Seriously, a boob window?” she whispered to herself as she replaced her pentagram pendant, “What is this Power Girl shit?”

In the next circle, Sarah sat, curled next to one of the newly opaque walls, trying her hardest to convince herself that this was some bizarre dream and ignore the persistent chill that had refused to leave her since that strange golden ripple had gone through her. But, for some reason, she couldn’t force herself to wake up. It had to be a dream; that was the only explanation for how her boyfriend could have been transformed like that. She had been shocked by the form he had taken. He was correct that, in the past, she had mostly dated women who were more on the masculine side, and she couldn’t help but admit that something about Serena was intensely fascinating. Even more frustrating was the fact that her mind couldn’t seem to hold onto Serena’s former name. No matter how many times she reminded herself of it, of the countless number of times she’d said it, it just refused to stick to the mental image she had of the person she was dating. Even his old face had begun to fade in her mind, replaced by the image of the beautiful woman with her messy purple hair. She wondered if Serena would hate her for that, or if she would hate herself for it when she finally woke up from this nightmare.

She looked at the small metal basket that had appeared. Unlike the others, there was no suit for her. Instead, there was a pair of familiar, strappy flats she recognized from her own closet. Finally resigned to playing along somewhat, she slipped on the familiar shoes, slipped the strange watch-like device on her wrist, and, with a reluctant swallow, consumed the strange pill they’d been provided. Then she returned to the edge of the circle, to its illusion of safety, and waited. As she did, she couldn’t help but shiver and consider how much she wished she were back lying in her own bed, with Serena curled up next to her. She could imagine the warmth of the tiny, soft body lying next to her, filling her with its heat. It was only when another chill went through her that she realized she had been imagining Serena and not her former male body. Was she really her dream girl? What did that mean? As she thought about how guilty she felt about Serena, she couldn’t help seeing Daisy’s smirking face enter her mind.

She tried to shake that line of thinking and focused on her clothes. It was definitely lucky that she’d chosen this nightie of all the available options. It was silk, but not too sheer or clingy, not nearly as revealing as Jenna’s clothing change or Serena finding herself transformed without a top, still, the knowledge that, if this was real and C2 was telling the truth, she was now doomed to spend the rest of her life wearing clothing that was designed for enticement and seduction was beyond mortifying. She started considering the clothing she had and found that, even just thinking about her clothes, she had an instinctive knowledge of which did and did not qualify. She quickly began to realize that, of all the clothing options she had, none of the ones that she considered more decent for public wear would be allowed. Even sports bras and less revealing underwear were instantly rejected in her mind. She considered swimwear and found that, apparently, she could get away with wearing bikinis, but only ones that were significantly revealing. She continued to think about that issue, avoiding her persistent denial of the reality of her situation and the difficulty she was having processing Serena’s transformation. The thought of Aaron and the other contestants did not even cross her mind.

As soon as the walls of the circles became opaque, Jacqueline’s eyes were locked on the mirror that had been provided. The face she saw reflected was nothing like the one she’d had before. There was, perhaps, the barest traces of Jenna’s features, but, beyond that, it was completely alien in every way. She couldn’t help but take inventory of the traits of his new face and how it had changed, determined to familiarize herself with the new look as quickly as possible. The woman reflected at him looked to be no more than her mid-20’s, which meant that she was probably more than a decade younger than she’d woken up that morning. Her face was heart-shaped, with large eyes that, after brief experimentation, she determined were literally slightly luminous and a vivid blue that felt distinctly unnatural. She traced the straight line of her small, straight nose, surprised by how unsettling it was to suddenly not see as much of it in that section of vision that her mind usually excluded. Her lips were full, but not overly large. Her brows were thin and softly arched. It was from there that her features took a strange turn. Her ears were long and pointed and nearly as long as her whole hand. Her skin was a minty green, showing enough of a blush on her cheeks that she was confident her blood was still red, and she found herself horrified that the thought that it might not be had crossed her mind. The small freckles baffled her. At first, she had thought it was just a bit of glitter thrown in for an accent, but on closer inspection, she found her skin dotted with spots that almost seemed like tiny diamonds. Her silver hair was long and straight, and of a similar length to Jenna’s. Given the headache she’d seen Jenna deal with daily to maintain her long hair, she began to wonder whether the transformation would let her shorten it or if it was stuck at this length.

As she looked down at her new body and finally began to remove the oversized clothing, she took a deep breath, bracing herself to face the reality of her altered form. She was glad that she wasn’t as short as Jenna or Serena, but she was still unsettled by how much her perspective had changed at her new height. As she uncovered her new body, she was stunned by its beauty. She had to resist the urge to turn away from watching herself undress, but forced her eyes back, figuring it was better to face it sooner rather than later. She tried to appraise her new body clinically, reminding herself that this was her body, that it wasn’t creepy to look at herself, and that this was the body she was likely to spend the rest of her life in. She took note of her narrow shoulders, slim arms, and dainty hands. Her breasts were large, but probably not much larger than Jenna’s; the idea that she might be able to share clothes with her own daughter was distinctly uncomfortable. Her chest was perky and round enough that she might have suspected they were artificially enhanced if they weren’t attached to her own chest. Part of her was tempted to check, but she decided that perhaps that sort of examination should be saved for another time, especially her enlarged nipples, which had turned a pine green. Below that, her waist tapered to a thin waist, and her belly was slim but softer than muscular. Beneath that, her hips widened, giving her an hourglass shape that tapered into the beautiful curves of her legs, which seemed especially long and soft compared to her former limbs. Between her legs, she glanced at the small tuft of silver hair before deciding that she’d spent too long staring at her own body and decided to get dressed, grabbing the simple pair of cotton-like panties that C2 had provided and pulling them up fast enough that even she had to admit that, maybe, she had a ways to go before she reached acceptance of her new body. It was only worsened when, like Delia, she discovered the lack of full closure on the front of the suit as she zipped it up as far as it would go and found her brazenly displayed cleavage reddening along with the suit. At first, she had been glad not to have to deal with a bra, but as she saw all of her new cleavage suddenly bared for the world, she suddenly envied Jenna’s sports bra.

She wondered how Jenna was doing with the whole situation, but quickly decided that, based on what she knew of her daughter, she was likely handling it better than everyone else, definitely better than Aaron. It had taken a great deal of effort to keep Aaron from shutting them out like he had the rest of the world, and Jenna and Jacqueline were now the only people he really interacted with outside of work. That had given her a front-row seat to exactly how much of a nightmarish situation this was for the man, and exactly how much several of the other contestants had inadvertently led to his alienation. And, if things turned out as she was beginning to suspect, it might get even worse down the line.

In Jenna’s circle, the basket had been quickly emptied and forgotten as the young woman had immediately slipped on the terminal and the pair of sneakers she’d been provided with and had begun experimenting with her new transformation. She’d discovered a few things fairly quickly. First, it didn’t seem that her strength had changed, so she was able to do the sort of jumps she’d seen videos of astronauts performing on the moon, but she wondered if the transformation would maintain that strength or if, like the early astronauts, she’d eventually find herself losing muscle mass due to the reduced daily resistance. She resolved to look into what kind of fitness regimen she’d need to keep that from happening. The second thing she discovered, through some experimentation with the shoes and the small basket, was that both the items she wore and the one she carried still seemed to be affected by gravity as usual. That meant that, if her transformation became problematic, she could probably find a way to weigh herself down to counteract the effect. The last thing she discovered was that, without the full force of gravity to pull it down, her hair was becoming a little wild, especially as she jumped up and down inside her circle, pushing off against the walls until she reached the ceiling and then allowing herself to fall back down, her hair falling and rising in opposition of whatever direction she was moving like a superhero’s cape. She decided she would probably have to find a way to keep it up, or at least keep it together, if she wanted to explore this change truly.

She’d barely considered her clothing transformation. She was typically the sort who leaned towards looser clothing, especially at school, but she’d never minded the feeling of tight clothing before. She was a little embarrassed by the lack of underwear and having her nipples and cleft on display at all times. Still, there was also a definite thrill to it, especially with the knowledge that she was permanently free of all the slobbering men and ogling college boys she had to deal with back at home. If it were just Aaron, her father’s (mother’s? No, still father, she decided) best friend, the man who was always listening to her and reading her stories, then that wouldn’t be too terrible. She only hoped that, whatever aliens they encountered, they wouldn’t be the lecherous sort.

She felt a little guilty about the changes her father had undergone, especially since she had recognized each of his traits as features of the heroines she liked most, even though they originated from some of her more cringe-worthy early stories and some of the ones that she had written and hidden on a drive that she kept safely hidden away. She was glad that C2 had said that he’d only used the aesthetic features of her characters, as some of her saucier characters had had… specialized physiologies, that she didn’t think her father would be a fan of. Still, she was getting excited to see what changes would come next. Part of her hoped she would be one of those to get a more extreme change next time. And, if she wasn’t, there was always the BP store. She hadn’t checked it yet, but even if there were only the changes that had been shown so far, there were already a few interesting ones, so she could only imagine what else could be coming.

Serena had been glad when the wall to her little circular cell had become opaque, but had been less enthusiastic about the appearance of the mirrored surface. She tried to ignore it for as long as she could, dressing herself mechanically in the provided clothes, feeling a certain level of reluctance as she parted from her boxers, which were barely hanging off her altered hips. When she closed the suit and discovered how it revealed her new cleavage, she yanked at the zipper repeatedly, as though that had any chance of extending the zipper’s length. When she finally accepted that she was powerless to change the fit of the suit, she closed the clasp at her neck, and the suit’s markings turned red. Only then did she finally look at her changed body.

The difference was stark, not only between her new body and her old, but also between her new body and what she’d imagined Sarah’s dream girl to look like. She’d met several of Sarah’s exes, both men and women, and they had consistently been tall, masculine, and muscular. Her new body was more than a foot shorter than she’d been before, was distinctly feminine, and possessed a definite layer of softness that belied what was clearly an athletic body. There were notes of her male face, especially in the shape of the eyes, and maybe in the shape of her brows. Still, her masculine jaw had been replaced by a narrow, pointed chin that was very lightly clefted. Her slim lips were replaced by a pair of lush, kissable pillows with a pronounced lower lip and a glossiness that shouldn’t have been naturally possible. In fact, as she looked more closely at her pronounced cheeks, thick lashes, and almond eyes, she realized that her face was already covered in makeup, but when she tried to rub it off, she found that it all appeared to be somehow part of her skin, even her lashes appeared to be somehow modified so that they constantly appeared covered in mascara.

While her stature and body shape were surprising, the real shock was the hair. Sarah had always been opposed to colored hair, especially when it was a particularly unnatural color, and she’d constantly commented every time Serena’s male hair had gotten even slightly too long or any time she had tried to spend the day with messy hair. Which made it very surprising to see that Sarah’s dream girl had a messy purple bob that, apparently, refused any attempt to keep it down or tidy it. It seemed far more wild and spirited than she would expect of her girlfriend. Still, she reminded herself, it wasn’t Sarah’s choice to bring them here, and not her conscious choice to turn her into this. Besides, as much as her new body unsettled her, she knew that she would feel much worse if she’d turned into a duplicate of Sarah, which absolutely would have ended any chance of them maintaining a romantic relationship and, despite her claims before the vote, she didn’t really know what her own dream girl would have looked like, especially with C2 having apparently drawn the information from subconscious desires. Which would have been worse? If she had gotten that transformation and turned into an identical copy of Sarah, or if he had turned into someone significantly different. Either way, the fallout would have likely strained, if not shattered, any chance of continuing their relationship. No, she realized, the voters had done the only thing possible to save their relationship. Making too big a stink out of how surprised she was would only make things worse. However, she was really starting to worry about discovering what had changed in her personality. She didn’t feel any different, but could you really tell if her personality had been altered? Sarah had loved her personality, right? She stewed in her thoughts, begging the walls to come down so she wasn’t alone with them anymore.

Inside Daisy’s circle, she continued to scream and had picked up the basket she’d been given and was attempting to use them to beat down the wall. Only to find that, whatever the strange material was, it seemed to be beyond her current tool set to damage. She finally submitted, breathing deeply in exhaustion. She refused to look at the mirror and see her grossly misshapen body. It would have been one thing if it had just been her breasts, but the widening of her hips, which reminded her far too much of her pear-shaped sister, and the addition of these disgusting cow features was abominable. She didn’t even want to think about the strange heats that the transformation had promised. No matter what it took, she needed to find some way to get rid of them. The robot had claimed that the changes were irreversible and that they were trapped wherever they were. She didn’t believe that for a second. Even if they really were in space somehow, if someone who had gotten them here, there must be some way to get back to Earth. And the same with the transformation. If someone could do this to her, there must be someone else who could reverse it. That was plan A.

And, even if the stupid robot thing was really telling the truth, and she really was stuck here and bound to that loser, Aaron, that didn’t mean that it had to be all bad. She’d almost managed to crush him once before. If she hadn’t miscalculated last time, she’d already have the simp licking her boots. And then, there was the question of the wish, the big prize at the end. The list of things she couldn’t use it for had sounded fairly limited. How hard would it be to use the wish to turn the man into her own devoted slave and have him sell off the other women, give or take her sister, depending on how well she played along? It meant she would have to win over the loser and probably a few of the women. Delia hadn’t been a very supportive sister in the past, but maybe with the threat of Daisy getting sold into slavery, she would finally come over to the right team. She knew Jenna and Jacqueline were a wash. When she’d been Jack, Jacqueline had always been Aaron’s best friend and biggest champion, and the daughter had been throwing covert glares at her every chance she got. The other two, though, had definite potential as allies. She hadn’t gotten to know either of them that well during her brief time at the game store, but she could clearly see the points where she could apply pressure, and the evening had given her all the fodder she needed to get them on her side. She just needed to play this right, and she could either find her way home or come out on top, but it was definitely going to require a pivot. She chastised herself for losing control before; she wasn’t some wild animal. She blamed it on all the partying she’d been doing before she’d been abducted, unaware that C2 had purged the various intoxicants from her system as soon as she’d arrived.

Resolved that she’d find a way to either escape or win this stupid competition, she started to put on her suit, still avoiding looking in the mirror. She almost lost her temper again when she had difficulty getting her tail through the small gap that had been made for it, but was the only one pleased by the presence of the large, cleavage-baring window in the suit. She’d already been planning to show off the one part of her transformation that she actually enjoyed, so the window gave her an excuse to do so without Aaron thinking she was intentionally doing it to get his attention. This was going to be a difficult game to play, especially with the history she had with all the parties involved, but that wasn’t going to stop her.

In the final circle, Aaron was in hell. He’d spent the last several years trying to build a life where he could be by himself and not have to deal with the stress and responsibility of other people. This whole situation might have been a dream come true if it had just been him beamed into space, alone. But the addition of the others turned it into a nightmare. Now, he was being threatened with the slavery of himself, his best friend, his best friend’s daughter, and a bunch of his coworkers. And keeping them all safe meant not only standing by and watching as they had their bodies and minds twisted, but it was all being done in the name of making them better suited for a romantic and sexual relationship with him. They honestly couldn’t have picked a worse group of potential candidates. Two had started the experience as men, three of them were already in relationships, one was his boss, one was way too young, and one had tried her hardest to ruin his life. And, frankly, all of them were miles out of his league. What exactly was he supposed to do in this situation? If he leaned into it, he’d be a complete creep; if he didn’t, it was pretty much throwing them into slavery. Dealing with the complexities of normal encounters with other people was already beyond him. This situation was not anything that he could reasonably be expected to handle. There was a part of him that wondered if the whole situation was just a complex method of funneling them into slavery, maybe trying to milk a little entertainment out of the situation. Maybe something about humans made them particularly valuable as slaves. But, if that was the case, why transform at least two of them so that they were no longer immediately identifiable as human? And, frankly, if they were looking for entertainment or even good slave stock, there were much better candidates than him or, if he was being honest, the “contestants”. What could have drawn them to a handful of staff from a tiny game shop and restaurant? That was a question he would need to figure out, and fast.

He started putting on the suit he’d been provided with, trying not to think about the transformations his friends and coworkers had undergone, and utterly failing. He wasn’t sure what disturbed him more, the way their bodies had been altered so extremely with a relative flick of the wrist, delivered with a joy and indifference to the degree of violation it represented, or that, deep down, part of him had been fascinated by it. He didn’t know if it was the results of the changes or the process of transformation itself, but he had to admit to himself that, when they were changing, he couldn’t look away. He’d indulged in many stories over the years about people being changed and transformed in such ways, but, like many of his fantasies, he’d always known that it would remain in the realm of fantasy. He knew he wasn’t the only one, either. The topic had emerged more than once in the stories Jenna had written. He suspected that had more than a little to do with how enthusiastic she was acting about the whole situation. The transformations of Jacqueline and Serena had been especially fascinating. Seeing his best friend turn from a man into a beautiful character straight out of a fantasy or sci-fi novel and watching the masculine and popular Sebastian be turned into a tiny girl with a punk hairstyle was an image he suspected he’d never be able to get out of his head.

As for Daisy, she was one of the very few people in his life that he could say he actively hated, though C2 was rapidly earning a spot on the list. Still, he had never gone so low as to wish her genuine harm, and he certainly would never have chosen her for this situation if he had had a choice. More than anyone else, all he wanted from Daisy was for her to leave him alone. He had no idea how he would handle the fact that, apparently, the only way to keep her from being sold into slavery was for him to have some level of relationship or, at least, contact with a woman he loathed. He didn’t like that; in some dark corner of his soul, there had been a part of him that saw a sliver of justice in her changes. Still, he reminded himself that she was his boss’s sister. The incident a few years ago had made it necessary to tone down even the professional friendship they’d developed over the time he’d spent working for her. He had always known that, while she had done him a huge favor by not firing him, the chances of ever really saving their friendship had died when she had chosen to fire her own sister.

He quickly realized that, despite his efforts, he’d been doing nothing but thinking of the women and their various changes. He finished putting on his suit, which he felt overly displayed his frame. As soon as he finished zipping it up all the way to his neck and closing the last clasp, the suit’s color changed, adding black markings. He put on the small terminal he’d been provided and planned to investigate its functions, but as soon as he moved to do so, the wall around him disappeared. For a moment, he wondered if they had become transparent again, but as he reached out, he felt the complete lack of barrier. He looked around at the women who appeared to have been released as well. He watched as Jenna ran to her father and hugged the green-skinned woman, clearly attempting an apology for his change. Serena and Sarah were embracing as well, though neither was speaking. He could tell that both were feeling more than a little awkward about their change in relative stature. Daisy and Delia both kept to themselves, and Aaron felt a little twinge of guilt at seeing the sisters clearly alienated from each other. He was a little surprised that Daisy hadn’t immediately charged him. He could only hope that either she’d calmed down or been sufficiently frightened by C2’s threats of imminent elimination.

Instead, the ones who approached him at speed were Jacqueline and Jenna. Aaron couldn’t help feeling a little struck at watching the now green-skinned woman stalk towards him with the exasperated facial expression he knew all too well on a different face. Jenna trailed afterward, apparently still getting used to her gravity change, and seemed to occasionally push off too hard, launching her several feet in the air. After a few steps, she grabbed onto her feminized father’s shoulder for stability and allowed herself to be pulled like a tailing balloon. As they approached, Aaron finally noticed the unique cut of their suits and realized it was by design, not a choice by the women. He regretted his own thoughts about how revealing his suit was.

When Jacqueline got close, she stood in front of him in a masculine pose that, while lacking the traditional looming component of the gesture, still managed to be oddly intimidating even though she had to look slightly up instead of down to look him in the eyes. She reached out and gave his shoulder a firm but non-threatening shove.

“What the hell, man? You disappear for hours, and the only way I can get a hold of you is to get abducted by aliens?”

“Uh, sorry, the mountains were a pretty big dead zone and then…” he trailed off, gesturing at everything around them. It was bizarre for him to see all of this from a woman who looked like she had just stepped off a movie set with her alien makeup still on. The gestures, the tone, the attempt at humor despite the utter fucked-up-ness of the situation. It was all totally the man he had known for more than a decade. But the body, the face, and the voice were all very different. The floating Jenna, who was slowly returning to the ground and wearing less clothing than he had ever seen on her, was not helping the weirdness factor. Still, he reminded himself, as weird as it was for him, it had to be orders of magnitude worse for them. He started to stammer out an apology when C2 returned.

“Alright, everyone, you’ll have plenty of time to chat, but for now, let’s go see your new home.”