Raveled 13

Tess was pacing impatiently in front of two piles of ribbon.  One was her friend Jess, the other was part of Jess’ boyfriend Ed.  Eventually the Jess-ribbon started to writhe and wriggle itself into a human shape, and Ed was soon restored to being a head and neck.  Their bodies still had the sheen of silk from the ribbon.

“Finally!” Tess exclaimed.  “Are you both OK?”

Jess looked down at her shoulders in disgust.  “I have arms.”

“And I’m just a head,” noted Ed, calmly.

“Other than that.  Jess, are you... you?”

Jess nodded slowly.  “Even... even the arms.  After experiencing them for a few hours, I have to admit they’re handy.”

Ed snickered.  “I’m fine too.  Y’know, other than the no body thing.  And given that half my body is covered in bruises, I’m OK with this.”

Tess looked from one to the other.  “OK.  So what happened in the mall?  You were acting like Jess.  Who was in control?”

“Me,” said Ed, at the same time as Jess said, “Not me.”

“Really?” asked Tess.  “Because it didn’t seem that way.  You really weren’t in control, Jess?”

Jess shook her head.  “Mostly no.  There were times that my body did what I wanted to, but then Ed would go off and do something different than I was thinking.  It was pretty jarring the first couple of times that I thought I’d taken control, and the illusion was shattered.”

“Huh.  From this side... I just felt like I was acting naturally,” Ed mused.  “I can’t point to any specific point where I started... being Jess.  I felt like... me.  That person just... wasn’t Ed any more.”

“Scary,” said Tess.

Ed wriggled in a failed attempt at a shrug.  “It felt perfectly natural.  Uh, can I get part of my body back, at least?”

“Can you manage with just your arms?  Your chest still needs to heal up.”

“I guess.  If Jess can manage without arms, I can figure out how to get around as just a pair of arms, right?”

“Maybe I can take mine off, and you can ride on my shoulders and be my arms for me?”

Ed was considering it, but Tess shook her head.  “No.  You need to sleep with your arms on, tonight.”

“Aww.  It would have been fun!”

“Yeah,” mused Ed.  “We can always try it another time.  After we’ve dealt with Don.”

Tess fetched Ed’s arms.  Jess was still very clumsy with her hands, so she was unable to manage fine tasks like untying ribbons.  Once he had his arms and shoulders back, Ed tried walking around the room on his hands.  After a few false starts to get used to his new shape, he found that walking about on his hands was quite easy.

“This is way more fun than it has any right to be.”  Ed hand-jumped from the floor up onto the couch, then climbed into Jess’ lap.  He gave her a hug that squeezed her hollow, silken body flat, making her squeak with surprise.

“Do that again!” said Jess once she’d reinflated.

“Save it for later,” smirked Tess.  “We have to decide what to do about Don.”

“Well, if he’s re-ribboned about an hour before you put him on, you should have a fair bit of control for the next hour,” Ed mused.  “When’s his exam, again?”

“First thing in the morning,” said Tess.  “So that means you need to re-ribbon him about ten to eight, so we can swap just before nine.  Ugh, that means I need to be ribboned at least an hour earlier.  Don’t wanna wake up at six.”

Ed brachiated over to the ribbon, and waved it.  “We could ribbon you Sunday night, and leave you tied off all night...  well, except for a foot or something so we can use the fourth stroke of the ribbon to pull you back here afterward.”

“Why wait?  Turn her into a ribbon all weekend,” smirked Jess.

Ed did his best to loom over Tess—not an easy task for someone who only has arms to stand on, but perching on the back of the couch helped.  “Excellent idea.  We’d have the place to ourself all weekend.  Muahahah!”

Tess squeaked, curling into the corner of the couch and hyperventilating. “You fiend!  I bet you’ll leave only my breasts and have your wicked way with them, too.”

Ed loosed another evil chuckle and started to ribbonize Tess’ legs.  “But of course, my dear.”

Jess watched in mute surprise as her boyfriend dismantled her best friend.  Legs, hips, and belly all spooled into ribbon while Tess floridly bemoaned her fate and Ed just laughed.  Then he assaulted her arms and shoulders.  Once those were nothing but ribbons, Ed turned to what was left of Tess’ torso, carefully avoiding the breasts.

“There we are.  Perfection.  Two breasts, with no distracting body to go with them.”

“And a head,” added Tess.

“Oh, your head will be gone soon enough.  Then I’ll tie you off, and you’ll be nothing but a pair of breasts.”  Ed’s evil laugh echoed through the room once more.

Tess moaned, “You’re mad, quite mad.”  As the ribbon twined about her head, her breathing got faster and faster until she cried out in pleasure just as her head fell apart into coils of ribbon.

Ed set the ribbon aside, and carefully spooled up all the Tess-ribbons, tying them off into one large bundle.

“You... you...” stammered Jess.

“Yes?” Ed asked, softly.

“You turned her into boobs.  Tess is... just a pair of boobs.  Why would you do such a thing?”

“Eh, she’d have been bored and complained all weekend while we studied.  I’d have ended up turning her into ribbon early just to shut her up.”

“But... why were you so mean about it?”

“Mean?  Didn’t you hear her?  Pick up a breast and look at it.”

Jess gingerly did so.  “Wow.  Her nipple is as hard as a rock.”

“She loves the mad scientist act.”

Jess continued exploring the breast.  “Huh, it’s all hollow in the back... oops.”

Ed laughed as Jess stared at the breast that had eaten her left hand.  “That’s a cute look on you.  Keep it.”

“But doesn’t that mean Tess is just... one breast, now?”

“Not for long.”  Ed scooped up the last breast.  “Wow, she’s really hard now.  Where to put this...”

Jess solved the problem by putting her right hand into it.  “There we go, I’m balanced again.”

“And handless,” Ed noted.  “I guess I’m playing arms for you today after all.”

“Think of it as getting used to having arms on the installment plan.  I hope Tess is OK.”

“Tess who?”  Ed summoned one last evil laugh, making Jess squeal.  “You know what it’s like to be just a tied-off ribbon.  She’s gone, until we let her out.”

Jess shuddered.  “And you’re OK with that?”

Ed hugged her again.  “It does mean we get the place all to ourselves.”

They hadn’t really intended it to work out that way, but it was so much easier to study without Tess around that each time one or the other raised the issue, they figured they could wait another hour.  Or two.  Then the cycle would repeat.

Ed perched on Jess’ back and made their food at her direction.  On Saturday Jess woke with her breast-hands feeling quite natural, and it was mid-afternoon before she remembered they weren’t hers.  She teased Ed with the breasts some more, until he ribboned them off leaving Jess with stumps at her wrists for an hour.  In between study sessions that afternoon, Ed devised finger exercises for Jess to get her used to having hands once more.  Squeezing a ‘stress ball’ made of Tess’ breasts was part of it, to both their amusement.  Judging by the nipples, Tess was enjoying the exercise, too.

Sunday morning, they checked on the campus security car outside their apartment building.  It had moved up the street, but was still there.  Ed marvelled at their dedication, and wondered who they’d follow if only one person left the apartment.

“Probably Tess,” mused Jess.  “They seem to think she’s involved, being Don’s ex-girlfriend and all.  We really do have to get him back to normal.”

“Tomorrow.  We’ll do it tomorrow.”  Ed sighed, and looked at the disembodied pair of breasts on the table.  “I suppose we should let Tess out for a last minute planning session.”

“Probably, yeah.”

Once untied, Tess’ ribbons quickly reassembled themselves into a breastless girl.  She lay on the couch, staring blankly at them.

“Tess?” asked Jess worriedly.  “Are you there?”

“Mmh?  I...”  Tess looked down at herself.  “Huh.  I’m human?  Weird.”

Ed chuckled softly, and gestured to the stuck-together pair of breasts on the table.  “She woke up as those, after all.”

Jess carefully handed Tess her breasts.  “Here.  This might help.”

Tess giggled, and played with her detached boobs.  “It was... something else.  Being just... this.  Felt nice.”  She looked over at Ed, and cocked her head to one side.  “How long?”

“Two days.”

“Woah.”

“Are you mad?  I can’t tell.  Jess, what is up with your friend?”

Jess snickered.  “I think she’s reliving the memories.”

“You have really nice lips, Ed.”

Ed chuckled softly, and Jess blushed.  “That wasn’t me,” he said.

Tess looked at Jess sharply.  “You?  But you don’t...”

Jess shrugged helplessly.  “Oh, look at the time.  Better get you ready for your big morning tomorrow.  What bit shall we leave behind so we can ribbon you back?”

Tess smirked, and tossed Jess her breasts.  “You had to ask?  See you on the flip side.”

A few ribbon-swirls later, and she was gone again, both parts tied off and set aside.

“Told you she wouldn’t be mad.”

* * *

Monday morning, Ed got up bright and early.  He had to prepare Don’s ribbon at exactly the right time for everything to work.  Soon he had four bundles of ribbon tucked in his pockets.  One for Don’s clothes, which had been kept that way for some time.  Two for Don himself, in two halves to facilitate putting him on, and the last was most of Tess.

As he’d hoped, the campus cops on the stakeout didn’t move off after him, and remained to watch the apartment.  He did notice he was being tailed discreetly as he wandered around on campus, so he ducked into a washroom with two exits.  In one of the larger stalls, he quickly untied two bundles, revealing Don’s clothes and Tess.

“Ready?”

Tess nodded.  Ed released the last ribbons, and Tess quickly scrambled into Don’s fabric body before he could figure out what was going on.  She dressed, then Ed pointed her toward the right-hand exit.  “That way.  Second right is the exam room.  Here’s some pens and pencils.  Good luck!”

Don’s body gave him an evil grin.  “This isn’t about luck.”