The mall…
Barry observed the scene. There were lots of shops, people buying and walking around… not too busy but just busy enough for the changed rabbit-girl to feel some apprehension. Barry had been here before, when she went shopping yesterday, with her mother.
She wasn’t here this time…
The Rabbit-girl chided herself on feeling in any way concerned about that. Her mother was acting as if she was a baby again! The way she had been acting infuriated her. She had to prove she was still capable to do the things she had done before. Glancing at the text messages, she just needed to show she was still independent as any teenager otherwise this will never end! She was supposed to be learning to drive after all. What Excuse would she make then?
Barry glanced to Susan, using her wheelchair to move. Her fin advertising her status as a mermaid… a literal fish out of water. The rabbit-girl walked along side her finding it rather nice that they were able to converse ‘level’ with the other though it certainly brought more looks in their direction. Even with the mermaids goggles it felt closer then she felt with other people who literally looked down on her.
The mall was nothing to be nervous about… nothing at all. She has been here many times before her transformation and wasn’t worried- well- at least until the stares came. They were hardly subtle. She saw them… glancing in her direction then pretending ‘not’ to look or notice her at all, while clearly taking in the… strangeness of her new body. She couldn’t blame them too much; Barry had spent a day acquainting herself with this body too.
The newly changed rabbit-girl heard conversations pausing mid-sentence and she could hear it in the way they held their breath a moment… not to mention the actual words spoken were incredibly audible to her very large ears.
‘So cute!’ she heard someone whisper.
‘Do you think they are sisters?’ Another asked, referring to Susan.
‘Kinda freaky…’ another girl whispered.
They started to go back to their personal conversations and Barry somehow tuned it out. It seemed she only became conscious of distant words if she was consciously trying to hear, or subconsciously knew it was related to her.
“Are you okay?” Asked Susan noticing her friend staring out ahead and the way her tied down ears twitched.
“Yeah…” Barry sneaked a glance towards the ‘New Body’ Clinic… an innocuous shop of bright blue doors and pale white interior which had existed since she could remember. It was another shop that specialised in transforming the old, possibly rejuvenating them. She couldn’t see anyone behind the counter… mainly because of her new height. There were a few people- human people, looking at the posters with the usual hooks to interest potential users of the machine. She could see now how each promise was careful not to offer something desired but just to offer… possibilities. Very careful shades of grey that kept them within the law. There included a warning that ‘certain transformations would affect tax status.’
She found herself thinking of Angel… and her goal. She blushed as she recalled that hug… it felt so good…so… nice. She had never been hugged like that before. Susan was right that she was yearning for it again…
“So, my mother gave you a ton of ideas. Did anything strike you as workable?”
Barry looked at the various dresses on display. “They sure make it easy to window shop,” she thought. There were so many options and choices in just which shop to start with! This was going to be hard. “Just not something too girly…”
“A not too girly dress. Right.” Susan shook her head as she walked with her friend.
“Do you need help with your chair?” Barry asked.
“Oh- I’m good don’t worry.” The mermaid replied with an… awkward expression. Barry’s rabbit body wouldn’t exactly be any faster than just pushing herself she realised… but she didn’t want to bring down her friend’s ego, it was fragile enough as it was. Boys… “So, shall we try this shop?” She gestured to an average clothing shop.
“Um… I went there with my mom. They only have… kid clothes- my size.” She blushed heavily under her fur.
“Ha- uh… well- we can try somewhere else. There might be a specialist shop for… transformed people,” Susan nodded turning her wheelchair to move further down the shops. She ignored the glances to their direction being quite used to it. “Maybe we can get something to eat after this?” She often found having something to look forward to after a difficult task would help. It usually helped her anyway.
Barry’s ears twitched slightly upward. “Um… yeah…” she felt she didn’t need to eat quite as much in this body but… she did get quite hungry when she was hungry. “Sounds good!”
There were no ‘specialist’ shops in the small town… though they did find a small specialised bra shop which provided fabrics that in theory were easier on fur as well as offering some rather exotic- (though not exactly ‘useful’) configurations to Barry. It pretty much amounted to the same thing for Her. It was easier not to wear a bra anyway, as she didn’t have a lot in that area but trying on a dress did seem to bring more attention there making the need of a bra more apparent.
Trying on a few styles she hoped to find one that could pass as a robe and found a kimono styled dress. At first it looked perfect. However the material was quite thick and with her fur, it started to make her feel quite hot. This ‘could’ be fixed if she wore shorter clothing, but she had to give up on that look in the end as it was too odd according to Susan.
She stared at the mirror in ages trying to gauge as best she could how to present herself in this body in such a way that was somehow to what Angel expected but comfortable enough for her to pull off. A simple long shirt-styled dress was just too casual…
Why was shopping so hard! It had been almost three hours and she had gone through a whole bunch of options of various shades, styles and combinations. She found a pinafore styled dress that seemed like an evolution from her Mary-Jane overalls, but still conveyed an... immature look to her. Still Susan insisted it looked nice on her so they bought it to keep ‘just in case’.
For the party she had settled on a compromise of a light blue A-line dress which seemed to go well with her light fur. It pinched in slightly around her hips, which gave a relatively more mature look… using what she had. Then she added on a sleeveless denim jacket was certainly helped the over-all look she wanted. Her ears pulled downward certainly helped too though it made her look a bit shorter.
“Maybe a necklace?” Thought Susan.
“Huh? Why?”
“It will help you look older.” The mermaid giggled with a little flap of her tailfin. “Any thoughts on shoes?” Susan asked.
Barry glanced down. “It doesn’t seem to bother me,” she admitted. “I can’t really wear normal shoes anyway. Necklace… would just get buried in my fur I think and I don’t want something big and heavy weighing me down.”
They had bought a few other dresses with the high credit limit, Barry did in the end reluctantly go for some underwear… but the problem was that looking older, would inevitably make her look more feminine too. She was somewhat stuck between an androgynous young animal… or a blossoming young rabbit woman. Clothing would present either option to lean on and styling was so much more tricky as a result… especially if she was trying to impress Angel.
“Angel…” she felt her ears flop down. Why was being with this girl so… hard? If she went to this party in a dress… did that mean she could have a date with her? She was glad that Angel seemed open to it after that hug…
Susan was looking for her own clothing and dresses too. Of course, it was even more tricky for her. Fitting her goldfish mermaid tail just made things awkward for her. She did find a simple blue dress that was short and could be folded under her fins, but it was not comfortable. It always clashed with her rusty gold scales though, which she had to accept was just ‘one of those things’. Colours never looked right to her, and her watery eyes made it difficult to gauge. Though the two girls helped the other out, Barry was surprisingly good at finding the right shades of dresses that would suit Susan.
After this they went to the food court to get a bite to eat. The amount of shopping was surprising… and Barry was struggling with the clothes and bags. She didn’t want to load it all on Susan’s chair either… Sitting down she had to catch her breath.
“Happy with your choices?” Asked Susan as she enjoyed a burger.
The rabbit-girl sat up on the chair to reach for the chips. “I… I’m not sure. I mean- it’s a… dress…” she didn’t want to admit she was insisting just 24 hours ago she would never wear one… but for Angel…
“Eh, it’s just a dress,” Susan rolled her eyes under her goggles. “You are making too big a deal about it.”
Was she? Maybe… heck- ‘clothing’ technically didn’t need to apply to her but being a naked furry rabbit girl was a bit too much for her to deal with. She needed her clothes even if fur would keep her covered up. “I wonder why boys and girls wear different things…”
Susan tilted her head at that. “You really are clueless aren’t you.” She smiled. “in a way that suits you… being an innocent rabbit,” she giggled. “Despite your looks you really are a boy.”
Barry wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
Susan looked a bit sombre at the path her friend was following. “You seem to be doing a lot to convince yourself not to wear a dress despite seeming to want to.”
“I- I need to.” Barry explained. “Just for this once.”
“Uh… huh.” Susan gave a slightly flat look as she drew the last of her milkshake through a straw. “For Angel?”
“Yeah.” Barry insisted.
“I’ll never understand boys. You seem to go through an awful lot of trouble just for one girl. I hope it’s worth it though,” the mermaid gave a sad smile.
Barry was about to say something when her ears picked up a conversation between two boys. They seemed to be ‘rating’ them… “Oh God,” she pulled her ears lower trying to not hear them anymore. The comments were just idle banter- but it was making her squirm….
Russel and Keith were two friends who went to the same school as Barry- though did not actually know him that well… and certainly didn’t know who the rabbit girl used to be. They had seen her and they had heard of the quiet Mermaid Susan, who mostly kept herself to the library. Seeing them they had to play the ‘would you do them’ game?
“Mermaid or rabbit for you?” Russel asked with a slight grin to his friend. He was a rather tall teenager with slight facial hair, and T-shirt. He was rather skinny and wore sporty clothes. He was with Keith, a younger boy having their own milkshake and burgers. Keith wore jeans and a jacket, currently draped behind his chair.
Keith shrugged. “I dunno. I mean the Mermaid looks mostly normal…” He seemed a bit embarrassed to be playing this banter out. They were across the other end of the food court though so no way they could hear them… right? “I wonder why they decided to change...”
It was of course a rule in this world… people who were changed, had to have ‘chosen’ it… right? Unless they were coerced of course but that was extremely rare.
Russel shrugged. “Eh, a bunch of reasons. I heard they just hate being human,” The taller boy decided finishing a burger.
Keith wasn’t sure it was that simple. “I don’t think it’s about that. I mean- being human has limits, doesn’t it? If you could be… more than human…” He sighed. “There’s this debate on what transforming means. It’s like they are astronauts of the flesh. It’s pretty cool isn’t it?”
Russel looked to his friend worried. “Come on you’re not going to get -your- body changed, are you?”
“We-well-“ The shorter boy gave a look… the kind of look of being ‘undecided’, ‘curious’, but…
“Dude!” Russel groaned annoyed. “You could end up a Bug-eyed-frog-legged mutant or something worse!” He said. “I mean look at- look at that!” He gestured quietly to the rabbit-girl and mermaid.
The rabbit-girls ears gave a slight twitch to their direction- but Keith and Russel didn’t notice.
The shorter boy cringed a little and looked down. “I know... but they are getting better at reversing unwanted changes.” He knew he would regret saying this. “I think it’s pretty cool,” he admitted. “I think… everyone wants to be ‘more’ but not many people are willing to roll the dice and see what they get. They just want to improve themselves…” he was hoping so much that they could fix the return sequence… it didn’t always work but if it was possible to reverse, he knew he would feel no concern to give a new body a shot. If it didn’t work he could just go back to the machine and return to his normal self. Who wouldn’t want to have that freedom?
The taller teen looked annoyed. “Oh, come on. It’s stupid. There’s nothing wrong with you! You -can- improve the human body... make do with what you are given! Just go to the gym. Seems safer then putting all these exotic particles into you and turning you into a freak,” he chuckled. “Do you think that mermaid and rabbit used to be guys?”
This made Keith spit out his coke. “Heh- uh- I dunno. I saw the bunny-girl shopping in the girl store. She’s clearly a girl and that mermaid is a girl… they probably are girls on the evidence we have. Gender transformation is rare, isn’t it?” There was no real statistic for this though it did seem when a gender change ‘did’ happen, it tended to be male to female- though the bias was hard to prove.
“Heh, I bet if you turned into a girl you’ll be shopping for a purse in two seconds,” Russel laughed. “Keithalita!”
“W-what? No of course not-“ Keith protested with a slight blush.
“Boy or girl, they are just human haters,” The taller boy insisted. “It’s not worth thinking about.”
Keith sighed. On the TV, there was a lot of talk that some of them did hate humans… if that was actually the truth he wasn’t sure but he didn’t think so. “What do you think of China’s One change per family law?”
“I think it’s crazy to be honest,” Russel said not too interested in politics- though everyone had heard about the one-change family law.
“They must have a reason.“ Keith thought.
“Fear.” The taller teen explained. “A population living in fear is divided and easily controlled… tell them you’ll transform a family member by law, and they will divide each other and sell each other out it’s just politics, I don’t think about it.”
It was a rather grim thought. A government that ‘encouraged’ transformation could have access to new biological possibilities, or even new meta-humans with super strength for military applications. Though such powerful changes were extremely rare, the more often a country practiced transformation the more likely ‘something’ interesting will be created with military applications. As a result, lot of countries were ‘exploring’ various options… and their population were always afraid of some kind of ‘transformation mandate’ given other countries were forcing it on people and might gain a competitive advantage from it.
Though for now, democratic countries agreed it should be a personal choice. Perhaps with time, more stable family units could be created with generations providing new traits. Though there were incentives like a ‘transformation discount’ using the train.
Keith glanced at the mermaid and bunny-girl with curiosity. “Maybe they are… you know… religious about it?”
“Could be… still stupid.” Russel groaned. “Get transforming out of your head. Unless you want to end up with bunny ears or googly eyes-“
Suddenly Russel gasped as the rabbit girl walked to them. “You want to say that to my face?” She didn’t mind them insulting her but insulting Susan was another matter.
“Eh? Russel looked down at the little rabbit girl.
“We were just-“ Keith started but Russel stopped him.
“-just go away little bunny we weren’t saying anything.” He said. Though an idea struck him… he could show Keith that transformed people were a lot weaker then humans… it would make sure he never does it! “You don’t want a fight..” he reached down and picked up Barry!
“H-Hey let me go!” The rabbit girl gasped as she dangled a few feet in the air!
Susan came in with her wheel chair surprised at her friends speed. What the heck possessed Barry to go after them like this!
However something weird happened… electrical energy started to spill from Barry, like a weird static charge.
Zap! “Ow!” Russel winced as he dropped the rabbit girl.
Barry started at the two “say you’re sorry!”
Keith bit his lip. He didn’t want this to be a fight and pulled Russel back, earning a slight sting of electrical energy. “We’re sorry. Really it’s my fault. I was … curious about you that’s all. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Barry looked at the two and realised she was way over her bunny ears to challenge them more. “…fine. Let’s go Susan…”
