Day 18 of the 25 Days of TF-Mas! (Contains girl to donkey tf)
Elliott didn’t say a word on the way home. Although, that was just as well, considering there was no one walking with her for her to talk to, at least not visible. Even if one were to count Kat, the mystical being of unfathomable power living in her head, there wasn’t any conversation to be had. Elliott began the day as a mundane barista with a minor case of obsessively stalking and tracking her mind-mate in an investigation that ended with their bond. This much Elliott knew and could even get behind. This was not a difficult series of events for her to understand, as outlandish a series it was. No, what she was struggling with now, and what Kat was observing with rapt attention, was what she had done with this new power that came with the bond she shared with Kat. Aside from getting a few cosmetic upgrades herself, she now seemed to possess the ability to manipulate the minds and bodies of those around her, though it was still up to Kat to help her along with the intricacies of using such a power. She had craved an understanding of the sensation and managed to have a firsthand experience with it. It had felt good, almost too good, like the way she imagined a particularly dubious drug might feel like in order to drag ordinary folk down a life of addiction. The side effect of this positively euphoric sensation came afterwards when the guilt and uncertainty of the ethics of her actions began to hit. This was the peculiarity in humans wanted so badly to see – the duality of desire and morality. This ever-twisting tide of selfish nature and empathy pushing and pulling one another within humans was something that Kat had never felt before. Being utterly one with Elliott allowed the being to truly feel the dilemma within Elliott and pushed it to want to see to which side Elliott would teeter on the tightrope.
The first tugs of the tide began when Elliott targeted her former boss at the café. An uptight woman by the name of Susan had been effortlessly turned into the brightly smiling, rosy-cheeked homemaker that now busied herself in the home Kat had been staying in up to now. Susan, in her checkered dress and frilly apron was setting freshly baked cookies next to the ones that Kat had turned Rachel into what felt like a lifetime ago. There was little to no difference between the legitimate cookies and the Rachel ones, but given Elliott’s current predicament, Kat felt no reason to tell her of that incident. Instead, Kat simply continued to watch from within Elliott’s mind the latter’s thought process. It was truly fascinating the way that Elliott seemed to jump through hoop after hoop to justify her actions and excuse how good it felt. Oh, Susan was so uptight now she’s loosened up some, or oh, that Susan was running the poor other café workers ragged, now they can relax a bit, or Kat’s personal favorite being oh, Susan looks so happy now, that must mean it’s all okay. Never did Elliott simply admit that she’d done it because she wanted to. Desires appeared to be somewhat taboo to humans if they weren’t inherently altruistic or utterly selfless. It seemed ridiculous to Kat. Both Kat’s observations and Elliott’s contemplations were interrupted by a knocking on the door. Rather, it was a pounding.
“Oh dear, someone’s surely eager to get out of the cold,” Susan noticed. “Elli be a dear and get the door, won’t you? I’m just about to start on the dishes.”
“Right… uh, thanks,” Elliott managed, still in a bit of shock. Another series of door pounds spurred her into action, and she opened the door. She wished she hadn’t, but apparently that wasn’t enough for Kat to do something about it.
“Elliott – I thought that was your car. What, this your new boyfriend’s house or somethin?” Elliott had to physically stop herself from cringing. It was her sister, Brandy. Despite being several years older than Elliott, she had no job, no real plan, and no drive to fix either of those things. It wasn’t really that Elliott particularly looked down on those in that sort of situation, but she had extra reason to despise Brandy, because… “Yknow, that thing was probably made using child labor. Look it up, its really bad to support that sort of thing.” Brandy said, gesturing to the Lorrie Inflatable outside. Because Brandy was an ass. For as long as Elliott could remember, Brandy was simultaneously the favorite and the most problematic. She constantly picked fights with both strangers online and family members at gatherings for no other reason than the pleasure of it. Not only did she always feel the need to contradict anything others said, especially if it got a rise out of them, but she took pride in mooching off of others. Elliott had confronted the 30+ year old woman about manipulating their mother, taking advantage of their parents’ charity, to which Brandy’s favored reply was some form of “I never asked them to help.”
Suffice it to say that Elliott did not like her older sister, and furthermore could not fathom why she was even here. Just her very presence was already pissing Elliott off almost preemptively, like a cruel, self-fulfilling prophecy based on a lifetime of bad encounters. “What is it?” she said curtly, wanting this whole thing over with.
“Woahhh, temper,” Brandy said, raising her arms in mock surrender, though her scoff made sure to inform Elliott that she was enjoying said temper, “I’m not here to pick a fight.”
“Then why are you here, Brandy?” Elliott snapped, “Ask for more money? A ride somewhere? Its always something with you.” Even Kat was a little surprised by the sudden shift in attitude, but wisely stayed quiet. Not that Elliott’s temper could possibly frighten the creature, it was just more interesting this way.
“Going to mom’s party? Or are you inviting the family here to your boyfriend’s house? What’s this, number 7? 8?” She asked, knowing full well that Elliott didn’t even like boys, but it was an outdated play and Elliott simply ignored the attempted provocation.
"What, so you can start another argument during the happiest time of the year, again? So, you can ruin another family gathering? For fuck’s sake, Brandy you’re like 32, when are you going to grow up and quit being such an ass!?” Elliott learned something important that day, but not while she screamed at Brandy. No, her mind was too engulfed in the pent-up rage of years spent watching her older sister be nothing but a leech on others for the sake of it to be able to take in life lessons. Afterwards, though, she’d learn something important about her and Kat’s shared powers.
Kat learned it in the moment.
The first thing that Kat felt was a pit in their body’s stomach, its and Elliott’s. It was heavy and hollow and, like the dense center of a dying star, ready to explode. The pit, Kat discovered, was an involuntary feeling associated with all the negative and visceral emotions attached to Elliott’s feelings and memories of Brandy. Her voice, her words, her presence all dragged out years’ worth of these memories, and they coalesced into this dark, heavy pit in their stomach. The next thing that Kat felt was the foretold explosion. Elliott’s rage reached a fever pitch, and human rage was so much more than just rage, Kat learned. It was anger of course, but also sadness, futility, frustration, and a weird, juxtaposition of giddiness thrown in all together. It bounced and raced through their whole body, and moved the immense power stored within. As much as Kat had been a guide for Elliott changing Susan, this movement was entirely Elliott’s doing. This swirling, churning vortex of the boundless energy Kat had provided to Elliott with the raw, emotional core that Elliott herself provided crescendoed with her final question. The power crashed unto itself like a roaring wave, and the resultant rush surged through Elliott’s arm and out of her pointing finger, directly toward Brandy, who was not privy to any of that internal movement.
“Geez, don’t have to be such a b- EEHAWW!” Brandy’s next statement was capped by a rather inhuman sound. The force of the animalistic cry escaping her mouth had caused her to thrust her head forward to utter it. A look of confusion dawned on her face, but Elliott’s was still masked in rage. “What the he-EEHAWW! Was that HAWW!” Her throat clenched with each guttural sound it produced entirely without her say so.
Elliott was seeing red, hardly even cognizant of her surroundings. She could only recall being this angry once before, at Brandy herself, go figure. It was with sadistic pleasure she watched what happened next. Catharsis. There was no other word to describe the feeling Elliott got from watching her sister’s body finally begin to match her attitude. Brandy’s hands clumped and cramped together with painful intensity, hardening into useless hooves. She let out a startled bray when she stumbled and fell to all fours, forced to do so by her feet being crushed by the same force as her hands had been.
“EEHAWW! Wh- whats heEE! HAWWppening to me-EEEHAWW!” Brandy struggled to cry for help and understand her situation, but when she looked to Elliott, all she saw was a predator’s smile. Her nose squashed against her face before yanking out in bursts to form an inhuman muzzle that invaded her peripheral vision. Her ears felt like they’d been clamped by vices before being stretched into large, floppy animal ears atop her head. Brandy’s eyes teared up when her bones creaked and cracked, popping and shifting to better suit the form Elliott had chosen for her. A tail tore itself from what remained of her pants, the rest of which went the way of her other clothing; all of it shredded by her new barrel shaped body bulking up to be proportional with the rest of her changes. Brandy opened her mouth to plead for one last time, but her opportunity for human speech had passed, and only donkey brays left her changed lips. Fur covered her body, and she could feel her mind start to slip. Was this it for her? Lost to the mind of a simple animal? She braced herself for oblivion, but it never came.
Panting, Elliott retracted her reach into Brandy’s mind, leaving her mostly intact mentally, save a few urges like eating grass. One look at her sister’s face revealed that this was not meant to be a mercy. “There. Now, you’re an ass for real,” She said, glowering down at the animal she’d turned Brandy into, “A stupid animal until the day you’re put to pasture, and no one will ever know the difference… Except you.” She turned on her heel and slammed the door in the donkey’s face, the anger finally starting to seep out of her body.
Devilishly curious, Kat checked in to see how Elliott might feel after such a deliberately cruel use of her powers. The thought that Kat found made the creature within smile.
‘Some people deserve it.’