“Mom?” Jane stammered, looking at the three rubber cat maids standing where her family once had. “Dad? Lola? Wha-, what happened to you guys?”
“We turned into perfect, living rubber catgirl maids,” the purple one said. “And realized that you were our new mistress.”
“So from now on,” said the Magenta one, “our number one priority is serving you, Mistress.”
“I…” Jane’s faces twisted into mixture of confusion and disbelief. “Uh… I get that, I mean… how? Why?”
“We don’t know,” the shorter, violet one said, “Except that a magic blast was involved. Would you like us to try to find out more?”
Jane thought for a moment. “Will that help turn you guys back to normal?”
“No,” said the purple one. “I’m not sure how I know, but I feel pretty sure there’s no way to go back.”
“You… can’t?” Jane’s voice broke. “But… but I want my family!”
The little violet one hugged her. “Oh Jane,” it said. “Just because we’re your maids now doesn’t mean we’re not your family too. I’m still Lola.”
“And I’m still your mother,” said the purple one, hugging her as well.
“And I’m… well, I WAS your father, but that’s not quite the right term now…” The magenta one hugged her. “But I still love you the same anyway.”
“Uh, okay… Jane said, pushing them away slightly, not knowing how to feel about the rubber things in front of her claiming to still be who they were, despite also calling her “Mistress.” “But you guys still need to be normal again! People are gonna freak out at seeing you.”
“Has anybody freaked out so far?” Her former father asked.
Jane looked across the street, only just now remembering that all this had been in public, just outside their apartment. Sure enough, most of the people walking by on the other side of the road seemed completely disinterested in the rubber maids around her. Or the other ones wandering the streets with a confused look on their painted-on faces, which she hadn’t seen up to this point. How many people had this happened to?
She sighed. She didn’t have time to worry about that, she had enough problems trying to figure out how to deal with her own family situation.
“Okay,” she conceded. “I guess whatever magic junk is going on makes nobody but me think something’s wrong. Okay. Sure. We’ll go with that.” She folded her arms. “So, if fixing you really is impossible, then what are we supposed to do next?”
The three maids looked at each other, then back at Jane.
“That is up to you, Mistress,” said her mother. “While your father and I can continue our jobs, in order to support you, we no longer require food or sleep, and have few health concerns, so we can easily apply for more work, in positions of shifts that make far more money, due to being less bearable by a typical human, if you’d like. And naturally we’ll be happy to help you achieve any other desire you have.”
Jane groaned. This was way too much weirdness to deal with, way too fast. Still, if her family would do almost anything to get her what she wanted, there was a question of what it was that she actually wanted and how, or if, they could her her achieve it. She crossed her arms, and gave it some thought.