Claudia took a deep breath before she rose up, brushing a few strands of messy hair, a mix of brown and bronze in color, back behind one ear. "My name is Claudia Kent, and... I have a transsssssformation addiction." The hissing noise as she stressed the s sound was a nice fit to her slitted eyes, her forked tongue, the fangs descending from her top row of teeth - and most importantly, the bronze scales that started at her hips and traveled all the way down the extremely long snake's tale she had in place of legs. It coiled around her chair, the end twitching slightly as the group of people gathered around the naga greeted her unison, their own various human and inhuman states giving her own bizarre appearance a run for her money.
It did feel good, at least, saying the words out loud. Finally admitting she had a problem. She glanced over to an ebony-skinned woman decked out in business casual attire and stylish glasses, who nodded for the naga to continue. It was kind of funny - ever since signing up for this group, she'd been reherasing the explanation she would give over and over in her head, contemplating exactly how to tell everyone the circumstances that led to her current location and physical state. Yet when the time had finally arrived to deliver her carefully-crafted speech, she was anxious, sweating a bit, needing a second to rub the scaly back of her neck before she could start telling all the others what had happened to her.
"I uh.. m-my neighbor, acrosssssss the hall in my complex... I found out... well, sssssshe wasssss a witch." She'd been stuck like this long enough to give up on suppressing the drawn-out S sounds. "I kept her ssssssssecret, and we became friendsssss... and... a bit more..." She blushed, and a few smiles and similiar blushes spread through the circle of people around her. It wasn't exactly a secret, for those like this dozen or so people, that being around a witch tended to make most women rapidly reconsider their sexuality if they weren't already attracted to their same gender. Something about that being a common thing, not just her own little late 30s crisi, was oddly reassuring. Which was the whole point - it wasnt just her.
That in mind, she was able to swallow down her nervousness and continue. "Sssssshe casssssst a ssssspell on me, once, to add more massssss to..." She gestured subtly to her chest. "It felt very nice. Sssssssso I asssssked her to make other changessssss.... and thossssssse felt nice too... and that'ssssss how it sssssssstarted. I kept getting her to change me, jussssssssst temporary transsssssssformationssssss... and pretty sssssssoon, it wassssss all I thought about." Shame flooded her tone. "When ssssssshe cut me off... I... I needed more, sssssssso I... sssssssstole a potion from her. But... it wasssssss a permanent one...."
Her shoulders slumped. "Ssssssshe gave me a glamour sssssssspell, to let me sssssssstil have a life... but.... I'm.... ssssssstuck like thissssss." The naga swallowed audibly. "That wassssss when I knew... I needed help." With a heavy sigh, she sat back down, cheeks burning red at having spilled her guts. It was over, yes, and that was good - but it was impossible not to wonder how much the others were judging her. How they might be looking down on her for stealing from a friend, for letting her weakness drive her to betray the trust of someone who had only ever cared about her and wanted the best for her.
Luckily, Candance, the dark-skinned woman in the glasses, had zero judgement to offer. Quite the opposite, in fact. "It's a hard thing, admitting that you hurt someone close to you. It's even harder to truly accept responsibility, without any excuses or trying to shift the blame elsewhere." She smiled warmly. "You should be proud, Claudia - and all the rest of you should be proud that yo had the coruage to come here tonight, to admit that you have problems, and to start trying to fix it."
The witch certainly was good at offering encouraging words, that much was certain. She'd organized this entire thing, in fact. With the veil of secrecy that surrounded magic and witchcraft in the modern day, people like Claudia who suffered from mystical maladies, or simple depenencies on the occult or supernatural, couldn't readily find resources for dealing with their problems and addictions. Candace was trying her best to change that, having gathered together groups of people who'd been hooked on the paranormal in some way; tonight's support group was for transformation addicts, but she ran sessions for everything from people addicted to magical drugs to those who'd been traumatized by were-creature attacks, and everything in-between.
She scanned the dozen or so people sitting in a circle with her, giving each one a gentle, reassuring gaze in turn. "Who'd like to go next?" she asked, taking a moment and giving everyone a solid opportunity to consider whether or not tey wanted to go - and to gather up their courage before going up before a whole bunch of people to admit the screwups that had led them to this group.