Bernice took a moment to boggle at the appearance of Maggie, standing within her own skin.  “Maggie?  Are you okay?”

“I’m not Maggie...  Um, I think I’m not,” said what looked and sounded very much like Maggie indeed.  “I was, though.”  She reached down to touch the skin pooled at her three feet, then stepped out of it and gathered it carefully into her arms.

“Then who are you?”

“Steve.  Just... I sound like her?”

Bernice pointed to the mirror.  “You are her.  Physically anyway.  Just like the mannequin, before.”

Steve carried the skin to the mirror, then held it up beside himself.  “Twins.”  She chuckled.  “Or not.  C’mon, let’s zip you up.”

As soon as Maggie had inflated, she hugged Steve tight.  “Thanks.”

“Any time, love.”   Hugging her back made Maggie squish, but this time she just sighed and snuggled into it.

They tried erasing parts of Maggie once more, but nothing changed.  Whatever the clothes turned her into, she was still a bodysuit of that body.

“I think,” said Bernice at last, “that you might really be stuck like this.  I mean, there’s a chance it’ll fade by tonight.  So I wouldn’t suggest you go back into the trunk before then.”

“Or at all,” said Maggie with a rippling shudder.  “Once was enough.  How much worse might it get?”

“Not at all,” said Bernice confidently.  “All the clothes we’ve put in the trunk only change the first time in.  After that, the trunk mends and cleans them, restoring them to the first shape.  Even if we’d tailored them to get rid of sleeves or the like, they went back to exactly how they emerged the first time.  So... I guess on the plus side, you don’t need to worry about getting damaged.”

Maggie made a face.  “Yay.  Something new to worry about.  Punctures.  If I spring a leak, will I deflate?”

“I have no idea,” said Bernice.  “And I’d rather not test until we find out if you’re going to be stuck like that, or change back on your own.”

Maggie sighed, and snuggled up against Steve.  “I guess.  Hey, Stevie, aren’t you going to change back?”

“I...”  Steve blushed.  “This isn’t so bad.  You have a nice body.”

Maggie dimpled.  “Thank you.  But still, you hated being the mannequin.  I thought...”

“I know.  It’ll take some getting used to.  But until you’re back to normal, someone has to go take your classes.  You can’t walk around on campus, you only weigh a few pounds.  You’d blow away in the first stiff breeze.”

“Awww.  But what about your classes?”

Steve shrugged.  “I’ll figure something out.  Hopefully we’ll have you back to normal in a few days and we’ll just look back at this and laugh.”

Maggie chuckled softly.  “Well, while we’re waiting...  Can I dress us up in matching outfits?”

“That might be difficult,” noted Bernice.  “Steve has three legs, and you’ve got four tentacles instead of legs from the last attempt to restore you.  Sorry about running out of the more normal bodysuits, we could charge some.”

“Bah,” Maggie waved that off.  “We could find a skirt that fits us both.  Or a pair of cute dresses. C’mon, Steve.  Let’s go shopping!”

“Like this?” asked Steve.  “Bernie, you must have tried being twins with one of the others here before, right?”

“We have tried to trunk a few matching outfits, yeah.  The cheerleader outfits turn you into a humantaur and a harpy respectively.  The other pair we tried, one has no arms, the other has no legs.”

“Oh.”

Maggie looked over at Bernice.  “Know any stores that cater to unusually shaped people?”

Bernice snickered.  “Now what makes you think I might know of such places?”

“You’ve got tentacles sticking out of your back, and seem perfectly comfortable like that.”

“Yeah, I know a few places,” Bernice conceded with a half-grin.  “There’s a couple of local consignment shops that know me pretty well by now.  I haven’t been brave enough to venture into malls like this, yet.”

“Well, no time like the present!” cheered Maggie.

“Are you serious?” asked Steve.  “Everyone will see us.”

“No, they’ll see me.  Two of me.  You have no reason to be embarrassed, nobody else will know who you really are.”

Steve blinked, then started to grin as the idea grew on her.  “Well.  Okay then.  Do I have to go with three legs?  We don’t have enough shoes.”

“Aw c’mon.  We’ll find something that works.  The rest of us will be looking weird...”

Steve rolled his eyes, trying to avoid Maggie’s pleading ones.  “Gah, fine.  We’re so getting stared at, but it won’t be me, right?”

“Right.  They’ll definitely be staring at the tentacles.”

Bernice wrung her hands together.  “You’re sure we won’t get thrown out of the mall?”

Maggie shook her head.  “Why would they?  Lots of people have gotten stuck in weird bodies the last few years.  Heck, one of the stores at Westside Mall even has a catgirl working as a sales clerk.”

“Let’s go there, then!”

While Maggie and Steve hunted around for non-trunked clothes that they could wear to the mall, Bernice went back to her room.  Tanya was still snuggled in bed, and blew a raspberry when Bernice asked if she wanted to go to the mall.  Still, she noticed when Bernice put on her nicest shirt that had been tailored for tentacles in the back.  “You’re going like that?”

“You should see Steve and Maggie.  Mags is going with tentacle legs, and Steve with three of them.  Oh, and he’s a clone of her now.”

“Aw man, did I miss the fun stuff again?”

Bernice leaned down to kiss her sweetie, and got pulled into the bed for her troubles.  Tanya had ended up the night with half a dozen arms and legs, and Bernice was more than a little mussed up before she managed to extricate herself.

“Don’t sleep all day, lazybones.”

“Mmmf.”

Back downstairs, Steve and Maggie had found some plain T-shirts and sarong-like wraps, and Maggie was just finishing up tying Steve’s off.  “There.”

“Don’t you two look like the cutest couple,” said Bernice with a grin.

Maggie tugged her sweetie over to the mirror and grinned.  “Aww.  I totally have to see us in matching dresses now.  We’ll be so cute!”

“Fooey.  I thought this would be enough,” said Steve halfheartedly.  But he was grinning.  “We are cute.  Huh.  Not something I’d have expected to say...”

“Welcome to the sisterhood,” said Bernice with a grin.  “We have cookies.”

* * *

“I don’t know about this,” muttered Bernice as they got out of Steve’s car.  “I usually go out with a jacket on when I have these.”  She flared her tentacles out like wings, then quickly tucked them tight against her back once more.

“Oh!  You should do that in the mall.  That’ll really turn people’s heads,” said Maggie.  “It’s way too warm for jackets, you’d look weird wearing one.”

“Weirder than having tentacles draped down my back?”

“Maybe not.  Let’s go anyway!”  Maggie tugged at Bernice’s hand, but since she only weighed a few pounds, she couldn’t actually drag Bernice forward at all.  Despite that, Bernice let the tentacle-legged woman pull her toward the mall entrance, grumbling all the way.

Steve held the door for them, which made them giggle.  “C’mon, you’re a girl now.  Act like it.”

“Girls can hold doors for people too,” claimed Steve as he gestured them ahead with a flourish.

“Thanks, sweetie.”  Maggie gave Steve a kiss on the cheek once they were inside, making her blush.

“People are staring,” fretted Steve.  “They think...”  She looked down at her three legs.  “I don’t know which is getting their attention.”

Maggie linked her hands with Steve on the one side, and Bernice on the other.  “C’mon!  We’re three girls here for some cute clothes.  Ignore them.”

As they progressed further into the mall, they kept drawing stares, double-takes and the occasional dirty look.  It was obvious that some of the people staring were also talking quietly among themselves while pointing.  But that was it.  Nobody confronted them, or tried to throw them out of the mall.

After a few minutes, Bernice started to giggle.  “Really?  That’s it?”  Her tentacles started to unclench from the bunched-up bundle they’d made on her back.  “I expected... I don’t know what I expected.”

“Torches and pitchforks?” giggled Maggie.  “Come on, magic has been a thing for years now.  There are at least a dozen students on campus that have... unfortunate forms.  At least I don’t have the lower body of a slug.”

“Really?  There’s someone like that?”

Maggie nodded.  “I talked to her once at the cafeteria.  Nice kid, really.  Apparently she crossed the wrong person and... zap.”

“Holy crap.  There are people that do that?”

“I don’t know.  She could have been making the whole thing up.  Seemed the type to.”  Maggie frowned. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her around since then, and she was pretty visible.  That... might have been a prank.”

“Or a really weird psychology project,” added Bernice.  “I’ve heard they’ve got some magic to use, if you can get the experimental design approved.”

“Really?  Cool.  Maybe I’ll have to change majors.”

The three of them talked about their majors as they kept walking.  Steve was in pre-law due to parental influence.   Before she’d finished venting on that issue, the group rounded a corner and came face to face with the most garish storefront in the mall.  

The front windows were full of clothes in all kinds of bright, neon colours, and the lighting made the clerk working there look bright orange.  When they got a little closer, they realized that the woman in the window was, in fact, bright orange, brighter even than most of the clothes in the store.  She had cat-ears and a long swishy tail in the same day-glow orange, and spirals of bright red spots.  Her hair was electric blue, with a streak of purple down the middle, and darker blue beside it.  The top she was wearing was obviously from store stock - it was an incandescent yellow that suited her fur perfectly.

She noticed them staring, and waved at them cheerfully.  Maggie led the group into the store.

“Hey there!” said the catgirl, bouncing on the balls of her digitigrade feet.  “You three look interesting.  I’m Jem.  Can I help you find anything?”  Her smile made her demi-muzzle look more human, despite showing off a row of very pointy teeth.

Maggie grinned at Jem’s enthusiasm.  “I hope so.  You don’t think we look weird?”

Jem laughed.  “That’d be rich, coming from me.  I don’t see many people as changed as you willing to brave the mall, more’s the pity.  What can I show you?  I think we have some expandable skirts that’d go over those tentacles better than what you’re wearing now.  If you don’t mind hot pink, anyway.”

“That’s not my usual palette,” admitted Maggie.  “Maybe it’s time to change things up.”

“Yeah, if you’re going to draw attention anyway,” said Jem, nodding to Maggie’s tentacled legs, “You might as well go all out.  I’m not sure pink’s your colour, though.  Maybe something in blue?”  Jem swished the knee-length electric blue skirt she was wearing.

Maggie tilted her head as she studied Jem’s legs.  “I could try...  Wow, that’s a lot of spots.”

Jem giggled.  “I know.  I got carried away with the makeup before the Halloween party, and suddenly *bam*, it’s all real.  You can count ‘em if you like, but it takes a while.”

Maggie blushed.  “You’re awfully forward.  Are you like this with all the customers?”

“Nah, just the ones that can’t stop looking at me.  Which is, granted, most of ‘em.  But you’re not like most of them.  You’re not staring or judging me.  You actually want to play count the spots, so...  My place or yours?  Or the changerooms in back?”

“Jem!” exclaimed Maggie. “I’m here with my boyfriend!”

“Uh...  What boyfriend?”

Steve raised her hand.  “That’d be me.  Magical incident.”

“I thought you were her twin!  You’re...  Oh, now I have to hear this story.”

Maggie and Bernice tag-teamed the tale while Jem guided them around the store, picking out several outfits for Maggie and Steve to try on.  Even Bernice got tempted by a ruby-toned top with a metallic shine to it.  The back was a ladder of straps, which left room for her tentacles.  Jem grinned when she saw how Bernice’s eyes lit up at that.

They bought two matching sets of outfits for Maggie and Steve, and Bernice wore her new top out of the store, tentacles flaring behind her like a cloak.  Jem came with them, guiding them to another store she knew of with backless and more-flexible outfits for those with “unusual shapes”.  The owner there grinned when he saw Jem arrive with the others in tow, and commented that he’d send her the usual finder’s fee.  

Jem grinned, and darted in to give Bernice a hug.  “Don’t be a stranger, okay?  I want to see that trunk in action.  Call me!”

“Of course.  Why else would I put your number in my phone?”

Jem left in a rush, leaving the stunned trio to look around the new store.  The clothing was colourful, but not nearly as garish as at the neon catgirl’s store.  Bernice found two more tops that wouldn’t interfere with her tentacles, and Maggie tried on a few dresses but decided to stick with her electric blue and eye-searingly purple ones for “twinsies”.

They strolled around the rest of the mall, windowshopping with no serious intent to buy, picked up lunch in the food court, and generally acted like a trio of girls out on a fun shopping expedition.  Steve kept up her end of the conversation with good humour.  She giggled along with the others, except when it came to ogling the guys.

On the way out of the mall, a gust of wind swept Maggie off her feet and into the sky.