Alfred Dormitabis knew the world tended to be more 'fantastic' than most people gave it credit for, but they'd been taught their whole lives what was real, and what was not real, and therefore, anything they encountered that was 'not real' instantly had to be put into a category that made it 'real.'
A person who'd use magic to make themselves a skunk-woman? A furry in a costume.
Someone that was made into an incarnation of Cerberus himself? A very big rabid dog.
People didn't want their precious status quo shattered and would do mental backflip through flaming hoops to protect it.
It was how Alfred Dormitabis was able to sprinkle in some more 'impossible' tricks with hypnosis and people brushing it off as stage magic, and getting free publicity as people invented their own answer for how he did it.
On the one hand, if the person who found it thought it was just some trinket and pocketed it and put it in their drawer never to be seen again, it would save everyone a lot of trouble. But Alfred Dormitabis would be left forever worrying what would happen if someone found it and went mad with the power to have other people's minds and forms as clay for them to mold.
He'd given himself several counter-suggestions over the years, combined with his own broader sense of what was 'real', but there was never a way to cover everything.
If someone did go wild with this power, at least it would be as easy as finding ground zero of an explosion as that kinda person tended to think of themselves as invisible.
Or if it fell into a storm drain and was washed out to the ocean, maybe it would eventually rust away and bother no one again. That being said, Alfred Dormitabis was NOT happy to lose a trinket that was a gift from a very dear friend.
+++
"Well for starters," I said, "I do want to get a couple of my other friends in on this. Shirley and Wallace. But before that... I kinda hoping to payback Melvin Lagold."
Tom looked at me a bit disappointed, "Really? Dude you should just ignore Melvin. The more feedback you give that guy, the more he'll want to make your life miserable. and if you do use the coin to make him do something embarrassing? Guy will just use it as fuel to take it out MORE on you. If you make him forget, sure it's a fun time, but it won't change him bullying you."
"Actually, you know how my big sister is always on my case? I used the coin for her to think about how she felt when being bullied."
"... Okay, can't disagree with you there. But Melvin's problem is his parents are always telling him his family should be bigwigs instead of living in a trailer."
"Okay, true enough."
I'd been once assigned to Melvin to work together on a book report, it had not been a pleasant experience.
Melvin's family had lost most of their fortune after the civil war, then lost the rest of it when the Stock Market crashed. His granddad had fought in world war two, and had died on the beaches, leaving his grandma to raise Melvin's father alone. Who'd ramble to his family on everything they 'should have had.'
"But," I continued. "We can still have some fun with him, and give him an attitude adjustment. And making all our lives easier, including his."
"... Alright, I'll admit, the jerk has been tormenting you for years... just don't do anything, ya know, too nasty to him, remember what I said, or he'll just use it for justification to be a bigger jerk."
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
"Heh, famous last words." Tom got up to walk up the stairs.
I coughed. "Uh, you might want to change back to being human unless you want me to hypnotize every person we meet."
"Oh, right. Revert to normal."
I covered my face. ".. and put some clothes back on."
"Oops. Sorry. The fur is so comfy it completely slipped my mind."
+++
Melvin's trailer park was not a bad place to live really. All things considered. It was Melvin and his family that made me uncomfortable. I was happy Tom had agreed to come along. Maybe we had to engage in some slight lies of omission to his mother, but his dad wasn't around, and she was focused on her shows at the moment so it wasn't like they even needed to use the coin to get out together.
I knocked on the trailer door to find a woman with frizzy hair looking back at me.
"Oh, hello Kyle, who's your friend?"
"I'm Tom, nice to meet you?" Tom responded, Melvin's mother wasn't the cigarette smoking aged beyond her years mess he'd envisioned, she was actually rather pretty.
"And nice to meet you. What brings you here dear?"
"Is uh, Melvin here? There was something new I really needed to show him." I knew Melvin might reject that idea. "Tell him it might help him understand Shelly better."
"... Alright, I'll tell him, please wait here."
Tom whispered, "Okay, that's a low blow. If you didn't have that hypno-coin, Melvin would make your life hades for that one."
"And Melvin knows that too. Which is why it's perfect bait," I said confidently.
Melvin with his mother came to the door, Melvin giving me the stink eye. Melvin had a crush on Shelly at school, and everyone knew it, but Shelly didn't return Melvin's feelings, just one more reason for Melvin to use me as his personal stress ball.
"Hi Melvin, I've got something I wanted to show you and your mom."
I took out the coin and begun to swing it, Tom it turns out had the common sense not to look its way. This did show this was a one time trick, that most people would have the brains not to look if they knew what was coming, I'd have to make sure they didn't.
"Doesn't it look lovely? Absolutely beautiful? The kind of Shelly would like?"
Within seconds both Melvin and his mom were under. From the noise inside, it was safe to say Melvin's dad was watching TV.
"That was a gamble, not knowing if the coin can affect two at once," Tom said still keeping his eyes off the coin.
"It already worked with my mom and sister .. Mrs. Lagold, however your child looks or acts or becomes, you know it's perfectly normal, because you're a mother, and you know that nothing is wrong, because you're smart like that."
"Smart... like that."
"Miss Lagold, you are currently hypnotized, you won't remember anything that happened while hypnotized, but you'll still follow all instruction given while hypnotized including the ones already given, but you're an intelligent woman who can do that."
"Because I'm intelligent..."
"And you won't talk about any changes to your son with others because you're smart enough not to."
"Smart enough not to..."
Now to test a theory I had about Melvin's tastes since I saw his bedroom that one time, and he told me never to speak of it to anyone, or else.
"Now Melvin, you're so cool, nobody has a clue you like catgirl maids."
"You're kidding!" Tom exclaimed, but this meant he was caught in the twinkle of the coin, "Ooh, pretty."
"Yeah... nobody suspects a thing..." Melvin droned.
"Catgirls are so nice, so pretty, so obedient... being one must be so great right Melvin?"
"So... great."
"And you're so great aren't you Melvin?"
"Yeah...I'm great."
"Well then... you must be a cat girl maid, isn't that right? You're great, they're great, catgirl maids are the best, you're the best, it's only logical... Pretty blond fur... little triangle ears on your head... that smooth furry tail behind you... your dainty little claws... standing on the tips of you feet... big blue eyes, a cute muzzle, that line waist of yours, that big bust of yours that you've always dreamed of holding, being a one-percent girl in every day."
As I spoke, Melvin changed, looking like a-big eyed blond humanoid feline, her figure like something from a FurAffection post.
"And since you're a cat girl MAID, you're wearing a nice cute and lovely maid uniform aren't you?"
"Yeah... my uniform..." He, she said, and to my own surprise, clothes actually formed out of her body, stretching and ripping at the clothes he was wearing! Then again, I had turned Tom into a sapient stone statue. Were the clothes a living part of her? Maybe experiment later.
"You're a perfect cat girl maid Melvin, or is that Melvina? Much better name for a cat girl maid, and you're better at everything aren't you Melvina?"
"Yeah, better at everything."
"And you remember what a perfect cat girl maid is. She's loyal, she's obedient, she's dutiful, she's subservient, her master's needs and wants always come first... and since you're listening to me so much, like a good cat girl maid... that must make me your master right?"
"Yeah... that... that makes sense..." The blondie cat girl said, still in a daze. "Master."
"Now Melvina, people might not understand you're now a cat girl maid, but that's okay, because, whenever you look someone in the eyes, they'll understand that you being a catgirl maid is perfectly normal, and that me being your Master is perfect normal, and there is nothing wrong with either of those things, it isn't even worth discussing."
"Not even worth discussing..."
"Now when I count to three, you'll wake up, and everything will be fine. One... two... three."
Tom, Mrs. Lagold, and Melvina all blinked.
"Hello Master, welcome to my humble home, I must apologize deeply for it being in such a substandard state for your visit!" Melvina said at once bowing, still wearing the torn and stretched remains of her clothes over her maid uniform.
"Wow, talk about a major overhaul," Tom said in awe at the power of the coin. Not sure if to be afraid of what I could do with that thing, or admire my restraint in not doing the same to him.
"Is there anything I can do for you Master?" Melvina asked looking up, meeting me and Tom in the eyes.
It was then we both realized, I'd forgotten to included a sub-clause about me, Tom, or ny friends not being affected by Melvina's gaze... But that was fine, it was natural and right for Melvina to be a catgirl maid, just like it was natural and right for me to be her Master, nothing was wrong, and nothing needed fixing.
"Come along Melvina, no, first said goodbye to your father, then come along, I'm going to have my friends over, and I want my place spic and span for them."
"As you command Master, I shall obey," Melvina said, going inside, taking a moment to shed and toss the clothes she'd been wearing over her uniform in the trash, one eye-to-eye conversation with her father later, Melvina followed us home.
People seeing her thought 'nice costume' or, if they glared at her, they drew her gaze, then all was right with the world.