Janice met up with Mary again the day after, on a sunny summer Saturday. Her friend had invited her over to her house to hang out, talk about what they'd seen and noticed, changes about themselves and others. Emma was invited as well, so it was their first real gathering in some time, since Emma went to another high school than the two.
Mary was sitting on her office chair, awkwardly shifting her position from time to time. Janice was lying on Mary's bed, knees up, with her right leg crossed over her left. Out of all people, Emma still seemed to be the most comfortable, despite having been vaccinated as well.
"Did you see my dad?" Mary asked, a bit bewildered. "His entire face is starting to change. He lost all of his beard hair over night, not shaved, lost it."
Emma giggled. "Are you serious? Here I was complimenting on his smooth cheeks. He's hot, you know?"
"Christ Emma!" Janice exclaimed, "You don't say that about somebody's dad. That's so weird."
"Uh huh? And when it's my brother, it's fine?"
Mary just shrugged. "You do you, Emma. Just don't blame us in the future when we accuse you of having daddy issues."
She and Janice burst into laughter while Mary struggled, then failed to come up with a retort.
"How about your mom, Mary?" Emma started, changing the subject from her downfall to something else. "She suffer any noticeable changes?"
Mary shrugged. "Nothing I noticed. I came down stares for breakfast. She just awkwardly smiled at me and then said she was headed out for work. She's probably still trying to discover what happened to her."
Emma turned to Janice with a smile. "What do you think Jen?"
She just shrugged. "No idea. I'm just hoping nothing too obvious for her. If your father's face really is changing, Mary, it can cost him."
Mary and Emma nodded. Then Emma continued: "That's kind of a problem. The most obvious changes are usually the ones with the most drastic consequences. What do you think he's turning into?"
"An elf!" Mary said, lifting a finger up, shifting on her chair again. "Most definitely an elf. His entire face is smoother and I think his ears got pointier too."
"Isn't that kind of plausible though?" Janice asked. "That's literally some fantasy creature our own brains thought of themselves. You really think a virus can create that themselves?"
"Well, you said it yourself yesterday Jen," Mary answered for her, "with the thing being lab-made and all, you can't deny there were human minds behind it. Maybe the elvish appearance was programmed into it someway, albeit randomly."
"In some way, that sounds kind of exciting." Emma said with a grin. Mary and Janice looked at her with difficult faces.
Emma shook her head. "I didn't mean it like that guys. I mean... some changes aren't fun. But some really get lucky. If he's turning into an elf, what more effects does that have for him? Will he age slower than the rest of us? Or will he still look as cool as he does now in fifty years at least? Come on, name more traits elves have that seem better than us mere humans?"
"You sound like a geek Emma," Mary insulted.
"A mad scientist, really," Janice filled in.
"Oh shush, you two." Emma laughed it off.
"Fine, but I don't think dad will turn out that way," Mary continued. "From what I saw, the rest of him didn't change. Just his face. Smoother and longer. His ears are slightly pointier, but he doesn't have those 'LOT-R' type bright blue, hazel or green eyes."
Emma snorted, "what if he suddenly reveals a massive scar on his cheekbone?"
"Ha!" Mary, in a low voice, started, "look at what you did to me, that one time you drew your nail into my cheekbone." Then with a normal voice again, "Nah. If that were the case, he would be able to do magic, but he hasn't shown any of that."
Mary picked at her leggings for a moment, as an awkward silence began. Janice tucked away some of her curly brown hair behind her ears and sat right up onto the bed, cross-legged. It made some space for Emma, and she came to sit beside her.
Mary pursed her lips after a bout of awkwardness. "So... any of you know anybody who grew a tail yet?"
"Is that included in the package too?" Janice asked. "I haven't, myself. Though Adam is constantly bragging about how his hair started growing longer, faster. Does a ponytail count?"
"Hah, nope." Emma jumped in. "You think it'll fit him?"
Janice shrugged. "Congratulations, you grew longer hair. Now you can still cut it off, and you look perfectly the same. At least he didn't grow fur all over his body. I heard those were some of the most drastic mutations."
"Mine are lumps," Emma confessed.
"Lumps?" Mary asked, then grinned. "Where?"
Emma grinned back. "At my ribs."
Mary gasped. "Really? I was just joking you know."
Her friend pouted. "Well, it's at my ribs, just not the place you'd predict them to be. They're more to my sides really, but still in the same region." Emma lifted her shirt up to just underneath where her bra started, and yes, Janice noticed, there were lumps.
"Mom plans to get me to the hospital in a couple of weeks to get them removed. If they're really only lumps that is."
"I dunno," Janice said, leaning in closer to get a better look. "They look awfully symmetrical to me."
Mary stood up from her office chair to get a better look as well, picking at her leggings and panties underneath as she did so, trying to remove a wedgie.
"Eww," she said, with an expression of disgust. "All weird and bumpy. Look," she said, as she pointed a finger at Emma's mid reef, "even the lumps have lumps."
"Yeah," Janice added, "on both sides. Lumps on lumps, Emma."
"Really?" Emma looked curious.
"Yeah, had you not taken a close look at least?" Janice asked.
"No, I just thought they were random lumps. Everybody's changing, how bad is a couple of lumps?"
"Are they still growing?"
"Maybe? At most very slowly."
"Look. More lumps." Mary said, pinching the skin below Emma's breasts between two of her fingers."
"Eep!" Was the response. "Wai- wait, are you serious?" Emma asked fearfully.
Janice gasped, and brought her hands to her mouth, trying not to smile. She considered it immature. Schadenfreude considering such serious topics was never a good idea. Besides, it wasn't like she had any right of speaking.
"I think I know what they are Ems," Janice said, and a suppressed giggle followed.
"What are they?" Emma asked with wary eyes.
"Arms. And boobs. Arms and boobs."
"Wait, did I just pinch her nipple then?" Mary asked, blushing.
"Mary! This is serious." Emma exclaimed. "But it felt like it?" She continued, almost as if not sure.
A long silence fell again.
_____
"Well, at least you weren't the only one who changed? And it's nothing too drastic, I think." Janice stated, breaking the long pause between two conversations.
Emma nodded, still feeling slightly downtrodden. Her friends had been comforting her for a couple of minutes, after it became too much for her emotionally.
"I could probably still hide them." She suggested. "Clothes like large hoodies would work, right?"
Mary and Janice looked at their friend's perky chest, wondering what the future would bring her, then slowly shook their heads in sync.
"And if you couldn't," Janice began, "would it matter?"
"That's right." Mary said. "Everybody's changing. Having two arms is probably not the most uncommon thing either. Did you see that messed up picture of that woman who kept on sprouting legs the more she ate? For one, she was insatiable, and she became something like a centipede in the process."
Emma moaned.
Janice patted her back and held her arm. "There, there. Calm down. That was somebody who suffered from the mutations before they found a cure. What Mary meant with that is that you're probably, very likely, not the only one who will grow a second set of arms and boobs."
"I think I'm jealous," Mary said. "Here you are, growing two more milk tanks, and then there's me with an itchy vagina."
Janice looked up at her. "You two?" She asked.
Mary looked shocked for a second, then recovered. "Why would you look at that, Emma. A set of mutation twins. Two itchy pussies."
The three friends shared a laugh together.
"So what exactly, is happening to your..." Emma blushed, "crotches?"
"They itch," Mary said, "like a madman. All over the place." She brought a hand to her crotch and scratched.
"Well, not that bad for me at least." Janice corrected. "Only in one place, like... here." She spread her legs slightly and pointed at her nub of pleasure, her clit. Mary and Emma both ogled at her suggestive pose, until she shut her legs again and sat upright on Mary's bed.
"Lucky you, Jen. It just doesn't stop for me. As soon as the fabric of my panties get stuck in between my lips, the itch worsens tenfold, almost as if burning." Mary was talking smoothly about her intimate regions, but her blush was fierce, and clearly she was uncomfortable talking about it to them.
Janice smiled. "Patience girl. Let's hope for nothing to bad in our case."
Mary hummed in agreement, then stood up from her chair and jumped a couple of times. Her hand in her jeans, she attempted to remove the fabric from her labia again. Emma and Janice pretended to ignore it.
Janice stretched out her arms, groaning. Talking like this relieved her. Especially the conversation about Mary's mutation calmed her down. Twitching the muscles in her groan, she found that the new presence had made itself known a little more. Her dark jeans made for nice cover though, and it wasn't like her clitoris had grown that much that day. The sensitivity had decreased drastically though, to her minor disappointment.
But, she guessed, every change had its own perks and disadvantages. Emma's was especially perky, from the looks of it.
"Hey, you guys," her friend seated next to her on the bed started, "I'm glad that you were so open in sharing this with me. However embarrassing it might be, it's comforting too."
Mary hummed in agreement again. Janice smiled kindly at Emma.
Her friend grinned. "How about we do a sleepover again? See how the changes ensue? I'm kind of curious now, really."
Emma received two groans in return.
"What d'ya wanna do with it Ems? Write an essay about it?" Mary asked. "The changes themselves are messed up to begin with. I'm not going to describe my experiences to you in full detail darling."
"I second that," Janice said.
"Fine, jeez. Just think about the sleepover. Last time has been ages ago already-"
"Two weeks," Mary interrupted.
"-and I thought, since we're all on the same ship here, we would feel more better going down the drain together, rather than suffer these messed up mutations on our own. What about it?"
Janice thought about it, and weighed off her options.
"You're not wrong." Mary said, "but what about your parents? They're not there if you suddenly start changing into something you never were."
Emma grinned. "We can record the changes?" She offered.
Janice held up a hand. "Okay, let's not to that, for the same reason as with the essay argument Mary brought up. However, a sleep-over doesn't sound like a bad idea. But only if my mum is okay with it."
Emma nodded. "I'm in too, but only if my parents are as well."
Mary laughed. "Who are you to decide you get to sleep over at my place?"
"Shut up you, my house is not even a block away. Grab your pajamas and off you go."
"Same goes for my house," Janice added with a sly grin.
"Stop!" Mary exclaimed. "I didn't want to chase you away. I agree with it as well. Just... go ask your parents first, please."