Moonstone 30
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Duncan spent half an hour trying to explain Gwen to his stone-faced wife.  He was quite careful what incidents to discuss, and which to avoid.  He knew he was in a hole, and was trying very hard not to dig it deeper.  Sidney remembered Gwen from when Duncan had healed her, and the later incident where Gwen had rendered the crutches she no longer needed into thermite.

Gwen’s involvement in Moon-trancing was news to Sidney.  When Duncan explained how Gwen had gotten stuck with a snake’s head in place of her ‘bits’, Sidney had almost cracked a smile, but quickly suppressed it.

“Look,” Duncan said.  “It’s just from the Moon-trance, it’s not like this snake on my butt is a real tattoo.”

“And that helps how?”  Sidney inquired archly.

“Well, for one, I can do this.”  The snake vanished, all but the head washed away by a flicker of power.  A moment later it was replaced by neat printing appearing letter by letter over his left butt-cheek.  ‘Property of Sidney.  No Trespassing.’

Sidney couldn’t help but giggle.  Then she suggested a few wording changes, and Duncan ran with them.  Giggling turned to laughing, and laughing to both of them slumped together in the bed, hugging.

“Did she really live with a snake’s head down there for a whole month?”

Duncan nodded.  “At first she found it fascinating.  But she got tired of it, especially the... curiosity from the clients.”

Sidney snickered.  “I bet.  Why didn’t you change her back with the Moonstone?”

“She’s a bit like me.  She’d made a deal with the Moon, and wanted to stick it out.  Remember how I was after I’d gone all scaly to ‘rescue’ you from being a naga?”

Sidney smiled reminiscently.  “That was a good look for you.  I wish I could see what you’d look like with a snake for bits.”

Duncan sucked in a hiss of breath as he felt something shift and squirm between his legs.  “I... uh, think you just got your wish.”

Sidney sat up and reached for Duncan’s crotch.  She gave the snake there a little stroke, eliciting a groan of pleasure from Duncan, and a wriggle from the snake.  “Oh my,” Sidney cooed, continuing to pet the snake.  “You are a sweet little thing.  Can I keep him, honey?”

Duncan stared at his wife, fascination and curiosity on his face.  “You...  Oooh, yeah...  You hate bugs, anything with wings, mice... but snakes are OK?”

Sidney nodded distractedly.  “I never had a bad experience with snakes, until the naga thing.  And he’s just so pretty...”  Duncan squirmed as she continued stroking the snake.  “He needs to be harder and longer... ooh!”  The snake had grown as she said that.  It was thicker as well, and squirming less.

Sidney looked up at Duncan’s face.  “Did I do that?” she asked in a mock-innocent voice.

Duncan nodded.  “It’s been getting harder...” at Sidney’s snicker, he stuck out his tongue.  “It has been getting difficult to ignore suggestions.”

Sidney grinned broadly.  “Really?”  She looked back down at the snake between Duncan’s legs, and wrapped a hand around it.  “Harder.  Longer.”  She slid her hand up and down it, teasingly.  “Harder.  Longer.”  She was having a hard time getting her hand around it, now.  “Harder.  Longer.”  Now her fingers no longer touched her thumb, and the snake was almost as long as her forearm.  “Harder.  Longer.”

They both stared at the snake jutting out from Duncan’s hips.  It had stopped moving some time ago, and was as hard as vulcanized rubber, yet still slick and smooth.  Duncan could feel his wife’s grip on it, but even when she squeezed, it barely shifted.  “I think that’s enough.”

Sidney eyed the result of her chanting.  She wrapped both hands around it, and they just barely touched each other.  “I don’t imagine we could get a condom on this bad boy...”

“You’re not really thinking what I think you’re thinking... are you?  It’s way too big to fit.”

Slowly, Sidney reached behind her neck, and unclasped the silver choker she’d been wearing continuously since Valentine’s Day.  “You can fix that, right?  And make it so we don’t need a condom?”

“Yes and already done.  But... if you put that down, I can’t promise I won’t change you by accident.  If I fantasize while we do this, even just stray thoughts... you will change.  I mean, I’ll try not to, but...”

Sidney gripped the silver chain more tightly.  “I know.  I... just make sure I’m back to normal before the Moon sets, OK?”

Duncan nodded, and reached over to his alarm clock.  He set it back a few hours, to an hour before moonset, and showed it to Sidney.  Only then did she set down the necklace on her own bedside table.

“Now,” she said breathily, lying back on the bed, “Let’s see what that enormous snake of yours can do.”

* * *

Much later, the two of them lay spent and sweaty on the bed.  Duncan was softly caressing Sidney’s belly, which had turned into an enormous breast sometime during their lovemaking.

Sidney sighed contentedly.  “That was... wow.  I feel like you hollowed me out.”

“I did.”

“Are you sure you couldn’t get me pregnant?  I felt something goosh inside me when you... finished.”

Duncan chuckled softly, and dipped his hand into her still-cavernous sex.  He offered her some of the substance there.  “It’s vanilla pudding.”

Sidney licked at it tentatively, then laughed.  “That’s good!  You know you’re totally insane, though, right?” she said with a huge grin.

Duncan nodded.  “And you love it.”

Later, after they’d cleaned up, Duncan restored them both to their normal shapes.  Sidney posed in the mirror, looking herself over to make sure everything was back where it was supposed to be.  As she went to put on her silver choker once again, Duncan stopped her.

“You don’t need that, do you?  I’m pretty much tapped out, and the Moon will set before too long.”

Sidney sighed, but put the choker on anyway.   She dropped her hands to her sides.  “I know, but... you just told me how hard it was to not change things.”  She patted her belly, which was back to normal again.  “This change was fun, and what you did to me was incredible... but I want to be able to go outside tomorrow.”

“Ah.  So... next month?”

Sidney grinned.  “Maybe we can make it bigger?”

Duncan sighed, and looked down at his crotch.  “You have to keep saying these things, don’t you?”

“Aww, keep it like that.  He’s kinda cute.  But it also makes my point.”

Duncan leaned in and kissed his wife, careful to avoid touching the choker.  He’d gotten practice at that.  “I guess.  Still love you.”

“I love you too.”

Sidney was feeling somewhat less loving when Duncan’s alarm woke her up at 4am.

* * *

It started with a basket of laundry.  As usual, it was full of a mixed bag of things.  Duncan’s underwear and socks, Sidney’s panties, and a random mix of things from Courtney’s hamper.  It really should have been sorted some days ago, with the results put into appropriate drawers.  There never seemed to be time or energy for such things.

So Duncan was rifling through it in the dim of the morning, hoping to find a pair of underwear without waking his wife up by turning on the bedroom lights.  He pulled his hand out triumphantly, only to notice it was no longer a hand.  Worse, what he’d grabbed appeared to be a pair of Sidney’s panties, and his hand was rapidly swelling into copy of her bottom.

Duncan quickly reached for the Moonstone’s box, only to find that it was still closed.  That surprised him enough that he forgot about finding the right pair of underwear, and ended up going through a rather twisty set of changes before she was human again.

It took two more tries before Duncan ended up with a male set of underwear on.

The next morning, Duncan double-checked the Moonstone’s box before rifling through for underwear.  This time he wasn’t so lucky, and ended up turning into a little girl.

It wasn’t until after the third morning of miscellaneous changes, and Sidney catching him changing back, that Duncan finally got around to sorting the laundry properly.  He made sure to do it while the Moon was below the horizon.

Sidney noticed that, too.  “Got tired of changing in the mornings?  What was with that, anyway?”

Duncan shrugged.  “No idea.  The Moonstone box was closed.  I did a bit of testing, and it even works on me from the other side of the wall, but only if I’m within about two meters of the box.”

“That’s... not good.  The kids go that close sometimes, even if we don’t let them into our bedroom.”

Duncan held a sock out to his wife.  “Take your silver off, and put this on your hand.”

“I don’t want a foot for a hand.”

“You won’t get one, either.  The box works fine, it’s just that I’m... sensitized to the Moonstone.”

Sidney reluctantly did as Duncan had asked, and was relieved that her hand stayed a hand.  Even waving it inches in front of the Moonstone’s box did nothing.  She handed the sock back to Duncan, and put the silver choker back on.

“Aww.  You don’t need that any more.  Not until the next full Moon.”

Sidney touched it, and shook her head. “I feel safer if I have it.  It’s my security blanket in a world where my husband sometimes turns into a woman who’s way sexier than I am.”

“I could make you sexier than Donna, if you let me.  But I’ll love you either way.”

Sidney hugged him, and gave him a quick squeeze on the bum.  “I might take you up on that.  We’ll see.”

The next few weeks proceeded without incident.  As the Moon waned, the sphere of influence of the Moonstone seemed to wane with it.  Even so, Duncan was very careful about dressing himself in the morning, at least until the Moon started rising after he did.

Work continued to challenge Duncan, and he was still keen to head off to it each day.  The evenings were filled with time spent with his kids, as were the weekends - Victor was just getting old enough to start climbing on the smaller playground structures, and having a blast with it.

Duncan thought about the time he’d spent in a kid-sized shape, the previous year.  He was tempted to ask Sidney if she’d watch over the three of them one day, but never quite worked up the nerve.  Besides, there wasn’t room in the back of the car for three, and people would ask questions if a little girl was sitting in the front seat.

One night, Sidney asked Duncan about what he could do with the Moonstone.

“Why bring this up now?”  Duncan asked, curiously.

“The moon’s not up, right?”

Duncan nodded.  “Yesterday was the new Moon.  It set a little over an hour ago.”

“Good.  So you won’t accidentally change.”

Duncan grinned.  “Not that I mind that.  Mostly.”

“You did seem to be having fun.  As was I.  I just wanted to know... how big could you get?”

“Well... at the club last month, I turned into this huge snake.  One of the guys there is a creepily huge fan of snakes.  I must have been long enough to reach from here to the kitchen and back.  Not sure if I could pull that off here without being seen.  Or without property damage.”

“Oh.  I was just imagining...” Sidney trailed off wistfully.

“Of course, if I shrunk you instead it would seem like I was growing monstrously huge.”

“How small could you make me?”

Duncan told her how he’d shrunk Zoey, but not her breasts.  When he described how her body had simply vanished, leaving her a pair of disembodied breasts, Sidney shuddered.

“I’d be careful not to vanish you.  Hey, I even tested it on some grapes last month, and the one I shrunk away to nothing came back just fine.”

“I saw that look on your face.  You got off on shrinking her like that.  I bet you’d love to turn me into a pair of boobs, too.”

Duncan stammered out a half-hearted denial that convinced neither of them.  “There are other bits I like, too.”

Sidney waggled her breasts at Duncan.  “But these are your favourite.  You know you want them.”

Duncan smiled, tried to hide it.  “Not my only favourite.  I’m quite fond of your legs, too.”

Sidney wouldn’t be deterred, and used her hands to bounce her breasts even more.  Then she started to sing.  “B is for boobies, that’s all you want to see.  B is for boobies, that’s what I’m gonna be.  Oh! Boobies boobies boobies starts with B.”

Duncan growled, and pounced on her, groping her breasts.  “Oooh, if the full Moon was up, you’d so be just a pair of breasts right now.”

Sidney grinned up at Duncan impishly.  “So what would you do with me then?”

“I’d have my way with them, then grow them bigger and use them as a pillow.  I think they’d be comfy.”

“You wouldn’t change me back?” Sidney asked, meekly.

Duncan pretended to consider that for a minute.  “Nah.  Next full Moon’s on a Saturday morning, so I’d have the whole weekend ahead of me.”

“You’d keep me as boobs for the whole weekend?”

“Sure, why not.  You’d get a nice restful weekend out of it, and I’d get to have fun with you.”

“That’s... that’s...  But what if I didn’t want to be boobs for the whole weekend?”

“Should have thought about that before singing that song, I guess.  Boobs can’t talk, so you’d be in no position to object.”

“Meanie.”

Duncan laughed.  “I wouldn’t really do that.  Well, not unless you asked nicely.”

Sidney pouted.  “So you wouldn’t have your wicked way with me?”

“Oh, I think you’ve earned a turn as boobies.  But I’ll be sure to change you back before the Moon sets, you know I will.”

Sidney hugged her husband, and kissed him goodnight.  “I know.  I love you.”

“I love you too.”

The next weekend, Duncan looked longingly at the Moonstone in its box.  He hadn’t been Donna in almost three weeks, and before he knew it, Donna was looking out from Duncan’s eyes.  The kids were in bed, what harm would it do?  Just to have her body for a little bit.  Not long.  She was putting her bra on when Sidney walked in, sighed, and walked out again.

Donna found one of Duncan’s old T-shirts that was big enough to cover her up, and added a shapeless pair of track pants.  She went out to the living room and sat beside Sidney.

“I thought you didn’t need to go to the club any more.”  Sidney wouldn’t look at her.

“I don’t.  I’m not going tonight.”

“Then why?”

Donna sighed.  “I just wanted to spend a few hours as Donna.  I miss being her, some days.”

“I miss my husband.”

“Oh come on, I’ve been here as Duncan every day for weeks.  What’s the harm?”

“What’s the harm?  You’re a woman, for God’s sake.  We’re married.”

“I thought you were in favour of same-sex marriage.”

“That doesn’t mean I wanted to be married to a woman!”

“Ah.  So... me being a woman is the problem?”

“Yes!”

Donna sighed, and went back to the bedroom.  When Duncan emerged, he sat down at his computer and ignored his wife for the rest of the night.

Lying in bed that night, with the lights out, Duncan broached the subject again.  “You know I won’t stay a woman.  I like being Duncan.”

Sidney rolled to face him, and sighed.  “I know.  But I still worry.  You really like being Donna.”

“I’ll always come back, sweetie.”

“Just wish you wouldn’t go in the first place.”

“You mean the Blue Vixen?  The money’s just so good on the night of the full Moon.”

“I know.  I just hate it when you’re not here when I go to bed.  I don’t feel safe.”

“The house is secure, you know that.  It’s not like we live in a hotbed of criminal activity, either.  You’re safe.”

Sidney snuggled against her husband. “I feel safer when you’re here.”

Duncan hugged her tight.  “I know.”

* * *

When the night of the full Moon finally arrived, Sidney was somewhat surprised that it was Duncan leaving the house.  “Aren’t you going to change before you go?”

“I’ve got an appointment with the psychologist one of the dancers was seeing, we were going to talk for a bit before the Moon rose, so...”

“What was she seeing a shrink for?”

Duncan laughed.  “She’s not happy with her body.  As in, not at all - doesn’t even want to be human, or have arms, or legs, all of that.”

“Oh.  That’s pretty weird.  How can someone not want to be human?  And why does that involve you?”

Duncan just looked at her, one eyebrow raised.

“Oh!  Right.  Well, I hope you can help.”

“So do I.  See you late.”

Sidney hugged Duncan before he left.  “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

The session with Doctor Sakurai started informally.  She insisted on Duncan calling her Arwen, ‘doctor to doctor’.  He laughed and agreed.  Instead of talking about his experiences and hopes with the Moonstone, however, Arwen handed him a personality test.

Duncan shrugged, and went through it.  Arwen encouraged him to just answer naturally, and not to think too hard about the questions.  After it was done, they chatted briefly.  Arwen asked probing questions about the limits of the changes Duncan could achieve.

“Now, I want you to take on your feminine mindset - you can do that before the moon rises, right?”

Duncan nodded.  “Easily.”

Arwen handed him a variation on the same sort of personality test he’d just done.  Once she was finished, she could feel that the Moon had risen, and commented as much.  Arwen gave her some privacy to change into Donna - he’d brought along the Moonstone and Donna’s clothes.

While Donna was getting into the right body, she heard Arwen talking outside with Zoey.  Arwen brought Zoey in once Donna was changed, and gave Donna yet another personality test to write.  Then one more, asking Duncan to be in charge.

While Arwen scored the tests, Zoey and Donna talked.  Donna asked if Zoey had figured out what she wanted to be, and Zoey nodded eagerly.  “A breast.”

Donna sighed, as did Doctor Arwen.  “How would you live, though?  What would you do?”

Zoey shrugged.  “I don’t much care, really.”

“Do you see what I have to work with?”  Arwen commented, as she finished up the results.  “I can’t convince her otherwise, and with the possibility of doing just that in reach... well, she’s been quite impossible.”

Donna looked shocked.  “Should you be talking to her like that?”

Doctor Arwen laughed.  “I’m not exactly a traditionalist.  Zoey’s a sane, healthy person, and quite stable.  She just has an extraordinarily fixed sense of self.”

“Sorry?”

“Most people will very quickly adapt to changes in how they perceive themselves.  For example, if you put a mannequin arm in front of someone, and they see you touch it at the same time they feel the same touch on their arm, they’ll start to believe the mannequin arm is actually their arm.”

“Sounds like a fun experiment.  Of course, I could just turn someone’s arm into a mannequin arm... and you’re saying they’d start to accept that it is what they’re supposed to be?”

Arwen nodded. “Most people’s sense of self is reasonably plastic.  But there’s a really big range.  You seem to be particularly flexible, for example.  Zoey is the opposite - when we tried that experiment with her, nothing.  Her sense of self is solid as a rock.  The problem is, her sense of self doesn’t match her body, and quite radically so.”

Donna nodded slowly.  “That makes some sense, I guess.  Do you run into that a lot?”

“Yes.  I’ve become known as a specialist in body identity disorders, so other psychologists send them on to me.  I have quite a few clients who think they’re too fat, or the wrong gender.  Only a few think they’re the wrong species.  They all have a very fixed sense of self.”

“So what do you do with them?”

Arwen shrugged.  “It varies.  Those who can adapt, if slowly, we work on gradually getting them to accept themselves as they are.  Those who can’t, often pursue more permanent solutions, and I have helped more than a few who wanted to transition between genders.  Most of them are quite happy with the results, despite the drawbacks.”

“Let me guess, you’d like my help with some of those?”

Arwen nodded eagerly.  “Oh yes.  I have a young woman coming in shortly who is convinced he is supposed to be a man.  I’ve become quite convinced that it would be right for him as well.  He has passed as male for some time now, but he really can’t afford the surgery.  I was hoping you could help him before you go.”

“Of course!”

After that, they spent some time discussing Duncan and Donna’s personality test results.  They were almost identical, and Arwen inquired as to whether or not Donna had felt she was being completely honest with them.  Donna had, as there would be little point in trying to mess up the results.  She wanted to know the answer, too.

“Well, as far as I can tell, you are pretty much the same person as Donna or Duncan.  At least as far as the Myers-Briggs test can tell.  Your scores were all within a point of each other.”

Donna nodded slowly.  “That seems about right.  I’ve tried to avoid messing with my head too much after the first adaptation to being a dancer.  That was all about kinesthetics and comfort in my body.  I’ve... considered trying to make myself more extroverted, so I can sell my dancing better, but...  Honestly, I’m scared of losing myself.  Once I start changing who I am, where would I stop?”

“A wise approach.  Though I would be sorely tempted to ask you to try it in... safe circumstances, then run some more tests.”

Donna mused for a while, then nodded.  “If I changed myself after the full Moon has set, or even after trancing to the Moon, then whatever I did would revert by the new Moon.  I’m tempted.”

There was a knock at the door, and Doctor Sakurai got very professional.  “That will be Tony.  I’ll bring him in here shortly.  He’s expecting to meet you, Donna, but Zoey shouldn’t be here.  Turn her into a breast, and hide her in your bag.”

“What?” echoed Donna and Zoey together.  Followed by Zoey’s “Cool!”

Donna turned to Zoey and shrugged.  “Sure, why not.”  She shrunk the younger dancer down to about a foot tall, then Zoey melted into a formless fleshy sphere.  A moment later, a nipple popped out.  Donna scooped her up, and muttered, “I hope you’re happy.”  Zoey wriggled in her palm, and Donna grinned.  “I guess that’s a yes.”  She tucked the breast in between her own, rearranging her bra so that it had a third cup to hold Zoey comfortably.

The session with Tony was brief.  Arwen introduced Donna as a consultant, who would help Tony visualize his ‘true self’.

Tony was at first amazed, then ecstatic when he was suddenly, truly male.  It took some time to explain the basics of how and why.  After Donna went to the window to recharge again during a break in the scattered clouds, Tony had settled enough to discuss details of his ideal body, and they tweaked a few things until he was truly happy with it.

Donna tried to avoid explaining about the effect trancing to the Moon would have on Tony, but he was so despondent when told that the change would only last for a week that she didn’t have the heart to deny him.  She did exchange a look with Doctor Arwen first, who nodded her approval.

Tony stepped into the Moon’s light halfway through Donna’s explanation.  She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Tony was still male afterward.

“Donna, I should probably have a longer chat with Tony here, things moved along faster than I’d planned.”

Donna nodded, and headed toward the door.  She turned, and asked, “What should I do with Zoey?”

Arwen smiled.  “I trust you.  Do what you think is right.”

Donna felt Zoey wriggle with happiness upon hearing that.  She left Arwen’s office with her head high and a spring in her step.  She looked around, and realized that she was only a few blocks from the Blue Vixen.  The Moon was lovely, so she decided to walk.

When she tapped on the door, she was met by a somber-faced Gwen.  Her heart fell.  “What’s wrong?”

“No, I... are you okay?”  Gwen hugged her as if she was a delicate doll.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.  I’m fine.  Better than fine.  Why would I be... whatever you’re thinking?”

“The other patient you treated at the hospice died yesterday.”