"I believe a snake costume will catch Joe's attention," the old man said. "We have quite a variety to choose from, I think you'll find."
He wasn't lying; taking a step into the next aisle revealed reptilian and avian costumes. Among the snake suits alone, she saw a variety of colors, even one with rainbow stripes. There were suits with hoods, fangs, or rattles, one made of latex, and another that had four arms. All of them had human-shaped upper-bodies, with serpentine heads, but had a thick tail instead of legs. But Anna had a little trouble focusing on any of them due to the uncomfortable thoughts running through her head.
'Joe can't really be a furry, can he? He's can't be one of those weirdos... But this old man here knew my name, and his, before I even introduced myself. Maybe he really does have some kind of mind reading powers... And... and I really want Joe to enjoy himself more when we're together. And if he's not telling me what he's really into, then... I guess I'll take a shot in the dark. Yeah. When it turns out he's not into furries, we'll both have a good laugh, and I can return the costume.'
"I'll take... This one!" She reached out, pretty much at random, and grabbed a bright green, yellow-eyed female suit. It had an odd, smooth, leathery feeling in her hand. It's cup sized looked a couple up from hers, but it wasn't like she'd be spending long in it anyway. "So, uh, what's your return policy?"
The old man smiled. "Well, in the off chance that you or Joe Holloway get hit by a cement truck and die before you get to show him the suit, it can be brought back for a full refund, as long as there's no trace of bodily fluids on them. That's a potential health hazard."
Anna grimaced. "That's not what I-"
"Oh I know what you were hoping for." The old man leaned back on his gnarled wooden cane. "If I was wrong, and the costume doesn't catch Joe's attention you are free to return it. But I've never been wrong in my recommendations, m'am. Not once."
He began to hobble his way back to the counter, and, after a moment's hesitation, Anna followed. She set the costume on the counter by the old-fashioned cash-register, which rang up her order with a soft "ding." Despite her best efforts, its tail draped onto the floor.
"Alright, that'll be two-fifty in cash, or three hundred on credit."
"What? That's insane!"
The old man sighed. "Young lady, I've had customers willing to pay eight times as much for a costume half as well crafted as this. And that's before we get to the custom touches I add in, gratis. But if you like, we can discuss alternate currency. I haven't dealt in souls as payment in a few millennia." The old man gave a hearty laugh.
"Ugh, fine." She slapped her credit card down on the counter. "Just get this over with."
"Good decision, young lady. You'd have been ripping yourself off paying in souls. It's been pretty firmly established the last two millennia that the market rate on a soul is at least worth the total GDP of two worlds. Anything lower than that and you're not really making a profit." He gave another chuckle. and looked over her card, then reluctantly brought a chip reader out from below the counter. He inserted the card into it. "All this new tech is too much to keep up with these days. Don't see how anyone manages."
The device printed a receipt, which the shopkeeper placed into a plastic bag along with the costume, followed by a small pamphlet and a little tin.
"What are those?" Anna asked as she looked into her bag.
"Oh, just some instructions for getting the suit on and off. Some customers have a little trouble with it. And a tin with some contact lenses that are popular with this sort of costume. Consider it a freebie. Put it on the costume's eyes before wearing them."
"Thanks, I guess." Anna took her bag, and left.
When she got back to her apartment, Joe hadn't returned from work yet, leaving her with a little time for her to look over her purchase before he got back. She held the suit out in front of her and looked at it with a sigh. How could ANYONE find this appealing? Nontheless, she figured she might as well put it on and give it a try. She first removed the little tin from her bag, and examined the clear, ordinary-looking lenses inside it, perfectly sized to be inserted into the costume's yellow eyes. With a shrug, Anna placed them. The lenses suddenly flashed forcing Anna to closed her eyes for a second. When she opened her eyes again, the suits slit-pupil eyes seemed to have a subtle glow.
Anna found it a little weird, but glowing LED eyes, or whatever was going on there, was probably the least weird part of this. She stripped down, and opened the zipper in the back of the costume. As she stuck her legs into it, she almost found herself hoping Joe was actually into this, if only so that she wasn't getting into a furry costume for nothing. The inside felt comfortable and soft, if nothing else.
She zipped up the costume and turned to look in the mirror. The snout flopped down, the tail was completely unconvincing, clearly being a pair of legs standing awkwardly in a big tube, and it was obvious that her chest didn't exactly fit the costume's nipple-less bust.
'Yeah, no way he'd find this appealing. She reached back to take her costume off, grabbed the zipper and pulled down.
And felt the zipper come clean off her back.
Bringing it in front of her, she stared at it.
'Did it really just come off that easy? 'Two thousand dollars for half this quality,' what a rip.'
She reached back to widen the hole in the back of the costume, but couldn't seem to find it. What's more, she felt the sensation of skin touching skin. Her, smooth, scaly skin touching more of her smooth, scaly skin.
She winced, the costume suddenly feeling a lot tighter, around her waist. Then, almost as soon as that sensation came, it left, replaced by a feeling that she was wearing nothing at all. She gasped, detecting a slight heat, an almost bubbling sensation, as she felt her chest swelling, growing to fill the costume's supple bust. Once it reached the point of feeling tight, it once again felt as if there was nothing covering them at all.
"What the-?" Her words were interrupted as she lost her balance, feeling as if her legs were in a vice, and pressed together until they mashed into a uniform dough. The bones in her calves, thighs, knees, and toes, seemed to merge, then split into dozens of pieces, becoming an extension of her spine, her muscle, fat, arteries, nerves, and all else rearranging themselves to allow her to control the tail that was replacing her legs.
Though for now, she was too busy freaking out to look even slightly controlled. Her tail thrashed every which way as she tried to figure out how to stand herself up again. Her thoughts were a bevy of choice four letter words, interspersed occasionally with denial that this was real, wondering how permanent it was, what sort of drugs the old man laced this costume with, and "JOE BETTER APPRECIATE THIS!"
She panted and gasped as her jaws stretched out, most of her teeth shrinking back to become nearly unnoticeable. Her hair, her ears, even the size of her head in general shrank away as her nose pushed to a point in front of her, and her tongue narrowed, and split at the tip, flicking out every now and then involuntarily.
She hissed as she managed to right herself into a sitting position, looking at herself in the mirror again with disbelief. The green snake girl in the mirror in front of her looked like more than just a costume. She was a living, breathing creature.
A living, breathing creature, with glowing, strangely calming and alluring eyes.
Anna's stress seemed to melt away in her own gaze for a moment, as a unusual sense of calm washed over her.
A knock on the door snapped her out of it, and she shook her head. Someone was at the door. She needed to answer it. Instinctively, she got up, and slithered out of her room without trouble... before remembering she didn't look human.
"No! I can't let anyone see me like this! I need to hide and-" she tried to run back to her room, only to flop onto the floor again.
"OW! How'd I manage to do that slithering thing when I wasn't thinking about it? Ugh..."
The doorbell rang again.
"Who is it?" She responded out of habit, before letting out a quieter "Agh, no!"