I stirred from my nap, feeling something shake my shoulder. I sat upright, and realized I couldn’t see. Or hear, or taste, or smell. Then I remembered, I was currently lying on my magician roommate Trish’s bed, after having accidentally erased all my bodily features while messing around with a magic skinsuit-making zipper. I felt for my face to confirm that it was indeed missing.

Something poked my shoulder again. Was Trish home? A hand grabbed my head and held it still, and I felt something push against the right side of my head.

“-esting, testing. Can you hear me, Julie?” I suddenly could hear Trish’s voice. I nodded my featureless head. I felt for where she had touched my head, and found an ear.

“That’s my ear. I had to communicate with you somehow.” I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. “I’m going to lend you my mouth for a bit, and you tell me what you did to get yourself like this. Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this happen before.”

I nodded again, and shortly after, I felt a gentle press against my face, right where my mouth should be. “Hi, Trish.” I giggled, in Trish’s own voice. She poked me sharply. I could almost hear her saying ‘Get on with it’. So I told her everything I had done, from the weird sometimes-vanishing handkerchief, to the skinsuit zipper. When I was done, she ripped her mouth off of my face.

“Well, it sounds like the only thing I need to do is to give you back all your features so you’re not a… weird featureless flesh doll.” Trish sighed. I don’t know how she was able to detach and reattach her body parts so quickly, let alone loan them out like this. I should get her to teach me how to do that. “But I don’t have anything of the sort… so I guess I’ll go with the good old default plan.”

The ‘good old default plan’ was what Trish did every time someone got themselves so messed up that they were near impossible to restore. To date, I’d needed it three times. This would be the fourth. It consisted of melting me down into a liquid, and sticking me into a mold of my original body, which would simply reform me. I’d never asked where Trish got the mold from, and I’m not sure I’d even want to know.

“Now, since I can’t just give you a melting potion… where’s that hairdryer you used.” Trish muttered, mostly to herself. “Aha. Here, let’s go to the tub.” She hoisted me to my feet and guided me towards her bathroom, where I stood in her bathtub. She plucked her ear off the side of my head, and I was once more unable to hear. Then, I felt the heat of the hairdryer, as my entire body began to melt. I hoped she’d remembered to plug the drain.

Soon enough, I was nothing but a thick puddle of flesh lining the bottom of Trish’s tub. I didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy the sensation, however, as I soon found myself being magically lifted and poured into a tight enclosed space. I reasoned it was the mold, as I felt my liquid body fill up all the available space. As Trish gave me a few moments to settle, I felt my body reform.

The mold cracked open, and I practically fell out, once again whole. I took a deep breath, just to fulfill the novelty of finally being able to breathe again.

“Have fun with yourself there?” Trish mocked.

“A little.” I laughed, “Always fun to play around with magic.”

“Good. Because I wanted to test a new potion on you.” Trish grinned.

“But… I just got through being…”

“Fine, I guess I just won’t restore you next time.” Trish said matter-of-factly and started walking out of the room.

“Oh, alright.” I sighed, dramatically, even though I was excited at the prospect of trying out new magic. “Just let me go get some clothes.”

“Don’t bother, they’ll just get in the way.” Trish said, as she walked over to the mini-fridge in her bedroom. I knew now that that was where she kept all her potions. Most of her potions. Sometimes they made their way into the kitchen fridge, and I’d accidentally be enchanted. Like the time I’d been rendered completely intangible. That had been a little scary at first, I almost thought I had died and become a ghost.

Trish pulled out a bottle filled with a light pink liquid. A hastily scratched on label on it read “Soft”.

“…Soft? What, like the Final Fantasy item? Does it cure petrification?” I joked.

“Hmm. It technically could, maybe.” Trish said, thoughtfully. She handed me the bottle. “Here. Just take a sip first. The effect will be more pronounced the more you drink.”

“Okay.” I unscrewed the cap and took a quick swig, and felt a tingle of magic. The potion tasted like marshmallows. “So what’s this do?”

“Makes you soft, like it says. The more you drink, the softer you get.” Trish said, as if though that explained everything. She unscrewed the cap on a similar bottle and took a sip herself, and started stripping. She did most of her experimentation naked. It caught me off guard at first, but I got used to it. She was right after all, clothes often did just get in the way.

“What do you mean softer?” I examined my body. I didn’t feel very different.

“Like this.” Trish said, grabbing my arm. She poked my tricep with her index finger, and I felt it push far deeper into my arm than it should have.

“...So literally, softer.” I marveled. I wrapped my hand around my wrist and squeezed, grinning as it compressed to nearly half its’ width. “And we get even softer if we drink more?” I took another swig of the Soft potion, and felt the softening effects. My flesh itself started feeling silky smooth, soft and gentle.

“Yeah. Take it slow though, I don’t know how drastic the effects are yet. That’s what we’re testing.” Trish warned.

I squeezed my wrist again, and this time, it compressed nearly down to the thickness of a pen. “Whoah.”

“Here.” Trish grinned, stepping up to me, and placing a hand on either side of my head. Without warning, she pushed her hands together, and my head squished in on itself like it was made of nothing but soft plush, my vision distorted wildly as she did so.

I slapped her hands away, and my head slowly sprang back to its’ original proportions. “Whoah. That was wild.” I giggled. I placed my hand atop my head and squished it downwards, giggling as it spread out over my neck, no more than an inch thick. “You’ve got to try this, Trish. It’s like I have no bones, or I’m made of rubber. Can I stretch, like this?”

“Hmm, no. You have limited mass, after all.” Trish said, taking a drink of the potion to catch up to me. “Also, you do still have bones, they’re just really soft. We should be ridiculously flexible right now.” Trish demonstrated by effortlessly doing a split.

“Cool. Flexible, huh?” I grabbed my left hand in my right, and started twisting. I watched in awe as my left arm raveled around itself, twisting up like a rope. “This is freaky.” I let go, and my arm slowly spun back to normal.

“Mind if I want you to try something on me?” Trish asked.

“Sure.”

“Push my arm into my body.”

“Like, compressing it? Alright.” I grabbed her right arm, held it out straight, and then started pushing. Slowly, her arm compressed against itself, flesh spreading out and compacting as I shoved her hand against her shoulder.

“You’re gonna need to use two hands. Turn my arm inside out inside me and see if it’ll stay that way.”

I complied, doing my best to stuff her soft arm into her shoulder socket. Soon, the only trace she had ever had an arm was a tucked-in indent in her shoulder.

“How’s that feel?” I laughed. “Didn’t hurt, did it?”

“No, it just felt funny and ticklish.” Trish said, “So we can be compressed that much, huh?”

“Yeah. I kinda wish we had access to a steamroller or something.” I mused.

“That would be fun. Do my other limbs, for now.” Trish giggled.

“Alright.” I grinned, getting to work. Soon, all her limbs had been pushed in and compressed into her body, leaving her looking like a puffed up quadruple amputee.

“I feel like I’m a pillow.” Trish laughed.

“We are ridiculously soft like this. You’d be an amazing pillow.” I laughed.

“Do my head too. Then hug me as tight as you can.” Trish grinned.

“You really go all out when experimenting on magic, huh.” I was already placing a hand atop her head.

“Of course.” Trish giggled, as her head disappeared down her neck. All that was left visible of her was her puffed up pillow of a body. I picked her up in my arms. She was surprisingly light, I noted, as I wrapped my arms around her and gave her as tight a squeeze as I could muster. A muffled squeal emanated from her neck hole.

I held the hug for a few moments, and dropped her onto her bed. “I should just keep you like this. You’d be the best pillow I’ve ever owned.” The Trish-pillow wiggled in defiance. Oh well. The potion would run out eventually anyway, and then she’d be pissed at me. I reached into her neck, grabbed hold, and popped her head out.

“That was fun.” Trish giggled, “The inside of my body feels so soft too! It was like being wrapped in pillows. Can you get my limbs?”

I freed her limbs, and as she lay in bed letting her body return to its’ regular proportions, I took another swig of the potion. Now I wanted to see just how soft we could get. We were about 2/3 of the way through the small bottle now.

“Careful. Past that point, your muscles will start getting softer too. It might make moving kinda hard.” Trish warned.

“Oh well.” I laughed. I gave my wrist another experimental squeeze. This time, it gave way almost immediately, and when I released my hand, it didn’t spring back like before. “Umm… I’m not going back to normal.”

“Ah. That’s to be expected with enough potion, I guess.” Trish said, taking a drink herself. “You can probably reform it yourself, you just have to put some effort into it.”

“…how?”

“Just concentrate on it and picture your muscles pushing out to normal again.” Trish shrugged. “That’s usually how this stuff works.”

I tried it, and slowly, my wrist returned to its’ regular size. I breathed a sigh of relief, and looked up at Trish. She was poking holes in her stomach, leaving indentations wherever she went. We caught each others’ eyes for a moment, and giggled simultaneously.

Trish walked up to me and poked her index finger in my belly, and I watched as her finger sunk deep into my flesh. She pulled down on it, and my soft stomach parted in its’ wake, leaving an indented line. I giggled from the ticklish sensation, and pressed my hand against Trish’s face, where it left an indentation of my hand on her cheek.

“Hey, stop messing up my face.” Trish pouted. She reached up and poked my nose hard in retaliation, and my nose collapsed in on itself, buried deep into a hole in the middle of my face.

I retaliated by grabbing her left arm and bending it backward on itself, squishing it until her forearm became nearly melded with her upper arm.

“God, we’re almost like Play-Doh like this.” I laughed, “We can’t be split apart, can we?”

“I doubt it.” Trish said. “I can’t poke all the way through you. You’ll be in one piece regardless.”

“I’m not sure if I’m relieved or disappointed.” I joked, as I squished up her other arm.

“I can come up with an actual Play-Doh potion some other time.” Trish grinned. “But all this Play-Doh talk has me curious.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, since we’re so malleable. Try rolling me up into a ball.” Trish laughed. She sat down and clutched her knees to her chest.

“Alright. One Trish-ball, coming up.” I giggled, pushing her into herself.

“Wait, try to leave my face on the surface.” Trish cautioned.

“Sure, sure. I’m going to have to flatten your face anyway though.” I grinned, as I worked on compacting her body into a ball. Her flesh yielded to my every touch, as she easily compressed to fill up all the space inside her. Once done, I rolled her around the floor a little to smooth out her surface, just like actual Play-Doh. “There, you’re a ball.”

“This is kinda cool.” Trish giggled. “I think I can roll myself around if I try.” She twitched a little, and began rolling towards me.

“Did you have any plans of getting out of that shape? You’re all squished up.”

“Not really… my limbs are all melded together inside me.” She frowned. “All I can really do is roll around.” Her face brightened into a grin, “Hey, lie down on the floor.”

“…why?”

“So I can roll over you.”

“Alright, then.” I said, flopping down to the floor, with a little more force than intended. My body splatted over the floor a little as I spread out, like soft clay at rest. Which was rather literal.

As Trish tried to roll over me, my body yielded to her weight, and started to get flattened and spread out a little more.

“This isn’t really working.” I said, “You’re not heavy enough when you’re all soft too.”

“Yeaaah.” Trish pouted. “Go get the restoration potion from the fridge.”

“You’re done?” I said, a little disappointedly, as I peeled myself off the floor. Moving around with my body half flat was strange, but manageable.

“No, I’ll catch back up with you. I just can’t think of any way to get out of this ball form properly.” I grabbed a bottle of restoration potion from her mini-fridge, and poured it into Trish’s waiting mouth. Rapidly, Trish unfurled into her regular proportions, her body back to normal.

“Thanks.” Trish said, stretching. “That feels weird.”

“…what feels weird?”

“Having a normal body again.” Trish laughed, “I spend so little time with a normal body, really.”

“You were normal when you got home today.” I pointed out.

“Yeah, right.” She snorted, “I spent all day with my eyes switched.”

“What for?”

“For fun.” Trish grinned, “Though it really wasn’t that much different once I got used to it.” Trish grabbed a fresh bottle of Soft potion from the fridge. “Anyway.” She downed roughly the same amount of the potion, and continued, “you know what you usually do when you have Play-Doh?”

“Umm… squish it a bunch?” I guessed.

“More specifically, when you have two different types of Play-Doh.” Trish said, rolling her eyes.

“Like, two different colors? Usually blend them together- Oh.” My eyes shot wide open.

“Wanna try it and see what happens?” Trish grinned, stepping closer to me.

“We won’t… actually fuse together, will we?” I said, worried.

“Who knows? Probably not though, since we can’t come apart. We might get kinda stuck on each other though.”

“Alright then… come give me a hug.” I grinned.

Trish didn’t need any further confirmation as she literally stepped forward into me and wrapped her arms around me. As our soft bodies collided, we both pushed and yielded to each other at various different points, as our bodies practically melded together. Her arms sunk into my back, and I reveled in the silky softness of our bodies.

I did my best at first to keep my head and arms away from the nearly amorphous blob that Trish was making of my torso and herself. I could barely tell what flesh belonged to me and what belonged to her anymore. Trish had gone right for it, even burying her head into my chest, as it vanished into a fleshy blur with everything else below my neck.

We quickly lost balance, even with four legs, and fell over onto the floor, our legs tangling up in the commotion. Trish’s legs seemed to want to drag both our legs into our bodies, but was having trouble doing so. I reached over with my arms to help her, and folded all four of our legs into the pile of softness that was me and Trish.

Then, I began kneading. I pulled and pushed with my free hands at our mixed up softness, blending us even closer together. I could barely tell my own flesh apart from Trish’s anymore, though the fact that we had very similar skin tones didn’t help. I dunked my head into the mess and pulled it apart with my own hands. As thoroughly mixed up as we were, I could still vaguely tell that nothing of my body had come apart. Even though I couldn’t tell where any part of my body actually was in the mess, it all still connected as it should. And though Trish and I were nearly melded together, we were still separate individuals.

As I continued kneading, the softness of my own arms began to catch up to me, and my hands started to meld to everything. Eventually, my arms had kneaded themselves into the mess and I lost track of them, just as I had lost track of the rest of my own body. I was lost in the pulsating mound of soft flesh that Trish and I had become. Every part of me had been kneaded incredibly far apart, and yet so impossibly close.

But Trish wasn’t done yet. I have no idea how, since her head had been kneaded in first, but she had managed to collect her mouth. With a pseudopod of flesh, which could have just as easily been a toe as a finger for all I could tell, she grabbed what remained of her potion and chugged it down.

Almost immediately, I felt us deflate. Or rather, just Trish. Her flesh that had intermingled with mine suddenly gave way completely into utter softness. My own body that had been wrapped around her fell to close the gaps, as she practically oozed out of me.

“Ah, so that’s what the last step is.” I heard Trish’s voice. “My muscles are so soft that they can’t fight gravity anymore, and I practically melted.” I wondered idly how she was talking, if she couldn’t move her muscles.

As if reading my mind, Trish replied, “Oh, it’s a spell that ensures I can at least talk no matter what happens to my body. Here.” I felt a small bit of magic tingle all along my spread out mouth.

“Oh!” I exclaimed. I could talk clearly now, despite my mouth barely being able to move. “Why didn’t you do this before instead of giving me your mouth?”

“That was more fun.” Trish giggled, “I like loaning out body parts.”

“Weirdo.” I muttered. I could see the appeal, though. “Does that mean I can borrow your parts whenever I want?”

“Sure. I’d just prefer if you ask me first.” Trish laughed. “If I wake up missing half my body I might be a little ticked off.”

“That might be worth it.” I laughed, “So, what just happened? You melted?”

“Sort of. I mean, I’m all still together, in one piece, but I feel like a liquid.” Trish mused. “I can’t really move much either.”

“I don’t get it. How are you a liquid if you didn’t melt?”

“Hmm. It’s like I was made of silken yarn, and then I was completely unraveled.”

“I see, I think. Well, I don’t. I don’t know where my eyes are, but all I can see is pink.” I giggled.

“Yeah, we really got mixed together there.” Trish giggled, sounding a little embarrassed. “It was surprisingly comfortable.”

“Right, because we were just both so… soft.”

There was a brief moment of awkward silence as the implications of what we just did sunk in a little.

“Uh… anyway. Can you help me collect myself?” I asked, “I want to try the last step of the potion too.”

“Not really… I’m less capable of movement than you are.” Trish laughed.

“I meant with magic.”

“Oh. I guess. That’s less fun though. You should just learn to control your squishy body and do it yourself.” Trish said flatly.

“You know I’m not good at that.”

“Fine, fine.” Trish said, “Two bottles of restoration potion coming up.”

Soon, Trish and I were both standing whole once more in her bedroom, with regular, solid bodies. I was nowhere near done with the Soft potion, however, as I grabbed a fresh bottle from the fridge. “So if I chug it all at once, I’ll get the same result you did, right?”

“Yeah. It’s based on how much you consume.” Trish said, gathering up all the half-finished bottles.

“What happens if I drink even more than that?” I asked, eyeing the bottles in Trish’s hands.

“Probably nothing.” Trish said, pouring the contents of one bottle into the other. “No sense wasting this.” She popped it back in the fridge.

“Ah, alright.” I said, a little disappointed.

“What, you wanted to become even softer than a liquid?” Trish joked, “Since it doesn’t affect your mass, gravity would still drag you down even if you became gaseous. And since you’re still stuck in one piece, you’d still technically be a liquid.”

“I see.” I frowned. “Wait, have you become a gas before?”

“Yeah, once. It was… interesting. I can evaporate you later, if you’d like.”

“Sure.” I grinned, “But for now, let me try this.” I chugged the whole potion in one go, and felt a wave of magic tingle over my body.

Without warning, my entire body collapsed, losing all definition, and splashing into a puddle of flesh on the ground. With no real muscles to hold me up, my entire body nearly dissolved down into a fleshy mass on the floor, slowly spreading out like I was made of liquid. Even my facial features sort of dissolved into my flesh. Trish was right, it only vaguely felt like melting. There was still a sense of togetherness, as my body held together in one very loose piece, whereas that wasn’t there when you usually melted, since you could be split apart.

“How’s it feel?”

“Really cool! It’s like… well, you know how melting is like swimming in yourself? This is like… the same, but… I’m all super soft and comfortable…” I gushed. “It’s like my body just completely unraveled. It’s totally different from melting!”

“Right?!” Trish giggled.

“You could totally just like, stick me in a barrel, and I’d be happy just being in myself.” I giggled.

Trish knelt down beside me and grabbed a big handful of me. As she pulled up, I could feel myself sliding out of her hands and back into my puddle, she could barely keep a grip on me.

“I bet using you as a blanket would be great.” Trish laughed.

“Oh, man, you totally should!”

“I was joking, the potion won’t last long enough.” Trish said.

“Aww.” I said, a little disappointed.

“Well… is there anything else you wanted to do?” Trish asked. “Any weird containers you want to be put in?”

My mind drifted back to my earlier adventures with Trish’s magic props. “Actually, I was wondering. That magic zipper. What do you use it for?”

“Oh, that? To turn people into living skinsuits of themselves.” Trish said, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“Did you ever turn yourself into a suit?”

“Of course.” Trish laughed, “I didn’t turn myself inside-out like you did though. I should try that sometime.”

“It’s pretty wild.” I agreed, “Just don’t pull the zipper off.”

“Eh, I think I could manage without bodily features for awhile. Might be kind of zen, actually. To just be a vague person with literally nothing.”

“Of course you’d like that idea.” I giggled.

“Well, duh. Anyway, why do you ask? Do you want to wear me? We can do that too, later.” Trish went on.

“I was thinking, what happens if I wore you now?”

“You mean, while you’re like this? I have no idea.” Trish’s eyebrow arched up. “I’ve never filled a skinsuit with a liquid before. Or anything other than a person.”

“Want to try it?” I proposed. Trish was already putting the zipper on her back, though.

“Sure, what’s the worst that could happen?” Trish laughed, as she pulled down on the zipper. She collapsed in on herself, her body suddenly hollow. She laid down flat on the ground beside me, and twisted her arms to slowly guide me into the opening in her back. As I spilled into her hollow body, I began involuntarily filling up her limbs and head. Once a majority of myself had poured in, the rest of me slipped in voluntarily, following the larger part of myself.

“Comfy in there?” Trish giggled, “My insides feel pretty good with your softness inside them.”

“Yeah, surprisingly.” I replied. Trish’s skinsuit body had forced me into the shape of a person, even though I was completely shapeless. “So, when you zip up, who has control?”

“This zipper? This one lets the skinsuit be in control, kind of as a joke. I have another one that would turn me into an immobile skinsuit, and that would let the wearer be in control. Either way though, we’d both feel the full sensations of the skinsuit’s body.” Trish replied. “I’m going to zip myself up now.”

“Go for it.” I said, eagerly.

As the zipper on Trish’s back closed itself, I felt a light tingle of magic as Trish’s body reoriented itself to less hollow proportions. I was suddenly able to see through her eyes, hear with her ears, and opened to all her other senses. I couldn’t control any of it, however, as Trish was in full control.

Trish rolled herself over on the floor so she was lying on her back, and we could both instantly tell what was different. Instead of being a solid person, it was like Trish was filled with liquid, with nothing but her skin holding her together.

“Whoah.” We both said together. Trish sat up, and her upper body flopped over forwards on itself, with no bones to support itself, and she ended up faceplanting onto the floor.

“This is only mildly inconvenient.” Trish laughed. “I think I can move though. Even though you couldn’t move, since I’m in control, I can move you, since you’re inside me.” Trish slowly drew her body to sitting in an upright position.

“I’m really top heavy though. It’s a lot of work to keep myself upright.” Trish grumbled. “It’s like being made of Play-Doh again, but with even less muscle support, and less squishiness. On the other hand, it’s really cozy with you inside me.” Trish giggled.

I would have blushed if I could. Or maybe I did, it’s hard to tell. “Aww, that’s nice to hear.” I laughed, “We could always sleep like this if you want.”

The moment of silence that followed was slightly unnerving.

“Are you sure about that?” Trish asked, cautiously, “Because I really think I could take you up on that offer.” She slowly grinned.

“Sure, why not?” I giggled, “I’m pretty cozy too.”

“Y’know, I always thought I was weird. You’re pretty weird too.” Trish mused, as she got ready for bed.

“I can’t help it, really.” I laughed, “Magic is fascinating.”

“Isn’t it?” Trish laughed too.