Esme stopped writing and tapped her pencil on the notepad while she carefully considered her words. "When you put the gloves back on your arms, it reset the countdown timer for the reversion process. This caused the magic to become... confused, for lack of a better term."
Katie looked bewildered. "So, what does that mean? Will my arms and hands ever go back to normal? Is John stuck with... female anatomy?"
Esme sighed and adjusted her glasses. "I believe the changes will revert, but it might take some additional intervention. The magic will require a more precise trigger to initiate the reversion. Simply removing the gloves was no longer enough. We need to find a way to activate the transformation explicitly."
John's frustration grew. "Okay, fine. What do we need to do?"
Esme smiled reassuringly. "Not to worry. I have just the solution. Follow me."
She led them through the racks of clothing, deeper into the store. As they walked, Katie couldn't help but notice that some of the items seemed different from yesterday. The shelves were stocked with an even wilder range of enchanted garments, each seemingly imbued with its own unique allure.
Finally, they arrived in a secluded corner of the store, hidden behind a velvet curtain. Esme gestured toward an ornate dressing room, adorned with mystical symbols and shimmering fabrics. "Inside this dressing room, we can attempt to trigger the reversion. The magic within will help guide us to find the right catalyst."
Katie and John peeked inside the dressing room. There was a mirror, a wooden chair padded using blue fabric with gold embroidery, and several hooks attached to the walls. It looked like a fairly normal dressing room.
Esma motioned toward the dressing room. "Katie, since your transformation is... shall we say 'easier to observe', why don't you go first? This special dressing room was just installed and I haven't had an opportunity to fine tune it yet. I will be honest, there may be some incorrect reversion transformations before we finally get the correct catalyst. However, once we do, it should work reliably from thereon out and also work to revert your boyfriend's change without much effort."
Katie thought for a moment and considered the risks. She held up her hands to look at them and sighed. "Okay, if this is what needs to be done to get these changes undone, I'll do it."
"You don't have to. I'll do it," John offered. "I don't want you to risk yourself for me."
"No, I'll do it." She kissed John. "Wish me luck!"
"Good luck!" replied John with a wave of his hand as Katie stepped into the dressing room.
Esme closed the door to the dressing room. "Okay, please stand in the approximate center of the room. I will trigger the catalyst." Esme ran her fingers along the symbols to the right of the dressing room door. As her fingers moved along the symbols, a gold glow trailed behind on the path where she had touched. The room started to hum with magical energy.
Inside the dressing room, Katie felt a surge of warmth surround her. She closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for the magic to take effect. She could feel a sensation in her arms as if they were being pulled and tugged. When she opened her eyes again, she looked down at her arms. To her dismay, they now appeared as long purple tentacles complete with suckers under one side. She let out a scream.
Esme quickly opened the door and frowned, realizing that her magical dressing room was being unusually temperamental. "I apologize. I'll adjust the settings and try again." She closed the door and ran her finger in a different pattern along the symbols.
Katie reluctantly stepped back into the dressing room. The magic hummed once more and this time her arms were gone entirely, leaving her with smooth, featureless shoulder stumps. "Oh no! What happened?" Katie wanted to open the door, but realized that was now an impossible task. "Can you open the door for me?"
John wasted no time opening the door. "Wait, what?" He looked at Esme and wondered if she knew what she was doing. "She has no arms! What are you doing?"
"I apologize. I was trying to undo the tentacles and overcompensated. We will keep trying." Esme was determined to get this right. Her reputation was on the line. She closed the door and tried another combination of symbols.
This time, Katie kept her eyes open and wanted to see any potential errors as they happened. She thought that maybe she could let Esme know to stop it before things got out of control. As she watched, she saw limbs emerging from her shoulders. They looked odd at first, but Katie figured that was likely due to them being so small and newly formed. As they grew and became more defined, she sighed with disappointment. "No, this isn't right either."
When Esme stopped tracing symbols, John opened the door and saw Katie standing there with anthropomorphic cat paws and arms covered in fur that matched Katie's hair color. John couldn't help but chuckle. "Wow! Now you have paws!"
Katie stepped out of the dressing room and slid a paw down each side of John's face. "It is kinda sexy, isn't it?"
Esme interrupted. "If you'd like, we could stop here and you could keep your feline appendages."
Katie's interest was piqued. "Would I be able to change back to normal after a while?"
"Those arms would be considered your new base form," Esme explained. "You would be able to modify your body using gloves or other items we have here in the shop, but when you removed them you would ultimately revert to feline arms."
Katie sighed. "Oh, well that's not what I want." She looked at her paws. "It's too bad. I liked having these cute little toe beans."
"You've got claws too," John observed.
Katie playfully extended her claws toward John and hissed at him. They laughed.
"I'm sorry," Esme interrupted. "I hate to be a bother, but I do have other work to do here today, so the sooner we get this resolved, the sooner we can move on to the rest of the day. I'm quite certain I'll have you back to human arms on the next attempt."
Katie grimaced. "Oh, sorry. Yeah, let's get this fixed." She stepped back into the dressing room.
Esme traced another pattern on the symbols. Inside the dressing room, they heard Katie's reaction. "Well, you were right. They are human arms."
John opened the door to see Katie. The cat arms were gone and replaced with stubby baby arms. John couldn't help but laugh at the sight. Even Esme let out a short chuckle.
Fortunately, Katie was also amused with her predicament. She hunched over and made clawing motions with her tiny arms. "Rawr! I'm a T-rex! Rawr!"
John laughed. "Okay, enough joking around. Ms. Esme, can you make them bigger?"
"I think we're getting closer, but still not quite there," Esme said with determination. "Species, race, sex... They all seem to be correct. I only need to adjust a few more settings like size and age properly. I'm using the rest of her body as the reference point." She once again traced the symbols.
Katie watched as her arms aged up before her eyes. As they approached a size which seemed familiar to her, the transformation slowed down. When she heard the hum of magical energy fade, she knew the process was complete. She felt her hands and arms. Everything appeared as it was before her transformation yesterday.
Outside the dressing room, it was quiet. John was a little concerned. "Katie? You still in there?"
"Yeah," she replied as she opened the door. "It worked! I'm back to normal! Thank you, Esme. Do you do hugs?"
Esme nodded and Katie gave her a big hug with her newly restored arms. "I'm happy to have another satisfied customer. Now, you do promise to be careful in the future, right?"
Katie nodded. "Oh, absolutely. We'll be careful."
"Okay then, thank you for coming in. I did just unpack some new items if you'd like to check them out on your way out. In fact, for all the trouble, I'd be willing to give you a special discount on..." Esme started to walk out of the dressing room area.
John cleared his throat and interrupted Esme. "Uh, sorry. Did you forget about me?"
Esme stopped in her tracks and turned around. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" She rushed back to John and Katie. "I totally forgot. Yes, yes... Go ahead and step into the dressing room. When you're in there, please remove any clothing covering the affected areas."
John walked into the dressing room and turned around. "You want me to strip?"
"It's a safety measure, really," Esme explained. "If, for example, your affected area reverted to a larger form, you might find your clothing to be uncomfortably tight or it may damage your clothing. We don't want that now, do we?"
John nodded as he closed the door. "Oh, okay." He took off his pants and the pair of Katie's panties he was wearing. He could see his reflection in the mirror. From his feet up to his thighs looked like his normal hairy legs, but then he looked like a woman up until just below his bellybutton. It was a bizarre sight like he was part of a magic act where he was sawed in three and the magician swapped in someone else's body in the middle. "I'm ready," he said.
Esme felt she had fine-tuned the settings while transforming Katie, so changing John should be straightforward.
Katie watched for the first time as she saw Esme trace the symbols. "So, you trace those in a certain pattern to trigger the changes?" Katie asked, interrupting Esme.
Esme was annoyed. "Please, do not distract me from the process." As she finished, the hum of magical energy grew quiet.
Katie could hear shuffling on the other side of the door and then the sound of metal from his belt. "John?" asked Katie. "Did it work?" The door opened and Katie saw her own reflection... or rather she saw herself wearing John's clothing.
"I'm you!" exclaimed the new Katie with a copy of Katie's voice.
Katie squinted and looked closer. "John?"
"Yeah," he was clearly annoyed. "This idiot made it worse! Not only am I not back to my old male self, I'm now a twin of my girlfriend!"
Esme became defensive. "Now, now... I had told you both that it would take some time to make the proper adjustments. I would appreciate some patience and understanding on your part. I'm trying my best to help you."
John scoffed. "Yeah? Maybe your best isn't good enough."
Katie gasped. "John! Please, be nice! She's already fixed my arms. She's the only one who can help you."
"Some help she's been. Look at me!" John motioned to his current body.
"Well, if that's how you feel, I will kindly ask you to leave my shop." Esme pointed toward the door.