attribute theft, sort of inanimate tf, head swap, sort of mannequin tf, mind alteration/reality alteration

The door to Brittney and Anna’s apartment clicked open and a tall woman stepped through. She was wearing a blue-and-white-striped tank top that showed her midriff, high waisted denim shorts, and had her long, blonde hair in a ponytail. Despite her tallness, she still had some curves to her.

"Hi, Brittney, I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in," the woman waved to Brittney on the couch as she entered the apartment.

Brittney did not respond. Brittney couldn’t speak, so it made sense. The new music box on the coffee table, however, yelled out at the top of its tiny lungs.

"Heather! Help! Anna used one of her toys from work and swapped me with the ballerina in this music box!" came the cry from the music box.

Heather ignored the music box and sat down on the couch next to Brittney.

"You have part of your mannequin out on the coffee table. Is this going to be a permanent decoration? Haha, it sure is nice of Anna to move your stuff around for you, since you’re totally immobile. You know, I really envy you. You’re basically the pinnacle of the lifestyle I want. It must be nice to be able to relax all day, every day," Heather sighed as she leaned on Brittney’s shoulder.

Brittney did not reply, but the new music box on the coffee table was making quite the racket. Heather left her perch on Brittney’s shoulder to shut the lid, which seemed to do the trick.

“I was expecting Anna to be here,” Heather said as she leaned back on the couch. She pulled out her phone to make a call. After a few rings, Anna picked up.

“Hey, Heather, what’s up?”

“Hi, Anna! I swung by your place to hang out, but you weren’t here. I’m keeping Brittney company. What are you up to?”

“I’m finishing up something really cool at the lab. Actually, you can help me with it. You said you’re keeping Brittney company?"

"Yeah, she's sitting on the couch next to me and we’re hanging out. Did you need her for something?" Heather looked to her right, where Brittney was sitting perfectly still as always.

"On the couch? But I added you to the awareness registry…” Anna muttered, "Umm, do you see a music box in front of the TV?"

Heather looked back at the ornate box on the coffee table.

"Yeah, it was making a lot more noise than most music boxes, so I closed it," Heather said, "When did you get it?"

"Today, actually. Uhh… Brittney said she liked music boxes… Hey, is there anything funny about the music box?"

"Let me check. Here, I’ll put you on speakerphone" Heather said and put down her phone.

Heather lifted up the music box and reopened the lid. Heather carefully inspected the ballerina on the music box as it shouted nonsense at her. Heather gave the key under it a few twists and let it dance, which seemed to shut up the ballerina.

"Seems like a normal music box to me," Heather said.

"Oh, wow, Brittney- I mean… The music box sounds really upset. Can you describe it to me?" Anna asked.

"Sure. It's got a music key on the bottom, a mirror on the lid, and a ballerina that claims she's the real Brittney and that she's been trapped inside the ballerina of the music box and that her real body was swapped with the ballerina, but also that her mannequin torso and head were swapped with the ballerina’s. Nothing out of the ordinary," Heather said.

"Really? Oh! You weren't added to the awareness registry for my property swapper when I made those changes. I guess the awareness registry isn’t totally retroactive. Good to know!”

“I didn’t understand any of that, but I’m glad I could help!” Heather said as she watched the ballerina pirouette and occasionally arabesque.

“You can actually help me test something else. I’m working on a magitech property swapper. I wasn’t sure how big the range was, but now that I’ve added some safeties I was wondering if you would let me try something? I’ve got you scanned through our phone connection right now,” Anna said.

“As long as you don’t make my boobs too big to fit through doors again, I don’t mind.”

“No giant boobs, I promise. I’m loading in the swaps, but can you make sure the ballerina in the music box is facing the TV? It’s, uhh, part of a promise I made for another experiment and based on what I heard over the speakerphone, Brittney isn’t- I mean, uhh, the ballerina isn’t facing the TV.”

The music box had come to a stop and begun shouting again. Heather rolled her eyes and turned the loud ballerina towards the TV.

“Done. Fire away,” Heather said as she got comfortable on the couch.

A ‘ding’ noise came through the phone and Heather felt her throat tingle.

“What did you- Eee!” Heather shrieked in a high pitch that was previously impossible for her. Her normal low alto had been replaced with the soaring soprano of Anna’s voice.

“Did it work? Whoa, yes, it definitely worked,” came the rich sound of Heather’s voice being piloted by Anna.

“This is kind of neat,” Heather said in her new, higher voice. “My name is Anna and Heather is way, way smarter than me,”  Heather giggled with Anna's voice, which sounded funny and caused her to giggle even more.

“Oh yeah?” Anna said in her new, husky voice, “Well my name is Heather and Anna is way, way prettier than me. I wish I could be just like Anna,” Anna said before bursting into a fit of low-toned laughter.

Heather was in the middle of singing a song from the radio that she could never hit the high-notes on before when her voice dropped nearly an octave and returned to its former alto.

“And that’s the new pre-programmed timer-option kicking in,” Anna said with her restored voice.

“Wow, that’s--“ Heather took a moment to get used to having her old voice again, “That’s so cool.  Can you swap something else?”

“Of course I can. There’s another safety feature I want to test. Let me think… Uhh, I’ve still got ‘Brittney’ scanned…”

Heather heard a light ‘ding’ through the phone and suddenly found herself shifted to the right. She felt stiff. She looked down and saw that she was wearing Brittney’s black T-shirt and jeans. In fact, she now had all of Brittney’s parts below her. The generous plastic chest, the white-plastic arms, the very long, white-plastic legs, and an impossibly thin waist. A quick look to the left revealed Brittney’s head was on Heather’s shoulders.

“Gosh…” Heather said.

“Heather, are you still there?” Anna asked through the speakerphone.

“Yes, Anna, and I seem to now have Brittney’s body from the neck down.”

Heather heard another ding from the speakerphone and Anna’s head was now on Heather’s body.

“Hi, Heather!” Anna waved with her borrowed hands.

“Hi, Anna,” Heather tried to will Brittney’s arms to wave back, but they wouldn’t move.

Anna got up from the couch and stretched her arms up. She accidentally brushed her hands against the fan overhead.

“Wow,” Anna said, “The apartment is so much smaller when you’re tall.”

“I didn’t ask to be tall, I just am, haha,” Heather laughed.

The music box made some noises.

“Yes, Brittney,” Anna said, “I’ll put you back to normal when I finish adding the hard-reset feature. Putting you and everything else back to normal is going to take, like, two hours if I have to do it manually.”

“Brittney?” Heather asked quizzically, “Isn’t Brittney’s head back at your lab on your body?”

“Not exactly,” Anna said while running her hands over her temporarily longer legs and temporarily fitter butt.

“Then what, exactly, is ‘exactly’?” Heather asked.

Anna brushed her hands up her borrowed legs and put her hands on her borrowed hips, “Everything the ballerina said earlier was true. Because you weren’t added to my property swapper’s awareness registry before I made the swap, you accepted everything as if it were reality. The truth is, Brittney is actually the tiny ballerina in the music box. ‘Brittney’ in your perception of reality is actually the head and torso of a mannequin with the arms, waist, and legs of the ballerina figurine that was in the music box earlier.”

Heather looked down at the body she was attached to. It seemed normal enough, despite it not being able to move.

“I just added some safeties to the property swapper, though,” Anna said, “If a person in the awareness registry is swapped and doesn’t like their swap, they can simply will the swap back after 24 hours have passed.”

“24 hours seems kind of long,” Heather said.

“I’ll add more options later, but for now 24 hours is short enough,” Heather said, “The magic in the system makes all subjects immortal by default, so it’s not like there’s any permanent-danger involved. There’s also the pre-programmed timer-option I used to swap our voices earlier. I also used it to swap my head and consciousness onto your body, which should be going off right about…”

 “Brittney’s” (the mannequin’s) head appeared back on Heather’s body, which stood perfectly still with its hands still on its hips.

“The timer still works!” Anna yelled through the speakerphone.

“Cool! When will my timer be going off?” Heather asked.

“I didn’t give you a timer,” Anna replied, “you’re testing the new safety feature. After 24 hours are up, you just have to will yourself to swap back. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll fix you manually. I need to finish adding the hard-reset to the property swapper, so I might be out for a while. Give me a call if you swap back before I get home!”

Anna hung up. Heather had a lot to process. She was absolutely certain that she was attached to Brittney’s body, but Anna herself had said that it was simply a mannequin torso with upscaled ballerina parts and that Brittney was the loud ballerina in the music box. Despite everything, Heather saw this as the perfect opportunity to do what she had always envied the Brittney in her reality for: Relaxing all day.

As for Brittney, at least she was facing the TV now…