Ellie grabbed a shopping basket and rushed down the main aisle until she came to the snacks aisle. Turning into it, she noticed there was an employee stocking bags of chips out of a shopping cart.
Ellie didn't pay much attention to the person stocking the chips and instead focused on the snacks. There was a small assortment of the usual fare, but also the shelves were dominated by a number of unusual products. Dragon-breathe dip, Freez-o's cereal, Scaley Salsa, Inficrunch chips, Hydra pretzels and more. The packaging was even more interesting - logos showing odd art, such as a chibi man breathing fire on the Dragon-breath dip.
The more she looked, the more unfamiliar brands she noticed. Mers and Naga candy, Fingles chips, Tails Up crackers, and so on. She picked up a bag of Hydra pretzels and inspected the back. It featured a picture of a cartoon man with 3 heads on elongated necks and a description:
Bite into a delicious pretzel with a single-minded attitude, and you'll quickly find yourself with a many-minded love for them! Guaranteed to bestow the gift of the hydra for at least 24 hours. Consumption quantity varies by body mass and other effects. Recommended consumption size for YOU: 2 pretzels. Additional consumption will increase duration and/or intensity of effect. Over-consumption may have irreversible results.
A mixture of intrigued and confused, Ellie turned to the employee, "Excuse me, can you uh..." Her words trailed off as she saw the employee up close.
Ellie couldn't believe her eyes. The woman in front of her stocking the shelves was the clerk who had greeted her at the front of the store. Not only that, but she had 4 arms that she used to dexterously put bags of chips onto the shelves.
"Can I help you?" The clerk smiled at Ellie while continuing to stock the shelves.
"Uhm... uh... Sorry but... You have FOUR arms?!?" Ellie couldn't help but to point in surprise and disbelief.
"Yeah. They're pretty useful."
"But... how?!"
"Oh, I bought 'em. Aisle 6 if you want to buy extra body parts."
"Uhhhhh..." Ellie glanced back towards the main aisle and saw that the aisle she was standing in was aisle 3. She saw both Carrie and Tina deeper in the store - Carrie over by the hair products, and Tina at the refrigerators on the side wall. Her gaze quickly returned to the bag of pretzels she held in her hand, then back to the 4-armed woman.
"Oh! Sorry, I didn't realize you were new." The clerk stopped shelving bags of chips and bowed slightly, then recited as if reading from a script, "Welcome to Margo's! Magical convenience for cheap. Many items we sell here are magical in nature and can have temporary or permanent effects on their users. Some items sold here are classified as weapons - these have a 3 day waiting period while we perform a background check. Let me know if you have any ques- right. Hope that clears that up."
Ellie's jaw hug open as she tried to process what she had just heard. Her first instinct was to refuse to believe it, but she was starting at a woman who had 4 arms. One who looked kind of familiar too.
"Right, I know that look. It's real, I promise. By the way, I'm Jess. I think we might have calc 201 together. 10:30 with Mr Wilkens, right?" Jess smiled and lightly tapped Ellie on her shoulder. The touch snapped Ellie back to reality. Frantically Ellie tried to remember a 4-armed girl in her math class, which was the same class Jess had mentioned. She failed to remember anyone with 4 arms specifically... but looking at Jess's face, she recognized the face of her classmate.
"Huh. Yeah, I guess we're in the same class. So uhm, not to be rude, but how long have you had 4 arms?"
"Oh, about 4 months. I bought them just after I started working here. Advice from Margo. Second best piece of advice she ever gave me." Jess grinned.
"Then how did I never notice them before now? I would definitely have notic--- actually now that I think about it, I do remember you having 4 arms on the first day of class, it just didn't seem... important?"
"That'd be the magic. Dunno how, but it does that. Outside the store, people don't recognize changes from the magic. Probably a good thing , or there'd be tons of FBI and whatnot here. In here, totally different story, the changes are plain as day."
"Wow... That's amazing. So all these weird snack brands, would they cause things to happen? Like your extra arms?" Ellie held up the bag of Hydra pretzels so Jess could see.
"Yeah, but it depends on the food of course. The Hydra pretzels are amazing! They give you hydra regenerative powers. For a day or so. And when it ends, you lose any extras too, so no unwanted permanents."
"'Hydra-what' powers?" Ellie looked down at the package then back to Jess. The image of the man with 3 heads was looking less like a marketing draw, and more like a possibility if someone ate enough pretzels.
"Well, you know a hydra, like from myth? Cut off a head, and 2 grow to replace it. It's that, but for your entire body. I ate those once with my boyfriend and then we had a knife fight. It was a draw of course, but I had like 40 arms for a whole day. That was fun, but damn was it hard to wear any clothes!"
"Wow, that sounds kind of crazy. Could you even feel all of them?"
"Of course! I could move them individually too. Magic's awesome about that." Jess picked up a few more bags of chips and stuck them on the shelf. "Oh, and the neatest thing about the hydra pretzels is when they activate, you grow a second head. Just for free. No having to cut your head off to start being a hydra. I mean... You can cut off your head if you want, but that probably is really weird."
Ellie shuddered. The thought of cutting off her head, even if she had a second head, stirred a base human fear and made her tense up. "No thanks, I like my head right where it is."
"Haha, right? I'm the same, not a fan of the dullahan style. Some people love it. I just like having my heads attached. Anything in specific you're interested in or looking for? I know pretty much everything we sell."
Ellie paused to think. "Well, I'm kind of going to be late to a study group. It's starting in like 5 minutes on campus and I was supposed to bring snacks. I get the feeling that my friends aren't really in a hurry either, we really don't want to go... It's a stupid mandatory attendance."
"Oh, for that campus studies elective?" Jess volunteered, clearly aware of the disliked course.
"Yeah, that one! Dunno what the college was thinking with that. So stupid. But I need to find snacks for 20." Ellie looked around the aisle and grabbed a bag of familiar named chips from the shelf and dropped it into her basket.
"Guessing non-magical snacks?"
Ellie snickered. "Yeah. Not that kind of study group."
Jess reached down into the shopping cart full of various snacks and pulled out 2 tubs of dip, 2 bags of chips, and a box of cookies. She offered them to Ellie, holding the food up with all 4 arms. "There, all normal food!"
Ellie quickly grabbed and inspected each item before putting it in her shopping basket. "Wow, thanks."
"My pleasure. Didn't exactly have room to put them on the shelves anyway." Jess grinned to Ellie and put the last couple bags of chips up on the shelf, completely emptying out her cart. She looked at the bag of Hydra pretzels Ellie still held in her hand. "So, thinking about trying those?"
"Well... maybe. It sounds tempting. You said it's temporary, right?"
"Yeah. Only lasts a day. Unless you eat the whole bag, then it lasts a lot longer. Was 3 weeks when my idiot boyfriend did it."
Ellie suppressed a giggle. "Like I toootally would do that. Eating a full bag of magic pretzels when the bag says to eat TWO! Haha! Say, does having 2 heads make you smarter? Or like, better at school?"
Jess shrugged. "Some ways do. Pretty sure that won't." Jess nodded towards the bag of pretzels. "Generally if magic is going to make you smarter, it needs to be permanent magic. What's up, got a test you need to prep for or something?"
"Yeah. You have it too. The calc test next Friday. And I have a programming project due to the same day. It sucks."
Jess opened her mouth in an "oh" shape then paused for a few seconds before closing her mouth. "Mind if I give you a bit of advice about magic?"
"Sure!"
Jess smiled, flashing her white teeth, but clearly keeping her jaw shut. Jess's voice rang out behind Ellie, "'If you know what you want, magic will undoubtedly have a way for you to accomplish it.'"
Ellie spun around to see another Jess standing at the end of the aisle. Her 4 hands rested on 4 different shelves. "Margo once said that to me when I was stressed out for a calc test. Then she suggested I get another body so I could be in class taking the test, and at home with my notes."
Jess at the end of the hallway stopped talking, and the Jess next to Ellie started speaking again, "It did the trick. I got a B, instead of an F."
Ellie turned her head to look at the speaking Jess. Ellie's jaw once again fell open, this time not in disbelief, but in surprise and astonishment.
Jess continued, "That was a real turning point in my life. I've even bought a few more bodies since. It's really useful to be able to be in multiple places at once." The Jess at the end of the aisle continued, "Not to mention thinking multiple things at once. Plus it makes these solo shifts bearable. Otherwise I'd be super overworked. Though Margo didn't start giving me solo shifts until after I already had 3 bodies so maybe... huh, I'll have to ask her about that."
Ellie's astonishment finally faded enough for her to speak, "Wow... Just... wow..."
Both Jess's grinned. After a few more glances back and forth, Ellie managed to formulate her thoughts into words, "What is that even like? Like are you separate people? Or do you share memories or something?"
"Oh no, nothing like that. All of me are the same me. Uh, did that make sense?" Both Jess giggled at her sillyness. "Uh how else... I am in all of my bodies at the same time. I see, hear, touch all mes, and I move all mes. I.... Don't know how to explain this. It's actually kinda hard to put into words."
Ellie nodded, somewhat understanding what Jess was trying to explain. "How does someone get another body?"
"Magic, duh! Actually it's really simple. Doesn't take long - there's a machine for it. It scans you, then about an hour later, out pops another you. 'Course, you need to be in the store to pick it up." Jess at the aisle pitched in, "So it's kind of like 1 hour photo, but for people!"
Both Jess and Ellie giggled at the corny joke.
"How much does it cost?"