"Okay," I said, after the fourth personality. "I think we should, perhaps, stop doing the personality swaps."

"Yeah, that was... really unpleasant," Akane said, nodding. "God. Can you... do something about the adrenaline?"

"Here." I put my hand atop her head, and told her brain to stop panicking. And the brain listened.

"Thanks," Akane said, before exhaling loudly. "Okay, so! When we go far enough that I'm basically a whole new person, who still remembers everything I remember, that person freaks out because they're going to die in five minutes when the mental transformation wears off!"

"Death is another sort of change, and it is one you should learn to not risk causing on accident," I said, nodding. "What else did you learn?"

"I've learned that... even the other altered states of mind that didn't scream and cry and shit their pants about dying-" This was an exaggeration, but only a slight one; I'd rigged up a full-dive virtual reality thing so that Akane's new and temporary personae couldn't inflict any damage on her body, her surroundings, or her dignity. Thankfully, with Stupid Art Offline, when you shit in the game, you do not in fact shit in real life. "-that I didn't really like the changes that involved changing my personality. I like being me! I'm awesome! I am who I am on purpose! But, the version of me who was the same, except wanting something different... I kind of liked that."

"I see, I see," I said, nodding. "I suppose that does answer why you've pivoted to studying the mad science of transformation, and seemingly given up on understanding superheroes any further."

"Given up?" Akane asked. "No, I didn't give up. I found an answer that satisfied my curiosity, and started pursuing a new line of research. Next I studied the thesis itself, and now I'm studying mad science pedagogy through the lens of transformation. That's going to need your active participation to conclude, by the way. I hope you want to use holograms or turn people into stone yourself at some point."

"I'll figure out a use," I said, shrugging. "Right, well, how did this fit in?"

"Honestly? Due diligence, mainly," Akane said with a shrug. "What I'm trying to understand here is how skills are, or aren't, transferred between mad scientists. Right now, the only existing body of work I have on the subject of mad science pedagogy is from Doctor Wales, and it's about transformation. Therefore, it's important that I follow his directions to gauge the effectiveness of his directions."

"You should probably also study regular pedagogy, at least as far as the basic concerns and first principles go," I added. "There's not much variance among mad scientists in terms of raw intellectual horsepower, so that won't matter much, but how motivated the student is to learn does matter. Some ineffective teaching methods can still look like they work, simply because some of the students taught themselves the requisite skills."

"I see," Akane said, nodding. "Of course, with only a hundred or so demiurges on this planet, it'd be hard for me to gather a representative sample for proper testing, but... well, it's a project to look forward to. For now, I'll be satisfied with a more casual grasp on the subject; you're the only demiurge I interact with all that often, and if I'm confident that I can teach you what I know, then I'm happy."

"Aw, you're my whole academic world, too," I said, grinning at her.

"Fucking nerd. Also, that's not true. You have the interdimensional phone now, and you can call the Institute of Applied Transhumanism whenever you want."

"Yeah, whenever I want," I said, nodding. "That is not exactly often, I will admit. My tasking Arachne with collating historical records on half-spirits and mad science implants was more interaction with my peers than I historically had."

"I've been meaning to ask," Akane said. "I know you offered something in return to Arachne, but how did you just... order her around, like that? You said you're peers..."

"Well, kind of," I said. "We're both research fellows at the Institute of Applied Transhumanism, buuuut, we are of different ranks at the Institute. I entered already in the middle ranks, because the work I'd submitted happened to be a serious paradigm shift for almost everyone there, instead of the typical submission which was simply someone's own personal implanted tech that's different enough to show that it's their own work and they've got a talent and passion for it. And Arachne... well, she's one of those typical submissions. She still outranks the very beginners and those who aren't trying very hard, but I outrank her, and part of the point of a research fellowship is the ability to get people to help with your research projects."

"Fair enough," Akane said. "Hrm... I wonder if I should join the Institute myself..."

"If you do, I think you should do it in a way that's fundamentally funny," I said. "You very probably are not sitting on a whole new paradigm of transhumanism that changes the game for just about everyone, like I was."

"Ooooh, I could show off my own research into half-spirits," Akane said. "Maybe create something that looks and acts like a spirit-half, and mimics some of Nicky's powers. Just the flight, toughness, and strength, though. Not the social power."

"Hey, go wild," I said. "Although do be aware that, while you are very unlikely to create an actual artificial spirit-half, you are very likely to create something that annoys a lot of werewolves and which is also still weak to wolfsbane."

"True, yeah," Akane said, nodding. "Hey, what was your innovation that shifted the paradigm of transhumanism?"

"Honestly, it's kind of embarrassingly simple," I said. "I kept hearing transhumanist types saying shit like 'the brain is a computer' as a premise for 'you can hack it,' but I decided to extend that terrible metaphor as far as it'd go. The brain is a computer, therefore you can install as many apps on it as the hard drive can hold. That's why my first implant was the Virtual Machine, which was basically just a computer fueled by mad science, and also an implant that later gadgets of the right sort could be integrated into."

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"And why was that innovative?" Akane asked.

"Because for every implant you already have installed, the process of installing new ones becomes riskier and more dangerous," I said. "But, if you use my method... you've only got the one implant, and adding new functionality to yourself is as simple as writing the app. Now, of course, there are downsides to this approach."

"Really?" Akane asked. "That seems pretty foolproof to me."

"For one," I continued, "I have introduced the concept of an operating system to the human brain, and because mad scientists are just ordinary nerds inflated to a comical extent, there is of course an ongoing Mac vs PC vs Linux debate going on, which people keep emailing me to get my opinion on."

"Ah."

"And two, there is a significant amount of non-transferrable skill difference between the guy who grew a new gland in a petri dish, the guy who built a clockwork mechanism meant to replace your eyeball, and a software developer who works with carbon instead of silicon. But, for the most part, the idea of a framework gadget that all further gadgets are integrated into is taking root and becoming more mainstream and accepted. Now I just have to sit back and wait for the retrospective thinkpieces about how I ruined transhumanism, and then I'll know I truly made it."

"...I'm suddenly glad I don't actually work in academia and don't have to publish my findings. Less glad about my ambitions to teach, though."

"Anyhow," I said. "Since we were on the subject of transformation, about two or three subject changes ago, I would like to go back to that and discuss another transformational research project, vis-a-vis Lisa and that promise we made her, like, two weeks ago."

"Oh, right, that," Akane said. "I think it's ready, although of course, we can continue to refine it over time. We'll call it a Mark One."

----------------------------------------

"I am in heaven," Lisa probably tried to say, but failed to because she was currently too busy being a boneless, blissed-out heap.

The transformation fetish was a complicated and delicate one to indulge in, whether it was for real- "hey Lisa your collar that'll give you perfect tits is ready" -or not- "hey babe I wrote your self-insert getting zapped by a mad science ray that gives you even bigger boobs." Because, fundamentally, with most variants on the transformation fetish, you were saying 'I would rather you looked like this,' and when you were saying that to anyone who wasn't fairly secure in their relationships and body image, that was a recipe for hurt feelings.

(The Institute for Applied Transhumanism rejected a lot of rambling, biographical applications that considered transhumanism to simply be a more effective sort of cosmetic surgery. Our policy was that everyone in the Institute was responsible for reviewing and vetting new applicants, even though we did in fact have a department specifically for this, and it was mainly so that this department could forward these rejected applications to everyone along with some color commentary like "get a load of this fucking loser.")

(It turns out that a community of mad scientists does not actually provide succor and refuge from the scorn of your peers. It's just a new set of peers who know enough to scorn you more effectively.)

As such, I had a simple and fool-proof procedure that I followed before administering any sort of transformation to Lisa. Step one: inform her that it's cuddle time. Step two: scratch her behind the ears until she's good and melty and unable to form coherent words. Step three: once you've decided you're done with that, stop and let her collect herself. Step four, which is new and experimental:

"Use your words, kitten," I said, which provoked Lisa to make a noise I could only call 'verbal keysmashing.'

"...I'm a good girl," Lisa managed to slur out, her face still resting on Nicky's lap.

"The best girl of them all," Nicky agreed, patting Lisa's back, between the shoulder blades.

"Very fluffy and pettable," Akane added, having been brushing Lisa's tail before we decided we were done.

"Would the good girl like kisses to round off the most recent cuddle session?" I asked.

"She would," Lisa said, slowly pushing herself upright. "The good girl would love kisses... and help getting up."

I extruded some tentacles, which picked her up, rolled her over so she faced upward, then carefully bent her legs and hips so that she was in prime position to sit in my lap, with convenient access to kiss Akane, then Nicky, and then me.

"So, kitten, how do you feel?" I asked, after the kisses were handed out.

"I feel... good," Lisa said. While Lisa was a foxgirl and not a catgirl, the simple fact remained that 'vixen' was not a pet name that rolled off the tongue as cleanly as 'kitten' did, and Lisa was close enough to a catgirl for our purposes. "Like this is right, on some deeper level. I, uh... thiiiiink that whole 'I'm your pet foxgirl' thing miiiiight have become a strong enough thing for my spirit half to internalize it. I definitely have more essence now than I did before we started, though- I've started checking, what with that whole 'spirit of scientific curiosity' thing going around you and Akane."

"...That is fucking hilarious, and I am also very happy for you to have redefined yourself so that you take such profound and personal meaning from something that we do so often and so lovingly. And I am going to laugh about this after I give you your brand new collar and the attendant perfected rack. It's still a work in progress, but it's now good enough that I feel good about letting you wear it as much as you want."

"Oh hell yes," Lisa said, taking the offered collar from me and putting it on- once more leaving her wearing two collars, because she was a fucking Final Fantasy Foxgirl or some bullshit. "Hell yes!" Lisa yelled, grabbing her brand-new, much-enlarged honkers. They weren't record-setting, even in this household- Nicky's were still the champions- but they definitely were bigger than they were before, and her jumpsuit clung to them like a jealous lover made of a vacuum-sealed wet t-shirt. "I don't know how often I suck your dick, but I need to do it more often."

"I take it you're happy with the change?" I asked.

See, when you're bringing transformation fetish into a relationship with someone who has reason to be insecure about, like, literally anything relevant to the situation, the best way to do it safely is to make them feel secure before you raise the subject. Which, granted, can take some fucking doing. Sometimes your loved ones have mental illnesses, like personality disorders, or just general anxiety. So, y'know...

...Be careful, and also tell your girlfriend that she's hot and you love how she looks frequently enough that she stops doubting it.

"I am very glad I get to be your pet foxgirl," Lisa said, hugging me. "I've got Akane to thank too, so if I can't properly thank you..."

"You can definitely properly thank me," Akane said, nodding.