Sarah made a gentle landing on her front lawn. It had taken her some practice to get the hang of flying, and she still had a bit of trouble with pitching forward when she hit the ground - even with whatever it was that helped hold her breasts in place, she was a bit top and front-heavy, and she still hadn't quite worked out how to compensate for it. But she kept her balance and didn't fall over, at least.
She still wasn't sure how she felt about this. It seemed natural to her, and it was full-body exercise to boot. And it did feel good to be so free. Mainly, she just wondered what other people would think of it. She was going to stick with this going au natural, because it just didn't make sense for her to go through the hassle of dressing like a human when she was no longer human, but that didn't mean she hadn't noticed other people's reactions to her. Obviously most of them were just surprised, but some of them were giving her some worried looks.
She knew what that meant. They thought she was going feral, giving in to instincts. In a sense, that was true, but she knew they were probably thinking of her as turning into some shrieking scavenger monster. It wasn't like that at all - she was just coming to accept her new body and its strengths and limitations - but how to make them see that?
She didn't know. She still knew everything she had about working people's perceptions towards what she wanted them to be - that was part of how she'd made it to the top of the old social hierarchy. But her being a harpy, wearing absolutely nothing, and the general crankiness she'd displayed since her change, were likely to undermine any attempts to employ those old tactics. Was it even worth the trouble? She had no idea.
Sighing, Sarah walked up to the house. She was kind of amazed that, despite having been effectively unoccupied for nearly a week, nobody had broken into the place. Chalk it up to good luck and being in a nice neighborhood, she supposed. At least Aunt Iris was supposed to be arriving today; she could finally move back into her own house. It had been nice of Karyn's family to take her in for a bit, but...well, neither of them had quite forgotten the bad blood they'd built up over the years, thought both had been civil, and in any case, it wasn't home like this was.
It took some doing to get her talon up to the doorknob, but she managed, and she went inside. She found Iris in the living room, busy cleaning things up a bit. As she'd said, her otherwise-unchanged human half, a moderately attractive woman in her mid-thirties, now rode atop the body of a giant spider. Her spider half was brown, darker than her golden-brown hair. The abdomen was about the size of a small desk, extending from partway up her back to halfway down her legs. The legs, which connected to the cephalothorax segment that her waist rose out of, were thicker than Sarah had anticipated, though they weren't tarantula-sized. And (thank God) the texture of the exoskeleton wasn't at all hairy; it was fairly smooth, more of a matte finish than a gloss. Sarah noticed a pair of...somethings, little conical structures, on the back end of the abdomen, with some strandy white stuff hanging from between them. Were those the spinnerets?
Sarah had expected to be freaked out by the sight. She wasn't an arachnophobe, but that didn't mean she liked spiders. And it did kind of throw her for a loop to actually see the creature her aunt had become in person. But...it wasn't really that unsettling. Somehow, as strange as the sight was, it didn't seem wrong or out-of-place. It...it just kind of fit Iris. She didn't know why exactly it felt that way, but it just seemed appropriate.
The drider turned and smiled. "Sarah!" she said. "Oh, you look so lovely! Come here!"
Forgetting everything else for the moment, Sarah walked over to her aunt and they embraced. Iris pulled back and looked her niece up and down, peeking around back for a better look. "Oh, you should have sent me a picture when this happened!" she said. "It's just so you!"
The harpy frowned. "What? Really?"
Iris shrugged. "Oh, I'm sure you're still struggling with the inconveniences, but...it really is a good look for you, if nothing else. Fits you beautifully. Have they been giving you much trouble about not being clothed?"
Sarah was always kind of confused around Aunt Iris, and this was no exception. "Uh, I, um..." It was odd that she'd had no real trouble shrugging off stares and snickers, but the moment someone acted completely unfazed by her nudity, she was thrown off-kilter. "Uh, a little," she said. "Not much. I, uh, I just started a couple days ago..."
Her aunt smiled. "Mm. Yes, definitely a good look for you. And a lot less trouble, I presume. How did you manage before then?"
"Uh, well, Mom helped me dress, and then when I was at my classmate's house she did. You, uh, you're not surprised?"
Iris chuckled. "Oh, child, this is only natural. I've seen far stranger things, believe you me. Although I see why you were playing so coy over the phone about your parents."
Sarah gawked. "You, uh, you met them?"
The drider laughed. "Oh, you should see your face. Yes, dear, your mother and I had quite a nice conversation this afternoon. Absolutely fascinating how the two of them have become interlinked. Your father's so shy, though...I suppose that's to be expected, when she's still coming to terms with being...well, a she. Well, appearance-wise, anyway."
The harpy frowned. She was curious, but she really didn't know that she wanted the answer. But...her curiosity won out, as always. "Appearance-wise? Wait, what?"
Her aunt nodded. "I suppose it's one of those things that you hear in science class and then forget the week after. The flowers on her breasts and head, those have only stamens - in technical terms, they're male. She only has the one carpel - that's the female part. But given where it's located and how I suspect it works, and her shape, you might as well say she's female."
Sarah just stared blankly. Was she really hearing this...?
"Of course, it'd be unlikely for any of the pollen to find its way into the stigma on its own - that's where your mother-"
"GAH! Geez, Iris, they're my parents!" Sarah had known she was going to regret asking, but...good God.
Iris chuckled. "Sorry, dear. Really, though, it's quite beautiful, in its own way..."
"Have you gotten unpacked?" Sarah asked, rather forcefully - it was definitely time for a change of subject.
Her aunt nodded. "Mostly, yes. I've taken the guest bedroom down by yours. I was just cleaning up a bit; your mother explained that they haven't cleaned up in a while. Sounds like your parents had a pretty bad month trying to hide from the sun."
Sarah's stomach knotted up at the memory of those three weeks. "Y-yeah. It was..." She trailed off. Iris nodded and hugged her tight. "There, there, dear. It's all right now. Are you hungry, or would you like to have dinner a little later?"
"L-later, please."
Iris nodded and went back to her cleaning. Sarah, still a bit shaken from the memory, as well as in the usual Aunt Iris daze, went upstairs to her room. Peeking in the guest room, she gaped: there were large spiderwebs artfully decorating the corners of the room, as well as a full-sized hammock woven of thick silk strands. It wasn't all that surprising, considering that this was Iris, but it was still a jaw-dropping sight.
She went in to her bedroom, feeling tired and ready for a nap. She laid down on the bed, but...it was missing something. Sarah hesitated for a moment when she realized what it was she felt like doing, but...oh hell, she wasn't a human anymore, why pretend? She began to shove the bedclothes around, forming them into a crude nest, and curled up in the middle of it, feeling comfortable and secure. She was home again.
Harry wound up having to take the public-transit bus home, as the school buses had already completed their routes by the time the band's practice was done, and the daytime drivers had gone home. She'd called her parents to let them know, but as the sun was still out, they couldn't come get her. As she rode home, she thought back on the afternoon. She was happy that she wasn't quite so badly out of practice as she'd thought; she had expected her playing to be more of a cacophony of hisses and shrieks, but she'd mostly kept the touch for producing actual notes, once she adjusted for the differences in her body. She still had a lot of catch-up to do, and she hadn't really been that proficient to begin with, but...at least she wasn't starting back at square one.
She'd taken a crack at vocals, at the insistence of the others; that hadn't gone quite as well, but it wasn't a disaster, at least. Zach had been pleased with the pitch and tone of her voice, though he didn't make any pretense about her needing a lot more practice. And...well, she'd only done vocalizations, not lyrics, but she was surprised by how un-embarrassed she was. She'd thought that she would feel a lot more stage-fright, even in front of the others, but all she had done was close her eyes and breathe deeply, and the feeling went away. Mostly.
She still wasn't sure what to think about Ken. He wasn't hostile or rude, but he didn't seem quite at ease, though he did seem to be making an effort to be polite. She was kind of hurt that he hadn't apologized for his remark...oh, wait. She hadn't even let him know that she'd overheard that, had she? Maybe...maybe he was put off because she was being distant when she hadn't even explained why she was hurt? Harry sighed. She...she hated arguments, but...if they were going to be in a band together, they'd have to sort this out, and if Ken's behavior was based on not knowing or understanding her motives...maybe she'd have to explain it to him. She didn't want to, but...if she didn't, he'd just keep getting more upset by being confused about why she was upset...
As for the other members, they seemed like a pretty okay bunch. Certainly they were far nicer about her being out of practice and...well, naive than she was afraid of. Zara the angel-girl she was a little confused by...she played pretty well, but she kept looking like she was being distracted by something. And she'd mistakenly referred to Zach, the guitarist, as "Zara" twice - how could someone confuse their own name as belonging to someone else?
The bus pulled up at the stop a few blocks from her house. Harry got off, grabbing the bag with the CDs Zach had picked out. Obviously she wasn't going to get to them all right this evening, but...it would be a good start for branching out and discovering her tastes over the next couple days. She walked the rest of the way home, feeling a bit better than she had for the past two weeks.
Her mother smiled at her as she entered the house. "Oh, Harry," she said. "I'm so glad for you."
"Uh, what do you mean?" Harry asked.
"You're getting out and getting to know people," her mother replied. "That's something you've really needed. Even if this doesn't work out for you, you're still trying."
Harry smiled back. "Thanks. And...uh, Mom, I'm..." She hesitated, not quite sure if she wanted to share it. But...if the band members were helping keep her on task with branching out musically...maybe her parents could help her stay on task with the counselor. "I'm, uh, going to be seeing the school counselor," she said. "About...how I've been feeling."
Her mother's smile intensified, and she hugged her son-turned-daughter close. "I'm proud of you, dear. The hardest part of these kinds of problems is making yourself share them with someone else."
Harry hugged her mother back, burying her face in her mother's shoulder, trying to fight back tears. "Uh, Mom?" she asked. "I, uh...it's just a thought, but...what would you think if...I used a different name?"
Her mother pulled back and looked her in the eye. "Honey," she said, "you're our child and you'll always be our child, whatever we're calling you. But...is this an attempt to hide yourself from people?"
Harry frowned. Was it? "I...I don't know," she murmured.
Her mother nodded. "Mm. Why don't you think about that, and we'll talk about it a little later this evening, say, after dinner."
Jon was still trying to get her thoughts straight when she got home from school that afternoon. Meeting Brittany and coming to understand her anachronistic nature was strange enough, and hearing her talk about magic was...well, not entirely surprising, but finding out that she knew (very vaguely) about the stone? Jon still couldn't quite process that. She held the little rock in her hand, looking it over, wondering what the truth of the matter was, before placing it back in the safe she'd kept it in since the sun had changed. If there really were other magic artifacts, that bore looking into.
But...her grandfather had searched for years just to find the stone, and he was far more qualified for a treasure-hunt, mystic or otherwise. She had only five more months to wait and then she could fix this in some way that would return her to normal. If she did try to track down the other things Brittany had mentioned, what were the odds of her even finding out what they were in the span of five months?
Then again, could she really wait five months? The menstrual pains...she could deal with those, as much of a pain in the ass as they were (she'd had a splitting headache earlier in the afternoon.) But everything else...? Granted, she'd met and talked with a boy her own age, and thankfully she hadn't been overtaken by a rush of hormones or anything, but...well, what if she did start liking guys? Maybe it wouldn't start with a sudden hormone rush...maybe it'd start with meeting someone like Tim and making friends with him...but she didn't want to just shun anybody with a Y chromosome. God, this was confusing...
