Duncan watched Sidney for a time, until he was sure she was well and truly asleep.  Despite spending most of his days as a robot, he still needed some sleep... but not nearly as much.  He closed his eyes, and projected his thoughts to the headband Sidney had been using earlier, then followed its link to a cute little snake-woman at the Blue Vixen.

“About time you showed up,” giggled Gwen, around whose forearm the little snake was curled.  “You were this close to missing out on Crazy Eights.”

“And that would never do,” agreed Duncan.  “Thanks for the gift, this body is so perfect.”  She coiled around Gwen’s arm, wriggling her way up to perch on her shoulder.

“Settling in already?  I was hoping you could be around a little more.”  Gwen raised her off hand to skritch Duncan’s head.

“Donna’s here all the time.  She practically lives in your apartment upstairs.”

“Not really the same thing.  She gets to play all the time, you have to work.  It’s not fair.”

Duncan ducked her head as Gwen skritched, flattening under the pleasant pressure.  It took only a little more pressure to flatten her out entirely, rendering Duncan-the-snake into Duncan-the-armband.

“Little bonus feature,” giggled Gwen.  “Want to go dancing after the game?”

Duncan popped her head up long enough to grin at Gwen, then flattened out once more.

Gwen set up the card table and fanned out their usual deck of cards.  Duncan uncoiled long enough to study them.  “You’ve added some new suits.  Snakes, and ... uh... those are kinda phallic.”

Gwen giggled.  “We call it toys, there’s a variety of them.”  She shuffled the cards, and set them on the table.  As girls crowded around, they added more chairs and another card table.  Gwen set Duncan on the table as well.  “Winner gets to use Duncan as a prop in their dance.”

“Hey!” protested Duncan, before she started to grin.  “Okay, fine.  Just nothing too lewd.”

“No promises,” growled Carmen, through her toothy maw.  “I think a snake-swallowing act could be fun.”

“Might be less so if we play Alien chest-burster afterward,” threatened Duncan.

Carmen brayed a raucous laugh at Duncan’s response, and reached down to skritch her head with one of her wicked claws.  “You’re on, little one.”

Duncan’s head snapped up to stare at the reptilian woman.  “Seriously?”

Carmen laughed even louder, and stabbed a claw into her arm, then dragged it down to create a huge gash.  No blood, no mess, and it swiftly closed up behind.  “Cool, huh?  I can even be hacked up into bits and reform.”

“Bet Tawny loves that...” chuckled Duncan.

“Yeah.  She’s my tail.  She’s got a crystal too, so she can run a different body from me, use it to hack me up.”

Duncan looked up at Gwen.  “You were busy last full Moon, after I left.”

Gwen nodded, eyes alight with mischief.  “You haven’t seen the half of it.  I also made dozens of new headbands for the losers of Crazy Eights.  And Carmen isn’t the only one with a dual crystal setup.”

“Ah good.  So the place will be in good hands when I take my vacation in November?”

Gwen looked around to the other dancers crowded around the table.  “Think we can manage a full Moon without Duncan, Donna and Dia?”

The cheering and grins made the answer clear enough.  Duncan grinned up at Gwen.  “Excellent.  Deal, let’s see who gets to dance with me.”

Play proceeded with much banter, and routine threats of biting from Carmen that the others laughed off.  It also served to draw fire, and Carmen ended up with more cards than she started the game with.  “Pfah.   You all suck.”

“We all want to dance with Duncan, not see him get eaten,” replied the bunny-eared winner.

Duncan slithered over to her.  “Beth or Clarence?” he asked.

“Does it matter?” she giggled.

“Just curious, I guess.”

“Both.”

Duncan raised an eyebrow.  “More Gwen tricks?”

Beth nodded.  “Clarence is still a robe, but when I’m wearing him he gets to ‘ride along’ when I’m using a headband.  I can hear him talk, and feel him snuggled about me while I do all this.  It’s great.”  She scooped Duncan up and wrapped him around her arm.

“Before we go dancing, there’s the little matter of the loser.  What shall I do with Carmen?”  She got up and moved over to a large wooden cabinet.  Opening it revealed row on row of headbands.  “Something soft and fuzzy?  Oooh, or maybe squishy.”

“Just pick already,” grumbled Carmen, but there wasn’t any malice in the voice.  It sounded a little more like anticipation.

Beth giggled.  “This is the best part.  I wonder what Tawny will get up to while you’re out.”  She plucked a headband out of the cabinet, and handed it to Carmen.

The moment the headband settled behind Carmen’s diminutive ears, her posture changed.  She grinned at Beth in a friendly way.  “Hey, thanks.  She doesn’t let me play all that often any more.”

“Tired of being a tail already?” asked Gwen.

Tawny shook her head.  “Not yet.  Swishing is fun, I just want a little more variety.”  She hopped up and down, then stomped her oversized feet on the floor.  “Stomping!  Yeah, that’s where it’s at.”

“So you want to turn her into your feet?” chuckled Duncan.

“Oooh!  Yeah, let’s do that next full Moon.  Can we go see what you turned Tawny into, Beth?”

“I didn’t turn her into anything,” giggled Beth.  “It’s not really transformation.”

“It really feels like it, though,” gushed Tawny.  “I’m glad you guys came up with all this.”

Duncan looked down at her body, giving it a little shimmy to make her golden scales shimmer in the light.  “Yeah.  I’ve been stuck in robo-Duncan so long I’d almost forgotten this was out here.”

Beth headed out onto the floor of the club, with Duncan still clinging to her arm.  She made a beeline for the bar, which had been renovated since Duncan saw it last.  The counter in front of the bar had been turned into a long, shallow fish tank, and the bar-top itself was transparent so one could look down and see all number of strange and wonderful creatures swimming about.  Duncan spotted something that looked remarkably like an Anomalocaris brought to life, then her eyes were drawn by several brightly coloured fish that looked very nearly like the characters from Finding Nemo.  She studied their cartoony forms.  Close, yet... further off than normal for the sort of work she and Gwen could do.  It reminded her of her issues recreating certain Disney characters in the past.  Something wouldn’t let Disney characters be reproduced, and it was always necessary to sort of sidle up to it.

“There she is!” cried Beth, pointing to a shape further down the bar.  Duncan had little choice but to look, as Beth darted toward her target then tapped on the glass above it.  “Hey there Tawny.  Enjoying being soft?”

Duncan giggled.  “She’s the jellyfish?”

“Jellyboob,” corrected Beth, and Duncan realized why the colours had seemed odd.  The translucent pink jellyfish had a darker blob on top, and a pronounced nipple.

Duncan giggled.  “She loves being hard and clawy and scary, this must be a shock.”

“That’s why I picked it,” giggled the bunny-woman, tapping on the glass again.  The jellyboob floated up to bunt against where her hand was resting, and Beth patted at the glass.  “She secretly gets off on this kind of thing.”

“How long is she stuck?”

“Rules say until I’ve had my next dance after the game.  I’m not up for about half an hour, so maybe I’ll save Rowan the headache of adjusting the schedule.”  Beth grinned and waved down at the jellyboob, which wriggled and fluttered away.

“I thought the dancer with the most seniority set the schedule,” mused Duncan in a puzzled voice.

“Yeah, exactly.  Rowan doesn’t dance often, but she let Gwen make her change permanent last time.”

Duncan harrumphed, then chuckled.  “All the stuff I miss when I’m not here.  Did she keep the wings?”

“Hm?  Oh, no.  There’s a swan-girl body on the rack that she uses once in a while.  She wanted to be able to go out and about without issues.”

Beth waved to another blob-like shape in the tank.  “Oh hey, there’s Zoe.”  A pale purple blob wriggled its way to the top of the tank.  It didn’t look like any jellyfish Duncan had seen before, it was sort of teardrop shaped and had extended a sort of pseudopod-tail that it used to propel itself through the water.

Zoe bumped against the tank near Beth’s hand, then swam over to a little alcove a few feet further along the bar.  A cylindrical protrusion above the alcove crackled to life.  “Hey Beth.  Is that Duncan on your arm?”

“Yep.  And Tawny hanging out with you for a bit.”

Zoe giggled tinnily.  “Awesome, we’ll go play with her.”  The purple blob shot off into the tank with remarkable speed, and two blobs were soon playing tag with the jellyboob.

“She seems happy enough.  Is the other blob Liana?”

“Yeah.  They still have the robot bodies you made for them, but they can hang out in the tank and still use headbands to dance.”

“Speaking of which...”

Beth giggled.  “Patience, little one.  Let’s see, who else is in the tank...”  She waved to a mermaid flitting by.  “Vanessa spends a lot of time in there, of course.  I think she’s up to a half dozen different mermaid headbands now.  Three different sized ones in here, one for private shows, and a couple at home.”

“I should visit the tank from time to time and hang out... it sounds like fun.”

“You should!  We’ve got quite the thriving ecosystem in there.  Well, not really an ecosystem, none of them need to eat.  Makes keeping the tank clean way easier.  Otherwise, with half a dozen residents it’d need regular attention.”

“Half a dozen?  You only mentioned three.”

Beth shrugged.  “Last full Moon’s winner and loser took up permanent residence as Nemo and Dory.  We’ve had several volunteers since, aquatic fantasies that took Gwen up on the offer of a long-term stay.  Can’t say I see the appeal of being a clam, but to each their own.”

“Having hundreds of eyes to watch the goings on here might not be so bad,” mused Duncan.  “But ... just letting people become little robots?  Is that right?”

“They asked,” said Gwen, sidling up beside them.  “Who am I to say no to something harmless?”

Duncan smiled up at Gwen.  “Hey.  I guess if you figure it’s OK, it must be.  I trust your judgement better than I do my own.”

“You going to monopolize Duncan all night, or go dance?” Gwen asked Beth.

“I’ll be up soon enough.  Audi’s up next, want to see how the crowd reacts?”

Gwen smirked.  “Should be fun.”

“Oh?” asked Duncan.  “Why so?”

“You’ll see.  We try to stay low-key on moonless nights, until after midnight...”

Before Ducnan could ask any more questions, the voice of Leo the DJ rang out over the club.  “Everyone give it up for the Audacious Audi!”

There was the usual subdued cheering and applause, then the lights fired up to catch an unfamiliar broad-shouldered woman strutting onto the stage.  Duncan studied her as she danced, there was something about the way her breasts moved that seemed off.  She mentioned as much to Gwen and Beth, and only got giggles in return.

When Audi’s top came off, the reason her top covered almost all of her breasts was revealed.  She didn’t have two breasts, she had four, arranged side by side.  The crowd cheered like usual at first, then the mutters and surprised looks started to spread.  The regulars kept cheering, and soon everyone else was getting into it as well.  There were a few huddled whispers here and there.  Then one person spoke up into the growing silence.  “Oh!  She has four, like the Audi logo!  Sweet!”

That got a round of laughs, and a giggle from Duncan.  “Who is she?”

“New dancer,” answered Gwen.  “Andi.  Wanted a gimmick she could hide, and with the right bras she can go anywhere.  Says her boyfriend loves the new look, and is wondering if he can get some adjustments next month.”

“I’m sure we could arrange for an extra tentacle or two,” mused Donna.  “Extra arms are harder to hide.”

Once Audi had left the stage to cheers and a fair bit of cash fluttering her way, she sauntered through the crowd, chatting up anyone who’d talk to her.  She grinned when she saw Gwen.  “Hey, thanks again for the boost.  This has been way more fun than I thought.  Nobody looks at me like I’m a freak.”

“That’s good,” growled Duncan.  “We don’t take kindly to people who would.  I’ve sent a few home with... alterations.  Management frowns on that, though.”

Audi blinked down at the snake girl.  “Oh!  You’re Donna?  I’ve heard a lot about you.  Thanks for bringing magic to the Blue Vixen.”

“Duncan,” said the snake-girl.  Then she looked down at herself and giggled.  “Easy mistake to make, though.”

“Yeah, you don’t look or act like a guy.  Have fun!”  Audi waved, then bounced off into the crowd once more.

“Ready for your big dance?” asked Gwen.  “I nudged the schedule a bit.”

Duncan nodded rapidly, and hugged Beth’s arm a little tighter.  “Want me to dance, or just flatten out and be decorative?”

Beth glanced over at Gwen.  “I... just decorative.  Your first dance should be with Gwen.”

Duncan nodded, then with a little help from Gwen she flattened down once more, becoming a golden band spiralling up Beth’s right arm.  Beth studied the final result then winked at Gwen.  “Very pretty.  I want one of my own.”

“For Clarence?” asked Gwen.  “Maybe we can get him out of that robe.”

“Nooo!” protested Beth in mock horror.  “I love the robe, he’s so comfy...  Just a headband would be fine.  Add it to the collection.”

“Duly noted.  Off you go, time to dance so I can get my sweetie back.”

“Yes’m.”  Beth saluted Gwen saucily, then darted off to the green room to get ready.  She only had time for a quick puff of powder on each cheek before Rowan sent her up to dance.

“Ready?” asked Beth as she waited at the edge of the stage.  Her armband gave a little squeeze, then off they went.

Beth’s dancing style was different from the others.  She played up the bunny ears, hopping around stage from time to time to get laughs out of the audience.  The shy woodland animal routine even extended to darting forward to snatch at offered bills, then hopping back.  Some in the audience chuckled at it, others appeared enthralled.  The hopping sent Beth’s breasts swaying in a calculated and fetching manner that Duncan admired for its effectiveness more than its effect.

Once Beth was done, she caught Gwen’s eye at the edge of the stage, and accepted her offer of a hand down into the crowd.  Duncan swarmed off of Beth’s arm and spiralled up Gwen’s instead.  A few in the crowd noticed her go, wide-eyed.

Gwen slinked up next to one of them.  “See something you like?”

Duncan waved at the guy from Gwen’s shoulder.

“Is she real?” he breathed.  “Can I touch her?”

Gwen looked to Duncan.  “Only if the girl allows it.  D?”

Duncan nodded, and wriggled happily as she got petted and skritched.  Gwen gave the guy instructions on what the snake-girl liked best, and before long they were sitting in a lap-dance booth, watching Duncan gyrate and sway.  The guy looked dazed by the time Duncan was done, and it took a few snaps from Gwen to break him out of his trance.  He thanked “D” profusely once he shook himself awake, and tipped generously.

“Bring your girlfriend next full Moon.  I’ll turn her into a snake-girl for you,” offered Duncan.

That got an even bigger grin.

“Having fun, even without power?” asked Gwen, voice warm with humour.

“Boobs are mighty, who said we’re powerless?” replied Duncan.

“Exactly.  And you have your pick of a hundred bodies to inhabit, should you wish.”

Duncan shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself.  “Mine.”

“So you don’t want the big one?”

Duncan blinked at her in confusion.  “The what?”

“Ray designed the full size version.  It’s your real gift, from all of us here.”

“I...”  Duncan closed her eyes.  “I wanted to dance with you, like this.  One dance first?”

Gwen chuckled warmly.  “Of course, love.  I’m hoping you’ll stop by regularly.  C’mon, I’ll poke Rowan.  It’s not like we have any formal schedule after midnight anyway.”

Gwen approached the “older” woman who ran the back stage at the Blue Vixen.  While she was nominally in her sixties, the only nod to that was a single lock of grey hair among her raven-dark tresses.  Her body was otherwise youthful, looking like a comfortable in her skin thirty-odd year old woman, and wearing little more than a light robe over sleek black undergarments.  Rowan took one look at Gwen, then gestured to the stage with a grin before Gwen could even ask.

They were announced as “Gwen and D”, and the dancing was as sublime as ever.  Duncan leapt and cavorted over Gwen’s body as she danced.  At one point she grabbed her tail to turn into a hoop, rolling down one arm and up the other, then getting tossed into the air.  That got an extra loud cheer, so they kept playing on it.  Gwen ended the set with Duncan curled over her chest like a replacement bra, her coils doing more to show off Gwen’s enormous breasts than to conceal them.

Gwen hugged Duncan tight as they headed back to the green room.  “That was awesome!  We have to do that again, soon.”

Duncan nodded enthusiastically.  “I felt so alive up there.  I’d forgotten.”

“I know.  That’s why you’re here.  Part of why, anyway.  C’mon!”

Duncan clung to Gwen’s arm.  “Where else am I going to go?”

Gwen made a beeline for the private dressing room.  It was normally reserved for visiting “stars” but the club had been so busy with local talent and Donna’s creations that it had seen little use for months.  She flung the door open.  “Tada!”

Duncan stared at the form revealed within.  It resembled the snake-woman he’d become under the club owner’s guidance some months before.  Four quite modest breasts, four arms, and a long, powerful body behind it.  Exactly like the form she was in now, except that the body was that of a full-sized woman, and the tail was sized to match.  The scales were mottled green and brown, and stopped between the lower breasts and the upper ones, leaving the upper arms, shoulder and head in natural skin tones.

Duncan held her breath. “It’s beautiful.”  She closed her eyes, then opened them again.  “But it doesn’t have a headband crystal.  I don’t understand.”

“Let go of your crystal.”

The tiny snake-woman’s eyes closed, and the large one opened.  Duncan blinked at Gwen, looked down at herself, and blinked some more.  “This is... my body?  How did you even?”

Gwen’s grin nearly split her head in half.  “Dia and I have been working on new ways to manage with crystals, hoping to figure out how to keep Ettie active when the Moon is dark.  Hasn’t worked for her yet, but... yeah.  This is where you live now.”

Duncan hugged Gwen tight.  “This is wonderful!  I’m finally...  Finally...  Oh hell.”

“What?”

“Sidney!  What will she think?”

“She’s been a lot more open minded of late,” ventured Gwen cautiously.

Duncan looked down at herself.  “This is going to be a problem.”

Gwen sighed.  “Fine, fine, we can mount you into the Duncan-bot in a couple weeks.  Lots of crystals left for that kind of work.”

“No!”  Duncan’s eyes went very wide.  “Oh hell.”

“What now?”

Duncan wrung all her hands, and her coils shuffled and squirmed.  “I don’t want to go back to that.  It’s all wrong.  Gods, what a mess.”