Alex grinned at my crestfallen expression. “Expecting someone else?” “I met Angela at that shop you sent me to. Was that all some kind of setup?” Alex grinned and nodded, then looked puzzled by my hurt expression. “What? I could tell you two were made for each other. You’re both crazy about being something else.” My anger faded and I shook my head ruefully. “Oh, that kind of setup, not a prank. Angela told me she wanted to apologize for the catgirl incident. If you wait, you could do it in person.” Alex’s grin grew bigger. “She’s coming here? Good for you, I knew you could close the deal.” My expression must have revealed my inner conflicts. He punched me on the shoulder, just hard enough to shake me out of my spiralling thoughts. “What was that for?” I asked, rubbing my shoulder. “Angela’s amazing. Don’t do... whatever it was you were doing there. Yes, I had sex with her. Once. As a catgirl. That fact is still screwing with my head. I’m not cut out for the kind
Trust Machines - New Year's Revolution by dkfenger, literature
Literature
Trust Machines - New Year's Revolution
Imagine a world where there are transformation booths in malls in place of the old photo kiosks. Two people step in, and each selects a change for the other. Welcome to that world... the world of the Trust Machines – known colloquially as Venn Machines due to their interlocked-rings logo. Note: The Trust Machines setting was inspired in part by Elrod W’s MAU stories. *** *** *** “Come on, you two. Everyone else at the party has agreed to get venned.” Gary glared at his friend. “Peer pressure isn’t going to get me into one of those crazy machines.” “Oh come on, it’s New Years! Time to try new things. The Venn Machines are perfectly safe. Nobody’s ever gotten hurt. Since you two haven’t tried them before, we’ll let you off with a one month change. But the rest of us are doing the full year as someone else.” Gary shook his head. “How on earth do you figure that will work? Are you just going to walk up to your job and say ‘Hi, I’m still Tassie’?” Tassie nodded zir head.
I debated how to tell the dresses apart for some time, as I was sure Kat... that is, my dress would prefer not to be restored. After mulling the matter for a while as I stared at the box, I moved to the closet. Were the dresses truly identical? I ran my hands over each in turn, and shook my head. I’d hoped to feel... something, that distinguished the woman from the dress. Nothing. Not a wiggle, not a strange unearthly warmth, not some kind of empathic emanation that would let me know the dress was happy being a dress. I returned sullenly to the box, then got an idea. I pointed it at each dress in turn, but only one made the tip glow. “Aha! There you are, you minx.” With the identities of the dresses settled, I returned to the pair of identical bras. Waving the box at them produced no useful glows this time. I sighed, and picked one at random. I hoped Katya was right about the box not turning non-people into people. “Sorry about this, but I promised to wear you out