Rich and Susan were in the dumps.
Rich is a 28-year old former IT guy at a generic office company. Little pathetics in looks, being the weak, lanky nerd type in highschool, he became slightly overweight as he went through college and landed his past job. With overseas, visa-based workers coming in recently, he lost his job and was having trouble finding another. Didn't help his social awkwardness worked against him in interviews, even for any given minimum wage job.
Speaking of which, he was currently entering his one bedroom, hole in the wall apartment from another failed interview. He and his wife had some money saved up luckily despite both of them losing their jobs, but they still had enough foresight to live frugally. Living in a crappy place was just one way to save money. As he walked in, he saw his wife at the basic, stand-up table entering with some weird statue thing.
His wife, Susan, was overweight as well and 29 years old. She was a nerd, like him, and never took care of her looks very well other then showing some semblance of basic femininity and style to not be disgusting. But that wasn't why he loved her, he loved her for their shared interests and mutual personalities. Little more excitable then himself, but just as socially awkward. She tried to make a business out of her creative interests, selling art and costumes amateurishly, more successful as various nerd-based conventions and even trying to cosplay herself. Money making was unreliable for her though, and currently she was more in the red then green.
"Hey honey! You won't believe what I found!" Susan exclaimed at his presence. He went to settle in for a conversation, slightly frustrated at her not trying to find a "real", but just listening to her would make him feel better for the day. The statue seemed to be some weird, multi-armed, multi-faced, lots of "multi" really thing, although maintained some sort of basic humanoid appearance thing with some Indian deity motif in clothing and accessories.
"Its called the Shifter statue. It can change your appearance to whatever you want, and even other things too! Some limitations though, things have to be alive for one and you have to be holding it." Susan pointed to a what should've been a generic potted house plant in the window. Instead, was now a small variety of cactus with no thorns, with some dirt material spread a bit around. "Funny, huh? It turned into the cactus I was thinking of from a wiki article I looked up. But it really gives you what you want and helps fill in the blanks. The part about the no-thorns it seemed to do, but I didn't even think about the roots! I picked it out and it seemed to have the roots needed to survive in the soil after I did some more research." She said matter-of-factly.
"You're joshing me." I retorted. "All you did was switch out the plant."
"Oh sweetie, you could be right! But I'll prove it, right now its true." Susan then proceeded to hold on to the statue and take on a look of concentration. Suddenly her form and clothing shifted. It wasn't instantaneous or chaotic, but it was less then a minute for her to completely change. In her place, an 18-year old blonde with DD's, sexy bod, all in a general red two-piece bikini sat in Susan's place.
"Like, hi!" the new blonde chirped, doing a cutesy little wave while leaning in with major cleavage. "So, like, its not just looks! This statue thingy can make you act funny n'stuff! Like, even think funny! Gotta be totally careful tho. Can, like, be stuff like too stupid n'stuff. Ohmigawd! Like, I am right now!"
Rich could really take it in. She seemed to be the blonde bimbo in more ways then one. No way would Susan talk like a brain-dead valley girl, but having her apparent mannerisms as well. Flirtatious mannerisms oozed from her and other details that make her look the party, like twirling a lock and having that sort of blank, air-headed look in her eyes. From the way she was talking, hearing past the speech issues of course, he could tell SUSAN was really large and in charge though.
Soon Blonde Bimbo Susan took on look of clarity and concentration, looking odd with the bimbo form. Soon she was back to her old self again.
"Whew. As I said, this statue seems to fill in the blanks on alot of things. I did alot of testing already and it really seems to know what you want, and not in the monkey paw sort-of-way. It's easy to change back for example, although maybe I'm just imagining forms where there's a part of me that always wants to change back. Don't know really."
From there, Rich and Susan discussed the statue more. The ins-and-outs from what she learned and past stuff she already tried. He even tried using it, although just limiting to a more handsome, in-shape, and even some confidence thrown in. He really enjoyed it, although soon decided to change back. It felt a little strange to be in that form, he guessed there was some sense of "normal" self left with the user no matter the changes. They even practiced changing each other for a bit, although more small things like clothes and body part sizes.
Soon thing to try out were exhausted, and they weren't any richer. They then thought what they could do with the statue...