As I woke up to the sound of warbling magpies, I took in my surroundings.

I was in a totally new bedroom and I wasn’t used to it. It wasn’t just the strange feeling of knowing that this bedroom would be where I’d be sleeping for the foreseeable future, it’s also the fact that my housemate was sleeping in another room, and I knew she’d have something in store for me if I went in.

She was expecting a package at around 9:30, and that was only half an hour away. She told me that she had to be up to sign for it, so I got up, and made my way to her room.

Sure enough, Rachel’s disembodied head was resting on the pillows, and a big lump was under the bedclothes. Her head yawned and woke up.

“Oh. Good morning.”

“Morning, Rachel. You wanna get ready?”

“Sure. Just let me pull myself together.”

Suddenly, the lump started shifting. Instinctively, I pulled the bedsheet off and found a limbless torso wearing a nightgown, slowly moving towards Rachel’s head. It came to a stop once there was a small space between the two extremities, with Rachel’s head floating over the torso. I just rolled my eyes at Rachel’s unorthodox way of waking up.

Once Rachel’s head and torso were wirelessly connected, Rachel shuffled out of bed, floating in midair. I heard a little bit of rustling in the bedclothes, and one of her feet flew out under the bedclothes, landing underneath her torso. The other foot followed. But only one hand flew out and connected with her.

“Oh damn, I think my hand’s stuck. Can you check under the bed?”

I checked, and sure enough, there was a disembodied hand wedged between the frame and the mattress. Carefully, I lifted the mattress and held onto the hand.

“Here - let me give you a hand.”

Rachel glared at me in a playful manner.

“Very funny.” she said, as the hand floated towards her. Rachel was more or less whole again, although whole is a subjective term when you’re talking about a Raygirl.

“I’ll have a shower and get changed. I think you better do so too.”

And with that, Rachel made her way over to her bathroom. I was still amazed at how, once her parts were wirelessly connected to her, they still behaved as if they were attached to arms, legs and a neck. Her floating head didn’t even bounce when she made any sudden movements.

—-

After I had my shower and changed into casual clothes, I heard a knock at the door. I opened it, and was surprised to see a blonde woman carrying a cardboard box with a pentagram on it.

“Hi, is Rachel home?”

“I think she’s just getting ready.”

“Ah. I’ll just put the box down.”

After she did so, I got a better look at her, and I noticed that she seemed to have a fashion sense that I could only describe as asymmetrical.

Her hair was a pixie undercut - short on the right side, but long on the left. Her tank top only had one shoulder on the left. Her jeans were ripped on her right leg, but not so on the left. Even her eyes were two different colours. Really, the only symmetrical article of clothing that she was wearing was her shoes.

“I’m Tori, by the way”, she said, holding out her hand.

I shook Tori’s hand.

“My name’s Sam. I’m Rachel’s housemate.”

“Nice to meet you, Sam. I trust Rachel’s told you about her mods?”

“Told me? She practically showed off. She told me she was expecting a package?”

“Oh yes, from Magitech.”

“Is that what the company’s called?”

“Mm-hm. In fact, my job there is to help the various modded clients get used to their new conditions. I get to meet a good deal of interesting people, Rachel included.”

As if Tori spoke of the devil, Rachel showed up, now wearing a casual tank top and sweatpants.

“Tori, hi!”

The two women hugged each other.

“Oh, you didn’t have to deliver the package personally,” said Rachel.

“I insist,” said Tori. “Consider it a housewarming present.”

“Would you like to stay for breakfast?”

“Absolutely.”

Rachel saw the cardboard box and went to open it like a kid at Christmas. After ripping off the duct tape, she pulled out a turtleneck dress and grinned.

“Sick as!” she said.

“Don’t you already have like ten of those?” I asked.

“Oh, this isn’t the usual dress. It’s made of Extendo-Fabric.” said Rachel.

“Magitech developed that to make clothes that could fit anyone, regardless of their body.” said Tori. “Makes adjusting to mods a whole lot easier.”

“Originally, they were testing it out on stretchy people and giants, but I was asked to try the stuff out” said Rachel. “I’ve been so looking forward to this.”

Rachel grabbed a few more things from the box, and gathered them in a pile in her arms.

“Give me five minutes. Maybe you could get yourself acquainted with Tori in the meantime?”

After Rachel went off to her bedroom, Tori sat down on the couch. I sat down on an armchair opposite her.

“So…do you have any mods, if that’s what you and Rachel call it?”

“Oh yes, ” said Tori. “Part of the employee benefits package every Magitech employee gets. In my case, two brains.”

I looked her up and down. Aside from her asymmetrical fashion sense, she looked normal. Her head certainly looked like it was proportionate to her body.

“Is that all?” I asked.

Tori chuckled.

“Not exactly. See, what they did is they downloaded my brain into one of these…”

She rummaged through her handbag and pulled out what looked like a black ping pong ball.

“This one’s a spare, in case either of the devices currently in my skull break down. But so far, I’ve had no problem. Anyway, they then duplicated the first artificial brain, and now I have two of them in place of the greymatter I used to have.”

“Any particular reason for that?”

“Ah. That’s the fun part.”

And with that, Tori stood up and did the strangest thing I had ever seen since Rachel revealed her status as a Raygirl to me. There was a strange sound, like a cross between velcro and tearing paper, and then half of her did a sidestep while the other stood still.

Tori was completely divided in half, and the two halves looked like completely different people, with Left-Tori looking neat and proper, while Right-Tori looked messier.

“See, part of this procedure was an experiment with vertical division”, said one half of Tori.

“Most of the time, the two halves diverge in personality due to the two hemispheres of the brain being divided between them,” said the other half.

“When they get back into one piece, things can get a little complicated,”

“But because both hemispheres were copied into both brains…”

“We’re completely in sync”, the two halves said in unison.

I was practically speechless.

“So, does this serve any practical functions?” I asked.

“Of course it does,” said Right-Tori.

“Before the procedure,” said Left-Tori, raising her hand. “I couldn’t do a whole lot with this hand.”

“But now her handwriting’s just as good as mine,” said the right half.

“Makes note-taking go a lot faster,” said the left half. “And we can even play guitar both left and right-handed”

Rachel entered the room once again, wearing a black pinafore dress over a black turtleneck, with black tights.

“Ah, I see Tori’s showing you her party trick” she said. “Should have seen her trying to chat up various girls at Strawberries”

“What’s that, then?” I asked.

“Lesbian bar for modded girls,” said half of Tori.

“I specialise in what I like to call ‘the broken scissor’” said the other half.

My head was starting to spin. There was too much perversion potential with these mods. I turned to Rachel, who had just put on a pair of black boots. Or rather, she stepped into them, and zipped them up telekinetically, while she was focused on her phone.

“So, about your new clothes…how are they so far?”

“Oh, they feel fabulous,” said Rachel. “I’m just installing an app.”

“Wait, an app? Whatever for?” I asked.

“Well, for starters, I can change the colour with the tap of a button.”

As she fiddled with her phone, her dress, top and tights all changed from black to red.

“Hmm. Bit too monochrome. Why don’t I add something a bit more complementary.”

She fiddled with the app again, and while her dress remained the same shade of red, her top and tights changed from red to green.

“Too Christmassy. Let’s try one of the other combos.”

She fiddled with her app again, her dress turning blue and her underclothes turning orange.

“Nah, too Hollywood.”

She fiddled with the phone again, and while her dress remained blue, her turtleneck turned red, while her tights turned yellow.

“Yecch. Too kindergarten.”

She fiddled with the device once more, but her eyes widened.

“Oh, perfect.”

And then she pressed the button, turning her dress back to black. Her turtleneck and leggings practically faded, leaving…

“Oh my god, Rachel. You’ve got arms…and legs…and a neck!”

Rachel smiled.

“Well…yes and no. I just found a setting for my top and tights.”

She walked over to me and showed a button on the app that said “match skin”. I looked closer at her arm. It looked like normal flesh. I had a feel of it. It even felt like normal flesh. Even close up, I couldn’t find any sort of join between her sleeve and her wrist.

“So, can you still do those things you could do with your normal clothes?” I asked.

Rachel smirked and raised her hand. Then her wrist started turning 360 degrees. Then another 360 degrees. Then another, and another, until her arm was twisted into what looked like a thick rope.

“Does that answer your question?” she asked.

She untwisted her arm until it was back to normal. It was then that I heard the sound of applause, from Tori. I was so focused on Rachel that I didn’t notice that the two halves had rejoined. Rachel looked at her arm.

“I wonder if…”

She shot out her arm, as if she intended for it to fly off. And it did…sort of. While her hand did manage to go a short distance, it didn’t detach from her arm. Rather, her arm extended and bent until it was three times its normal length.

“Whoa! I’m like, stretchy!”

“Well, sort of,” Tori piped in. “That’s just the fabric extending to keep your hands attached.”

Rachel retracted her arm. Curious, she made an attempt to levitate her head up to the ceiling, and her neck extended. She grinned, and retracted her neck down.

“Oh Sam…” she said.

Before I could answer, she coiled her arm around me and pulled me in to get close to her. Then, she wrapped her leg around mine.

“My goodness, we are going to get freaky,” said Rachel.

“Ah, so I take it you swing that way?” asked Tori.

I looked at Tori. Was she talking to me?

“Well…both ways. I just moved in with Rachel, we’re uh, kind of going steady at the moment.”

“We’ve known each other since we first met at uni. She likes to write about weird stuff happening to other women, and now…”, Rachel gave me a squeeze with her limbs still coiling around me. “She gets to live the fantasy.”

I blushed as Tori eyed me up and down.

"Say...have you considered getting a mod of your own?" Tori asked.

"Uh, why don't we discuss it over breakfast?" I said.