‘We’ll fix it’
That was what the weird toy squirrel said to James… Maya… this had to be a dream. A weird dream… any moment she would wake up. Right?
“Who is Maya? Why…” that question… that was the only question now.
So confusing.
James was not himself… herself… she was now some ‘young girl’ called Maya. Perhaps that would be a dream come true for some people… but what about a person who has a job, a house, and was… alone?
As a girl, she had cried her heart out into the evening until she ran out of tears… not even sure quite ‘why’ she cried. She was afraid… more so than she felt she should be.
‘Well… it could be… fun?’
Fun? “No.. no no…” weird thoughts… Were those her own thoughts? In this girl’s body it felt like her very mind was being changed or at least…swayed. Her emotions were stronger. She felt this weird ‘inner playfulness’ that had long been suppressed by the demands of adult life.
She wanted more answers but the ‘squirrel toy’ had vanished… somehow. Was it even there or just a sign of growing madness? She was left alone to deal with a room that wasn’t hers, in a body that wasn’t hers and ‘nothing’ felt normal. She wondered if she should call someone… her mother? Father? Her brother? No way… they would laugh at her, make fun of her… or just not believe her. They couldn’t help anyway being away from the country and she was quite adamant not to call them for ‘help’… as if she was a baby again.
Maya was supposed to go to work tomorrow and live her ‘mundane’ life still. She was to go grocery shopping, maybe watch a movie… it was a… quiet life but it was her life. The only life that seemed available to her. It wasn’t as if she had a choice either. If she didn’t pay for her house, she would be out on the streets- and in this body?! With no identity papers or anything…
The idea of being out in the streets horrified her more then being a girl… but to have that happen ‘as a girl’?
Of course, she wasn’t an ordinary girl… she had some kind of magic but if the movies and comics taught her anything, it was that relying on magic to fix problems tended to create more problems.
‘Magic for Magic problems’
“Yeah..” She found herself agreeing to… herself.
This body ‘was’ a magic problem… so using some kind of magic to fix that at least seemed sensible. What now though…. Being... a magical girl? That was a recipe for disaster! James was a guy! Not just that, but a salaryman with obligations.
How could she just ‘switch’ her life without any foundation or help… A life of adventure, magic, infinite impossibilities…
“Poverty, homelessness, destruction… loneliness..’
Somehow, the new girl slept… not even sure quite when she went to sleep. Her frilly bed quite comfortable though…
Risu looked at the endless void. The space between not just ‘space’ but thought itself.
The little Squirrel-like creature somehow stood on an invisible platform, in this strange surreal space. There were tiny orbs of energy all around her, each one representing a single person on Earth. It was quite a strange place. The ‘darkness’ itself seemed to have small tendrils of energy all around it connecting the dots like constellations.
One star represented Maya. The squirrel reached for that point of light, the tendril of energy connecting itself to her… and one other sphere. There were smaller tendrils connected to other places but.. it saddened her a little that her new charge was so isolated. She looked to the larger sphere as it came closer. “Queen of Dreams!“
“Ah!” The large sphere of energy pulsed with energy. “You have found her! My new daughter?” Tell me about her!” She seemed very excited. Though what she looked like. … couldn’t be seen. “I want to know- no wait I want to be surprised. Is she adorable though?”
The squirrel toy looked awkwardly. “Uh- well-“
“Is she cute? I have some presents to welcome her. You did at least give her her new bedroom?”
“Oh- yes,” The squirrel nodded. “That’s… that was done-“
“I also worked on her princess dress for the occasion. Does she like dolls? I wasn’t sure what style to make it, but I have a few delightful options/”
Risu gulped. “Ah- yeah well- there’s just- maybe we can slow this down a bit? She’s uh… a little overwhelmed… “
“Ha! What girl wouldn’t be, suddenly becoming a princess?” The Queen seemed to have a mirthful voice at this. “Yes, Of course, though we do need to make sure she’s prepared. The Nightmares will be here soon. We can’t really show any weakness, this situation has been delayed long enough as it is. She needs to be able to present herself by my side.”
“Oh! Absolutely! She’s…uh.. yeah she’ll attend the dignitary meeting… of course I’ll have her ready.”
“Good. I certainly cannot wait!”
Morning came… light filtering through the curtained window.
Maya felt a little ‘strange’… did she have a dream? Something... yes, but she forgot. She reached out for her mobile phone, blinking a little as her hand instead reached out to a small clock. “Uh… oh right… I’m… this now.” This.. this body. She blushed awkwardly feeling somehow ‘bad’ to be… in his form. Guilty… she was a guy inside this girl’s body. It was…
Wrong?
‘It’s your body though…’
“My body…” Maya sighed as she got out of her strange bed. Maybe she would feel better after a shower… clean…. Then ‘dress’ herself. Something that normally took fifteen minutes at most but somehow she knew this would probably take an hour of working out.
Going to the bathroom was an awkward endeavour… one she quickly tried to forget as she noted how much larger the seat was. She was somewhat surprised by how much of a difference that made. She had lost quite a bit of height. How would that affect the illusion magic? Her breasts were a new constant memory of her new female body, and… well all the rest of it too.
She took off her pyjamas- wait- she had pyjamas? She looked at that confused again not quite remembering putting those on… but eventually got into the shower. It was relatively quick, again she tried not to look at her body too much, just doing what was necessary. Each touch made her feel more and more squeamish. “I wonder what’s for breakfast-“
.. she had to make breakfast.
Of-course she did. She didn’t, have anyone… to… “Problems… problems…” One thing at a time. She dressed herself in a towel awkwardly blushing again. “I can handle this… just another day- no problem. I don’t have time to eat right now anyway- I can get something at work.”
Maya returned to her room to find clothes. “Oh, what the hell Risu!” All her clothes were changed… cute dresses, frilly tops, underwear and bras of various types that she couldn’t even ‘begin’ to understand. She looked down at her body and knew she had to change into ‘something’. The clothes looked like they would fit her pretty well though.
The girl in a daze looked at what was available, finding only the cutest things that a girl could wear. She could pick the colour of them and general size but… Maya sighed feeling defeated. “Well... at least they do ‘look’ nice…”
She reluctantly tried to put on her bra first… awkwardly sliding it across her arms. Her breasts were rather small but no unnoticeable. Eventually she got it on and proceeded with the rest of her underwear. A set of jeans was a little hard to find among the dresses but eventually she did find one. She guessed it would be better for the illusion magic to look as ‘normal’ dressed as was physically possible.
Finally, she looked at the strange magical paper that ‘should’ make her look like her old self to other people. She slowly stuck the scroll on her forehead, the paper awkwardly going down her nose and slightly obscured her vision.
She studied herself again. A girl… wearing blue denim jeans, with a softer white blouse on top. She had a jacket on in pastel colours and white socks with appropriate shoes. Her hair needed to be blow dried as it was so long… she found one in her new dresser and started to use it. “I’ll have to get a haircut,” She thought to herself.
Time to go to work…
Maya groaned at how difficult her journey had been. First of all, she couldn’t drive… her feet wouldn’t reach the pedals. That meant she had to take a bus… and for some reason she was quite sure ‘some’ people could see who- ‘what’ she really was…
Mostly she was sure it was kids her own age or younger who were laughing at the piece of paper hanging on her head- and she was trying so very hard to ignore them. Of course, older people didn’t notice anything amiss….there were clearly limitations to this magic. She didn’t know what they were, but it set her on edge.
Finally, she had reached the depot office where she worked… simple job mostly moving parcels back and forth. She hoped she could still use the forklift like this-
“Heya James you’re a bit late!” Terry the intern smiled.
Maya stared at Terry… the illusion magic was working… She gave an awkward nod. “Well- uh-“ She nodded. “Yeah I .. got caught up in some things.” Was this really working? She looked up at him, sightly touching the piece of paper that masked her true physical form. To Terry it looked like ‘James’ was rubbing his nose.
“You okay? You seem a bit… off.” Terry was a young intern fresh from university. He was very laid back and was doing this job for ‘experience’… though what experience James had little idea. He had short blonde hair and was considered very laid back.
“Oh I’m fine!” The girl in James’s explained quickly. “So I just need to check on the schedule…” ‘Treat this as normal- he thinks you look as you always did… maybe this can work.’
Work was… awkward. Very awkward. She realised very quickly that she ran out of energy a lot quicker. Her mind would wonder sometimes making it difficult to concentrate on one single task. Her job was boring… and for the most part adults did boring jobs. Though with her ‘child brain’ doing the work, she couldn’t fight how dull and boring this was!
Then something ‘really bad’ happened during break. Terry said they had some weird security breach.
“What do you mean?” Terry asked.
“On the camera’s there’s some kid who was using the forklifts!” He showed the camera footage. “Wasn’t that you there? She seems to have something stuck on her face… creepy.”
“Uh..” Maya gulped staring at the image of… herself. Clearly the magic didn’t work with technology. That was a ‘game over’ problem! “She’s my er- cousin! I was just… showing her the work I did. Nothing to worry about. Please don’t tell anyone! She… she just really wanted to … use the forklift.”
“Oh, like me heh,” Terry chuckled. “Yeah I get it, I won’t say a word. But you got to let me have a go now too.”
Maya sighed. Her life really was over… unless Risu could ‘do something’…. She was going to lose her house, her job…
…everything.
