Trust Machines - Almost Human
“But I don’t want to be a thing,” whined a dark-haired girl who was slim to the point of being gaunt.
“Well, then you shouldn’t have taken the bet. Or gotten so shy about losing the last of your clothes. What possessed you to join the strip poker game, anyway?” asked the blonde walking beside her. She had the sort of perfect curves and heart-shaped face that can only come from years under a surgeon’s scalpel, or five minutes in a Venn Machine.
Her companion blushed slightly, and looked down. “Well, why’d you tell me about the game then, Jimmy?”
“It’s Jane, like this. Can you call me Jane, Therese?”
Therese tore her gaze away from her friend’s perfect breasts. “Do I have to? It’s just so weird that you’re... enjoying yourself so much in this body.”
Jane added more bounce to her step, grinning at the way her breasts reacted in her woefully insufficient bra. She grinned even more at the way Therese’s gaze was glued to them, her head visibly bobbing in time. “Come on, Tee, you can’t tell me you’re not enjoying seeing me like this.”
Therese sighed. “How did you end up like that, anyway?”
“A full house.” At Therese’s confused look, Jane laughed, then continued, “Same strip poker game, last month. I went all in on a full house, Boris had four of a kind. I wanted to stay in the game, and made the same sort of bet you did.”
“But that was a month ago, and I was limited to betting the rest of the weekend.”
“So was I.”
Therese stopped abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk. “So why the hell do you still look like...” She flailed her hands, gesturing all up and down her friend’s body. “All that?”
“Two reasons. No, three. First, my tips quadrupled overnight. I thought going to work like this would be hell, and there was some pretty brutal teasing. That was over quick and it turned out to be the best career move ever. Not that I want to be a waiter forever, but... well, it’s way more fun like this. That’s the second reason. This body is just so much more fun than my old one.”
Therese was openly staring at Jane, now. “But... but... You want to... stay like this?”
“Yeah. That relates to the third point. We’ve hung out forever, Therese. Yet we’ve never gone beyond being friends. The thing is... I’ve seen how you’ve looked at me the past month. You haven’t admitted it, but... well, I’ll admit mentioning the strip poker game to you had an ulterior motive. I wanted to see how far you’d go to see me...”
Therese blushed, covering her face with her hands, then peeking out between her fingers. “Naked?”
“You’ll get to, if you go through with this. Better, you’ll get to be worn by me.”
“How is that better?”
Jane posed, thrusting out her chest and grinning as it inevitably drew Therese’s gaze. “You’ll get to hold these all day.”
“As a bra.” Therese clutched her hands imploringly. “I don’t want to be a thing! Please, can’t we do something... less drastic?”
Jane turned and started walking toward the mall once more. “You’re the one that accepted the bet. Half my chips if you won, the rest of the weekend as anything I wanted if you lost. I want to wear you, to show you that it can be... fun.”
Therese scurried to keep up with Jane’s long strides. “I just hate the idea of not being... human.”
Jane stopped again, and Therese almost ran into her. She turned to face her old friend. “Human? What does it mean any more to be human?”
Therese stared uncomprehendingly. “I... What do you mean, what does it mean?”
“We can be anything. A bra or a bird, a cat or a chocolate cake. Boris once spent a weekend as a bucket of blue paint. Said that being painted on the fence was fun, but the rest of the time was...” Jane shrugged. “Well, it pretty much wasn’t.”
“But none of those are human. They can’t talk, or laugh.”
“Birds can talk. Well, some of them. I spent a few days as a cat, and I could get my meanings across. Is that what makes someone human? Ability to talk?”
“I...” Therese stared at Jane’s chest. “Not just... talking.”
Jane chuckled and stepped closer to Therese. “So it’s the sex you’d miss? I didn’t know your love life was so active that two days away from it would be so daunting.”
“That’s not it. It’s... Human contact in general. Seeing people. Seeing, period.” Therese bit her lips, and then finally admitted, “Being blind for days is terrifying.”
“Ah. Well, I think we can work around that. Come on, it’s not much further now.”
Therese squeaked and looked ahead. “Why did you have to live so close to the mall? I need more time.”
“Just luck, really. I've been there since before anyone had ever heard of Venn Machines. It has made for awesome poker nights, though.”
“Yeah,” said Therese morosely, “Awesome. And terrifying.”
“We'll start you off with an harmless change, and if you really, truly hate it after a stroll around the mall, we'll figure out something else. Okay?”
Therese sighed. “I guess. I'll make good on my bet, don't worry.”
Jane opened the glass door of the mall and gestured for Therese to precede her. “I just wish you weren't acting like you were going to an execution.”
“I'll be fine.” Then Therese muttered, ”I hope.”
Jane set the Venn Machine for eight hours. “No matter what happens, you'll be normal by dinnertime, see? We can stick to short changes until you're comfortable.”
“But I'm still yours all weekend?”
“Yup. I don't want to torture you, though. If you really can't hack it, I'll understand.”
Therese straightened her shoulders and marched smartly into the Venn Machine. Jane hopped eagerly into her side, and started to explain the controls. She pointed out the red button, that would release them both, but begged Therese not to use it, as that would turn her back into Jimmy. Therese promised to be good, and waited patiently as Jane crafted her new shape.
“Ready?” asked Jane. “It's a little change to start. Most of you will stay the same.”
Therese nodded, not trusting her voice. A moment later she started to laugh. “An 'armless change, indeed.” She wiggled her empty shoulders at Jane, and they both broke down in relieved giggles until the doors appeared.
Therese walked carefully over to the full length mirror that had been installed next to the Venn Machine. She turned this way and that, studying herself. Eventually she noted, “I feel way lighter like this. Thanks.”
Jane finally allowed herself to smile, and hugged her friend. Keeping one arm around the armless woman's shoulders, one hand resting where Therese's right arm ended, she guided them deeper into the mall. “One turn about the mall to see how you take it. Think you can manage that, Tee?”
Therese leaned into the support and smiled. “Lead on. I feel almost giddy with relief. This isn’t nearly as bad as I feared.”
Her relief lasted about a quarter of the way around the mall, then the pitying looks started to fray her nerves. She was staring into a T-shirt shop wondering if it would help to buy a shirt saying ‘I'm not bad, I'm just Venned that way’ when a young girl approached her. With the brazenness of those too young to know better, the girl pointed to her shoulder and asked what happened to her arms.
The girl's embarrassed mother tried to distract her, but Therese smiled and crouched to put her head closer to the girl's. “I'm just trying it out, they're not gone forever.”
“Oh!” exclaimed the girl. “You used the magic box. Why? Can I touch it?”
“Katie...” cautioned her mother.
Therese knelt to bring her shoulder into reach. “It's okay, it won't hurt.”
Katie touched the rounded spot where an arm had been minutes before, a look of wonder on her face. Then she ran back to her mother, and asked, breathlessly, “Can I use the magic box, Mummy?”
“Not until you're older. Hopefully a lot older.”
“But Tina gets to,” whined Katie as she was led away.
“Tina is old enough to do and be what she wants, no matter what I say,” grumbled the mother.
Jane watched Therese's expression. “You okay?”
Therese grinned and nodded. “Yeah, actually. Feels good to have it out in the open.”
After that, Therese made a point of grinning at anyone who shot her a pitying look, and often had to suppress giggles at their stunned reactions.
As they finished their loop around the mall, Therese grinned manically at Jane. “Already? I feel deliciously deviant like this. What do you have in store for me next?”
Jane set the Venn Machine for sixteen hours, and gestured to Therese to enter. “Another step along the path. I think you'll like it.”
Therese waited mostly patiently, bouncing up and down from time to time. She dutifully turned sideways when asked. “Almost done?”
“Looks good.” Jane tapped the green button.
Therese looked confused, as far as she could tell nothing had changed. She bounced up and down again. “I feel even lighter, which is cool, but... how?”
Jane just grinned mysteriously, and waited until Therese was standing in front of the mirror, checking herself out and frowning. “Turn sideways,” she suggested.
Therese did so, and started giggling again. “I’m hollow?” She could see through her body from one shoulder to the other. Instead of rounded nubs, there were sleeve-sized holes where her arms should be, and the hole went right through her body.
“Just a little. May I?” Jane asked, her hand poised near one of Therese’s shoulder holes.
Therese nodded, biting her lip. She did her best to suppress her giggles, but soon couldn’t help it. Jane’s hand was wiggling and waving from her other shoulder, and it tickled so! Once Jane had had her fun, she withdrew her arm. “I could store my purse in there...” she giggled.
“Maybe not.” Therese frowned at her image in the mirror, turning forward once more. “I’m... you didn’t just do my arms. You made me fatter!”
Jane sighed. “You’re not fat. You’ve just got the tiniest bit of curves to you.” She stood beside Therese, comparing their bodies. “I’ve got way more curves than you, and you can’t take your eyes off me.”
“But... I’ve tried so hard to lose weight.”
“And you have! I’ve just... redistributed it. I bet you’re twenty pounds lighter at least.”
Therese bounced up and down experimentally, and nodded. “I feel at least that much lighter. Cool. This is way easier than starving myself.” Then she bounced some more, transfixed by how her chest would actually jiggle when she did so.
They took another stroll around the mall. This time, the looks Therese got were more puzzled than sympathetic, since the change was so obviously Venn-derived. Therese made a point of turning sideways to anyone who looked at her funny, and sometimes Jane would wave at them through the void between Therese’s shoulders. The double-takes they got often left them paralyzed with laughter.
Jane was dabbing at the tears of laughter from around Therese’s eyes as they approached the Venn Machine once more. “Ready for a big step?”
Therese suddenly was serious again. “Will I be able to see?”
“Yes.”
Therese leaned her back against the Venn Machine, where the door would appear. “Do it.”
This time, Jane set the duration for a day. Therese didn’t comment, she was too busy losing her balance and tumbling into the Venn Machine. She bounced back to her feet, giggling. “Oops.”
“Nut. Weren’t you afraid of this thing not half an hour ago?”
“I...” Therese suddenly looked nervous again, then straightened what was left of her shoulders. “I trust you. I don’t think I’d be willing to do this with anyone else.” She looked into Jane’s face, and smiled at what she saw there. “You won’t hurt me.”
“I’d never dream of it. I’m glad I pushed you out of your comfort zone. This may... push a little further.”
“Just do it, already.”
A minute later, Therese was suddenly looking up at Jane. She blinked in surprise, and tried to look around, but she didn’t seem to have any way to turn her face, other than rotating at the hips. “What did you do?” Therese whispered. She tried to speak louder, but no matter what she did, all she could produce was a soft murmur.
When the door reappeared, Therese darted out to the mirror, and stared at herself in shock. She had no head, no neck. Instead, her face was in the middle of her torso, her eyebrows brushing against the underside of her nipple-less breasts. “I feel...”
“Yes?”
Therese bounced up and down giddily. “I feel really, really light,” she said in her soft voice.
Jane stepped up beside her. “That’s because you’re hollow.” She reached into the neck-hole where Therese’s neck had been, and ran a finger down the inside of her chest.
When Jane’s fingers brushed the inside of Therese’s breast, she gasped and trembled. “Oh wow. That feels... Do it again. Please?”
Jane fluttered her fingers from one breast to the other, smirking at Therese’s vocal reaction. They were starting to attract some dirty looks, so Jane finally stopped. “We’re not doing anything indecent. Really. Nothing to see here, move along.”
Therese pouted. “Aww. Wait, I’m half naked...”
“You’re still decent. That’s kind of the point.”
Therese stepped back from the mirror, tried craning this way and that to see inside herself. “Wait, if I’m hollow... how am I not crumpling into a heap?”
“You’re still fairly thick.” Jane used her fingers as calipers at one of Therese’s sleeve-holes, and held it up to show that Therese was about half an inch thick. “Plus there’s some boning, like a corset rather than a ribcage.”
“Oh. Wait, a corset? I’m... half clothing?”
Jane nodded. “Your upper half is done. How do you feel?”
Therese studied herself critically in the mirror. “My upper half will be like this... and the rest will be a skirt, I guess? And you’ll... wear me? Just like this?”
“That was the idea, yes,” Jane said, wringing her hands nervously. “Are you going to be okay with it?”
“My top half isn’t changing, so I’ll be able to speak and see as well as I do now? Yeah. Let’s do this.”
This time, when Jane finished with the change, Therese’s viewpoint dropped once more. It felt as if she was on her knees. She tried to look at herself, but her lack of a neck made that impossible yet again. Instead she closed her eyes, and attempted to feel the shape of her body from the inside. She was completely hollow now, that much was clear. But it wasn’t until Jane picked her up and she could feel how her lower parts swished that she really understood.
As Jane held her up at the mirror, Therese breathed, “I’m a dress.” Her lower body had become a heavy, fleshy skirt. When Therese tried to move her legs, the skirt swished back and forth.
“Yup,” confirmed Jane.
“A human dress.”
“Exactly. What do you think?”
“I think I want to be worn by you. I mean, what else can I do now, anyway?”
Jane bounced happily. “Awesome. I knew you’d come around.” She carried her Therese-dress off to the nearby changing rooms, stripped out of her dress and bra, then held Therese up once more. “Ready?”
“Yes. What are you waiting for?”
“I...” Jane hesitated. “Well... you’re a person. Still at least partially human. Should I wear you like this?”
“You said you’d been a bra before, and nobody worried about wearing you. Why are you balking now?” asked Therese in frustration. “I’m a dress. I’m made to be worn. You made me to be worn.”
“But you have a face! And you’re... almost exactly my skin tone. It’s going to look weird.”
“Just put me on already. I don’t want to hang around like this for the next day, uselessly.”
“Two days. I set the timer a little higher this go around. I could change you back,” offered Jane.
“Not on your life. I made a deal, as did you. I’m your dress now, why aren’t you wearing me already? Please, it felt so good with just your hands inside me,” begged the dress. “I’m practically vibrating with need here.” It was true, her skirt was rippling agitatedly.
“But...”
“I’m the only goddamned dress in the world that can clearly and unequivocally state that I want to be worn. I. Want. You. To. Wear. Me. Why is this suddenly so hard?”
“Because you’re made of meat. And you can talk. And... God, I’m going to look like I’m practically naked wearing you.”
“I am naked. But that’s OK. I’m a dress. And I’ll be covering you up. Wear. Me.”
“Okay, okay. Geez, talk about a pushy dress.” Jane heaved the dress above her head with some effort. While Theresa was now very light for a human, she was an exceptionally heavy dress. Once her hands were inside the skirt, Theresa wriggled and squirmed her way down Jane’s body, drawing more than a few moans from both of them, and a sharp word from the proprietor that sex in the changing rooms wasn’t allowed.
Jane stared at her reflection in the mirror, panting from the exertion and the stimulation both. “Holy... It looks like you’re part of me.” She ran her fingers over the faint ghost of seams at her neck and shoulders. The transition looked more like a tan line than a piece of clothing. “How are you doing this?”
“Beats me. It just felt right. And this feels sooooo right.”
Jane tried to wiggle a finger under the seam, and failed. “But how do I get you off?”
“A nice movie and some classical jazz first would be nice.”
“I’m serious! I can’t take you off.”
“So am I. C’mon, let’s go back to your place and give this a real workout.”
“But...”
“I can feel how damp you are down there, you know.”
Jane whimpered softly. “What kind of monster have I created?”
“The best kind. Come on... Or I’ll see what I can do right here.” Therese traced a ripple of flesh up the inside of Jane’s thigh, making the woman moan.
“Fuck me.”
“I intend to.”
Jane ran. She arrived at her apartment panting and out of breath. Therese was heavy, much heavier than any clothes she’d ever worn, and when the dress felt like it she could pull her skirt tight against Jane’s thighs and upper calves, making it hard to even manage a shuffling walk, never mind a run. After the second time Jane had nearly stumbled and fallen, she threatened to turn Therese into a minidress.
“Oooh. I’d be even lighter,” mused Therese.
Jane started walking again, briskly. Her apartment and privacy were only a block away. “You want to be even lighter than this?”
Therese tried to nod, which only served to tug against Jane’s breasts and make her moan. “Yeah. I’m still too heavy.”
“You’re insane! I bet you don’t even weigh twenty pounds, and you want to be lighter?”
Therese’s voice was soft but insistent. “Yes.”
Jane sighed with relief as she reached her door. She unlocked it, then darted through and slammed it behind her as quickly as she could. “You’re crazy. You were unhealthily thin even before we started this. And you don’t think you’re light enough yet?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Instead, Therese focussed on tightening her skirt about Jane as hard as she could.
Jane squealed, windmilling her arms for balance but ultimately failing. She caught herself on the hall closet door. “Stop that. Or at least wait until I’m nearer a couch.”
“Or a bed?” teased the dress, relenting just a bit.
Jane hobbled her way to her bedroom, and examined herself in the mirror on her closet door. With Therese so tight around her legs, she looked... sleek. A bit like a fleshy mermaid. “Oh, wow... I look fucking hot.”
“Mmm, just what I was thinking.” Therese started wriggling her flesh, teasing all up and down Jane’s body.
With a squeal and a moan, Jane tumbled to the bed. Her hands roamed over her fleshy prison, making her dress moan just as much.
A sweaty hour later, Jane begged for release and her dress finally granted it. One final, heroic surge of dress-flesh sent Jane into a caterwauling orgasm. Both were left panting and shuddering on the floor.
“God. That was... I’ve never felt like that before,” panted Jane, when she could finally think.
“Me either. Being wrapped around you through that... mmm, I’m in heaven.”
Jane eventually got up and staggered her way to the shower. She tried to persuade her dress that it was time to let go, but the dress was having none of it. Eventually Jane just turned the shower on in frustration, and even when she stepped inside, the dress still clung to her, purring happily.
The dress did, at least, open up her sleeves one at a time so Jane could scrub inside, between the dress and her still-tingling skin. Doing so proved so distracting that the shower ran cold before they got out.
Finally, Jane was toweled off and her hair was dry. A bit of work on her makeup and she looked presentable... if it wasn’t for the dress making it look like she was nippleless and had a built in skirt. “I don’t think I can pull this look off, at work. Maybe with a crop-top and a miniskirt, though...”
Jane’s dress protested that there was really no need, but once the dark green top had been wiggled into place, and paired with a black miniskirt that covered half-covered the dress’ skirt, she had to admit it looked sharp.
“And I can even see,” mused the dress. “I can live with this. Can you?”
“We’ll find out soon enough. I’m on in twenty, we’re going to have to run. No hobbling, okay? If you trip me up at work I will walk right back to that damn Venn Machine and have you off.”
“Fine. No hobbling.” The dress pulled tight around Jane’s, legs, and snuggled around her in an all-body hug. “Not unless you’re somewhere safe anyway.”
Jane whimpered softly. “You’re going to be sooo much trouble.”
She did manage to make it to work on time. Barely.
At first, Jane’s dress was content to just be a strange looking decoration on her belly. But when the third table asked after that ‘weird tattoo’, she spoke up. “I’m not a tattoo, I’m a dress.”
Well, that set off all sorts of questions, and she chatted up the curiosity seekers whenever she could. Some wanted to know why, others wanted to know what it was like. Several of the latter looked positively enchanted by the dress’ description of her day so far. Jane just tried not to blush, and artfully danced away from tables where the dress’ stories threatened to go over the line.
At the end of the night, Jane had almost double her usual tips. “Wow. That’s... wow. I’m tempted to keep you.”
“Okay.”
Jane stared down at her dress in surprise. “Seriously?”
“This has been the most amazing day of my life. I’m finally thin. I don’t want to give that up. Not ever.”
“And... you’d let me wear you?”
The dress snorted. “Please. Try taking me off. Hint... I’m not going to let you.”
Jane sighed. “You’re going to change back in a day and a bit.”
Thrashing and swirling about Jane’s legs, almost making her fall, the dress wailed out its protest. Jane petted it until it was quiet once more, then started off toward the mall. “There is a way. And it’s something I’ve wanted to talk to you about...”
“What?” sniffed the dress.
“I... well, like you said, there’s nobody else I really trust in the Venn Machine. Not enough to set it for a few months, or a year. I’ve been going a few days at a time, swapping changes with the other waitresses, but... I want to be Jane for years. Will you do that for me?”
“Of course,” whispered the dress. “If you’ll do it to me, too.”
Jane hugged the dress tight. “Of course! What should I change you into?”
“You said something about a shorter skirt? I think knee length would be just about perfect.”
Jane stumbled to a stop and for once it wasn’t due to her dress hobbling her. “You want to be a human dress for... years?”
“Forever, if you’ll have me,” the dress stated, simply. “Being worn by you, holding you like this, skin to skin... oh, I truly, truly never want it to end.”
Jane stood stock still for a long time. Long enough that her dress started to wriggle uncertainly against her legs. “Jane? I’ll behave at work, I promise. You’ll barely know I was there.”
“Yes,” murmured Jane, in a tone that matched her dress’. “I’ll be Jane, you’ll be my Dress. And none shall come between us.”
Jane skipped the rest of the way to the mall, her dress trilling happily as she did so. There was a moment of trauma when the dress became human once more. She scratched at her arms desperately trying to get rid of them, and Jane had to talk her down. Dress calmed down just enough to press the green button, and cried tears of joy when she was in her proper form once more.
Jane didn’t even take Dress back to the changing room, she put her on right there in the open Venn Machine, not even caring who saw.
When she stepped out, it was to come face to face with another woman in a flesh-toned dress. “Hi,” she said, looking down at Dress. “You made quite an impression tonight. I hope you don’t mind...”
Dress grinned up at her. “Not at all.” Then she looked into the face that was at her height. “I hope we get to meet again. Have fun!”
“Oh god,” murmured Jane. “They’re multiplying.”