Bianca and Nora’s lives were never quite the same after Bianca brought home a packet of magic markers that were literally magic.

Nora wasn't the kind of person who was easily swayed by claims of magic, but her girlfriend Bianca was easily excitable when it came to the prospect of one of her favourite fetishes being made a reality.

Nora and Bianca both enjoyed the idea of modularity, but Nora was more realistic and down-to-earth, and admitted that it was unfeasible in real life. However, once Bianca demonstrated the power of the magic markers by drawing a line around Nora's wrist and severing it, Nora was intrigued. Even more surprisingly, Bianca managed to give Nora's severed hand a mind of its own with a different-coloured marker.

Once Nora was restored back to normal, Bianca gave Nora a present in the form of a duplicate of her own hand, also given sentience via the green marker. The hand, named Bibi, became a pet that would scurry around, mostly just sleeping on Nora’s bed.



While Bibi was sleeping in Nora’s bedroom, Nora and Bianca settled down with some drinks.

“So B,” Nora asked. “What do the other markers do?”

Bianca looked at the other markers. Aside from the black and green markers, multiple other colours were available.

Bianca picked up a red marker. She carefully drew a line around her wrist. She waited ten seconds. But nothing happened. The red line didn’t even vanish.

“Nothing” said Bianca. “Maybe it’s just a regular marker”

Bianca picked up a piece of scrap paper and tried to draw on it. However, nothing happened. It was as if the marker had run out of ink.

“Why don’t you draw an X on your hand? Maybe that’s the key.” said Nora.

Bianca shrugged and did just that. As soon as she wrote an X, both that and the circle around her wrist disappeared…as did her hand.



“Oh my god, red makes things vanish!” said Bianca.

Nora perked up.



“Ooh…I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to be an amputee…of course, the fact that it’s irreversible was one reason not to try it in real life.”



“Well, this should be reversible, but…how to undo it?”

Nora took a look at the sunglasses that came with the markers, and put them on. To her surprise, she could see Bianca’s vanished hand, except through the lenses of the glasses, it was glowing.



“Oh my god, I can see your hand…and the markings!”



“Yeah, when you’re wearing the sunnies.” said Bianca. “When they’re off, you can’t see the ink.”

“Cool. It’s like the sunnies from They Live,” said Nora.

“Who lives?” said Bianca.

“Underrated movie. I should probably show you.” said Nora, as she took a wet wipe. “Could you hold out your wrist for me?”

Bianca shrugged. Nora felt around, but the wet wipe reacted to Nora’s nonexistent hand as if it were a normal wet wipe…until Nora felt two isolated patches of skin with it. Carefully, Nora rubbed off the red markings, and Bianca’s hand was back.



“Oh, thank god” said Bianca. “It is reversible.”

“What was it like, having no hand?” Nora asked.

“Kind of weird, but an interesting sensation,” said Bianca. “Mind you, I don’t think I’d want to try anything rash right now.”

“Fair enough,” said Nora. “Maybe we should keep track of the markers and their functions.”

“Exactly,” said Bianca. “Instructions would be a great help”.

—-

After a few minutes, both Nora and Bianca had dug out one of Nora’s unused writing journals and written down the functions of the markers, as far as they knew how they worked. Black created mere separations when borders, as they called the dividing lines, were drawn. Green could make body parts sentient. Blue could duplicate parts. And red could make parts disappear. Of course, these markers functioned differently - sometimes, drawing a border wasn’t enough, an “X” had to be drawn on the body part.

“Hey, um…so about those transfer tattoos?” Nora asked.

Bianca picked up the packet of smiley faced transfer tattoos.

“These are actually extremely powerful, but…actually, give me a minute.”



Bianca took the packet, as well as the black marker, and snuck off to her bedroom. A few minutes later, Bianca took her seat next to her girlfriend.



“So Nora…notice anything different?”

Nora looked Bianca up and down. Bianca looked like her usual self.



“Nope, same old.”

“What about my nose?”

“Your nose is pretty, B.”

“Pretty flipped, though, amiright?”

Nora took another look at Bianca. Bianca’s nose was upside-down, but Nora didn’t seem to think anything of it.



“Well duh, it’s upside-down. It’s always been upside-down. Maybe it weirded me out a little when I first met you, but I’m used to it now.”



Bianca grinned, looking through her collection of photos. In each one where she appeared, her nose was upside-down, as if that was the new reality.



“Alright, this has been fun, but now it’s time to get back to reality.”

Bianca took out a wet wipe, and rubbed a spot on the back of her hand. Nora blinked.



“Oh my god, B, your nose!”



Bianca smirked.



“And you thought I was born that way.”

“No, it’s just…you came in to show off your upturned nose to me and…”

Bianca put her hand on Nora’s shoulder.



“It’s the tattoo. If you transfer it onto your skin, suddenly, everyone thinks you’re normal, no matter what kind of weird transformation you go through, and reality shifts accordingly, at least until you remove it with the wet wipes.”

Nora did a double take.

“You mean I actually believed your upside-down nose was normal?”



“It wasn't a belief. It was a change in the fabric of reality, and only I was unaffected by it.”

Nora thought about this bizarre mindbending thing that had just happened.



“Can I have one of these tattoos?”



“Of course you can. There’s plenty of them, and they don’t wash off in water.”



Nora stood up.



“I’ll get the washcloth. We’re both gonna have some fun with reality.”

“Actually, these things don’t need a washcloth,” said Bianca. “They just transfer to your skin like a sticker”

Nora was now intrigued.

“Okay…can I have the red pen? I want to try something out.”

Bianca handed Nora the red marker, and Nora drew an “X” on her palm.



“Wait, did you just draw an X without marking a border? You’re gonna make your whole body disappear?”

Nora merely smirked, holding her disappearing hand up. The vanishing seemed to spread to the rest of her body, until there was nothing left but Nora’s disembodied outfit - a black choker with silver studs, a black Nine Inch Nails T-shirt, a pleated miniskirt, ripped black tights and combat boots.

But the outfit didn’t drop to the ground. It was just floating, as if Nora was still in it. Bianca just stared.

“Brilliant! I’m still here.” said Nora.

Bianca nervously reached out where Nora’s head was. To her shock, she could feel Nora’s face.



“Oh my god…you’re invisible!”

“Well, there’s an addendum for what we just wrote,” said Nora, slipping on a pair of fingerless fishnet gloves. “This is amazing. Pass me a tattoo.”

Bianca gingerly picked up one of the tattoos and handed it to Nora. Nora peeled off the sticky plastic, and stuck the tattoo face down on her arm. The decal seemed to be attracted to Nora’s arm like a magnet, and Nora looked up at the face of Bianca, whose expression seemed to change from apprehension to calm serenity.



Nora pulled back the paper, and there, on her arm, was the tattoo - a yellow smiley face, bordered by a blue circle with the words “Everything Is Fine”...for a brief moment, before it disappeared. Then suddenly, Nora felt a strange sensation on her scalp.



“What the…?” Nora said, rubbing her scalp. “What happened to my hair? It’s like a buzzcut.”



“What do you mean what happened to your hair?” Bianca asked. “You’ve always cut it short.”

Nora did a double take. She realised that Bianca’s mind was being altered by the shift in reality.



“Oh, uh…yeah.” Nora said, trying her best to play along. “No point in trying to manage long hair when nobody can see it, am I right?”



Bianca rolled her eyes, as if Nora had just stated the bleeding obvious.



“Ugh…you can be a bit of a ditz sometimes, but that’s why I love you.”



Bianca gave Nora a peck on her invisible cheek. Nora blushed…well, she could feel the sensation of blushing, but for all Bianca could tell, nothing much had happened.



Bianca picked up the packet of tattoos, and a black marker.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” said Bianca, heading off to her room. Nora grinned, looking at some of the photographs around the house, on her phone and on her social media.



In each one of the photographs, Nora was invisible. Her clothes were still there, but Nora wasn’t. Even a picture of Nora as a little girl, prior to getting into the goth culture, depicted her as invisible.

“God, I’m gonna miss this reality when I wash the tattoo off,” thought Nora. She then picked up a glass of water and drank it down. Looking in the black mirror of her phone, she swished the clear liquid in her mouth, but it faded away not long after she drank it. She assumed that mixing food and drink with her saliva made it disappear en route to her stomach, and then started to wonder if her digestive system would make anything that came out of her invisible as well.

Nora was so caught up in her weird biology that she didn’t notice Bianca re-entering the room, dressed in a little black dress. Bianca’s nose was back to normal, but she had a few surprises up her sleeve.



“Okay, I think I’ve come to terms with this new reality now. It’s just weird seeing that pic of us at Raspberries from a year ago, and I know you weren’t invisible back then, but the picture depicts you as invisible….”

“Wait a minute,” said Nora. “You remember the old reality?”



“Kinda?” said Bianca. “It’s like my memories were overwritten before I put a tattoo on myself.”



“Okay, new one to add to the tattoos’ instructions - anyone wearing a tattoo is not mentally affected by changes to reality.” Nora said, as she picked up the notebook and wrote down the tidbit next to the entry on the tattoos.



“Hey…guess what I did to myself,” said Bianca, flirtatiously.



Nora looked up “Can I slip on the sunnies?”



Bianca nodded. Nora slipped on the sunglasses, and looked her girlfriend up and down. Suddenly, a black X on Bianca’s leg stood out to her like a black hole in her vision.



“You drew a black X on yourself?”



“Mm-hm. Watch this,” said Bianca. And with that, she clutched her head in her hands and popped it off, tucking it under her arm.



“I’m completely modular now! Isn’t it amazing?”

Bianca sat down next to Nora, and opened her own phone’s gallery. Nora and Bianca were both amazed by all the pics of Bianca, being casually modular. She even had various selfies where her facial features were rearranged, Picasso-style.

“Wow. This is going to be a fun reality to explore,” said Nora.

“Why don’t we go out now?” asked Bianca. “I didn’t get dressed up for us to go nowhere.”

Nora was hesitant.



“I dunno, won’t we stick out like a sore thumb?”

“Maybe,” said Bianca. “Or they’ll just accept your invisibility and my modularity like they’re just birthmarks, and we’re just a couple of lesbians who got together because of common weirdness.”

Nora stood up.



“I’ll go get changed. Wait here.”

And with that, the invisible goth headed to her bedroom to get changed. She noticed Bibi sitting on her bed, her fingers curled. Despite not having any tangible senses besides touch, Bibi could sense Nora’s presence, stretching her fingers out as if to say “hello”.



Nora smiled at the disembodied hand lying on her bed. She couldn’t wait to explore the new reality she and Bianca had created.