“Mmmm, that was a wonderful night,” purred Katya as she and Angela returned to the apartment.  “Dancing in Janis is almost as much fun as being danced in.”

“Hmf.  Only almost?  I have to step up my game,” chuckled Angela.  “I do hope Daffodil had fun too.”  She ran a hand down her dress, and if I could have wriggled with pleasure I would have.

“I suppose it’s time to change them back,” mused Katya disappointedly.

Angela snuggled up against her, pressing dress to dress and chest to chest.  “What’s the rush?”  She nuzzled in for a kiss, and Katya responded eagerly.

The kissing and snuggling soon made its way into the bedroom.  When they broke for air, Angela spoke up.  “This is nice, but what I really want is a cock.  I guess we could restore...”

“I could help with that,” interrupted Katya.

“I thought you hated being male?” asked Angela, puzzled.

“I hate what being male does to my head,” Katya replied.  “But with only one woman around it’s not as bad.”

“Maybe if we only changed your bottom half you’d be good with it?”

“I guess we could try that.”  Katya sounded uncertain.

“Now where’d Daffy put that box?”

There were some scuffling noises as they hunted for the box, then Katya started sounding incoherent so they must have found it.  “Snap out of it, girl,” ordered Angela.  “Does this work for you or not?  Because it sure works for me.”

Katya purred a reply that I couldn’t make out, as I was too distracted by the feel of my skirt getting pushed up Angela’s legs.  Angela tumbled back to the bed and my skirt got bunched above her hips.  The sounds got more excited if more muffled by the weight of Katya’s body on top of Angela, and before long they were going at it in a delightfully frenzied manner.  Being crumpled and crushed repeatedly felt very odd, but the front row seat to some frenetic lovemaking more than made up for it.

Getting tossed into a crumpled heap on the floor afterward seemed a small price to pay.  Then I heard them settling in, murmuring softly to each other before sleep overtook them.  I tried to follow suit, but being all crumpled in a pile was disorienting and distracting.  Bits of me were touching other bits in ways that would have been impossible as a human.

I turned my thoughts away from my crumpled body as best I could.  The experience of being crushed between two lovers, so close to the action... it still left me giddy.  The idea of Angela and Katya making love was delightful.  Maybe it was being made of fabric, maybe it was the immediacy of being right there with them, but I couldn’t feel jealous about it at all, and I tried.

I mused about alternative designs, knowing I’d want to do it again.  Perhaps not the full skirt, something soft and silky that ran from breasts to just over the hips.  Flirty, but kind of explicit.  I decided I’d ask them if such a thing existed, and what it was called.

I giggled a little, internally, at the thought that even in that shape I’d probably end up crumpled up on the floor after sex.  I tried again to understand the shape of me, but it was still too confusing.  Humans were not meant to crumple.  Then again, I wasn’t human.  I picked at that thought.  Humans had commitments and responsibilities.  Dresses did not.  I could already feel the distance my shape gave me from such things... could I push on that?  Angela had proposed the idea, and I had plenty of time on my hands to try it out.

I started with my sense of connection to my job.  What part of my self was that?  With the distance that my new nature gave me, it was possible to dispassionately examine what the concept meant to me.  It was made up of my sense of duty, to keeping promises made... and at a more fundamental level, the simple goal of making money.  They paid well... but what use do dresses have for money?

Poking around in my thoughts didn’t turn up any obvious signs of how to manipulate the connections I was finding.  What did occur to me was that those reasons weren’t the core reason.  Part of it was a sense of habit - I’d been working for long enough that not working felt odd and unnatural.

I really wanted it to be more than that.  I’d often told myself that the satisfaction of solving a tricky problem was rewarding... and it was.  But the reason I got out of bed in the morning was because that was what I always did.  The pay was nice, and I certainly wouldn’t do the work for free... but that was as much a rationalization as any of the other connections.  I worked because I worked.  My past created the path – the rut, in truth – I had been following for most of my adult life.

So to disconnect my attachments should be simple.  They were already weakened by the change.  My memories, now... breaking from those would take more.  They were as bright as ever.

I started with the easy stuff.  My commitment to this job, this place, this promise.  A promise made by a human.  Dresses couldn’t make promises, or work at anything except making their owner pretty.

I poked at that connection for a time.  I could sense that it was weaker than when I was human, but had no traction on it, nothing to pull on or cut.  Unravelling it by picking at the details helped a little.  Eventually I gave up.  I grumbled to myself, “I am not a human, I am a dress”... and felt the ties weaken, just a little.

In the spirit of testing, I tried both parts of the mantra.  Repeating “I am a dress” to myself was the part that worked, for what in retrospect were obvious reasons.  The magic was drawing me toward dress-ness, so I had to pull myself along with it,  by working with it, not push away from humanity.

I tried to control which connections failed, and found myself unable to.  They all weakened at about the same pace as I repeated “I am a dress”.  My rationalizations failed first, then my sense of duty... and finally, the force of habit that kept me going.  I felt oddly free in that realization, that I was free to be a good dress for my owner, without worry or concern.

My history was still there, faint and muddled, a pleasing reminder of where I’d come from.  I could feel that a few more repetitions would free me even from that.  I think it was curiosity that drew me onward.  How far would it go?  It was almost involuntary at that point, my mind whispering the mantra even against my good judgement.  Soon all that was left was a happy little dress waiting patiently to be worn, mantra forgotten because why would a dress need to reinforce its nature?

*** *** ***

It took me longer than usual to realize I was human again.  I called Angela “Owner” several times before Katya’s giggling made me realize what I was doing.  When I apologized, Angela said I could call her Owner whenever I liked.  She added that she’d happily oblige me by turning me into a dress for the asking.

I couldn’t stop grinning at the idea.  When Angela offered to change me into a pretty sundress and wear me out for a walk, I agreed.  While she was setting up the box I mentioned my idea of a shorter fluttery bit of lingerie for when Owner wanted to make love with Katya again.

Angela grinned.  “I figured you’d want to be human tonight.  Are you really so caught up in being a dress?”

“I am a dress,” I said reflexively, then laughed.  “Wow.  I dug myself in deep with that last night.  Let’s see...  I am a human.  I am a human.  I am a human.”  I closed my eyes and felt for my connection with my sense of self.  It had helped, but hadn’t entirely dispelled the sense of belonging, of possession that came with being a dress.

“Aww.  Back to being human?” asked Angela.  “I liked owning you.”

I flashed her a grin.  “I’d need to repeat it a few more times to get all the way back.  I still like the idea.”

“Hold up,” interjected Katya.  “Did you do something deliberate to become a dress, mentally?  You were only one overnight.  It usually takes me days.”

I told her what I’d figured out about using a mantra to reinforce the change.  Katya frowned and asked if it would work for half and half forms.  I encouraged her to test it, and she repeated “I am a man” a bunch of times.

“Anything?”

Katya shook her head.  “Maybe because I am part woman?”

“Maybe because your head is,” I mused.

“Try ‘I have a cock’,” suggested Angela.

Katya snickered but complied.  The look on her face spoke volumes.  “Holy carp.  I feel normal.  I like it.”

“You should try going all male except your head.”

Katya mulled Angela’s suggestion then shook her head.  “I want to spend the day letting this settle in.”

“Then let’s go out for a nice picnic.  We can bring the box along to charge.  The only question is... picnic for three, or two?”  Angela stared at me pointedly.

I pretended to think about it.  “Loose breezy dress that flutters around your legs?”

“Of course.  And we’ll shop for something sexy and short while we’re out.”

“Oh, you spoil me so...”

“I might need you to pay for it,” fretted Angela.  “Being on a shopgirl salary and all.”

“Done and done.  I can get you some cash now, or...”  I crumpled into fabric before I could finish talking.

“Later is fine.  Right now I need a dress.  What are you?”

I thought “I am a dress” before I remembered the consequences of doing so.  It had little effect without intent behind it... so I thought it again and meant it.  After a few repetitions, before I’d entirely lost touch with humanity, I wondered if I could go the other way.  Repeating “I am a human” in my head did not seem to do much.  I kept at it for a while, until I felt a little silly about trying to reinforce something that simply wasn’t true, and just relaxed into enjoying the simple pleasures of swirling about Angela’s legs.

They changed me back to human once they got home, because Angela figured – correctly – that I would prefer to be fully myself for the next change.  She showed off a lovely green satiny thing that she called a camisole, it covered from her breasts to just under her belly button, and when she turned around to show it off it fluttered in a most delicious way.

She chided me as I reached for the box.  “Ah ah... make sure you’re all the way human first.  Don’t want to lose you to the dress side like Katya, do we?”

I glanced over at Katya.  “Have we brought you back?”

Katya shrugged.  “Sort of?  This has been such fun, but also kind of like work.  Not work work, but still an exertion.  I’m tired, and would like to rest as a dress for a while.”

“Janis could wear you dancing tonight, while Angela wears me.  Sound good?”

They both agreed eagerly.  Kayta went back to being all female until dinner.  Janis joined us in humanity to eat, and liked the sound of our plans.  Katya did makeup for the three of us, despite my plans to be the green chemise.

“That’s not for dancing in,” she said as she sat me down at the makeup table.  “So you’re going out dancing with the box waiting here, all set to change you.  Then Angela and Janis will have the bed to themselves...”

I closed my eyes and nodded.  Then held very still as Katya ordered, moving only when she told me to.  It took a little while to shake out of the trance when she was done.  By the time I’d opened my eyes, Katya was already a dress and Janis was shimmying into it.

The three of us danced together, largely undisturbed.  Gold-scale woman waved at us in passing a few times.  I spotted Alex at one point, but he seemed busy.  Feeling impish, I waved the gold-scaled woman closer and talked Alex up to see if she was interested in him.  I highlighted that he’d spent time glamered into a catgirl, and liked it but wouldn’t admit it.  From the pensive look on her face and the way she prowled off, I hoped Alex was in for a treat.

Later I saw a silver-scaled woman dancing with golden-scale, and grinned.

Once we were back home I wanted to head for the box but Angela caught me up in a hug and soon there was much canoodling going on.  Janis joined in after a while, and clothing started coming off.  Suddenly, without any warning, my world wibbled away and I felt myself slide into a lovely, wispy bit of satin.

I fell so hard.  I don’t remember repeating the mantra, but I was delightedly distracted and the path was familiar from the repetition.  And being satin between two lovers was so delightful there was no reason to think of anything else.

When they tired, they slept, and I was still between them, sleeping as only happy fabric could.

I woke when they did, giddy with excitement that I was still being worn.  Wearer praised how comfortable and pretty I was, before setting me aside.  There was something about washing, but I wasn’t able to understand much of what they said about their plans, as such things did not concern chemises.

Once they left, time passed in a contented blur.

Being washed was divine.

Then I woke up and was offered a towel.  I sat up slowly, and accepted it.

Wearer asked a question, and it took me a few moments to clear my head to the point where I could understand it.  Once I remembered what I was, a few repetitions of “I am a human” helped clear the rest of the satiny fluff from my mind.  “I think I’m back.  What was that?”

“Pretty much what you just answered.  You looked... zoned out but really happy.  Was it good?” Angela asked, worriedly.

I nodded.  “Amazing.  I could spend forever like that without regret.  Human me might regret what I would miss in doing so, but camisole doesn’t regret things.  I sunk so far, so happily...  I remember you talking about your plans, but the words slid away.  How was your day?”

Angela grinned.  “Delightful.  Janis is a sweetie, and was glad to keep me company.  She wore Katya all day, I hope you’re not jealous.”

I giggled, and shook my head.  “Not at all.  That part of camisole is still with me.  Being between you as you made love was...”  I growled happily.  “Amazing.”

Angela glanced down at my hips and smirked.  “Good.  Because my panties and I could use a proper shtupping, and you’re the only person here who likes being male.”

I frowned.  “Katya?”

“Liked it quite well, but only for a day or so at a time.”

“Perhaps we can work on her endurance... later.”

Angela prowled toward me.  “Let’s work on yours first.”

*** *** ***

In the morning I made breakfast for Angela and myself.  “What are your plans for the day, while I’m off at work?”

Angela looked up from her coffee – she’d brought a little pour-over cone and a bag of her favourite ground coffee, so she could have her favourite morning beverage.  “The usual.  I’m on lates again, so I’ll putter around for a bit then head to work.  Want me to restore Janis before I go?”

“Please.  Will you come by after work?”

Angela chuckled softly.  “Am I likely to find a perfect lover elsewhere?  One that lets me turn him partway into a girl whenever I like?”

I blushed.  “Well, there’s Apparitions, though on a Monday night it’ll be pretty dead.”

“Mmm.  Not to mention it being a shot in the dark at the best of times.  I’ll be here.  Though...”  She turned her mug in her hands contemplatively.

“Yes?  Just ask.”

“Mondays always suck.  That offer of a hand-wash when I get home, is that still on?”

“For the asking.  Is this home, now?”

Angela’s eyes widened.  “I...  Wow.  Kinda slipped out on me.  Is this home?  I haven’t slept at my apartment since... um... huh.  I guess I should move.”

“Most of your clothes are here already.  Closet’s getting a little crowded, I wonder if I could buy some kind of standing closet thing.”

“Oooh, a guest armoire.  That’d be fun.  A special place for your special clothes when you’re not wearing them.”

“So a Katya palace?  You and Janis prefer to be human instead of hanging around unworn.”

Angela took another sip of her coffee.  “Yeah, that’s fair.  Still, if it was a nice place, sort of special... that’d feel different.”

“Then I’ll look into it.  I’m sure Katya would like it, that’s reason enough.”

Angela still looked troubled, so I asked her about it.  She shrugged it off.  Before I could ask, I was interrupted by a frantic knocking on my door.  I opened it to discover Frank standing there in a loose outfit, still visibly very female.  I laughed.  “Not quite ready to go to work as Frankie?”

“I... no.  Not quite.”

I raised an eyebrow curiously.  “Not quite?  So you’re getting there?”

“Giselle...  I mean...”  Frank looked a little dazed.  “I need to be me again, and sort my head out.”

“Next time it’s your turn to change Giselle.  I bet she’d love to spend some time being worn by you.”

Frank shook his head.  “No more clothing changes.  That screwed with my head even worse.”

“You didn’t love holding her boobs for hours at a time?” I asked with a smirk.

“Loved it way too much.  And I’ve said too much.  Male, please?”

I obliged Frank, and soon he was on his way.  As I was getting ready to follow, I restored Janis and offered her the position of work shirt for the day.  She mulled it, and asked if Angela would be around when I got home.  When I said no, she opted to stay human for the day, and promised she’d find some way to amuse herself.

Janis was bouncing with excitement when I got home.  “It came, it came!”

“Sorry?”

Janis held out a package addressed to me, with her uncle’s name as the sender.  I tore it open with glee and we both peered curiously at the featureless beige box that was revealed.  “Um...”

I turned the box over a few times, and found some familiar recessed screws on the bottom.  On one end there was, of all things, a 9-pin serial port.  I stared at it in confusion.  “Talk about low tech.  What the heck?”

Janis found a note tucked in the bottom of the box.  There was some dense explanation of the magical theory behind it, but the gist of it was that there was a somewhat larger mana crystal inside the box, one that hadn’t been given a specific purpose.  As a result, it stored a considerably larger amount of magic than the little one in our box.  Leaving the two near each other would supposedly balance out the energy between the two of them.  None of it explained the purpose of the serial port.

I had always been something of a packrat, and so I did happen to have a cable that would let my laptop talk to the serial port.  It took a bit of monkeying to figure out the right settings, but after that I could see a series of numbers displayed, one per second.  The number was large, near the top of what a 32 bit signed integer could display, so I figured the crystal was full or nearly so.  Around then, Janis asked what the point was.

I pulled out the box.  “What should I transform?”

“If you’re going to be staring at that screen all night, turn me into that stress ball boob you bought last week.  At least I’ll be getting something out of it.”

A few moments later, I was squeezing Janis in one hand while studying the display.  The numbers had started to decline significantly, and the rate of decline seemed to depend on the proximity of the box, though it was shallowing out...

Obviously, I needed to start logging this information.  I made some notes about timing, and made sure my terminal program was set up to store a few hours’ worth of data.  I could plot it once it stabilized.  First, I had a tracking program to write.

By Tuesday night I had a fairly good system set up to dynamically track the rate of mana gain or loss.  I still didn’t have a name for the units, and it wasn’t like there was anything of note to compare it to.  Still, it confirmed a few things.  The power crystal wasn’t charging in the apartment, instead it was slowly losing charge.  The rate was low enough that, assuming the range of values on the display would go to zero at full discharge, it would take several months to run out.  I did some tinkering to try to figure out how to shield it from the drain, but ran out of ideas before I found anything particularly effective.  Wrapping it in several layers of tinfoil slowed it down a little, as did putting it in a metal cookie tin.  I managed to sweet-talk my way into borrowing my dentist’s lead apron for a bit, and it had a more substantial effect.  However, in the process of walking to his office the crystal had gained a significant amount of charge.  I hadn’t been logging while moving, so I had no idea where it had happened.

Thus I started setting up my mana-mapping program.  I drove around town with my phone logging GPS position and time, and the laptop logging the rate of change of the crystal’s charge.  The resulting maps were... weird.  I eventually realized that either the charging effect or the charge-reading system was laggy, and it took some time for changes to register.  I did some experiments with the box, using it and moving it around to see how that affected the rate of change.  I was still puzzling it through when the weekend rolled around.  I abandoned that effort and instead tried to work out the timing of the lag so that I could spend some time driving around town and the local area to map the charging rates.

Saturday’s mapping trip was entirely ruined when the crystal capped out at maximum charge after driving along the river.  The rate of charge it had hit before capping was tremendous, so I made a note of the location.

I spent Sunday morning transforming Janis into a variety of different things to run the box’s charge down.  When Angela showed up, I did the same to her.  I even turned myself into a woman so I could wear the resulting bra and panties.

I checked the charge level once I was done.  Twenty-three changes had run it down a little.  I had no idea where the bottom of the scale was - the top hadn’t been at the maximum represented value, so I had no reason to believe the bottom would be at zero.  Finding it would be a challenge, and I felt vaguely guilty about using the box just as a charge sink.

I made sure to avoid the area that had spiked the charge so quickly, and managed to map the countryside in the general area around Wurzburg.  Broadly, the whole city center was a mana sink, to varying degrees.  However, even a little way out of town the level of charge started to pick up significantly.  I ended up driving to a nice local park, lots of trees and nature, and the charge level there was enough to add a box-use every ten minutes or so.  That was still nothing compared to what had happened by the river.

While driving back, I’d carefully avoided the river but I still hit one patch of high charge.  I considered trying to map the odd filament that I’d crossed, but I was already so close to full charge that it wouldn’t really be possible to figure out more.  I noted the location for future reference, as it was only about five blocks from my place, off toward one of the more industrialized areas I’d never had cause to frequent.

I spent the evenings of the next work-week compiling maps and writing up a report for Janis’ uncle.  As I was working on it, it occurred to me to ask him what the bottom limit for the charge reading was.  Turned out it was about half-scale, so I added that to my tracker, allowing me to finally display the true percentage of charge.  It was over 99%, so I added a few significant figures.  I tried using the box once, and the charge dropped by 0.04%.  “Holy carp,” I murmured.  “I’ve got several thousand uses banked.  To heck with mapping, I should...”

My eyes went very wide.  “Oops.”

The first person I restored was Angela.  She bounced back from being a mindless object well.  “What was I?”

“Panties.  Sorry, I kind of got caught up in things and... um, forgot what I’d done to you.  I wore you several times, but... um, you went through the laundry once, as well as a hand-washing or two.”

“Ah.  And Janis?”

“Bra.  I kind of need her for work tomorrow, though.”

“Tomorrow’s Friday?  I’ve been stuck here for a week?”

I winced at the anger in her voice.  “Something like that.  I got distracted.”

“Sheisse!  My job!”

“But you said you didn’t care...”

Angela glared at me.  “I liked that job.  Black Velvet is great.”

“The hours weren’t so hot.”

She sighed.  “Yeah, they suck.  But it was so cool to work there, and the employee discount was great.”

“I’m sorry.  I don’t suppose ‘My stupid boyfriend turned me into a pair of panties and accidentally left me like that for a week’ would work as an excuse?”

Angela snickered.  “You’re not stupid.  Just... how much did you wear me?”

“I honestly don’t remember.  Got too fixated on the new toy and figuring it out.  I had female hips the whole time, and I’ve only got a few pairs of panties, so... maybe three times?”

“You treated me like I was just another pair of panties?”  Angela’s voice was rising again.

“Yeah.  If it helps any, I’ll be yours for the weekend...”

The avaricious look that earned me was an improvement, though I wondered what I’d gotten into.  “From the moment you get home Friday, you will be whatever I want, whenever I want.  I get total control of the box.”

“Done.  With the charger around, you can use it hundreds of times if you like.”

Angela’s eyes went even wider.  “Oooooh.  The things I’ll do... but first, I’ve got to see if I can salvage my job.  Don’t wait up!”

I watched her leave with a mixture of longing and trepidation.  Then I took my bra off, and turned it into a woman.  “Hey, Janis.”

Janis shook herself, and smiled.  “Hey, you.  What’s got you so down?”

“Fight with Angela.  Not a bad one, but... well, I kind of left her as panties for a week, and she might have lost her job.”

“Ooooh.  How are you making it up to her?”

“She gets free reign with the box all weekend.”

“Wicked.   You are a brave man.  A brave, doomed man.  The things she’ll do to you...  Wait, are Katya and I included in this?”

I shrugged.  “If you don’t want to be, you’d better find somewhere to hide.  That woman has a wicked mind...”

“Goodie!” cheered Janis, clapping her hands with glee.

I laughed.  “Of course you’d see it that way.  You’ll probably conspire with her.  Can I still wear you as my bra tomorrow?”

Janis frowned at the suggestion.  “Kind of done with bras for now, especially given I didn’t get to feel most of it.  Need some people time, especially before Angela starts her fun.”

“Fair enough.  It’s getting late, want some dinner before I call it a night?”

“Have you eaten?”

I contemplated the question for longer than should have been necessary.  “I... think so?”

“Dinner for two, then.  I’ll help.  And no, not as an apron.”

I giggled.  “Awww.”

“More sass from you and I’ll be sleeping with a cozy boob pillow tonight.”

“Sass sass sass.”

Janis laughed. “You’re terrible.  And you’ll be terribly cozy.”

I was.  Sleeping as a boob pillow is lovely, there’s no wrong position, no discomfort.  Being slept on feels right and proper.

Of course Janis restored me in time for work, and was somewhat helpful about getting Daffodil ready to face the world.

I hadn’t seen Alex all week, so I was looking forward to our usual work on contracts and scheduling.  Alex seemed awfully distracted when I finally found him, so I asked what had gotten into him.

Alex hugged me.  “Thank you so much.”

I squeaked.  “For?”

“Goldie.  We’ve been dating for the last week and... Heiliger Strohsack!  She’s amazing.”

“Goldie... wait, that’s the gold-scaled woman from Apparitions?”

Alex nodded.  “She got me into a female glamer and...”  He blushed.  Actually blushed.

“And didn’t try to go male on you like Angela did?  I warned her about your reaction.”

Alex laughed raucously.  “And I thank you soundly for that.  I do hope you and Angela are getting along as well?”

I winced, and told my tale of ... well, not exactly woe, but of the disagreement, and what I’d offered to get back in her good graces.

Alex slapped me on the back.  “You’ll have an amazing time.  Trust me.  Make that, trust her.”

I agreed, and his words helped loosen up the concern I’d been feeling.  Angela would have her fun... but I was pretty sure I’d enjoy whatever she’d cooked up.

When I got home, all three of them were there and facing me.  Angela and Janis were in the kitchen, while Katya had been waiting near the door.  From her build, she was male from neck down.  She pointed the box at me, and locked it on.  “Oh goodie,” she purred.  “The condom’s here.”