A couple in their early twenties were talking over the remnants of dinner, face to face across the table.

“Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be someone else?” asked the chestnut-haired woman.

Mike sighed inwardly.  Ever since Meghan had suggested they meet at the Brass Duckling, he’d known this question was coming.  He didn’t mind the restaurant itself, it was clean, and the food was both cheap and good.  It was a fine spot for a first date.  It was also part of the one mall in town that had a Venn Machine ‒ right around the corner from it, in fact.  Every date he’d been on had ended up at either the Brass Duckling, or the coffee shop at the mall entrance.  He liked this girl, he thought.  She was cute, her eyes sparkled when she talked, and they had seemed to be really hitting it off.

Mike frowned and shook his head.  “Not really, no.”

“It’s not that hard to find out, these days.  There’s a...”

“Venn Machine around the corner,” Mike finished.  “I know.  Every girl I meet ends up asking the same thing.  Why?  Is it part of some secret initiation ritual?”

Meghan giggled.  “No, it’s not...  Well...  Really, every single one?”

“Without fail.”

“Huh.  So much for being subtle and carefully leading up to the question.”

It was Mike’s turn to laugh.  “Oh, you did that just fine.  I’ve just been down that path before.  I don’t get it, what’s the attraction?”

Meghan looked down at her mostly-empty plate.  “It’s... I guess you could call it a test.  You know how some guys, even your age, can’t use the Venn Machines?”

Mike frowned in puzzlement.  “I haven’t paid much attention to them, really.”

Meghan nodded, and leaned toward him a bit.  “Every guy who fails the Venn test is revealed as the wrong kind of immature.”

“There’s a right kind of immature?”

Meghan smiled dreamily.  “Yeah, the garage band drummer, or biker, that kind of thing.  Not the spoiled kid still living in his parents’ basement.”

“Harsh.  I’ll have you know I have a job, and my own apartment.”

Meghan laughed.   “I know.  That’s not why I want to do it with you.”

“Then why?”

“It’s also a sort of test of trust.  Can I trust you?  Can you trust me?  In the Venn Machine, you put yourself in someone else’s hands.  For eight hours, anyway.”

“Trust, hm?  So what do you mean by trust?  That someone is always true to their word?”

“Well... more that they won’t betray you.”

“Betray,” mused Mike.  “You mean like going out with someone else?”

“No... I mean more like what do you do with someone who’s a dress?  Betraying a dress means not wearing it.”

“So... if you turned someone into a dress, then wore them on a date... that’s not betraying?”

“No!” exclaimed Meghan, eyes alight.  “Being worn out dancing as a dress is wonderful.”

“You’ve... done that?”

“A few times, with girlfriends.  I think Alice spends more evenings out as a dress than as a human.”

“And you really like it,” Mike asked, dazed.

Meghan nodded eagerly.  “It’s the second best thing ever.”

“What’s the best thing ever?”

Meghan grinned at him saucily.  “Let me turn you into a dress and I’ll show you, after.  Trust me, I’ll make sure you have an amazing time.”

Mike sighed, then shrugged.  “On one condition.”

Meghan smiled winningly.  “Anything.”

“Next time, I get to wear you.”

“You’ll do it, then?”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but yes.”

Mike barely had a chance to look at the inside of the Venn Machine before he felt himself falling.  He tried to catch himself, but his arms wouldn’t move, they just... fluttered, and then he was a crumpled pile on the floor.  He started to panic as he didn’t feel himself breathing, but there was little he could do.  His mind went around in little circles until he felt Meghan’s hand on his shoulders, picking him up.

“Ooh, aren’t you the pretty thing,” she gushed.

Mike calmed down as he realized that nothing had gone wrong.  He was just... a dress.  It was hard to believe.  However, once Meghan started putting him on it was impossible not to accept that he was indeed a dress.

Mike had expected that being worn would be confusing, but it felt somehow right to be defining and defined by Meghan’s curvy body.  With every step she took, his long skirt swirled against her toned legs.  With every breath, her breasts pushed against him.  It took a little while before Mike realized that the poking of her nipples meant she wasn’t wearing a bra under him.  If he’d had a face, he would have blushed, then grinned.  Holding her bare breasts all night would go a long way to making up for not being human.

Then there was the dancing.  Walking was interesting, but dancing, feeling someone else move your body to the beat of the music ‒ that was almost fun.  His entire being thrummed with the bass of the speakers, and everything was moving everywhere.

Much later, after an uncomfortable eternity padding Meghan’s bottom from the roughness of a bus seat, Meghan danced into her apartment.  Mike sighed softly inside, knowing that soon he’d be taken off.

Then Meghan wore him into bed, and went to sleep.  Mike found her rhythmic breathing soothing, and soon drifted off himself.

When he returned to normal, early that morning, Meghan woke as well.  Happy at his release from a fabric prison and encouraged by Meghan, they were soon doing the best thing ever.  Meghan proved a patient lover, guiding Mike as he fumbled through his first few minutes of getting used to having limbs instead of sleeves.

In the morning, Meghan cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast.  The sizzling woke Mike, and he put on the rumpled clothes that he’d appeared in during the night.

“Morning.  Thanks for an interesting evening.  I’m not sure that being a dress is for me, but you made it fun.  And the bit afterward...”

Meghan grinned saucily.  “Best thing ever?”

Mike smiled at her dazedly.  “Yeah.  If you asked me right now, I’d probably agree to be anything you wanted.”  Mike’s stomach rumbled, and Meghan took that as a sign to start plating up breakfast.  “Well, after I’ve eaten, anyway.”

After breakfast was eaten and cleared away, Meghan tugged Mike toward the door.  “Still willing to try the Venn Machine again?”

“Sure.”

As they walked to the bus stop Meghan said, “I have to warn you, though... most girls don’t treat their dresses right.  Back on a hanger if you’re lucky.”

“And if you’re not?”

“Goodwill box.”

Mike shuddered.  “That sounds awful.”

“It’s worse if you end up on the rack and sold.  Never had it happen, but Alice heard about this one guy who spent a whole month like that.”

“A month?  How long can you change for?”

Meghan stopped and stared at Mike.  “You really don’t know anything about Venn Machines at all, do you?”

Mike shook his head.  “Should I?  Up until last night, it was just something girls used to test me.  I said no, they insulted my masculinity, and the dates crashed and burned.”

“Ouch.  I’m sorry.  Wait, are you saying I took your Venn virginity too?”

Mike blushed hard, and stammered then nodded. “Yes.  To both.”

“Hey, it’s rough on everyone the first time.  You were good with the foreplay.”

Mike snickered.  “Especially if you count the first eight hours as your dress.”

Meghan snuggled up against him while they waited for a bus.  “I think it counts.  Knowing I was wearing someone...  That feeling of power is something else entirely.”

The bus arrived, and they could only find standing room.  Mike held on to a strap, and Meghan clung to him.  He smiled down at her, and the bus ride passed swiftly.

Once they were at the mall, Mike commented, “I kind of liked being your pole to lean against.”

Meghan pulled him toward the Venn Machine.  “Well, we could try that... but I’ve heard that being metal is kind of dull.  You can’t feel much.”

“Ah.  So... you promised I could wear you this time.”

“I was wondering if you remembered that.  So what are you going to make me?”

“I don’t know... what would you like to be?”

“I always like being a dress,” Meghan said with an impish grin.

“But that would mean I’d have to be a girl.”  Mike frowned, and shook his head.  “I like you, but... that’s more than I can handle right now.  Can I sell you on a kilt?”

“I’ve never been a kilt before.  Sounds different, anyway.”

After setting the duration to a third of a day, Meghan coached Mike through the interface of the Venn Machine.  “Try saying kilt, and touch the areas around the edge where you see a kind of bubbling effect.”

Mike did so.  “Ugh.  Pink tartan?  No, just no.”

“OK, try again, or see if there’s a kilt in the nearby bubbles that’s more your speed.  It learns what you’re going for pretty quickly.”

A few taps later Mike nodded.  “OK, I could wear this.  Now what?”

“Press the green button, then...”  Meghan couldn’t finish the sentence, as she was crumpling to the floor as a pile of fabric.

Mike wondered if he’d done something wrong, and called out to Meghan a few times before berating himself as a fool.  Before he could panic too much, the door reappeared.  He left the booth, saw the other door was open, and looked inside.  Lying on the floor where Meghan had been was a pile of fabric.  Even having been through it himself, he couldn’t really believe that it was her.

Still, she’d made it pretty clear what he needed to do now.  “It would be a betrayal not to wear you, so...  Um, I guess I need to find the changing room, or something.”

Mike discovered that kilts are very hard to put on right.  Just getting Meghan settled about his body took half an hour.  His next discovery was that wool is itchy.  He was a man of his word, and despite the urgent desire to scratch in places that weren’t publicly acceptable, he stuck it out for the full eight hours.  At least the itching helped distract him from the odd looks he was getting ‒ kilts were rarely seen around town, and he looked more Italian than Scottish.

Meghan’s reappearance in the food court of the mall left Mike wearing only a shirt and his underwear, so he made a mad dash for the locker where he’d stored his pants.  Once his little streaking episode was over, and Meghan’s giggling fit had died down, she shook her head.  

“That was not fun at all.  Until the end, anyway.  Wool is itchy!”

“I know!  But you said not wearing you would be a betrayal, and I couldn’t do that.  So I stuck it out despite the itches.”

“I wouldn’t have.  I kind of wish you hadn’t, either.  Didn’t you know that you could have put me back in the Venn Machine and I’d change back?”

“Um... no.  I really wish I’d known that about seven and a half hours ago.”

“You really are a Venn virgin.  As well as the other.  How is it a cute guy like you hasn’t already had half a dozen girlfriends?”

Mike slumped onto a bench, and shrugged.  “I wasn’t anything to look at in college.  I tried asking a bunch of girls out, but got shot down every time ‒ they only wanted to date the jocks, or other bad boys.  Nobody gave me a second look.  After I washed out I got a warehouse job.  Walking everywhere all day did a lot of good for my build, and one of the guys there kind of took me under his wing, taught me how to dress, how not to look like a wimp...”

“Well, it worked.” Meghan sat beside Mike, and snuggled up against his muscular arms.

“Yeah.  Except every date wanted to hit the Venn Machine halfway through.  I’d say no, and they’d go off like a rocket.  Nasty.”

“Huh.  So why’d you let me do it?”

“You were honest about it, for one. I was having a good time talking with you, I didn’t want it to end so soon.  But mostly... you made it sound appealing.”

“Cool.  So if I could make being a girl sound appealing...” Meghan teased.

He laughed.  “No.  Not happening.”

“You get to wear swishy, sexy dresses.  Remember how it felt to be one?”

“That was OK, I guess.  Mostly due to getting to hold your breasts all night.”

“They feel pretty nice from inside, too.”

Mike shrugged.  “After the kilt, I’ll pass.”

“Seriously, silk and satin are way nicer to wear than wool.  Hm, what else.”  Meghan considered Mike.  “You liked breasts, you said.  You’d have your own pair to play with.  If you think that’s fun, you should see what it’s like to have them teased expertly.”  She playfully traced a finger over his chest, brushing over a nipple.

Mike shuddered.  “That...  Damn it.  OK, I’ll bite.”

Meghan clapped her hands, grinning like a kid at Christmas.  “Let’s go!  Oh, but we need to stop at the lockers, first.”

“Why?”

“You need to put your wallet in.  The Venn Machine tends to do a real number on anything printed, so if you want your ID or your money...”

“Right.  Lockers it is.”

Before Mike had a chance for second thoughts, he was standing in the Venn Machine in a new body.  He stared down at... well, herself.  “You’re quick at...  Wow.  I sound different.”

When the doors opened, Mike stumbled out of the machine on Meghan’s 3 inch heels, nearly falling into her arms.

Meghan pulled Mike along to the nearest storefront.  “I made us twins.  That way we can try out the same clothes!”

Mike stared at his reflection.  “This is so weird.  I’m... sexy.”

“Thanks.  Ready for some shopping, Michelle?”

“Michelle?”

“You’re not really a Mike right now, are you?”  Meghan noted with a grin.

Mike looked up and down at his reflection, and let out a long sigh.  “No, I guess not.  Shouldn’t this be more... I don’t know, disorienting?  I’m a girl, and it just feels... well, more wiggly when I walk, and off-balance, but otherwise kind of the same.”

“I don’t know.  I’ve never changed into a different body before.  Just clothes.”

“That’s weird.”

Meghan shrugged.  “C’mon, let’s go shopping!  The mall’s only open for a couple more hours.”

Meghan dragged Mike off to one clothing shop after another.  At first, Mike was worried about what other people would think of him, but the looks they got were mostly guys checking out the cute twins.  

There was the odd knowing look and grin, too.  Mike asked Meghan about those, and she laughed.  “You might look like a girl, but you don’t have the walk down at all.  You’re not the only guy who’s sashayed down these halls as a woman.  Most first time women look way less subtle than you.”

“So I’m not being all transgressive?”

“Not hardly.  You’re not even the only swapper in the mall today.  I’ve seen at least three while we’ve been shopping.  You can’t have missed the one that looked like an out-of-place stripper.”

Mike laughed.  “Oh!  Yeah, I... uh... noticed her.  Wait, that was a guy?”

“I saw you noticing.  It was funny, you nearly walked into a clothing rack.  Yes, that was a guy.  Compared to her, you don’t stand out at all.”

Meghan’s reassurance made Mike feel more comfortable.  Truth be told, he’d gotten more weird looks from wearing a kilt earlier in the day.

Clothes shopping turned out to be more fun than Mike expected.  Instead of sitting around, waiting for someone to figure out what they wanted, he got to go into the change-rooms with Meghan.  She put on a show for him every time she changed outfits.  She even managed to persuade Mike to try a few on.

Before Mike knew it, Meghan was guiding him out of the mall.  “Aww, the show’s over?”

“We started late because someone left me stuck as a kilt most of the day.  The mall’s closing.”

“So we can’t use the Venn Machine again?”  Mike asked, trying to hide his relief.

“Oh, we can still do that.  They leave the door by the ATMs open so you can get to it after hours.”  

As they walked up to the Venn Machine, Meghan asked, “Your turn to change me.  Ready to wear me, and take me out dancing?”

“I...  Look, while I’d be willing to wear you, I’ve been having a lot of fun just... talking to you, being with you.”

“You would be with me while I’m a dress.”  Meghan wheedled.

“I’d really prefer you were human.”

“Male or female?”

“Uh...”

“I know!  We’ll change you back first, then we can twin each other.  It’s easy, just keep saying ‘twin’ and pick the bubble that looks most like you.  If we both do it, then hit the button at the same time...  Ooh, this’ll be so much fun.  We can go meet my friends, they’re usually at this Venn-friendly club down the street Saturday nights.  If we’re lucky, Alice might still be human.”

“I...  It sounds different, anyway, and I’m already a girl after all...”

“I want to see how long it takes them to figure it out!”  Meghan pleaded.

“Well...”

“Come on.  I’ll take you home afterward, and show you how much fun that body can be.  You’ll get to know the deepest, darkest secrets of how to turn a woman on, from the inside.”

“Damn.  You’re one hell of a temptress, Meghan.”

She grinned broadly.  “Thank you.”

Once they were done twinning each other, Mike stared at Meghan for a long time.  “OK.  This is much weirder than I thought it would be.  Looking at you and seeing me is making me dizzy.”

“I know.  It’s like a funhouse mirror that doesn’t do what you do.”  Meghan aped Mike’s posture as best she could, making him giggle.  Then she stuck her tongue out at him, and Mike laughed out loud.

“Eee, that’s creepy.  Stop it, Meghan...”

“I’m not Meghan.  You’re Meghan.  I’m Mike.”

“Do I have to?  That’s going to be very confusing.”

“At least until my friends figure it out.   C’mon!”

Down the block was a bar Mike had noticed before, but never gone to.  The sign out front had been recently painted, and now said ‘Changes’.  Mike shook his head at it.  “Seriously?”

“Told you it was Venn-friendly.  Most people here have been changed at least once.  A fair number of the people in here won’t be their usual gender.  I bet at least a few of the dresses are people, too.”

As they approached a table full of woman, Meghan whispered, “Go on, say hi.”

Mike put on his best fake grin, and walked up to the table as if he belonged there.  “Hey everyone.”

“Who’s that cutie with you,” piped up a shorter blonde girl.

“This is ... uh, Mike.”

“You’re not Meghan,” the blonde accused.

Mike sighed.  “You got me.”

“Oh, way to hold the ruse together, girlfriend,” laughed Meghan.

“Sorry, I can’t think of you as anything but Meghan.”

“So you can’t see me as Mike?”

Mike made a face.  “No.”

The blonde spoke up again. “How about Morgan?  It’s close to Meghan.  So if that’s Morgan, who are you?”

“Call me...” he looked over at Meghan, who smiled and made a shooing motion. “Call me Michelle.”

“Cool.  I’m Alice, and these are Betty, Jackie, and Erica.  Meghan usually wears me Saturday nights, can I be your dress instead?”

“What?”

“Let me be your dress, and go slow-dance with Morgan.  Pleeease?”  Alice batted her eyelashes cutely.

“I... but...”

“Are you making moves on my girl?” asked Morgan.

Alice looked up at him innocently.  “Just trying to get someone to wear me tonight.  Everyone else said no.”

“Aww, poor thing.  Any other night, I’d let you do it.  But Michelle’s mine tonight.  And I want to be the first one she wears.”

“You kind of already were,” noted Mike.

“Blah.  Wool doesn’t count.”

“Wool?” asked Alice.

“Woolen clothes itch terribly, even when you are them.  For eight hours, ‘cause Michelle here is a Venn virgin.  Well, not any more.  I’m trying to win her over to dark side, though I doubt she’ll ever be a Venn-slut like you.”

“Hey!” said Alice.  “No, wait.  That’s about right.  C’mon, I’ll do anything.  Drop me off in the Goodwill box afterward, I don’t care.”

“Wait,” said Mike. “I thought getting stuck in the Goodwill box was a bad thing.”

Alice blushed, just a tiny bit.  It made her look even cuter.  “I... kinda like it.  Being treated like an object, not a person.”

“She’s lying,” mock-whispered Morgan.  “She loves it.  I bet she’d let us turn her into a condom and use her tonight.”

Alice’s eyes went wide and shiny.  “You’d do that?” she breathed.

“I... what the hell, you’d like that?” said Mike.  At Alice’s crestfallen expression, she added, “Sorry, this is all so new to me.”

“I’ve never tried it, but I want to.  Maybe next week?”

Mike looked at Morgan helplessly.  Morgan shrugged.  “Sure, sounds like fun.”  Alice grinned happily, and dragged Michelle onto the dance floor to say thanks.  As she babbled on about all the things she’d been, and how she really wanted to be wrapped around Morgan’s... private parts, Mike’s sense of horror grew.

“You... want to be thrown in the garbage?  That’s fucked up.”

“I love getting the full experience.  Objects are for using.”

“You’re not an object, you’re a person!”

Alice snuggled up close, and whispered, “I don’t want to be a person.  I want to be stuffed into you while wrapped around a big, hard...”

“You’re utterly insane.  I... I can’t do this.”  Mike shook himself out of Alice’s grasp, and stumbled out of the club in a daze.  

He ran as far and as fast as he could in Meghan’s twinned heels, which got him as far as the mall’s bus stop.  He got on the first bus going anywhere, and needed three transfers to make it back home.

* * *

In the morning, Mike spent ten minutes in front of the mirror reassuring himself that he was in his right body once more.  He tried not to think about what it had been like to have breasts, and failed.  It took a long cold shower to thoroughly dispel his lingering curiosity about what it would have been like to let Meghan play with them.

After breakfast, he tried to figure out where his wallet had gone.  Finally he connected it with Meghan’s purse on the counter, and he remembered that they’d swapped IDs after swapping bodies.  So she had his wallet, and probably wanted her purse back.

Mike sighed, and picked up his phone.

An hour later, they met at a bus stop miles from the mall.  Meghan looked like she’d been dragged backward through a haystack, and her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy.

“Sorry I’m such a mess.  I’m... not a morning person.  And ... allergies.”

“Oh.  I’m... look, I’m sorry.  I like you, I really do, but I don’t see how this can work.  Here’s your purse.”  Mike slipped it off his shoulder, where it had been an almost familiar weight, and held it out to her.

Meghan handed him his wallet in exchange, sighed, and watched as Mike walked away.  “Damn it, Alice,” she muttered.

Mike turned back. “It’s not just her, you know.  You’re all happily screwing with reality itself and treating this like some kind of game.  That’s just... wrong.”

“But it’s...”  Meghan sighed, Mike was already walking away again.  “It is fun,” she whispered to herself.

* * *

Mike went on a few more dates, all of them at the mall.  He argued with one about the propriety of just changing people into whatever, and she insulted his masculinity then left in a huff.  The second, he reluctantly allowed her to ‘persuade’ him into the machine.  The way she smiled when he said yes made him quail inside, it was a predator’s grin.

He spent most of the night stuffed in her purse.  Brushing her hair was the only highlight, and not nearly enough to make up for the rest.  The next date was even worse.  Waking up in a garbage can was not Mike’s idea of a good night, especially when it wasn’t preceded by drunken debauchery.

After that, he added ‘No Venn Machines’ to his online dating profile.  It took him two weeks to find another date, but at least they met somewhere far, far away from the damned mall.  The coffee shop in question turned out to be the sort where one could get most kinds of illegal substances along with your legal stimulants, and Mike left hurriedly.

Removing the ‘No Venn Machines’ line got him a surge of prospective dates by the following night.  Mike sighed and deleted his entire inbox.  Every single one was asking to meet at the Brass Duckling.  Instead, he went out to his neighbourhood pub alone.

“Damn it,” Mike groused to the bartender.  “How can I trust any of them?  They all just want to mess with me.”

The bartender just shook his head.  “You’ve got to trust someone, some day.  There are worse things than being stuck in a purse for eight hours.  Just ask any of the divorced guys here.”

“Yeah, but how do you figure out who to...”  Mike stopped short, then laughed.  “You know what, you’re exactly right.  ‘Scuse me, I need to make a call.”

Mike walked outside, dug his phone out of his pocket, and called a number that he should have deleted weeks ago.

“Meghan?  Look, I’m really sorry about...  I know, I ... really?  Damn.  OK, I’ll apologize to Alice, too.  Look, I called to ask if we can have a do-over...  Why?  I’ve learned a lot recently about the value of trust.  And... I trust you.  Yes, really.  Sure, the Brass Duckling will be fine.”