The Magic Shop

Free TF Ray Gun: Transformative Fallout

A young woman finished setting down a statue in her spa’s steam bathing room. Sure, a tanuki might not have matched the rest of the theme she had given her newly opened spa, but something about it seemed to give off good vibes. Or at least, she felt so. And hopefully, so would the guests.

The woman looked over the statue again, noticing it was a little dirty. Any other day, she would have waited until the next morning to clean it, with how late it was getting. The shop was already closed, and she had originally only gone into the alley to take out the trash after cleaning up. But tonight, something inside her felt a little more bothered than usual by some of the grime that had been left on the statue. So she went back to the closet to pick up some clean cleaning supplies.

As she walked, she didn’t notice her body starting change, becoming a bit rounder. Subtly at first, but it soon started to add up. Her more blubbery body pressed up oddly against her clothes, but that was soon rectified by her clothes changing with her, her pants and blouse expanding to fit her new size, while merging together into a lovely black dress, a white apron quickly materializing around it, followed by a lace headband sewing itself into existence on her head.

As she opened the closet door, thick fur began to spread all over her body, colored a mix of white and light gray, with occasional black splotches. Her shoes and socks vanished as her feet became flatter and wider, her toes joining together. Her hands had become wider too, though unlike her toes, her fingers remained separated, even as they became flat and broad. The change did not hinder her ability to pick up some washcloths and a bottle of cleaning solution, which she brought over to the statue, and quickly made use of.

The dirt and grime had been on pretty loose, making it easy to clean, but he had been covered all over. Nonetheless, the seal-woman in the making continued to scrub away, even as her jaws stretched out into a short, rounded snout, her ears shrunk down, and her nose turned big, black, and wet, dozens of whiskers forming at their sides. She knew Master wasn’t the type to visit a spa very often, if ever, but since he had loaned her the money to start her business, she felt it was only right to keep it clean to his standards. After all, what kind of maid would she be if she went home while leaving her own workplace untidy?

Meanwhile, the soul in the tanuki statue, every bit as oblivious to the spa owner’s change as the seal woman herself, just kept chuckling internally. Not only did he get a great view, but he’d have this cutie of a seal tending to him every day for the foreseeable future? This just kept getting better!

With the spa owner’s changes completed, it sent ripples through reality, not only altering her past so she had always been this way, but transforming others, as well. Though her employees had all gone home earlier, while she had locked up, each one (save for one of their masseuses, a married man and father) began to change, regardless of where they were, or what they were doing. A woman on her way home grew brown fur as she became an elephant seal, her clothes vanishing into nothing, her feet working the pedals of her car even as they shifted to flippers. A man doing a little shopping before heading home had his figure became much stockier, his clothes changing to a maid uniform as he became a she. Her hands and feet became flipper-like as well, her mouth and nose grew into a short, but wide snout, while two of her teeth grew far larger and longer, becoming a pair of walrus tusks. A third employee, a woman who had just gotten home, and was starting to make herself dinner, soon found herself gaining mass and fur as well, her clothes vanishing as she became a sea lion. All three of these spa workers thought to themselves how lucky they were to be able to do a job they loved for their dear Master.

Back at the owner’s home, as her husband was reading their six year old daughter a bedtime story, the little girl began to change as well, gaining flippers and a snout like her mother, while her body was covered in white fur, in place of the clothes that were rapidly unraveling before fading from existence, neither her, nor her father giving any indication she had ever lived differently. Unlike her mother and her employees the little seal pup had no loyalty to the Evenson family. In fact, she had no idea who this “Master” was, beyond that her mommy worked for him. She didn’t see herself as a maid, and was just fine living her life like any little girl would.

+++

Back in the Evenson Estate, on the nightstand in Curt’s bedroom, the ray gun let out a soft beep, and the holographic UI popped up, displaying a new message. Curt however, was too deeply asleep to hear. After five minutes, the gun powered down again, the message being moved to the log for later reading.


+++


As the night pressed on, in another part of the district, a guy in his twenties was enjoying one last round in a sci-fi FPS with his buddies before bed. As he lay on his bed, carefully lining up headshots through his sniper rifle, his skin began to turn black, and harden into armor-like chitin. His clothes meanwhile, began to weave together into frilly black dress, with a white apron, and a lace headband. He unconsciously sat up and straightened up his posture during a respawn period, and once he’d done so, his hips suddenly grew wider, and the back of his lower body began to grow outward behind him, swelling larger and rounder, and becoming nearly as tall, and far, far wider than his torso. A spinneret formed on the back tip of this new growth, confirming it to be a spider’s abdomen.

His legs, currently folded in front of him, doubled in length as they became thinner. His feet, meanwhile, stretched and rounded out, his toes reforming into claws. A second pair of legs, just like his newly changed ones, grew out from under his dress, neatly folding themselves next to the original pair on the bed. His manhood shrank away without her even noticing, while her waist became near-impossibly thin. A pair of lumps appeared on her chest, increasing quickly in size and becoming larger than basketballs. Her dress readjusted itself as her figure changed, designed to emphasize every curve on the more humanoid portion of her torso. Her arms slimmed down, her fingers becoming claw-like, as two more arms grew in under her first pair, her dress gaining new sleeves for the additional limbs.

Her head changed next, her ears shrinking while her black hair grew down past her shoulders. Her facial features became softer, and more feminine looking, save a small pair of appendages forming on the sides of her mouth. Her teeth grew into venomous fangs, two of which from the top row stuck out even when her mouth was closes. She blinked for a moment, and when she opened her now solid-red eyes, six more opened alongside the originals, four on her forehead, two just off to the sides.

Finally, a red hourglass shape appeared on the top and underside of her abdomen, confirming the completion of the man’s change into a black widow spider. Where Marceline had become cute, fuzzy, and innocent looking, the new spider woman’s form seemed built to entice any man into her thrall. Her room hadn’t been that messy before, but any stray papers were suddenly filed away, and her shelves and dressers were cleared of any dust, while the clothes in her drawers and closet were altered into more uniforms, or nightgowns, swimsuits, etc. with a similar design.

The spider woman kept up sniping, her aim unaffected by her change, (though her tag had changed to “Maid2Serve,”) as was her idle chatter with her local friends on her team, including about how her bloodhound friend had found a couple of lost watches on the beach yesterday.

As she shot the breeze, as if by a chain reaction, her teammates began to change too, despite the distance between them. A young woman playing a mech pilot had her clothes vanish from existence as her body was covered in soft white fur. Her feet grew longer as they became paws, complete with little pads, while a short, fluffy tail popped up above her rear. Her mouth grew out into a short muzzle, her two front teeth growing longer as her nose turned pink, and began to twitch cutely on its own, little whiskers growing from its sides. Finally, her ears grew much, much longer, standing straight up. The rabbit woman’s home began to change around her, her clothes and dressers all vanishing while her apartment became far more tidy, her collections of manga, and various game and anime memorabilia suddenly moving onto shelves in carefully organized rows.


A guy playing a large, spherical tank, was freed of any clothing, light orange and white fur growing over all his body save his hands and feet instead. His body began to gain mass and round out as he became female, giving her a cute, pudgy look. A tiny nub of a tail grew from the back of her spine, while her hands and feet gained short, dulled claws. Her front teeth grew even longer than her rabbit teammate’s had, as her jaws stretched into a short pointed snout. Her cheeks grew much larger, and her upper lip split as her nose turned into a little pink triangle on the front of her face. Lastly, hear ears grew larger and rounder as they moved up the sides of her head. Her whole room seemed to blur for a moment, before the hamster was suddenly now in a staff bedroom in the Evenson mansion, still rolling her character around the battlefield and through enemy players as if nothing had happened.


A girl playing a buffing support character began to have her skin turn smooth and bright green, as her body grew a bit shorter and wider. Her clothes adapted to her new frame as they changed into a yellow maid dress. Her legs grew longer, and much stronger, allowing her easily leap quite a distance if she wanted. Her feet grew longer and wider, and webbing formed between her toes. Her fingers gained a hint of webbing as well, though not prominent enough to hinder her grip. Her hair disappeared as her head grew larger, her neck becoming nearly indistinguishable from it, or her body. Her mouth grow much larger as her jaws grew forward slightly, her nose shrinking down to nostrils atop it, while her tongue grew far longer, and stickier. Her ears shrank down into the sides of her head, while her eyes grew large and yellow, seeming to extend slightly above the top of her head. The frog woman continued to happily joke with her friends over the mic as she rushed her character along the map to help them.

Another guy in this circle of friends, who was currently attending college in another state, playing a healer in angel-themed armor… Didn’t change at all. Though his tag had changed to a maid pun like the rest of his friends’ (he did it to keep with the theme). He kept on playing, his style unchanged, though he didn’t find himself asking his more offense-oriented teammates to PLEASE watch his back quite as often.

A man playing a cyborg ninja, sneaking to the back of enemy lines to assassinate their supports, began shrinking, looking younger and younger as her sex switched. Green scales started growing over most of her body, with large, yellow scutes forming on her front. Even as she kept shrinking, her body become proportionally longer, thinner, and more serpentine, her spine gaining new vertebra on either end, giving her a lengthy tail, and a longer neck. Her fingers and toes alike both lost their nails, the bones in their fingertips growing out into claws in their place. Her clothes wove together into a red uniform, as her brown hair grew into a thick mane, a line of fur traveling down her spine, and ending with a large tuft at the end of her tail. Her jaws stretched out into a wide reptilian muzzle, and her nostrils became more prominent while her teeth sharpened, and her tongue forked. Finally, a pair of branch-like horns grew from the back of her head, and a set of long whiskers grew from the sides of her snout.

The five-year-old-looking eastern dragon girl was glad to play with a team made up mostly of fellow maids. When she tried to use voice chat with randoms, she always got called a “squeaker,” and nobody believed her when she said she was twenty-two. Oh, if they said those things to the little dragoness’s face, and not online… Well, she wouldn’t hurt them, violence in answer to petty insults wasn’t becoming of a maid… But she was sure Master would be fine with her spooking her detractors. Just a little.

+++

Curt sighed when he woke up at around four in the morning. He knew he wasn’t going to get back to sleep; he’d already gotten about eight hours, and the dreams influenced by yesterday’s events weren’t going to help. Granted, the one involving Skyla had been pleasant, but the others were filled with hundreds of empty smiles, anthros crowding all around him, smothering him as they asked for the privilege of fulfilling his greatest desires. He got up, not sure what to do. All these people around him, so eager to please, but the reality alterations meant that that he could only really talk to Anna and Skyla about any of it. He could talk to Ashley or Misty too, but he wasn't close friends with them.

He got out his cell phone. Apparently, like Skyla’s phone, it now had a list of the maids, and their contact information as well. He skimmed through the list, trying to see if he could at least memorize some of the names and faces. But once he got to the nigh-identical foxes and cats from the blast at the college, it seemed futile to try.

He was worried about everyone that was zapped in the course of yesterday’s events. Some seemed a little worse than others. Some foxes he had spoken to at the beach sounded more eager to serve than he felt comfortable with, but at the same time, that Bakeneko… Sophie, was it? She seemed pretty normal, under the circumstances. But the identical, near-mindlessly obedient maids from the college… these “Blank Maids,” they concerned him most of all. Even with their memories temporarily returned, they had become so single-minded that they still didn’t appear to have an independent thought of their own. He knew something needed to be done about it, and the message in the gun’s log suggested something COULD be done, even if it was vague on the details.

He had no idea where to start, however. The sheer volume of people changed that day made it difficult enough on its own. Even if he were only to spend one day with each of them, it would take more than half a year. On a practical level, trying for a one-size-fits all approach seemed more efficient. But what could be done to help more than two hundred people at once? And in a situation where he wasn’t even sure how to help ONE of them, at that?

With another sigh, he reached into his nightstand, and pulled out a pen and some paper, and started writing down any idea he could think of, no matter how reasonable or goofy. He had to start somewhere, and a brainstorming session was as good a use of the early morning as any other.

+++

At the same time, in a twenty-four/seven convenience store across the street from the private schools that had since become an apparent singular maid school, a young man stood behind the counter, tapping his fingers as he tried to think of a way to look busy, in case his manager watched the security tapes again. He had already mopped the floors, cleaned the toilets, stocked the shelves, and had gone to “check” on them a few times in the past hour already, despite nobody coming to so much as look at anything within the past four hours. He hated that the manager would get on his case if he stood still too long. Still, he supposed he should count his blessings about a lack of customers. Most of the people that would show up at this hour were weirdos at best, though at least the “Maid District” didn’t have too many drunk or drug-addled loons to worry about.

As he continued tapping away on the counter, his hair all over his body began to fall out, vanishing from existence before it could drop to the ground. In its place, thousands of bright green scales scales grew from his skin, covering his body completely. His torso shifted around, his waist narrowing while his hips widened, and his butt grew with it. As his sex swapped to the female counterpart, her chest began to swell, pressing tightly against her shirt as they grew to nearly the size of her head. Her clothes, save for her nametag, and a shirt with the store’s logo, seemed to simply evaporate, while her shirt was adjusted to fit her new figure comfortably (well, as comfortably as she could feel wearing ANY kind of clothing).

Her legs grew a little longer, and more shapely, and her feet changed more dramatically, spreading wider as her toes grew longer, and gained small flaps of skin on their sides, allowing her to run short distances across water, if she felt so inclined. Her arms slimmed down to more feminine proportions, and her finger- and toe- nails vanished, short claws taking their place.

Her head appeared to flatten slightly, as her jaws stretched into a wide, triangular snout, her nostrils being pulled to its front. Her teeth shrank and sharpened, more little teeth growing alongside the old to make up for the smaller size. Her ears shrank back into little holes in the side, while her eyes turned a bright yellow. A short, scaly crest grew on top of her head, and a long, thin tail grew out behind her, rings of black scales appearing toward its end.

The new common basilisk woman (not to be confused with a mythical basilisk, with eight legs, and a deadly gaze) stopped tapping on the counter, and straightened her posture. Yes, there was little work to do tonight, but that was no reason to slouch. What work she had done, she had done diligently, not just for her wonderful Master, but for her manager and any potential customers as well. There was no need to “look busy;” she did her work perfectly the first time, and her manager could not argue with her results.

+++

Curt got out of the shower, and dressed in his Sunday best, before taking another look at the notes and potential solutions he had drafted over the past few hours. He still wasn’t feeling confident about any of them, but if he wanted to get to church on time this morning, he’d have to wait before trying to refine them any more. And while a part of him felt guilty even thinking about doing anything else before this problem was solved, another part of him knew he needed to focus on something else for a time, to keep his mind from just going in circles.

He got out his cell phone again, looking for Silvey’s number. He sent her a message, apologizing again for what had happened yesterday, and encouraging her to take as much time off as she felt she needed. As well as giving her permission to ask Janet for whatever she wanted for dinner, tonight. He knew it wasn’t much, but until he could work out a solution, it was the best he could do for her.

Before he left his room, he looked back at the gun on his nightstand. The ID lock may have meant there was no risk of someone else misusing it, that he could leave it here, and not worry. But a large part of him still felt paranoid, despite knowing better, and a smaller part of him wanted to be ready in case the gun could be used to help resolve an emergency. And on another level that he didn’t quite want to admit, he DID like the idea of creating more anthros, even if them being his servants wasn’t ideal to him. At the urging of all three of these little voices, he went back, and slipped the ray gun in his pocket.


He headed to Anna’s room. The door was already open, and Anna was sitting on her bed, finishing off a bowl of cereal, and occasionally gently pushing away Noni as the mundane cat tried to investigate the bowl.

“Good morning Anna. You feeling okay after yesterday?” Curt asked.

Anna finished the last bite of her cereal. “I still feel kinda bad about it… I mean, I was the last one that left the ray gun out last, so in a way, I’m partly to blame for what happened yesterday.”

“You don’t have t-”

“I know that blaming myself isn't gonna help anything,” she nodded, “And I’m still pretty worried about what happened to those maids, especially the little kitten girl, Madison. Not to mention they’re still kind of creepy. Part of the reason I brought breakfast up to bed, even though it means fighting her for it.” She pulled Noni into her lap, and patted her on the back. “I just didn’t want them there while I ate. But yeah, other than that, I’m okay.”

“Ready to go to church then?”

“Oh yeah, I nearly forgot,” Anna said as she got up. “But yeah, I think I’m ready. I took a bath earlier.”

“Licking yourself clean doesn’t count,” Curt teased.

“Oh hush!” Anna shook her head with a smile.

“Alright, just get on your Sunday best, and we’ll be head out.”

Anna frowned. “Aw, do I have to?”

Curt paused as he realized, that was a good question. DID she have to? While he had seen some of the nude anthros wearing some clothing related to their jobs, or for practical purposes, most of the time they limited themselves to minor accessories, if that, if they weren’t required to wear anything specific. Sure, their church didn’t have a dress code for the visitors, but most people still chose to dress up nicely anyway as a sign of respect, so maybe anthros would do the same.

“Well,” Curt said, “if any of your clothes haven’t been poofed out of existence by reality changes, we can probably assume that they’re there because you need them for something. Take a look at your closet and see. If you have it, it’s probably expected that you wear it.”

Anna shrugged and opened up her closet. Inside she mostly saw old board games, books, and few belts and backpacks… And in the corner, a blue dress. She grimaced. That thing was itchy enough before she had fur for it to rub the wrong way! She was tempted to use her “suggestion” clause and just tell Curt it wasn’t there, but it felt wrong to use it so frivolously. And besides, she knew Vicky would be dressed up. She probably should have seen it coming.

“Yeah, I’ve still got some fancy clothes,” Anna said with a sigh. She pulled it off the hanger and put it on, trying her best not to let her displeasure show.

The two went downstairs, getting a little lost trying to find the garage due to the Mansion’s size increase. They passed several maids along the way, a few they knew, like the three Rabbits from Skyla’s old job, and Cassidy, (who offered to come and act as his bodyguard, Curt said he felt safe enough for the short drive) and a few they did not, including a rather cute looking weasel maid, who was smiling giddily as if she had news she was dying to share, and a buff, busty brown bear, who effortlessly moved furniture out of the way for the weasel to vacuum under. Each greeted him with a variation of “Hello,” or “Good morning, Master,” including a short nod or bow. And each one said it with a tone distinctly their own, even if all conveyed some level of love and respect for him.

They also passed a couple of the Blank Maids from the college, a nude vixen and a cat maid, dusting off the decoration around the hall. Both smiled the same way, and both said, “Good morning, Master. It’s an honor to serve you,” with the same inflection and tone of absolute devotion.

Curt wished them a “Good morning,” as well, and went on his way, sighing to himself.

He and Anna got in their car (which was in much better condition than it had been a week ago,) and got ready to drive.

A golden retriever woman in greasy overalls spotted them and said, "She should be in perfect condition Master, I just checked her out this morning and Gentilda gave her a washing and vacuum. No need to wait up for me Master, I'll be attending evening service."

"Oh! Thank you!"

"My pleasure Master!" She said the way someone might affectionately say 'Boss!'

With her job done, the dog woman stripped out of her overalls as soon as she stepped out of the garage and placed them into a waiting hamper. Curt allowed himself a moment of awe at how causal the entire moment had just been.

As they pulled out of the garage, and down the road to the gate, they could see how the estate had changed even further since they had run out yesterday. In the front portion of the estate alone, there were three fountains (One with the dragoness sculpture from before, the other two having carvings of a cat woman and a vixen), dozens of statues, and plenty of flower beds, hedges, and trees, all being attended to by a collection of naked bee ladies (and one butterfly), flying from place to place. They waved to their Master as he passed, then quickly resumed their work.

A wolf woman sitting at the booth beside the gate opened it up for them, and let them through with a wave. The neighborhood around them looked a bit different from when they had run out chasing the kids yesterday, even ignoring that the houses on their block had been “absorbed” into the estate as guest or staff housing.

“Looks like a few houses in our neighborhood will be cleaner, if nothing else,” Curt noted.

“Hey, that’s Mr. Peterson mowing his lawn out there,” Anna pointed to one of the houses across from the estate. “Didn’t he used to live on our side of the street?”

“Yeah,” Curt said, with a curious glance, “I guess some of the people that became maids on that side of the street must live in our mansion now, and the neighbors who lived on our side and weren’t changed have been retconned to live there instead.”

“I’m also saw some neighbors I didn’t recognize,” Anna said. “Human ones.”

“Huh… Probably places other people who ended up becoming maids used to live. Guess they belong to somebody else now.”

+++

Meanwhile, at the police station, Beth the red panda clocked in for her shift, two monkey ladies right behind her. Working weekends wasn’t her preference, but taking care of traffic in the maid district was pretty easy, without being completely boring. She passed a pair of cadets in the hall, giving them a friendly wave. As she did, they began to change, as well. One grew pure white fur all over his body as his clothes disappeared, save for his badge, now dangling from around his neck. His gender changed as her hands and feet became paw like, while a thick, fluffy tail began to wave behind her. Her face grew a vulpine snout, and her ears grew into a triangular shape. Her eyes shone brightly, making for a surprisingly adorable officer-to-be.

Beside the arctic fox, the other cadet’s uniform changed alongside his sex, becoming a hybrid of his original, and of a maid’s dress and cheerleader uniform much like Beth’s had. Bright pink feathers covered her skin from the hips up, while her legs were covered in gray scales. Her thighs shrank considerably, while her calves and feet became much, much longer and thinner, giving the appearance of a “reversed knee.” Her toes grew longer, and spread out, as they grew talons. Her arms became a pair of functional wings with talon-like hands, while her neck grew to over a foot in length, and her mouth stretched out into a prominent, downward curving, black and white beak.

After Beth had passed the flamingo and the fox, the cadets continued along their way to meet their superiors. Beth greeted her lieutenant with a smile, the two of them casually discussing her beat for the day, as the lieutenant grew brown and black feathers, while his clothes vanished. The lieutenant’s figure slimmed slightly as her sex changed, and yellow scales grew over her legs, feet and hands, while her arms became wings. Her chest grew to an impressive size, if not quite up to par with her subordinate’s, her badge snudge in the middle, while her mouth grew into a yellow beak. Her eyesight improved, and a set of tail feathers spread over her rear. Soon, the hawk dismissed her subordinate, and went back to her paperwork.

The cadets, meanwhile, passed five older officers who were clocking out. One grew gray fur and a squashed looking muzzle, becoming a nude bulldog. Two more became wolves, one gray and nude, the other brown and dressed in another of Skyla’s special police-maid uniforms. The other two were family men, and remained human.

The two monkeys said hi to one of the few female officers in their precinct as well as her partner, as they became a cute gray rabbit woman in uniform, and a nude busty fox woman, a pair that Anna would have found amusing.

When they finished talking, one of the monkeys headed over to the holding cells, relieving the previous guard. Said guard began to change as well, the woman growing gray fur with black circles, while her ears grew rounder, her face grew a feline snout, and a furry tail extended behind the snow leopard in uniform. The prisoner began to grow brown and white feathers, his feet turning orange and spreading wider as they became webbed. His arms changed to wings, as his body reshaped into a woman’s, gaining a sizable bust, while a small set of tail feathers growing above her rear. Her ears shrank back, while her mouth and nose fused, and grew out into a black duck bill. Reality seemed to blur around her, and she was suddenly back in town, her crime of public indecency no longer applying to her, resulting in her never being arrested. The guard, meanwhile, no longer needing to watch the cell, seemed to disappear in a blur, reappearing at a desk elsewhere in the station.

Meanwhile in an interrogation room, two detectives, one male, one female, were grilling a drug dealer, trying to find out if he had any connections to local gangs. The male detective changed first, his body growing larger, stockier, and more muscular even as he turned female. Her clothes vanished, and her skin turned thick and gray, while her feet began to seemingly press into her legs, becoming round with three thick toes poking out at the front. A short tail emerged above her rear, ending in a tuft of hair, while her hands changed, her fingers merging to three large digits on each hand. Her head was molded like clay, pressing out into a long snout, with a large horn right above her nose, a second, smaller one growing up behind it. The rhino menacingly loomed over the perp, doing a great job of playing the bad cop.

The female detective, meanwhile, grew smooth, brown scales all over her body as her legs merged together, growing far longer and more flexible as they became a single, powerful tail. Her suit changed to match, becoming a custom fit police-maid uniform. Her arms gained a hint of musculature, while her fingers grew short claws. Her hair vanished as her head flattened, pressing forward into a snake’s snout, her tongue turning forked. The boa detective, in contrast to the rhino, was offering a number of possible deals to the dealer to coax a little more information out of her.

The drug dealer began to change as well, growing coarse reddish hair, mixed with sharpened spines. He became a little shorter as his gender switched, and his clothes changed to a black dress with a white apron. Her hands and feet remained relatively hairless, but gained small claws. Her mouth stretched out into a long, pointed snout, her teeth sharpening, and her ears growing a little rounder. Reality seemed to blur, and suddenly, all three were in the station lobby, the former drug dealer now having never been involved. Instead, the tenrec maid was here to report some suspicious people she had seen near her workplace, not a hint of acknowledgement that mere minutes ago in another timeline, they had been her partners in crime. She also had no idea that the shred of humanity he possessed compared to his fellows was the only thing that spared her becoming as empty on the outside as they already were on the inside, as had been the case with the two dealers Sharon and Suzie zapped.

Normally, so many police officers also being on the payroll of a single man, and making fulfilling his wants and needs their greatest desires, would be cause for suspicion, but the perception filter’s effects applied even to these changes, so nobody gave the fact that about half of the city’s force worked part time for the Evenson estate a second thought. Fortunately, Master never ever wanted any of them to play favorites, or be biased in their duties. On the other hand, the high number of female officers earned the town a lot of praise from diversity advocates.

+++

Curt and Anna passed a few anthros here and there on their drive, but otherwise didn’t notice too much out of the ordinary. The two arrived at the church just before the service started, and they could easily see several anthros in the pews already, since they stood out like a sore thumb; a sweet looking moth woman in a maid outfit, a little sphinx girl by her side (probably her daughter,) a large polar bear woman, and, to his surprise, Vicky, the mailman (well, mail-vixen, now) who had been the first target of the gun.


‘Had she gone here in the original timeline?’ Curt thought to himself. The church wasn’t that big, but there were enough people that he could’ve easily missed someone he hadn’t been that familiar with before. Realizing he was staring, (luckily, she was looking ahead, and hadn’t noticed,) Curt quickly shook himself out of it, and took a seat next to Anna on an empty pew in the back.

What also surprised Curt was that both the polar bear woman, and the sphinx girl were naked, while Vicky was wearing clothes. And not a maid outfit or some variation upon it, either; like Anna, she was wearing her Sunday best, a surprisingly modest red dress. It seemed inconsistent to Curt, but he had no way of asking for an explanation right now.

When the choir came on stage, Curt saw two more anthros among them, the first was a young dove girl in a toga-like dress, and the next was a big surprise; as the blue snake woman, with wings covered in feathers that shimmered like the sunrise, with a crest to match on her head in place of hair, wearing nothing but a silver cross around her neck.

‘A Quetzalcoatl?’ He thought. ‘Wasn’t that supposed to be a god in a mesoamerican religion? Why would she be here?” Curt wondered.

That question, and others, like what to do about the Blank Maids, the implications of Skyla’s long life and magical abilities, as well as what the ultimate purpose of this gun was supposed to be, filled his mind as the choir sang. He had always zoned out during these songs, singing was simply not his thing, and he rarely paid too much attention to the choir, today was no exception.

At least, not until one of the men in the choir’s clothes unraveled into nothing, replaced by fur, white on the front, and around his neck and arms, and black on his back, legs, and the sides of his head.

Needless to say, the choir had immediately regained Curt’s attention.

Anna did all she could to hold back a gasp. She looked to her brother, and saw he wasn’t holding the ray gun. In fact, it’s grip was still poking out of his pants pocket!

The man kept on singing, even as her figure and voice shifted to more feminine ones, her hips expanding and waist narrowing slightly while an average-sized pair of breasts grew from her chest. Her now-digitigrade feet gained leathery pads and paw like toes, while her hands gained similar pads on her fingers and palms. Her spine stretched behind her, growing out into a black-furred tail that did it’s best not to wag in the middle of a song. Her teeth sharpened as her jaws stretched out, her upper lips grew to cover her lower jaw when closed, little whiskers formed on her snout and her nose turned black and became wet. Finally, her ears grew wider as they moved to the top of her head, taking a triangular shape, their tips flopping forward cutely.

The congregation, and the rest of the choir, human and anthro alike, just kept on singing, as if nothing had happened to the border collie anthro.

Once the songs finished, the choir dispersed into the first row of pews, and the pastor stepped onstage to deliver a sermon on the book of Jonah.

“Did you do that?” Curt whispered to Anna as quietly as he could.

“I was gonna ask you that,” Anna whispered back.

Curt carefully removed the gun from his pocket, not wanting to risk anyone else seeing him use it. As the holographic GUI came up, he saw a red exclamation mark on the messages tab again. Clicking on it, he saw that the new message was from last night. Not only that, but the “experience bar” now showed 266/500. Curt hadn’t been paying close attention to the last two digits the night before, due to the worries brought about by the presence of a third digit at all, but he was pretty sure that was a bigger number than before. He clicked the new message, Anna leaning over to read it as well.

“Greetings Mr. Curt Evenson; Master of the Furry Transformation Ray Gun of universe 13435,

“It has come to our attention that our Reality Distortion Field being used to alter the lives and history of over seventy people at once, has produced a sort of lingering fallout. It is difficult to explain the precise mechanics of it to an individual who has only lived their entire life in your universe, but it would seem that local reality in within a 3 kilometer radius of the mass-reality shift, for lack of a better term, “believes” that humans that are in this area of effect are an unnatural occurrence, and is attempting to “correct” them into anthro maids. As such, over the next 48 hours, you can expect a number humans to possibly undergo spontaneous transformations throughout the area, particularly among those close (whether physically, or emotionally) to those that have already changed.

“Given recent events, we understand if your first reaction to this information is panic, but we wish to assure there is no need to worry.

“First, our basic safety measures became a part of the fallout as well. Thus, no fathers will be changed, nor will any mothers be reduced in age, (or remain at an age where bearing children would be impossible, if they are transformed into a creature that matures more slowly,) and naturally, you will remain immune.

“Second, because there is no “user” in this case, all changes will be based entirely on the “target’s” preferences and personal vision of an ideal maid. Though some may behave more formally, and all will share the same appreciation for cleanliness, the unconditional love and loyalty for you, and the desire to see your wants and needs fulfilled that all transformed by our ray gun experience, this will typically result in personalities that are similar to their original. Given your habits when using our creation, we believe that you will find this outcome quite agreeable.

“Note: We suspect that the overwhelming majority of those changed by this fallout will remain unaware of their changes, as most humans do not like being aware of things that turn their whole way of living upside-down.

“Third, we believe that this fallout will dissipate within 48 hours. However, as we are unsure of the effect additional changes could have during this period, we strongly advise against using the ray gun during this period for anything but life or death emergencies, and even those should be carefully considered. After this 48 hour period has ended, it will be safe to use freely once more. As a consolation for the inability to use the ray gun during this time, all maids created by this fallout will be added to your total towards the next upgrade (though children changed as a secondary effect of their mothers (or grandmothers, etc), changing will not be added to the total, as usual).

“With that assurance taken care of, we would like to add that this result has fascinated us, and we are currently researching ways to create a similar effect in our products, as a new option (without the need for people to become “blank maids,” as you have called them, naturally). Should our results prove desirable, we will implement the new feature as an upgrade to your gun for free.

“Also, due to a mathmatics error during the large-scale reality rewrite, a maid that you know as Silvey Bell had not been registered on the counter yesterday. This has since been rectified.

“We thank you for your patience, and hope you will be able to find happiness for yourself and your maids.

“Sincerely, the creators of your Transformation Ray Gun.”

“Well, that will be… something,” Anna said quietly. “I hope everyone changed turns out okay.”

“They make it sound like it shouldn’t be too bad. Well as far as the transformations go, anyway. I’ve already said I’d prefer this only happened to people who wanted it, or would have an improved life because of it, but at least it sounds like nobody will end up worse off for this.”

“Yeah,” Anna said, sounding a little less sure, “I hope you’re right.” She may not have been interested in furries like Curt and Skyla had been before all this started, but she still found the idea of a bunch of cute animal ladies hanging out with them fun. After all, the gun could even make spiders adorable! But at the same time, she remembered what had happened to Susan, and didn’t want it to happen again.

Curt, meanwhile, tired from the chase yesterday, and the challenges fixing it would present, alongside the fact that he now had two-hundred-plus strangers who all considered him their “Master,” simply didn’t have it in him to panic anymore. He had, at first, thought that maybe he should try to warn people and somehow evacuate the city, but what could he say? Thanks to the reality distortions and perception filter, the truth would be considered so bizarre nobody would buy it without being zapped themselves. Reporting some kind of massive bomb threat probably wouldn’t lead to a district-wide evacuation, and even if it did, there would still likely be police bomb squads sent in to try and stop it. Not to mention that when it was inevitably discovered to be false, he could get into loads of legal trouble for it.

He stopped himself. He had enough problems to worry about already, and as much as he hated to admit it, there was nothing he could do to stop this when it was already in motion. Better to focus on what he COULD deal with, for his own sanity. He slipped the gun back in his pocket, and pulled out his phone to send a quick text message to Skyla to let her know.

Still, some part of him did wonder, if there were people who would remain aware of the changes, how they were reacting to this.

+++

In another part of the city, a furry artist was enjoying having the weekend off, and planned to make good use of it. Nobody had commissioned him recently, so he figured why not do a little something for himself?

Jeff sat down at his desk, and got out a fancy looking golden pen that somebody had left behind in at the office last Friday. It had felt too light in the hand to be real gold, so he figured it wasn’t valuable enough that whoever had lost it would come back for it, and brought it home to use for himself. Wanting to see if it’d be good for inking, he pulled out a sheet of paper, and began to sketch a TF sequence, of a slightly more handsome version of himself growing into tall, absurdly buxom furry bimbo, his (or her, by that point in the sequence) clothes ripping off in the process.

As he drew, he only barely noticed his clothes feeling itchy, then much tighter, having no clue red fur was growing over his back, sides, arms, legs, and most of his face, or white fur was appearing on his chest. Speaking of, his arms and legs both slimmed down, alongside his waist, the matter seeming to all get shoved into his hips, butt, and breasts. He stopped when he heard a tearing sound from his clothes. Looking down, she gasped in a feminine voice as she saw her shirt and pants straining to contain her new figure, before her chest seemed to swell up to a size that would probably get in the way of drawing, or moving her arms in front of her in general. Her t-shirt seemed powerless to contain them anymore, and tore apart, somehow slipping off her without leaving a single piece in the way, each segment vanishing from history before it hit the ground. Her pants tore as well (for some reason), and followed her shirt in its vanishing act.

While Jeff was definitely shocked at all this happening, she couldn’t say she disliked how it was going. As if freed by her sudden lack of pants, a long, extremely bushy tail rose up behind her, curling back down slightly at the tip. She wiggled it around excitedly, feeling it over in her now paw-like hands. She ran to her mirror, pen still in hand, her ears growing longer and coming to a point while she went. She gave a buck-toothed grin as she saw her breasts bounce in her reflection.

“OH! EM! GEE! I am, like, a total squirrelly hottie! Just like my sketch!” Jeff, or rather, Jen, said, her speech now mimicking the ticks of the character from the end of her sequence. She put a hand over her mouth and gasped.

“No way! This pen must be, like, magic or something! Does this mean if I, like, draw me getting my world rocked by, like, some hunk of a wolf, it’ll actually happen?” It briefly dawned on her that she had started fantasizing about impossibly well endowed and muscle bound guys, rather than massive-chested girls, like she had been moments ago. She could tell she was hot stuff, sure, but she didn’t feel attracted to a body like hers anymore. It struck her as weird, but when she thought about it, it didn’t seem like that bad a trade off for getting such a bombshell of a bod.

She looked at the pen, pondering what to do first with the power to draw anything into existence, when she noticed some writing on its side that she hadn’t seen before: “Evenson Estate: Friendly Maids in Every Size, Shape, and Species.”

“This must be, like, that Evenson guy’s pen.” The wheels in her head turned for a moment, and she gasped “OH! EM! GEE! He’s been, like, using this pen to turn people into, like, all those hottie and cutie maids he hires! And he must have totally seen my art online, and, like, left this in the office because he, like, wanted me to have it so I could make my own sexy bod! I, like, gotta thank Master! And, like, give him his pen back so he can totally make more!”

In the retconned reality, if Curt had been aware of it, he'd have been either more annoyed than before at Skyla having chosen such a tagline for their pens before he could express his dislike, or laughed at Skyla's antics resulting in such convenient silliness!

+++

Eventually, the sermon came to a close, and those that didn’t stay to chat amongst themselves began to leave the sanctuary. Curt and Anna got up to leave, but once they were out of the sanctuary, Anna stopped. “Aren’t we gonna wait for Vicky?”

Curt was a bit confused. Why would Anna want them to wait for her specifically? Had he agreed to do something with the fox woman and forgotten? He hadn’t gotten particularly close to her since the change, and as far as he knew, Anna hadn’t had much chance to get to know her either. But before he could ask, a man, the moth woman, and the sphinx girl approached them.

“Hello Master. Hello Anna. Did you enjoy the service?” The moth woman asked.

“Yeah,” Curt replied, “It was just full of surprises.”

“Yes, it not often that you hear preachers talk about Jonah’s hope that Nineveh would be burned even after they had repented, and God’s displeasure with him for it,” The moth said.

“So...” Curt said, back in the awkward situation of not knowing the name of someone he’d “known for years,” “How was your weekend?”

“I had a wonderful evening with Harry last night,” she said, putting two arms around the man next to her. “And Stella and I enjoyed some time in the park, too. Speaking of, she had something she wanted to ask you.”

The winged lion girl raised her paw. “Hello Master! Would you like to hear a riddle? None of the Jr. Maids I was playing with yesterday could guess it!”

“Sure,” Curt said.

“What’s flat as a leaf, and round as a ring, has two eyes, but can’t see a thing?”

Curt hadn’t heard that one before. He put his hand to his chin to look as if he was in deep thought, “Is it a circular slice of swiss cheese?”

The young girl smiled. “No! It’s a button!” She giggled at having stumped Master.

“Heh, I’ll get it next time.” Curt smiled back.

“We should probably get going before the weekend ends,” The moth woman’s husband said. “Been nice seeing you, Mr. Evenson.”

“And I look forward to returning to the mansion for work tomorrow, as well.” The moth woman nodded, taking her daughter’s hand, and walking away. “Goodbye!”

“Goodbye,” Curt said.

“They seemed pretty nice,” Anna said.

“Yeah,” Curt said, “nice to see not all of the maids changed yesterday are so extreme about it.”

“Hey Master,” the burly polar bear woman he had seen said as she walked passed. “Have a nice weekend!”

“You too,” Curt said. He turned to Anna. “Sure feels weird when everyone knows you, but you don’t know them.”

“I’m sure we’ll get to know some of them,” Anna said.

“Hello, Master, Anna,” came another voice. Curt turned to see it belonged to the Quetzalcoatl woman. “Good news! I’ve found a few more paintings for your gallery, that I believe will compliment the otter portrait excellently. I believe they should arrive this Wednesday. I’ve already organized a space for them.”

“Oh, uh, thank you.” He realized he hadn’t had much of an opportunity to look at the gallery closely since it had been introduced. He’d have to fix that.

“That sounds pretty neat!” Anna added.

“You’re welcome, Master. I will see you later.” She bowed, and slithered away, as the Dove girl stepped outside.

“Hi Master!” She said, fluttering up to eye level. “I had a really strange dream last night, and you were in it!”

“Oh?” Curt asked, hesitantly. After yesterday, he couldn’t help but worry it would involve her dutifully and happily following his every whim ‘til her last breath.

“What was it about?” Anna asked.

“Well, I was standing on top of a building,” the dove girl said, “But it… It wasn’t really me. It was a human man, but I was seeing what he saw, and I could tell what he was feeling. And I… He… whichever it was, seemed really sad. And he wanted to fall down off the building so he wouldn’t feel sad anymore.”

Curt’s eyes widened, and Anna looked rather uncomfortable as well. Curt thought he had mentally prepared himself for a worst case scenario. But a five-year-old having a dream about commiting suicide? What on Earth had gone on with her mental changes? Wasn’t the gun supposed to heal injuries and mental problems alike?

“And then I did fall. And I got so scared! But then I saw you on the ground, Master, with Sharon and Suzie, waiting for me. You threw something shiny towards me, and when I caught it, I didn’t feel scared, or sad anymore! And I wasn’t falling, either! I was the real me! I felt happy! I had wings again! I could fly wherever I wanted! And so I flapped my wings and flew, while people down below smiled, and cheered. But you were cheering the loudest of them all, Master!”

Curt was dumbfounded by the sudden twist, but if it was implying what he thought it was, it filled him with relief.

“Do you think it’s a special dream? Do you think it means something?” The dove girl asked.

Curt and Anna were silent for a moment, before Anna finally spoke up. “I think… I think it means you’ve been given some very special chances, gifts and talents. And that you can use those gifts to make people happy in ways other people can’t.”

Anna paused, and Curt spoke. “And I think it also means if you ever feel sad like you did in that dream, you should talk to someone you trust about it. Maybe me, maybe a friend, maybe a family member. I think we’d all be pretty sad too if you hurt yourself.”

“Okay, Master.” The little girl nodded and somehow, despite having a beak, seemed to smile. She landed in front of Curt, and hugged her wings around him. “Love you.” She let go and gave Curt a little wave, before flapping her wings, and taking off in the direction of the mansion.

“Do you think that means what I think it means?” Anna asked.

“I think so,” Curt said. “At least something positive came out of yesterday.” While he was happy for the dove girl, this brought up a problem he hadn’t considered: while looking for a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone zapped yesterday had its appeal due to the sheer number that had been transformed, some of the solutions he had considered would be likely to have issues on an individual level. Suggesting that the maids “act like their old selves,” would be disastrous if the dove heard such a message. He’d much rather have someone be uncomfortably devoted to him than trying to kill themselves, after all! If he was going to try and take a one-size-fits-all approach, he’d need to chose his actions much more carefully.

Anna interrupted Curt’s thoughts. “There she is!” She said, rushing up and hugging the busty fox girl. “Hi Vicky!”

“Hey there Anna!” Vicky said, hugging her back. “How have you been doing?”

“We had a few rough spots,” Anna said, “But I’m feeling pretty good.”

Vicky nodded, and turned to hug Curt, giving him a kiss on the cheek as well. “And hello to you too, Master! How’s your day been?”

In spite of having received a kiss from her the last time they had talked, the gesture still took Curt by surprise. Nonetheless, he hugged her back. “I didn’t sleep well after yesterday, but I’m feeling okay now.”

“Yesterday? Oh, right, you were looking for Kitty’s kids yesterday, weren’t you? I got the email you had sent to all the maids. I wouldn’t mind hearing about it over lunch.”

“Lunch?” Curt was a little more confused now. He didn’t remember agreeing to lunch during Skyla’s “Maid inspection,” or at Kitty and Leo’s welcoming party.

“Oh,” Anna said, “We’ve had a pretty busy week. I just realized Curt never told me where we were eating this Sunday like he usually does.” She turned to her brother. “You must’ve been so worn out you forgot to choose a restaurant for our weekly lunch!”

“Yeah, I guess I did. Sorry about that.” Curt was relieved Anna moved so quickly to cover for him. She was really on the ball, given she had to have been every bit as surprised about this as he was.

He guessed “he” must have agreed to lunch before he had gotten the ray gun in this timeline. He had to wonder if the Past-Curts of these timelines were simply living normal lives, (well, as normal as the life of a billionaire with over 200 female friends/employees that unconditionally love him and call him “Master” could be,) and then suddenly found themselves possessed by some alternate version of themselves from another timeline who had no clue how things worked here? Then again, everyone seemed to believe his current personality was normal, so maybe it was more like when a new timeline formed, his past self forgot some things from the new timeline, and remembered some from the old.

Curt stopped himself again. Best not to worry about things he had no power over.

+++

Carrie and Kathy landed in front of the door to the Azure Springs Retirement Home with Kasai on Carrie’s shoulders, and a few second later, Emma appeared alongside them in a shower of sparkles.

“Hello Emma,” Carrie said, “did you bring the snacks?”

Emma nodded, holding out a paper bag. “One cookie of each of our friends’ favorite flavors.”

“Great!” Kathy cheered. “Let’s get going, then.”

The four ‘young’ mythical creatures entered the retirement home, and greeted the receptionist. As they signed in as visitors, the receptionist began to change, growing a mix of purple and blue feathers, (a plumage that would normally be reserved for the males of her new species,) and a long, curving beak. Her legs became scaley, and her arms grew into wings, while her clothing changed into a cyan maid’s dress. The purple sunbird maid waved her fellow maids through after they finished checking in.

The first room the group visited belonged to an old married couple, both succumbing to old age. The man’s sight was poor even with his glasses, and he couldn’t keep his balance without a walker, while the woman was dealing with dementia and palsy in her hands.

As Emma reached out to give the two of them cookies, the woman changed. Though the gun would only truly undo all of the effects of old age on those that were changed into longer-lived species, it could still undo some of the injuries, illnesses, and other issues that occasionally accompanied it. Her hands stopped shaking, and the fog of dementia began to clear, as the woman’s clothes changed into a black dress, while her body grew light brown fur all over. Her shoes vanished, as her feet curled up into hooves, and and her fingers joined together into three armored digits. A tail covered in black hair poked through her dress, while the hair on her head grew into a mane and her mouth and nose stretched out into a horse’s long snout.

The mare, though still retired, was now able to live relatively independently, and help her husband. Even if Master had insisted she retire and take time to enjoy her life, she still thought of herself as a maid at heart, and tried to help others out when she could.

Unknown from anyone present, as as reality changed for the old couple, their child became affected as well. Elsewhere in the city, her son had now come to inherit her species, and when he had gotten married, his son, a man currently around Anna’s age, in turn, was retroactively made into a stallion. The mare’s granddaughter, however, remained human.

When Emma, Carrie, and Kathy were done talking with the first couple, they moved on, sharing cookies and conversations with one of their old friends after another. One woman became a naked wolf (who even at her age, considered herself just as much a part of the pack as any of Master’s wolves), another a maid-dressed deer doe, another a naked Scottish terrier, and another a nude mouse.

As a chain reaction through reality, some of their children and grandchildren, whether they still lived in the city or not, changed alongside them. The doe’s daughter changed to match her mother’s species in the middle of a business presentation she was giving up north, her suddenly vanishing clothing not raising a single eyebrow, her son working elsewhere remained human. The terrier’s son and nine-year-old granddaughter, playing in their yard together the next town over, both became dog anthros of the same breed, though with different fur colors. The anthro gene seemed to skip a generation in the mouse’s family. Her daughter remained human, but her teenage granddaughter, working on homework just a few miles south of the Evenson Estate, suddenly grew brown fur and large ears as well, wearing a maid outfit because it was the 'in' thing rather than loyalty to the Evensons.

Meanwhile the dragonesses, the phoenix, and the unicorn felt a strange sense of happiness for their friends. They weren’t sure why, but they felt as if they had all become just a little more lively and happy than they remembered.

+++

Curt, Anna, and Vicky arrived at a mom and pop restaurant by the name of “The Cedar Grill” which Curt had visited from time to time since moving into a place of his own. Anna and Vicky had both undressed before entering, putting their dresses in a bag Vicky had brought along with her.

Curt sat quietly, watching the first and second people he had transformed talk while they waited for their meal to arrive. His confusion was growing, though he did his best to hide it. While he had resigned himself to the fact that most of those changed would suddenly have known him for years, Vicky’s new history with him seemed to go back to their childhoods, if her words were anything to go by. Not only that, but Anna seemed to be acting a lot more familiar with Vicky than he would have imagined in the ride over, for someone she’d known for less than a week, if that.

“And then Kasai got so excited, she nearly set the couch on fire!” Anna laughed. “It’s fun to see her getting so into the stories she’s told.”

Vicky smiled. “Reminds me of when we watched that one mouse detective movie with you when you were her age, and you freaked out at the rat’s villainous breakdown where he nearly went feral.”

“Yeah, I remember that. I ended up clinging to you for the rest of the evening.”

Curt blinked. He remembered watching that movie with Anna, and a few friends of his, while he was younger, and he remembered her reaction to that scene, as well, but he remembered Anna clinging to their mother that night, instead. His mind raced. Were the reality shifts affecting Anna’s memory, too? He knew that he didn’t originally use the Reality Distortion Field when zapping her, but her home, and history, had been changed by a seeming “bleed-over” effect once the RDF had been used in several other changes. Was it starting to make her think she’d always been this way, as well? Or was she just playing along with Vicky, and happened to keep getting lucky guesses about their new past together? He hoped it was the latter; he didn’t want to be the only one to remember how things had been before. He wanted to ask Anna about it, but with Vicky still here, talking about other timelines wasn’t a good idea.

“Change of topic, but Vicky, I’ve been wondering,” Anna said, “do you know why some of the anthros get all dressed up for church, but others just go in their fur?”

Vicky looked a little confused. “Did your parents never explain it?”

Anna shook her head.

“That’s just a minor debate among us anthros in the faith,” Vicky replied. “Some of us, like me, feel like it shows respect to God to show your best for Him, even if the clothes are a little uncomfortable. Others feel it’s pointless to try and hide your true self from God, and that it shows greater humility to come exactly as you are. But most just agree to disagree.”

“That makes sense,” Anna said.

Vicky looked over to Curt. “You seem pretty quiet Master. I hope we’re not leaving you out.”

“No, you’re fine, I’ve just had a lot on my mind.”

“Oh? What have you been thinking about?”

Curt paused, trying to come up with something that wouldn’t sound suspicious. “About some things I saw while chasing around Kitty’s kids, some problems related to work, and some stuff I’d been writing.”

“I would love to hear about any of those, if you want to talk about them,” Vicky said. “I’m kinda curious what lead to you chasing Kitty’s kids.”

“Well, that had started when-”

“Order 58, for Mr. Evenson,” said the waitress.

“Oh, that’s correct, thanks,” Curt said, turning to the woman. As he looked up, he saw traces of fur growing on her face. Under her uniform, the waitress gained a coat of light gray fur, with black spots all over, (not that any present could see). Both Curt and Anna tried to hide their surprise.

“Let’s see here,” The waitress said, as the gray shirt and skirt of her uniform weaved together into a single dress, her apron gained little frills, and a lace headband materialized on her head.

“We’ve got a chicken sandwich for Vicky,” she set down a plate in front of the fox woman, as black “socks” and “gloves” of fur appeared over her hands and feet, as they became paw-like.

“And a cod fillet for Lady Anna,” A hole opened in the waitress’s dress, allowing a two foot long black furred tail to slide out, and idly wave behind her as she set down another plate. As her jaws stretched out into an angular snout, her the teeth in the front half of her mouth sharpened, the others remaining largely unchanged. Black fur covered the back of her head, her ears, and most of her muzzle, with gray fur covering the rest.

“And, a hamburger for Master!” The civet woman smiled, setting down the last dish as her ears moved to the top of her head, becoming longer and rounder, and her nose turned black. “And of course, the desserts!” She gave Curt a milkshake, Vicky a sundae, and Anna an Ice Cream Cone. Her task finished, she finally noticed Curt and Anna’s gaze fixed on her, looking concerned.

“Is something wrong, Master?”

“Oh!” Curt regained his composure. “Sorry I thought I saw a wasp flying near you… I think it was just a trick of the light.”

“Yeah,” Anna said “I thought so too. Thanks for bringing our meal.”

“You’re welcome.” The waitress curtsied. “I live to serve… Soft serve.” She giggled softly at her own little joke, and went back to the kitchen to pick up the other customers’ orders. As she entered the kitchen, out of sight of the Evensons, two of the cooks begant to change as well. A male cook’s skin became bumpy and moist, and turned dark green, interrupted by dozens of black dots, while his belly turned a bright orange. As she became female, her body grew wider, and her chest grew a hefty bust that pressed against her clothes. Her legs grew wider as well, and her toes lengthened as webbing formed between them. Her tongue, meanwhile grew longer and stickier, while her eyes grew larger, and moved to the top of her wider head. The fire-bellied toad woman’s clothes changed only enough to fit her new form. She preferred to go nude, but in the kitchen, clothing was more about safety than modesty.

The only female cook currently on shift changed next, fur in a mix of brown and white growing all over her body, while her uniform gained the frills and color scheme that were becoming increasingly common around town. Her body became a bit longer and thinner, as a brown-furred tail slipped into a hole in the back of her dress. Her hands and feet both grew little pads, and her toes and fingers grew short claws. Her nose turned pink, and grew a little wider as her faced pressed forward into a pointed snout, little whiskers growing at either side. Her eyes grew slightly wider, as did her ears, which also took a rounder shape. The cute ferret maid kept on cutting vegetables without missing a beat, feeling honored to work at one of her Master’s favorite restaurants.

As another waitress entered, she began to grow white feathers all over her torso, head and thighs. Her clothing vanished, save for her name tag, as yellow scales covered her legs from the calves down, and her toes elongated and grew talons. Her arms grew into wings with black and white feathers, her hands growing scales and talons like her feet. Her bust grew significantly, though it was “average” compared to most. Her mouth grew into a short yellow beak that curved to a point, and her ears shrank into the sides of her head, as her eyes turned red, and her vision sharpened. The black-winged kite woman straightened out her posture and picked up the orders with speed and precision. Even if she didn’t serve Master directly today, she still wanted to display the utmost professionalism, for his sake.

While, all these changes were taking place, back at the table, Curt was getting back into the conversation.

“Now, where were we? Oh right, the chase. Well, I had left an old family heirloom, a toy ray gun, in the kitchen, and Sharon and Suzie found it and started playing with it. I’m not sure what came over them, but they decided to run all over town, playing a game with it. Luckily, they were never too far from any maids, so they were safer than they would normally be, alone. Unluckily, every maid assumed they were being taken care of by another maid nearby…”

Curt continued on, giving a version of the previous day’s events that left out the reality-changing nature of the gun. “And by the time we thought to actually write an email and let everyone know to be on the lookout for them, we had practically already caught up to them. But not quick enough to stop them from making a mess at the maid school.”

“Well, at least all the maids at the school were there to clean it up,” Vicky laughed. “Still, that does sounds like a really rough day. I’m glad that guy in the alley didn’t hurt you! I never imagined Skyla was serious when she said she would turn anyone that threatened you into a statue. I knew she could do some magic, but I didn’t realize it was that powerful. That’s gotta be a lot to take in, too.”

“Yeah, plus going out, and interacting with all those maids… seeing just how… devoted… some of them could be… I don’t know, I hear someone say that they ‘only exist to serve’ me, I can’t help but feel guilty, like I’m stopping them from having normal lives. Not just the maids at the school, though they seem to have it a lot worse, but a bunch of the anthros over the town. I don’t want their service to me to be their only mission in life. I don’t want them to ignore friends and family for my sake. I don’t want to be the reason they gave up on their passions or hobbies.” Curt sighed.

Anna looked down, wishing she knew of some way to cheer her brother up.

“Oh Master…” Vicky said, taking his hand in hers, and shaking her head. “You’ve always been too hard on yourself. I’ve been working as the mail-vixen in the ‘maid district’ even before you became a millionaire and MADE it the maid district. I’ve talked to just about every one of the maids. They work so hard for you because they admire you, respect you, and love you, even if each one has a different kind of love.”

“I know, but that’s kind of the-” Curt stopped as Vicky slightly raised her other hand, silently asking permission to continue. “Go ahead.”

“But part of the reason WHY they all love you, why WE all love you, is because you get so worried about this. About US. You told me way back when we were eleven, in summer camp, ‘never forget to include what makes you happy too!’ Serving you, making you happy, is our greatest pleasure in life, but that’s partly because you would be UNHAPPY if we couldn’t be with our family or friends, if we couldn’t take time to enjoy ourselves without you. We don’t want to serve you just because you’re our wonderful Master, we see you as our wonderful Master because you genuinely care about us!”

Curt was taken aback for a moment. Part of him told him that “she’s just programmed to say that.” This gun, or ones like it, had been released in multiple universes, and given to a different person in each one, if the letters from its creators were to be believed. Surely there would be selfish, even abusive “Masters” out there who had received the gun, and would receive the same love and loyalty from those changed that he did, in spite of treating those they changed as nothing more than dolls, slaves, or even worse. All of them would suffer with a smile, and say “I love you,” through even the worst treatment. Surely, he couldn’t trust Vicky.

But he thought back to his date with Danielle. How she brought up that some philosophers would say we’re all programmed, in a way, be it by family or society, or genes. Did it really make their love less real if they were “programmed” to love him? He thought about the Dove girl he had met this morning. How she had called her new self her “real” self. How she had been freed from whatever had driven her to the edge in her previous life. If her past self had suffered depression, then her real self may have already been locked away under the fog, unable to break free and express itself. Who was to say that the “programming” of the gun wasn’t closer to her true personality in the first place?

And then it dawned on him. “Distinct, but tangentially related commands can interact in unexpected ways.” Yes, those changed by the gun would love their “Master” “just because.” Yes, they would seek their “Master’s” happiness above all else, abandoning everything else they loved if their “Master” said the word. But if their Master found his happiness in their happiness? Not just when they served him, but when they took time to enjoy lives of their own? Then of course, the only logical choice was to take time for themselves, to find things they enjoyed, outside of service. And as they learned to find joy outside of service, they would find reasons to love him, beyond “just because.” It all seemed to click into place! This could be the way to help the Blank Maids find an identity of their own again! Like the letter had said, it would take time and effort, but it would be possible.

Curt held Vicky’s hand tighter. “Vicky… Thank you… You’ve helped me more than you could ever know.”

“You’re welcome, Master, I’m glad to see you looking so hopeful.”

+++

Lola smiled as she followed her parents around town. The little pony girl had been feeling great since she changed yesterday, and why shouldn’t she? She had a pony that couldn’t be taken from her, she got to help out Master with her mommy, and now, she was starting to see other people changing just like she did, wherever she went!

During a trip to the grocery, she had already seen one guy out shopping turn into a naked sable antelope woman, with tall, backward curving antlers, cloven hooves, and a large chest. She’d also seen a woman turn into a big black bird with no feathers on her head, (a condor, but Lola hadn’t heard of them before,) and the guy at the check-out turn into a cute, long-beaked, yellow hummingbird lady in a little black dress.

Lola didn’t know how it was happening; the possibility that she and her mother were a vector for the change never crossed her mind. But she had been happy when Master had changed her, and seeing how happy the other maids were, it made sense that they must have been changed by Master too. She didn’t question how she knew Master was responsible, despite the fact that she had never seen him before, it was simply a fact, like the sky being blue.

She stayed close to her daddy, but kept her eyes peeled in case she saw any more people changing. When they went to an electronics store, one of the employees doing re-shelving had his skin harden into armor-like chitin, and turn a bright, shimmering green as his clothes vanished, save his nametag. Her body became a little rounder while she became female, and her arms and legs both slimmed down dramatically. A second set of arms grew just below the first as her head started to change, growing wider as her hair receded. Her eyes each split into dozens of smaller eyes, though the light always seemed to reflect off them in such a way as to give the impression of wide, cute pupils. Above each eye, a green antennae stretched out, bouncing around with each step. Finally, on her back, a pair of clear, wide, insect wings stretched out, before folding back behind her, protected by a newly-formed hard covering that glistened with the same green color as the rest of her body.

“Wow! You’re super shiney, miss!” Lola said with a smile.

“Thank you,” the beetle replied, as she placed the last of the new speaker sets on the shelves.

While Lola’s mom and dad were asking a black spider in a maid uniform questions about a new modem, the young pony watched as the beetle woman went to help one of her co-workers lift a large television for one of the customers. As the beetle lifted the other end of the box, her co-worker grew black fur all over his body, and his shoes disappeared, as his toes merged into a single hoof. His hips widened, and his chest grew slightly, and his clothes changed into red dress with black frills as he became female. Her fingers joined together to give her three on each hand. A ropey tail grew through a hole in the back of her skirt, and swung lazily behind her, while a pair of large horns grew from the sides of her head, each angled behind her. Her nose turned black and grew much larger, as her face stretched into a long bovine muzzle. The water buffalo woman was suddenly much better able to carry her half of the load, almost leaving her beetle friend behind.

The woman in the couple purchasing the TV, meanwhile, grew black fur as well, though much thicker than the water buffalo’s. She also began to grow much larger, her jeans and shirt quickly weaving together into a blue maid uniform fitting her larger size. Her arms and legs both became wider, while her hands and feet grew paw pads and claws. A short tail just barely poked out the back of her dress, while her nose became wider and wetter, and her teeth sharper. Her face pushed out into an ursine muzzle, while her ears became rounder.

Unknown to anyone present, While the black bear woman and her husband were buying their new TV, her eight year old son, who was busy playing with action figures back at home, began to grow black fur just like his mothers, wearing blue overalls.

Back at the shop, the changes to the workers continued, one gaining a mix of black, brown, and white fur as she became a cute nude mexican wolf, another became sandy-colored vixen maid. A cashier gained white fur on her arms, legs, head, and new, long tail, and black fur on her torso, and a very, very long snout, while her hands and feet alike grew long claws, becoming a busty, nude tamandua anteater. Three men on staff remained unchanged, being fathers.

As if reality was trying to fill in the blanks, the change extended beyond those in the store, reaching out to employees that were off for the weekend, as well. In different apartments and homes nearby, one young man became a cute otter, dressed in nothing but her fur, a woman became a busty, bushy-browed emperor penguin maid, and the manager, a middle aged woman, soon had her clothes changing into a dress with an open back, allowing her new golden pegasus wings to move freely.

While Lola and her parents were checking out, she could see another pair of customers, a boy and his father, in line behind them. The ten-year-old looking boy’s clothes changed into a bright green dress with a white apron, while her skin grew large, whitish-brown scales, interrupted by occasional lines of black scales. A thick tail stuck out the back of her dress as she became a girl. The scales spread down her arms and legs, when they reached her fingers and toes, each digit grew a little claw in place of its old nail. Her hair vanished under her headband, while her face grew forward into a triangular snout. As the former boy opened her mouth to tell her dad how cool this new game she was gonna buy would be, Lola saw, to her surprise, that the new jr. maid had blue tongue! She’d never heard of a blue-tongued lizard before.

When they’d finished up at the electronics store, Lola’s mother suggested they get ice cream before going home. The family stopped by an ice cream stand owned by one of Master’s maids, a tall polar bear, then sat down at one of several benches and tables situated by a large fountain just a short distance away. There was only one other group there so far, a trio of ten year olds, one girl, and two boys, playing a monster-battling card game, but they didn’t start to change yet.

As Lola cheerfully licked at her cone, she saw someone across the street ordering a hamburger from a cow maid at a different stand. As the woman paid for the meal, her body began to swell, her clothes vanishing as blue scales covered her skin. Her arms and legs, and torso all grew thick and round, her feet seeming to be absorbed by her pillar-like legs, with her much larger toes just poking out at the bottom. She seemed to grow at least a foot taller, and then her neck stretched out a good ways after that. Her head stretched forward almost as much as the cow’s had, while a tail almost as long as she was tall stretched behind her. The apatosaurus thanked the cow maid, and walked off with her burger, looking surprisingly adorable for her size.

“Did you see how big she got when she picked up that hamburger?” Lola said, mouth agape.

Her mother glared at her father, who tried to hold back a grin so he could be serious when helping his daughter avoid a faux pas. “Lola, I know that she’s very tall, but when you say it like that, it sounds like you’re calling her fat, which is very rude. It’s a little nicer to say ‘look how tall she is.’”

“Sorry, Daddy,” Lola said. “She’s really tall.”

Lola saw two more families go up to the ice cream stand, and begin changing as well. A mother of two boys grew black feathers, a black beak, and black scales on her feet, as well as a black dress, though her face kept a charming sunny disposition even as she changed into a crow, while at the same time, her sons, one twelve, one ten, became daughters, then lost their clothes, pale yellow fur covering them instead. Each one grew a thin, lengthy tail, while their feet became digitgrade, and grew soft pads on the bottom, their hands gaining similar pads. Their mouths pushed forward into short, triangular snouts, while their ears rounded out. The two mongooses took their ice cream with a smile and a “thank you” and sat down at another table with their mother.

A mother, father, and daughter were next in line, and those that could be changed began to, as they made their order. The four year old daughter became a sweet, gray furred, large-eared mouse in a maid outfit, while her mother’s clothes vanished, a turtle’s shell with three rows of ridges formed around her front and back, though it seemed to leave room for her larger chest (never mind how that was supposed to work). Her skin turned a muddy brown while her hair faded away, and her mouth grew out into a snapping turtle’s beak-like jaw.

As the new family of maids took a seat at one of the tables near the fountain, the group of human children that had been there from the start started to look like the odd ones out. And so, reality began to “correct” the “anomaly.”

The girl looked over her carefully planned and min-maxed deck, not noticing as she grew bright yellow fur over almost every part of her body, with white fur covering the front of her torso, as well as “socks” and “gloves” of white fur on her hands and feet. She didn’t react as her clothes faded into nothingness, and only slightly re-adjusted herself as a bushy yellow tail, tipped in white fur, snaked its way out behind her from the base of her spine. Her feet bent into a digitigrade position as she grew pads and claws on her hands and feet, which didn’t affect her grip on her cards. Even as her ears stretched into a triangular shape, and rose to the top of her head, and her mouth and nose grew into a vulpine muzzle, her determined expression didn’t change.

“I play the drill mod,” the fox said, setting down one of her cards.

Her current opponent, the quiet boy across the table from her, started to look a little worried. As he looked over the options in his deck, his clothes began to shift, the legs of his jeans merging into a single skirt, before his shirt weaved in as well to form an orange dress. The boy read through his card descriptions as off-white fur grew all over his body, showing no awareness of his changes, even as they made her into a girl. Her feet grew longer as leathery pads formed, and her toes curled to look like paws. Her hands gained pads as well, while a short, fluffy cotton-ball of a tail stuck out the back of her dress. Her jaws grew out slightly as her nose turned black, becoming a short snout. As the fur replaced her hair, her ears stretched upwards, then began to flop down as they grew longer and longer, eventually drooping down past her shoulders. The rabbit smiled and picked her next card.

“I use the speed boost mod to evade!”

The second boy, waiting for his turn for a match once his friends were done, had taken to designing a monster card of his own in the meantime (not that the fox would have allowed him to use unofficial cards), barely paying attention to his friend’s battle. He might not have even noticed the changes if he could have, as white scales grew on his chest, and red grew on his back, spreading over his limbs and head from there. His clothes vanished save for a pair of goggles he had wrapped around his head, which he had just been wearing because he thought they looked cool. His brown hair grew longer, practically becoming a mane as he became a girl. Her legs grew a bit thicker, and her toes merged together into three on each foot, which grew claws. A thick, scaly tail grew out behind her, while her fingers grew claws, as well. Her teeth sharpened, more of them growing in as she gained a big T-Rex snout, while her pupils became slits, and her ears shrank to holes in the sides of her head. Her drawing blurred as reality rewrote itself, the red dinosaur like monster she had been drawing as a human boy now changing to a humanoid dragon knight. Her two friends continued their card battle, every bit as oblivious to her transformation as she had been to theirs.

Lola smiled to herself. Master was making so many new friends!

+++

When they had finished up their meal, Curt, Anna, and Vicky headed back to the mansion.

“I’m feeling up for some fun, Master,” Vicky said, as they stepped into the foyar. “What do you say? Tennis, or swimming?”

“Where would we play tennis?” Curt asked.

“The indoor court of course,” Vicky said. “Unless it’s being cleaned right now?"

Curt was getting tired of having to re-learn his home’s layout. Hopefully, after a certain point, the growth of his house would stop, and that money would start moving toward charity, investments, and raises for the maids. “Swimming sounds nice,” He told Vicky, “But I’d like to talk with Skyla about something I remembered while we were having lunch, first. You can go ahead if you like, or whatever else you feel like doing while you wait. I’ll be there in a bit.”

“Okay,” Vicky replied, “I think I might talk with some of the other girls for a bit.”

“Anna, could you come with me, it might be good for you to be there too.”

Anna nodded, and followed him to Skyla’s office. As Curt had hoped, she was in. She would have go over all the new 'additions' appearing, of course.

“Hi Skyla,” Curt said. “How have you been this morning?”

“Just fine, Master!” She said with a smile, giving Curt a hug and a kiss. Anna was a little surprised to see that, but kept quiet for now. “I’ve been looking over our list of maids most of the morning. Looks like several of our staff have been promoted, and some have been retroactively made to have been working here for years, now. For instance, Janet’s now the head chef, and Kitty is our head groundskeeper. It makes my job a little more manageable, not having to be directly in change of over two hundred maids. So, enjoy your time with Vicky?”

“Wait, you knew about that?”

Both Skyla and Anna looked confused. “Well, of course. Hanging out with her after church has been a weekly tradition of yours since we got out of college. You’d even brought me and Marceline, well, Mark, along every now and then before we changed.”

“Okay, hold on!” Curt said. “There’s a lot I want to talk to you guys about, but first things first. Anna, how do you and Vicky know each other so well?”

Anna gave him a puzzled look that had him worried. “We’ve been friends since I was old enough to talk. It’d be weirder if I didn’t know her.”

“That can’t be possible,” Curt said, a hint of panic in his voice.

“Why not?” Skyla asked him. “You and her have been friends since kindergarten. You were always hanging out with each other. She’s even part of the reason I made my fursona a fox. Well, before upgrading to a kitsune.”

“That’s wrong!” Curt cried. “Neither of you should remember her like that beyond the past week!”

“But why?” Anna asked.

“‘Why?’ Didn’t I already tell both of you that the mailman was the first person I changed, back on the first day?”

Both Anna and Skyla’s jaws dropped.

“Wait…” Skyla said, “You were talking about VICKY when you said that?”

“Yes!” Curt said, exasperated. “She was the first in the line at the ‘maid inspection’ you had set up. Surely that should have been a clue.”

Anna frowned. “I… I really only remember her being a fox girl. I remember her being your friend, for as long as I’ve been alive, and seeing pictures of you playing together before I was even born.” She paused. “Does this mean we’re forgetting how things used to be, too? I mean, I don’t remember anyone else being an anthro before we found the gun, but if I knew the truth about Vicky yesterday, but had these new memories replace the old ones today, it’s not like I’d be able to tell anything had changed.”

“Yeah… That’s worrying me too.” Curt said.

“I’ll be honest Master,” Skyla said, “I remember Vicky always being a friend of yours too. And what’s more, when you explained to me that Anna used to be human, and disabled, I couldn’t remember her being that way. I still believed you though, because you had already changed me, so it didn’t seem too far-fetched. I guess I should have realized Vicky was the mailman you were talking about too, but when she’d been that way her whole life, as far as I remember, I just COULD NOT put together that she might not have always been there.”

“Wait…” Anna went quiet. “You say you don’t remember how I looked as a human, right Skyla?”


“Right.”

“But I remember how you looked as a human. And how I looked. And I was changed earlier than you. If this is some delayed effect, I should remember less about the changes than you do. If it’s a full scale reality change, it should be affecting both of us equally.”

“That would make sense, I guess,” Curt said. “So what do you think it is?”

“Well, we can’t test it without being able to make someone else aware of the changes, but I think that even if we’re made aware of the changes, we still won’t remember anyone changed before us as being human.”

Curt breathed a sigh of relief, and Skyla looked less tense, as well. “That seems reasonable,” Curt said, “I’ll test it when it’s safe to use the gun again.” He paused for a moment. “Though now that I think about it, this means that I’m the only person here that DOESN’T remember Vicky and I being friends since childhood. This is gonna be real awkward for us.”

“I can try to help you fill in the blanks where I am able to, Master,” Skyla said.

“Same here,” Anna said. “I want you and Vicky to be able to have the kind of friendship I remember you having.”

“Thanks. Now there’s a couple other things I want to discuss. First, Skyla, did you get my text?”

“The one about more people changing on their own? Yeah. I’m a little disappointed that I can’t be there to see most of them since they’re happening randomly.” Curt gave her a disapproving look. “What? They said nobody else would end up like those college students, so it’s not like anything too bad is gonna happen. Plus, if they’re gonna change either way, there’s no reason to feel guilty about wanting to see them get improved.”

Curt opened his mouth to argue, but stopped. “You know what, fair enough.”

“Yeah... “ Anna said softly. “I just hope it doesn’t end up messing with any more relationships.”

“Any ‘more relationships?’” Curt asked.

Anna realized her mistake. At this point, there was no reason to try and hide it anymore, though. She sighed. “Susan used to be Kitty’s husband. Before I changed her. Now they’re just friends. Good friends, maybe even best friends, but there’s no romance or attraction there now. And now her kids have no father in their lives, either. ”

“Wait, what?” Curt asked. “I thought the gun stopped fathers from being changed.”

“It stops fathers that have had kids from being changed,” Anna corrected. “Susan’s original self was Kitty’s second husband. Suzie and Sea- I mean, Sharon’s father had left Kitty years ago.”

“Oh dear…” Curt mumbled.

“So… That’s why you didn’t want to change Kitty,” Skyla realized.

“Yeah,” Anna said, “it felt wrong to change her if she didn’t want to be, after what I took from them, even if I didn’t mean to.” She sighed. “I didn’t ask anyone we’ve changed, ‘cause it’s none of my business, but it seems like if a person’s attracted to the opposite sex before the change, they’ll be attracted to the sex opposite their new body, after. Probably the same if they’re attracted to the same sex, they’ll still be attracted to people the same sex as their new body.”

Curt gave his sister a hug. “I’m sorry you had to deal with this by yourself.”

“I didn’t want you to feel guilty about it.”

“I appreciate that. But I’m glad you told us eventually. And hopefully, things will eventually work out for the better for Susan and Kitty both,” Curt said. “And speaking of things working out for the better, I think I have an idea for how to fix the blank maids.”

“Blank maids?” Skyla asked. “Oh you mean the ones from the colleges? I guess that’s a fitting name. Sounds kinda like an enemy from a horror game, though.”

“Well, they are kinda creepy,” Anna said.

“The name aside,” Curt said, trying to get things back on track, “After talking to a few maids, especially Vicky, a solution came to me. Those girls have nothing inside them, no personality or desire beyond wanting to make me happy. But, what if they realize that I’d be happier if they thought for themselves, if they found things they could enjoy on their own, if they had friends besides me, if they cared about their families? Well, they may well start working toward that goal on their own. At whatever pace they deem comfortable. Sure they may never be the same people they were before, but, well, people’s interests and personalities change over time anyway. It’s the best we can do for them, I think.”

“That sounds good,” Skyla said. “But how do you plan to actually make them realize that?”

“I haven’t got that down one hundred percent yet, but I’ll give them a message, maybe through an email, maybe as a speech in another ‘inspection,’ telling them I’d be happy if they were able to enjoy time with their friends and family, and find something they could enjoy doing in their free time, including a list of suggestions. I need to ask Silvy what she remembers about the ones she knew, might be painful, but I know she'll want to help them on her own. I’d also like to ask you, Skyla, to try and pair the blank maids with maids with more personality during working hours, when reasonable. Maybe working with ‘imperfect’ maids will cause those ‘imperfections’ to rub off on them.”

“I can do that, Master,” Skyla nodded.

“Good. If either of you two have other ideas you think might help, feel free to mention them to me.”

“Not right now,” Anna said, “but I’ll let you know when I do.”

“Thanks. I’ll start drafting the message later tonight.” Curt paused. “But for now, we were gonna go swimming with Vicky. Might be a good way to unwind, and get our minds off this for a little bit. Would you like to join us?”

Skyla smiled. “Oh, absolutely, Master! Just give me a second to slip into a swimsuit, and I’ll be there!”

+++

Across the street from the mansion, in one house on the corner a woman lived alone, surrounded by… Everything. Every thing she ever owned. Whether it was jewelry, electronics, books, pamphlets, or even food wrappers. Even as everything piled up around her, making it difficult to get from room to room, she didn’t have it in her to get rid of anything. It was all too emotionally valuable! Everything was precious! How could she throw it out?

Sure, her family had stopped visiting. And yes, all the trinkets she kept in her bathtub mean she didn’t get to wash often, which made her unpopular at work, but it’s not like any of those people would have cared about her anyway! She was better off with things that wouldn’t betray her.

As she tried to get an afternoon nap in a bed covered in food and soda stains, with about half of it’s surface area covered in boxes holding nothing but packing peanuts, she suddenly felt a compulsion to stand up. As she did, gray fur began to spread over her torso, traveling down her arms and legs, and around her head, as well. Her stained clothes became spotless, as the changed into a little black dress. From her spine, a long, thin, hairless tail grew, slipping through a hole the back of her skirt. Her hands and feet remained relatively hairless, though they did grow small claws. Finally, her head changed, her ears growing larger and rounder, moving slightly up the side of her head. Her hair became shiny black and curled into a perfect bun. Her jaws extended into a snout, while her teeth sharpened, and whiskers grew at the side of her little cutely twitching nose. The rat maid took a deep breath. “To serve is to live, to live is to serve,” she said. Something about that phase felt incredibly liberating to her, in a strange way.

Reality blurred throughout the house, as hundreds of items were retconned to have been moved to the dump years ago, or sold to those that would have better use for them. Her kitchen held only what she would use, and had nothing kept past its expiration date. Her piles of unread books were now added to the local library’s stock. Her jewelry was in pawn shops, and she no longer felt she needed them to look good. Thousands of pamphlets, wrappers, broken lightbulbs, and other things had now been at the dump and long since forgotten about. Her home was pristine, there was a place for everything, and everything was in its place. Every surface was spotless.

Reality blurred further in her guest room, which in the new reality she had started renting out to make a little extra money for retirement. A guy who had in the previous timeline been living across town in a poorly-kept apartment building, suddenly appeared in the guest room, with most of his sparse belongings moved in with him. He was currently sitting in bed, reading a sci-fi novel about the singularity.

And, now that he was in the area where humans were considered an anomaly at random, reality began to change for him, too. His clothes became a navy blue maid dress with black frilly trim, while his skin was covered in pitch black scales. His hair disappeared, a crest of dull, pointed spines running from the top of his head and down his back taking its place. Her hips widened, and her waist pinched inward while her chest ballooned outward, making her new sex apparent. Her jaws stretched forward into a short snout, while her ears shrank back into the sides of her head. Claws grew from her fingers and toes, and a hole opened in the pack of her dress to allow a thick, scaly tail through.

The marine iguana straightened her posture and kept reading. Reality blurred once again. While her previous self had definitely left the room in a much better condition than it had been two timelines ago, it still wasn’t quite to the standards of a proper maid. What few books she had were set up straight and arranged alphabetically, her clothes were all neatly folded or hung in her closet. Her laptop and desk were free of dust, and the guest bathroom was sparkling clean.

She was so happy to be able to move in with a fellow maid, so close to Master’s mansion. And such a meticulously clean maid at that with a efficiency and precision that was inspiring. She really should have known better than to believe the stereotypes about rats.

+++

Curt came back down to the first floor in his swim trunks, trying to hide his nervousness. Even if all the ladies in the house loved him unconditionally, he couldn’t help but feel a little self conscious, being shirtless while surrounded by so many charming cuties, AND utter bombshells, while his physique was average at best. Anna and Skyla followed behind, the kitsune wearing a black two-piece swimsuit with white ruffles, and a look of utter confidence, in contrast to her Master.

They headed into the parlor, bumping into an almost cartoonishly busty red squirrel along the way.

“Oh! Like, there you are, Master!” The squirrel said. “I, like, found your pen, after you left it out for me.” She held out a gold-colored pen. “I just wanna, like, totally thank you for letting me borrow it! OH! EM! GEE! It was, like, the best present you could give an artist. But like, I know it’ll be super important that you get it back, so, like, here.”

Curt stared at her in confusion for a moment. “Uh… Okay… Thanks…” He said, taking the pen slowly.

“I should be, like, thanking you, Master! Anyway, like, see you, Master. I’m totally looking forward to seeing, like, what works of art you make with that!” The squirrel gave a wink and pointed “finger guns” at Curt before continuing on her way, her breasts bouncing with every step.

Anna and Skyla bore looks of confusion of their own.

“Do you know what she was talking about, Master?” Skyla asked.

“I’m going to be completely honest, and say: no.”

Putting that weirdness aside, they arrived in the parlor, where they saw Vicky chatting with Marceline and a skunk girl. Curt was a little surprised to see Marceline here today, but he vaguely remembered from his look at his contacts this morning that some of the maids from before the kid’s rampage had apparently now moved in, after more reality changes. Marceline must have been one of them.

“Hey guys,” he said. “You ready to go, Vicky?”

“Yeah, I was just finishing up telling them what you told me about the tanuki statue,” Vicky said.

Curt wanted to ask how that had come up in the conversation, but didn’t have time before Marceline spoke up.

“Skyla!” Marceline said, running up to her foxy friend’s face. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a spell that could turn people into statues? I would LOVE to give it a try, even if it’s just for a little while! You could even set me up in the gallery, if Master approves!”

“And I would happily cover for her duties, and keep her clean, as well,” The skunk said with a nod.

“I honestly didn’t know I could do it, myself,” Skyla said. “I was just acting on instinct when that guy threatened Master. I’m still not sure I could do the spell reliably again without some practice.”

Marceline frowned. “I understand.” She paused for a moment, then smiled. “Well, if you need a guinea pig for any kind of transforming spell, I’m your girl!”

“Guinea pig? Wouldn’t that be Bertha?” Vicky joked.

An orange rodent poked her head through one of the doors to the parlor. “I’m a hamster!” She said, before leaving as quickly as she had come.

“Sorry! It was just a joke,” Vicky called to her.

Bertha stuck her head back through the door. “No offense taken.” And left once again.

“I’ll keep that in mind, Marceline,” Skyla said, wondering if her magic might actually be capable of more than statues, and it might be useful to get a handle on it.

Marceline added with a smile, "And I know you Skyla, you won't put some stupid 'ironic'," she used her claws for the quotations, "twist on it, and abuse any wording between us like some stupid sadistic bully."

Skyla felt a bit lighter somehow, hearing the trust Marceline had towards her after learning what Skyla could do, and she HADN'T called her 'Head Maid' Skyla, just Skyla.

“So…” Curt said, “How’d the statue come up in the first place?”

“Oh, Marceline and I noticed a new statue as a decoration in the spa this morning,” the skunk girl explained. “When we brought it up to Vicky, she thought it sounded like the statue you had told her about.”

Curt wondered who would have taken the statue there, but was glad to know where the guy had ended up. Though at this point, he was giving some serious thought to just leaving him there. Like Skyla said, he was no threat to anyone like that, and he was happy of his own free will rather than anything Skyla forced on him (he trusted Skyla not to outright lie to him).

“Thanks,” Curt said, then turned to Vicky, “Now, let's get swimming!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice, Master.” Vicky smiled.

Curt hadn’t gotten a chance to see the pool after yesterday’s events, so he was pleasantly surprised when he opened the door to the back yard, where he saw a large pool and a sizable hot tub just beyond the wooden deck. A handful of jr. maids were playing in the water already, though he only recognize Eva. He could see a kangaroo joey, a monkey, and… a trio of raptors? He knew he shouldn’t have found that too surprising. After all, if the gun could make people into anthros based on creatures that only existed in myth, an extinct creature shouldn’t be off limits, but it excited his dinosaur-obsessed inner-child nonetheless. An orca woman was watching all of the kids carefully from the side of the pool. Sitting next to her was a shark boy reading a stack of comics.

Vicky smiled and ran to the edge before leaping in with a shout of “Cannon ball!” She swam in a small circle, then turned around and motioned toward Curt. “Come on in, Master! The water’s great!”

Curt, Skyla, and Anna smiled, and jumped in with her. The four friends raced each other from one side of the pool to the other, and engaged in splash battles with the jr. maids and each other, and for an hour, felt free to just enjoy themselves.

When the jr. maids had gotten tired of swimming and headed back inside the four moved over to the hot tub to relax.

“Thanks for inviting me, Master,” Skyla said, putting an arm around Curt. “I really needed this after yesterday.”

“I think we all did,” Curt nodded, before leaning over to give the kitsune a kiss, which Skyla happily returned.

Vicky blinked, and said what Anna was thinking. “Master? Are you and Skyla dating?”

Curt blushed. “Oh, yeah, I guess I forgot to tell you guys. Yes, Skyla and I started dating.”

Vicky smiled. “Well, congratulations, Skyla!”

“Did things not work out with Danielle?” Anna asked.

Curt sighed. “Well… I haven’t told her yet… To be honest, I feel kinda bad about it. I mean, we’d only been on two dates so far, and I’d hate to break up with her so soon, but…”

“You know, you don’t HAVE to break up if you don’t want to. I mean, I know I’m living up to a stereotype here, but I’d be happy to share… If she likes ladies too, we could all enjoy each other’s company! If not, well, harems have always been my favorite way to solve a love triangle.”

Vicky couldn’t help but chuckle softly, despite her concern for her Master’s situation. Skyla never changed, it seemed.

“Skyla, I-” Curt started.

“Master, I’ve known you since high school. I know you like to follow your traditions, and I get why you’d be hesitant. but wasn't there that one guy in the Bible who had forty wives?"

"Yeah," Curt said. "That was King Solomon, who was said to be the wisest man on Earth. And it was actually seven hundred wives. And that’s before we start talking about the concubines."

Even Skyla was stunned by that number! "See!” She said, after a brief pause to get herself together again. “The wisest man on Earth understood how great harems can be! And frankly, it looks like if you want to be wise, you’ve got a LOT of catching up to do!"

Curt looked at her for a moment. "But that was also considered one of his first major failings, and the start of his kingdom's decline."

'Drat!' Skyla thought to herself.

"Actually," Vicky spoke up, "It wasn't the choice to have a harem, specifically, that was the issue."

"See!" Skyla smiled. "Nothing wrong with it!"

"It was more that he married foreign women of different religions, who led him astray morally," Vicky continued.

'DRAT!' Thought the now-Japanese-and-possibly-Shinto-practicing-Head-Maid, whose RPs with Curt when they were younger had certainly not always followed Christian morality.

“Don’t worry Skyla,” Curt patted her back, guessing at what she was thinking. “I think we can make this work. Plus, Danielle said she didn’t mind sharing either… Even if I not sure I’d want a ‘harem,’ I can try dating both of you, at least…”

“Thank you, Master!” Skyla kissed him again.

Curt immediately started mentally kicking himself. Not only had he let his emotions get the better of him and rush into romantic relationships twice in the span of a single week, but now, his fear of hurting his friend’s feelings (and, even if he didn’t want to admit it, thinking with his pants more than his brain,) had led to him trying to date both at once! At this rate, he might very well catch up to Solomon!

+++

After some more time chatting, the four got out of the hot tub. Vicky headed home, Anna went to spend some more time with Misty and Ashley, and Skyla got dressed in her usual attire, got back to her paperwork.

Curt, after getting dressed in his room, headed downstairs, in search of a certain set of maids. As he walked down the hall, he heard a bunch of voices chattering in the common room. Turning to peek inside, he saw Luna, the black rabbit maid who had formerly been one of Scott’s co-workers, sitting at a table with about a dozen other maids, including her fellow rabbit co-worker Gabrielle, Simone, Rachel, Kara, Marceline and the skunk maid she had been with earlier, and several maids he didn’t recognize. Hal was sitting a table away, watching curiously, but not participating. Judging by the sound of dice hitting the table, and what bits of chatter he could make out, it sounded like they were playing some kind of tabletop RPG.

“I use the amulet of Midas I found to turn him into gold!” Gabrielle said, dramatically tossing a die.

“Eleven,” Luna said. “Congratulations, you have successfully turned the golem into gold. The writing on its forehead continues to animate it, and it now has a defense buff.”

“Actually,” Kara pointed, being careful not to let her giant claw hit anyone, “Gold is one of the softer metals. If anything, this should drop his defense a little.”

Luna briefly pulled out a rule book. “Well, would you look at that. So it is. It now has five point defense debuff.”

“Well then,” a dark gray wolf said, “I cast fireball at the head!”

Luna looked at the die. “Twenty! You do forty-seven damage, and the heat makes the metal even more malleable, lowering its defense another three points.”

“I use Brutal Overhead on the golem!” A nude otter said, rolling a die. “Eight.”

“Let’s see, with the defense debuff, and the previous damage…” Luna paused as she did some mental math. “You fell the golem, and it crashes to the ground, breaking into big golden chunks.”

“As team princess, I declare a 30% tax on all gold loot,” Simone said. The other maids laughed. “I’m serious!” the dragoness pouted.

Curt smiled. It was nice to see ‘his’ maids having fun together. While a part of him worried that their new duties and priorities might have gotten in the way of friendships they may have had in the old timelines, if they had new friends in this one, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? Nothing wrong with focusing on the positives, for a change.

“Excuse me, Master,” came a cute voice from behind him. Curt turned around to see a green and yellow gecko woman with large, adorable eyes, holding multiple pizza boxes. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I need to step through.”

“Oh, my bad! Sorry!” Curt stepped into the common room to let the pizza delivery girl through. As he did, the maids at the table finally noticed him.

“Oh! Master!” Luna smiled brightly. “Did you come to join our weekly game? You might be a little late in the dungeon, but I’m sure you can see you’re just in time for pizza!”

“Yeah, we’d love to have you join in!” The gecko girl said, setting her pizzas at the table before taking a seat herself and taking off her delivery cap. Maybe her work shift was up?

“I’d love to,” Curt said, “but I’ve got some work to do.”

“Oh, one of us can take care of it!” Rachel said, “No reason for you to feel left out in your own house.”

“Thank you for the offer. But while I appreciate the thought, this is something I need to tend to myself. Plus, you all were clearly having a good time. I don’t want to make one of you miss out, either.”

“If you say so, Master,” the skunk girl said.

“Well, we have these little sessions every Sunday,” Luna said. “If you want to join in, we’ll always have a spot open for you, Master.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind,” Curt said, “I hope you all have a great time!”

Just as he turned around to leave, he felt a tug on his sleeve. Looking back, he saw Simone, flying to get at eye level. “Master!” She said, “Don’t forget, my Violin performance is tomorrow! You are coming, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, I’ve made time,” Curt chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll do great out there.”

“Thank you, Master. I’m gonna do my best for you!”

“Thanks,” Curt said. “See you then.”

“See you, Master,” Simone said, flying back to her seat.

Curt sighed as he walked away. He honestly did wish he could play with them. But he had more important issues to worry about. He pulled out the gold pen, and a pair of notebooks, one with a the first draft of his message, and another for taking notes. He was going to spend the evening watching the blank maids. Observing how they approached their work, seeing how they spoke with regular maids, with him, and with each other, discovering what they did when not immediately serving, resting eating, or otherwise taking care of themselves for the purpose of better serving him later. He had to find out “what made them tick,” if he hoped to find a way to build their individuality again, without making them into zombies just going through the motions.

It was gonna be a long night.

What do you do now?

• Let's observe further changes in the fallout. A AR BM I S TG added 4 years ago

• Curt's attempts to help the Blank Maids succeeds, better than expected.
• Curt's attempts to help the Blank Maids succeeds... Sort of.
• Curt's attempts to help the Blank Maids fails.
• Visiting Simone's violin performance.
• Skyla's Grandmother is dying.
• Breaking the news to Danielle.
• More maids start to show romantic interest in Curt.
• Skyla practices spells with Marceline.
• Silvey tries to help her old friends on her own.
• That pen's not actually magic, is it?
• Sophie is curious about Master and Head Maid Skyla's odd behavior.

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