Kat sauntered up to the tank, turning to face the crowd while sipping her drink.
"Well, now, Dan, did my eyes deceive me or are you now officially bought and paid for...?"
Dan waved his now freed claws - the bands had been far too stretched and had fallen off as his claws shrank.
"You did that! You told him to do it!"
"Well, strictly speaking, I told him to calculate his tip based on it. But yes, I did. And you know what?"
"What?" Dan asked with feigned heat in his voice - his tiny lobster heart pounding, no longer in his chest but in his back as his organs subtly rearranged.
"You're not going to tell Mom I did."
"I will!"
"You won't. That's not even a threat, really. It's just a statement of fact. You won't tell her, because then I'd have to defend myself by telling her the truth. The *whole* truth, about your fantasies of being served with butter..."
Dan swallowed hard.
"O...ok...I won't tell."
"No, can't have Mom and Dad know you're a weird little sex freak who wants to be eaten."
Dan felt the words, spoken calmly and matter-of-factly, fall on him like a lash. He nodded.
Or, rather, tried to.
His neck felt stiff. He tried to turn and look, but couldn't manage it.
"Kat, Kat I can't turn my head!"
Kat turned to look back, and nodded.
"Yeah, it looks like your carapace is finishing up. Lobsters don't really have necks, so obviously you don't have a neck. Because you're a what, Daniel...?"
Daniel gulped.
"I'm...I'm a lobster."
"A perfectly normal lobster."
"...yes..." he said, trying not to think about how arousing that felt. How humiliating, either.
"You should probably get ready for the next bit, if you've lost your ability to turn your head, I bet your movable eyes are next. You won't be able to see like a human anymore."
"Wait, how do lobster eyes work?" Dan said, already feeling a weird pressure behind his eyes, his vision growing strangely blurry.
"By reflection, I think - I know they studied lobster eyes to build x-ray machines back in the day, but basically you won't be able to see color, or most details, just movement."
True to her word, colors were slowly washing out before him. He felt like he was losing something major, and of course he was.
His distress must have shown, because Kat relented a bit. She turned back to face him and spoke soothingly.
"Shh, it's ok, little brother. Your birthright as a lobster, right? Isn't it cool, to see this way? Don't you enjoy it? Your eyes are growing little stalks, you can see in 180-degree vision. Tell me that's not at least a little cool."
Dan had to admit it was, as the details of his sister's face began to blur. She was becoming a shape at the edge of his vision, but that vision was widening considerably. As his compound eyes fully extended on their new stalks, he could see the entire length of the tank.
"...it's...it's so cool..."
Another blur joined his sister-blur. His mother's voice was barely audible.
"He's looking nearly done, maybe I should take him home."
"Ok, sure," said Kat, "But hear me out. Gimme a sec to patch him in...there," she added as their voices became crystal clear to Dan.
"Thank you Kat, that's very well done," his mother said with obvious pride. Dan had to admit he was more than a little impressed with Kat's control of her powers too.
"Right, so like I said: what if we *don't* take Dan home?"
"Katrin! I was just getting used to you two getting along-"
"No no no! Listen! Dan, you're still learning how to be a lobster. It's gonna take you a long while to do it, probably more than one time as a lobster to really get the feel of it. But you'd learn a lot faster if you really experienced lobster life, right?"
"I...guess?"
"Kat, that isn't the point! When we leave the spell will break and the staff will forget he's not just a normal lobster!"
"Which is the point, he'll fully experience lobster-dom. He'll be perfectly safe! Look, my party is here tomorrow. I can come in early to help with the setup, turn him back, he'll be fine."
"Unless he's-"
"No, even then," Kat interrupted her mother, "he'll respawn back in his room. I can even put a minor enchantment on him so that no one thinks to select him from the tank, just in case."
There was a pause, and his mother sounded mildly dubious.
"That's an awfully delicate spell for your level..."
"I'll put it on now, and you can double-check it."
Dan heard Gwen tap her foot a few times, then her blur moved.
"Dan, honey, are you ok with this?"
He could no longer see his sister's face, but he knew the look she was giving him. He was NOT ok, he wanted to go home, even if it was into a tank there, just not HERE...but if he said anything, Kat would reveal his filthy little secret...
"...Yeah. Yeah, I need to, er, spend more time with these lobsters."
He felt a pressure then in his upper lip, as two more antennae began to sprout, longer ones that soon ran the length of his body. All that was left of the human Dan was a bit of human skin and his mouth.
"Oh, very well Dan...I admit you're making a very handsome lobster. Alright, Kat, try your spell."
"Yay!"
Dan saw the Kat-blur move slightly, and felt the weird tingle of magic.
"Good, good, balance it out..." he heard his mother say.
"I've got it," Kat said with confidence. He felt the tingle fade instantly. His mother made an approving noise.
"It seems you do. Very well...Dan, your father and I are heading home. Remember, honey, if you need me, AT ALL, I can hear you cry from anywhere. You're not alone, understand?"
"Yes'm..."
"Good boy, so brave. Alright, Kat, here's my credit card, go settle up the bill. I expect you to be home at a reasonable hour, young lady..."
"Yes, Mom, don't worry."
Dan watched his mother's shape move beyond sight. His sister's blob leaned down suddenly.
"Be right back, I'm off to pay the tab, with you on it. Although part of me thinks I should change that since you're not leaving, just staying there in that tank, just like a lobster..." she ended with a giggle, walking away.
While she was gone, Dan felt a tingling in his mouth. With dread and anticipation he knew his mandibles would soon come in, and with them the loss of human speech - of humanity itself, really. Before he had time to reflect on that there was another blob, but his sister's voice told him it was the same blob.
"Ok, some other minor tweaks to make...oh, your mouth!"
Dan felt his new mouthparts slowly growing out, his tongue and teeth shifting into mandibles. He was now fully a lobster, indistinguishable from the others in the tank, but for his unbanded claws.
"That's it, I...I can't talk!"
"No, you can't talk, but I'm keyed into your thoughts. I did tell Mom I'd look after you, duh."
"Oh...thanks. So, minor tweaks...?"
"Oh yes. So this is an afternoon party, and you can therefore look forward to spending the entire night being on display, just like all the other lobsters."
Dan shuddered, and she continued.
"...which is why the first tweak is going to be removing that spell I just put on for Mom's benefit."
"Wait, WHAT?!"
"You heard me, Dan. People will see you just like all the other lobsters...maybe they'll order you. Maybe they won't. These lobsters don't know whether they'll be picked or not, and neither will you. Here in just a moment, a waiter will come out, under a very minor compulsion by me to think it's not out of the ordinary that a new lobster just appears in the tank. You're inventory until tomorrow, brother dear...and you love it."
"N-no!"
"Yes! Don't bother denying it. I can see the way your thoughts are running. Which leads me to the other minor tweak: now this one's a doozy. You won't die when cooked. The pain will numb until it's bearble, and then you won't fully detach from the body until someone eats you. You'll feel that butter oozing down your meat, and the last image you have will be of a mouth closing around the last morsel of you before you respawn."
"Oh...Oh God..."
"Oh, it's gonna be so much fun. Well, later Dan! See you tomorrow!" she said with a farewell tap on the glass, and then her blur was gone.
Dan sat there, shocked. He wasn't human anymore at all.
He was dinner.