Bruce Willington, who is a 45 year-old guy, who works at a costume store, is getting ready to leave. It is 10pm on a warm summer’s evening and Bruce really is looking forward to his couch, the man is totally worn out from work, taking orders and packaging them to be shipped the next day.
The costume store Bruce is working at is kind of weird, it is called “The Second Skin”, Bruce always wondered, but never asked about the weird name, he is just glad that he finally has found a job, which pays really good money, so he decided to not ask any questions.
Just as Bruce is about to power down his work Computer, two orders suddenly come in, Bruce scowls, “why… why is it, that every time I am about to shut off the Computer, someone places an order,” he grumbles to himself. Bruce glances over at the clock on the wall, he then lets out a sigh, “I guess I can do two more before I go,” he says and opens the first order.
The first order comes from a female with the name “Clair Oswald”, who wants to have a costume of a female animal.
The second order is from a male with the name “Jeff Davis”, who wants to have a costume of a male animal… of course.
Bruce prints out the orders and walks into the storage area, the man stops by the door and turns on the light, he does not enter the room at first. The reason is that, every time he gets the weird sensation of being watched, and at times it seems as if the glass eyes of the animals were staring at him and following his every move. The man shudders as a chill runs down his spine, “this place is so effing creepy,” he mumbles to himself, “but I really need the money. Come on, man, pull yourself together, its only costumes!”
Taking a deep breath, Bruce finally enters the room and quickly grabs the two costumes, he then hurries back out of the room. Bruce carries the costumes over to a table and lies them, neatly folded, on top of the table. He then grabs two medium sized cardboard boxes, he then grabs two plastic bags and puts each costume into a bag and seals them. Bruce then fills the boxes half with stuffing, before putting the sealed costumes inside and then adds more stuffing. The man then tapes the boxes shut and heads over to his computer to print out the shipping details.
After printing out the labels, Bruce heads back over to the table, he stares down at the two boxes, “shit… which one was the male and which the female,” he asks himself, scratching his head. Bruce racks his brain, but soon gives up, “I am to tiered to care,” he says, “I think… no I am SURE that the left box is the female and the right one is the male,” so he attaches the labels to the two boxes. “There,” the man then says, “finally I can get out of here,” he carries the boxes over to the other orders of the day, which are stacked on a cart waiting to be picked up by the person who’ll take them to the delivery trucks to be shipped out.
Bruce shuts off his Computer and turns off all the lights, soon the man is driving out of the garage and down the street on his way home. What Bruce is unaware of, he has put the labels on the wrong packages, which means: Clair will get the male costume, while Jeff will receive the female costume. Under normal circumstances, this might not seem that bad, but since the store and therefore the costumes aren’t normal, Bruce is unaware of the huge mistake he had made.
The costumes have been created by a powerful wizard, who wants to full fill peoples darkest desires: experiencing what it’s like being an animal! But it only works if the wearer really desires to experiences being an animal, the costume will sense that desire and grant the wearer’s wish. If the wearer, however, has no desire of experiencing what it’s like to be an animal, in other words: if the wearer simply wants to wear a normal costume, then the costume will be a normal costume.
If the person, who is about to wear one of the magic costumes, he or she just need to touch the suit with a finger in order to “awake” the soul of whatever animal the suit depicts, the suit will then start to absorb the energy of the wearer, without the wearer becoming effected, and the transformation process will begin. The costumes are all anthro, but have the ability, and if the wearer desires it, to change form and become feral. The wizard, who has created these suits, thinks that he is gifting a lot of people with his costumes, but some costumes can become sentient, which means, that the spell, he had put the suits under, sometimes malfunctions, causing the suits to not only become sentient, but also develop a soul. These “errors” then develop an own mind and feelings, they see themselves as a real animal, with all the instincts and senses of that animal. And two of these “errors” will soon find themselves at the addresses of Clair and Jeff.
Early the next morning, the cart is picked up and all of the boxes, including the ones for Jeff and Clair, are picked up and taken to the shipment area, where they are sorted into trucks and soon are on their way.