Two settings on the remote were all Tricia needed to join her friend in the open air. One to change her regular top into a sleeveless shell with less fabric in the back like Samantha's (Except this shirt was dark red with a black cow picture on it.), and one to give her the appendages she needed for flight.
In no time at all, Tricia was feeling the surreal pulling on her shoulder blades as two red arms pushed out of her back. They grew long, skinny fingers which soon filled in with black webbing. The "thumbs" remained stubby claws, while the other four thin "fingers" formed the support for the webbing. Her black and red-accented bat wings grew to an impressive wingspan to be able to support her cow-like body's weight in the air.
Trish took a moment to admire her new wings, then realized she probably should leave the remote on the ground where it wouldn't have the chance to fall and break. After placing it safely inside Samantha's house, she flapped her wings and leaped into the air.
As she rose, she felt the wind scrape across her black fur. Her wings flapped madly to get her to Samantha's altitude. It got a little colder, but her fur still provided enough insulation for the moment. Samantha's figure was getting larger against the wide blue backdrop of the atmosphere. The wind whipped through her large ears. She couldn't hear anything else but its roar.
She was leveling out now, matching Samantha's altitude and zeroing in on her position. Her wings slowed down, allowing her to glide rapidly on the air. Tricia's mind was a sea of amazement. She had wings! She was actually flying! She glanced down at the houses below. She had flown in airplanes before, but the view behind a reinforced pane of glass was quite different than what she was seeing now. There was nothing between her and the world. She was staying aloft by her own power, and it felt amazing.
She went into a dive, felling the rush of air and the protesting pull of her hair, ears and tail. She arced back up and felt the shift in her stomach. Her hair slapped her back. She was flying.
She could only imagine that Samantha was going through the same incredible feelings right now. She watched as the sphinx continued her own sequence of areal acrobatics several hundred yards away. She had never seen anything so beautiful.
After a long while of dancing about the sky, Tricia finally decided to catch up with her friend. "So you couldn't resist just watching, huh?" Samantha shouted over the wind. "I saw some of your moves. Pretty cool."
They were gliding at a slower pace now, parallel to each other. The wind in Tricia's ears had dissipated somewhat but she could still barely hear her friend's compliment. "And how about you," Tricia said. "I thought I'd seen some graceful birds, but you put them to shame."
Samantha might have been blushing under her light brown fur. She smiled and looked straight ahead, making a more concentrated effort to fly straight and level next to Trish. She spotted something on the ground and pointed with a claw. Then she swooped down. Tricia dove right behind her, seeing that she wanted to land on one of the buildings downtown.
They came in close to the highest, a ten-story apartment building, and started flapping their wings to slow down. Gingerly, they landed on the roof. Tricia miscalculated how slow she needed to go, toppling over and rolling several times due to the inertia. Sam, meanwhile, had landed softly on all fours. As Tricia picked herself up, she glared at the sphinx.
"What?" Sam shrugged. "I'm a cat. Anyway, I wanted to ask you something."
"What's that?" Tricia asked, using her fingers to rake out the dust and debris from her tail's furry red cuff.
"Why have you been changing yourself to look so demonic? First the red and black, the horns, the eyes, and now you've got bat wings. You were surprised that I didn't want to be a unicorn like when we were younger, but I'm even more surprised at what you've chosen."
Tricia let go of her tail and it swung down to the back of her ankles. She crossed her arms in thought for a moment. "I'm not really sure. For a while I've thought that it's more important for me to stand out as something different than what passes for 'normal.' To tell you the truth I almost became a goth a year ago. But my parents would never have allowed it. Suddenly I have this remote, and I can do or become anything I want, and there's no consequences. I can change back instantly. I can make the world accept me no matter if I have red hair or fur or anything. At first I thought a tail would be enough. Then I accidentally got the hair and the horns, and I liked them. The more I changed myself, the better I felt. All this...the cow parts, the colors, the bat wings...they just seemed like the best choices if I wanted to stand out. Most people wouldn't want to become cows, they'd want to become unicorns. They wouldn't want dark scary colors. They'd want angel wings."
"So you just chose those things because it's not what you think most people would want?"
"Well...not really. I mean, now that I have this body, I like it. It's not like I picked things that I didn't even want. I do like cows a little. And red and black are my favorite colors."
"But the basic thing is, you're not picking what you want first, you're singling out what you'd think OTHERS would want and THEN choosing from that. You're limiting yourself."
Tricia couldn't think of anything to say in response.
"I chose to be a sphinx because that's what I wanted. I don't care how many other people would have wanted it or how many would think it's weird. It's what I feel like being. You're just trying to distance yourself from everybody by changing your appearance, and you don't have a direction. Where's the remote?"
"I left it at your house," Tricia said meekly.
"Let's go back, then. I have an idea."