“So, how does it feel being your true self?” Happy asked Wanda.
Wanda scratched her chin, as she contemplated how to answer. “It's hard to explain, like a feeling of perfect inner contentment. Just… knowing that this is the form I was always meant to be. I’m absolutely confident that there's nothing I’d ever want to change about this body.”
“Wow, that’s so cool. Let's hope that the others will react the same way.”
This was the moment Happy learned that even reptile pupils can shrink down to pinpricks. “Crap! People will never accept me like this! They'll all be screaming and running away when seeing a snake woman like me! All the inner contentment is gone now!”
“Come on, I’m certain it won't be this bad. People are accepting more genders with each day, why not add snakes to it too?” Happy put her arm around Wanda to cheer her up. She had never touched a reptile before, so it was an interesting experience.
“I was already asked if I’m into vore even before I went full naga…” Wanda countered.
Happy imagined an anime-sized drop of sweat appearing on her own forehead. “That was then, now is now. You were transformed by a magic glass ball, maybe their impression of you changed as well. Maybe they believe now you’ve always been that way. Maybe more people will accept you, if you throw in more coins. Oh! Or imagine, because you accepted your true self the others automatically will do so, too. Ain't that poetic?”
“That doesn't sound realistic, even for a magic orb. Also, nothing changed for you and Phoebe, or the others, when I first changed,” Wanda pointed out.
“Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyybeeeeeeeeee… I know! It didn't affect us because we were present and actually saw you transform.”
“That's still a bit of a stretch.”
“Come on… You know what, there won't be any jokes once everyone used the ball and transformed. You can't tell me Lidia won't turn into something freaky. We have seen the stuff she hides under her bed,” Happy joked.
“Do you think that would be a good idea? I can imagine not everyone being so immediately accepting of what their true form might be.” Wanda awkwardly shuffled her tail on the floor.
Happy just waved her off. “Pshaw, everything will be fine. Let Phoebe and me go ahead as an example and the others will surely follow. What do you say, Pheebs?”
Phoebe jumped slightly when the attention suddenly shifted back to her. She awkwardly crossed her arms behind her back, as she turned to the two girls that had forgotten about her till now. Her usual confidence had mysteriously disappeared. “Oh, uhm, I’m not sure. Maybe we should spend some more time thinking about it and come up with ways to potentially hide it uhh… just in case and let nobody inside for now. I uhh… just remembered I forgot something in my room, I’ll quickly go and get it.” Awkwardly she walked out of the room.
“Do you also feel like something was off about Phoebe?” Wanda asked.
“Nah, probably just one of her phases. She’ll get over it soon,” Happy answered. “In the meantime, how long is your longest skirt?”
~~~~~~~~~~
Once she was out of sight, Phoebe practically ran to her room and locked its door immediately. Then she just stood there and stared down at her arms in shock. At what they had become.
Phoebe considered herself to have far more impulse control than her childhood friend. But seriously, who would be able to resist if they dangled in front of you the key to becoming your true self? So, while Happy and Wanda were lost in their conversation, she sneaked a dime into the crystal ball and threw a look at her supposed true self. She blamed the fact of having less self-control than Happy for once on the fact that she was distracted by a conversation.
At first she saw what she thought was just a reflection of herself, but the closer she looked, the more it looked off. The unnatural reflection of light on the skin, the artificial impression the hair was giving off, the eyes that somehow lacked the shine of life. What Phoebe was staring at was a robot copy of herself.
Except it soon might not be just a copy of her anymore.
Finally she dared to take a good look of her arms, which she had felt change while hiding it from the others. On first look you might mistake them for normal, but on second you might catch how they reflect the light, due to being covered by synthetic instead of natural skin. If you looked closer you might even notice the faint seams. Due to having used a dime, her changes were limited to her arms and only barely went over her elbows, which had turned into black ball-joints, the biggest indication of her roboticized arms. Experimentally she opened and closed her hands. She felt all the cables and servos inside her move to facilitate these actions. There was nothing biological about them anymore.
Phoebe tried her best to keep down a panic attack. She considered herself a logical and rational person, someone who wasn't easily swayed by emotional pulses. It had to become her prime directive to balance out her best friend Happy’s… everything. But was her true self really a robot? A cold, emotionless machine only capable of calculated thoughts?
(She was aware of certain fictional robots being as close to human thought processes as possible, but that fact went overlooked by her for now.)
She certainly wasn't being logical right now. With every biological nerve was she forcing herself to deny the possibility of being a robot. But then why were her fibers sending such wonderful signals through her body every time she moved her arms? Why couldn't she ignore the small voice inside her head telling her that this was what she was meant to be?
Phoebe slapped her face to reboot her brain. Then she rubbed her sore cheeks, because those hands were certainly stronger and harder now. The solution to her dilemma was actually pretty simple. If Happy’s information was correct, then she just had to return the ball to whatever shop her friend got it from and everything would be fine again and over time these experiences would be deleted from her hard drive. It would also help Wanda with her snakey issue. She just had to be quick.
With her next task set, the necessary actions were immediately clear to her. First she put on a set of black opera gloves that were left from the time Happy convinced her to help a cosplay shoot out. They were just long enough to cover the transformed sections of her arms. Thankfully she never threw away anything that might prove useful in the future.
Next she would just need to leave the room, gain possession of the crystal ball and return it before Happy noticed. That was assuming that someone, most likely Happy herself, hadn't already messed with the ball in some way. Phoebe sighed. The calculated odds of nothing having happened in her 11.253 minutes of absence were about 6.849%, generously rounded up. With precise movements she mechanically opened the door.