“ ‘Soft Body’ spell… well, I’ve always wanted softer skin. Why not?” Carol wondered aloud to herself. She glanced over the spells’ instructions one more time and prepared to cast it on herself.
As she began the incantation however, she was startled by a loud noise, like someone crashing through the front door. “Carol! I’m homeeee!” Carol rolled her eyes. It was just her roommate, Eve, back from Potions 205. She continued to cast the spell.

Just as it took effect, Eve knocked on Carol’s door. “Uh… give me a minute.” Carol said, waiting for the spell to finish. Once it did, she got up and opened the door. “What?”

“Hey, I just… hm. You look different.”

“Huh? Oh, does my skin look better?” Carol asked with glee, “It’s already working!” she said, looking herself over.

“I don’t know about better… but you look… softer.”

“Right, it was a spell for nicer skin.” Carol said, pointing to a tome lying on her bed. “I borrowed it from the university library, thought it’d be interesting.” Eve walked over to the tome and picked it up, glancing at its’ cover.

“101 Useless Transformations…” she flipped back to the page Carol was reading. “Oh, this spell? ‘Soft Body’…?”

“That’s the one!” Carol said proudly.

“Um… I don’t think this gave you nicer skin. The incantation seems to affect the entire subject not just its’ appearance.”

“Well, like you said, my skin looked softer, so there.”

“Yeah, but not like… nice, soft, like… soft, soft.” Eve furrowed her brow and walked up to her roommate. “Let me feel your arm.” She took Carol’s arm in her left hand and gently grazed it with her right. “Um… well, it does feel softer… but… also kind of… squishy?”

“What do you mean squishy?”

“Like… I dunno.” Eve pinched Carol’s arm gently, when she shouted, releasing her arm in fright.

“What, what!?” Carol asked, frightened.

“…your arm…” Eve said, her eyes wide as dinner plates.

“What about… ohmygod!” Carol screamed, looking at the area where Eve had pinched her. Her flesh itself had given way, leaving clear indentations where Eve pinched her. “E- Eve, what is this?!”

“…maybe… your entire body is soft?”

“What do you mean my entire body is soft?”

Eve grabbed Carol’s other arm and squeezed it in her hands, and was greeted with the same sensation she had earlier of Carol’s flesh giving way like soft clay. When she released it, Carol’s arm had very obvious indentations.

“Ahh!” Carol started screaming, “Eve, what do I do?! I’m like… Play-Doh!”

“Okay, okay! Don’t panic!” Eve said, reading through the spell’s details. “There’s a duration, so it should wear off after awhile.”

“…but what happens when it wears off? Am I going to be stuck with dents the rest of my life?”

“I don’t think so?” Eve bit her lip, “I think you’ll be back to normal after. Yeah, see, there’s a line in here about full restoration after the duration.”

“Oh, whew.” Carol seemed relieved. “Okay then. How long does it last?”

“About half a day.”

“Guess I’ll just have to live with it until then.” Carol said. “Okay, so… wanna go out for lunch?”

“…you can’t seriously go out like that.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Well for starters your arms are kinda messed up. But what happens if someone grabs you or something?”

“Eh.”

“And it’s really hot out today… I don’t know what the spell did to you exactly, but if you are actually like clay, you might melt or something if you heat up.”

“That’s just silly.” Carol said, “Here, let’s experiment. We’ll turn on the heater.”

“…in the middle of summer… wait, that’s not even the point, what do we do if you do melt?!”

“The spell will wear off, right? I should be fine.”

“…it’s your life.” Eve sighed, giving up. Carol went to turn up the heater. “Wait, I really don’t think it’s a good idea.” Eve suddenly said, and grabbed Carol’s shoulder to stop her from leaving.

Eve felt her fingers sink deep into Carol’s shoulder. She hadn’t been thinking and was using her normal strength, and squeezed straight through Carol’s flesh. Carol’s severed left arm fell to the ground with a thump.

Carol stopped in her tracks and turned to stare at her disembodied arm along with Eve.

“…um.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Eve suddenly shouted.

“…hm. I think I can still feel it.” Carol said. Her arm wriggled its’ fingers. “And move it. Cool!”

“Maybe we can sort of stick it back on?” Eve suggested as Carol bent over to pick up her arm.

“Maybe… but I kind of want to see what’s going on here.” Carol said. “Catch!” she tossed Eve her arm.

Eve barely managed to catch the severed arm flying at her. In her surprise, she caught it roughly, and squished it. “Ahh! Why did you do that?”

“I wanted to see what would happen.” Carol giggled. “I can still feel it. I don’t really have a hand anymore though, do I?”

“Not so much… it’s just a misshapen tube now.” Eve said.

“Try rolling it up into a ball!” Carol suggested.

“Come again?”

“I want to see how malleable I am. Try it!”

Eve hesitated, before squeezing the ends of what used to be Carol’s arm together. As she rolled the lump of flesh around in her hands, she shook her head over and over. “This is so weird.”
Carol just laughed. “It feels like a nice massage.”

“Really? Want me to roll all of you into a ball?” Eve joked.

“…maybe later.” Carol said slyly. Eve was taken aback, but kept rolling. Soon, all that was left of Carol’s left arm was a ball of flesh.

“So basically… I might as well be made of clay.” Carol said.

“Yup.” Eve said. “I forgot how much fun it was to play with clay.” Eve laughed, poking the ball she was holding.
“Oh? Well, you can play with me if you want.” Carol laughed. Eve laughed too, then stopped when Carol started stripping.

“C-Carol? What are you…”

“Well, it’s hard to play with clay if its’ wearing clothes.” Carol chuckled.

“Wait, I thought you were joking.”

“I was at first, but then I thought about it… and it might actually be kinda cool. Think about it, how many people can claim they’ve experienced what it’s like to be clay?” She struggled to remove her shirt. “Give me a hand with this, it’s hard with just one arm.”

“No! That’s… weird! You’ll be naked!”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll just rub out my nipples and vag.” Carol winked, “I’ll be like a Barbie doll!”, finally managing to get off her pants.

Eve sputtered. “Rub out?”

“Yeah, if I’m like clay I can just shape it away, right?” Carol reached into her panties. Eve blushed and looked away. By the time she glanced back, Carol had taken her panties off too, and there wasn’t a trace of her sex left. “See? Just smooth flesh.”

Eve stared at her roommate’s featureless crotch, her face turning a deep crimson. “S-stop it! Aren’t you embarrassed to be-“

“Not really. Like I said, this will be a unique experience! I want to experiment.”

And then Eve could swear she heard Carol mutter “actually with two things” under her breath. “What was that?” she questioned.

“Nothing!” Carol looked up at her, grinning. She had finally managed to get her shirt off. “Look, you have two options. Either you help me experiment, or I’m going to jump onto you and see what happens.”

“…jump onto me?”

“Yes. And splatter myself all over you. I’ll be a huge mess, and get in your clothes and hair and everything.”

“You don’t even know that’ll happen.” Eve stated matter of factly.

“True, but like I said, I’m experimenting. So are you going to help me, or do you want to be coated head to toe in me?” Carol paused for a moment. “That sounded way dirtier than I meant it to.”

“Yes!” Eve exclaimed indignantly, “That’s why this is so weird!”

“I promise it won’t get weird.” Carol rolled her eyes. “I just really want to know how this works! How can I still talk if I’m clay? Where did my organs go? How come I can still move without muscles?”

“Well… magic?”

“Yeah, duh. But I want to know what the spell actually did. So, for starters…” Carol wandered over to the kitchen and pulled out a large knife. “Cut me open!”

“The hell… oh, fine.” Eve finally gave in. “How do you want to do this?”

“I’ll lay on the counter, you just cut a gash through me.” Carol hopped onto the marble countertop.

“Like… where?”

“Uh, straight down my chest to my bellybutton.”

Eve took the knife from Carol, avoiding her grin. “Don’t blame me if you die or something.”

“I’ve already survived having my arm removed and rolled into a ball.” Carol giggled as Eve readied the knife. Tentatively, she prodded at Carol’s flesh, and then stuck the tip in half an inch.

Encouraged by the lack of blood, she drove the knife in deeper, and started to pull it down Carol’s torso, leaving behind a deep gash as her flesh gave way to the knife. Carol continued to giggle as the knife ripped her chest apart. “It tickles!”

“There.”

“What’s it look like inside me?” Carol asked.

“Pretty much just the same color as your skin.”

“No organs or anything?”

“Nope, just flesh.”

“Cool. Alright, now, make a cut on my waist.”

“Uh… how deep?”

“All the way through. Cut my legs apart from my body.”

“Whoah. Okay, here goes.”

The knife easily cut through Carol’s clay body, much to her amusement. Soon, Carol’s hips ‘sat up’ on the counter.

“Uh… are you controlling them still?”

“Yeah.” Carol propped up her torso with her arm and swung herself to an upright position, landing neatly on the stump of her waist. “I’m like a magic act!” Her legs jumped off the counter and started walking around on their own.

“This is surreal.” Eve said, mouth hanging slightly open as she watched Carol’s disembodied legs walk around the kitchen. They came to a stop in front of the counter before Carol. “Now what?”

“Well, I can sort of glue myself back together.” Carol said, pointing to her torso where she had sealed her cut. “So…” Carol lowered herself onto her legs. With a little bit of pressing herself together, she had soon joined her two halves back into one. “Ta-da!”

“…Carol… you… your legs are backwards.”

“I know! I wanted to see if I could.” Carol said, taking a step away from Eve. “Uh, whoops. I meant
to…” she took a few steps backwards, which meant she was getting closer to Eve. “This is more confusing than I thought it would be.”

“Gee, you think? It’s not like you’re backwards or anything.” Eve snickered as she watched Carol struggle to walk the right way. “Wait, I have a solution!” Eve walked up to Carol.

“Oh? Wait, Eve-“ Carol began to protest, but Eve had already begun pulling Carol’s head. Her neck stretched a little before  it tapered into two halves. Eve quickly spun Carol’s head 180 degrees and stuck it back on.

“Oh, ha ha.” Carol said, turning around to face a grinning Eve.

“Hey, at least you’re facing the right way now!” Eve laughed.

“Yeah, but my arm isn’t.”

“…why not?”

“…because my chest is backwards?”

“Yeah, but why does it have to be backwards? You don’t have any bones or muscles that restrict your movement, can’t you just turn your arm the same way as the rest of your body?”

“…interesting.” Carol noted. Eve watched as Carol’s right arm bent backwards at the elbow to ‘face’ the right direction. “So I can just move however I want, maybe?”

“Looks that way. It sort of makes sense.”

“So, normally I wouldn’t be able to twist my neck farther than about 90 degrees… so…” Carol started to turn her head to the left, and it didn’t stop until it had rotated a full 360 degrees.

“…that was really creepy.” Eve said. “Hey, it left your neck in a twist.”

“Oh? What happens if I keep twisting then?” Carol said, continuing to twist her head.

“My guess is the tension of your clay body will eventually just snap and-“ she was interrupted by Carol letting out a squeal as her head rolled off her body. “Yeah, that!”

Carol’s head landed on the ground back first, splattering onto the floor. “Whoah.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, why?”

“Well, the back of your head is kind of mushed against the floor.”

“Oh. That’s why the back of my head feels that way. And the inside of my head.” Carol noted. “Well, I wanted to try something like this anyway.”

“What?” Eve asked, curiously.

“Just watch.” Carol laughed, as she raised her foot. And then brought it down hard onto her own face.

“The fuck! Carol!” Eve screamed, half frightened half laughing as she watched Carol squish her own head with her feet. Fascinated, she watched on as Carol’s face got distended and melded with the rest of the mush that was her head. She noticed Carol’s feet were starting to stick to her head too. “Hey, your head’s merging with your feet.”

The only reply she got was a muffled exclamation. Soon, Eve couldn’t even tell what was Carol’s feet and what was the mound of clay that used to be Carol’s head.

“So… can you hear me like this? Thumbs up for yes, down for no.” Carol’s body gave Eve a thumbs down.

“Damnit, she can’t hear me.” Eve sighed. “…wait.” Carol’s body was doubled up in laughter. “Can you talk like that?” Another thumbs down.

“Hm. Why not?” Eve said, recalling their earlier discovery regarding movement. Carol seemed to pause for a moment, then reached around and grabbed the knife. She cut a small slit into the base of her neck.

“…Hm.” The slit moved like a mouth, Carol’s voice emanating from it.

“…whoah.”

“Yeah, I guess it doesn’t really matter if I don’t have a real ‘mouth’. I can still see, too, sort of. It’s hard to explain. I can sort of choose what direction to look, from anywhere on my body? Even my arm-ball over there. Hey, go get it, will you? My feet are kind of stuck together.”

“Yeah, with your head.” Eve said, picking up the ball of flesh.

“Yeah.” Carol giggled. “Wait, let me try something.”

Eve looked at the ball as it sort of shifted, and formed a bump. Three slits formed near the bump, one larger than the other, and soon Eve was staring face-to-face with Carol. “Hi!” Carol said, from the ball.

“Whoah. That’s awesome.”

“Yeah. I think I’m getting the hang of this! If I just think about it I can move however I want, and that includes shaping myself. Hey, toss me to me?”

“Uh… oh.” Eve gently threw Carol over to her body, which made no attempt to catch it, and instead just walked directly into its’ path. As they collided, they merged together. Slowly, Carol’s head grew out of her neck stump, and her arm grew back too.

“You’re like a shapeshifter! What the hell, that book is dumb, this is totally useful!” Eve laughed.

“It’s actually a lot harder than I’m making it look.” Carol said, sheepishly.

“Well, if you can reform at will, that means we can try more extreme stuff.” Eve grinned. Carol looked at her.

“Ooh, have something in mind?” Carol asked.

Eve just grinned at her as she looked Carol in the eye. “Turn around.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want you to see this coming.”

“I’ll just erase my eyes then.” Carol rubbed her eyes, and when her hands were gone, there was just smooth skin.

“…close enough.” Eve said, taking up a runner’s ready stance. Then, from across the room, she ran up and tackled Carol, right in the midriff.

Carol just exploded, splattering backwards and all over the room. Eve landed in a puddle that used to be Carol’s legs, clutching what remained of Carol’s belly. Eve sat up in the mound of her roommate, grinning up at the wall where Carol’s torso was plastered across it, Carol’s face barely intact as her head was reduced to a blotch on the wall. As Carol’s face reformed, she grinned.

“I am so getting you back for that.”