Andy sighed in frustration. Only half an hour in and already she was reminded of her previous job search, coming up empty time and again...only now there were tantalizingly well-paid jobs that she was in demand for, but couldn't bring herself to take!
Susan heard the bunny-girl's mutters of frustration. Poor Andy...faced with so much to adjust to, and now this on top of it...he felt kind of bad for trying to get her back into the job market, but he knew that it was something she really did need. His mate wasn't the kind of person to just sit around the house all day...
The naga-man slithered up next to his transformed husband. "I'm sorry it's so frustrating," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She gently leaned into his touch, bringing a little smile to his face. "It's just..." she said, "it's...not only don't they want me for what I'm good at...now they do want me for...for modelling, or being a 'dancer'...I...argh..."
Sue nodded. "Yeah...it's aggravating. I suppose that's something you haven't had to deal with before..."
Andy nodded. "The hell of it is, they're offering three times what I used to make for some of these jobs..."
"No amount of money is worth debasing yourself for," her mate said. "Not that you need me to tell you that. Though...'dancer' pretty obviously means 'stripper' in this context, but you should know that there's a lot of good modelling agencies that aren't like that at all; except for a few bad ones, they're quite professional about it."
The rabbit-woman gave her a curious look. "You never told me you did modelling."
"I didn't, but a couple of my roommates in college did when they needed spare cash." Sue noted Andy's uncomfortable expression. "I'm not suggesting you should, though. I don't want you doing anything you're...not comfortable doing like this, honey."
Andy nodded. She...she still couldn't quite fathom the idea that she'd be like this...forever. The thought of getting used to life as...as a woman...it sent her mind reeling. What would she be comfortable doing that she didn't do as a man? She didn't know.
"...yeah," she murmured, trying to distract herself from that line of thought. "But...we do need the money...I don't know what else I can do."
"Keep looking, I suppose," the snake-man said. "We'll be all right for a while, Andy. I just...I'm thinking more about what'd be good for you than whether it's necessary for us. I want to see you doing something fulfilling again, because you're so much happier that way."
Andy smiled a little, in spite of her frustration. "But..." she said, "...what if I can't find anything? The way things are now..."
"I'm sure you will, honey," Sue replied, "but if nothing comes up...let's just give it a while looking for something that would suit you and reassess later if we really can't find anything."
The bunny-girl nodded, squeezing her mate's hand.
"I don't get it," Sally whispered to Alex, as they hovered just on the border of earshot out in the living room. "If Dad's good at his...at her job, why did she get fired? And why don't they want her back?"
Alex shrugged, a little surprised by the way her wings slightly mimicked the motion. At least they kept folded back...Sally's had a habit of unfurling without her knowledge, which meant she had to pay more attention when she moved. But then, Alex's tail tended to get everywhere, too.
"A lot of companies have been having a hard time with money in the past few years," she said. "I...I don't know why that is, everybody says something different. But I guess sometimes they have to cut people's jobs 'cause they don't have enough money. I guess Dad just got unlucky..."
Her former little sister frowned. "So it wasn't even her fault...no wonder she got so upset."
Alex sighed...she didn't want to have to expose her little sis to this kind of stuff...it didn't even seem like something she wanted to know about. She still felt upset about the way her dad had acted to her, but...she did feel bad for him...her...why was it harder for her to think of her dad as a woman than it was for her to think of herself as one? She didn't know.
Alex felt her sister's hand on her shoulder. "Do you wanna...go fly some more?" Sally asked. "That was fun..."
The dragon-girl smiled. "Yeah, it was. Let's." Mom and Dad could probably use a little time to themselves, anyway...
Steve swore under her breath. Somehow he'd managed to work up a burst of speed out of nowhere...she swore that couldn't be possible, not unless she'd missed something. He was catching up, and at this rate he'd pass her quickly. And both of them were a good ways ahead of all the computer-controlled cars, so she couldn't count on traffic to slow him down...
And they were coming up on the finish line, too. She didn't normally resort to this, but she wasn't just going to let him win if she could help it. Not after that "princess" crack. She swerved in front of him as he approached and braked hard, hoping to bring him to a stop.
She only clipped him. Damn! It did serve to kill most of his inexplicable speed boost, but it also left him moving, while she had lost a lot of velocity braking. She floored it, just catching up to him before the finish l-
2ND
The flower-girl watched her car roll to a stop as his coasted on, the 2-D crowd cutouts in the stands giving a cheer. He'd...augh! She felt her blood pressure mounting as she realized that she'd lost to him. It was a photo finish, but even so...argh!!
But...she shouldn't let it get to her. That would only encourage him...taking a deep breath, she stood up and turned to face the other machine.
"Hiro" was a tall-ish Asian boy with scruffy hair. He looked wirey but not scrawny, but it was difficult to tell thanks to the long trenchcoat he wore. And who wore gloves indoors? He was smiling, but since he was wearing sunglasses dark enough to completely hide his eyes, it was a little difficult to tell what the expression signified. The glasses appeared to be wired into something, too...headphones? No, his ears were unoccupied.
"You're good," he said. "If I hadn't used the cornering glitch, I'm pretty sure you'dve won."
She gaped. "That's what that was?" He'd...he'd used an exploit to beat her!? But then...she had broken out the vehicular combat at the end...
He nodded. "It's just for that car...do it right and traction is negated for about five seconds. Good game."
"Th-thanks," she said. She glanced at the time on his screen. Her record was still intact, at least. She'd have to take a proper stab at beating it later...if he was going to be around, she'd have to make sure the bar was set pretty high.
"So you're, what, a flower?" he asked, tilting his head to one side, which she took for an expression of curiosity. "Interesting."
Steve wasn't particularily comfortable with that look...he didn't look like he was leering or anything, but it was too inquisitive...too prying...it was like he was trying to gather information just by looking at her. She frowned. "Yeah. What're you?" That sounded a little more abrupt than she'd intended, but she felt a little on edge.
Hiro straightened up, grinned, and flipped his glasses up. Steve gasped as she noticed that one of his eyes wasn't an eye at all - it was a camera, complete with a circular metal bracket in his eye socket. The skin vanished around it in a complex fissure pattern, bare metal reaching out like a silver spiderweb all the way to the edge of the socket. The eye didn't have the red Terminator glowing "pupil," but it was plenty unnerving even without.
"Cyborg," he said. "You think this is weird, you should see my right arm."
Well, that explained the cyberpunk-ey dress, at least. It was a covering for what he must have realized was unsettling to other people. "H-how much of you is...uh, what?" Steve asked. She felt a little bad for being so blunt.
"61% electromechanical," he said. "50% in patches at various points on the body structure, 11% assorted organ replacements. Brain's a hybrid system, about half electronic and half wetware."
The flower-girl gaped. She...she'd seen some pretty strange things during her visit to the day-side school, but this took the cake. And he was so casual about it...
They sat and chit-chatted in Max's living room for a while longer, and she showed them around the house a bit more. Though her mother had gone upstairs to go to bed, her father was still fairly awake, and interested to know more about the school he'd be sending his son-turned-daughter to.
"I heard there was some trouble the other day," he said. "Something about a bomb threat?"
Jon shook her head. "That was at a different school," she said. "I think it was some private school...we didn't hear too much about it. They did have us evacuate just in case, but it turned out we weren't in any danger."
The human man nodded. "I've heard it turned out to be some kind of elaborate fake; I don't know who would go to that kind of trouble just to scare people."
The slug-girl shrugged. "Probably some nut." Actually, it bothered her - here was a perfect opportunity to use the stone for some good, if she could help figure out who was behind something like that...but she didn't want to risk depleting its power before she had the chance to put the sun back to normal. Why did the only real wish she'd made have to be the one that screwed things up?
Before too long, Max's father was yawning and glancing at the clock. "Well, I think it's about time I turned in," he said. "It was nice to meet you kids. And thanks for sharing about the school...that's definitely encouraging to hear."
"No problem," Karyn grinned. "I'm sure Max'll fit right in."
When he'd gone upstairs, Karyn spoke. "I suppose we should get going, too," she said. "Don't want to keep them up."
Max sighed. "Guys...thanks a lot...it was fun hanging out with you."
Jon smiled. "It was fun having you along," she said. She grabbed a piece of paper from the computer desk and wrote her number on it. "Look," she said, "if you ever need to talk..."
The cat-girl smiled, starting to mist up just a tad. "Th-thanks," she said. "Have a safe trip."
"We will," Tim said. He had to admit, he'd been impressed by how well the slug-girl handled the car. Obviously it wasn't built to accomodate her, but she managed better than some human drivers he'd known.
They said their goodbyes and left. "Hey," the drow-boy said, "as long as we're on this grand-tour thing, do you two want to come over to my house? It's not too far from here."
Jon and Karyn considered it for a moment. It was still mid-afternoon, and they didn't have anywhere to be. "Sure, why not?" the cecaelia-girl said, grinning.
Max punched Jon's number into her contacts list, smiling to herself. She went upstairs, Basty close behind her...she was feeling a little tired herself. Even after a week, she wasn't quite used to this day schedule. A quick nap would help...
She was putting away the clothes she'd gotten when she heard the door to her room shut. She looked to see her mother standing there, apparently just finished with getting ready for bed. "Here, Max," she said. "Let me see, would you?"
The cat-girl hesitated, but complied, pulling off her shirt. Her mother eyed the triple-brassiere contraption, examining it critically from all angles.
"That's a pretty good design," she said, smiling. "Does it help?"
Max nodded, blushing under her fur. "It oughtta be good," she said, "they wanted $100 for it!"
Her mom looked a little surprised. "A hundred? For the one?"
She nodded. "The saleslady said it's because it's a custom-built piece...she thought they'd come down, but even so...she was nice, though, she gave me the two for $50..."
The older woman gasped. "Oh my...we'll have to send her a thank-you gift. Did she help you pick out the clothes? They fit you very nicely...a little plain, maybe, but you look lovely, dear."
"Yeah, she did..." Max frowned slightly...was she really "lovely?" She didn't think she wanted to be, she thought, but then, she didn't really have a choice in the matter. On the other hand, maybe that was just parental bias speaking...
David wondered what it all meant. Did it mean anything? She looked like an angel, but she was neither a righteous avenger nor a pure saint...she was just a girl. And Rachel looked like a devil, and...well, okay, she acted kind of odd, but she definitely wasn't evil.
But then, there was something more to it than that. The storm last night, the way she'd just known that she needed to be out on that hill, to do whatever it was that she had done with her sisters stationed elsewhere over the town...there must have been some source for that order. Was it God? She didn't even know if she believed in him. Heck, how could a real angel be an agnostic, anyway? Wouldn't that be a disqualifier?
Or was this all surface resemblance? Did her mission last night stem from something more tangible? Maybe it was something she and her sisters could just sense, and they knew how to direct each other to take care of...whatever it was? That seemed like a crazy theory, but then, she'd seen a lot of improbable stuff in the past week-plus.
Whatever it was, she really had no idea. How could she even know for sure? She didn't know.
"You hungry?" Rachel asked. "It's nearly 3:00."
"...actually, yeah, I am," the angel-girl answered. "I don't think bars are going to let us in, though..."
The devil-girl shrugged. "There's gotta be normal restaurants around here, too." She smiled. "What are you...hungry for?"
