Dee pulled out his tongs as he asked, “Have you considered turning it off?”
Korri scooted over to Dee’s side of the table. Dee glanced over with his tongs out. Korri gave a quick smile and folded her hands in her lap. She looked at the alarmed customer, who quickly answered, “I’m not sure what will happen if we do that.”
Dee glanced at the girl in the pink top and asked her, “How do you feel?”
Her eyes flicked over to him for an instant but she kept her gaze on the game. She muttered, “Not very great. I’m actually kinda sick to my stomach but…I can’t stop playing.” She clicked the shoulder buttons.
Dee leaned out with the tongs but turned to look at Korri and posed, “What do you suggest?”
Korri sat up straighter and first asked, “Do you have the receipt?”
The older woman fished around in her purse until she came up with a slip. Korri reached out for it but Dee blocked her hand with the tongs. He cleared his throat, turned the tongs around, and held them out for Korri to take.
She used them to accept the receipt and examine it. The customer’s name was listed as Dana Wilton, which the older woman confirmed as correct. The girl in the purple top came over to the counter and smiled at Dee, who nodded his head in response. She then folded her hands and glanced at her feet. Dee watched her before returning his gaze to the receipt. Dana added that she’d forgotten to bring the game box or instructions and apologized.
The game was cited as Transformation Cavern. Dee paged through the catalog but didn’t find anything under the name. After a moment of anxious tapping by the mother, Dee looked up and whispered into Korri’s ear. Korri appeared startled as she felt his warm breath drift across her skin.
It took a strong, conscious effort for her to parse the statement he’d passed to her. She said carefully, with a swallow and a glance at Dee, “Did…t-the game box say anything about it being a new release?”
She posed the question to Dana, who didn’t look at her ‘sons’ but instead nodded immediately. “I’ve been…waiting for it since my son, Daniel, first told me about it. But I couldn’t get past the first level where you need to convert an imp into an angel to advance. I let my son Peter give it a try. He soon got addicted. It was okay for the first three levels. I played a little. Then, Daniel did again…”
Korri raised a finger and asked the group, “Which of them is which son?”
The girl in the purple top gently raised her hand, gestured between herself and the other girl, and announced, “I’m Daniel…that’s Peter. Although, I like the name Diana.” Dee smiled at Daniel, who tapped her toes on the tile and blushed.
[https://i.imgur.com/vIJ2te2.jpg]
Peter snorted between button presses, her eyes never straying from the screen. “I’m not gonna give up on my name. But at least I can be Petra and still rock.”
Dana’s shoulders drooped and she looked plaintively at Korri as she said, “These are my sons. Neither of them would’ve even thought about being girls before. This game has done something to them…to all three of us. Please help us.” Diana hid her face.
Korri took a breath. She clutched the tongs and walked around the counter. She stood right in front of Peter/Petra, who regarded her with a raised eyebrow. Before the teenage girl could respond, Korri snatched the portable with the tongs, snapping the clamshell opening shut.
Petra looked at her in shock, then slowly blinked and glanced down. She trembled and staggered to the floor. She looked down the front of her shirt with wide-eyed terror then tentatively reached around to touch the mass of hair she was sitting on.
Daniel/Diana blinked a few times as well and touched her arms to her stomach. The biggest moment of shock came from Dana, who fished a compact from her purse and stared at her younger face.
Dee supported his chin with his fist, gave Korri a weak smile, and remarked, “That works.”
Petra screeched, “I HAVE TITS!” Dee sighed. As if he hadn’t heard that phrase at least a dozen times a day. Diana’s reaction intrigued him though. The girl looked embarrassed but she didn’t appear stunned. He cocked an eyebrow but turned his attention to Dana, who was trembling against the counter as she asked, “You can fix this, right?!”
Dee looked to Korri and shrugged as he replied, “My information isn’t new enough to list the effects of this product but….I suppose I could call over for the information that came with shipping when it was stocked.”
On the floor, Petra curled up into a ball, which quickly burst open when her legs touched. Her mouth dangled, unable to form the words swirling in her thoughts. Diana flashed a look of concern and walked over to her sister.
Korri frowned and set the portable system and the tongs on the counter. Dee used his spare tongs to grab the tongs and the portable. He dropped them both into a bag and set them as far away from him on the counter as possible. Dee sighed. He liked those tongs but he knew they’d be fully-decontaminated overnight by measures too strong for human tissue.
That settled, Dee told Dana that he would call for that department to send over the information. He noticed Dana was staring at the system in the bag far too much for comfort. So, he tucked it out of sight on the floor. Only then did the spell on her seem to break.
Korri sat on the floor next to Petra, who fidgeted between clawing at her long locks and burying her head in her legs. Face pressed in her stretch pants, she gave a muffled yell which only brought on more grumbling. She muttered to herself, “I hate this.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Korri considered putting her arm around the kid but Petra curled and tensed up like an irate porcupine fanning limbs instead of quills. She looked straight ahead and declared, “I can’t believe I just said…’not very great’. And what I said before. I can’t stand any of this!”
Petra glared at everyone then sulked. Her face clenched as she said, “I’ll never be able to play in the yard. Everyone will know. Every single one of my friends.” She pressed her face to her knees and then shot up. With a growl, she started running in place without any regard for her body or hair moving everywhere. She jumped down and did a push-up which transitioned into a sit-up. She kept doing sit-ups until her hair had completely covered her vision. She grunted when her hair got caught and yanked at it roughly.
Panting, Petra ranted, “I’m not a girl! I’m not any kind of girl. I’m not! I’m not! It’s all fake. It’s not real!”
Dana whirled around and told her, with as much firmness as she could command in herself, “Honey, I’m sorry this is happening but you’re just going to hurt yourself. Sit down and relax. We’re going to fix this.”
Petra glared at her mother and sulked, “You don’t understand…” She slammed down on the floor with her arms folded and stared up at the ceiling. Diana scooted away with her feet tucked under herself.
Dee focused on the ringing of his phone. Korri took a deep breath and offered in Petra’s direction, “I’m not really a girl either.”
Petra glanced over. “I bet you like it... like my brother does.” Her gaze snapped to Diana, who clenched up and shook her head. Petra sighed.
Korri shook her head too. “I have to do it because my boss made me. I was gonna play a dumb joke on someone.” She avoided looking at Dee.
Petra said simply, “I’d quit.”
Korri shrugged. “It’s not the first time I’ve been changed into a girl.”
Petra rolled her eyes. “Geez. I think you enjoy it. Man, I’d work anywhere else.” Diana clutched her hands together and softly said, “I’m sorry…”
Dana sighed and told her, with a mother’s comforting tone, “It’s not your fault, Daniel. It’s going to be okay.”
Diana squeezed herself closer on the floor and forced out the words, “Yes, it is my fault. I hacked the game!”
All eyes turned to Diana, who looked anxiously towards Petra. Petra’s face tensed. Dee, who was just finishing his call, chimed in, “How?”
Dana added, “Why?”
Petra said nothing but cast her a soundless, smoldering gaze. Korri leaned closer, her arms at the ready, should she need to break up a fight.
Diana sniffled as tears glossed her eyes. She said, her voice trembling, “Because…because…I wanted to be a girl. I don’t want to be a boy anymore. I can’t stand it. I can’t stand hearing the name ‘Daniel’ in my ears, when the word hurts so much.”
She took a breath. “I knew about this store but I was too afraid to save up money for something. I figured, if you bought it and then…maybe something happened to me, by accident…then there would be nothing to be done about it.”
Dana shook her head. “Oh, sweetie…”
Petra glared at her mother and retorted, “Don’t you go easy on HIM! It’s all HIS fault!”
Diana recoiled from her brother’s words. She buried her face in her hands. Petra shot a look at Diana and scolded, “Go ahead and cry…ya dumb sissy!” But, as Petra yelled, her eyes glossed over with tears too. With a grunt, she pressed at them with her fists and squelched all sounds of a sob.
Dana stepped towards her children and hovered over with confusion and concern. She seemed frozen. Korri sat up straighter and resolved, “I’ll fix it for you and your mom, I promise you that.”
Petra turned around, clawed at her hair, and asked, “Oh yeah? Well, you’re stuck too…So, how are you going to help?”
Korri stared back without words and lowered her head. She sat there, until her eyes widened, and she asked, “Diana, what did you use to hack the game?”
After wiping her eyes and clearing her throat, Diana said, “It was a special umm…SD card. I saw some stuff online about it. I just changed the transformation stuff to some…stuff like way at the end of the game and the temporary changes…into a progressive change. And I guess it reduces age too.” She glanced at her mom.
Petra asked flatly, “Permanent?”
Diana clenched her mouth. “I dunno…It didn’t say. I hoped so…for me.”
Just as it looked like Korri would have to hold Petra back from lunging for her sister, a man with long, green hair walked in with a folder under his arm. He pushed his glasses back and went over to Dee, who accepted the folder. Then, as quickly as the man appeared, he left.
Dee riffled through the information, which included one box with a manual of the game. He ushered Korri to look. They both scanned the folder until Korri’s finger shot out and landed on a notation. Dee gave her a smile of approval.
Korri turned around and pronounced, “I know exactly how to help. But, first, I need to know something from Diana.” She looked towards Korri, as she asked, “Did you set the game, when you were hacking it, to an individual or a group?”
Diana pressed her lips together then said, “I set it to a group. But I…didn’t mean for it to do this to everyone.”
Dana laid her hand on her forehead and asked the same question again, “Why?”
Diana’s tears returned. “Because no one ever wants to play with me. No one ever even wants to be in my room. Since dad left us mom…you’ve never even talked to me except when they send a letter home from school. You’re always into work. You’re always into your games. I tried to play them. I tried one with you but you gave it up when I started loving it. You left me behind. And Peter…Peter always has sports. He always has games on the TV and games at school. But he never has time to hang around with me. I just…I just wanted us to do something together…the three of us…as a family. For once, for just this once…"