Trust Machines - William and Stella
It was a quiet and entirely typical evening.  William was finished with the paper, except for his favourite bit - the Sudoku puzzle.  It was Friday night, which meant the one of the harder ones.

He'd just gotten the first couple of squares settled when something on his wife's TV show caught his attention.  "What did they just say?"

Stella muted her show, then smiled sweetly at her husband.  "What, you're finally taking an interest in reality shows?"

"When they suggest something as improbable as turning someone into a dress, I do."

Stella laughed.  "You really haven't been paying much attention to what's popular, have you?"

William snorted.  "You know I don't.  Can't be bothered.  Why?"

"Come here and watch."

With a sigh, William heaved himself out of his comfy chair, and then plopped down on the old couch beside his wife.  He gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek.

The show started up again, repeating the bit that had caught William's attention.  "They are really claiming to turn half the girls into dresses?"

"They're really going to do it, yes.  Shush, and watch."

William watched in puzzlement as the waifish girls were paired off and sent into a pair of doors.  Moments later, one girl would emerge, then pick up a dress from the other door.  Each dress was more elaborate than the last, and the show's host praised several of the designs for being highly fashionable this season.  He had no clue why one dress got praised, and another panned.  They all looked very elaborate.

For that matter, he had no clue how these girls were supposed to be models.  They looked younger than his daughter, for pity's sake.  Of course, she had finally finished her degree and was off making her way in the world.  William and Stella had been alone alone in their empty nest for a few months, and it was starting to weigh on both of them.

"They're just putting the dresses in the room, right?  I mean, that's a silly looking prop they're using."

Stella shook her head.  "Nope.  Not a prop.  They wouldn't go to all the effort to fly to another city just for a prop."

They watched for a while longer.  The remaining girls posed in their new dresses, and a guest judge had them walk back and forth.  Some were clearly impractical, and their 'designers' could barely move.

The guest was some up-and coming designer that Stella seemed to recognize, but that William had never heard of.  The designer went on at some length on the importance of truly *feeling* the dresses, knowing how the fabric would flow, and so on.

"It sounds like he's talking about... actually being a dress," commented William.

"That's because he was.  He was the first designer to go down the runway as part of his collection.  Started quite the trend."

"I still don't believe it."

"Just watch the show, dear."

William snorted cynically when most of the girls were 'restored', and talked about what it was like to be worn.  Most of them were just annoyed they'd been too slow, though it wasn't clear why that mattered.  The winner of the round got to keep her 'dress' for the runway segment later.

The hostess of the show addressed the winner's dress.  "Don't worry, while you can't win the next round, we won't eliminate you this week either."

"They don't eliminate girls that way, do they?" asked William.

"No.  Not on this show.  There's a clothing designer competition that does that, though."

"You're... remarkably convinced that this insanity is actually happening."

"Shush, the show's back on."

The rest of the show was uninteresting to William.  All the girls were waiflike, and it had been a long time since girls that young were of any interest to him.  Most of them looked younger than his daughter.

He finished his Sudoku puzzle shortly before the end of the show.  As a result, he got to see the last dress 'returned to normal'.  This girl seemed a bit more happy with things, and gave the girl who had 'worn' her a big hug.

"I still don't buy it."

Stella sighed.  "I've seen one of them, you know."

"One of what?"

"The Venn Machines.  There's one in the mall, I saw it yesterday."

"What, in our middle-of-nowhere town?  Why would there be one here?"

Stella gave him a long-practiced look of incredulity with a hint of disdain.  "Haven't you been paying attention?  They're all over the place these days."

"That's crazy.  I read the newspaper, there's nothing there about people turning into dresses."

"Mostly people use it to make themselves look a little better, rather than strange things like that."

"Still doesn't explain why there's nothing in the news."

Stella shrugged.  "They started showing up places like here, rather than the big cities on the coast.  Plus," she added conspiratorially, "I think the government is trying to keep it quiet."

"Oh now I know you're putting me on."

"Come on."  Stella stood up, and started toward the door.

"Where are you going?"  William asked, following her.

"Come on, get your coat.  We need to get out of the house anyway."

"At this hour?"  Still, he put his coat on, and patted his pocket to make sure he had the keys.

William drove toward the mall.  "Are you sure they'll be open this late?"

"Eight o'clock isn't 'late'.  The mall's open until ten.  Anyway, the Venn Machine is in the part they keep open so you can get to the ATMs."

Soon enough they were at the mall, and walking up to a nondescript looking box.  William eyeballed it, estimating it to be about seven feet tall, eight wide, and four deep.  The closest side was a uniform brown colour, a close match to the brick hallways of the mall.  The only distinguishing mark was a set of three overlapping circles, creating a small curved triangle in the middle.

"Ah.  I see why they're called Venn Machines, anyway."

"Oh?  I'd wondered about that."

William pointed at the circles.  "That's a Venn Diagram.  Three overlapping sets."

"What do you mean?"

William was in his element describing mathematical concepts, he'd done it for years both at the local university and in several of his jobs.  "For example, this circle could mean the set of all objects that are red.  The other one, the set of all objects that are spherical.  The third, the set of all objects that are made of rubber."  He pointed to the top left, top right, and bottom circles in turn.

"Then you have the areas where two sets overlap.  This oblong bit is red spheres, that one is red rubber objects - children's toys, boots, etc, and the one on the right is rubber balls of any colour.  The curved triangle in the middle would then be?"  He left the question hanging.

Stella knew how these went.  She answered, "Red rubber balls."

William grinned.  "Exactly.  Red rubber balls."  He tapped the triangle with his finger for emphasis, and a small slot opened up beneath the icon.

"Now what do we do?"

Stella laughed.  "Put some money in it, of course.  You saw the show."

"How much?"

"Doesn't matter."

William peered at the slot curiously.  "What a strange notion.  Let people pay what they think it's worth?  I wonder how much they get."

He pulled a small bill out of his wallet, and pushed it into the slot.  It fluttered away out of sight, and the icon was replaced by a row of four smaller symbols.  The first was a wedge about one third the size of the circle to its right.  The second was very obviously the planet Earth, rotating about its axis once, pausing, then rotating again.  The third was the Moon, going through its phases once, pausing, and again.  The last was a bright yellow dot with a pale ring around it.  A blue dot orbited around the ring, paused at the top, and continued.

"Let me guess.  One day, one month, one year?  That'd make the first a third of a day, then."

"It's the weekend, how about two days?"

"Um, are you sure?"

Stella chuckled softly.  "What?  You think this might be real, now?"

William pointed at the sign prominently displayed on the wall next to the Venn Machine.  "The Surgeon General has not determined whether or not use of the so-called Venn Machine has any long term health effects.  While their use cannot be prevented, it is not recommended."

"They make it sound so serious."  Stella shrugged, and touched the picture of the Earth twice.  Two Earths appeared below the row of icons.

"Two days, huh."  Curious, William touched the Moon icon, and the display changed to a single Moon.  "So you can't add them..."  A bit more experimentation showed that if you selected one item more than three times, it cycled around to one again.  

When he was done, Stella tapped the Earth again, twice.  "Two days.  Try something different for the weekend.  Monday, everything can go back to the same old routine."

"I guess I can survive two days off my routine.  So what do we do?"

Stella touched the middle of the display.  The two Earths brightened, and the row of icons dimmed.  Then two door-sized openings appeared, one to each side.  "You go in your side, and I go in mine."

William was dismayed to note that the door disappeared behind him.   "How do I get out?"

Stella's image appeared on the wall that separated the two sides of the machine.  "If you chicken out, press the red circle."  Her image pointed to the side nearest the door, and a palm-sized red circle there.  "Alternatively, once you're happy with the changes, press the green circle on the other side."

William peered at the display.  Surrounding Stella's image was a cloud of bubbles.  Inside each bubble was a version of Stella.  But when he looked a bit closer, each was subtly different.  This one had a slightly sharper nose, that one seemed to have lost a few pounds.  Another looked a few years younger.  As he looked at the bubbles further toward the edge, the differences got more significant.  It was hard to tell, though, as the further out bubbles were smaller and dimmer.

As he watched, Stella's image reached out to one side, and she looked at him appraisingly.  "Well, it's a start."

"So... you just touch images?  That's all?"

William touched the image of the slightly-younger Stella.  The image in the middle changed to suit, and a new collection of bubbles appeared, these ones all small variations on the younger Stella.  There were more that continued the theme, too.  William mused that making a selection indicated a bias.  So the population wasn't just a random set, but adaptive.

"Fascinating."  William touched another bubble, and Stella's image lost another handful of years.

"What was that?"

"This display is incredible.  I can't imagine how they're doing it."

"Wait for the next step.  Caroline said it's even more fun."

"Our daughter has used these things?"  William frowned.  When he said daughter, a cluster of bubbles at one edge of the display percolated to the front.  Inside each was an image of a twenty-something girl.  None looked quite like his daughter, but...  He touched one, wanting to get a closer look.

"Yes, our daughter has used them.  Multiple times, it sounded like."  Stella waited for a response, but William was too fascinated by the range of images on display.

Each option led to others, and before long William had crafted a very attractive image.  She didn't look much like Caroline or Stella, but perhaps a plausible cousin somewhere in her thirties.  A cousin who'd been working in Hollywood, and had opted for lots of plastic surgery.

William was musing on just how big was too big when everything changed.  His body was suddenly entirely different.  Looking down at himself, he saw delicate hands and...  "What?  You made me a girl?"  Even his voice had changed!

The sexy woman on the screen grinned at him, and pointed to the green dot to the side. "You've got under a minute to finish up your changes."  The dot was shrinking, going through phases like the moon going from full to new.

William looked at the image on the screen.  Did he want Stella to know he'd been thinking about breasts that big?  No!  Several bubbles later the image was somewhat more reasonable, and he was nearly out of time.  So he hit the green button, and the doors opened.

William stumbled out into the mall, unused to the balance of his new body.  The glass storefront across from the Machine made a passable mirror, and he made his way over to it, slowly adapting to how his body now moved.  "I'm...  Wait, where are my glasses?"

Stella stood beside him, admiring herself in the mirror.  "Can you see?"

"Yeah."  William rubbed his eyes, and looked around.  "Wow.  I can see everything.  I could live without needing bifocals..."  He looked back at his reflection.  Her reflection.

"You turned me into our daughter?  How?"

"It took some persistence."

"More importantly, why?"

"I thought you could use a couple days in her shoes.  You two haven't talked in years, and... well, that's sad.  Daughters and their fathers should know each other, William."

William snorted.  "That name doesn't fit this body."

"How about Willa, then?  Just until Monday."

William looked at the reflection.  She touched it, leaving fingerprints on the glass, beside dozens of others.  "Willa.  Nice to meet you."

"We're going to have to go shopping tomorrow.  You look silly in that shirt.  I mean it fits you, but... a staid, button-down shirt?  No."

William turned to look at his wife, and started feeling flushed.  This was going to take getting used to.   "Your dress looks wrong, too."

Stella posed, and then laughed.  "I know.  You made me awfully sexy, Willa.  Is there something I should know?"

"I didn't even know it was going to do that, until you changed me.  I was just playing around, trying out things that looked pretty."

"From the way you're looking at me, I can see it worked pretty well."

William blushed cutely.  "But... I...  I'm our daughter.  Isn't this wrong?"

Stella took William by the hand, and pulled her deeper into the mall  "You're my husband where it counts."

"I'm still attracted to females, so I guess you're right."

"Well..."

"What?"

"Never mind.  To the shops!"

Stella took William, who she insisted on calling Willa at every opportunity, on a whirlwind tour of the mall's selection of clothing stores.  They had under two hours, after all, to assemble a "passable wardrobe for a new young woman."

To William's surprise, the shopkeepers took his uncertainty in stride, giving Stella knowing smiles all the while.

Finally, both were dressed to Stella's satisfaction.  William was somewhat surprised at just how comfortable it was to wear a skirt and a sensible bra.  He commented on how nice it must be in the summer to feel the breeze on your legs.  Stella just grinned.  "That's the spirit, Willa."

As they walked out of the last store, dressed in their new purchases, a young woman about Willa's apparent age rushed up to her.  "Come quick, Caroline.  Your Mary's making googly eyes at some guy in the food court."

"What?"  William didn't even know where to begin, and before he could formulate any kind of protest, he was being dragged toward another end of the mall.  Stella followed along, watching Willa's bewilderment with a grin.

William was dragged up to a table where a young brunette in her early twenties was sitting.  Across from her was a slender androgynous man, that looked somewhat familiar.  The blonde hair, the hairstyle, even the eyes looked like Caroline's.

"Hi Judy," said the brunette, amiably.

"Don't you 'Hi Judy' me, Mary.  I can see who you're with.  So can Caroline, here."

"That's not Caroline," the young man said.  "I should know."

"What?" asked William, again.

"I'm Caroline," he said.  "So you needn't worry about Mary straying.  Sorry Judy, I didn't expect..."  He looked over at his female twin.  "Wait.  Who are you, then?"

"What?"

Stella gave William a nudge, hoping to dislodge the needle.   "That's your father.  I think I broke him."

Mary started giggling, and Caroline followed suit soon enough.  "Nice going.  Mom, right?"

Stella nodded.  "Wow.  Dad does nice work.  You're hot."

"What?"  William was looking between Mary and Caroline now, having noticed they were holding hands.

Caroline faced his father.  "Look, Dad.  This is so not how I figured this conversation would go.  I'm gay.  I've been in love with Mary since we met.  The main reason I'm a guy today is so I could propose to her, and do the bended knee thing and all."

Mary showed off a ring with a tiny diamond sparkling in it.  "See?"  Judy and Stella oohed and aahed over it while Caroline continued to talk to his father.

"Dad?  Come on, talk to me."

William sat down heavily.  "I... I can't deal with this.  You're a boy.  Why are you a boy?"

"I told you, Dad.  To propose to Mary.  Plus, she's bi, so I figured... why not?"

"You're not staying like that."  It was a flat statement, in a tone Caroline had come to know far too well.

He waved it off.  "I'll be a girl again soon enough.  Don't worry."

William got up, and slammed both hands on the table.  It wasn't as loud as he'd expected, but it still worked.  All the nearby chatter stopped.  "No.  You're changing back now."  His snarl came out rather cuter than he liked, but the intent was clear.

Caroline shot a beseeching look at his mother, then sighed.  "No, Dad.  I'm not.  I'm going to have a pleasant evening with my sweetie, and we're going to go home like this."

"Yes you are."  William grabbed Caroline's hand, and pulled.  Caroline's new form was no stronger than his old one, and William had the advantage of surprise and iron will.  It wasn't far to the Machine, and while Caroline protested all the way, William would not be dissuaded.

The fact that the Venn Machine was already open didn't mean anything to William, it just made it more convenient.  He pushed Caroline into one side, and stepped into the other.

"Would you listen?"  Caroline yelled, now that they were in private.  "This machine was set for a year.  Some twit thinks it's funny."

"Leaving you stuck as a girl for a year sounds good about now."

"It doesn't work that way.  Are you listening?  Come on, Dad.  I have my own life now."

"You're still my daughter.  Ah!  That's better."

"Yeah.  And this is the most we've talked in the last year.  What are you doing?"

"Changing you back, like I promised."  William stabbed at the green button, and smiled.  "Now you're my daughter again."

Caroline sighed as she looked down at herself.  "Ah well, it was fun while it... Um, Dad?  I'm nowhere near this big normally.  Crap, now I'm going to need new bras."  Then her eyes lit up with glee.  "And you're going to be very supportive."

William's pretty little face suddenly got a concerned look on it.  Caroline was tapping away rapidly, eye flicking to the diminishing green circle from time to time.  "Almost... very nice..."

Why wasn't there a red button any more?  William tapped where it had been, but nothing happened.  And then, just before the green circle disappeared... so did William.

Caroline emerged from her side of the booth slowly, and smiled sheepishly at Mary.  "Sorry, girl.  You're stuck with plain old me again."

Mary whistled appreciatively.  "Damn, but he does fine work for such an annoying person."

"Oh, I don't think he'll be annoying us for a while."

Stella looked into the other side, gasped softly, and picked up something blue and soft.  "Is this... William?"

Caroline looked contrite.  "I'm sorry Mom.  You know how he can get.  He gave me these," she hefted her breasts, which were straining against her shirt, "and I …  Sorry."

"How long?"

"Some idiot had set it for a year.  He's not stuck, I tried to tell him.  Change him for eight hours, and then he'll pop right back to plain old Dad."

Stella handed her husband to her daughter.  "You need a bra, young lady."

Mary held her jacket wide to block views of Caroline while she slipped out of her shirt and put the bra on.  While she did so, Stella talked.  About how William had been forced to retire early.  How their pensions wouldn't start for a few more years.  They had savings enough to bridge the gap, but William refused to let go of one penny more than they had to.  "Years like this?  Just sitting around the house?"

Caroline stepped from behind Mary.  She'd only done the shirt part-way up, so the bright blue of her bra showed clearly.  Mary applauded.  Stella reached out, and touched the bra gently.  "Can he feel this?"

Caroline nodded.  "It's not bad being clothes.  When you're being worn.  I'll take really good care of him."

"Oh...  Good."

Stella held out her keys, and Caroline took them with a confused look.  "Mom?"

"All the bills get paid automatically.  You really won't have to do anything at all."

"That's nice, but..."

Stella dropped a bill into the Machine's slot, and touched the year icon.  A brush of her fingers, and the doors appeared.

"What are you doing?"

"Me too."  Stella stepped inside.

"OK."