One is Two and Two is One
a
Trust Machines story
by
clancy688
Peter's Books, an antiquarian bookstore, had been in the mall since its construction, making it well over thirty years old. In recent times, online traders like amazon and the rise of eBooks had dwindled the stores' customers, but Mr. Peter, the owner, by now already well into his seventies, didn't much care for revenues and profit. As long as he made enough cash a month to pay his (humble) bills, he was happy. And he had a solid core of long-time customers who were providing him with this essential income. This state of things probably wouldn't keep up forever, but well - he wouldn't either. Therefore he'd spent most of the last decade alone, quiet and contentedly behind his desk, burying himself in his beloved books, relishing in the smell of old paper and serving the occasional customer.
Which meant that he had much time on his hands to observe the mall through his store's windows. Until recently that hadn't been that exciting, but then, from one day to another, the Venn Machine had popped up opposite to his store. He'd left the mall in the evening, closing his store, and there'd been no machine. Then he'd returned in the morning, and there the machine had stood. As if it'd always been a part of the mall. Only that it hadn't. He'd actually gone to the mall's administration, asking the managers which gentleman had put this plain-looking box across from his ancient shop. To be fair, the actual phrasing had been more... ornate, but... they'd been flabbergasted. First they'd denied that there was such a box. Then they'd seen the thing and believed in some stupid hoax. Next they'd tried to remove it. They'd nearly tried everything short of using explosives. Unsuccessfully. The efforts hadn't even left a scratch on the damn thing! Therefore they'd decided to leave the mysterious box alone. After all, the only ways to remove it they hadn't tried until now would demolish the mall as well. A price which most certainly wasn't worth the satisfaction of having the illegal box gone. So Mr. Peter had to accept this abomination's looming shadow (actually it wasn't that looming, rather on the unobtrusive side, in fact) in front of his store. Which he did. Grudgingly. After several weeks of complaining. There were rumors that the management had thrown a champagne party after Mr. Peter had admitted his defeat.
So since then he'd had a perfect view on the machine. And it didn't take long for the city's youth to discover it. And to try out what it did. This had been another surprise for Mr. Peters. A machine which transforms people? Even into clothing? Preposterous! Like a fantasy story out of one of his books. And yet it was true. A fact which had immediately reconciled the mall's management to the machine's illegal existence. Some junior trainee had had the idea of using one of the empty store rooms next to the machine for installing some kind of lockers where people using the Venn Machine could store stuff away. And suddenly, they were even making extra money thanks to the machine's popular existence!
Mr. Peter had needed a little longer than the management to accept this second, astonishing fact, but then, his days at the shop had indeed become more interesting. To be honest, he'd never used the damn thing. Whoever had built it probably had made a pact with the devil, so he wouldn't set his foot into Satan's spawn. But observing what other people were using it for... well, that was something else.
Truth be told, for a long time he'd cherished the thought that today's youth had lost every bit of imagination. Only watching television, not reading good, old books anymore - of course, where the hell should their imagination come from? From America's Next Idol? Hardly.
But he'd had to realize that he'd been wrong. Because what some of them were using this machine for was... very imaginative. Just now he'd seen another three youths entering the machine. That wasn't unheard of, either. Apparently, when two people entered the booth and got transformed into one body, the lighter one would become its clothing. So he was interested in what one of the girls would wear when she'd emerge again. Unfortunately, he'd only caught a glimpse of those three girls since he'd been serving one of his rare customers, so he had only a rough idea of what they looked like. That made finding out what they'd changed about themselves of course more difficult.
He didn't have to wait long. One minute later, three girls emerged again, one from one side of the booth, with blonde hair, and two from the other with black. But the single one was naked, and the other two were wearing the same clothes, twins even. Mr. Peters furrowed his brows. Had both aborted the transformation sequence? Why?
But then he saw that the naked one apparently had troubles controlling their bodies. That wasn't unheard of either. But something about this was strange. She was actually lying on the floor now, throwing her hands and feet around madly. One of the twin girls was going over to help her while the other had sat down next to the Venn Machine, closing her eyes and leaning her body towards its wall. Curiouser and curiouser!
They were talking now, and the twin who'd come to her friends' help aided her getting dressed now in some clothes they'd stored in a locker bank next to the machine before. After several minutes, both the formerly naked girl and the other twin slowly stood up and the trio began exiting the mall slowly.
Mr. Peters shook his head amused. This time, he had not even the slightest idea what those three had done. Well, sometimes the changes were subtle and hard to spot. It was only later, when he was in the process of cleaning his small store after closing, when a thought flashed into his mind. Wait a minute. The blonde girl had exited the left side of the booth, the twin black haired girls had exited the right one. But... hadn't two girls, one blonde and one brunette, gone into the left side? And only one black haired into the right? So why had...?
**************************************
"This has to be one of the worst ideas ever!" Susan cursed, moving her body through the opened door into the apartment, collapsing on one of the kitchen's chairs, shaking her blonde mane. She looked at both identical looking girls entering the door behind her.
"So?" Jess asked with one face while the other glowered at Susan's body. "At least you two have one single body. One could think that you'd have only half the work to do. Me on the other side, I suddenly have two full bodies and only me alone to work them. THAT'S maddening, I tell you." she threw her hands up in exasperation. Unfortunately, both sets of them. From both bodies. A thing she still had not yet under full control, moving only one body and not the other at the same time with the same motion. Therefore one set of hands went up in the air. And the other set straight into the doorframe under which the second body was still standing.
"Ouch!" both girls, or rather one mind, cried in unison and Susan's body laughed. Or tried to, at least. What came out was some kind of uncontrolled coughing, arms and legs flying around, as if she was having some kind of stroke.
Now the first Jess, the one who stood closer to Susan's body, sighed. "Okay, you know, you absolutely need to improve your coordination. So, Susan has an intermission now. Betty, your turn."
It took a couple of seconds and then Susan's body relaxed itself. "Well, about damn time." Betty said from Susan's body. "You have no idea how irritating it is to only be an observer in your body. To have it move on its own. It really sucks that our minds are not connected!"
She appeared to wanted to say something more, but then the "seizures" appeared again. Jess sighed again, this time with both bodies. "Girls..." she said. "Remember what you agreed on. When one of you is in control, she stays in control. Until you're forwarding control to her, indicating this by pinching your thigh. And you'll change at least every half an hour. Susan was in control of the way home, therefore it's now Betty's turn."
That seemed to work, because the seizures stopped. "Ha!" said Betty. "She was moaning and pitching about this bargain before. So, if you ditch your exam tomorrow because you don't let me in control when you're clueless about a question it's your fault!"
She pinched her knee and seemed to relax a little. Then suddenly, Susan's body talked again. "Pah! I'd have let you take over control soon enough, but you kept barging in before, so make sure that YOU don't ditch MY exam tomorrow!"
*Pinch*
"Well yeah? This was your idea anyway! You came practically begging to me with this mad idea, transforming into one body, holding both of our minds, to combine our knowledge for your exam tomorrow and mine the day after, Susan!"
*Pinch*
"So what? You were practically shaking in fear of your exam! I showed you a way out and you took it immediately. You should show a little gratitude, you know!"
*Pinch*
"Aha? You weren't that calm either. In fact, 'panicked' is rather the word I would..."
Jess rolled both of her pairs of eyes, looking at the girl in front of her who was apparently arguing with herself. Well, that was the only way Susan and Betty could communicate, since both of them shared Susan's body. In fact, it was quite an ingenious idea. When two people entered one side of a Venn Machine and got transformed into a clothed human, the lighter one of both would end up as the clothes. But when both of them would be transformed into a naked human, they'd both share the same body - unfortunately without a psychic link between those two minds, but one couldn't have everything.
Actually, Susan had found the idea for this craziness in a college hyperboard. She and Betty had been learning for the same oral exam they had to take at two different days. Both had been angst-ridden and, fortunately, both had set different emphasis for learning. So when Susan had realized that hers and Betty's knowledge together covered nearly all of the subject, she'd decided to try out this trick.
They'd let themselves be transformed into one body, then enter the oral exam in it. When the original owner of the body they were sharing didn't know the answer to one question, they'd simply switch control and the other one would take over. That had sounded easy in theory, but Susan had planned in some training in her time table to get this switching control thing becoming as unobtrusive as possible. Time which, as Jess had now amply seen, was definitely needed.
Jess, of course, had been very interested in this proposition of Susan. She had to write a horror exam as well, only a written one. And so she'd asked if the same hyperboard had some more ideas in store for such tests. Since everyone of her fellow students would write the exam simultaneously with her, the two minds in one body wasn't feasible. After all one body could only write one exam. And point of fact, the hyperboard had. A simple one, really. Use the machine to get transformed into two different bodies. Which would, thanks to the Venn Machine's peculiarities, still be controlled by one mind. Then send one of those bodies to the exam and keep the second one at home. Which would be able to look up any topics asked in the exam the body's user didn't know. And, of course, use enough time to familiarize yourself with controlling two bodies. Which can be a bit disorienting.
Which was, unfortunately, also true. There'd been at least three lamp-posts and two cars Jess had rammed with one of her bodies on the way back because she'd been moving both the same way. So if she'd avoided one obstacle, the evasive motion, copied by the second body, had sometimes brought the second one on a collision course.
Therefore Jess now left the two arguing minds in one body alone in the kitchen of the apartment, Susan, Betty, she and Thomas, another fellow student, albeit with different courses, lived in. She exhaled relieved from two mouths when she was finally alone in her room. Well, alone in the sense of 'one mind', not 'one body'.
Awkwardly, she led one of her bodies to the bed and sat it down, then she maneuvered the second one in her swivel chair and looked at, well, herself.
She'd thought before that looking herself in the eyes would perhaps introduce vertigo, somehow like an endless mirror image. Instead, it was simply like seeing two television images at the same time. She was seeing herself sitting on the bed and she was seeing herself sitting on her swivel chair. At the same time. Moreover, she was sitting in the chair and on the bed at the same time.
"This is freaky." she said with both mouths, then grimaced. "This is freaky." she said again, this time only with her body on the bed, and now she heard herself two times - one time with the body who'd spoken and one time with the other body.
"This" "Is" "Very" "Freaky" she said again, grinning, this time alternating between her two mouths. Controlling both of her bodies at the same time seemed to be becoming easier now. So she stood up carefully, with both bodies, and moved both towards each other, meeting in the middle of the room.
Hesitantly, she used one body's hand to touch the other body's face. The sensation was eerie - there was one sensation of touching a foreign face, and another sensation of being touched in the face by a foreign hand! One image of herself touching another face, and one image of herself being touched into the face!
She let one of her bodies stand still in the room while she circled it with her other, viewing her second, identical form.
"That's an interesting point of view, I'd say..." she murmured while doing so. "On the other hand... this has possibilities!"
Grinning, she put one of her bodies on the bed again, waiting eagerly, while she walked the other to her closet. Excitedly, she pulled some clothes out, removing her current stuff and putting on a sexy top, pantyhose, a short skirt and finally a pair of heels. Again it was entirely fascinating of being in two places at once, putting on clothes and watching herself doing this like a stranger at the same time!
"Tada!" she said with her clothed body, smiling broadly and walking towards her waiting other body on the bed. "How do I look?" she asked herself, spinning around her axis.
Jess giggled with her other body. This was awesome! "You're... I'm looking sexy!" she exclaimed, letting both of her bodies grin at each other.
The next couple of hours she spent with playing dress-up in front of herself, even faking conversation between her two selves. It was some of the best fun she'd experienced in years, and the fact that it was so... so... strange made it even better. And in the end, she realized that she had better and better control over her two bodies. When she'd put the last item back into the closet, there was virtually no chance anymore of one body accidentally mimicking a motion determined for the other.
She even managed to do two different things at the same time. Only by chance did she suddenly realize that she was sorting clothes in her closet with one body and, at the same time, surfing in the internet with the other. It was like... dividing her consciousness but still staying aware of both views at the same time.
By the time she went to bed, it seemed totally natural having two bodies. Jess giggled with both bodies, lying on her mattress facing each other.
"This is like a sleep-over!" she exclaimed with one of them and let the other respond after only a short pause. "Yes, it is." it acknowledged, and both giggled again. Then she snuggled both her bodies together, marveling in the sensation this provided.
In the morning, Jess was disoriented at first. Why was she embracing another woman in her bed? But then her second body's eyes flew open and and she remembered the strange changes from the day before again.
Grinning, she raised both of her bodies out of her bed.
"Hmm..." she mused with one. "Now we both need to shower... what do you think, sister, will this be interesting?"
Jess let her other body cock an eyebrow. "You bet!"
Showering with two bodies at once proved to be an interesting situation indeed. She was standing in the shower, her naked bodies close to each other, glistening with moisture... it was one of the most erotic situations she'd ever experienced and it didn't took long until one of her bodies was on its knees, eating out the second body's clit.
It was incredible! The orgasm was mind-blowing, and when the first body was finished with its deed, she let the second one respond in kind.
Dazed, both of Jess' bodies exited the shower ten minutes later. That had been... unbelievable. Magnificent. It left only one question. Was this now considered lesbian sex or rather masturbation?
She was still pondering this question when she entered the kitchen, one body wearing her normal street clothes for the exam, the second one only a jump suit, her favorite clothes at home, because it would stay here, to be able to look up everything she didn't know.
Susan's body was already sitting at the table, happily munching her cereals. And their final roommate Thomas as well, who watched fascinated as both Jess' grabbed a bowl and sat down at the table together, sharing milk and cereals.
"Morning." Jess said with one body, while she started eating with the other already.
"Good morning..." Thomas replied, looking at her intrigued. "Susan's and Betty's change is already crazy as hell, but this one of yours... you're really just one mind in two bodies? How's it feel?"
Jess shrugged, the other body eating its cereals unfazed. "Well, it's hard to say. At the beginning, it was very difficult to control both bodies, especially making both do different things at the same time. But now..." she cast a glance to her other body munching. "...as you see, it's no problem. It's strange, yes. But somehow... sensual."
Thomas nodded in understanding, and by now the second body had finished its cereals. So the first one, which Jess had used for speaking until now, started eating from its bowl and without a break, the second continued its role as 'speaker'.
"So..." she asked Susan's body. "How's it going with you? Everything all right? You getting accustomed to each other?"
Susan (or Betty) shrugged. "Well, yeah. Took some time, but we managed. Only problem was sleeping. When one mind fazed away, the other was suddenly in control and woke up our body again. But as I said. We somehow managed."
"And... who is in control right now?" Jess asked.
"Well, I'm Betty." Susan's body said, and then, without a noticeable interruption, "And I'm Susan." she grinned. "You see, we've put aside our differences. And managed to smooth our control changes out. Oh, and I'm Betty again. But only since the sentence beginning with 'And'".
Thomas laughed. "Well, let me say, it's totally crazy seeing my roommates this way. Two of you are actually one people, and one of you is actually two. That's something getting used to. But it's only for today, and in your case, Susan and Betty, for two, isn't it?"
"Right." Jess grinned, saying this with both of her bodies. "Although it's a pity... I was just getting used to be able to do two different things at once."
Thomas chuckled again, and then they finished their meals, sharing each other's experiences.
The trip to the exam proved to be another worthwhile experience for Jess. One of her body was at home, looking over her notes a last time, while the other was sitting in the bus, driving towards the exam. They were miles away by now, and still she was feeling both bodies as if they were standing next to each other!
The exam then wasn't as hard as Jess had imagined it would be. She may actually have passed it without this little Venn Machine cheat, but this way, she positively aced it. When she didn't know an answer, she simply left the box in question empty and skipped to the next one, and at the same time, her body at home was going through her notes searching for the right answer. Which she'd put in once the home body had found it.
After the exam, she chatted a little with her fellow students. Apparently, she hadn't been the only one using a Venn Machine to help her with the exam, though she suspected that she'd been the most successful. One boy had transformed himself into some kind of humanlike robot on the outside, with a hard drive for a mind where he'd simply stored all of courses' work. But this hadn't helped because he hadn't tried out writing with this body. Because when he had written, during the exam, only incomprehensible strange symbols had appeared on his test paper, unreadable by anyone but him. Another pair of girls had appeared with sensory boosted bodies, especially enhanced hearing. They'd planned on whispering answers to each other so quietly that nobody except them would notice. Unfortunately, the sounds of hundreds of pencils scratching on paper had proven to be torture for their enhanced hearing, and both had to abort the exam with a mental breakdown.
And then there were the ones who'd not actually cheated, but had used the Venn Machine to take some... support into the exam. There'd been a fair share of lucky charms on the tables, stuffed animals and such, of which more than half probably had been parents, friends or spouses. One girl had even had her boyfriend with her, encouraging her as her clothing.
"I think that without Simon here, I wouldn't have made it!" she exclaimed now, lovingly stroking the dark black pantyhose covering her legs below her hot pants. "There were some questions where I was so close of getting into a frenzy - but Simon's feel, hugging my legs and holding them warm, always kept me going!"
Jess smiled, listening to her fellow student's tales. Sadly it seemed that the teaching staff was already aware of the possibilities the Venn Machines offered for cheating, that at least a couple of students claimed. According to them, the only thing which'd made Venn cheating possible during this exams phase was the fact that the biometric scanners the staff had ordered had been delayed and hadn't arrived in time. But for the next phase, every student would have to prove his identity at the biometric scanner first, making cheating through transformation impossible since a Venn machine normally always changed iris patterns and fingerprints. Jess didn't care, though. With some luck this had been the last 'hard' exam till her graduation, so there'd be no need for further cheating.
After she'd participated in the discussion for a few minutes, she excused herself, hurrying to the bus again. But not to drive home. No, the little... fun in the shower before had given her a better idea.
Grinning she departed the bus a little later, sauntering towards her other body who was already waiting for her.
**************************************
Greg went to the door smilingly after its chime had sounded. He just couldn't believe his luck. Normally, his girlfriend Jess wasn't approachable during her exams. And he knew that today she had one she'd dreaded for months. So the fact that she'd phoned him before and told him she'd pay him a visit, hinting at some 'fun' she wanted to have, was quite unusual.
Not that he intended to complain, of course.
So he opened his door smiling. "Hi, Sweetheart. I've missed you! How did... your... exams..." his voice faltered, his eyes darting left and right. All right, there was his girlfriend standing, grinning. And next to her... also his girlfriend. Also grinning.
"Um..." he asked nervously. "What is... I mean... who is... I mean..."
Both girls, differently clothed but looking exactly like his girlfriend, chuckled.
"Oh, I've missed you, too, Greg!" the left one purred.
"You can't believe how much!" the right one added, and Greg gulped.
"Um... okay... this is a test, isn't it? One of you is a friend of Jess and I have to find out who, haven't I?"
"What?" the right one asked amused, to be immediately supplemented by the left one.
"I would never do something like this. No..." and this time, BOTH girls talked at the same time.
"It's just me here, Jess, no one else."
Okay, this was getting freaky. "Sorry... you lost me..." Greg said desperate, and both girls started laughing.
"Oh, Greg!" the left said. "You should see your face."
"It's actually only me." the right one continued. "I used a Venn Machine. It's only me, but now I have two identical bodies."
Greg stared open-mouthed at the two girls while the left one took over again. "So it looks like I'm two people, but I'm actually only one."
"Yes" "I'm" "Your" "Girlfriend" both girls said alternating and giggled and Greg ogled them wide-eyed.
"But... that's... how!" he protested weakly. Both girls, or rather Jess, if what they claimed was true, rolled their eyes.
"Okay, demonstration." the left one said and the right one went back from the door, actually retreating until the property's border. "Whisper something to me. Just something. Any word."
"Um..." Greg said helplessly again. "Chickenshit?" he murmured weakly and almost immediately, the other girl called out loudly from the sidewalk. "You said 'chickenshit'"
"You see?" the Jess next to him asked. "This body heard what you said, but because there's only one mind controlling both, I can also say it with the other body!"
Greg's eyes now had the size of dishes. That was incredible. That was... he looked at his girlfriends, or rather at his girlfriend's bodies.
"That is... why?" he stammered and both bodies, the second one having joined the first one at the door again, grinned.
Both sauntered in the house now, one taking his hand and leading him to his bedroom, the other one closing the door and following them.
"Shh..." the body who'd led him said, putting a finger in front of her mouth while she laid him on his bed. "I'll explain later. Now I just want to have fun."
Greg could only stare at his girlfriends face above him, her hands roaming his chest. And at the same time, he could feel her other body opening his trousers, reaching for his cock.
Both bodies looked at each other, smirking, then the one at his groin slowly took his cock in her mouth, starting to suck at it. The one lying next to him eyed her twin sucking off his member, then snuggled closer to him, looking in his eyes and licking her lips.
"What do you think about a little threesome with both of my bodies?" she breathed and lowered her head, joining Greg's lips for a sensual kiss.