(Contains multiple tfs including animate and inanimate)
“Come on, you stupid thing!” Sophie snapped impatiently at the device in her hands. She attempted to persuade the phone with some percussive maintenance, shaking and stamping it on her palm in a petulant effort to make it do what she wanted. Something about this, or perhaps about the magic used to turn the unsuspecting woman into a phone jostled the object’s latent human personality. Though it was supposed to be deleted by the OS installed over her mind after the transformation, the phone stored some semblance of the overwritten memories to leverage her human mind for processing power.
“Ow- hey! What are you doing you- ERROR. RECALCULATING ROUTE… YOU ARE 500 FEET FROM YOUR DESTINATION: USER DANIELLE OWENS.” Her voice cut through the speakers for just a moment before the much more robotic tone took back over. Nova, the promiscuous and spontaneous member of Danielle’s friend group, had been transformed into a phone by their petty and prissy nemesis, Sophie, who was using her to track down the person she really wanted to have a taste of her new powers. Up until now, Dani had held the upper hand in head-to-head conflicts thanks to her stupid magic, with Sophie’s only recent victory being a trick, but this time would be different. Now Sophie had real power. Much more, she thought, than Danielle considering Dani’s big sister, Roxanne, was now a dimwitted cow mooing away in her family-owned farm. That tubby Alexis girl was there too, eating out of the pig slop trough, but Sophie considered her collateral damage over any actual threat. Similarly, the stress ball she kneaded in her other hand was simply changed to mess with Danielle. Any features identifying the stress toy as Chloe, Danielle’s upbeat, and ditzy friend, were long rubbed away by use. Sophie followed the high-tech gadget’s directions to her final target. She mused about what she could do to Danielle, and none of her ideas were flattering or pleasant for the witch. She laughed aloud, assured in her dominant victory.
Danielle Owens, the witch for whom Sophie held a particularly strong disdain, was lounging in a park, listening to music without a care in the world. Sure, the brunette was supposed to be at work, but it seemed like her sister was working late again, so what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. Besides, she could just turn someone in the park into something fun and take their wallet to make up the difference. Moral compass askew or not, her powers were formidable, and she often jumped at any opportunity to use them that she could, which more often than not, led her and her friends to trouble. As her thoughts drifted towards her friends, she realized she hadn’t seen or heard from them today. She decided to give Chloe a call… which went to voicemail. Nova’s phone was the same story. Even Alexis wasn’t answering her, which, rather than raise concern, only made the childish witch grumpy. If they didn’t want to hang out while she was skipping work, then so be it. Danielle huffed and pocketed her phone. The irony of her ignoring her boss’ call was lost on her as she stood and looked around for a suitable target to vent her frustration on. Instead, she found the one person capable of making her mood even worse.
“Well, well, well, if it isnt Dirty Dani,” sneered Sophie. She was holding some new-looking phone and had a very aggravating smirk on her face.
“Really not in the mood, princess,” Danielle groaned, readying a spell in her hands, “Why don’t you-”
“YOUR DESTINATION IS ON THE LEFT” came the robotic chime of Nova’s voice, interrupting Danielle’s offhanded statement.
“What’s the matter, Dirty Dani?” Sophie asked, her tone laced with the most insincere concern imaginable. She was positively giddy with the face Danielle made upon hearing her friend-turned-phone, “Jealous of my new Nova Phone? Honestly, I wouldn’t be. It’s a piece of crap that I think belongs in the trash.” She snapped her fingers and pointed at Danielle. The witch gritted her teeth at that, angrily firing her magic at Sophie. She would’ve let loose a choice insult, but something drove the wind from her lungs, and both girls staggered as different forms of magic coursed through them.
Danielle was shocked. Sophie never had magic before, and there was something… strange about this power. It felt as though the power was grabbing her forcefully from some place beyond her perception. Her body trembled and shook as the power coated her entirely. She watched as her feet flattened and pooled into a disc with her legs sticking out on opposite sides. These, too, were not long for their current forms, as they began to feel peculiar. As though squeezed between presses in a mold, her calves and thighs were flattening into the rigid walls of a rectangular object. Reaching down to try to stop it, she found her magic fizzling, carried away by whatever force was callously changing her. Strangely, her legs, which now connected as the four sides to a hollow rectangular prism with her feet as the floor and her torso planted firmly atop it, felt hard. Knocking on them resulted in a solid clonk of her knuckles on hard plastic. Her investigation could not last long, however, as she felt her stomach drop as though she were cresting the hill of an insanely tall roller coaster. Danielle yelped alongside the feeling as the rest of her abdomen dropped with it. Catching herself by grabbing the rims of what were once her legs, her body sank to fill the space between them. With each hyperventilated breath, she felt her torso change. It hollowed out, the bottom closing on its own and filling with air from each gasp she took in – a distinct crinkling sound emitting from within as it did. The skin of her torso began to change, turning black and plastic, the air within pushing it to fill the bin her legs had become. Danielle didn’t have any time to ruminate on this, though, due to the predicament reaching her hands. At this point only her head and arms were peeking above the rim of her legs, and her hands had become stuck. She wasn’t fusing to the top of her legs, but rather her fingers curled and locked in place, keeping her holding on and level with the top. Her head then began to swell. She felt it in her mouth first, as a cry of discomfort was met with her mouth stretching out more and more. Danielle’s teeth receded and her lower lip sank and flattened. Her chin had widened and distended to join her hands in curling around the rim of her legs, locking her in place further. Her gaping mouth took up most of the front face of this triangular lid atop what was once her legs, with her upper lip took the liberty of closing by flattening and stretching to cover the hole as a flap. Her arms and shoulders pressed against the rim of her legs, connecting with the back of her expanding head to form the back face of the lid, curling and clicking into place. With a final shudder, Danielle Owens stopped changing, having been fashioned into a park trash bin.
Under any other circumstances, Sophie would be heckling and laughing at Danielle during the whole process, but she had her own problems to deal with since Danielle managed to fire one off before her magic was taken. She was able to see Danielle flail about as she tried in vain to stop her own transformation, which was a solid bonus. Unfortunately, she was in the same boat, with her own supreme powers seemingly abandoning her when she tried to stop the changes flooding over her. Her body took on a light sheen of gaudy plastic. Sophie tried to snap her fingers to change herself back, but her digits were getting stiff and clacked together somewhat uselessly. Frustrated, she staggered towards Danielle as the witch’s legs were starting to squeeze into the panels of the trash can Sophie was turning her into. Her movements were stiff and jolted, but luckily, Danielle had planned for Sophie to become a posable doll, so even though her joints were becoming the squeaky, plastic balls of a cheap toy, she could at least still move them. It wasn’t until Danielle’s magic finally began to fizzle out that Sophie’s changes slowed, but that was hardly a consolation. Her beautiful hair had become frizzy and stringy, her skin was plastic, and her lips could barely move, stuck in a perpetual smile, and shed begun to shrink. By the time the living doll made it to Danielle, she was barely tall enough to be eye level with her lid. Still though, she’d managed to finish Dani’s transformation before becoming an immobile plaything, so she had to take what wins she could. With a muffled laugh, she pushed Danielle’s mouth open and tossed the Nova phone and the Chloe stress ball inside, giving the can a kick for good measure.
Danielle felt her body rattle from Sophie kicking her, and she could tell she’d thrown something in her mouth, but she had long since lost her sight and taste. The trash can could feel Sophie leaning on her, and the magic that still flowed in her plastic body. No, not trash can – Danielle! Her form threatened to devour her mind and memories, but with a source of magic physically touching her, she could hang on a moment longer. The witch focused hard and managed to channel the magic through her own inhuman form. She could feel her skin start to soften and separate into the limbs she was used to having. She even coughed up a phone and… some sort of stress ball in the process. Unfortunately, a side effect of using Sophie’s power to restore her own form was she was doing the same for Sophie. Staggering from the exertion of it all, the newly restored girls fell atop one another and immediately began to fight.
Sophie felt her body grow and soften back into her old self, but stumbled as she’d been leaning on a trashcan that was rapidly regaining its humanity. She grappled with Danielle, “You should’ve just stayed a trashcan, bitch!” She shouted, magic surging through her body and into Dani.
“You’re one to talk, you ass!” Danielle retorted, meeting her magic with a bit of her own. The resulting collision caused a veritable explosion of energy that sent both girls skidding away from each other. Danielle struggled to stand, panting with effort, or maybe that was the heat. Her body itched and felt very hot. Fur practically burst from her pores and her face grew into a dog’s snout. Her ears grew and migrated to the top of her head and a long tail grew from her spine, immediately wagging uncontrollably.
Likewise, Sophie lay on her back, groaning from the force that’d sent her flying. She didn’t understand it. How was it that Roxanne was so easy to completely dominate but Dirty Dani was fighting back so much? It frustrated the girl as she pushed to stand. She stumbled a bit due to her feet cramping up into unwieldy hooves. Her hands scrambled to her face as it forced itself outward, taking her lips and nose with it. A yanking sensation heralded her own, thin tail that topped itself with a tuft of fur that matched her hair color. The half donkey half girl stamped her hoof, “You… you… HowwweeEHAWWW dare you do this to muh-meEEHAWWW!” she shouted petulantly.
Danielle, who herself was essentially an anthropomorphic dog woman, scoffed, “Serves ya rrrrrruff! Right!” she barked back, letting out a rumbling growl. Both girls were poised to strike again, but then Danielle stopped, her ears swiveling about this way and that, “Wait… do you gggRROOF!” she barked again, “Do you hear anything?”
“What the helllllAWWWW- are you talking about?” Sophie snapped, but her ears had changed too, and the look on her donkey face told Danielle that she did indeed hear it. Nothing. She looked around quickly, “Where is everybodyyEEEEHAW?”
The girls called a truce and undid their spells on one another, walking the park to investigate the area. They must have wandered the entirety of the park twice over without running into a single soul. They didn’t even see anyone driving around outside of the park. It was as if everyone simply vanished. Temporarily forgetting their spite for one another, they stuck close and traveled outside into the city, but no matter where they went or how hard they looked, never did they spy a single other person. Naturally, this freaked both of them out plenty, both just hoping in vain they’d find some massive event they’d forgotten about just around the corner.
No such luck.
Finally, they sat next to one another on a bench, mulling over their next move, “When did you even learn magic anyway?” Danielle was the first to break the uneasy silence.
“Mad because you’re not as special as you thought?” Sophie snapped back, getting defensive against Danielle’s tone.
“I’m serious, Sophie. Where did you learn it?”
“I don’t know! Its magic,” she threw her hands up exasperatedly, “I was just in my room, zoned out, and the next thing I knew, I turned the help into a blanket I was really wanting. I just say what I want, snap, and it happens.”
“That explains the trash can and the dog,” Danielle admitted, “So… If something or someone gave you your powers, maybe they have something to do with what’s happening.”
“There was this like, voice, that usually goes with the power. Makes you totally unable to resist, but of course the one time I really want it, it doesn’t happen.” She huffed.
"Maybe ‘cuz they were too busy kidnapping everyone?” she wondered aloud.
“If it was there, you’d be stuck as a trash can I hope you know,” Sophie pressed, wanting her to know that she would have won if not for that.
“Yeah, sure.” Danielle scoffed.
"Worked wonders on that fat chick and your sister,” Sophie argued, sticking her tongue out at Danielle.
“What? What’d you do to Roxanne?” she snapped, starting to get up to resume their fight, but Sophie hopped up first.
“Wait, shut up, I have an idea!” She said, “Your stupid sister and that chick were turned into animals and taking to my family’s barn. There might not be any people left but there’s clearly animals still,” she pointed up to the birds flocking overhead, “So, we go there, find them, and they’ll help figure this all out.” Sophie spun on her heel and began to lead the way, “Let’s go, chop chop!” She called, impatiently. As much as Danielle wanted to blast the girl with her magic for how bossy she was being, she swallowed her pride, for now. Figure out where everyone went first, revenge second, she told herself, begrudgingly following after Sophie to where Roxanne the cow and Alexis the pig were taken.
From a nearby rooftop, a woman with long hair that turned more and more white near the ends and glowing blue eyes watched the bickering pair traverse the otherwise empty streets. Tossing a stress ball she found in the park and catching it over and over, a smile crept over her face. She may have renounced the last game near the end, but this one was starting to look a lot more interesting…