Scott looked over the costume collection in their office. There were a lot of options. He could just start going through all the canines or big cats they had brought home? Lion manes looked fun? Foxes could be a fun way to push his small the costumes could go? He had a lot of options.
And then there was the dog costume. Scott picked up the Spot costume and looked it over again. It was a little intense being a dog. John’s dog. Spot was so obedient and eager to please. He was also way more chilled out and relaxed than anything he had tried yesterday.
It had been a pretty long day at work. Scott could feel the stress in his shoulders. There was a series of to-dos he had for the next day out of his mind. It was… a little weird, but Scott could honestly go for some carefree canine head space right now.
He grabbed the costume and collar and headed back out into the living room. John naturally had his nose in a magic book again.
“Hey John, do you mind if I wear Spot again tonight?” Scott asked a little red-faced.
John looked up from his book. His eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Really? Yeah, go for it!” he said. Scott swore it was the first time he had seen him look up from that book in ages.
“Thanks!” Scott had to make sure not to add ‘Master’ on just yet.
It was getting easier to him to slip into these costumes. The zipper was designed to be discrete, but if you planned out your moves it wasn’t hard for one person to pull it up on their own. Well, as long as they had thumbs. Scott needed to make sure to get out of Spot while on his hind legs if he could help it.
Scott shook his head as the suit pressed in around him. He felt his new floppy ears flap against the side of his head as his hearing got better. He could hear cars passing on nearby streets, conversations from the neighbors next door, and so much random electronic noise from the gadgets in the house. Still, his mind seemed to know how to filter it all out.
The house started to feel bigger as he shrank back down to dog size. He hadn’t quite gotten used to the feeling of his body getting compressed or stretched out. More than the fur or his shifted stance, his diminished size was one of the more unusual parts of becoming Spot.
John tapped his thigh, “Heel boy, collar time.” Ah yes, there was this part too.
“Do I really need this?” Scott chuckled. Naturally it just came out as a string of barks.
“Sorry, didn’t catch that,” John undid the clasp gently on the blue nylon strap. “This will just take a second…”
Scott supposed the translation spell was worth it. John quickly tightened the collar around his neck and clicked it into place.
“Arf!” Spot felt a shiver run down his back as he was once again overwhelmed by a canine train of thought. At least he knew it was coming this time! He softly exhaled and let the changes wash over him smoothly without any resistance. It wasn’t like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Spot thing. His own thoughts were just being filtered through a simple canine perspective. Sure there were some odd bits about his duty to protect his owner, but it was so easy to slip back into and-
“What the arf is happening to my desk!” Spot’s canine eyes went wide.
Scott kept a desk in the living room. It housed a gaming PC, his work laptop, and a few tech nick knacks he had amassed over the years. The entire structure was shimmering slightly. It was taking on a transparent look and… fading away. The empty space in the living room was now occupied by a large dog bed. Sitting on top of the oversized pillow was a plush rabbit, a rubber dog bone, and a novelty smartphone-shaped chew toy.
“Oh wow,” Spot’s Master watched as the desk shift, “I read about this!”
He quickly flipped through the spell book he had been studying. He held it up at the dog excitedly. Meanwhile over his shoulder Scott’s sizable video game collection was fading away entirely.
“See?” John excitedly pointed at the page.
“Arf?” Spot glanced at the book. All of the words on it looked like gibberish. He could see a few penciled in English comments in the margins, but he didn’t even recognize the language of the main page. “Master, that book’s gibberish! Seriously, where’s my stuff going!?”
“Scott’s belongings are turning into Spot’s belongings,” John explained. He reached down to rub his ear, “You must have leaned into it more this time.”
“Arf, yeah, but-“ Spot protested half heartedly. The scritches were really nice. “They’re going to come back, right?”
“I think so?” John said.
“Wait, you think?” Spot tilted his head, “Master!”
“Down boy,” John teased, “Here, let’s try it and see what happens.”
Spot’s owner bent down and gently unclipped his collar. The two watched the dog bed to see if it would shift back. So far it was just sitting there.
“Arf! Ruff arf!” Spot barked at his Master. His- his Master! He was still thinking of Master as his owner! Oh jeez…! He couldn’t talk like this! John needed to put the collar back on so that he could tell him he was still thinking like Spot!
Hold on. John?
Scott looked up at his roommate from his vantage point on the floor. A moment later the dog bed faded away, and his desk came back into focus. Everything was right where it should be.
“Huh, it took a second but it’s back,” John gestured, “See? No problem.”
“Arf!” Scott agreed. He felt his train of thought settle down. It just… took a moment. Right. This… this was fine.
“I still can’t understand a word you say,” John held the collar out again, “Why don’t you really try embracing it this time boy? I want to see if we can turn your room into a workshop.”
Scott’s eyes went a little wide. He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of his entire bedroom vanishing. Still, everything seemed to pop back into place. There wasn’t a squeaky toy in sight. He sat up on his haunches and leaned his neck towards John. He didn’t have a say in the matter anyways. He might as well give it a shot. He took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind. It felt like rolling out a red carpet for a dog but-
He was the dog! Spot’s enthusiastic mindset came bounding back into his mind. Scott did his best to mentally hand over the reigns to the canine way of thinking. The process of giving over control to a dog was surprisingly zen.
His desk vanished and was once again replaced by a plush dog bed. One by one Scott’s belongings shifted into some canine equivalent. His car keys on the kitchen turned into a well worn leash. A discarded jacket shifted into a high visibility vest for night walks. His entire life was going to the dogs right before his eyes.
Scott should have been a bit unsettled by all this, but Spot felt right at home. Arf, it was strange though. Before it felt like both a human and canine were trying to share control of his body. This time around he didn’t feel a constant nagging to try and get up on his hind legs.
“Oh wow, good job boy,” his Master said softly. He gave Spot a nice ear rub and then started walking over to Scott’s bedroom.
Or… what used to be Scott’s bedroom? Sure enough, the wizard appeared to have used the “extra” bedroom in the house to build out some sort of workshop! All the costumes that had been haphazardly stashed in the office the previous day were now hung up neatly in a nice open work space. There was a large crafting table on three far wall littered with some stray costuming supplies they had picked up from the storage locker. The carton of magic books they had brought over were now neatly arranged on a bookshelf.
In the corner of the room was another plush dog bed. It was in the same spot of the room that Scott’s human bed had used to be. This entire room used to belong to him. Now it was just another place for his owner to spend time in.
Spot followed after his Master on all fours. He kept trying to figure out what his human side would think about all this, but those thoughts were much more below the surface of his thoughts this time. Spot tried to dredge them up, but he got the feeling distinct feeling his human side didn’t want to be in control right now. As long as he took off the costume off at some point tonight it would be happy.
“Ruff, I just focused on becoming me sir,” Spot looked up at his Master and wagged.
“You?” His owner glanced down.
“Spot!” He barked his name eagerly.
“Right. I’m glad you’re having fun,” his Master chuckled. He held up his spell book, “Do you mind if I get back to studying? I want to read up on your collar’s spell some more.”
“You don’t mind if I stay like this for the evening sir?” Spot barked. His tail kept swishing back and forth happily.
“You can stay as Spot for as long as you’d like boy. I like having a dog,” John smiled. He gave Spot another pat on the head and then added, “Just don’t fall asleep in the costume, alright?”
That last bit came out a bit more ominous than John had intended. His voice had gotten a bit more serious and he could have sworn the lights dimmed for a second there.
“Arf! Yessir!” Spot barked up at him. He quickly ran off to go try out one of his new chew toys.
John stayed behind and looked over his new workshop a bit more. This place would be perfect to experiment with some of the spells he had been learning! He plopped down at his workbench’s chair and cracked his current spell book back open.
Spot trotted back in and curled up in the bed in the corner. Hmm. John waved his hand and cast a simple detection spell on his dog. There was the translation spell on the collar, the reality altering enchantment on the collar, and a whole lot of magic on the costume.
None of it seemed to have anything to do with sleep or time duration though. Why had he given Spot a warning like that?
(Also, why was Spot okay with getting that comfortable on a nice plush bed?)
Nothing about his enchantment said he’s get stuck in his costume if he dozed off, but that’s what John had implied.
He rubbed his head gently. Scott didn’t need any comeuppance. He didn’t need to be taught a lesson. He wasn’t even looking for a change of pace. Why had John tried to spook him like that?
Well, there’s a difference between stated preference and revealed preference. If Scott fell asleep while wearing his dog costume, that would be a pretty strong indication that he was enjoyed all this. It would be more than enough of an excuse to turn Scott into his dog full time.
Hold on, what was he thinking? John set down his book and pocketed his wand. He had been running through the mental checklist of… when he usually left people stuck as what his costumes had transformed them into? He was even considering doing it to his own roommate!
Maaaaaaybe it was time for a break.
John tugged off the robe and laid it down on his work bench. The contents on the spell book slowly shifted back into gibberish as his understanding of magic slipped away. He couldn’t even identify what language they were written in. No wonder they got mistaken for props.
Spot lifted his head up as John changed. He smiled down at him, “I think I’m going to get dinner started.”
“Arf! Need any help sir?” Spot started to get up.
“That depends boy, are you eating on the table or the floor?” John teased.
To his surprise, Spot was curious what kibble tasted like. John did his best to get his head on straight as he prepared a meal for one. Something about wearing the robe was just so enticing. The magic flowed so effortlessly when he cast it. The spell books he had brought home were founts of knowledge, and all of the magic was so easy to pick up. It felt like he was remembering it half the time.
He had never been a book worm before, but it was hard not to keep his nose stuck in a book when he wore the robe. He wanted to be a good wizard, and that required going a mile wide in every area of magic even if his specialty was costumes and shapeshifting.
John had a whole workshop full of magical costumes. He really should try on a fur coat of his own at this point. But he already knew which costume he was going to put back on after dinner. He had a pretty good feeling what Scott’s go-to costume after work was going to be. His roommate was usually pretty high-strung. He hadn’t seen him so relaxed in ages.
Halloween was a bit of a ways off… but their workplace did have casual Fridays that let people wear costumes for the entire month of October. Maybe the two of them should try it out at the end of the week?
Of course, he’d have to work Spot up to it. John picked up his dog-slash-roommate’s leash after dinner, “Who’s up for walkies?”