“So Carol, are you ready for your first day of work?” Mr. Proctor asked the slightly nervous witch.
“Oh yes, definitely. I’m super excited, and thanks again for giving me this job at the museum. I’ve always admired all of the amazing displays you have here, and hope I can help make this Museum even better.” Carol said to her new employer.
“That’s great to hear. Well, I’m heading home now, so have a great first day.” He said as he put his fancy black suit jacket on and left the museum.

It had been two years since Carol visited the museum with Amber after Amber turned Grace into a display piece for the museum. After that day, Carol had grown so enamored with all the incredible art pieces and figurines that she eventually applied for the curator job at the museum so she could be around the museum even more.  It took a little while, but eventually they responded to her application, and after a few interviews, she had gotten the position.  Now she was finally starting her first day at the museum, and she was so nervous she was gonna screw up somehow. But that’s always how Carol feels starting a new job so she took a few deep breaths and walked into the main exhibit that displayed her favorite figurine. Her eyes sparkled with joy seeing the amazing warrior figurine that she had grown to love so much.  She was thrilled that it was still the center of the display after a couple years.

She at first approached the figurine in its display case hesitantly, but remembered quickly that the alarms were deactivated for the night so she could pull some of the figurines out for inspection. However, her slight hesitation caused her to trip herself up on her own feet and she went crashing into the display, sending figurines everywhere. Even though she was in immense pain from the fall, Carol couldn’t mutter a sound. She was frozen in shock and terror at the scene of destruction around her. Beautiful warrior figurines thrown everywhere, some now missing limbs or even heads as they bounced off the marble floor. Carol couldn’t believe that on her first day, she had ruined the most prized display in the entire museum. She wanted to cry so bad, but the only thing keeping her from doing so was her frantic search for her favorite figurine, the centerpiece of the display.

As Carol picked up the pieces of some of the other Amazon warriors scattered about, she heard a sharp chirp of pain come from behind her. As she turned around she saw a completely naked Grace sitting on the marble floor rubbing her butt while grimacing. “Grace?! What? But, where did you-“

“Nice to see you too Carol. And to answer your question, I was that gorgeous figurine you loved sooo much.” Grace said standing up and assessing the damage.

“You were? Oh man, I’m so stupid. Of course Amber would hide you in plain sight for me to see. And you were there for 2 years. I can’t imagine how annoying that must have been. Well, at least my clumsiness helped free you. Hehe”

Grace rolled her eyes at Carol, “Yes, once again you some how come to the rescue, even if it means you might get fired on your first day. As for the 2 years being on display, honestly I was super frustrated for the first few months. But as time went on, I started really enjoying all the people stopping and admiring me. Turns out, even as a figurine my body is so alluring it draws crowds.”

Carol rolled her eyes at the naked girl in front of her, who now that she looked closer at, seemed to still have super shiny skin like she did when she was a plastic figure. “Well, I’m glad you found a way to enjoy it. However, I do have a question. Why is your skin still super plastic looking?”

Grace squinted her eyes at Carol in confusion then looked down and saw what she meant. Her caramel skin was still super glossy and when she touched it it still felt plastic and hollow.
“What the hell! My spell should have reversed Ambers completely. I must have been a figurine for so long that my body’s natural affinity leans more towards a plastic figurine than a human now. Grrrr, now I’m definitely getting Amber back for this one.”

Carol looked on at her plastic friend’s luscious body getting lost in her perfect figure and ample breasts. Grace noticed and snaps in front of her friends face. “Hey, Carol, I know I’m kinda irresistible right now to you, but imma need you to dial it back and help me figure out what to do next to Amber.”

“Nuh uh, no way. I told you I’m staying out of this weird competition. It’s honestly getting out of hand between you two, and I’m worried the transformations will only last longer from here on out. Plus, I have to clean up this mess I made.” She started picking pieces up from the other broken figurines, and a horrible thought ran through her head. “Wait, you don’t think these other figures are also girls Amber transformed, do you Grace?”

Grace was feeling up her plastic body before Carol chirped at her again with the same question. “I don’t think so. Usually you can sense a bit of magic on the object if it was normal person who was transformed. Plus, I don’t think there’s enough witches around here for her to have transformed that many into figurines.”

Carol agreed after giving it some thought. She also knew that Amber wasn’t that twisted to pull others into her weird magical competition, except for trying to get her involved. “Yeah, I guess your right. Well, you go have fun getting stuck again. I’m gonna try to salvage my job.”

“See ya later Carol, and good luck! I’m off to plot my revenge...” Grace sang as she skipped naked out of the museum, not caring who saw her plastic body.

Carol shook her head and started using her magic to repair the broken figurines around her, “Girl, I love you, but you are going to get yourself stuck as a welcome mat if you’re not careful.”

—————————————————————————

Around noon Grace finally arrived at her home, and as she shut the front door she sluggishly walked her plastic body over to the living room and plopped down on the couch in exhaustion. She never realized how miserable walking 5 miles would be on plastic feet. However, the guys drooling over her as she walked by naked was gratifying at least.  But now she could simply relax for a bit while coming up with a way to get back at her friend Amber.  As she leaned over to lay on the couch she forgot that her new plastic body had its limits, and as she went to lean on her arm she heard a ‘Pop’. She dropped her head knowing exactly what happened. She looked over at her right shoulder, and just as she suspected, her entire right arm had completely detach from her body and was laying on the floor next to the couch. “Gosh dang it. I’m a walking, talking mannequin! Damn you Amber!”

Grace took a deep breath to calm herself. She knew this was what she signed up for when she started this competition with her friend, so she would have to learn to live with it. She propped her body back up in a sitting position using her left arm to grab the couch. She tried to stand up and go grab her other arm, but she forgot to account for the imbalance of her body and she immediately fell toward her left side and hit the coffee table with a loud hollow thud. Just as she knew her right arm was detached earlier, she knew now that her left arm was now disconnected as well. “Great...” She grumbled to herself while laying armless on the floor of her living room, wondering how long it would take her to reconnect her arms.

As if things couldn’t get any worse for Grace, as she wiggled about on the floor trying to sit up, she heard the front door to her house slam open and slam shut. As she looked over, she spotted Amber walking up to her with a victorious grin. “Well, well, well, looks like someone got themselves into a pickle.” Amber said teasingly.

“Ha ha, very funny. How did you know I was no longer a figurine?” Grace asked while readjusting her plastic body so she could make eye contact with Amber.

“Grace, I made the museum lots of money with the displays I created for them. Obviously they were going to give me full access to the museum and it’s security cameras if I asked. Plus, it was fun to watch Carol drool over you.”

“Ok, so what, you came here to catch me off guard and transform me into something else?”

“Ah! You think so little of me. The only reason I transformed you last time was because I knew you were trying to get me. I simply came over to hangout, you know, like normal friends do.” She said with a smile.

Grace could tell Amber was being sincere. “Well I guess it’s my lucky day then, because I sort of got myself in a little predicament. Hehe.”

Amber shook her head and laughed, “I can see that. Need some help?”

Grace wiggled some more to see if she could scoot over to her right arm, but then stopped as she thought of a brilliant new scheme to get back at Amber. “Yeah, I’m thinking so. Could you be a dear and give me a hand?”

Amber rolled her eyes at the cringy joke. “Sure thing. Then maybe when your back together we can drink and have ourselves a little party.” She said with a wink as she walked over to pick up Grace’s right arm by the couch.
Little did Amber know that hidden on the other side of the couch, Grace was whispering a spell to catch her friend off guard. As Amber reached down and picked up the plastic arm, she felt a quick jolt of energy flow through her body from the plastic appendage. “Ow! What the...” and before Amber could get out another word she was engulfed in a bright light. As the light dissipated, Amber was no where to be found, and Grace’s arm fell to the floor with a thud.

Grace laughed hysterically at her latest victory over her friend. “Hahaha, gotcha Amber! You may have come to hangout, but I wanted some well deserved revenge.”  She said as she wiggled her body to a upright position against her couch, right in front of her detached left arm. After a bit of struggling, she was able to line up her arm and shoulder just right, and with a quick thrust, she popped her arm back on. She learned from her mistake earlier and stood up properly this time, and then walked around her couch to her other arm, ignoring what happened to Amber for a brief moment.

After she popped her other arm back on she quickly turned her attention to where she knew Amber’s new form would be laying helplessly on the floor.  She leaned over and picked up a large square frame that was laying face down on the floor. As she flipped it over, she saw Amber’s gorgeous oversized face staring back at her, frozen in a seductive look. “Damn your sexy like this Amber! Oh and just so you know, I actually like my new plastic body.” She said victoriously to her friend, who was now just a blown up version of her face, plastered onto a rather large slider puzzle. Amber tried to look around and find a way out of her predicament, but sadly she was so caught off guard that she hadn’t prepared any counter spells, so just like Grace previously, It would take Amber a couple hours to break the spell Grace put on her, which she knew would be plenty of time for Grace to come up with a way to make this a more permanent transformation.

Grace happily carried the 4 foot by 4 foot slider puzzle over to her bathroom to reveal to Amber her new form. “Tada! How do you like your new look Amber? I really wanted to show off your gorgeous face, so I simply got rid of the rest of you since it was a bit distracting.”

Amber looked on at her new form with amazement. She was quite impressed by how quick Grace came up with such a clever spell, but was equally blown away by how sexy she looked as a slider puzzle. Her glistening tan skin and her gorgeous green eyes. Not to mention her curly brown hair perfectly framing her face. She was a masterpiece.

As Amber admired herself, Grace decided it was time to explain her plan to her friend. “So, I assume your marveling over your exquisite beauty, so while you do so let me explain your transformation a bit more. As you can tell, I have turned you into a giant 5 by 5 slider puzzle of your face, or otherwise known as a ‘klotski’ puzzle.  Obviously if I leave you as you are, in about an hour or two you would break free. So let me take care of that right now...” Grace reached down and started shuffling around The pieces of her friends puzzle form.

After thoroughly mixing up the parts of Amber’s face, Grace stopped to take a look at her work. Now Amber’s perfect face looked more like a piece of abstract art, with not a single piece even remotely where it should be. Amber felt like her whole brain was scrambled now, unable to put together a coherent thought since the sensation of being mixed up was so strong. Grace smiled knowing her plan was going smoothly. “Now that your completely mixed up, the only way for you to change back to normal is to be solved by someone. However, that’s not gonna be easy, because there’s a catch to solving your puzzle. Once someone starts solving you, a timer starts. Right now that timer is 10 minutes, which is plenty of time to solve a simple puzzle like you. But if someone tries to solve you and fails to do so before the time runs out, you will  reset, and you will increase in difficulty.”

Amber tried to comprehend what Grace was saying but it was still a bit jumbled up. All she could make out was that failing to solve her was not good. Grace moved a piece of her friend’s puzzle to the one open spot which started the timer. “Now, seeing as the whole point is to keep you like this as long as possible, I figured I should make you a bit more challenging before others have a crack at you. So I’ll be back in 10 minutes to see how much more difficult you become.” Grace said as she walked out of the bathroom, leaving Amber to try to gather her jumbled thoughts.

As she returned she noticed that the timer had reset on Amber to 25 minutes, and she was now a 6 by 6 slider puzzle, and already mixed up again, ready for someone to try to solve her once again. “25 minutes for a 6 by 6 huh? That’s not very challenging. Let’s fix that.” So again Grace moved a tile, and left her scrambled friend alone in the bathroom. Grace repeated this process a few more times until Amber was a 10 by 10 puzzle with an hour timer. Grace seemed rather pleased with her work. “There we go, you are ready for the public to get a crack at ya. And I know the perfect place to set you up at.” She said devilishly.

After a good nights rest, Grace got dressed and made sure her limbs weren’t going to fall off, before she placed the giant Amber puzzle into a carrying strap and slung her over her back like a backpack. She then skipped gracefully out of her apartment and down the street towards the museum she was on display in not a day earlier. As she got to the museum she saw Carol walking in the front door looking relieved. “Hey Carol! You look like you’re relieved about something. Did you get to keep your job?”

“I did thankfully. After you left I fixed all the figurines with a spell, and fixed all the display cases as well. Thankfully the security system wasn’t recording at the time so there’s no evidence of what happened yesterday.”

“Well that’s a relief. Oh by the way, I’m glad I ran into you today, because as a thank you of sorts, I wanted to bring you a special gift that I think would be perfect to display in the museum.” Grace said as she pulled the big puzzle off of her back.

Carol was nervous, “Oh no, you didn’t turn Amber into a painting did you? I won’t accept it if so.”

Grace laughed, “Don’t be silly, I’m not that basic. But you are right about Amber being transformed...” She flipped the puzzle around to reveal the massive jumbled up face of Amber. “Tada! Introducing the Amber Slider Puzzle!”

Carol was dumbfounded by the puzzle sitting in front of her. “That’s Amber? She looks impossible to solve! And there’s a timer?!?”

Graces grinned at her handiwork. “Yep, wouldn’t be exactly a challenge if there wasn’t one... So here’s the deal. She can’t change back unless she is solved in the time limit, and if she isn’t, she transforms into a tougher puzzle with a longer time limit. So I was thinking you could set her up as an interactive exhibit in the museum for visitor to try to solve. I bet she would bring in a lot of new people, even if they just stare at her beautiful face. What do ya say?”

Carol just got out of a sticky situation the day before, and now she was in a even bigger dilemma. Does she agree to put Amber on display hoping someone can solve her, or does she take her home and try to solve it by herself? Knowing how bad she was at puzzles, she already knew her answer. “Ugh, fine. I’ll put Amber on display. I just want it to be known that this is insane, and that she could very well be stuck like this for a very long time... which seeing your stupid grin seems like exactly what you are hoping for because your demented competition is completely crazy.”

Grace ran up and gave Carol a big hug. “Thanks Carol! I knew I could count on you!” She handed over the giant puzzle and briskly walked away, not giving it a second thought. “I’ll be back tomorrow to see the new display. Who knows, maybe she will be back to normal by then... hehe.” She knew very well that would not be the case.
And once again Carol was left feeling uneasy, with a huge burden on her. Never before had the girls done a transformation and clued her in as to what it was, and she had to admit that she liked it better that way. This was way more nerve racking knowing Amber was a near unsolvable puzzle.
As she looked at the puzzle in her hands she curiously slid one of the tile containing one of Amber’s eyes, and then realized her mistake once the timer turned on. “Damn...”

—————————————————————————

The next day Grace came trotting down to the museum again and ran right up to Carol who was talking with a visitor. “Hey Carol. Looking good today! So, where’s Amber’s display?”

Carol looked at her friend uneasy, “it’s over here, follow me.” Carol lead Grace over to a corner of the entrance area where a crowd had developed. “Here she is, ‘Amber the Unsolvable Puzzle’.”

Grace looked past the crowd at the familiar slider puzzle with Amber’s face all contorted on it. She saw the plaque beside it read exactly how Carol announced it as, and she chuckled. Then she took a closer look at her puzzled friend and realized that she was now a 14 by 14 puzzle already, which garnered a bellowing laugh from Grace. “Oh my god, I knew she would be a popular exhibit, but she’s already been attempted four times?”

Carol looked at Grace uneasy, “Yeah, well I accidentally did the first attempt, and then right before close yesterday, a child came up and wanted to try to solve the ‘funny’ looking puzzle. The other two attempts happened today.”

Grace was way more pleased with how her plan was working than she thought she would be. “Well, what can I say, I do good work. Also, before you ask, I can’t simply undo this spell since it was a one way spell. The only way to fix Amber is to solve the puzzle. But don’t worry, there’s gotta be someone out there that is up to the challenge. But they better show up soon, because Amber’s not getting any easier to solve” Grace said with a giggle, before hugging Carol again and heading out of the museum. As Carol turned back to the crowd around her puzzled friend she over heard one of them talking to their daughter who couldn’t be more than 5 years old.

“Alright Stephanie, It’s your turn, let’s see your puzzle solving skills at work.”

Carol dropped her head in defeat, “Amber’s screwed...”

Meanwhile, Grace went back to her house and went straight to her bedroom pleased with how the day went. She quickly popped off her right arm again, but this time on purpose, as she wanted to try some experimenting with her new mannequin like body. She wasn’t to worried about getting stuck this time around as she used some spells to make her house more ‘mannequin safe’. She grabbed her detached arm in her other hand and lower it down towards her lower region, excited by the fun ideas she had in mind. “I’ll have to thank Amber sometime for my new body... I’m thinking that will be in about 5 years.” She moaned loudly as she started pleasuring herself with her disconnected arm, basking in her victory over her puzzled friend.