Donna tossed her cards to the table.  “You all suck.”  The cards were neatly sorted, showing a run of toys from the ace through the king, skipping the eight.  To add insult to injury, she also had the fourteen through 17 of toys.  “We don’t normally have cards above the King, do we?”

Gwen giggled.  “Not usually, no.”

Donna glowered at her, then started to laugh.  “Scamp.  You set me up.  Duncan, too?”

Duncan grinned, showing her empty hands.  “I didn’t do anything.  I think the others were trying to help...”

Donna pulled the queen of toys from the fan in front of her.  “Hit me.”

“Oooh, I have an idea...”  Duncan shared a grin with Gwen, and after a very brief mental communion they both turned back to Donna.  Her body blinked out of existence.

“Did you disintegrate her?” asked one of the new girls whose name Duncan hadn’t caught.  “I didn’t know that was an option, or I wouldn’t have played.”

“Don’t worry, Mattie, she’s fine,” reassured Gwen.  “Because we’re mostly made of magic, we can change faster.”

“So what’d you turn her into?”

Duncan slithered over to Donna’s chair and lifted up the object sitting in it.  A long, curved piece of glittering crystal appeared, with Donna’s surprised face clearly visible at each end.  “She’s the queen of dildos.”

“Ooooh.”

Duncan patted Donna softly.  “I... think I’m going to call it a night, here.  See what Sidney thinks of this.”

Gwen grinned, and made shooing motions.  “Go, go.  I’ve got all our shifty needs covered.  You’ve restocked the crystal chests, right?”

Duncan nodded.  “Dia took care of that first thing.”

Gwen waggled her eyebrows.  “Have fun.”

Duncan shrank herself to a point so fast she left a clap of thunder behind, making Mattie and a few others squeak.  Gwen rolled her eyes, and calmed them down again by asking for suggestions for more “punishment” headbands.

It took only a few moments for Duncan to flit herself and Donna from the club to home via a series of short teleportations.  They could jump the distance easily enough, but felt it was safer to jump to a safe spot well above the house, so they had line of sight to their target first.

Sidney was curled up on the couch in the living room, watching television.  She glanced up when Duncan appeared.  “Hey.  Had your fun?”

Duncan grinned, and slithered forward.  “Yeah.  Did a little more tweaking of my body, what do you think?”  Duncan flexed her muscular upper arms, showing off her shiny black-and-steel scales.

Sidney nodded appreciatively.  “Not quite as masculine as I’d like, but better.  Are you going to make the new robo-Duncan a bit less feminine while you’re at it?”

Duncan hesitated.  A crystal voice chimed from the air, “We have taken care of it.”

“Thanks, Dia.  Can I see?”

Ducan curled up on her coils to rest and closed her eyes.  Robo-Duncan opened his, and strolled into the living room.  “Wow.  This body feels so much nicer now.  What did you do?”

“A few little upgrades,” chimed Dia.  “Limited shapeshifting, vibration modes, fun stuff like that.”

“Limited shapeshifting?” asked Sidney, curiously.

Robo-Duncan’s chest swelled, and his hips shifted subtly.  “Oooh,” Duncan purred.  “Oh, yeah.”

“Goddamnit, did you turn robo-Duncan into a girl?”

Duncan shifted his body back toward masculine, and sat beside Sidney on the couch.  “Just flexible.  Oddly, though, I feel masculine in this form even when it has curves.  Did you do something else, Dia?”

Dia giggled.  “Arwen suggested some things to ground that body in the masculine.  Smell, and subtle visual cues, among others.  Try going full curvy again.”

Duncan did so slowly, wary of Sidney’s response.  She studied him carefully.  “That is so weird.  You still read as ‘husband’, even with tits bigger than mine.”

“Close your eyes and snuggle up to him,” suggested Dia’s chiming voice.

Sidney glanced around to try to find a source to respond to, then shrugged, and closed her eyes.  “Oh.  Mmm.  Yeah, this is nice.  You smell right, finally.”

Duncan scooped her up in a bridal carry, and soon was laying her out on their bed.  Sidney glanced toward the door as she heard a slithering sound, and sighed.  “What’s she doing here?”

“Donna would be disappointed if she didn’t get to play...”

“That’s Donna now?” asked Sidney.

Duncan held up a long pink object in her more delicate pair of arms.  “This is Donna.  She lost at Crazy Eights, and she’s like this until...”  The pretty snake-girl frowned.  “When, exactly?”

“Until you dance on the stage at the Blue Vixen,” replied Dia.  “Might be a while.  She won’t mind.”

“Did you do something to her?”

“Nous?” asked Dia innocently.  “Would we do such a terrible thing as to limit her mind so she thinks that she is the best sex toy ever and can’t imagine being anything else?”

“Yes,” said Duncan and Sidney at once.

“You wound me by your unwarranted suspicion.  Donna did that to herself,” giggled Dia.  “We just made sure she can’t change back until you let her out.  Have fun you two.”

A point of light flickered then faded.

“Is she gone?” asked Sidney in a whisper.

“Off to see Arwen and thank her,” agreed both Duncans.

“Oooh, you can run both bodies?”

They nodded at her.  “Takes a little extra focus.  You like?”

Sidney’s grin got wider.  “I think I can work with it.”

*** *** ***

Arwen yawned, and looked at the clock again.  She picked up her tea, took a sip, and made a face.  Cold.  She shrugged, took another sip, and set it aside.  She was debating between trying to stay awake for another chapter, or heading to bed, when a speck of light appeared before her.  “Dia?”

“Duncan and Sidney are in the middle of appreciating your ideas to make robo-Duncan read more masculine.  It worked... very well.”  Dia’s tone of voice managed to convey a hint of a blush.

“Excellent, I’m glad to hear it.  How are you doing?”

“Tonight?  We are wonderful.  Everything is possible, and we’ve had great fun already.  Tomorrow will be another day, but the Moon turns ever onward.  We’re getting used to the diminishment.  We can treasure tonight’s memories for a month, knowing we’ll be back with the full Moon.”

“And you’re still taking shifts at the Crimson Kitten?”

“Yes doctor.  Mostly fill-in here and there, but Beth has started giving us a regular schedule for the dark weeks.  Is it strange to find such a menial job fulfilling?”

Arwen smiled at Dia.  “Why do you find it fulfilling?”

“I think... the smiles, as much as anything.  Some customers are difficult, but most find the Crimson Kitten delightful.  Especially the children.  It’s amazing the reactions we can get by a little ear-waggle, or picking up an empty glass with our tail.”

“Anything else?”

Dia materialized a feline body, and sat in the chair opposite Arwen.  “There’s just something so... fundamentally real about it.  About food, and eating, and...”  She frowned.  “And I’m hungry?”

Arwen nudged a half-empty plate of cookies toward Dia, and the catgirl took one, eating it slowly with a wondering look on her face.  “Oh.”

“There are upsides to having a real body.  Think you’re ready for it this month?”

Dia glanced down at herself.  “When it was Donna’s body, I called it rotting flesh.”

“You did.  Was it really the body that distressed you?”

Dia finished her cookie, then picked up another one and turned it in their paws.  “We were distressed where we were.  Wrong body.  Wrong place in the body.”  A sparkling gem appeared on her brow.  “But this?  This feels... workable.  Should we stay like this?”

“You know I can’t answer that for you.”

Dia flashed Arwen a broad smile.  “Fair enough.  You always ask interesting questions.  We have one for you now.  You wanted to be able to be pulled apart into toys, was it?”

Arwen nodded eagerly.  “Something that lets me get stuck for a while, but not all night.”

Dia formed a doll out of magic, and shaped it to look like Arwen.  “But you’d like to keep your real body most of the time.  Do you want to give Joseph the ability to force you into the toy?”

“Oh heavens, no.  I want this to be... something I give him, not something he takes.  Well, not until after the giving, anyway.”

The doll grew as tall as Arwen, turning a pirouette to show off its polished, rubbery body.  “Mobile as the doll, but severable,” mused Dia out loud.  “So if he pulls your legs off, then what?”

“Then I can’t walk.  Can’t move the legs at all, just feel.”

“Specific joints, or just wherever he feels like?”

“You could do that?”

Dia’s voice chimed with laughter.  “Oh, love, tonight we can do anything.”

“Please.”

Dia nodded abruptly.  “It is done.  When you say ‘I give myself to you’, you will become the doll until sunrise.”

Arwen nodded eagerly.  “I... wait, what if I say that by accident while I’m at work?”

“Are you likely to?” asked Dia.

Arwen smiled.  “Not without trickery.  I... still, it would be good if Joseph could put me back, just in case something happens.”

“Easily done.  A phrase, or an action?”

Arwen brightened.  “True love’s kiss, of course.  Kissing me.  This body, I mean.”

Dia clapped her hands together, and they rang like tiny gongs.  “Then so shall it be.  A gift for you to keep as long as you enjoy it.”

“Oh, we will.  Thank you.”

Dia rose to her feet, and bowed to Arwen.  “We thank you, as well.  Goodnight.”

Dia vanished.  Arwen turned her head to the bedroom.  “Oh, Joseph!”

“Mmmrhyes?”

“I’ve got a very special gift for you...”

*** *** ***

The next few days were quiet ones, a weekend spent at home with the kids.  Courtney asked for more headband toys, and got them.  She also asked for a snake tail like Daddy had, but Sidney decided that was a bit too far.  The headband-controlled spider got vetoed even faster.

On Monday, Duncan got a few comments at work because robo-Duncan was moving more easily than he had been.  He put it off to “changing up a few things”, implying exercise and diet when instead the changes had been rather more direct.

Duncan sighed happily when he finally made it home, and even before he opened the door his breasts were growing.  He stopped abruptly when he realized that it wasn’t just Sidney waiting for him in the kitchen.  “Agent Mackie... good to see you again.”

Mackie looked Ducan over.  “New toys, is it?”

Duncan grinned, and closed the door behind him.  He put his jacket on the hook, and loosened a few shirt buttons before letting the breasts grow big enough to show clearly.  “A few upgrades.  If you’re in the market, I can arrange for a little this or that.”

“I think that’s more Cherry’s department these days.  Does she still have that cybernetic leg with all the neon?”

Duncan nodded.  “I think Gwen’s done her arms, too.  She’s more than half robot, but having a hoot with it.  She really throws herself into things.”

“Same old Armstrong.  Good to hear she’s happy,” agreed Mackie.  “Not the reason I’m here, of course.  We sorted out your missing person.”

“Oh yeah, the guy who ran away screaming?  What’s his story?”

Mackie handed over a heavy envelope with Donna’s name embossed on the front.  “Was kind of hoping you could answer that.  He was carrying this in his briefcase.  He had no recollection of where it was from, or how he’d arrived in Canada.  Nothing for the past year.  What the hell did they do to him?”

Duncan shrugged.  “His mind literally was not his own, with all the controls they had on him.  The construct I erased was running everything, I guess.  To the point where he wasn’t even aware...  What a nightmare.  How’s he doing?”

“Annoyed, mostly.  Eager to head back home, assuming he still has the one he remembers.  We’ll hand him off to the FBI’s Project M, let them sort it out.”

Duncan nodded, and turned back to the envelope.  “Doesn’t feel heavy enough for anything explosive.”

“We X-rayed it.  Just paper.”

“Still... I’d be happier if the Moon was up so I could scan it.  Only a couple hours now.  Stay for dinner?”

Sidney shot Duncan a look.  “I take it we’re ordering in tonight?”

Duncan grinned back.  “Sounds nice.  Mackie?”

“Sure, I’ve got nowhere pressing to be.  Especially if you can give me a lift back to Vancouver later.”

“Easily.”

Courtney was shy around Mackie, but Victor was eager to show off his new toys, and they had a pleasant evening of it.  Once the kids were abed and the Moon was far enough over the horizon that Duncan could use the magic they’d banked, he brought the envelope to the dining room table.

When he opened it, there was, as the X-ray had suggested, little more than a sheet of parchment.  When Duncan unfolded it, a faint spray of glitter scattered to the table.  Mackie and Sidney both withdrew in alarm, but Duncan shook his head.  “Not magic.  Just glitter.  Weird.”

Duncan read the letter over.  “Doesn’t say much more than the guy did.  Would like to meet to discuss matters of mutual importance, yadda, yadda... wait.  Orange County?”

“Why does that matter?” asked Sidney.

“They want to meet me at Disneyland.”