Day 13 of the 25 Days of TF-mas! (contains flattening and girl to cutout tf)
Elliott lay awake that night, as predicted. The young barista kept watching that woman turn into a tree in her mind. The way her skin bulged with rough bark; her legs fused together into a trunk rooting her to the ground. She found reached out her hand. It was like Elliott could still feel the woman’s skin changing body writhing against her hand. Still hear her cries for help getting silenced by her changes. By the end the woman had been utterly indistinguishable from your average plant. If she hadn’t seen it happen, she would have believed her to always have been a tree. Elliott began to wonder about the intricacies of it all. Obviously, the lady had felt the process at least up until she became immobile and lost the ability to scream, but what about after? What exactly did it feel like anyway? She was cut down, what was that like? Could she still hear or feel even now?
Were the others Kat had run into like that woman?
Elliott sat up with that thought. Her mind drifted over to Lorrie; the woman Kat had followed from the café. That lawn inflatable did bear a strong resemblance to the loud mouthed grinch, after all, so what if that decoration was the real Lorrie? She’d never dressed herself so quickly. Her mind was consumed with these thoughts, and she’d remain restless until she sated her gnawing curiosity. With hands stuffed firmly in her coat pockets and her eyes locked onto the pavement in front of her feet, Elliott marched dutifully down to Vanessa’s home – the lair of the woman she’d been so fervently chasing. Kat didn’t appear to be home right now. Elliott wondered if she was off changing someone else. She approached the inflatable Lorrie, still playing the same few notes of a few popular carols. Lorrie stared back at Elliott with her painted-on eyes. Elliott waved her hand in front of the inflatable’s face before gently placing her hand on Lorrie’s cheek. Something told Elliott that Lorrie was still in there, aware of but helpless to her situation. That thought hung in Elliott’s head like an unforgettable advertisement jingle, playing on repeated as she felt Lorrie’s air-filled body finding nary a thing to separate her from any store variety decoration.
Kat had already finished setting the tree up in the living room and had even begun hanging ornaments from the box Vanessa had in her storage. Still feeling like something was missing, Kat had left the home in search of that little special something to bring the tree together. The magical being had been wandering a while with little luck. It seemed to be a rather lazy day for much of the city folk in the area, forcing Kat to seek out individuals in the crevices and offshoots for the stragglers. Kat drifted through the streets until the sound of angry shouting drew it to the outside of a little storefront. It was situated near a pretty busy street but was tucked away down a small alley which probably mitigated foot traffic. This was all but confirmed by the source of the angry remarks.
“Oh, come on you stupid-! Of course, this is just my-! UGH!” a woman threw aside a warped and damaged object with great fervor. Upon closer inspection, the object was a cutout standee advertisement beckoning customers into the shop for holiday deals. The woman stormed inside, fed up with what was almost assuredly not the first of these things to be thrown away.
The woman, whose name was Amanda, slumped in the office in the back of her store. She was a mildly portly woman, but she wore it well, always found in flowing fashions that conjured mysticality and witchcraft to mind, but the genuine article would easily recognize that as just an aesthetic choice. Her hair was a reddish brown kept in a bun; she preferred the low maintenance style of it. The store was a small boutique style specialty shop that sold various aromatic and homeopathic salts and candles and other personal care products. She had quite the passion for the stuff and often used her own products in her day to day, offering her an air of authenticity that was rare to see in businesses like this. Her regulars would swear by Amanda’s, which was all well and good, but word of mouth wasn’t pushing traffic enough for her bills. She ran her hand through her frizzing hair – she hated what winter did to it and sighed. That stupid standee was designed to draw in some passerby that looked in from the main street, but it couldn’t even stand up on its own! Not to mention the thing didn’t even get her little mascot right. She’d sent in what she had thought to be a pretty thorough description of what she wanted, but evidently not. The mascot in question might have been seen as a bit counterintuitive, what with it being an anthropomorphic skunk character, but Amanda liked its sense of irony. It hardly mattered anymore, though. Without some way to draw in new customers she was as good as sunk this year.
“All I wanted was an advertisement that could stay standing! Is that too much to wish for?” She declared, annoyance prevalent in her tone. She stood in a huff and headed back out to the alley to retrieve the thing she’d paid for now that she had a chance to calm down a bit. Maybe she could just get it fixed or reinforced or something. Or… maybe not. The standee was laying where Amanda had thrown it, but it was totally blank! The only thing remaining of it was a blank silhouette of the character, and empty speech bubble, and the rest where details of the sale had been. Pure white, no words, no nothing. Disappointment, rage, and disbelief boiled over and Amanda moved to huck the waste of money back into the wall, but it didn’t go. It took several seconds for her to realize that it appeared to be stuck to her hand. This wouldn’t have been all that big a deal if not for the fact that it looked like her hand was inside the cutout. The sight was truly bizarre. Her wrist was pressed against the thing with her hand apparently mashed flat against it. No matter how she pulled and yanked, her hand nor her wrist budged from the blank cutout.
Amanda gripped the standee with her other hand and yanked with all her might, stumbling not only from her failed attempt, but because of the sudden suction claiming her other hand as well. Against her better judgement based on her last attempt, she planted her foot on the board and tried to use that to pull herself free. As one might have expected, she only succeeded in cementing her foot as a flattened feature on the otherwise empty board. Now with both hands and one foot stuck printed on the thing, it was only a matter of time before Amanda lost her balance. Her body was forced further into the cutout with the impact, leaving her with only part of her torso, her rear, her head, and her other leg from the shin down sticking out. The rest of Amanda’s body was a two-dimensional representation seamlessly as one with the surface of the otherwise blank standee. She struggled in place for a bit, unsuccessful on all counts. Then, she heard footsteps, and craned her neck to see a woman approaching her slowly. The woman wore a dark coat cinched at the waist, furred boots, and a light beanie that contrasted her long, dark hair. Amanda was about to try to explain herself or ask for help, knowing how peculiar this all must look from the opposite perspective. Even her own mind had trouble parsing what exactly was happening with her body. However, her mouth dried up when the woman stopped by her and lifted her boot. Amanda felt the woman plant her foot on her leg and begin to press down steadily. Though painful at first, the feeling subsided when the woman’s boot made contact with the board, having pressed Amanda’s leg flat into it.
“Wh- what are you doing?” Amanda gasped, suddenly fearful.
The woman did not reply at first. She simply lifted her boot again and stomped Amanda’s rear into the board, then she felt the boot on her back, and slowly but surely Amanda’s head was all that stuck out from the standee. Finally, the woman spoke, “I’m granting your wish,” she said. The direct and almost innocent way in which she spoke made Amanda’s blood run cold, if she even had any at this point. She felt the boot on her head.
"Wait! Wait wait wa-“ Her cries were silenced by her head being pushed into the board.
Amanda’s world was dark for a long time. She couldn’t say how long, nor could she say anything at all. Her sight and hearing no longer worked either as far as she could tell, but she could feel. She felt when Kat began to adjust her printed body. Kat positioned her legs here, added what felt like a tail there, manipulated her proportions and posture. The process was involuntary, strange, and very unwelcome. Suddenly though, she could see again. The reason for this was Kat kindly adding eyes to the image of an anthropomorphic skunk girl on the board. Finally satisfied with their work, Kat sat Amanda up outside her own shop, advertising her aromatic candles and lotions at a great bargain for the holidays. Amanda watched many customers come and go, unsure of whether to be upset at her predicament, or pleased that her store was getting traffic. She just hoped her employees would remember to take her inside at the end of the day. It was cold out here!