Raveled 12
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Tess stared at the campus cops on her doorstep.  She did not invite them in.  “You want to know where Don is?  Why?”

“He didn’t show up for his exam on Friday, and nobody has seen him since Wednesday night.  If he misses his exam on Monday his position on the team might be compromised.”

Tess clenched her fists.  “So why does that bring you here, of all places?”

“Well, the last place he was seen was at an off-campus pub late Wednesday, and some of his associates said he was intending to come here.  Did he?”

Through gritted teeth Tess admitted that he had.

“And then what happened?”

“Then he assaulted my friends!”  Tess yelled.  “One was so badly injured I had to take him to the campus clinic.  The other... he... she...”  Tess sighed, and knew she couldn’t possibly explain what had happened.  “But you don’t care about that, do you?”

The campus security officers looked uncomfortable, but said nothing.

“Right.  All that matters to you is that one of your star athletes might be at risk.  You don’t even have jurisdiction off campus.”

“Actually, the university owns quite a few of the apartment buildings near the campus.  Donations from the estates of alumni.”

“Does that apply to this one?”  Tess asked very mildly, in contrast to her earlier rant.

“Uh, well...”

“Then get the fuck out of my life.”  Tess slammed the door in their faces.

Tess was still hyperventilating at the door when Ed’s meek, “Have they gone yet?” registered.

She peeked through the spyhole to see, then nodded.  “You can come out.”

Ed carried Jess’ head into the living room with him.  He was still wearing Jess’ body, and moving in it easily.  When he sat on the couch, he crossed his legs automatically.  Tess smirked, but didn’t comment on the reflex.

“We have a problem,” she said.  “Where is Don?”

Ed looked at Jess.  Jess rolled her eyes.  “I don’t know.  I don’t remember anything about that thanks to the Lethe.”

“We were back before his ribbon would have reformed, so we’d have noticed it.  I guess he’s tied off, then.  We better search your room.”  Tess said, decisively.

Jess wasn’t terribly helpful in the search.  Ed propped her head up on the pillows of the bed, and she supervised.  Drawers were turned out, boxes were searched, and the rather dusty underside of the bed had a thorough examination.  Jess blushed at the way Tess was watching her bum thrust in the air while Ed was feeling around under the bed.

“Maybe the closet?” Jess suggested as a distraction.

Once Tess opened the door, they could all hear a soft humming coming from inside the closet.  Digging into the pile of clothes on the bottom of the closet uncovered Ed’s doll, covered in a blanket.  As each layer was removed, the buzzing got louder.

Tess pulled away the blanket then glared at Jess.  “That’s where my Earthquake got to.  Hah, three days, and still going strong.  Plug-in vibrators are awesome.  Wait, why is it in Molly?”

Ed looked over at his girlfriend’s head.  “What did you do?”

“I don’t know.  But... uh, I can guess.  If I was feeling that violated, I’d have wanted revenge.  So sticking Don inside the doll then leaving it to be violated by that toy...”

“Violated?” asked Ed.

“Have you seen the Earthquake?”

Tess held it up for Ed to see, and he paled at the thought of it inside him.  “That’s... eep.  I’m surprised it fit inside Molly.”

“She’s very flexible,” Tess enthused.  “Come on, let’s see if Don really is in her.”

A few flicks of the ribbon removed the doll’s hips, and revealed a second ribbon twined within the first.  It took only a few moments more to extract all of Don by stroking the new ribbon until it stopped lengthening.

Tess bundled up Don’s ribbon, and tied it off.  “Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air.”  She sighed.  “Would it were that easy.  Now what shall we three do?”

“We can’t keep him.  But if we just dump him somewhere, we might get noticed,” Jess fretted.

“I’m surprised the campus clowns are working on a Saturday.  I really doubt they’ll bug us again for a bit.  But if he doesn’t make it to that exam Monday...”

“What if we just dumped him near the exam hall, so that he’d ravel back to normal at about the right time?” asked Ed.

“He’d be naked,” said Jess.

Tess giggled. “Ooh, I’m liking this plan already.  I think I can top it, though.  One of us wears him, and goes to the exam.  Then back at his room, on of you can ribbon me out of him, and walk away with my ribbon.  Make sure you get the right one!”

Ed shook his head.  “Too complicated.  Just leave a bit of ribbon behind here, and we can use the fourth stroke to pull you out at the right time.  Nobody can possibly see us.”

He then proceeded to outline an even more complicated plan, where he would leave the apartment with Tess and Don in his pocket as tied-off ribbons.  In a random campus washroom he’d let them out, Tess would put Don on, and carry on from there.  Don would need to be re-ribbonized at just the right time to make it work, but otherwise it seemed a foolproof plan.

“There’s just one thing,” Jess mused.  “What’s it like to wear an entire person?  We’ve never tried that before.”

Tess laughed.  “Well, we’ve got it 90% covered with Ed here wearing your body.”

Jess blinked. “Oh!  Right, that’s my body.  I’d forgotten.  So if you ribbon my neck...”

Tess did so with a practiced flick.  She opened a small hole in the duvet in the process, but nobody worried about it.  “OK, Ed. Put her on.”

Ed lifted his girlfriend’s head in his hands.  “Alas, poor Jess, I knew her well.”

Tess sighed.  “No, it’s I knew him, Horatio, a man of infinite... never mind.”

“Are you OK with this, Jess?” asked Ed.

Jess wiggled in his hands, her neck bobbing in what would be a nod if she’d had a body.  “It should be interesting.”

Ed nodded back.  “OK.  Here goes...”  He lifted Jess’ head above his own, and tugged down.  He had a moment to marvel how his head magically fit into her neck, then Jess’ head was settled on his shoulders.  

Jess’ eyes opened wide, and stared about the room.  “Oh wow,” her voice breathed.  “The colours are so intense.”

Tess looked around in confusion.  The room was it’s usual beige.  “What on earth are you talking about?”

“Everything’s so different with her eyes.  I’m seeing colours I never even knew existed.”  Ed picked up a pale pink slip that had been lying on the bed.  “This just looked sort of pale and colourless before.  Now I can see all kinds of subtlety to it.  It’s incredible.”

“Maybe you should take this in small doses.”

“I...  Maybe.”  Ed picked at Jess’ neck, and couldn’t find the seam.  “Um, it’s stuck.”

A little bit of ribbon-work separated Jess’ neck from her body once more, and left Ed mostly unchanged underneath.  He cupped his girlfriend’s head in his hands, staring at it with renewed fascination.  “That was so incredible.”

“It was... different.” Jess said.

“Different?  That’s all you’ve got?”  Tess complained.

“To have someone else speak with your voice? Move your own body, while you’re inside, watching and feeling everything?”

“Sounds... different.”  Tess said.

“See!  The weirdest part was those floppy things on my shoulders.  Where did those come from?”

“Uh, Jess, those are your arms.”

Jess’ forehead wrinkled in puzzlement.  “But i never had arms before.”

“Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner?” quoted Tess.  “Not this again.  Don’t you remember the last time we went through this?  I got all weird about you having no arms, and you got all upset?

Jess bobbled her neck in her abbreviated version of a nod.  “Yeah.  I never did figure out why you suddenly got all weird about it.”

Tess’ eyes widened.  “It’s worse this time.”

“What’s worse?” asked Ed, worriedly.

“You know how sleeping while ribboned adapts your mind to your new body?”

Ed nodded.  He was, after all, perfectly at home in Jess’ body.

“Well, alcohol makes you forget you used to be normal.  The more drunk you were, the more you refuse to accept you ever were normal.”

Ed looked over at Jess.  “Was that why you tried to get me to drink last night?”

Jess put on her best innocent look.  “No.  Mostly I wanted you to loosen up and be willing to try new stuff.  Turns out that wasn’t a problem.”

Ed blushed.  “That was... fun.”

“Fun?” Jess head asked.  “Just... fun?”

“Alright.  It was awesome.  If it wasn’t for you needing your body back, I’d want to keep it.”  Ed blushed furiously, ducking his head.

“As sweet as all this is,” commented Tess sarcastically, “the point was that Jess dosed herself with Lethe, then went to bed armless.  It seems to have had an even stronger effect than alcohol.  Given what it does to memory, that isn’t really surprising.”

Jess frowned.  “Wait, so you mean I really did have arms?  I guess that makes sense.”

“Though it appears to have skipped the bitter, argumentative part.  That’s good, anyway,” Tess continued.  “Maybe we should move on to the bigger problem.”

“Bigger than Jess forgetting about arms?” asked Ed.

“Yes.  Don.  He needs to go to his exam Monday.  I need to know if I can control his body for a few hours, especially after he goes back to normal.  Can Ed wear your head for a couple hours, Jess?”

“Sure.  It was ... interesting to be a passenger in my body.  Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Okay.”  Ed picked his girlfriend’s head up, and put it on once more.  Once again, he stared around in wonder.  “I want to see everything,” he breathed in Jess’ voice.  “Can we go out?”

Tess eyed the new ‘Jess’ critically.  “Show me your walk.”

Ed walked back and forth across the bedroom, then turned to Tess.  “Good enough?”

“Try it with these on.”  Tess handed Ed some of Jess’ shoes.

Ed had seen her wear these low-heeled wedge shoes several times, and slipped them on easily.  The two inch heels added a bit of wobble to his step, but he soon had it sorted out.  “I can’t keep my bum from swaying back and forth when I walk in these,” he complained.

Tess laughed. “That’s the idea.  You look just like her.  Maybe a little more confident.  C’mon, let’s get you dolled up then we’ll hit the mall.  We can go clothes shopping, get her something to wear that you really like.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Tes helped Ed put on a little makeup, though he didn’t seem to need the assistance.  When Tess picked out some clothes for Jess to wear, Ed shook her head.  “Not that top.  It’s too low cut for Jess.”

“How do you know?”

Ed frowned, wrinkling Jess’ face unattractively.  “I don’t know.  I could just feel it.”

“Huh.  So which top would you wear with this skirt?”

Ed picked one out without hesitation.  Tess nodded her approval.  “These two would go together nicely.  Could you have picked that out yesterday?”

Ed was already slipping into the top.  Once her head emerged, she shrugged.  “I... uh, I don’t think so.”

“Are you still Ed in there?”

Ed tilted her head to one side, and considered the question for a time.  “I still feel like me.  But... this green is my favourite color now, and it used to be red.  Maybe that’s just the eyes.”

“Maybe.  Give me a couple minutes to get ready, then we can go.  Think Ed would mind if we borrowed his car?” Tess asked with a sly grin.

“Nah, he’s OK with it.”

Tess grinned triumphantly.  “He?”

“I mean... wow.  I’ve only worn her head for half an hour, and I’m thinking of Ed as someone else.”

“What’s your full name?” Tess asked abruptly.

“Edward James Glass,” she said without hesitation.

“That’s good.  Grab Jess’ purse so you’ll have a valid driver’s licence.”

When Tess emerged from her room dressed for the mall, she found Jess sitting in the kitchen, staring at something in her hands.

“What’s up, Jess?”

“I remember getting this photo taken.”

“So?”

“I also remember doing that as Ed.  Our memories are getting all mixed up together.”

“Try not to think of anything too personal, then.”  Tess giggled as she saw her friend’s face go pink.  “Oops.  Too late.  C’mon, shopping will distract you.”

Jess followed Tess slowly.  “Is that really such a good thing?”

“It’ll be fine.  Worst case, we ribbon you both back to normal and you sleep it off.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Jess conceded, and followed Tess out the door.

* * *

At the mall, Jess was overwhelmed by the sights, the sounds and even the smells.  She tottered along dazedly behind Tess, not paying any attention to where they were going.  Tess caught her hand, and tugged her into one of the stores.

“Tess!  This is a lingerie store,”  Jess whispered intently, as she blushed a deep pink.

Tess grinned.  “The raciest one in the mall, yes.  Come on, you know you want to see that body in some of these.”  She scooped up a deep purple bra from the rack beside them.  It was made of something so shiny it almost seemed to glow to Jess’ eyes.

“Oh.  I could...”  Jess managed to blush a little brighter.

“We’ll find this in your size.”  Tess gestured to one of the clerks that was hovering nearby, and asked her to help fit Jess with a new bra.  The clerk led Jess to the changing rooms, and subjected her to a series of measurements which only served to deepen her blush.

Still, in the end she was presented with the purple bra in her size, and encouraged to put it on.  In the privacy of the changing room Jess stripped, and then tentatively slipped into the new garment.  She was surprised at just how well it fit.  She found her reaction to seeing herself in the mirror even more surprising.  She looked... sexy.

“Tess,” she whispered urgently.

Tess barged into the changing room, and gave a soft whistle of appreciation.  “Damn, girl, you look good in that.”

“But... I’m turning myself on.  That’s not right.”

“What do you mean, not right?”

“I...”  Jess couldn’t tear her eyes from the mirror.  “Girls aren’t supposed to get turned on by other girls.”

Tess laughed.  “Says who?”

Jess ducked her head, but her eyes still found her reflection.  “My parents.”

“Wait.  Who am I talking to again?  Ed’s parents didn’t sound like that.”

Jess finally turned to face her friend.  “What are you talking about?”

“What is your full name?”  Tess inquired softly.

“Jessica Lynne Smith.”

“Ah. I was afraid of that. We should go home and sort this out.”

Jess nodded meekly, then caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror again.  “Can we buy this first?”

Tess grinned hugely.  “Sure.  I guess Ed is in there somewhere after all.”