Calie protested... demanded... cried... begged… pushed… the newly minted girl did everything she could against the impassable door that kept her from the magic room. How could they get such a thing wrong! She looked nothing like a girl- well- before they -made- her look like a girl!
The strange ‘door’ had become an odd looking glass ‘portal’ with a man- well- a different kind of man. He stood to attention for a moment and seemed to be wearing white robes similar to those of a traveller yet alien in the sharp anguar cuts. His face was coloured blue with white hair. The blue alien’s hands were gloved with strange symbols on each palm that looked like a spiderweb only more intriquite. He had slightly pointy ears and odd markings on the sides of his face that looked almost like magical tattoos. “Hi there, let me just get your file… Calie right?” His tone was calming.. not that it had any effect on the girl.
“More of those weird ghosts,” Calie muttered. Why did this place have some kind of … mirror world? They were strange.. some of them were like small windows like in the school… but this one was bigger and took the place of a door. The very door she was trying to get through. At this point she wasn’t sure if the room she wanted to get into was in some other plane or if this was just some kind of light guardian… She looked behind the man and saw what seemed to be a space behind him. It was a pretty convincing illusion as if she could walk through it. When she tried though, she just felt the impact of glass on her face. “Ouch!” she blinked.
“Ah here we are Calie- oh dear we don’t have a last name. Would you-” he paused as she hurt herself. “Um, please don’t do that. This interface is not configured for entry. I know it can be a bit confusing. You can tell which ones are for entry by the border of the viewscreen.”
“Let me in! huh? Wh- What’s happening!” Calie gasped as there was a weird electric arc between her antenna’s. It made her hair stand on end. She seemed to gently rise into the air as if attracted or pushed- honestly she couldn’t tell. Only that her feet were dangling in the air! She felt herself arc into a circle.
The doctor didn’t seem phased by it and was in fact glad that there was now ‘something’ his program would be able to respond to. “Subject is presenting with symptoms of Gravitional distress… try to stay calm…”
“Aah!” Calm was not.. something Calie could just become. Her feet were in the air! Then she ‘fell’ onto the ceiling with a thud. “Oww...” What now… She was on the ceiling! She was.. stuck on the ceiling! Everything around her was upside down! How!
“Calie?” A familiar voice came into the lab’s waiting room. “What are you doing up there?”
Calie looked in confusion standing ‘up’. What in the world was going on? Up was no longer ‘up’ for her and just her alone. The very basic nature of things being up or down had just gone out the window. Gently her hair seemed to be the first thing to realise reality was amiss as it fell backwards pointing towards what the ‘floor’ used to be but giving her the sensation of her hair standing completely on its end. However the rest of her was stubornly sticking to the roof. “Help me- I can’t get down!”
“Take my hand...” I-5483113 offered carefully reaching up (from the robot girl’s perspective) towards her.
Calie was hesitant. She was stuck on the celing- the ceiling was the floor. The weird robot girl was reaching ‘down’ to her to pull her back up to the ‘ground’. She wasn’t even sure what would happen as she reached towards her. “I can’t!” She was just.. too short.
“Jump a little towards me...”
Callie jumped.. gravity pushing her back to the ceiling though her decent was slower. She tried a second time and felt a slight spring in her step, reaching towards the robot-girls hand. Though now she had no celing or floor at all! She was just.. like a bubble in the air. She was floating in the middle, still holding onto the machine woman for fear of being blown out into space or something.
The E-doctor suddenly reached out into the real-world with his odd gloved hands and an actual physical body. The interface between had some odd.. artifact like a ripple in a pond. There seemed to be a tiny crystal between his fingers. “I have prepared a treatment. This should help alleviate the symptoms of stress and the symptoms of gravitational flux.”
Calie stared at the doctor.. and the weird… confusing line of fake and reality. Something told her this doctor was a fake person.. but… he was also not fake? Like everything else here...
At the silence I-5483113 bowed politely. “Thank you,” she said still holding onto Calie. “Will she be well?”
“Oh yes, it is quite normal for them to bounce on the wall now and then, esepecially when they are young” the blue doctor-man said with a simulated grin as I-5483113 took the crystal.
“I’m not taking any drug!” callie muttered. “Your medicine made me into a girl!
The doctor looked with some confusion at that. It was as if Callie had suggested they were using some kind of rustic and -very- antquated technique of biological manipulation. He had to go quite deep into his system to find what a drug even was. “Drug? Oh it’s not that. This device is configured to provide a Neuro-wave emission. The tones will help induce calm. If you like I can send information to your terminal on how it works.”
Calie looked bewildered as she just.. floated there while her feet dangled in the air. How was any of this normal! She couldn’t quite work out how to move… It wasn’t quite like being in the moon surface… this was different.
“Please thank the nice doctor Calie,” I-5483113 gesured while still holding her hand. It was important to teach children ettequte, her programming had reminded.
“I can’t move!” She waved her arms as if trying to swim in water but there was no motion at all.
The machine girl watched her with a detatched gaze. “I am sure you will learn in time. It is really nothing to be embarrased of. I will keep hold of you until you can learn, of course.”
The E-Doctor returned back to his odd world behind the glass screen. “It’s no trouble at all. Do come back if you need something. Though for the ‘advanced’ things I will need a signiture from a parent. I will make a note to expect Calie in a few years.”
With the pleasentries completed I-5483113 started to bring Callie back outside.
“No!” the floating girl wailed. She couldn’t.. resist the motions. The machine woman’s hand was gripped and she had nothing to resist. No wall to slide against, no floor no.. weight. She was just being dragged along whever it was taking her.
“It’s quite alright Calie. Please do not be sad...” I-5483113 watched her distress not quite sure what to do. In some ways it was easier to deal with the child when she was angry… this was saddness though. She didn’t know what to do or offer. Nothing in her program offered her any advice.. especially as it seemed she could be the cause of that saddness.
Callie wanted to go back.. to stay put.. if she could only- then she felt herself tumble. She fell on the ground suddenly with not too hard an impact, fortunately but more like a small trip. She looked bewildered… not quite sure if to be glad to feel the cold surface on her long socks. “I’m back on the ground?” She tentatively took a few steps not quite believing it.
“Ah, your symptoms have eased? Not to worry It can take some practice. Do not be disheartened. Some instability is to be expected even in those who develop late. The doctors treatments are usually quite successful.” She spoke each sentence planely to the girl with no emotion but a well simulated assuring tone.
Calie’s eyes flushed and glanced down. Talking of her ‘development’ like it was normal or the various stages was really annoying. She had no interest in any of that. She just wanted to fix the problem, get back home and become famous for discovering all this and avoid being just another ‘inn keeper’ like her father. She felt like she couldn’t really trust this place, given up wasn’t always ‘up’ .. she sighed a bit. What could she do now?
“Your request for a ‘real person’ has become possible.” the Robot-girl suddenly said.
“Huh?”
I-5483113 nodeed. “Your request. For a real person? We have found another that can be brought here. We are providing a place for her to stay.”
“A real person?!” callie almost jumped at that- thogh with the a sudden and rather odd lack of gravity it was a sudden sprig into the air. “Aa- ooh...” It was just like being on the moon surface. She almost felt a weird sense of.. delight floating like this, even if it did make her lavander hair appear in view.
I-5483113 sensed the child’s contentess at this news. It was satisfying to finally provide something to alleivate the emotional condition. “Yes. We are arranging transfer now. I will bring her to your room.”
“… Gods yes!” Finally someone can help her and fix this whole mess.
Mary felt a lot better after talking to Brook. The embarassment of explaining to another that they were... hearing voices… well... that could put quite a large strain on even the best of relationships. Still, the spiderwoman took it in stride. Nobody really knew the kinds of things Brook had seen on her own journey but all that had happened shaped her to become the woman she was.
“What.. advice can you give me when talking to these. Beings...” Mary asked hestitantly.
Brook walked Mary to her house. The search for Kevin had now been paused. It was assumed the boy might have ended up in some form of a transformation and could be disorientated, or was hiding intentionally. She really hoped he was going to be fine. Brook rested her spider legs a bit lower. “Honestly? Be yourself with them… they may well have great power, but our mortal life is often a source of great envy when dealing with such beings,” she gave a slightly amused smile. “They chose you because they need you… you are the one in control… but remember your words carry greater significance then any action you take. Act only with good in your heart...”
The clockwork woman hoped she was up to the task. She didn’t feel in control the last time they communicated. She suspected they were relatively benign but she would not forget how much power they wielded on her form. Yet.. they wanted to help a child and that was a noble cause.
Brook and Mary enjoyed some tea (Mary politly holding a cup not certain if she -could- drink) while they waited.
“Device Mary? We are ready to receive you now. Are you prepared for transfer?”
“They are asking me to join them,” Mary whispered her voice very apprehensive.
Brook nodded. “Safe journey then...”
Mary started to respond to them. “yes… I’m ready to go.” She wasn’t sure how this teleportation was going to wo-
Brook stared at the now lifeless mechanical doll with curiousity. Her spidery legs walked over as she gently felt the face of the clockwork girl. The eyes were blank and her ticking had stopped. She saw no evidence of life. Yet somehow she knew that meant nothing at all. Her spirit must have gone to them… “Hm… a journey to another world indeed... I remember… my first time...”
Mary wasn’t quite sure what had happened. She felt her mind somehow just blink out? No.. that wasn’t quite the right word. She was in two places at once.. then three.. four.. five… She could see this one image of a single clockwork-girl amongst hundreds all of them looking at her as she was herself looking. It was like looking at a multutude of mirror images. As she turned so did they all. “What is-” all of them spoke in unison. She had become some kind of legion of them!
“Please select your unit.”
“My unit?” the hundred indentical clockwork girls stated. “Any!” Honestly she couldn’t even tell what the difference between them was. There were so many- so many voices speaking and hearing, moving… Finally she felt somehow.. singular.. and whole. Or at least to the extent she thought she was. Her senses became familiar in that she had just two eyes… two arms… two legs… humanoid- and just one body. “That was.. unsettling. Where am I? What in the name of the stars was the point of that!”
Then she gasped as more of the strange environment came to her sight. Her view was dotted with strange lights that gave her what seemed to be a mental map. A pointing pencil appeared as she turned to another machine and a set of numbers came up. The same thing happening whenever she looked at each of the duplicares. Looking down at herself, she got the number D-Mary-0001. It seemed like she was ‘reading’ by sight a map of the world aroud her...
Her new body wasn’t quite that disimilar to her old one. It was however one identical to the many that were here. A chasse that looked like the approixmation of a female body with gentle sloping shoulders and clearly defined breasts. Her back lacked the weight of a winding key, though she felt an odd alcove back there- no doubt this was some kind of.. upgrade? She saw one still active and approached her. “Were you the one talking to me?” the number I-5483113 appeared on her eye-map. “...I..54..83...”
-Yes. I am I-5483113. Welcome to Luna Nova D-Mary-0001-
The words appeared in front of Mary without being said. “Huh? How are you doing-”
-We have adapted a visual interface to help you but it is experimental. If it causes discomfort it can be turned off. Access the menu screen-
Mary wasn’t sure what she was doing but.. there seemed to be many floating words around her vision. As her eyes were drawn to each, they opened like a book on a shelf. Each book had a page, and each page a wealth of information on yet more books and pages. She was reading and digesting what information she could but there was so much! She did however find the means to communicate to the other machines in the same manner. It was almost like a form of telepathy...
“Do you mind if we.. speak as humans do? Verbally? I’m a bit overwhelmed...”
I-5483113 activated some strange control panel as the other units were slid into metal closets and closed. she seemed to be a slight odd.. conflicting look. “My apologies. We are.. uncertain in the application of our protocols for a being as yourself. this is.. difficult by our ethical stucture. It was deemed that as a biological mind you should be granted a choice of your form as body is a highly personal matter. It was thought it would help you to have a number of possible options to decide your best presence here and how to interact with the child.”
Mary looked at I-5483113 and thought she was Identical if not for the visual tip that served as some odd extra information layer in their world.. she thought of the others and instantly small boxes of her memories appeared as she saw them once more. “But all the options are identical!”
I-5483113 ticked at that. “Each one had some subtle differences. The one you picked has red medium hair... that one has black short hair.. that one there is green eyed.. I myself was formed with blue eyes. I think the one you picked is unique. It has green eyes to go with the red medium hair.”
Mary looked at the other machines nin her memory. Colour swaps seemed to be the limit of ‘choice’ for them. It was so.. weird that they even considered it a choice. Given they were artificial what did a pallette swap actually matter?
“Please follow me… I will take you to the girl. Her name is Calie. She will be deighted to have a ‘real person’.”
Mary sensed that this other machine girl sounded almost.. disapointed. “Is she a friend of yours? You’ve lived here for a while? Are you in charge here?”
“She is.. new. I am I-5483113. I maintain this facility.” Why did biological units ask so many questions at once?
“So… what’s wrong with her?” Mary marvelled as she was lead down these strange corridors. She was on another plane of existance perhaps.. yes? These were perhaps spirits from a world devoid of emotional understanding. She had heard of such places in the old legends and lores.
I-5483113 reflected on that statement. “Nothing is wrong with her, physically. She is acutely distressed… and we have no solution for that. We can only do what our programming suggests. However this situation is outside the bounds of our programming.”
“What is.. programming?”
I-5483113 tilted her head. “It is.. me. I am a program. It is my thoughts… by which I make thoughts.”
“Ah! Your religion?”
I-5483113 had to go back to the glossery to find the word. “...yes. That is a reasonably analogy. Thogh far more strict. We are physically unable to go against a program. Even when we do, it is only because an exception to the program has been programmed.”
Mary had to grin a bit at that. “I think I get it. Having a kid does mean breaking the rules. I know that from raising my little brother.” She was lead into a dead end- when the door behind them closed. Suddenly she knew she was in motion! “Hm.. a moving.. room?”
“Yes, Calie described it the same way. It is simply a Transporter.”
Mary saw a.. strange.. tunnel. It was see through and from it, she could see the surface of the moon itself. She stared at the landscape. “Oh.. my...”
“We have attempted to accommodate to your needs. This unit is yours to do with as you.. desire-” An odd word for the I-series to use to another of her kind. “We will not impede your actions and have tried to remove all we could from it. We are not able to remove some basic ettiqute though from the body, so if an action is performed without consent we apologise in advance. ”
Mary tried to take this all in. It seemed like the machines were somehow ‘sorry’ in a genuine way and were almost trying to act subservient to her. Yet they had given her a body that was one of their own. Her mind inhabited it with ease. “What is happening to my original body?”
“It is in hybernation. If we may, we can listen to what it hears in case an issue transpires that you wish to relocate there.”
“Uh.. yeah.. sure. So let’s see this girl...”
Callie woke up again. Her sleeping was restless… she had to get in that room!
Her body... it was female. She looked it over, sheer embarrassment brimming on her face. Her hair felt a bit longer again, resting half way down her back now. It didn't grow around her fringe though, which was... strange? Maybe it was to do with their whole 'treatment'.
She became aware of something else though; an odd sensation that directed her attention to her stomach where her belly button was. At least- she thought it was her belly button? The skin there was oddly smooth, with a slight depression that seemed a bit too shallow for the normal scar in humans. The unsettling part was how it almost looked as if it had a gentle glow- wait a minute- it was glowing! It was faint.. and it could only be seen when her fingers reflected off the light. Why was her belly button glowing like that? She touched it, and.. there was nothing to really suggest anything was amiss. It didn't hurt, there was just this.. vague oddness...
She frowned a bit, and quickly covered it up again. The robe they gave was sufficient for that. Though on her body she couldn't help but think it was a dress.
She took a moment to look out the window. The strange moon-landscape was before her, as was the world that was her home. However.. she had to admit in a strange- very strange way this place- this odd alien world, was starting to feel close to 'normal'. Despite the short time she had spent here, the once alien geometries was starting to make a great deal of sense... even if this city was in three dimensions as opposed to the two dimensional world of her own town.
She wrapped her arms around her legs, gasping as she felt her new chest get slightly compressed. It- it was just so gross! Yet- in some ways... she was both happy... and sad? She had discovered something that would make her something more then the son of an inn-keeper. Fate smiled upon her but.. now she was stuck with this alien body. Some cursed magic… was this why Brook was the way she was?
Suddenly the door opened. The machine woman came in, her ticks oddly sounding comforting.
“Good Morning Callie. Are you feeling well?”
“Uh.. I guess...” She muttered.
“You have a visitor.”
D-Mary entered in. Callie was annoyed thinking it was just another machine girl but.. it was different. Her eyes lit up as she saw the very slight deviations in the behaviour she had observed in the pure machine. Little things like body language, the way the hands moved, the slight tilting of her neck- all these marvelous -human- inperfections.
Callie stared up at her. “You’re a- you’re really real?”
“I am real, as real as you kid,” she smiled placing a hand on her shoulder. “I like your moon-town. Though it really could use a bit of sprucing up. Want to show me around? You can tell me about it and yourself before we get going home.”
Calie gave a half smile at that. “Uh.. yeah.. I’d like that...”
Jon was back in the inn-room. After what had happened to her she didn’t even feel like going out and singing. She was completely numb that her brain was trying to put together what happened between her bird parts and her human half. She knew down there she was all animal but… she didn’t even consider the implication of that. How deep did those animal parts go…
Maggie looked to Jen wordlessly as she hopped beside her. She didn’t really know what was bothering her. Was Jen sad that she missed her chance to get those eggs firtile? Something like that would be pretty crushing. She thought she could try to cheer her up. “It’s okay Jen… there’s next time you know?”
“Next time? Next time?!” Jen buried her head in a pillow. “I don’t want there to be another time!”
Maggie bit her lip. “Oh come on- have some water, I heard this helps settle you a bit.” She bounded to the table and found a bottle which she grasped in her talons while sitting down on a stool. For the young harpy this was pretty easy and normal.
Jen looked at the bottle and sipped from it.
“So… who’s the lucky cock?”
“PppFH!” Jen coughed up the water. “Whaaaaat!”
Maggie blinked. “Is that why you’re so sad? Cause you missed your chance?”
Jen felt herself squirm at Maggie’s question. “My chance… NO!” She took in a breath. “Maggie- I’m a guy! I’m not… supposed to...” She felt the sting of tears in her eyes.
Maggie looked to Jen with sheer confusion. “Hey it’s not that bad! I mean… I heard how human girls do it- trust me you’re lucky. Can you imagine having something growing inside you like a- a parasite? It must get so big you can’t even move! Plus I have no idea what happens to all the yolk in that situation. It sounds horrible though.” Maggie shuddered.
Jen coughed and righted herself up. “I- I just-”
Maggie smiled. “Hey, you’re a pretty girl doing what a pretty girl does. I hope mine go as well as yours do. I would have warned you if I thought you didn’t know. So- I’m real sorry… I’m supposed to be teaching you about harpy stuff- it’s just- that’s really basic and obvious.”
Jen looked down still in shock. “I- it’s not your fault. I don’t even know why I feel so .. so...” She had no word for it. She was sickened by it, and perhaps even betrayed- betrayed by her own body no less which was something people could normally take for granted. “What is she even going to do with those eggs...”
“Eat them.” Maggie shrugged.
Jen wasn’t sure how much she could take now. “Eat… them?”
“That’s life.” Maggie explained confused. “Why? What would you do with them?”
“Throw them.. away.. bury them?”
“Well it would help the plants I guess but somethings gonna eat them eventually.” Maggie smiled. “You did really well for your first time. Now you’ll be fine for the next time. I’ll even be there to hold your wing if you want!” Maggie looked up to her big sister-like friend earnestly.
Jen shuddered… next time? Next.. time? Then another next and again… No.. no no no! She had to get out of this body before then!
Diana and Peter were tasked with watching over the clockwork girl Mary while Brook baby-sat them. She was just enjoying a bit of soup as she pondered on the last 24 hours and what had happened to Robinheath. “The gods do work in strange ways… blessings are curses, curses are blessings.. life is lived.. only when it is risked...”
The spiderwoman could hear the kids playing upstairs. At least she could trust them not to try drawing on Mary while she worked with those other beings… she could get a bit of rest…
“Tag!” Diana jumped onto Peter. “I win again!”
Peter giggled. “Yeah you win. Though you are the pred. Can I be pred next?”
The game went on for a while. They chased each other through the house and for the strangest moment Diana felt something she had not felt in a long time. She was… happy. She had a friend- a real friend? Did she not have this before when she was a kid last time?
“Got ya!” Peter grabbed her this time.
Diana blushed. “Oh- haha- yeah- you did.” She flicked her tail a little rubbing it against peter’s waist. Weird.. that felt.. uh.. she thought there was something oddly feminine now about his hips but.. she could still smell him as a boy. Not that there was much difference due to his age but… yeah… it did make her think on her friend’s transformation. Peter didn’t seem too worried about it, but just seemed more interested in Diana then on what might happen to him. Was he afraid?
“Uh- you’re not gonna paw my ears again are you?” Peter asked warily.
“Huh? No.. sorry. I was just thinking. I never had so much fun...”
“Well.. why don’t you stay?”
Diana gasped. “Stay? Here?” She glanced about. “With.. you?”
“Well-” peter blushed. “Yeah. I’d like to play with you more! I’d be really sad when you go. Plus we can figure out more about the town and help everyone here!”
Diana thought it sounded so.. simple. So normal and.. yeah a part of her.. some part of her -did- want to stay. She couldn’t though.. she had to get back to normal. ‘Why? Arn’t we having fun though’?
“This.. is fun,” she admitted. She was a kid again and running free.. wild.. unabashed completely free in a world of wonders. Her old life just seemed like more and more of a weird dream. Her whiskers twitched as she honestly wondered if she dared just let it go…
“Ah, that was a good nap.” Brook wondered upstairs. “Dinners ready kids. I hope you like mushrooms…” she giggled merthfully at Diana’s look. “Oh don’t worry, I have some meat in there too. You will like it.”
“Thank you Aunty brook!” They both said in unison.
The spider woman chuckled. “...adorable.”
