Max couldn't help but laugh as she delicately picked up the mouse and took it to the bathroom to flush. She'd read a little about this, that cats would teach their young to hunt by providing them with prey. "I'm supposed to be the one taking care of you, you know," she said, scratching behind Basty's ears. The cat leaned into her hand, and she smiled. Was her pet trying to "initiate" her, then?
She sighed, lying back on her bed, her breasts flopping off to the sides of her chest under gravity's influence. She had to admit, she'd always identified pretty closely with her cat...so in a way, this almost seemed appropriate. But that didn't mean she'd wanted to become...this, this freakish half-animal thing! Yet here she was...what would become of her? Would she just have to get used to being a...a cat-girl? Could she?
"Oof!" she exclaimed, as Basty jumped up and landed on her chest, gently kneading Max's fur with her paws before lying down. This wasn't new behavior for the cat, but it felt quite a bit stranger now. Max initially balked at the sensation, but something about having a small creature pressed to her chest...stirred unfamiliar sensations in her. It just felt right to have her there...
Max smiled and gently pet her. Probably the biggest comfort in this whole experience was that Basty still knew her for who she was. She was happy to have some new friends in the human world, too, but...even as unsettling as the prospect of life like this was, she was glad that her friend since childhood was still with her.
There was a gentle rumble. Aww, Basty was purring...no, she had her hand on the housecat, she could feel that she wasn't, at least not yet. But then, what was...?
Oh. It was her?
Tiffany's teacher looked cautiously around the living room, as if she was searching for something. Whatever it was, it seemed she didn't find it, and she relaxed slightly. She shut the door behind her and sat down in one of the easy chairs, leaning forward with an intense expression on her face. She motioned for Tiffany's father to sit. He did; she seemed like the kind of person who just ought to be heeded.
"Look," he said, "about Tiffany...she's...something's happened to her. Something bad."
"I know," the woman said. "I didn't want to intrude, but since you called me, I assume it's getting out of hand."
He gawked. "Y-you knew!? Why didn't you say something? Do something!?"
She sighed. "I thought that you must have understood the nature of your daughter's change, and as I said, I don't like to intrude on parental decision-making when it's not warranted. Now I'm not so sure...what do you know about Tiffany's transformation?"
He frowned. "Not much...just that...there's something dark about her. She looks human, but exaggerated, and she doesn't act human...like there's something else just under the surface and her body is just a...a disguise...it terrifies me..." It tore him apart to actually say it. "But...that can't be right! She's in there! She has to be! She's my daughter! She has to be...has to..."
She put a hand on his shoulder. "She is. Don't doubt that...she's not in danger, yet."
He stared at her, trembling. "I...they all say the sun doesn't do things like this..."
She shook her head. "It doesn't. This is something...different. It works on some of the same mechanics as the sun, which is why she hasn't been changed a second time, but...it's not the same. It takes people and corrupts them...sometimes to serve a purpose, other times just for the sake of corruption. Tiffany, at least, is one of the latter cases...but that's still a problem."
Mr. Saunders gasped and cringed as he felt an all-too-familiar dread creep over him; standing in the hallway just outside the living room was his daughter. Far from her now-usual expression of cruel contempt, however...she was obviously terrified.
"W-why!?" she gasped. "Why is SHE here!? You...how could you do this to me? Don't you know she'll...she'll..." Flinching, she turned and ran back upstairs.
He heard her bedroom door slam, and turned to the teacher in astonishment. "What the...what the hell was that about!?" he yelped.
The woman hung her head. "She's right to be afraid of me. Mr. Saunders, the truth of the matter is that what I have become...if she weren't so weak to this, it would be one thing, but...light banishes shadow, the Real unmakes the unreal...I'm a bull in a china shop..."
He stared at her. What was she babbling about? Was everyone crazy?
She realized she'd been incoherent. "I'm sorry. It's just...sir, the truth is that I could obliterate Tiffany or people like her, if I wanted. I'm terribly afraid that I might do it even without intending...that's why I haven't attempted to address this before. But it's obvious that I can't keep ignoring this..."
Somehow he knew that she was speaking the truth...it didn't feel like she could do otherwise. "What...what can we do about it?" he asked.
She sighed. "I can...attempt to remove it," she said. "It will go easier if she doesn't fight it. But you should know...this thing has its roots in flaws and aspects that are actually a part of her, of the real Tiffany. That's how it works, how it gets its foothold. It might be...it might be that some parts of her could be...taken along with it. Tiffany might not come out of this the same as...as she was."
He could hardly even find words. "H-how is this...fair?" he whispered. "She's j-just a g-girl..."
The woman shook her head. "It isn't...that's the worst part. It's not fair at all. Tiffany herself isn't a monster, just another flawed human being...but it's taken hold of what it could and tried to make her one. You should know, too, that what I said about it sharing mechanics with the sun...even if it comes free without any damage, it will no longer be blocking the sun's effects...it may even induce a sun-change, as it leaves."
Mr. Saunders could feel tears running down his cheeks that he hadn't even realized he was shedding. "If...if we leave this be, what happens to my daughter?" He was terrified by her, a prisoner in his own house, but...if it was this or see her killed, he would make any sacrifice...
"If we let it remain in her," the teacher said, "the best case...if Tiffany finds it in herself to fight every urge it attempts to nurture in her, then it could wither and die, and leave her a human being again...after years of fighting a constant battle with her own darker nature."
"A-and the worst?" He didn't want to know, he didn't want to know, he didn't-
"The corruption twists her completely, and there is nothing left of the real Tiffany."
He felt like he was going to vomit. Nothing left...she didn't say "dead;" rather, her words implied erasure, overwriting of his child with some true monster...he could leave Tiffany be, with the possibility of losing her completely, or subject her to something that might - "merely" - kill her...no, that couldn't be it! He'd help her, lead her to starve the darkness that had taken hold of her...destroy it herself!
No...if he couldn't even get her to overcome her ordinary flaws...how could they hope to drive back this thing? If there was any hope for his daughter...
"D-don't kill her," he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.
She cringed. "I...I'll do my best...there's nothing I want less." She rose and left the living room, heading upstairs.
The door to Tiffany's room creaked open as she sat huddled at the far end. She could see that terrible figure silhouetted in the light from the hallway, catching more than a glimpse of its true shape. "You're here to destroy me," she said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact, a resignation.
"I hope not," the thing that was her teacher said. "I want to help you. I'm going to remove this from you, Tiffany...and it would help me greatly if you would let me. The less force I have to use, the less likely it is that you'll come to harm..."
"Nice of you to ask my permission to do things to me." There was a very human bitterness in the sentence, but also something else, something calculated to effect doubt in the listener.
Her teacher sighed. "You're not...in your right mind. Your father has asked me to do this, acting in your best interest."
"Sure. That'll make a big difference when I'm dead."
"Tiffany, I'm going to do my best to see that that doesn't happen, but even if it does...there are worse things than being dead, and you know that."
Tiffany gulped, trying not to think of what the woman was talking about. She couldn't let herself be swayed like this...
"You don't truly want this," the woman said. "You know that. You're driving away the people that mattered to you...already your own father is terrified of you."
She bolted to her feet. "What do YOU know!?" she snarled, indignant. "I'm better than him! I am above humans! I am above the changed! I'm above you! You, of all people...you're given power I would KILL to have, and what do you do with it? You sit around in a damned school!"
Her teacher sighed. "You need these people, even if you're telling yourself you don't. Tiffany, you would drive away everyone and everything in your life...you would be completely alone. Completely. You've already tasted that feeling; you know you don't want it."
It was a stab through the gut to be reminded. That dream, that horrible dream, of herself as a harpy, like Sarah whom she'd mistreated, alone on an island...just completely alone...how did SHE know!? Her face contorted in rage. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" she shrieked. "GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HEAD!" She grabbed the nearest object and hurled it at the woman.
She missed, and it hit the wall and shattered. She could see the mechanical guts of a music box...a present from her mother, long ago when her parents were together...Tiffany could feel tears trickling down her cheeks in spite of her rage. Not that...she hadn't meant for that...
Her teacher crouched and gathered the bits of ceramic that the sculpture had exploded into, gently piecing them back into a battered shape on the base like it was the single important thing in the world at that moment, like the whole confrontation was irrelevant when there was this little knick-knack to be fixed...
She gently touched her forehead to the precarious pile of shards, and...it was whole. The woman lifted it up with great care and placed it on the shelf nearest to her.
"Tiffany," she said, "I need you to choose. If you will submit to my treatment...I will do everything in my power to heal you with no harm done. But...if you resist...I will not intentionally harm you, Tiffany, or use any more force than I need, but...it's likely that you will come to harm in the process."
Tiffany stared at her. She...she meant it. Her teacher was going to do this...what hope did she stand of stopping this woman? This thing?
The door to Tim's room gently creaked open, and he turned from his project to see Melody standing in the doorway. "Um," she said, "...sorry for...acting like that to your friends. I shouldn'tve..."
The drow-boy shook his head. "It's all right," he said. "I don't blame you for reacting that way...and they understood. Even more than I did, unsurprisingly."
The dragon-girl hugged her big brother, and he smiled and hugged her back. She left, smiling, and Tim turned back to his project. However, he found himself thinking of the day he'd had. It had been fun hanging out with Jon and Karyn...he was encouraged that it seemed they didn't find his appearance freaky, or assume that the implications it carried applied to him.
It was fun getting to know them better, too...he looked forward to continuing to do so. They had a whole school year...
"And what are you thinking about?" asked the liquid voice of his father. He turned to see her standing over him, though far enough back that the occasional stray drip wouldn't get near his electronics. She was in mostly-solid mode, not human mode...Tim didn't really understand why she wore one form or the other at this or that time. And naturally she was au natural - the weird part was how little it registered. Likely because she was his parent, but still...
"Uh, nothing much," he said. "Just the morning, is all."
The naiad-woman grinned. "Seems you have an interesting definition of 'not much.' Something you want to share with the class?"
He shook his head. "N-no...not yet."
She nodded. "Well, if you ever do...we're here, you know that?"
He smiled. "I do."
Effie smiled. They were sitting and watching the demo mode on one of the machines, the bright flashes of color like a fireworks show. And her...friend was here with her, watching the show as well and...just being here with her.
Maybe she really was stuck like this, able to truly exist only within a virtual world, seemingly unable to play games the way she'd used to, but...maybe it had its positives after all...this lightshow was just...beautiful. Sublime. Maybe this wouldn't be...so bad...
She sighed happily and gently laid her head on Dennis's shoulder.
