Mary felt a strange sensation course through her body. She began to feel her bones ache again, and muscles move and separate by themselves. But this time she was familiar with the feeling--after all, didn't it just happen?
Pain filled her lower body, and her upper body, and her skull... and then she realized that once again she was face to face with another one of herself.
"That was the female vial again!" said the six year old Mary.
"I know," said both adult Marys almost in unison. They then corrected it to "We know," giggling uncomfortably at each other.
"This may be a problem," said one adult Mary. The other one was about to say the same thing, but stopped, and then the first one hesitated. Finally, the first one continued the sentence. "Every time we try vials at random there's a chance we'll pick something that makes more of us, so there'll be more and more until we run out of space to live. We have to do something else."
"I know," said the child Mary. "Here's an idea." She began to explain, and eventually all three Marys agreed. "You start with paper/scissors/stone...."
"1, 2, 3!" said the child. The first adult raised a fist and the second raised an open hand. "Paper covers stone! You win!" she said to the second.
That Mary went through the vials and picked out the male vial. She drank it down. She could feel her body shifting around--though nowhere near as painfully as when she split in two. Hair grew on her face, forming the beginnings of a mustache and beard. She noticed the floor move downwards--no, she was getting taller! Her flesh melted, flattening her chest and changing the shape of her legs. Of course one of the biggest changes was between her legs... she felt a twisting inside her and something moved out beneath an expanding clitoris, leaving her completely male with dick and balls.
"We need a name for you," said the other adult.
"How about Mark?" asked the child. "That has some of the same letters as Mary. And I can be May."
"Fine," said Mark. "But what I really need is *clothes*." After all, with all this splitting and changing, everyone was now naked. He went to the closet and looked for the largest appropriate clothes he could find--eventually managing to find a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers that didn't fit too badly. It was a good thing that both men and women could wear certain kinds of clothes. If this had happened 60 years ago, he wouldn't have had anything at all.
"Aww," said Mary. "I thought you were sort of hot when you were naked."
"What about me?" said May.
"I don't know," said Mark. "Wait... I have an idea."
Mary, getting the same idea, was already at the closet, and soon came back with some clothes. Then Mark went to the bathroom, followed by the others. He filled the tub with water and poured the six year old vial in. Then he threw in the clothes, shoes first. In a few seconds they started to shrink to the size of clothes for a six year old. "It works!" said Mark and Mary.
After putting the clothes in the dryer and drying the shoes as best possible, May now had clothes her own size to put on.
"I guess we're sort of like a family now," said Mary. "Mark, Mary, and May. Husband, wife, and child. Only we're really all the same person."
"We don't have wedding rings," said Mark. "How about boyfriend, girlfriend, and child?"
"Nobody will notice," said May.
"Just remember to act like a six year old in public," said Mary.
"Gotcha, 'Mom'," she said.