Trust Machines - Victor
In a normal world, Phil thought, you didn't have to worry about this kind of thing.  A bouncer by inclination and build, Phil spent some of his down time volunteering for Goodwill.  His usual job, the one he was doing tonight, was to pick up donations from the various Goodwill boxes around town.

Lately, he had to add another step.  All the bags had to be trucked over to the local mall, and tossed into the Venn Machine before taking them back to the main Goodwill store where they clothes would be cleaned and sorted out to racks.  It never failed - every week there was at least one transformed person in among the clothes.

Phil didn't begrudge the extra work, though.  He'd stop and talk with whoever ended up popping up, as they were usually grateful for the early rescue.  They always had interesting stories to tell.  Which was why Phil had sworn on his honor never ever to enter one of those boxes.  Who knew what you'd end up, or where.

Tonight's run was no different.  When he left the third bag inside the machine, careful as always never to fully enter, the entry disappeared.  A minute later, a disheveled guy stumbled out, smelling of cheap booze and vomit.

Jerry didn't remember much, but he did say that it had been one heck of a party.  Phil agreed, and helped him clean up before calling him a cab.

Phil made it to the last bag without further incident.  The last one was from the box nearest the mall, and most weeks there was someone in it, often more than one.  So Phil was far from surprised when the Venn Machine's entry vanished once again.

What caught Phil's attention was the guy's reaction.  He stepped out calmly and sighed.  "Not again."

"Not your first trip?"  Phil asked kindly.  Then he frowned.  He did recognize him from a previous run.  "Victor, right?  I remember you now.  Something about trying to get into a girl's wardrobe?"

Victor tugged his sport coat into line.  He looked like he was quite well off.  His wavy black hair was perfectly groomed, and he'd shaved shortly before he was transformed.  He even smelled of a quite expensive cologne.

"Yes.  This time my 'buddy' had a foolproof plan."  The sarcasm in Victor's voice spoke volumes about his opinion of said friend.  "I'm not sure he even tried, to be honest.  I'm just glad he tossed me in a Goodwill box.  The Salvation Army doesn't take as much care."

Phil laughed.  "And you know this from personal experience?"

Victor sighed, and nodded.  "Two weeks on a rack, worn once, then left in the closet for the rest of the month."

"Not by the right girl, I take it."

Victor spent the next half hour extolling the virtues of Cindy.  Like him, she was a trust fund baby who'd never had to work a day of her life.  She was tall, blonde, pretty, and enjoyed flitting from one person to the next.  She barely ever even talked to Victor, despite moving in the same circles and ending up at many of the same parties.

An hour later, they were sitting at a table in a nearby coffee shop, and Victor was finally winding down.

"Thanks for the coffee, Vic.  Look, I've got to head to the club, but I can tell you're going about this all the wrong way.  A girl like her, she might say she's looking for a nice guy.  But who's she going out with?"

Victor sighed.  "Guys like you, mostly.  Big, slightly dangerous looking.  Not as nice, though."

Phil offered Victor a lift in his truck, as his duckling didn't seem inclined to go home.  Victor even helped unload at Goodwill, getting a bit rumpled in the process.  He didn't seem to mind.

Afterword, Victor tagged along to Phil's night job, as a bouncer at a local club.  As luck would have it, Cindy was there at the bar when they entered.  Some weedy guy had just approached her, and she was in the middle of what looked like a devastating assessment of his flaws.  Victor smiled - despite how it had felt when that wit was turned on him, he still loved to watch her at work.

Victor pointed Cindy out to Phil, and he laughed.  "Oh, her.  I've seen her here before.  She shoots everyone down.  It's like she's not really here to find someone at all."

"Oh," said Victor, dejectedly.

"Then again...  Watch and learn."

Victor watched from a distance as Phil approached Cindy.  He couldn't hear what was said, but Phil's confident posture was in marked contrast to the almost supplicating approach that other guys had taken.

He could see her eyes flash with anger.  On some girls it was an ugly look, but Cindy was one of those few that got even more beautiful and regal when angry.  Phil just shrugged, sat at the bar, and started talking with the bartender.

Victor thought that was it, and was about to turn and leave, when he saw Cindy starting to take peeks at Phil.  He knew that look, and sure enough, before long she was chatting with Phil like they were old friends.  Victor felt a stab of jealousy at that, accompanied by a spark of hope.

Cindy wrote something on a napkin, and gave it to Phil.  Victor ducked out of sight as she left the bar, then yelped as Phil tapped him on the shoulder.

"How did you do that?"

"Easy, you were completely distracted by her."

"No, I mean how did you get her to talk to you?"

"Years of practice and self-confidence.  Looking like her ideal bad-boy probably doesn't hurt, either."

"Can you teach me?"

Phil looked Victor over critically.  "I don't know.  You'd have to work out regularly, lose that bit of a tire that's starting to develop.  And grow about six inches taller."

"Oh."

"About the only way I can see you on a date with her is if I wear you."

"Works for me."

"So you see... wait, what?"

"I'm game.  If that's as close as I can get, I'll do it."

Phil shook his head.  "I was kidding."

"I'm not.  How much?"

"Huh?"

"I'll pay you.  Enough to take her to any restaurant you like, or more.  You can even borrow my car."

"Hm.  What kind of car?"

"Lamborghini."

"OK.  But I'm not going in the Venn Machine.  Get your friend to change you again."

So that's how Victor ended up as Phil's pocket square, in a new sport coat that Victor had also paid for.  Phil even made sure to make good use of the silky fabric when they went back to Cindy's place.

The next day, when Victor changed back, he was ecstatic.  "Thank you so much!  That was incredible."

Phil grinned.  "She was, yes.  I can see why you're panting after her.  She's not really my type, but..."

"The only way it could have possibly been better was if she wore me."

Phil slitted his eyes, studying Victor appraisingly.  "Just how much would that be worth to you?"

Victor tossed him the car keys.  "Keep the car for as long as I'm in her wardrobe."

"Deal."

The next night, Phil took Cindy back to his place for a second go-round.  In the morning, Phil offered Cindy a pretty pink silk robe to wear.  She loved it, and wore it all morning.

When it was time to go, Phil told her to keep the robe.  "Something to remember me by.  And Victor."

"Victor?  How's he involved?"

"You're wearing him."

"I don't believe you.  Who would want to be turned into my clothes?"

"Half the guys you shoot down in the bar, for one.  This isn't even the first time he's tried to get into your wardrobe.  Just the first time he succeeded."

Cindy still could not believe what Phil was telling her, so they took the robe down to the Venn Machine to prove the point.

Victor stepped out and waved shyly.  "Hi."

Cindy looked amazed.  "You were my robe?  Really and truly?"

Victor nodded.

"And you really want to be in my wardrobe?"

Victor nodded again.  "I'd love that."

Cindy put some money in the Venn machine.  "How long?"

"How about a month?"

She nodded, and set the time.  "Wait.  How can I know you won't turn me into something weird?"

Victor looked over at Phil, who shrugged.  "Sure.  If he does something stupid, I'll put you back in."

"And force him back in so I can change him?"

Phil laughed, and pointed at the array of cameras pointing at the Venn Machine.  "The cops take a dim view of that.  No, I'll just make sure you're safe.  If he screws up, too bad for him."

"What about me?" asked Victor.  "Who makes sure I'm safe?"

Phil laughed.  "You're volunteering for her wardrobe, dude.  You pretty much have to trust her."

Victor nodded.  "Good point."

"Besides, you spent a month at a Salvation Army store.  Being in her wardrobe has to be an improvement."

Victor's answer was to step into the Venn Machine.  Cindy followed shortly thereafter, and a few minutes later emerged to pick up her prize, a sparkly pink hairband.

Over the next two months, Cindy transformed a handful of guys, always under Phil's watchful gaze.  Phil proved to be partially right.  Some of the guys at the club were willing to give up being human to spend time with her.  It was quite a bit less than half of them, though.  Most of those were only willing to be changed for a day or two at a time.  After a few false starts, Cindy found found that if she treated them nicely and wore them a lot, they could often be sweet-talked into staying in her wardrobe for a month.

The long term residents of her wardrobe were mostly college students.  It was summer, and they didn't have much better to do until classes started.  As September rolled around, Cindy got less and less takers for one-month stays.  Finally, in mid-September, the only one left was Victor.  

Victor had returned to normal and been changed twice more.  The second change was into a pair of sexy panties that got a lot of wear - by that time, Cindy had changed more than a few guys into intimate clothing, so it seemed only fair to do it for Victor, too.  The third time she let him choose, and he asked to be just a plain, simple bra.  He came out so smooth and sleek and supportive that Cindy wore him pretty much every day.

Cindy kept very careful track of when each of her wardrobe guests was due to 'check out', and made sure that they were lying on the couch in her living room at their appointed time.  She would thank them for their service, and see them off.

When Victor was due to change back, Cindy made sure to dress up nicely.  She gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"So what do you want to be this month?"

Victor smiled, and shrugged.  "Anything you like, as long as you use me."

Cindy called a cab, and the two of them rode in silence to the mall.  Once there, Victor looked around in surprise.  "No Phil?"

"He's gotten busy.  Apparently the watching the Venn Machine gig really took off for him, and he's booked solid by escort agencies."

Victor nodded.  "Are you brave enough to get in there with me, without him watching?  I might try to change you into something and use you, instead."

Cindy bit her lip, and considered that.  Then she turned, paid the Venn Machine and set the duration to a month.  She stepped into one side, the door vanishing behind her.

Victor grinned, and quickly hopped into the other.  He was greeted by the familiar sight of Cindy in the interface panel.  He waited for a bit, and then frowned in puzzlement.

"Why aren't you choosing anything?"

Cindy smiled at him.  "Your turn.  Or were you just blowing smoke about using me?"

Victor straightened up.  He'd learned a little from Phil, after all.  In his most certain voice, he said, "No.  I'll do it.  I'll make you into something that I'll use every day..."

Dozens of suggestions bubbled up around Cindy's image at that prompt.  Victor touched a few, shaking his head at one after the other.  He didn't want to wear her, but what did he use every day?  Car keys, phone, golf clubs...

Cindy made an amazing putter.  Victor made sure to play multiple rounds of golf every day.  As the days went by he grew more and more nervous, though.  Had she really meant to be changed for a week?  Would she be mad at him?

After a week, Victor brought his favourite new putter to the Venn Machine.  After setting it for a month, he put her in one side, and stepped into the other to face her.

She didn't look mad.  "What was I?  I could feel you holding me, and something tapping my feet.  The holding part was nice.  You have a strong grip."

Victor smiled with relief.  "Thanks.  You were a putter, an amazing one.  You knocked 8 strokes off my handicap."

"That's good?"

Victor nodded eagerly.  "Very much so.  Thank you, that was... something else."

"So.  Now what?"

Victor gestured grandly.  "I believe it's the lady's turn."

"Hm.  How to top a putter..."

Cindy walked out of the mall with a darling new purse on her arm.  She loved it to bits, taking it everywhere with her.  She even bought a new jacket to match it.  After a week, she found herself in the mall again, and there was just such a perfect new outfit she had to have it, and then she needed a new purse.  She'd already dumped the contents of Victor into the new purse before realizing what this meant.  Time to visit the Venn Machine.

"Your turn."

Victor took a little time to mull it over, trying out a few ideas, frowning, and moving on.  Cindy was wiggling with barely suppressed curiosity and excitement by the time Victor pressed the green circle to change her.  He scooped up his new cellphone, running his fingers gently over its sleek curves.  Turning it on, he was quite disappointed.  He had no idea what all those symbols meant, and couldn't figure any of them out.  He even went online to try to translate it, but couldn't find anything that even vaguely resembled the script on the screen.

So the next day, Victor went back to the Venn Machine, and set it for a year this time.  Cindy just grinned when she noticed that.  "What was wrong?  What was I, for that matter?"

"A cell phone.  But all the text was in Korean or something even more obscure.  Couldn't use it."

"Ah well.  Still..."

Cindy, being rather more clever than her public persona, changed Victor into a glittery pink cell-phone cover for her own phone.  She took him everywhere, and made ostentatious use of him whenever possible.  When she wasn't using her phone, she'd often leave her hand in her purse, just touching it.

By the end of the week Cindy found herself wandering up to the Venn Machine once again.  She hadn't even realized how much she'd been looking forward to the moment until she was confronted with it.  She shucked her phone out of Victor, set the time for a year, and put him inside.

Cindy spent the next few days as Victor's coffee mug.  He used her every morning, washed her assiduously, and bought a latte in her in the afternoons.  He'd never brought his own mug to a coffee shop before, and was amused by the approving looks he got.

"If only they knew," he mused.

Cindy had loved the warmth of being full of coffe.  She returned the favour by using Victor as a lovely delicate wineglass for several days.  She made sure to drink champagne from him every day.

Victor's next idea was a complete reversal.  He could barely move the golden statuette of Cindy out of the Venn Machine, and called up his father's security company to help him move it back to his penthouse.  He made sure to polish it daily, despite the fact it never really needed it.

"What was that?" Cindy asked afterward.

"You were a gold statue.  Here, there's some pictures on my cell."  Victor held it up so Cindy could see it through the Venn Machine interface.

"Wow.  I look like a million bucks."

"I had you appraised.  1.4 million for the gold, and I had an offer of just shy of 2 million for you.  Good thing I'm already rich."

Cindy laughed, and turned Victor into a feather.  She took him into her bedroom, and teased herself mercilessly with him.  She was tempted to call on one of her ex-lovers to use it, but didn't have the heart.  She closed her eyes, and imagined someone else was holding the feather as she teased and stroked.  Later, she called out Victor's name.

Two days later, she was a balloon.  Victor amused himself by inflating her, and letting her jet about the room.  Later, he used a paperclip to close her stem, and batted her around his penthouse for several hours.

That night, when Victor put the balloon in the Venn Machine, the door popped back open before he could even enter his side.  Cindy stepped out.

"What are you doing?"

"I just wanted to actually see you, for once.  You as you, me as me."

"Cool.  Come on, I'm starving.  Let's have dinner."

"Are you asking me for a date, Victor?"

Victor hesitated only a moment before confidently answering,  "Yes.  Dinner at Tony's, then a nightcap at my place."

The dinner was excellent, and Cindy found herself quite taken by Victor's charming conversation.  He was clever, and could match her wit barb for barb.  She made sure not to turn her wit on him, though.  There were plenty of things in the world that they both could share a laugh about, after all.

Cindy even went back for a few drinks, but left for home afterward.  On Victor's doorstep, she gave him a toe-curling kiss.  Victor practically floated off to bed.

The next day, Cindy called Victor.  "It's strange not to have you to hand.  Feels wrong, somehow."

Victor grinned.  "Shall we meet at the Venn Machine, then?"

"Yes, but not for that.  Tonight is Hallowe'en.  There's a big party at Phil's club with prizes for best costume.  I want to do something so extreme they'll have to notice."

"Wearing me?"

"No.  Let's go as a couple."

They met in front of the Venn Machine, set it for their usual year, and stepped inside.

"Hit me with your best shot," said Cindy.

Victor fiddled around for quite some time, then cursed.  "We'll have to exit.  I tried to give you a sexy outfit, and now all I can see is the outfit.  I wanted to turn you into a succubus, but... Oh, wait."

Several taps later, Cindy ducked her way out of the machine.  The doorway seemed awfully small, and once she was outside she saw why.  She must have been seven feet tall - she towered over Victor - and that wasn't counting the night-black horns curling from the sides of her head.  She stared at her reflection in a store window.  Her skin was bright red, slick and glossy.  She had black cloven hooves in place of her feet, a long spade-tipped tail that seemed to have a mind of its own, and the cutest little pair of leathery black wings she'd ever seen.

Her outfit was little more than a black scaly bikini.  But despite the chill coming from the mall's open doors, she felt deliciously warm.

"You devil.  I think I can top this."

So back they went into the Venn Machine.  Victor watched her lithe form in fascination.  She didn't really look at all like Cindy any more, the face was someone else entirely, and her jet black hair had no resemblance at all to Cindy's blonde wavy tresses.  But somehow, the way she moved, the way she smiled... it was definitely Cindy.

And then the booth got very cramped indeed for Victor.  He could barely wiggle his torso out the door, and it took him some time to uncurl and extract the raft of tentacles that filled the booth.  Once Victor got them under some semblance of control, he found he could walk with a smooth shuffle-glide gait.  If he curled them up tight, he could bring his head down level with Cindy's.  Their natural gait lifted him up to nearly ten feet tall, and if he stretched them long and braced himself, he could reach the ceiling in the mall, and that was easily twenty feet up.

After amusing himself with that for a few minutes, Victor studied his torso much as Cindy had earlier.  He was rippling with muscle, and his skin was a dark blue-black in tone.  Looking closer, he realized he was covered in fine, shiny scales.  They darkened to a deep indigo-violet down his leg tentacles.  His face was mostly his own, save for the goatee and the black spiralling horns that matched Cindy's.

The Venn Machine had interpolated his pants into something vaguely like a kilt.  He grinned at Cindy, and offered her his arm.  

They didn't win best costume - the club decided to limit that to non-Venn outfits.  But they did win "Most Wicked".  Several other couples showed up later in the evening, inspired by Cindy and Victor.  One showed up as a pair of siamese catgirls, and easily won "Sexiest".

Cindy went home with Victor.  His place was closer to the club, and neither of them could fit into their cars any more.  He scooped her up and carried her the last block, amazed at just how easy that was with his new physique.

They didn't get much sleep.

In the morning, Victor and Cindy walked to the Venn Machine.  But once they were in front of it, Cindy pulled Victor away.  "No.  I don't... please, can we stay like this?  Last night was... god, that was insane.  Amazing.  I don't want to go back to normal."

"But... we barely fit in my bed.  We don't fit in our cars.  All of our clothes will have to be insanely custom."

"We're both rich enough to deal with that easily.  Would you rather have your Lambo, or me?"

"You."

"If we can stay like this, I'll do anything."

Victor summoned the deepest, most resonant voice his new body was capable of.  "Anything?"  He chuckled echoingly.

Cindy shivered, and pulled closer to him.  "Anything."

It turned out that despite their families' influence, it just wasn't possible for a demon and a demoness to get married in a church.