Chapter 3 - I’ve Got My Eye on You

In the wee hours of the morning, Bailey and Violet returned to the Venn Machines once more.  Violet paid with one of her handmade ‘Violet Bailey Creations’ notes, this one with a sketch of her favourite monster.

They were inside before Bailey realized their mistake.  “You set it for a month!” she protested.  “I don’t want to be a monster for a month.”

“Relax,” said Violet.  “You’ll only be a monster for a little bit, then we’ll go back in, twin it to me, and you can go back to being human.”

“I guess.  I wasn’t going to spend eight hours like that, that’s for sure.  So it doesn’t much matter.”

“There’s the spirit.  Now let’s see.  C’mon, show me stuff like the sketch I fed you.”

Violet poked her way through the bubbles with increasing desperation.  “Come on!  No, no no!  This is all...”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s...”

“What?”

“It’s...”

“What is it?”

“It’s pretty!” wailed Violet.  “I’ve done so much pretty stuff, the stupid thing won’t let me make it ugly!”

“Hah!  I have to see this.  Hit me.”

“No.  Oh, no.  Not going to happen.”

“C’mon,” wheedled Bailey.  “Let me see.”

“Not a chance.  If I show this to even one other soul, Giger will be spinning in his grave.  You try.”

Bailey shrugged, and started to design Violet’s monster body.  “Sleek, black...  Geez, I can see how you can get a kind of sexy out of this, but pretty?  What happened?”

“It’s mauve.  And...  I can’t keep looking at it.”  Violet closed her eyes.  “Just do it.”

“Okay.  This looks right.  And shrink, and shrink and...  Done!”

Violet tried to open her eyes.  Nothing.  She tried to speak, and only hisses came out.  She turned toward where she knew the entrance to the machine should be, and jogged toward it.  One thing was sure, this new body of hers could run!  She picked up speed just for the thrill of it.  A moment later her good spirits were ruined by a collision with what felt like a glass storefront.

Violet bounced back to her talons, and spun about.  Her tail whacked against the storefront behind her, sending her forward a few steps.  Her head swung back and forth as she tried to get some sense of her surroundings.  Anything.  

Nothing.  She was lost, inches tall, and starting to worry.

“There you are you little devil,” said Bailey, crouching down beside the tiny black monster.  “You’re tough to find when the lights are low.”  She reached out to comfort the little thing.

Violet felt something huge brush against her side.  Reflexively, she clawed at it then ran headlong in the other direction, bouncing off walls twice before she finally skidded to a stop.  She hissed in annoyance, realizing she’d just made things even worse.

Bailey stared down at the shallow gouges in her hand.  They weren’t bleeding, but they felt like she’d just suffered five parallel paper cuts.  She cursed, sucked at the wounds reflexively, then cursed again as that made it feel worse.  “Damn it, Violet.  What was that for?  Violet?”

Bailey looked around.  No sign of Violet.  There were dark shadows everywhere with the mall lights down low.  She could be under a dozen different benches, or behind any of the pillars between the various shops in the chunk of mall that got left open for Venn Machine access.  “Violet!  C’mon, girl...  Don’t do this to me!”

Violet, meanwhile, was huddled in place.  She started berating herself mentally for everything she’d just done, from the running to the slash at what must have been Bailey’s hand.  Then she remembered that if Bailey couldn’t find her, she’d be stuck like this for a month, and really started to curse.

Bailey perked up when she heard a staccato series of hisses from two doors down.  There, huddled by the boarded-over entrance to a failed clothing store was a little pool of extra-dark blackness.  Violet.

Bailey shucked out of her jacket, and tried to use it to nudge Violet in the right direction.  The bundle of spikes and claws startled when she did so, and dashed off blindly in yet another direction.  Bailey moaned in frustration, and hunted around for something to help.

One of the service corridors had been left unlocked, and Bailey found a janitorial cart not far from the door.  She spied a broom that had about the same heft as the field hockey sticks they’d been using in Physical Education, and grabbed it.

“Come out come out wherever you are...”  Bailey prowled through the mall, finally locating Violet thanks to the pattern of triplet hisses she was making.  Bailey lined up her shot... then realized the Venn Machine was closed.  She carefully avoided the bundle of blackness in the middle of the floor, set the Venn Machine for eight hours, then went back to line up her shot one more.

Violet felt a powerful blow against her side, sending her tumbling and rolling.  She fetched up against yet another wall.  This one, however, was a perfect right angle.  No moulding at the floorline, not the slightest bit.  She realized that she was inside the Venn Machine at last.

“Trouble?” asked a familiar male voice from behind Bailey.

Bailey spun around to face Jimmy.  She leaned against the closed door of the Venn Machine as if that would in some way help to conceal Violet.  “Your timing is impeccable.  Just finished taking care of it.”

“What were you doing with that broom, anyway?” Jimmy asked.

Bailey hid the broom behind her back, equally futilely.  “What broom?”

“Fine.  I saw nothing.  Nothing!”  Jimmy laughed.  “Is that Violet in there?”

“No peeking,” admonished Bailey, smacking Jimmy away from the open door of the Venn Machine with the broom she’d just denied having.  “Violet doesn’t want anyone to see her costume before the big day.  It’s bad luck.”

“That applies to wedding dresses before the wedding, not Hallowe’en costumes.”

Violet stepped out of the Venn Machine, back to normal.  “Hey Jimmy,” she said with a casual wave.

“Hey Violet.  Fancy meeting you here.”

Violet blushed.  “Like finding me at the Venn Machine is surprising.”

“At two in the morning?” asked Jimmy with a smirk.  “That is a little surprising.  Making sneaky plans?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Violet sassed back.

Jimmy blinked, then his smirk became an honest grin.  “Awesome.  Want me to wait outside in case a couple of kittens need rescuing?”

“Tempting as that idea is, not tonight.”

Jimmy’s eyebrows rose higher.  “Wow.  Okay.  Uh... raincheque?”

Violet and Bailey shared a look.  “Raincheque,” agreed Bailey.  “You sure you can handle rambunctious, intelligent kittens?”

“Looking forward to it.”  Jimmy gave them a jaunty salute, then headed out of the mall, whistling.

“Somebody’s got a cru-ush,” said Bailey.

Violet shrugged.  “We’ve been friends longer than I’ve known you, B.  That’s all.”

“He’s cute.  Mr. Beanpole is starting to sprout some muscles.”

“Really?  I hadn’t notice...”  Violet rolled her eyes at the look Bailey was giving her.  “Okay, fine.    Fencing is really working out for him.”

“So you’re bi too?” asked Bailey in a whisper.

“I can appreciate beauty in many forms.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Violet blushed and looked away, ending up facing the mirror beside the Venn Machines.  She took a step toward it, brushed her hand against the glass protecting it.  “I...  When I was working on turning you into a hideous monster, I could tell.  It wasn’t just that I’d somehow made it pretty.  You were sexy like that.  Monstrous, but...  God.  Maybe even more attractive because of it.  What is wrong with me?”

“Wait... so you’re turned on by Monster Wars?  Is that why you like watching?”

“Not all of them.  Some.  When they move right.  There’s beauty in the graceful ones, even if they’re covered in spikes and claws.  Why do you watch?”

“I like to imagine tearing my enemies apart.”

“Not your friends?” asked Violet softly.

Bailey shook her head urgently.  “I’d never be able to fight you like that.  Would you?”

Violet nodded.  “Think of it like fencing.  There’s a trick to making the bodies immune to pain, it wouldn’t have to hurt.  It’s best to leave some pain, though.  Otherwise you can’t judge how much damage you’ve taken.”

Bailey shuddered.  “No thank you.  Ripping off a friend’s limb and beating them with it?  No.”

“Could you really rip off one of monster-Chelsea’s limbs and beat her with it?” asked Violet with a feral grin.

“You got me,” Bailey sighed defeatedly.  “I couldn’t do that to her, either.  C’mon, let’s get your design figured out so we can scare - not mutilate - our friends and enemies at the party.”

“Sounds good.  So... I’m going to need eyes.  And some kind of ear-membranes, so that I can hear you clearly.  Being deaf and blind does not work for me.”  Violet fed the Venn Machine, and as she stepped in she continued talking.  “Maybe spider eyes?  You could pick up other spider features, eight legs instead of the two...”

Bailey shuddered.  “Sounds horrifying.”

“Perfect!”

Bailey laughed at that, and started to work in earnest.  “Uh... I think I’m going to shrink you now.  I can’t look this thing in the eyes.”

“Okay.  How’s it going?”

“Terrifying.  But... kinda fun.  You sure you’re okay with this?”

Violet’s evil cackle was much improved, and made Bailey grin.  Soon the doors opened, and Violet skittered out on eight black, chitinous legs.  Standing up, she barely came above Bailey’s knees.

Bailey followed her wicked little creation to the mirror, keeping a safe distance.  “Can you see and hear?”

Violet hissed her reply, then turned to ‘glare’ at Bailey.  It didn’t work very well, as the spider eyes were expressionless.  A few more staccato hisses made it clear she was upset with something, though not at all what.  She scuttled back to the Venn Machine, tapping against the door.

Bailey took the hint, and started up the Venn Machine once more.  Violet popped inside, and when she didn’t immediately change back, Bailey went into the other.  “So.  Do you want me to keep on with this?”

Violet bobbed a nod.

“And we have to play charades now?  Fine.  So... I’m guessing your eyes are part of the problem.  I’d agree, the legs work, but the eyes... not so much.  I liked the smooth look of your carapace, so we’ll go back to that.”

Bailey tapped at the interface as she spoke.  “And... hm.  Definitely need to do something else.  Oh.  Oh!  Can you curl up into a little ball, tucking your tail in against your body, and wrapping your legs... yeah, like that.  This is going to be so awesome.”

Bailey got Violet to stand up and then curl back into a ball several times.  Then when she was done with that, she told Violet to open and close her eyes.  Violet found the request confusing, but tried to comply and it seemed to satisfy Bailey.

“OK, we’re done.  Ready for the new, even more monstrous you?”

Violet bounced up and down excitedly.

“Okay.  Curl up into a ball and close your eyes.  And wait for me, okay?  I’ll carry you in front of the mirror and tell you when to look.”

A minute later, Bailey had a black sphere six inches across in her hands.  When she felt she had it posed right, she announced, “Open your eye.”

The front of the sphere proved to be transparent, like smoked glass, and a black lid lifted behind it.  What it revealed was an baleful yellow iris with a pentagram-shaped pupil.  The lens of the eye was three inches across, making the sphere in Bailey’s arm look like a big black eyeball.  The yellow of the iris was broken by whorls of red, giving the eye a fiery intensity.

Violet squealed in surprise and shock.  She blinked her eye, confirming that what she saw was really her.  She hissed at Bailey interrogatively.

“Just try to unfold,” offered Bailey, as she set the giant eyeball on the floor.

Like a puzzle-ball, legs lifted away from the spherical body, unfolding and stretching out.  Each segment of leg had a curved outer surface that had formed part of the sphere, and they fit together seamlessly.  Once Violet had stretched her legs out and flicked her forked tail up into the air, she hissed even more happily.  She folded herself back into a sphere, then back into spider-thing form once more.

Violet turned this way and that in front of the mirror, examining Bailey’s design.  The top third of her body was still a curved carapace, slightly more bulbous in front than before.  Her eye took up the entire front of it, and was so large that to look back and forth she needed to turn her body.  This wasn’t too much of a hardship, as her vision was clear for a large part of her hemispherical field of view.

Violet hissed her agreement at her new shape, and packed herself into a ball once more.  Then she discovered that by shifting her tail around in the hollow space between her legs, she could induce her body to roll in various directions.  Soon she was tumbling toward the entrance to the mall, leaving Bailey to scramble to keep up with her.

Fortunately, Jimmy had been true to his word and left them alone.  Bailey caught the rolling black eyeball at the door out of the mall, and carried her friend back to her room.

Once Violet was on the floor, she tumbled about much like Bailey had the previous night.  Seeing the familiar space from such a changed perspective was exciting and new.

Violet hissed in surprise but didn't struggle when Bailey scooped her up once more.  “Oh magic eight-ball,” intoned Bailey in her best mock-serious voice, “Will Tony make a move on me at the party?”

Violet just glared at her.  Bailey giggled and set the black orb down on her bed.  “Come on, you look the part.  Spread those legs so I can get a look at my handiwork.”

Violet carefully unfolded her legs, paying more attention to how they worked this time.  Each leg folded into three equal length segments, with a complex unfolding shoulder to mount it to her smoothly curved carapace.  There were highly flexible joints between each segment to allow them to fold back on themselves - Violet found that she could curl and twist her segments in almost any direction, but that they tended to ‘settle’ into a classic spider pose when she wasn’t thinking about them.  Beyond the last curved segment unfolded a clawed foot that added a little more to the length.

At Bailey’s urging, Violet lay down on her bed with her legs splayed out as far as they would go.  Bailey took a tape measure to her, and found that from the tip of one middle leg to its opposite number was an inch shy of five feet.  “Biiig spider,” said Bailey once she’d finished measuring.  “Try a more natural pose, now.”

Violet arched her legs, lifting her body off the bed and bringing her feet closer together.  In their natural pose, the curvature of the segments worked to give her legs a smoothly arched appearance.  They rose away from her body and arced gracefully down to the bed.  Violet turned this way and that to inspect herself in the mirror.

“Yes, yes, you look amazing.  I had no idea I had it in me, I think you’re rubbing off on me.”

Violet hissed her amusement, and rubbed up against Bailey like an oversized cat, making the young woman giggle.  Bailey gave her skritches that got even more of those pleased hisses.  “So you like this?”  Violet bobbed her head in an approximation of a nod.

Bailey pulled out the tape measure again.  “C’mon, let’s see how big you are like this.”

Standing properly, Violet’s carapace was eighteen inches off the ground, and her “cute little clawed toe-tips” were just under four feet apart.  She could easily raise herself further, or scuttle close to the ground, but the lofted pose felt the most natural.

Next, Bailey cut the lights in her room, and showed off another feature of Violet’s form.  Her eye glowed in the dark, illuminating the room to the point that even Bailey could see a little.  Violet found that she could see quite clearly, given her huge light-collecting area.

After that, Bailey chattered on about what she wanted for her Hallowe’en costume, and all the designs they’d made.  And the profits!  Violet did her best to nod along, but she was unable to speak in anything other than hisses.  

Once Bailey wound down she snuggled down in the bed, and Violet draped her spindly legs over her like a blanket.  Bailey patted a couple of the legs.  “G’night spiderthing.”  Violet hissed cheerily in reply then closed her one eye, plunging the room into darkness.