Moontouched 8

The words echoed in Donna’s head like a tolling bell.  “Forget about her.”  A decade of memories, the best years of her life, all were at risk.  She tried to stop the process, but it had already started.  The only thing she could do was to make sure it was only blocking memories, not destroying them, and when she tried to do that... she realized that was already what was happening.  Part of her had already decided to make it an easily reversible change.

So when she got up off the floor, blinking at the bright lights, Donna had already created a door in the wall that hid her memories of ... what was her name again?

“Donna?” asked Gwen worriedly.  “Are you OK?”

Donna took Gwen’s proffered hand and got to her feet, then sat in a nearby chair.  “I... think so.  Memory editing that extensive is... either hard, or traumatic, or a bit of both.  What the fuck were you thinking, anyway?”

Gwen looked away.  “I was thinking that you have never managed to refuse my requests for changes.  And that one, at least, you’d fight.  And...” she sighed heavily.  “That if it worked, you might stop holding yourself away from me.  So it was win-win.”

“Ah.  Except that it did work, and somehow I still know I’m committed to another woman.  Even if I can’t remember her face or name.”

Gwen looked over at Donna in horror. “You couldn’t stop it?  But... it looked like you were fighting it.”

“I was.  I failed.  But...” she held up a hand to forestall Gwen’s next words.  “They’re just blocked off, not gone.  There’s a little door in my mind, and when I open it...”  Donna shuddered for a moment as the memories came rushing back.  “Ah, Sidney.  I can remember everything.  The wedding, all our time together...  And I can close it again, and... she’s gone again.  It’s the strangest thing.  I can flick so many memories into and out of existence... and yet I’m still the same person.  Nothing essential changes.”

“Wow.  I wish I knew what that felt like.”  Gwen’s eyes went wide with shock as she realized what she’d just said.

Donna stared at her for a long time, then shook her head. “I can’t do that one.  Do it yourself.”

Gwen’s look of horror intensified as she felt her own power start to flow.  “No!”

Donna could only watch as Gwen went through the same struggle she’d just faced.  Her friend trembled and shook as magic ran rampant in her own mind.  Donna held her until she calmed, then Gwen struggled free of her grasp.

Gwen took a step back and stared at Donna wild-eyed.  “Who are you?”

Donna smiled gently.  “There is a wall in your mind.  Find it.  Create a door in it.”

“I felt that.  What did you do?”

“Open the door.”  The transformation that came over Gwen’s expression at that moment made Donna laugh.  “So.  Now you know what it’s like.”

“Wow.  What the hell just happened?”

“You know full well what happened.  Same thing you tried to do to me.”

Gwen sighed, and shook her head.  “I don’t know what got into me.  It’s like when you gave me these horns, I couldn’t stop acting on every wicked impulse that came to mind.”

“No.  You are not going to blame this on me,” Donna huffed.  But as she looked into Gwen’s eyes she knew it was true.  “Oh, bother.  So I can’t even be mad with you over this?”  She pulled the horned girl into a hug, and brushed the horns away with her hand.

Rowan cleared her throat.  “Well, at least that’s resolved.  Now would you be so kind as to fix the other messes you made with your little stunt?  I think Tawny would like to dance.”  She held up a sheet of paper with a dragon tattoo on it.

Donna looked around.  Silvie the bird-girl was just getting back from a turn dancing.  Nissa was admiring her darkly beautiful spider’s body in the green room mirror.  Neysa was waiting by the door, eager to dance despite her lack of arms or a head.  And Carmen with her claws and tail was waiting beside her.  She shook her head.  “Most of them seem to be happy as they are... I should probably do something about Neysa, though.  Give her eyes, at least.”

Just verbalizing that made Neysa start to change.  Eyes started forming in place of her nipples, and a mouth under her breasts.  Donna sighed.  “This control thing is harder than I thought.”  She turned back to the piece of paper Rowan was still holding out at her.  “OK.  Tawny.  I think I remember her...”

Donna carefully changed the girl back, leaving the tattoo in place, growing the rest of her into existence behind it.  The head of the dragon perched atop her right breast, with its long neck coiling about hers then dropping between her breasts to the outspread wings that wrapped around her belly to meet at her back.  Its body and tail ran down her leg, winding about it thrice before ending near her toes.

“There,” she said as the changes finished.  “Not the most direct route, but how do you like your tattoo?”

Tawny stared at her body for long moments, then gave Donna a big hug.  “It’s gorgeous!  Totally worth being turned into a tattoo for.  Can I keep it?”

Donna laughed.  “You know the drill.  I’d really recommend waiting until next month, though.  Just in case I missed a few details when changing you back.”

She looked around the room.  “Does anyone else want to get changed back?”  A bird’s head and Wendy’s dragon head shook no.  Nissa ignored her.  Carmen gave her a huge toothy grin.  “Nah, this is going to be fun.”

When Neysa came back from dancing up on stage, Donna gave her her arms and head back, and nudged her to think of it as normal once more.  She seemed disappointed.  “That was really kind of fun... I’d like to try dancing without my arms again, though I do like my head.”

Donna smiled.  “Figures.  Now?”

“Please.”

Neysa’s arms started melting away once more.  This time, Donna left them looking like breasts, and Neysa flashed her a grin when she realized.  “Cute.  Thanks!”

Donna just shook her head.  “Does anyone around here want to be normal?”

Rowan cleared her throat again.  “The wings are nice and all, but this look is just not me.”

“Aww, but it was a good look on you,” Gwen piped up as Rowan’s changes slowly withered away.  “And who’s going to play shoulder angel to my shoulder devil, then?  Ooh, I know!  Make me half devil half angel!”

Donna laughed, and Gwen’s back burst out with feathery wings, white with edging in red.  She was done before Rowan’s change was half over.  One of her hooves turned back into a foot, for good measure.

Rowan tilted her head as she studied this exchange.  “You two have some kind of connection.”

“We do?” asked Gwen and Donna in unison.

Rowan just laughed at that, and moved on to let them sort themselves out.

Donna studied Gwen intently, then closed her eyes.  “She’s right, you know.  There’s some kind of link between us.”

“That’s how you recharge me, I think.”

“I wonder...”  Always the engineer, Donna tried pulling on the link.  She was curious what would happen if she reversed the flow of power.

Gwen shuddered as she felt her power sucked out, but was just as curious as to what would happen.  “You, ah... will give that back, right?”  Once she was empty she told Donna to stop.

Donna didn’t stop.  “There’s something more there...  One more pull and...  Yeah, now you’re dry.  Gods, I’m so full of energy I’m ready to burst.”

Gwen opened her eyes and said wonderingly, “You’re glowing.”

Donna’s eyes shot open as well.  “Eep.  I should do something with this, quick.”  She looked around, and her eyes lit on one of the few un-changed dancers, an unfamiliar woman with chestnut hair and a newly enlarged bust she was still getting used to.  Gwen saw where Donna’s gaze was going and lightly said, “Beth would look pretty as a deer-girl.”

That was all the power needed, it rushed out and circled the dancer’s waist, changing her legs to the thin, brown-furred ones of a deer.  A flagging tail and a pair of tall chestnut-furred ears completed the change, tapping enough of Donna’s energy that she was no longer overflowing.  The girl looked down in amazement, then flashed Donna a grin.  “Thanks!” she called across the room.

Donna laughed weakly.  “Really?  Does everyone here love being changed into things wondrous and new?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Donna focussed on Gwen again, then frowned.  “But you’re... what’s happening to your wings?  Did you do that?”

Gwen craned and looked.  Her wings were slowly but visibly shrinking away.  “When you pulled that last bit from me, my mind got clearer.  I felt the impishness go away.  And the wall’s gone, too.”

Donna touched a wing, felt it with finger and power.  “Something is missing.  I can’t feel the change any more.  Is that why it’s fading away?”

“Same as it would during the new Moon, maybe?”

Donna was lost in thought, “Is it really so easy to undo things?”

“Easy?  This is taking forever...  Should I time it?  It’s been maybe two minutes so far...”

Donna nodded.  “Yes.  But you’re not a good subject for timing.  You’re more malleable than the others.”  She frowned for a moment.  “And more malleable by a good bit than you were last month.  What happened?”

“You ate me, is what happened.  You made me part of your body, remember?”

Donna blushed, and buried her face in her hands.  “I know.  I’m sorry.  That was...”

Gwen pulled Donna’s hands away from her face.  “Crazy?  Fun?  Something I’d do again, especially with the perk?”

Donna shook her head.  “How can you find it so easy?  I digested you, and you’re treating it like a day at the spa.”

Gwen moved closer to Donna.  Her lips almost against her friend’s ears, she whispered, “Because it felt really good to melt.”

An abashed chirp distracted them from their near-embrace.  Donna looked up to see the bird-headed Silvie nearby, making pleading eyes at her.

Through gestures with her somewhat clumsy wings, Silvie managed to get across that she’d like her voice back, thank you very much.  Donna obliged, and over the course of the next minute Silvie’s beak retreated, leaving a human face with feathers for hair.

“Oh, thank you!  I loved the look, but not being able to talk...”

Donna smiled.  “I understand.  Can I ask a favour?”

Silvie looked amazed.  “From me?  Sure.”

“I want to test something.  If I’m right, it’ll make you change back to normal, just... really slowly.”

Donna nodded when Silvie wanted assurances that she could have her feathers back later, so Silvie agreed.

Donna pulled at Silvie, and started glowing again.  

“That’s it?” asked the bird-girl.  “How long will this take?”

“Um,” said Donna, distracted by the magical overload.  “An hour, maybe?  Check the time when you’re done, and tell me please?”

“OK.”  Silvie skipped off happily, her talons clacking loudly on the floor.

Donna watched the glow of the excess magic around her body.  “I need to do something...”

“Give it to me,” said Gwen.  “You took all mine, remember?  And I stopped getting refilled by you.”

“Oh!  Of course...”  Letting the power flow to Gwen helped some, but still left her with excess to deal with.  Donna looked for someone to change, but every dancer in the green room had already been changed somehow.  Gwen smiled invitingly, and offered to let Donna change her, but Donna wanted to see how long Gwen’s restoration would take.

“So change yourself,” said Gwen.

Donna’s form flowed from human to feline, then turned scaly.  She changed fully into snake, then re-grew limbs a few moments later as a completely normal-looking deer.  The deer was glowing faintly, but not nearly as much as when Donna had started.  One last change back to human left her looking mostly normal, except for a pair of antennae poking up through her hair.

Gwen giggled as the antennae wiggled at her.  After a few seconds had passed with no further changes, she asked, “Done?”

Donna nodded.  “I’m going to have to figure out some way to deal with that.  Or simply not do it except when I’m not already full... which will be hard, given I can’t seem to stop drawing off the Moon.”

Then Gwen asked the question that would change everything.  “Do you think it’ll work once it’s no longer the full Moon?”

Donna stared at her for a long beat, then grinned hugely.  “Yes!  I can fix things if I screw up!”  She hugged Gwen tight, and kissed her on the lips.  “You’re brilliant!”

Of course, that made Gwen glow.  Literally.  Her hair became bioluminescent.

“Did I do that?” asked Donna.

Gwen shook her head. “I’m going to need to learn some control, too.  How did you do it?”

Donna and Gwen went over mental exercises to stem the flow of power until Rowan came to find them with more fantasy requests.

“Here’s one for you, Donna.  You wanted the weird ones, right?”

Donna nodded eagerly, so Rowan handed her the slip.  She read through it, and started to giggle.  “A room full of brightly coloured rubber boobs?  Yeah, I can do that.”  She held up her hand, and turned a flake of skin into a purple rubber breast.  Two more appeared, and she juggled them.  “I might go play in it when he’s done...  Which room should I do?”

“Room one, I think.  Maybe you can fill it while he’s there?  I bet he’d like that.”

Gwen picked one of the purple breasts out of the air, and gave it a squeeze.  “Can you feel this?”

Donna nodded.  “Faintly.  They’re still part of me, but not connected.”

“Ah.  Pity.  So you couldn’t make a duplicate of yourself that would come home with me?”

Donna stared at Gwen for a long beat.  “I don’t think so.  Maybe.  I mean, if you wanted a rubber doll of me, I could do that.”   The breast in Gwen’s hand changed shape, becoming a slim purple doll, perhaps six inches long.

Gwen tucked it into her top.  “I’m keeping this, then.  It’ll do.  For now.”  She waggled her eyebrows at Donna, making her giggle.

Donna looked around at the room.  There was barely room to swing her arms when she was standing in the middle of it.  Getting a good layer of boob-balls in here wouldn’t take too much effort.  She made sure she had a handful of them ready when her client arrived.

Donna was surprised to see the grey at his temples, he seemed old to be wanting such a childish fantasy.  But perhaps that was the point.  In any case, his face lit up when she tossed him the first few breast balls, and his grin broadened as she kept tossing them like some kind of demented magician, summoning more and more of the nippled spheres to fill the room.  They were all kinds of colours, every bright shade that Donna could imagine.  Soon, the room looked as if a rainbow had exploded in it, and her 50-something client was tossing the balls as if they were drifts of snow, laughing like a child.

Then he slipped and fell, wincing with pain.  Donna crouched beside him, helped him to stand.  “Are you alright?”

He sighed ruefully.  “I’m not as young as I once was.  Ah, if only...”

“Ask.  Just ask, and it can be.”

The look she got was heartbreaking.  “Really?  I want... need to be younger.”

“How much younger.  This room looks like a child’s playground, except... not quite.”  Donna picked up a pinkish breast ball, turned it so the nipple faced Gary, her client, and gave it a squeeze.

He smirked. “No, not that young.  Thirty.  I had a good body then, one that wouldn’t betray me.  One that ...”  He sighed.

“What?”  Donna started trickling power toward him, imagining him as he might have been twenty years before.

“There’s this girl I know.  I’ve known her since she was about twelve, she used to wander into our yard like a stray dog when her parents were fighting.  We’d talk while I gardened, about everything and anything.”  He smiled at a memory.  “She’d ask all the questions parents hate to answer, and I’d answer them as best I could.”

After Gary was silent for a while, Donna prompted, “Then what happened.”

Gary was looking much younger now, but hadn’t noticed yet.  “She grew up, went to university... graduated last spring.  She’s looking for work, but... well, you know how it is out there.  So she’s stuck at home with her Mom.  Still comes over to talk.  I can tell she likes me, but the age difference... it’s too much.”

Donna gestured at the mirrored wall of the room.  “Are you sure?”

Gary stared at himself in the mirror, then hugged Donna with all his might.  “Thank you.”

“I... look, this doesn’t last.  In a week you’ll start changing back.”

“Then I’ll have a week.  I probably can’t stay away from work for longer than that on short notice anyway.”

Gary’s time was up soon after that, and he hugged Donna once more before he left.  She shook her head, and murmured, “He’ll be back.  Maybe I’ll get to meet her, too...”

Gwen bounced into the room a minute later, giggling at all the colorful rubber boobs.  “Wow.  It looks like someone exploded into a pile of boobs in here.”

Donna just stared at her as that image locked into her mind.  A moment later, hundreds more rubber boobs launched themselves in every direction, pattering against the walls and Gwen, who stared at the pile in shock.

“I didn’t mean... wow.  That did look pretty cool, though.”  Then she grimaced as she felt her own magic start to tickle at her body.  “No!”