[Contains shapeshifting, mainly of the multilimb variety]

“Hey Teri, thanks for coming over. Now we can get some work done, maybe.” That’s me, by the way. I’m Teri. Kind of a weird name, I know, but it really doesn’t matter. I’m at my friend Kait’s house because there’s a project coming up for school that we both gotta do. I was complaining to her I couldn’t focus on my work, so she told me to come to her place since it’s in the quieter part of the neighbourhood, plus she’d help me stay on track. So here I was, at her front door. To give you an idea of what we look like, I’ve got long black hair, hers is blond and in a ponytail, and we’re both around the same height, though I’m just barely taller. Got it? Alright.

We went inside and headed up to her room. She told me I could go on her bed, while she sat at the desk in the opposite corner of the room. Fine by me. I set my bag down by her bed, grabbed my laptop from inside, and sat down on her bed, laptop in front of me. I looked over and saw her sitting at the desk opening her own laptop, then looked back at mine, turned it on, and took a deep breath. Let’s get to work.

About five minutes in, I saw something in the corner of my eye in Kait’s direction. I didn’t want to get distracted, so I thought nothing of it and continued working. A few minutes later, I looked up at Kait to ask her a question, but I hesitated and said nothing. There was something slightly off about her, but I couldn’t exactly tell what. It took me a few seconds to realize that while she was typing, her hands were still resting on her legs. That can’t be right, can it? But then I realized her hands were on the keyboard, typing away. What’s going on? It took another second or two before it dawned on me that she had two pairs of arms.

I just stared at her, looking back and forth between her hands on her keyboard and her hands on her legs. I looked at her shoulders and saw she had two of them, side by side. Her front arms were at her computer, and her back ones at her legs. Her t-shirt even had a second pair of sleeves for her other pair of arms. How long had she been like this? How did it take me this long to notice? In my defence, I was quite a distance from her, and looking at her from a weird diagonal angle where it was a little hard to tell what was going on, but still. She definitely had two arms when she greeted me at the door earlier, but now she suddenly has four. How? I’ve seen and heard of people with more limbs than usual, but is this how it happens? Normal one second, then extra body parts just pop in the next?

“Hey, Teri, you doin’ your work?” Shoot, I didn’t realize how long I’d been staring at her. She must’ve heard I’d stopped typing. “Uh, what’s wrong?” I guess I had a pretty weird look on my face. “Um, I’m not sure how to tell you this, but...” I paused briefly, expecting her to have noticed by now. How could she have not? Even if she wasn’t using those arms, I assumed she could feel them. “...you, uh, kinda have... another pair of arms?” “Oh, really?” I was expecting her to be surprised, maybe even scared, but as she looked at all four of her hands, she just seemed mildly confused. “Huh.” She said, setting her arms back down and looking back at me. “That’s weird.” “Um, it’s a little more than weird, don’t you think?” I replied. “I mean, yeah,” she examined her arms a little more, “It’s a bit strange. Not sure how it happened...” Was this a dream? I looked at my own hands, I checked the time on my computer, I blinked a bit. Everything seemed fine, yet I looked back at Kait, who was still looking at all of her arms, stretching them out a bit, examining her fingers a bit. She didn’t seem phased by this at all. She eventually looked back at me and let out a slight sigh. “Eh, whatever.” She said. As if spontaneously growing a new pair of arms was as big of a deal as spilling your coffee. “‘Whatever?’” I said standing up, slightly exasperated. “What do you mean!? This is kinda, like, a big deal! Has anything like this ever happened to you before?” She thought about it for a moment. “Mmm, not that I can think of, no.” She shrugged. Icertainly couldn’t remember her doing something like this. I tried to think...

Then I looked up. Her arms were gone. Not just the new ones, all of them. Not even a trace, they were just... gone. “Wha- now you have no arms! Like, at all!” She looked to her sides. No reaction, just slight realization. “Oh, well then.” She said. It’s like she didn’t even understand what was happening, but like, in the opposite way of me. “What do you mean ‘well then’!? How’ll you be able to grab stuff? Or type? Or do anything!?” “Jeez, calm down Teri. No need to shout.” She’s right, I shouldn’t be mad at her. She doesn’t seem to have control over what’s happening. Or does she? “Ok, sorry. Uh, are you doing this on purpose?” She shrugged “I dunno. I just kinda space out a bit and then...” I looked at her like she had two heads, because she did. Her arms were back to normal at least, but I didn’t even notice her getting a second head, and I was looking right at her! “Oh, I have two heads now.” Her left head said. Her left. Both heads looked at each other, both equally unfazed. “That’s so weird! How do you do it?” I asked. She looked at me with both heads. “It’s, uh, hard to explain.” Her right head said. “It’s like... it’s like it happens on its own, but I still expect it. Y’know?” She explained with her left head. “Uh, yeah, sure.” I replied. This didn’t explain why it was happening, but it’s nice to know she has some control over it.

While I was lost in thought, I looked up and saw Kait was normal again. Well, she had only one head again, but there was something behind her. I leaned over to see, and saw she now had another pair of legs. Think of a centaur, but the horse part is also human. A humantaur, if you will. Kait must’ve noticed too, because she looked behind herself and said “Oh, wow.” I had to admit, now that the initial shock of this whole scenario has worn off a bit, I was starting to get a bit intrigued, though I still wasn’t as calm with it as she was. “Try walking around a bit.” I suggested, and she did exactly that, prancing around in a small circle. I’d have thought it’d be like learning to walk all over again, but she handled her new legs pretty well. Somewhere during my pondering, her legs went back to normal, and she looked completely normal again. Except I noticed her, uh, chest had... another lump behind her shirt between her normal two. “Oh, uhh...” She stammered while looking down, “I, um... didn’t really mean to do that...” I blinked, and her chest was suddenly back to normal. I looked up at her face, and saw her eyes were covered by smooth skin, like there were never even eyes there. “Woah, did the power go out? What happened?” She looked around confused. Well, minus any actual looking. “Kait. You don’t have any eyes.” I said. “Oh, I see.” “No, you don’t, actually.” “Oh yeah.”

We sat in silence for a bit before I spoke up. “So, does losing your eyes not bother you, or?” She looked at me. Rather, her head faced my direction. “Eh, I guess it could be a problem.” “Well, I think not being able to see could be a bit more than a problem, don’t you think?” I replied. “Well, I can just, uh...” Her eyes reappeared, without me noticing. “Do that.” She smiled at me. “Okay, why do you not find any of what’s happening weird in the slightest?” I asked. “That’s a good question.” She replied, walking back to her chair to sit down with three legs. “So, you don’t know?” “I dunno. It feels like I’ve always been able to do it.” Her third leg vanished, and she suddenly had four pairs of arms, all reaching around in different directions. “So, we getting back to work or what?” I took a second to watch all of her arms. “Uhh, I don’t think I can focus if you keep changing like this.” I walked over and opened the door. “So, you’re leaving then?” I looked over, she had a normal number of arms, but now her legs were completely gone. “Uh, yeah. Thanks for having me over. Good luck with your new, er, ability.” “Alright, see ya.” She turned back to her laptop and I closed the door behind me. Man, what a turn of events that was. Oh shoot, forgot my stuff. I went back to her room, grabbed my laptop, put it in my bag, and turned around. Kait was now sitting at her desk with four legs, six arms, and three heads. Her left head turned towards me. “Um, I was just getting my stuff.” I said. “Okay.” Her left head turned back to the screen. Not sure what she needs all those limbs for, but whatever. I said a quick “bye” before shutting the door and leaving.

I thought about what had happened while I walked home. Why did she suddenly have the power to change her body at will? Why now, of all times? Why did she seem so nonchalant about the whole thing? What are the limits of her powers, if any? What if I get powers like this someday? What would I do with them? Either way, I knew I wasn’t gonna get much sleep that night.