Part 1: A Seasonal Idea
Susan was in probably the most comfortable position of her life. Since that last dare, she’d been flying high as the ‘queen of transformation’. Well, maybe not the real queen, but as far as her circle of friends was concerned, she was. It was great—she could dare the girls to become anything, and they couldn’t argue. After all, what right did they have to complain when they’d made her into a maggot just a few months ago?
Unfortunately, it looked like things were about to change. Susan sighed, fiddling with her camera as she waited for her friends to arrive. One of her photography classes wanted students to experiment with TransFun serums, since Halloween was coming up. Susan had settled on a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ theme, but she’d need to take that a step up if she were to give her pictures that extra je ne sais quoi.
On the bright side, the TransFun rep she’d called had more than a few ideas, and was excited to get some more publicity. Better yet, Susan had been sent a free set of short-term samples, provided she’d send the photos to be published. Apparently these were new ‘Monster Magic’ serums that were going to show up in a catalog, so they didn’t even come with images of what they’d change people into.
Instead, the vials were labeled as ‘gross’, ‘scary’, ‘grosser’, and ‘OhGodWhy’. Susan had gotten a good laugh out of that, keeping he last one to herself. As for the other three… Susan beamed as a car pulled up, its tires crunching on the backwoods path. She’d give them out as her friends earned them.
The passenger side door opened, and Susan waved as a dirty-blonde head poked out. “Jesus, you could’ve picked a further place from civilization!” Natalie exclaimed, sliding herself gracefully from Tina’s car.
Susan whistled lowly—it looked like she was dressed to the nines, a pretty leather jacket hugging her curvaceous form tightly. Natalie had never exactly been fit, but as she grew up her body filled out in all the right places. If the girl wanted to, she could pull off a look that would make heads turn.
“Hey, you think she’s hot stuff?” Amelia’s voice rang from the back seat, and Susan choked as the girl gracefully exited the car. Amelia was the least girly of their group, so Susan hadn’t expected too much. She was right to: the short-haired blonde had chosen a tank top and shorts, not formal wear. However, that wasn’t to say they looked bad on her—quite the opposite.
Amelia had always held herself to an ‘if it’s comfy, I’ll wear it’ policy, clothing herself in sweatpants and loose T-shirts at all times. As such, Susan had never seen so much of Amelia’s skin! First off, how in the hell was she so tan; and second, why would she ever cover that body? She looked like something out of a fashion magazine!
“Susan, you’re staring.” Amelia snorted, and the illusion of glamour was broken.
“Yeah, but… What the hell?” Susan still found it hard to look away; a nonglamorous beauty was still great on the eyes. “Since when were you so… hot?”
“Trust me, I feel the same way.” The last of the group got out, shaking her curly brown hair out. Tina sighed again. “It’s not fair! How come you get to eat whatever you want?” The tan girl pouted, her hands on her hips.
Amelia shrugged. “Hey, in my defense, I have to eat twice as much as you guys do!” She hefted her breasts with a teasing pout. “These girls don’t grow on their own…”
Natalie glared daggers at Amelia. “I know who’s first to be TFed.” She muttered, not even trying to keep the envy from her tone.
Amelia laughed. “That’s fair. I can get into something more comfortable. You wouldn’t believe how tight this is around my breasts, they must have… grown.” Amelia’s words died off into a cough as she noticed all of her friends’ baleful glares. “So, pictures and then TransFun?” She laughed nervously, trying to recover.
“Pictures and then TransFun.” Susan muttered, deciding to give her the vial labeled as ‘grosser’. Amelia had earned it.
Even if the ensuing photo session was exceptional… Susan grit her teeth. Envious as she was, Susan had to give credit where credit was due. Amelia had made this almost enjoyable! Immediately after acting as a model, Amelia had launched into being an awesome director, finding the perfect angles for her friends.
It was almost a pity that she was going to become the grossest monster of the group. Almost. Susan beamed, snapping one last group picture for posterity. “So, how are you so good at this?” Susan asked, fidgeting with her tripod. Amelia really knew how to make a camera work… Susan had to know her secret!
Amelia stretched her arms, hopping up from the last pose she’d struck. “Well, you know the expression ‘I don’t get paid to look pretty’? I do get paid to look pretty.” Amelia shrugged. “I usually just keep my face off of what I do—plenty of companies are surprisingly willing to photoshop a different face onto their models. This is just what I do on weekends.”
So that was where she always would go off to… Susan blinked. “That, surprisingly, makes a lot of sense.” She set down the camera, slipping out the serum with a smile. “Ready to see if that holds up… As a monster?” Susan waggled her off hand’s fingers as she said the last bit, wavering her voice to add a suitably spooky tone.
Amelia snorted with laughter. “You know it.”
Tina, on the other hand, was much less sure about the changes. "Um... About that. Would you mind explaining a little more as to how exactly you'll be changing us?"
"I mean, I've taken pictures of you as people; so now I'll need to have you transform with some TransFun serums I bought. It was a pack of your monster serums, randomized by-"
"Randomized? Isn't that another way to say you don't know what we'll be?" This time Natalie spoke up. She waited a moment, then sighed. "You sure this is a good idea?"
Susan nodded, smiling as calmingly as she could. "Come on, when has TransFun failed us? We've never had an unenjoyable time, and TansFun is always safe!" Susan neglected to mention how the sales rep she'd spoken to HAD laughed evilly. To be fair, Susan had requested the most monstrous serums TransFun had.
"Come on, it'll be fun!" Susan tried again, shaking Amelia's bottle in her hand.
Amelia sniggered as she walked up to Susan, plucking the little bottle of TransFun from her friend’s hand. “Oh, please Herr Doktor, don’t change me!” She yelped with a dramatic flourish, miming being dragged to the makeshift ‘changing tent’ Susan had set up. “Noooo!” She screamed a moment later, perfectly like something out of a horror movie.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, the sound of bones reshaping and skin reforming—followed by a wet thud. Susan beamed with anticipation—the vials had only come with labels, not descriptions. She couldn’t wait to see what Amelia would become!
A wet gurgling filled the air, and some… thing oozed its way from the tent. Susan thought it looked like a maggot, if a maggot had rows upon rows of teeth lining its dripping throat. And scuttling, tiny talons. And a ridged carapace. So kind of like a maggot, if a maggot had sex with Satan’s worst nightmares.
And it used to be Amelia. Susan beamed with mirth—this was hilarious! She just had to get some great pictures of this for posterity!
Part 2: ‘Grosser’
Amelia oozed forward, using the little talons on her stumps to help speed her up. Once she was a few yards from her friends, she reared back to reveal the full extent of her new form. She couldn’t believe that she’d been made into some kind of huge maggot—she’d expected to be a hairy ape with giant teeth or something. Then again, her vial did say ‘grosser’… On the bright side, if she thought that she was gross, her friends had to be even more shocked!
Speaking of, she was having some trouble finding where they were. Well, not necessarily where they were, but rather who they were. She was both blind and deaf, but she could detect where things were around her. It was a little like she could echolocate in a way… Only instead of sensing rebounded sonic waves, she could sense motion through the ground. There were three person-sized objects on the ground in front of her, and one of them seemed to be quivering more. That had to be Tina!
Amelia chortled, took in a deep gulp of air, then let loose what she hoped was a loud roar, shaking her entire body from side to side as she expelled a torrent of thick slime from her ever-open mouth. When Tina showed no visible reaction, Amelia tried flexing her massive gullet; wriggling the little teeth within, Tina remained standing, so Amelia forced out a longer roar, drawing it into a gurgling wheeze, only stopping when something spurted from her backside.
For a moment, Amelia froze in embarrassment—did she really just… Then the thing her backside had spat out moved, and Amelia realized she could feel the air on it. It felt like a tail, only one with little wriggling spikes on the underside. Amelia instinctively turned her head, coating her back in drool as she flicked the tail towards her jaw.
She recoiled a moment later, clearly seeing the outline of some monstrous worm’s gullet in her head. Amelia’s fight or flight instinct bubbled to the surface of her mind, then she froze. Wasn’t she the only monster in the area?
The thought was fairly comforting, and Amelia had to wriggle a little bit with content at that. She was basically a worm with a huge mouth and no eyes or ears... Yet she still somehow felt comfortable in her skin. That probably had something to do with having no limbs, unless her little talons counted. Her natural pose was to lie down on her belly, and it was oddly therapeutic.
She swiveled her head back to the girls, flicking her tail at them. Some droplets of ooze flicked from her tail onto her crowd, and Amelia crooned with delight as she realized she could now see them—or at least, the parts of them that the ooze had touched. It was like she could mark things with her drool, and something in her new appendage could sense them!
As if to prove this new power, Tina slumped over, as Susan or Natalie hurriedly caught her. Amelia wriggled her forwardmost talons with utterly sadistic glee. After all, from what Amelia could tell of herself, she was a giant grub with some sort of bug-like carapace. She didn’t even have a head, it was just a massive gullet lined with teeth! Given Tina’s reaction to Susan as a maggot, Amelia was honestly shocked that she hadn’t blacked out sooner.
The monstrous maggot oozed her way closer to her friends, a pleased burble coming from her throat. This was great! Her new form was really disgusting—but it was so powerful! She felt large and in charge, and it was quite a relief to be naked and have people avert their gazes.
Unfortunately, it also meant that she couldn’t pick up on anything Susan was saying, and Amelia felt a pang of professional guilt at being unable to fulfill her director’s wishes. She did try her best to look menacing, but it was a little tricky at first.
Amelia had no way of knowing for sure, but she had a sneaking suspicion that her first few photos weren’t scary enough for Susan’s little project. Not that Amelia could help it—it was almost instinct to look as good for the camera as possible, and try as she might, rearing up only made her look softer. And wriggling her rows of teeth probably looked cool, but there was no way to catch it on film. So, if that didn’t work… Inspiration struck the girl, and Amelia let out a pleased gurgle.
Amelia turned her maggot-like body, showing off more of her carapace to the camera. Then, she opened her mouth wide, a low droning coming from her throat as she waited for Susan to snap a picture or two. Then, Amelia turned so her face was even closer to the camera, showing off every row of her teeth. She flexed her throat a little, concentrating on making as many of her rings of teeth visible as possible.
That time, Susan raised her arm. While Amelia hadn’t covered her friend’s hand in slime, she could still tell that Susan was giving her a thumbs-up. Amelia burbled happily, trying out other similarly menacing poses for the next few photos.
Then, just as quickly as the changes had begun, they ended, and Amelia felt her larger form melting away around her.
“Oh my God.” Amelia shuddered, shaking herself off. Her slime was still warm on her skin, but she had no doubt that it would get cool after a few seconds.
“How was it?” Susan grinned and winked. “Did you like being a blind and deaf grub?”
Amelia nodded eagerly. “Hell yeah, I did!” Now she was starting to see what Susan had liked about being a maggot. To think she’d thought Susan was adventurous for turning into that! It was a walk in the park! “Show me what I looked like, I want to see too!”
“Seriously?” Natalie blinked in confusion, clearly not sharing the same connection Amelia and Susan now had.
Amelia nodded, breaking her gaze from Susan’s camera for a moment. “Yep! What’s the worst you’ve become… A snake? Try one of these serums, you’ll get what we mean!” She then returned her full attention to the camera, a faint coo escaping her mouth as she stared at the creepy bug she’d become. She knew she had been disgusting, but this…
"Too cool!" She breathed in fascination, staring at one of the pictures with her mouth open. "Oh, wow—I had no idea that my gullet was that... big! And all of those teeth? I love it!" She looked up to Susan with a huge smile.n "How did it look? Did it work when I tried to wriggle my teeth?"
"Yeah, and it was creepy as hell." Natalie muttered.
Amelia turned, scowling. “Hey, you're one to talk! You're next to change, you know.”
Natalie opened her mouth to refuse; then she looked over to Tina’s slumbering body. “Oh, so I am.” She took a serum from Susan with a laugh. “See you in a bit, I guess?”
Amelia waited for her to leave before turning to Susan with a knowing grin. “Okay, which did you give her?”
“I beg your pardon?” Susan blinked, arching an eyebrow innocently.
Amelia half-snorted. “I still have eyes, you know. My vial said ‘grosser’—what does that make her?”
A loud screech erupted from the changing tent, and Amelia and Susan turned as something tore its way from under sheets.
“‘Scary’.” Susan said with wide, eager eyes, a slow grin spreading across her face.
Amelia didn’t ask her why—she felt much the same. Natalie was lethal, frightening, and most of all—cool. Amelia could only wonder how it felt to pilot that body, and she resolved to order a set of these monster serums for future use.
Natalie’s body was almost insect-like, a long and scuttling tail just beneath a plump stomach bristling with spines. She moved partly by wriggling her massive body and partly by using the four sharp legs which emerged from its sides. And atop this horrific grub's tail laid an armored carapace flanked by six multijointed limbs that ended in scythes.
Her ridged back was covered in long spines, and her head looked much like that of a fly—with the eyes of a spider. Her mouth was the most curious thing, though—it looked like she had three pairs of smaller arms dangling just under her eyes. These little appendages flicked and twitched constantly as they sampled the air.
Part 3: ‘Scary’
Natalie stalked forward, her insectoid limbs sinking a little into the soil from the weight of her body. Moving was something to get used to—unlike Amelia, who could wriggle or scuttle, she had to do a mix of the two—wriggling the lower half of her body forward a bit while her forward talons scuttled forward.
Susan had dared her to become an insect before, and this was a little… similar. Natalie could control her six mantis-like arms much like a bug would—an instinctive use of the extra arms that felt as natural as using her fingers.
And on the note of having extra bits, her new mouth was driving her crazy—it was six different wriggling tendrils, and while Natalie could control them, it was like being able to wiggle her teeth! It was a sensation that was completely and utterly alien, and Natalie knew she’d have at least one nightmare about this… And to make matters worse,it was constantly slavering, a steady stream of drool pouring from her mouth.
But the absolute worst part was, Tina had already passed out, so Natalie had no-one to scare! Susan was beaming at her, already setting up her bipod; and Amelia was rolling on the ground with laughter. Natalie was the only one uncomfortable with what she had become, and it was driving her crazy!
She hissed, and spikes forced their way from her back, the hairs on her back standing on edge. Natalie turned her head, observing this with her new compound eyes, and she let out a small chitter of relieved laughter. That was more like it! She could take being unsettled by her body if it was badass, and these extra additions helped seal the deal. Not that her six scything talons weren’t badass, but they weren’t enough—her back had looked grub-like before. Now? She was a creature of death and carnage, and it was great.
She whirled and spun her talons through the air, all of her mouthparts wriggling as she loosed a shriek into the air. Susan and Amelia yelped, and Natalie chittered at that. Hail to the queen, baby. She wriggle-scuttled her way closer to the camera; then froze. Something felt… Odd.
Natalie’s stomach gurgled, and she screeched in confusion as her body reared up onto her tail. Then, her stomach cracked, a red light emanating from her bifurcating torso. Natalie absently noticed that it had opened in such a way to almost look like her new stomach had fangs… Then she screeched again as tentacles burst from the opening, whipping into the treetops.
They returned with a flapping bird, and Natalie watched as her stomach instinctively pulled the hapless avian into its confines, closing on its helpless form with a loud crunch. Almost immediately, her stomach began to writhe and churn, the tentacles squishing the little animal and forcing it along the sharp teeth lining her stomach. The changed girl fell back to all fours, bug-eyed both literally and figuratively. Well, at least that answered how she ate…
“Tell me you got that!” Amelia’s cry echoed through the clearing, and Natalie turned to where her friend was to find it surprisingly vacant.
She swept her head left and right, her eyes alighting on her blond friend quailing behind Tina’s slumbering form. Natalie chittered with laughter, and Amelia scowled. Natalie got the impression that her friend was about to say something less than flattering about her new body... So she started to concentrate on her gut, finding a squirrel just right next to Amelia's 'hiding spot'.
Amelia started to speak with adour tone, and Natalie let her get a few words out. “Oh shut up, that’s horrify—” Then Natalie unclenched her stomach, snatching the squirrel and even spearing it with one of her talons. Amelia broke off in a scream and almost immediately started to hyperventilate.
“That time I got it!” Susan shouted triumphantly from behind her camera, the shutter clicking as Natalie’s tentacles withdrew into her body, her barbed stomach sealing again.
The squirrel kicked a little in her stomach and Natalie wriggled from side to side. Her stomach responded appropriately, crunching down on the hapless creature. Almost immediately its struggles ceased, and Natalie crooned with delight at how full she felt—and at the look on Amelia's face.
"I-I'll be in the car." Amelia muttered, shakily standing up.
Susan laughed. "What's the matter, are you—"
"I'll be in the car!" Amelia snapped, running back to the safety of Tina's sedan.
Natalie considered chasing after her, but in the end her humane side won out. Unfortunately, the rest of the photo session was hardly as entertaining, passing by in a blur of snapshots. Natalie was too full to eat again, so Susan had her settle on menacing the camera as only a giant bug could. Admittedly, that did involve slicing down a few young trees—so it wasn’t all bad!
An hour later, the bug melted away, and Natalie gasped for breath, the forest cool on her knees. “That… Was weird.” She laughed, mussing about the leaves with her fingers. It was good to be able to feel again.
“Weird? It was damned horrifying is what it was!” Amelia squeaked, timidly exiting the car. Natalie beamed as she noticed her friend still couldn’t look her in the eyes, and her grin only widened as she came up with a devilish idea.
Some of the feathers from that bird were still on the ground by Natalie’s knees, and she palmed one of them with a quick wink at Susan. Thankfully, they’d been friends for long enough that Susan could pick up on her plan; Susan acknowledging the wink with one of her own. Susan patted Amelia on the back comfortingly once the girl had drawn close enough.
“There there, she’s changed back; things are fine.” Susan rubbed Amelia’s shoulders, and the girl nodded with a small whimper, glancing up to meet Natalie’s eyes for the first time since she’d changed.
“I’m really sorry, Nat… It’s just... When I was younger, my parents accidentally left the TV on during ‘The Thing’, and—”
Natalie brought her hand up to her face as she coughed, letting go of the feather she’d palmed. Of course, to Amelia, it looked like she’d actually coughed up the quill. As expected, Amelia leaped behind Susan and hugged her tightly with a whimper.
"Amelia! Can't breathe!" Susan gasped, pawing at the arms that were clutching at her stomach. "How're you so stong?"
"Too bad and workouts." Amelia's voice was a little muffled, her face pressed into the back of Susan's neck, "Tell me when it's safe to look."
"Safe! Safe!" Susan patted at the ground frantically, tapping out. Natalie felt a pang of concern for her friend—Susan't face was starting to take on a lovely shade of purple.
"That's what you said last time!" Amelia squeaked, but Susan took a huge and gulping breath a moment later. It looked like Amelia had let up despite her protests.
“M? Wuz going on?” All eyes turned, finding Tina rubbing her eyes as she stood up blearily. “Is it my turn? Why’s Natalie still naked, and… Why’s Amelia quivering like a little kid?”
That was enough to kick sense back into the short-haired girl, and Amelia snatched up the last vial angrily, shoving it in Tina’s hands. “Shut up! You’re the one who fainted! Also yes.”
Tina giggled, reading the label on the vial. “‘Gross’? Sounds like fun.” She made her way to the tent, swapping places with Natalie.
“I’m sorry.” She mumbled to Amelia, slipping on a slinky dress. She really hadn’t meant to scare her friend that much…
Much to her relief, Amelia laughed, slapping Natalie on her shoulder. “Hey, it’s fine. Just buy me lunch the next few times we go out and that might cover the cost of therapy.”
Natalie laughed, then winced as something gurgled from behind their impromptu changing room. Natalie’s jaw fell as Tina oozed her way out from the tent, and Susan muttered something under her breath: “How in the seven levels of hell is that one just ‘gross’?”
Natalie nodded in agreement, staring at the thing that Tina had become. It was like a greenish slug crossed with a centipede—but instead of wriggling legs, it had countless tentacles. Not that it used those to move—it had a pair of talons that it would use to dig into the ground and drag her forwards, like she couldn’t even wriggle. Tina’s back was lined with vents that constantly vented small burps of gas. And worse, the monster had a body atop this—a torso at the front of the writhing nightmare that was its tail and legs alike.
Tina’s torso rose out from the rest of her body like some sort of nightmarish zit—with brains instead of pus. A pair of tendrils flanked this disgusting growth, each of them ending in a fanged maw that possessed two pairs of eyes. Not that Tina needed the extra eyes—her main head had nine of them, and a multilayered mouth.
And just under this mouth were half a dozen smaller insectoid limbs, added as if for effect—much like the pair of talons that had pushed their way from the rows of tentacles. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a strange fluting came from the holes at the side of Tina’s body—making a sound that could only be speech: “Guys?”
Natalie’s jaw dropped, and she started to pray Tina wouldn’t freak out.
Part 4: ‘Gross’
“You guys… Why are you looking at me like this?” Tina repeated herself unsuredly. She was crawling half-blindly, still struggling to get used to looking outside of seventeen eyes. She had no idea what the rest of her limbs were for, but sight came first! Looking at her friends was helping a lot to center herself, picking out which eyes were which.
Managing to work out which of her eyes were which, she moved her hands to get a better look at her surroundings. Tina idly worked her three mouths, doing her best to not shudder at how odd the feeling of having three mouths was.
So, she had nine eyes on her face, which meant that the other four were on her tentacle-arm-things… And that meant the thing that flitted across her vision from time to time actually was real… Which meant that she was…
Tina felt her head slumping to one side of her body, and she forced some air from her sides. “Susan… Just what did you make me into—because I’m trying not to freak out but I’m also really starting to freak out.” She forced the last part out in a mad rush, as she moved her tentacle-eyes to look closer at herself.
“Oh, wow… I look like something out of one of H.R. Giger’s wet dreams…” Tina fluted through her pores, looking closer at her face. It was like all of her mouths were fanged vaginas, pink and glistening with menace. Did they have to all hang so… vertically? As if that wasn’t bad enough, the mouth on her proper body quivered and slavered as Tina breathed; all of its sharp teeth glistening in the light. To top it all off, her tentacles were all so… flesh-colored.
“Guys, come on!” Tina fluted, looking back to them to find that Susan’s mouth was moving—slowing down as Natalie opened her own lips to speak. “Okay…” Tina began. “I think I’m deaf.” She bobbed her pulsing head a few times, trying to ignore the jiggling that motion produced.
Amelia walked up, nodding her head. The short-haired girl had her hands spread in a calming gesture, and Tina looked closer at her. She looked so small and insignificant—like Tina could just swallow her up. In fact…
Tina flicked her tentacles forward, encompassing Amelia’s form. Wet drool oozed out from the mouths on her hands as she slowly slid one over Amelia’s head, savoring how the girl was kicking with primal terror. Then, Tina let Amelia drop from her hand with an audible 'pop', leaving Amelia’s upper body completely drenched in mucus.
“Don’t worry, just a little timely vengeance.” Tina fluted to Natalie and Susan. She inwardly snorted with laughter, the motion causing the little vents on her back to burp out noxious gas in sequence. Amelia shook in her arms, and Tina looked down to find that her friend was laughing at Tina’s little outburst.
Tina colored with embarrassment—she was only trying to get Amelia back! Why was it that she couldn’t be as intimidating or as gross as her friends? She curled up a little, letting Amelia go as she withdrew into a little ball of embarrassment. Then the smell from her vents reached Amelia.
Out of the corner of one of Tina’s eyes, she saw Amelia color, then double over as she began retching. Tina perked up almost immediately, able to find some distraction from the monster that she’d become. Unfortunately, said monster came with its own set of instincts, and one of Tina’s mouth tentacles shot out under Amelia’s mouth as she started to vomit in earnest.
“Oh—oh God! Amelia! I can taste it!” This time, Tina’s mouth twitched as she spoke, retching in time with Amelia’s own spasms. The worst thing was, Tina wasn’t entirely sure that she disliked it. Her new body had no sense of taste, of what was good or what was bad. Instead, she picked up that there was an intense amount of nutrition in what had been Amelia’s breakfast and lunch.
“Oh my God! This is so, so—gross!” Tina gurgled, then her vents began emitting gas on reflex as she started to chuckle. Gross? Of course she was gross! That was what the vial said, right? Of course she was gross! Tina vented more gas with amusement as she felt herself descend into an almost dreamlike state. That was the only way her mind could comprehend what was going on, right? Of course!
Tina burbled happily, fluting through the holes in her head. “So, are we getting these pictures taken, or what?” She added a half-hysterical burbling of her back vents to her words. It felt a little natural to her, and she wasn’t sure how to react to that.
Granted, it was better than panicking—but Tina wasn’t sure if she accepted how normal it all felt. Still, though… Giving in was so much better than panicking. Tina nodded to herself, slowly settling into the blank state of mind that she usually reserved for yoga.
Tina drifted through the ensuing photo session in a similar state, doing her best to avoid thinking about what she had become for the rest of the shoot. When her body melted away, Tina almost wept with relief, patting the back of her head just to be sure that her brain was back where it should be.
Natalie was the first to rush to her, covering Tina’s body with a towel. Tina closed her eyes, shivering as she shook off the feeling of having more eyes than limbs. “Please don’t ever show me the pictures of that.” Tina whispered, clutching her blanket tighter.
“I’m sure we won’t.” Natalie cooed, petting the back of Tina’s head. “Will we, Amelia?” She added the last bit with a sharp glare at their gorgeous friend.
“Of course not!” Amelia exclaimed with false innocence, putting on a cheery smile.
Tina quailed a little—that meant that she’d probably be seeing pictures of her monstrous form when she least expected it. Like in the fridge, or worse—the shower.
Luckily, Natalie was there, hugging Tina comfortingly. “Hey, promise. If you don’t, I might just need to ask Susan to order me some spare ‘Scary’ serums.”
Tina’s eyes widened as Amelia turned white as a sheet. She’d never seen Amelia look so frightened before!
“Y-you wouldn’t dare!” Amelia stuttered a little. “Besides, Susan and I are friends, she wouldn’t do that, right?” The only response to her question was a rustling of leaves, and the girls turned to find Susan’s camera was unattended.
“Susan?” Tina squeaked, getting her answer a moment later as a loud hiss came from behind the changing tent.
“Oh no. Tina, don’t look.” Natalie muttered, sending a wide-eyed glance past Tina’s shoulder.
Of course, that was like telling a journalist to keep from a crime scene, and so Tina turned, her curiosity overriding common sense. Then, sheer terror overrode that in turn. Whatever Susan had become was… Something else. It had the thorax of a grub, but with a dozen tiny claws, and the body of… Of…
Tina didn’t know how to put it. A worm? But worms didn’t have tentacles or little arms… A snake? It was certainly posed like one, but snakes didn’t drool from their fanged maw, or have four eyes that could peel away from her face. Some nightmare? No, not even that—because this was real, too real.
Tina blinked, staring at Susan with wide eyes. She went straight past fear into delirium, coming out the other side as… something else.
Part 5: ‘OhGodWhy’
Susan blinked all four of her eyes, peeling their stalks away from her forehead, then settling them back along her muzzle. Then she opened her mouth, revealing row upon row of small fangs in her throat. She opened her mouth wider, her form convulsing as she retched out… her tongue. Slowly, menacingly, the barbed tongue appendage extended from her mouth, trembling from side to side as it tasted the air.
She’d discovered she had it back in the changing tent, and she knew she had to show it off in front of her friends. Her tongue dripped constantly with drool, and Susan gurgled as she realized she could actually sense her friends’ emotions, sense their horror.
Susan gurgled with laughter as she looked at her horror-stricken friends. She let her long, barbed tongue taste the air, bathing in their fear. Especially Tina’s… It almost felt like a different emotion entirely! Susan scuttled a little closer to her, waving her tentacles about. All four of her eyes focused on the trembling brunette, and Susan felt her massive thorax jiggle with amusement at the look on her face.
It looked like the girl was… smiling? Susan blinked with all of her eyes, looking a little closer at her friend. To her surprise, Tina reached up and pet Susan’s head, her hand rubbing along the bumps and tendrils. “You’re so cute!” Tina chirped, ducking down to study the dozen or so claws that Susan used for locomotion.
Susan turned to Natalie, raising all four of her little spike-tipped feeder arms in confusion. Natalie shrugged back, looking at Tina with a quizzical expression. “Um… You know she’s basically a giant maggot with extra limbs, right?” Natalie said it a little hesitantly, no doubt unsure if the girl had lost her mind or not.
Susan bobbed her head in agreement, a long rope of drool oozing from her proboscis-like tongue. Maybe she shouldn’t have given Tina an exposed brain… Impossible as it seemed, that last serum had to have given her brain damage.
Tina frowned, looking up at Susan and tilting her head. “Mmm… Not seeing it. She’s nothing like Amelia was… Maybe it’s because she reminds me of an imaginary friend I used to have.”
Imaginary friend? Susan twitched her limbs in annoyance and confusion alike. What the hell kind of imaginary friend looked like this? Did her parents read her H.P. Lovecraft before bed?
Amelia frowned, giving voice to Susan’s latest thought. “Girl, you’ve got some serious problems.” Susan pointed all four of her tentacles at Amelia, nodding to show that she agreed.
Tina giggled, petting Susan’s side. “Well, in any case, we should be getting some pictures of Ms. Cuddles here, right?”
Susan loomed in closer, accidentally slobbering a bit on Tina’s face as she studied her friend closer. Something about Tina’s words wasn’t lining up with her reactions—was Tina always so pale, or was this a side-effect of Susan’s new eyes?
Tina raised a hand to her face, wiping at the drool. “Oh. And now there’s mucus on my face. Lovely.” She laughed loudly, twitching a little as she turned back to Natalie and Amelia. “Have fun, it's Tina nap time.” Without further ado, the girl fell face first on the ground, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
For a moment her friends remained still, the trio surrounding her unconscious body. Then Susan began to chortle with laughter. A moment later, Amelia and even Natalie joined in—though she first checked to make sure Tina hadn't hurt herself.
Then Susan wriggled all of her limbs, her tentacles flexing as she turned to Amelia. The girl was—apparently—a model, she had to have some experience taking pictures! When Amelia didn't immediately pick up on Susan's idea, Susan gestured with her tongue towards her tripod.
At that, Amelia's eyes widened. "What? You think that because I know how to work a camera, I know how to use a camera?" She spoke with a slight frown. "That said, this is just a digital camera... How hard can it be?"
Susan tried to roll her eyes, gurgling with slight amusement at how the accompanying motion was to entwine her eye stalks. It was hard to believe that she had such a body—even with TransFun serums, such a change was a little intense. Then again, slugs had working eye stalks, so it kind of made sense that Susan's four ocular appendages were physically possible.
Susan returned her attention to Amelia to find the short-haired blond was frowning, holding the camera in one hand and her phone in the other. "Okay..." Amelia began. "I have successfully learned how to turn on the camera. Now..." She thumbed a button and a bright flash lit Susan's vision.
Susan snarled, her eye stalks retreating back into her head like a turtle's head retreating into its shell. She wriggled her tentacles with distress, unable to reverse the reflexive action. Not that being blind was so bad, but having your eyes suddenly shove themselves into your head was more than a little disconcerting.
"Something wrong?" Amelia sniggered from Susan's left. "Oh, Nat really needs to get that camera working—you look hilarious!"
Susan turned and spat on her in response. Well, she meant to spit—just a little gobbet of the slime her mouth was dripping. Instead, she poured out a veritable deluge, hearing a rewarding thump as Amelia fell to the ground from the pressure of the liquid. Even better, the pressure the motion caused resulted in Susan's eyes popping back out of her head, letting her see the results of her handiwork.
"Oh God, what—it's in my mouth, ew!" Amelia gagged, rolling over to retch on the ground.
Susan's whole body shook with laughter, tensing up as she noticed Natalie was pointing the camera at her. Did she catch that on film? Susan had wanted her friends to be able to use her camera, but she certainly didn't want a picture of what had just happened—it was too embarrassing! She wriggled a little back, crooning as the shutter on her camera clicked again.
"Oh my God, these are turning out perfectly!" Natalie chirped.
Susan paused. Really? She wanted to see! She wriggled a little closer to Natalie, who held up a warning finger.
"Ah-ah! No peeking until after this session! I only just managed to get this camera working; we're not risking it by having you drool all over it." Natalie scolded, arresting Susan's movement.
She did have a point... Susan bobbed her head, posing as menacingly as she could for Natalie to take a picture of her. This had been one hell of a photo shoot, and she couldn't wait to see the results. The camera flashed and Susan writhed her way into another position, her tentacles flaring out to point at the camera.
Better yet, her current form was (probably) still the most extreme transformation of the group. So she could still be the queen of transformation of her group!
Susan crooned, eagerly coming up with new ideas for her friends. It'd be hard to top this one, though... Not that that'd keep her from trying. Susan's croon turned into a chortle that only grew louder as Natalie sent a nervous glance to Amelia. Yes, there would defintitely be some interesting changes in the girls' future.