Moontouched 16

Donna looked out over the crowd.  They were murmuring to themselves excitedly, curiously, wonderingly.  But none approached her, not right away.  “Come,” she said.  “Surely someone has a Christmas fantasy.  Something they want to be, or see one of our fine dancers become.  Anything and everything can happen, but not until you ask.”

One couple stepped forward, holding hands.  The guy spoke up, hesitantly.  “I heard something about... inflatable breasts?”

Donna nodded, and waited to see what he would ask.

“I... could you do that to my girlfriend?”

Donna grinned.  “One set of inflatable breasts for Christmas, coming up.”  She gestured to the woman beside him, whose breasts started to grow, straining her bra and top.

“Hey!” she exclaimed, “Is this why you wanted to come here tonight?  I knew you had an inflation fetish but... wow.  They’re...”  She looked down at her chest.  “Wow.”

“And would the lovely lady like something for herself for Christmas?” Donna asked, amusement tingeing her voice.

The woman nodded, coming closer to Donna, who leaned down to hear the whispered request.  Donna grinned again.  “Done.”

“What?” asked the boyfriend.  “What did you... oooh!”  His skin was becoming glossier, and then his body started to crumple.  He grinned hugely even as his head caved in on itself, and before long he was nothing but a crumpled pile of latex on the floor.

The new doll’s girlfriend folded up the latex bundle and the clothes scattered about it, tucking them all into an oversized purse.

“Have fun with her,” Donna called as she headed toward the door.  “Merry Christmas!  Who’s next?”

Eagerly pressing to the front was a familiar face, the one that had asked about being a teddy bear earlier.  Before he even made his request, his body was shrinking and getting fuzzier.  Gwen hopped down from her perch beside Donna, and scooped him up as he shrunk.  Three feet, two, one...  Gwen tucked him into her cleavage and grinned out a the crowd.  “Are there any more toys out there that need some snuggling?”

Donna had to laugh as four more guys rushed forward.  She started them shrinking before she heard what each wanted to be.  One asked to be a toy elephant, another a raggedy ann doll.  The other two just wanted to be toy-sized.  Gwen scooped them all up in her arms, snuggling them tight against her huge chest.  “We’re going to go have some private fun together.  Catch you later, Donna!  Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

“Oh, like that’ll be hard,” Donna laughed.  She sent a flick of power at Gwen’s retreating back, starting a scaly tail growing at the base of Gwen’s spine.  Gwen turned, and gave her a saucy wink, so Donna took it a step further, and started Gwen growing toward seven feet tall.  Her friend happily stomped her way to the private rooms.

The next person to approach Donna was also familiar, but Doctor Arwen’s place, not the club.  “Roger?” she asked.  “What are you doing here?”

Roger smiled up at her.  “Asking for a Christmas wish.  I want to be a dancer named Olivia, and perform on stage here.”

“But...  Arwen was concerned about why you wanted this.  Can you tell me?”

Roger waved to the various denizens of the club.  “Why does anyone here want anything?  Does it really matter?”

“No,” Donna agreed with a smile.  “Not really.  Not tonight.”  Roger’s body was already dwindling as she spoke.  Roger just stared at his slimming hands for the entire transformation, only looking at the rest of herself once it was done.  His clothes had changed as well, becoming a spangly dancer’s outfit with a top that had passing resemblance to the dark blue shirt she’d been wearing a minute before.

“I still feel like a ‘Roger’, inside,” the new girl said.  “Not Olivia.  Can’t you...”

Donna shook her head.  “I can.  But I won’t.  It’s your job to decide who Olivia is, not mine.”  She hopped off the stage, and gestured up toward it.  “Go.  Dance.”  At Roger’s uncertain look, she paused for a moment to recall Pauline’s advice.  “You’ll do fine. Love the attention, love your body. Show them this, and they’ll love you.”

‘Olivia’ straightened her shoulders and marched up onto the stage.  Donna nodded at Leo, who started a song playing.  Donna hopped off the stage, so as not to distract from their newest dancer.  Then she broke into giggles as she recognized the opening of “Like a Virgin”.

As Donna worked her way back toward the bar, a gaggle of people tagged along with her.  Several asked to be changed back into girls, and Donna obliged.  Once they were changed, she asked if they wanted to dance on stage.  They all looked up where Olivia was uncertainly strutting her stuff, and shook their heads.  “We’ll stay down here, thanks,” said one of the new girls.  “Do a little dancing, a little flirting.”  She giggled.

Donna looked around at the guys nearby.  None seemed particularly put off by the idea, and several approached the new girls to chat them up.  She chuckled, and turned back to the bar, and came face to face with ‘Creepy Dave’, who was grinning at her.  “Is that offer still open?”

Donna grinned back.  “Of course.  What would you like?”

“Surprise me.”

“Oooh, such a lovely invitation.  Something simple, yet...  Ah, yes.  Done.”

“But...”  Dave’s grin faltered.  Donna just looked at his arms, and arched her eyebrows.  Dave’s gaze followed hers, and he saw the scales forming on his hands.  “Oh!”

When eyes blinked open on his hands, Dave was even more surprised.  Before long each hand was a snake’s head, and he was swooping them through the air and laughing.  “This is trippy.”

“You like it?” Donna asked, smiling at his antics.

“Heck yeah.  And if I close my eyes... it almost feels like I’m a snake again.”

“Don’t sound so wistful, or I might just arrange that.  Send you off to one of your terrariums.”

Dave shrugged, his sinuous arms flowing with the gesture.  “I’ll take a raincheck on that.  This is fun for now.”

Donna nodded, and moved on.  At the bar, she found another gaggle of people near where the fantasy slips were usually kept.  She was unsurprised if slightly disappointed to find out that even more celebrity requests were pending.  On the plus side, two of the guys wanted to look like male celebrities (Tom Selleck and Pierce Brosnan, respectively).  So that was a change.  Another had Nissa in tow, and asked if she could be turned into Marilyn Monroe for a private dance or two.  Donna chuckled, and nodded.  “I’m sure she won’t mind.”  Nissa’s grin made that clear.

When another guy approached with Vanessa in tow, Donna muttered, “oh no, not again.”  

Vanessa caught it, and flashed her a grin.  “This will be a little different.”  She asked the barman for the largest glass he had, filled with water.  He pulled out an oversized brandy snifter perhaps a foot across.

Donna looked back to Vanessa curiously.  “I don’t get it.”

“Gary here wants a lapdance from a mermaid.  I need water to do that right.”

“Ah!  Well, then, one tiny whale coming up...”

Vanessa started to shrink then, and when she was under a foot tall, she began to change as well.  But not into a mermaid, into a tiny whale.  Gary objected, but Donna shushed him and threatened to turn him into a pot of petunias, which got a giggle from the whale and an amused look from the bartender, but it was obvious Gary had no idea what she was talking about.

Donna dropped the three inch long whale into the glass with a splash.  The bartender had filled the glass very full, so quite a bit of the displaced water ended up on the counter.

“Someone ought to have a towel handy,” he said with a grin.  Donna snickered, and her hand immediately became a broad expanse of fabric.  She wiped up the spill, then returned her hand to normal.

“Handy,” said Gary, deadpan.  “Can I see my mermaid now, please?”

“Since you asked nicely...”  Donna picked up the glass, careful not to slosh it, and carried it toward the row of lapdance booths at the back of the room.  As she walked the glass grew, as did the tiny being inside it.  When she set it down, the stem was two feet long, and the bowl almost four across.  A foot-long mermaid Vanessa cavorted within.  Donna grinned down at her.  “Have fun!”

Donna moved along to another unoccupied booth, and grew a throne of greenery for her to sit on.  A variety of people came up, each with their own special request.  Most were fairly simple, minor changes like being taller, or shorter, or more muscular.  A few of the dancers came by, too, with fantasy requests they wanted to fill.  One had been asked to dance as a catgirl, and Donna had smiled while changing her, reminiscing over her first changes at the club.

Later on, a normal-sized Gwen showed up with her little ones, all of them looking flushed and happy.  Most of them got changed back to themselves, but the teddy-bear wanted to stay as he was.  Gwen tucked him back into her cleavage, and shrunk him down a little further.  “I’m going to take him home.”

The strangest request of the night was the guy who wanted to be a violin.  Donna asked around, and found that Beth ‘had played a little’ and was willing to give it a go.  While the guy was shrinking down and becoming wooden, Beth approached Leo to set up the performance.  Before long she was back, and looked the violin over critically.  She played a few test notes on it with a bow Donna had conjured up.  She asked Donna for a few tweaks until it sounded good, then attached a wireless pickup that Leo had given her.

Once Beth was up on stage, Leo started playing ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia’.  He faded the song out on Johnny’s parts, leaving Beth to perform those on her own, and she had fun with it.  The audience had been a little skeptical at first, but when they saw her cavorting on stage while playing the violin violently, they started to cheer.  At the end of the song, Beth bowed to the audience, grinning like mad as they applauded.

Then she nodded to Leo, and took her top off with one hand, while holding the violin and bow with the other.  Once she had the violin in place once more, Leo cued up ‘Duelling Banjos’, again fading out one of the parts so Beth could play it.  Again, she played the hell out of it, and managed some dance moves in between the sections.  During the big finale, Leo faded out the song entirely and just let Beth do her thing.

The applause was louder this time, with calls of “encore” from more than a few of those present.  Beth looked over at Leo, shrugged, and just started playing and dancing.  Gwen and Nissa joined her on stage partway through, improvising to the music.  Donna couldn’t help but tweak things a little, growing more scales on Gwen, and tinting them red, with swirling flame patterns over her body.  Nissa’s white Marilyn dress merged with her body, her skin taking on a glittering, icy sheen.  Gwen flashed Donna a grin, and gestured for her to come up on stage.

Donna joined them on stage, shifting her greenery to make herself even more tree-like as she did so.  As they danced to Beth’s improvised violin music, Beth gave her a look that asked ‘where’s my change?’  Since there were icons of earth, fire and water already on stage, Donna decided to give Beth feathers and a set of wings sprouting from her back.  Beth grinned as the changes flowed over her, and the music got even wilder.

Donna didn’t stop there, as the dance continued, all of them kept changing.  Donna’s skin became brown and barklike.  Gwen acquired a dragon’s muzzle, clawed hands, and overlapping plates running down her back and out her tail.  Beth got a beak in place of her nose, even more colourful blue feathers, and clawed feet.  Nissa almost stumbled as her legs divided, then divided again, her lower body growing back into a familiar spider-shape, but this time in glossy smooth white rather than furry black.

At the end of the dance, after the applause had finally died down, all three woman hugged Donna and thanked her for the changes.  Nissa was practically bouncing up and down at how pretty she looked like this.  “It’s perfect,” she gushed.  “I don’t ever want to change back.”

After their big number, things started to wind down.  It was getting very late, and soon Donna was being approached by a stream of people wanting to be returned to normal so they could go home.  Donna became adept at using the power she pulled out of people to accelerate their reversion, so they’d change back in a few minutes, rather than an hour.

A lull in the reversions left Donna thinking of a certain violin, so she approached Beth to change it back.  Beth was reluctant to let go of the violin, but sighed and agreed when Donna pointed out that the guy probably had a home to go to, too.

The grin on his face when he changed back was huge.  “Thank you so much,” he gushed as soon as he could speak, even before he had returned to normal size.

“Are you sure I can’t persuade you to stay a little longer?” wheedled Beth, but he shook his head and said he didn’t want to miss Christmas with his family.  Then he flashed a grin.  “Maybe next time.”

Beth sighed, and waved to him as he left.  “Ah well.  Can I ask a different favour, then?”

“Of course,” replied Donna.

“That empty next in your branches... it needs an occupant.”  Before she finished asking, she was shrinking, her arms melding back into her wings as she became a simple, ordinary bluebird.  Donna carefully lifted Beth up into the nest, and grinned at the way she chirped so happily.

Before much longer, the club was finally closed, the last patron out the door as themselves, or in a few cases, not.  Roger had slipped out at some point, surprising Donna not at all.  She changed Beth back to human, after urging her to try her wings in a flight about the empty room first.  Beth hugged her tight.  “Thanks.  Flying is fun!”

Donna sought out the dancers, asking them what they wanted to go home like.  Most went back to normal, though a few kept some scales or a tail that they could hide under their clothes.  Nissa was nowhere to be found, something about getting a two-hour private session.

The dancers gathered around Donna, looking at her expectantly.  “We never got to play Crazy Eights tonight,” Jenna said, and the others nodded.

“But...  You can have any change you want, just for the asking tonight.”  She gestured to scales and tails, and breasts grown large.  “And most of you did.  What point would the game serve?”

“We always play it.  Seeing the winners and the losers...”

Donna grinned then.  “Ah. The diminishment.  Might a few of you have been looking forward to that?”

There was a general murmur among the dancers, and a few nods.

“OK, then.  Those who want to be... diminished.  Pick a partner, and she gets to change you any way she likes, and take you home like that.”  Donna grinned at the consternation that announcement spawned.

After a certain amount of wrangling and chatter, two pairs stepped forward.  Silvie nudged Beth toward Donna.  “Tell her.”

Beth looked back at Silvie as if to get confirmation, and got a nod.  “Anything you want, really.  It’ll be fun.”

Beth grinned, and leaned forward to whisper in Donna’s ear.  Then she turned to watch.  Silvie smiled as she started to shrink, though she did squeak as her clothes stayed the same size, falling off her diminishing body.  Soon she was a foot tall, standing in a pile of her clothes.  The clothes started to pull together, reddening as they changed into a small flower-pot.  Dirt puddled around her feet, then Silvie felt her feet and legs sprout outward.  “A plant?” she squeaked.

Beth nodded.  “I could use something to brighten up my apartment.”

Silvie grinned up at Beth as her arms sprouted out into broad leaves.  Her body compressed into a green stem but didn’t change all the way, it retained an echo of her curves.  At the last, her face yellowed, blooming out into a wonderful-smelling rose.

Beth picked the pot up, and carried it to the door.  She wrapped her jacket around herself and the plant to protect it.  “See you all later.”

Next were the new girls, Sandy and Erin.  “I didn’t get enough time as Erin’s corset tonight,” Sandy said.

Donna looked to Erin.  “What would you like her to be?”

Erin grinned wickedly.  “Anything I like?  Anything at all?  I could turn her into a vibrator if I wanted?”

Sandy blushed and turned to stare at Erin.  “You...”

Donna smiled mildly.  “If that is your desire.  You’ve already agreed, Sandy.  You’re hers for the next week.”

“I... Ooh.”  Sandy shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.  “Just get it over with.  Stop teasing me.”

Erin giggled.  “But that’s the best part!”  Still, at Sandy’s pout she relented.  “Fine.  Make her a corset.  A fun one.”

Donna grinned wickedly.  “Oh, I can do that, and then some.”

Sandy moaned happily as she shrunk away, limbs shrivelling away until she was just a torso, just fabric, just a corset.  Erin had stripped down as Sandy changed, and scooped her up the moment she was done.  She measured her new corset against her body.  It was shimmery and green, setting off her eyes perfectly.  She shimmied into it, and gasped slightly as it closed up under its own power.  The corset was cut much like a one-piece bathing suit, covering from the tops of her breasts all the way down to her crotch.

Erin exhaled forcefully as the corset pulled tight around her, then tighter still.  Her waist slimmed impossibly under its assault.  “She can...” Erin took in a tiny breath, “do that?”

Donna grinned.  “And more.”

Erin squealed, and blushed.  “She’s... oh!  How do I,” she had to take another tiny breath, “get her off?”

Donna giggled.  “Ask nicely.  She’s in control.”

“Stop that!” hissed Erin.  Her knees buckled and her skin flushed, but the corset loosened enough that she could suck in a desperate breath.  “Fuuuuck.  I’ll never get home like this.”

Donna crouched beside the squirming girl.  “Be careful what you ask for, and who you tease.  Be nice, Sandy.  You can play with her all you like once you’re back at her place.”

Erin sighed with relief, and got to wobbly legs.  “Thank you.  Both of you.  This is going to be a fun week.”

Before much longer, cleanup was done and everyone was heading home.  Donna listened to the wind as she walked to her car, but couldn’t catch the sound of sirens any more.  She shrugged.  It was cold, and late, and she wanted to go home.

Duncan crept softly into his kids’ bedrooms once he was home and normal once more.  Victor was sleeping soundly in his crib, and Courtney in her bed.  As he’d expected, her angel wings had disappeared during the eclipse.  An impish impulse led him to restore them, as he knew how much she loved them.  It was only for a few days, he promised himself.  Just until Christmas.

Before climbing into bed, Duncan paused.  If he transformed a bunch of his old clothes, he’d have a bank of power he could use later in the month.  So he dug through his pile of worn out socks and ‘I’ll get around to mending this, really’ clothes, changing each piece in turn into a bra, or panties, or a long dancing scarf.  He piled them up on his dresser, smiled at the heap he’d created, then crawled into bed.

It was very late, and Sidney was already deeply asleep.  For once, she didn’t wake when he joined her in the bed.  Duncan kissed her cheek, then drifted off himself.

In the morning, Sidney was sipping her coffee and reading the local news.  Duncan rarely bothered with it.

“Hey, did you hear a big explosion last night?” Sidney asked.

Duncan nodded.  “Yeah.  We wondered what it was at the time, but it was far enough off we couldn’t see anything.”

“Too bad.  Maybe you could have helped.”

Duncan shook his head.  “It was during the eclipse.  Nothing I could have done.”

Sidney pointed to the screen, at a building consumed in flame.  Duncan frowned, the lines looked somewhat familiar.  “They couldn’t do anything, either.  The whole place was ablaze when the fire department got there.  No survivors.”

Duncan winced.  “That’s terrible.  Was anyone inside?”

“Yeah.  It’s some kind of hospice for the terminally ill.  None of them made it out, and they almost lost three firemen trying to get in.  It’s sad.”

“A hospice?” Duncan repeated with growing dread.  “Not St. Jude’s?”

“Yeah.  Why?”

“That’s the place I visited with Dr. Brown, when I tried to heal people.”  He shivered.  “There was something...”  He didn’t want to say it.  Something dark and terrible had lurked there.

Sidney frowned, and scrolled back through the article.  “Among the missing,” she quoted, “one Dr. Edwin Brown.  Was that him?”

“Probably.  Crap.  This is not good.”

“I know!  So many people dead.”

Duncan waved that off.  “They were dying anyway.”

“Duncan!”

“I just hope this is the end of it, because if it isn't...”