Day 1 of 25 Days of TF-mas! (Contains girl to wrapping paper tf and flattening)
The air was becoming a frigid, biting beast. Dew frosted overnight. Adults were mapping lists and kids were buzzing with excitement for the impending traditions that heralded that most special of times. December – the holiday season proper was here. Whatever the veil one chose, a certain warmth permeated the space where bitter cold probably should have resided. It was during these times of merriment and shopping that beings like Kat lived for in a very literal sense. Kat, drawn to the snow-capped city’s lights and sounds, as well as the potent magical energies it could sense within, drifted along the wind to land on rooftop, perching to observe the smattering of people bustling about. The creature was… technically a sort of genie, though it hardly functioned on the servant-master 3 wishes fairy tales insisted, though that was a rather fun game to play from time to time. The ethereal wish granter was much more of a free spirit, typically drawing energy and power from the excitement and desire so prevalent in the holiday season. It was easy to find people with strong desires during this time, whether it was a young couple wanting to make the holidays romantic and special, a child wanting a certain gift with all their heart, or even the less seasonally inclined wanting nothing more in the world than to avoid the contagious merriment spreading from person to person in the bitter cold of winter. It was a source of power and sustenance for Kat, but much like the feasts humans often indulged in this time of year, there was much more than necessary, and much more room for pleasure and play. Kat drifted down from the roof, weaving betwixt the wind that ripped down the alleys and landed gracefully on the ground, fully undetected by the city folk. As it touched down, Kat began to coalesce into a form more fitting for the environment. Cute, furred boots encased its feet and pants trailed up towards a forming torso tightly bundled in a heavy winter coat. A scarf wrapped around Kat’s neck, partially covering its face that began to bear feminine features. Long, black hair fell in curly waves and was topped with a light-colored beanie. Kat assessed itself, patting down its new body with mittens over its hands. Everything appeared to be in order. It was a bit unsteady on fresh legs at first but managed an even stride pretty quickly. The feeling began to hit it in earnest – the excitement of finding the perfect appetizer.
Vanessa’s loose bun bounced in time with her rapid steps. Her strides stretched the limit of her leg-span as she pushed a cart through the store. Much like some of the other patrons at this time of year, she was here on a mission. She navigated the busy aisles with deft determination and arrived at the decked out seasonal section and paused for the first time since her shoes hit the parking lot pavement outside. She mentally flipped through a shortlist of items she needed and set to work finding them. Vanessa belonged to a rather large family, and shopping to both decorate her home to her standards and to prepare for gift giving was an arduous, month-long task that often left her rather frazzled till the day itself. She brushed a stray light brown lock from her face as her auburn eyes scanned shelf after shelf, hunting like a bird of prey for specific items that hit that button for her.
It was in this state that Kat came upon Vanessa. The mystical being observed the woman from afar, fascinated by and drawn to the intensity with which Vanessa built an image of her ideal holiday décor in her mind. So palpable was this desire that even Kat could see it in its mind’s eye and caused it to get closer to the woman. Close enough to hear her mutter to herself.
“So stressful,” she sighed inwardly, “Wish I could just sit back and do nothing and have it still be perfect for the day.”
The muttering of the tired woman gave Kat an idea. Besides, how fitting was it that she even used the word ‘wish’? It was that sort of built-in comedy that Kat was really looking for. Now that it had latched onto a target for its machinations, it needed to decide on how to go about playing with her. While doing it public had a sort of spectacle to it, it could also get annoying, and seeing as how Vanessa was now booking it to the check out lanes, Kat decided to follow her into the parking lot. It watched her step into a large red mechanism that roared and rumbled as it scurried off, its feet spinning rapidly rather than running. Kat blinked, following after Vanessa, tracking her by that strong sense of desire it had felt from her before.
Vanessa unloaded her purchases on the dining room table and dumped her purse in a chair. She was tired and her hair felt greasy. Just a little bit longer, then the fun part of the holidays would make up for it, she assured herself as she tromped upstairs to shower. She did not notice the front door open. Instead, she stripped down to shower, singing a little carol to herself to hype up the holiday mood.
Kat entered from downstairs. It was a pleasantly warm home with a fireplace in the living room. Decorations hadn’t been set up in full swing just yet, but it was clear that this season was a very big deal to the woman. A set of ornaments was out and ready to hang. Candles sat on the mantle with more in a box to distribute across the house. Of course, her most recent purchases sat on the circular dining room table as well, ready to be dug into and decorating to begin in earnest. Kat spent a few moments soaking all the stimuli in, distracted only when the sound of singing and running water abruptly stopped upstairs. It looked up. A grin touched Kat’s lips and it headed upstairs to investigate.
Steam poured out of the bathroom when Vanessa opened the door to step out. She was wrapped in a towel and her hair, now down, was still damp and clung to her shoulders. Apparently unaware of the dark-haired woman in her house, she nonchalantly meandered to the bedroom, sifting through her clothes to find something cute and festive. She settled on a short red and white dress with a little fluff on the hem of the skirt, similarly colored knee-high socks, and a bow in her hair to tie her look together. Vanessa gave herself one last once over in her mirror and made her way towards the door of her bedr-
WHAM
The door swung open with more force than Vanessa would have considered ever necessary, had she the wherewithal to ponder that. In one instant, she’d had her hand on the door, intent on going downstairs to slowly but surely decorate her home, and the next? Well… The next she was here. Pinned against the wall in a most absurd way. The door had slammed into her with enough force that she probably should have been hurt, but mostly she felt… stuck. She was unable to move much, and only managed a faint squeak when the door moved to reveal Kat staring at her. Strangely, the removal of the door smushed against her did not free Vanessa from her predicament. She felt pressed against the wall and remained somewhat suspended. Her eyes were wide, and she could see a woman with black hair and a beanie but trying to look around more failed. It wasn’t until the beanie woman grabbed her that she even began to comprehend her situation. Kat took Vanessa’s hand and peeled it off the wall. Like one of those sticky window decorations, Vanessa heard and felt her skin being pulled off the wall of her bedroom. It felt like she’d been sitting on a leather sofa for hours and was finally getting up. Kat seemed to take its time with her. It carefully and methodically pulled her from the wall. Once her head was free, Vanessa flopped back to an impossible degree. She was flat. How was this even possible? Who was this girl that could just casually see her like a poster and pull her down without so much as a gasp? She felt the woman’s hands start to roll her up like a newspaper but found it difficult to protest without air in her lungs. Luckily, Kat had rolled her in such a way that her eyes faced outward. The sensation was so much further beyond foreign. It was utterly and completely impossible. She was hardly an inch thick and fully conscious. She could blink, but she could see, and she could hear and feel. She felt how her toes were curled into her shins and the way her head rested on her buttocks. As the seconds that stretched into infinity passed, Vanessa managed to bring herself back to the present long enough to contemplate her situation. The woman had brought her downstairs, and to her living room. As much as she wanted to scream and fight and demand this woman unhand her and leave, her helplessness had been well and truly established. Her frazzled mind had limited resources to handle all of this, and so she focused on what was next for her.
Luckily, or maybe unfortunately, Vanessa didn’t have to wait long. She was unrolled and Kat began to knead and stretch her out. Her body wasn’t just being pulled and squished like taffy though, it was also changing texture rather rapidly. She grew flatter and flatter, her features stretched across her surface in a rather comical fashion. Then she heard a new noise. Crinkle. Crinkle. Her body began to sound rather different than the soft flesh Kat had been working on up till now. She was also now mostly uniformly rectangular. A moderately sized box was planted unceremoniously in the center of her body, the weight causing her body to curl up a bit surrounding the box’s edges. Again, this sensation was not painful, but Vanessa certainly felt the weight of the box. It was as if someone folded up a big, weighted blanket, laid it on her, and sat on it. It was uncomfortable, but hardly the end of her ordeal. Kat slid its hands underneath her body on the sides and folded her up along the sides of the box. Her crinkly skin was smoothed out and folded repeatedly over itself and around the box. Unfortunately for Vanessa, this time the mysterious woman in a beanie folded her head in such a way that she was face-down. Her features were smooshed against… what was that – her thigh? It was impossible to tell anymore. She felt Kat tape her in key overlap points, and place something on top of the back of her head.
Kat set the wrapped gift on the coffee table and admired its handiwork. Due to the festive clothing Vanessa had worn and any human features being muddled by the stretching, it looked rather unassuming with a decorative bow on top to tie it all together.
Though her hearing was certainly muddled, she could hear Kat finally speak to her, “There! Wish granted. Now you can just sit back and relax until the big day and I’ll make sure everything else is ready…” There was the sound of movement, and then Vanessa felt something else being taped on, “Almost forgot, can’t let anyone cut your vacation short.”
Kat left the gift sitting alone on the coffee table, sure that with the latest addition of a little warning, no one would bother her. ‘Do not open until December 25th’