Chapter 29

Flotsam

Chapter 29: The Good Ending

“Knock knock,” says my voice.

“Come in?”

“Hi,” says an unfamiliar Halley, doing a dancey finger wave. She has my face, or I guess my former face, but a little prettier, like she’s mastered makeup or had a little Shaping done. She has long midnight blue hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and the slender upper-body of a woman who eats right and exercises regularly. She’s wearing a tight grey top that covers her four perky little breasts and leaves her toned midriff bare and a carmine bolero jacket that only covers her shoulders and arms. From the hips down she is a centaur made of person: she has four long graceful legs, two in the usual place and two more a step behind, with a horizontal torso linking them. On her quadrupedal lower body New-Halley is wearing an integrated four-legged garment like black tights crossed with a bodystocking. It’s made of matte fabric and has narrow cutouts on her thighs and along the ribs of her horizontal torso. She has four matching boots on her feet, made in the same carmine color as her jacket. And as a final flourish she has a pretty equine tail of midnight blue hair growing above her pert ass. This Halley looks healthy and polished, and her outfit is simple and comfortable in a way that is probably offensively expensive. 

“Um, hi?” I blush. I’m sitting crosslegged and nude in Clementine’s bed. I feel like I should cover my tits, but I physically can’t, and anyway I have a cunt on my face. I feel a delicious thrill of exposure. I shake my hair out of my eyes, “I’m Halley-24.”

“Subtract 20, and you’ll find me,” Halley says, “Halley-4.”

I look at Halley-4 and she looks back at me with an easy confidence. It makes her seem, well, not wise exactly? Mature? “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I heard about your misadventures,” Halley-4 says, sounding how I imagine a big sister might, “and I thought you could use a little friendly advice.” She studies me with a touch of concern, “Honestly, I should’ve come sooner.”

“I’m perfectly happy with myself,” I feel my cheeks warm. Screw you.

Halley shrugs and whisks her tail, “Nevertheless.” 

“I’m not looking for a lecture.”

Halley-4 does a very OG-Halley hand and face thing, like the little play she’d rehearsed in her head had already gone off script. “Okay, I’m sorry. Can we start over? I’ve clearly misstepped.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Which doesn’t happen all that often with the four wheeled drive; it really does offer superior traction and balance.” She powers on breezily, “But you would not believe how much crap I step on with my hind feet; they’re surprisingly hard to aim all the way back there.” She smiles, “So I’m constantly putting my foot right in it!” 

She grins at me like she’s proud of her stupid little joke. Ugh, she’s being charming. “Fine…”

“Great!” She says, trotting gracefully into the room. Her four-legged body moves naturally, as if she was born to it. She leans forward and presents her hand for a shake, and then laughs when I stare at it helplessly. “Sorry! I couldn’t resist.”

I giggle, “You’re actually the first person to try that with me.”

She giggles too, “You’ll probably have to get used to it.”

“Probably,” I say with a wince. I’ll have to get used to a lot of things. “So what can I do ya for, Halley-4?”

Halley holds out a closed fist and starts counting on her fingers. “Prime is missing, Hank is Hank, and Halley-3 is The Serpent, which makes me the longest tenured Halley. God help us,” she smiles ruefully. “And so it’s up to me to pass along the advice that all us clones need to hear.”

“Which is?”

“To live for yourself. To move on from Halley-Prime and fantasies of Earth and worrying about being a clone. To define yourself and find your own reasons to live. To find happiness.”

I roll my eyes, “So deep.”

“Nevertheless,” Halley says, frisking her tail.

“This is starting to feel a bit like that lecture I didn’t want.”

Halley smiles impishly, “How about I tell you my story?”

“Sure.” Let’s get this pony show over with.

Halley drops her hindquarters to the floor and crosses her rear legs, giving her lower body a posture like a seated dog. Then she gracefully lowers her front hips so that her forelegs are kneeling and her horizontal torso is resting on the floor. She has entered the pose of centauress-resting and is now seated at my height instead of towering over me. “That’s better,” she says with a smile. “So…”

“So.”

“So I came into existence in this bed here, confused and scared, and totally naked. The last thing I remember was fighting with Clem in the trailer park and that bright column of light… then blamo! Awake in a strange bed in a strange room and holy shit with a strange woman! I screamed! And then she screamed! We were screaming! And then she was hugging me and crying happy tears and showering me with kisses and I was even more confused. Who was this girl? What the fuck was happening? I freaked out a bit and pushed her off me. She was this thin gawky brunette woman, sort of medium pretty, and I didn’t recognize her. She looked familiar, maybe, like the cousin of someone I knew, but still a stranger. I demanded to know what the fuck, and who the fuck, and she clutched me tightly and told me she was Clem but a girl now, and that we’d been abducted by aliens and were on a new planet, except actually I was a clone… and I thought it was a joke. Or that I was dreaming. Like, Clem was a girl now? Aliens? Yeah fucking right! Girly Clem pulled a loose shirt over me, dragged me through her strange apartment, and shoved me out onto the street and said do you believe me now? I was stunned. Here was a bizarre city made of futuristic space garbage built into a mountain. Here was a tall blue alien wearing an insanely colourful kaftan. Here was a flying drone made of liquid mercury. A chrome spaceship roaring into space. A flying car. A giant furry monster with bulbous red eyes and a plumbers wrench. I was obviously not on Earth! I couldn’t believe me eyes!”

“So I didn’t believe my eyes.”

“I decided I had to be dreaming. There was no fucking way this was real!”

“And so fuck it, I grabbed Girly Clem and kissed her, passionately. If this was a dream, why not a sexy one? I hadn’t slept with a woman since college, and it wasn’t cheating if it was my subconscious, right? Especially if it was with Clem anyway.” Halley smiled playfully, “Girl-Clem was surprised, but eager to go with it, and we’d soon tumbled back into her bed and fuck, I was awkward and fumbling, but Clem knew what she was doing, and we both had a very nice sexy time. But as we lay there afterward and I still hadn’t woken up, it occurred to me that maybe this wasn’t a dream after all.” Halley pauses, “I decided that I’d actually just gone insane.” 

“Oh,” I blink. Interesting.

Halley-4 gives me a look, “You remember how even in our worst mental health moments, we’d always be proud that we hadn’t lost touch with reality? How we’d be depressed or terrified, but at least we knew which way was up?”

I nod, “Yeah. I was so scared that eventually it would slowly turn into psychosis, and I wouldn’t even notice it happening…”

“Well, I concluded that I’d finally lost my marbles! All this Flotsam stuff was really a vivid and bizarre delusion and the real me was sedated in some cozy sanitarium.” Halley grins, “And since none of this was real, why not continue to roll with it? I’d eventually snap out of it, and until then I had a cool girlfriend and lived on an alien planet.”

I laugh a little awkwardly, “I’m surprised I didn’t consider the crazy option.”

Halley shrugs, “I think some of it was Clementine not doing great either. Prime was still missing, Hank was away adventuring, and Halley-3 was some Reptilian bitch’s plaything, so she was really clingy and kind of scattered. Which was sweet, but it also meant that my crazy ass was leaning on an emotionally fragile woman for support.”

“Sounds messy.”

“It was! But it was also a wonderful time. Clementine and I were desperately, stupidly in love.” Halley-4 sighs wistfully. “Clem was mastering her Shaping then too. She was so excited and Teacher finally gave Clem permission to practice. So of course I volunteered to be Clem’s practice dumny.”

“You did?”

“Sure, I didn’t think any of this was real anyway, so why not? It seemed like it would be fun.” Halley-4 smiles, “We started with such small things: a change in hair colour, clearer skin, fiddling with my height. Just little tweaks. Getting our toes wet.” Halley grins impishly, “And then we made my boobs huge! And oh my God! Shaping always feels good, but when it’s an erogenous zone it’s orgasmic! I remember moaning and begging Clementine to make my tits bigger and bigger and bigger, and she was so turned on that she kept going! Kept expanding my tits! Handfuls to Double Dees! Melons! Basketballs! Beach balls! I fell over, knocked flat by these huge hot bags of pleasurable flesh. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t; I was totally pinned down by the sheer weight of my tits. I was beyond enormous! My whole body was resting on my boobs like a living beanbag chair, my achingly hard nipples were as big as my fists! I was so turned on, desperately horny, but I couldn’t reach anything. I was held totally captive by my anatomy. I started to beg for Clem to stop Shaping, to please, oh please, oh please just fuck me…”

Fuck that sounds hot. I feel my facial pussy start to drool, “And then what?.”

Halley licks her lips, “Then she pulled on her favourite strapon and fucked my brains out, absolutely destroying my pussy, slamming me onto my massive boobs, while I helplessly groped at my giant tits…” She smiles like someone who just ate an incredibly fulfilling meal, “It was great.”

“Sounds like…” I feel a drop of pussyjuice drip off my chin.

“But of course I got stuck like that!”

“What!?”

Halley-4 blushes, “We got too carried away and Clementine had overextended herself. She was too burnt out to shrink my tits back down! I had to spend the whole night pinned to the floor by my breasts, covered in a blanket like a beached whale.” She laughs, “and the next morning Clem could only manage to shrink my tits a little, just enough that to stand up with help and waddle around. I was stuck for the day like that, lugging around a hundred pounds of mammary, straining to move. By evening Clem tried again and exhausted herself reducing my boobs a bit more, leaving me with heavy tits bigger than my head.” Halley grins, “Compared to before I felt so light, so free. It was liberating! So I rewarded my darling Clementine by smothering her face in my still gigantic titties while I attacked her with a vibrator.” Halley cups her hands in front of her upper tits, miming armfuls of mammary flesh contracting down to big breasts about the size of mine. “It took another day or so, but eventually Clem shrunk me down to pornstar size.” She winked, “Which I decided to keep for a bit.”

“And did this turn you off Shaping?”

“Fuck no,” Halley said, “I wanted more!”

She touches her ponytail, “Clem kept learning new tricks and bringing them home and I was happy to be his dolly.” She gives me a look, “The next big thing we tried was reduction. Clem took away my hands and then my arms up to my shoulders.”

I feel a giddy flutter, “Did she like that?”

Halley-4 giggles, “Yeah, we both did. And we liked it when she took away my legs too, leaving me this limbless horny torso. Her living sextoy.” Halley looked away, “I was so helpless and Clementine was so patient teasing me, driving me crazy with her fingers and tongue and toys, keeping me always on the edge of cumming.” She shivers, “It was electric.”

I’m breathing faster and start to fidget. Tell me more. “Oh.”

“Until we realized I was stuck again! Clem hadn’t figured out how to grow my limbs back!” 

“Oh my God. Clem!”

“Right? So she went to her Teacher for help, and they decided restoring me would be a lesson.” She smiles and shakes her head, “So I was stuck as a torso and head for a couple weeks. Which was so boring! No offense.” 

I tilt my head “None taken.”

“Don’t get me wrong, the sex was great, but every day Clementine would go study how to fix me and I’d be left alone. Alone and limbless. A quadruple amputee.” She sighs, “I’d be too helpless to do anything but lay in bed and wiggle pathetically. I was stuck waiting for Clementine to come home to feed me and clean me and fuck me. I was mind numbingly bored, unless I got horny, in which case I was tragically desperate to cum. It was infuriating! No amount of bad media could save me!”

“Sounds a lot like when we couldn’t leave the trailer…”

“But without the video games or masturbation!”

“Woof.”

“Eventually Clem fixed me, but it did put me off reduction stuff.” Halley wags her tail and gestures at her four-legged body. “I’m much more into extras.”

“I noticed.”

“Which was what we played with next. Now that Clem learned how to Shape new body parts, she could start adding them to me. Obviously we started with breasts.”

“Obviously.”

Halley-4 closes her eyes, “I remember laying naked in that bed, skin tingling in anticipation, so excited for my new breasts. I remember Clementine touching me on my ribs and on my abdomen and the sharp, delicious flashes of pleasurable pain as new nipples grew from my skin and hardened. I gasped, it felt a lot like someone had bit my nipple but in four new places at once. Clementine started to tug on my new teats and massage the flesh underneath and I felt a glowing warmth in my body, a swelling. I moaned, I was growing breasts! I fondled my original tits and squirmed as the Clementine cupped and stroked my budding breasts; the feeling was incredible! I had an orgasm! A back arching, legs twisting, throaty moaning scream of an orgasm, and no one had even touched my pussy! And still my new breasts grew and grew and grew. Clementine only released me when my new breasts were as big as my original. I had six huge tits on my chest, improbably big, arranged in three pairs that covered my torso from my chest to my hips. I was covered in tits. I desperately fondled myself, felt the soft weight of my breasts, the hot hard bumps of my nipples. I felt the alien feeling of six tits rubbing against each other, the existence of new kinds of cleavage. And then Clementine went down on me, eating out my pussy while I worshipped my new breasts.” She opens her eyes and bites her lip, “Truly incredible.”

“Let me guess, you decided to keep the six tits?”

“Oh yeah.” Halley smiles ruefully, “Not that it wasn’t inconvenient. Six big tits are heavy and bulky and get in the way, and you get so many stares.”

I smile with my pussy face, “I wonder what that’s like.”

“No doubt!” Halley-4 laughs. “But for better or worse that was my new default body, at least until I asked Clementine to give me a penis.”

“What?” I blush.

“You know, a cock. A dick. A wang, schlong, or ding-dong. A big one too, ten inches of hot maleness and a pair of big balls attached to me just above my cunt. I was a real, red blooded hermaphrodite.” 

She continues: “Clem was so bashful and nervous when I asked for my cock! Her face was bright red with embarrassment as she touched me and started to Shape my penis. And oh fuck! The feeling was incredible! Like getting fucked in reverse as my cock grew inch by inch! I fucking moaned like a whore and then grunted like a boar when I felt my new balls bud and drop into my hairless scrotum. I fucking came right away, bucking and hissing as I shot my load all over Clementine.” Halley-4 smiles slyly, “I had worried that Clem was scared of my new dick, and I really, really wanted to fuck her. I thought I’d have to do the whole teenage boy thing, slowly seduce her, gently talk her into finally putting out. So imagine my surprise when she immediately pulled me down on top of her and begged me to fuck her! I immediately felt myself get hard again. I was breathless and hollow with desire and my penis ached for pussy. I put my cock inside her and oh my god she was so wet and tight and hot! I couldn’t believe how good it felt! And then we started to fuck, my cock thrusting inside her pussy, my six big tits crushed between our bodies, and oh my god! It was so different! And so good! And then she orgasmed, scratching at my back, her legs clenched tight around me, and I fucking came too, ejaculating into her cunt in a pounding rush like my soul exploding out of my body!” She laughs, “Or something!”

Halley-4 quirks an eyebrow at me, “Have you tried having a cock yet?”

I blush, “No.”

“You should! The feeling of being inside someone’s body is incredible and the male orgasm is something else.”

I feel the mental echo of Halley-7’s giant cock body ejaculation and shiver, “Maybe…”

“Do it! A cock is the body part I miss most.”

“So why don’t you have one now?”

Halley frowns, “Honestly, I’m afraid it would turn off my guy.”

“You have a boyfriend!?”

“Bethrothed, actually.” Halley laughs, “But that’s getting way ahead of the story.”

“Anyway, I definitely decided to keep the penis too. So there I was living my everyday life life as a six breasted hermaphrodite; running errands, doing chores, going out for dinner.” Halley grins at me,  “Which is how I first met a Changeling.”

“Like those humans who use Shaping for fun?”

“Yes, but it’s more than that, at least for some of them. Being a Changeling is more like a subcultural identity than a hobby. Like hardcore punks.” Halley-4 shrugs, “At least it’s like that for my best friend Parsaffony, who I met one day at the local green grocer. I was standing in line with a basket of tubers and wearing this ridiculous emerald tube top thing that hugged my six tits like a second skin. Parsaffony came up to me and said hi and told me she loved my Shape. I was confused and shy so I said thank you before I even realized she had four arms and a slender tail. She asked who did my Shaping, and I blabbed something about a gift from my girlfriend. Saff laughed and said I was lucky to have such a generous lover. Then she gave me her contact info and invited me to come out for drinks. We Changelings, she told me, have to stick together.”

“I eventually took Saff up on her invitation and went to this tiny shebeen of a bar in the Port District called The Modest Difference. It was darkly lit and cozy and the bartender was a Changeling woman with long tentacles growing from her scalp like dreadlocks. She looked me over and saw my mammary six-pack and pointed me to a booth in the back where I saw Parsaffony waving at me.”

“I made my way to the Changeling’s table and oh my God I was so nervous! I’d been such a recluse and meeting so many people at once was terrifying! But the Changelings were incredibly friendly.” Halley smiles, “Saff was there of course, and so was her lover Dog-Boy, who was still a baseline human wearing a dog collar. Weiyrrghrmie was there, who was this unnaturally curvy woman with huge breasts and hips and a full beard, but one that was beautifully styled in femme ringlets like her hair. I met Bunker who had a million tattoos and piercings and who promised me he had two prehensile cocks. He’d asked me if I wanted to see proof and Saff punched him. I met Tillzy, a young woman who was new to being a Changeling. She had tiny batlike wings growing from her bare shoulders and the nub of a new tail. She told me her dream was to one day fly. Peet was there too, a big fat cherubic guy who was bashful and sweet and had shaggy ears like a koala bear, and so was Prayersong, who looked like a man on one half of their body and a woman on the other, like one of those old timey performers. It was mostly makeup and fakery then, but they definitely had a real breast and a wide feminine hip on one side, and a masculine chest on the other.” 

“I was so shy and quiet that first night, but they were happy to let me wallflower while they hung out. It was really nice to be around people again; especially passionate boisterous weirdos. It reminded me of college: cafeteria bullshitting and dormitory common rooms  and arguing with classmates down the pub.” Halley pauses, “The best part was that I felt like a regular person with them. I wasn’t an Earthling or a clone or a basketcase, I was just some chick with a kinky common interest. I was anonymous to these Changelings, and that was liberating. I could just enjoy their company and be myself.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Yeah, I had a great time! So I went back to The Modest Difference the next week, and the week after that, really every week, until I became a regular. It wasn’t long until I was part of the group, a Changeling myself, and actually friends with these people. I started to hang out with some of the Changelings individually too, especially Parsaffony who I really hit it off with.” Halley frowns, “I did keep it a secret that Clementine was my Shaper. It seemed important to protect her from my new friends and to respect her privacy. But it was selfish too: Shaping was super expensive and a lot of my Changeling friends couldn’t afford it, and had to hustle for a little bit here or there. I didn’t want them to know that I got my Shaping for free. I was scared of their jealousy.”

Ooph. “That’s awkward.”

“Yeah I felt bad about it, but I still think I did the right thing,” Halley shrugs. “I guess I was kind of living a double life for a minute, but at least I had a routine. I’d spend hours with Clementine being her volunteer Shaping subject while she worked on mastering her skills. She’d change everything about me, tweaking, subtracting, adding extras, expanding and shrinking, experimenting with what she could do. It was a bit like being a nude art model, but also a lot like being modeling clay. It was fun, but strange.” Halley smiled, “When Clementine went to Teacher for lessons I’d go see Saff or my other Changeling pals, or maybe wander the city, or do some chores. I was honest to Clem about my Changeling adventures, and she was cool with always Shaping me back to my six-breasted herm body before I went out. I think she was excited I made friends.”

“This double life was fine for a while, but I eventually realized I didn’t want to keep my two worlds apart. I wanted to hang out with Clem and my friends, I wanted to show off my cool girlfriend to the Changelings, and bring Clem to the bar, and maybe go on double dates with Parsaffony and Dog-Boy. And besides, Clementine needed to get out more. She spent so much of her time studying or practicing that she didn’t really have a social life. And she’d been through a rough few months too, losing so many Halleys in a row. I’m not the best shrink, but I was worried she was going to burn herself out. I thought if she met the Changelings her life might get a little happier.”

Halley-4 sighed, “But I had this stupid idea in my head that Clementine needed to be a Changeling too. In hindsight it’s dumb, but I thought she’d fit in better if she wasn’t Baseline anymore. Maybe I just wanted her to seem cool, or maybe it was about making my own Shaped body seem less out of place, but I started to pressure Clem into Shaping her own body a little. I’d say: wouldn’t it be sexy and fun to be a little different? Shouldn’t a Shaper have at least one obvious change? Would you trust a tattoo artist without any ink? Clementine was hesitant, reminded me that anything she did to herself was forever. She asked me if changing her entire biological sex and gender wasn’t a big enough change? She was right of course, but I kept after it, kept pressuring her, told her it could be something small.”

“Like what? she’d asked.”

“Well, what about a third tit?”

“She laughed and told me she’d think about it.”

“Which is when I gave her a push. Clementine was on top of me, riding my cock like a champ, her hands playing with her small tits, and I started fantasizing how hot it would be if she actually had three breasts. Hey, I gasped while burying myself inside her, you should grow that third tit! She laughed, right now? Yessss, I’d hissed. She squirmed and moaned, For real? Yes! Yes for real! She looked uncertain, but I could tell the idea turned her on, so I told her: I want to see you play with your three heavy perfect tits! I want you to grow for me! Grow that sexy tit for me! She bit her lip and blushed and then grabbed her tits and pulled them apart, creating an empty space in the middle of her chest. She was Shaping herself! For me! I gasped, too shocked to speak! Clementine moaned and started to rub her chest and I gasped as a new nipple appeared on her body. Fuck she whimpered, bucking on my cock, knocked breathless by sensation. Jesus fuck, I’d said, don’t stop now! Clementine smiled, almost mischievously, and started to massage her chest, and the flesh under nipple started to swell with fat and tissue, budding into a breast. Clementine’s mouth formed an O and she had to stop as she was rocked by an enormous orgasm. Oh fuck, oh fuck, she told me. Bigger I said, doing everything I could not to cum early and ruin the moment. Make it bigger! And she did, slowly drawing out her flesh until she had three equally large breasts in a row across her chest. Just three perky little tits. She fondled them happily and came again with a huge smile on her face. But fuck, I was so turned on, I wanted more! Bigger, I growled. Make your tits bigger! Make them the perfect sexy tits you deserve! Clementine had gasped, shocked: What did you say? Your tits, make them the greatest tits ever, I pleaded, still fucking her and trying not to cum. Clem shook her head, but then moaned, this will be forever she reminded me. So? Make yourself perfect! You want it! Clem blushed deeply and nodded and then groped her tits, stroking them, kneading them, and I watched as they swelled bigger and bigger! Yes, I’d whined, fuck yes! Clementine’s three breasts grew from her small tits, to average ones, to large! Clementine shuddered and came, again and again! I was so turned on, I had to cum, I couldn’t hold back anymore and then fuck, I came so hard! My cock erupted inside Clementine, who screamed a little bit and let go of her tits and crushed herself against me as she had one last giant orgasm. The deed was done. My girlfriend had just grown three large exquisitely perfect breasts!”

“Afterward Clementine was a little shell-shocked, stunned that she’d permanently altered herself, and maybe a bit angry that I’d dirty talked her into it. She stood in front of a mirror-screen looking at herself, staring at her new breasts. Three busty tits lined up across her chest in a single row, large full teardrop breasts with prominent dark nipples. They were fantasy breasts, too perfect to be real, but entirely natural. She blushed and turned her torso, looking at her tits from different angles. Her new tits were too big to ignore, her third breast an obvious change that marked her as different. All I could do was lay in bed, feeling guilty about pushing her into it but still horribly turned on. Clem looked ashamed and worried, but pleased too. She put her hands on her hips and pushed out her tits, blushing at the display of her own awesome rack. How do I look, she asked me. I could feel my cock getting hard again. So fucking sexy, I told her. She smiled at me, a bit uncertain but excited too. I climbed out of bed, hugged her, crushing her three breasts against my six. You look unbelievably sexy, I repeated, turning her to face the mirror and fondling her breasts. They were so soft and heavy, so perfectly round.  My erection was pressed against her ass and my pussy was drooling down my leg. Clementine gasped: I guess I’m a Changeling now. And then I fucked her in front of the mirror so she could watch herself and her beautiful new tits.”

My face pussy is drooling again, “Jesus Christ.”

“Yeah, it was awesome,” Halley-4 smiled like the cat who caught the canary. “And after thoroughly helping Clementine come to terms with her new setup, I brought her to meet the Changelings.” Halley touches her ponytail, “It went great: Clementine was super charming and my friends were nice, even if they gave me a hard time. When they asked why it had taken so long to meet her, Clementine had blushed and gently stroked her modified cleavage, wonderfully displayed in a scoop necked singlet, and told them she’d been nervous about coming out as a Changeling. My friends ate that shit up, showering her with love and support. I was so happy.”

“Clem and I got really into the Changeling scene. We went to the Modest Difference every week, but started going to bigger events too. There was a Shaped singer who went by Cerise who started throwing Changeling parties. She had long auburn white-tipped hair, a huge fox tail and big vulpine ears, and her lean, almost breastless body had two strips of nipples running down her milk lines from armpits to her crotch. She had a beautiful voice, and loved to dance, and would sometimes fuck someone on stage when she was in heat.” Halley-4 flicks her tail, “Cerise started holding Changeling burlesque shows every few Shifts, amateurish affairs that were borderline bawdy freak shows, where humans could show off their altered Shapes on the catwalk. It was awesome! Cerise’s Variety Show became the the new heart of the Changeling community, and a pretty popular night out for the Baselines too.”

“You went on stage didn’t you?”

“Oh yeah! Wearing six bare tits and a bright blue speedo!” Halley smiles like the devil, “I even convinced Clementine to go up there in platform heels and a tiny little cocktail dress. She was so flustered and cute! But loving the attention too; she even whipped out her three tits!”

I laugh and try to picture it. “Great!”

Halley-4 smiled, “Yeah, it was. We started to spend more time with Parsaffony and Dog-Boy too. We went on double dates, shared meals, played dumb space board games, went to the theatre and stuffy art shows, something Saff and Clem loved, and became really close friends. Clementine eventually told all the Changelings that she was a student Shaper, not an amazing God-level super-Shaper, just a beginner who still wasn’t allowed to Shape anyone unsupervised. Everyone was a bit jealous, but I could tell they were happy to know how me and Clem got our Shaping done.” 

I frown, “Since there was no way you could afford it?”

“Exactly,” Halley-4 nods. “Clem also confessed the truth to Saff that she was secretly a ludicrously powerful Shaper. Saff had laughed it off thinking she was joking, so I told Saff to take off her shirt and let Clem prove it. Saff had used a Casino Jackpot to buy her extra arms and tail, but I knew she wanted more. Saff had playfully accused us of just wanting to see her tits, but went along with it, curious to see if we were for real. Clementine stepped up to her, touched her ribs below her chest, and frowned in concentration. Saff had squealed and gasped and her tail lashed the air. Clementine kneaded her flesh and Saff had moaned as she felt her body grow two new nipples and breasts, giving Saff the four she’d always wanted. Saff clutched her four breasts, one in each of her four hands, whimpering in arousal and happiness. Thank you, she’d gasped, her eyes shining with wonder, thank you.”

“After that Parsaffony became Clem’s second practice volunteer. She would come over, and Clem would spend a few hours Shaping Saff and me, trying different things, working on her speed and control, and learning the differences between individuals. Sometimes I’d get overwhelmed with libido and drag Clem to our bedroom to fuck, and sometimes Saff would be so turned on by her new Shape that she’d summon Dog-Boy to have her way with him. Nothing sexual ever happened between Clem and Saff and me, but we had an incredibly intimate relationship. As a gift Clementine gave Saff her ideal Shape: a lithe six foot tall woman with long purple hair, four arms and breasts, and six thin prehensile tails growing from her tailbone. The rest of the Changelings were so jealous!”

“It was around this time that Clementine learned how to Shape non-human bodyparts. She gave me antlers and a tail, lobster pinchers, and feathery wings. I had a fishtail and lizard scales and a cow udder. I was a tiger-girl, a lion-girl, a bear!”

“Oh my!”

Halley-4 laughs, “I think my favourite was when I tried being part horse. Clementine made my legs equine, like I was a horse satyr with hooved feet and brown fur and a wonderful silky tail.” Halley swishes her current equine tail. “Clem gave me cute horsey ears and re-shaped my torso to have only two human breasts, but also a pair of tits right above my crotch. I stayed a hermaphrodite but one with a mare’s pussy and a ridiculous stallion cock.” Halley-4 pokes her chin, “I’m not sure what it was exactly, but I really enjoyed that Shape. It reminded me of the horses we’d see by the trailer park, so wild and beautiful and free. I think being a little horsey made me feel like that. Or maybe I just liked having a huge cock.” She shrugs, “I decided to stay equine for a while, and actually trotted down Cerises’ catwalk like a dressage pony. It was quite the statement.”

“A nice thing about Clem learning to Shape animal parts was she could finally help Dog-Boy. Dog-Boy always dreamed of being both a boy and a dog, hence the name. It was a desire he’d had for years, since he was a kid really, but he didn’t think it would ever be possible, at least until he met the four-armed Saff and the other Changelings. Shaping was still super expensive, especially for non-human work, and Dog-Boy was always horrible with money, so for the longest time he was stuck as a human with a wish. But with her new skills Clementine was finally able to give Dog-Boy his dog-parts pro bono. One morning Dog-Boy came over and Clementine carefully grew him a pair of floppy, scruffy dog ears that matched his grayish hair, a black nose and lips, and gave his face just the hint of a muzzle. Then she Shaped him a poofy grey and white canine tail, which immediately started to wag. Finally she grasped Dog-Boy by the penis and massaged it, transforming his pretty average human dick into a very large canine cock. Dog-Boy grew grey furry balls and a sheath, and his erect cock became bright red and bulged with a big canine knot. Dog-Boy howled and cum, shooting Clem with semen. He’d whined like a puppy and apologized, but Clem had giggled and said it was fine.” Halley-4 grins, “Dog-Boy and Saff were so happy, although one time pretty soon after Saff got herself helplessly knotted on Dog-Boy’s cock while cooking, and I had to rush over to their apartment to save dinner.”

I laugh, “cute.”

“This is about the time that Halley-3 finally appeared looking for Shaping.” Halley-4 scowls, “This version had run away from Clem and somehow fallen in with the Syndicate as some sort of sex slave. After months of ghosting us, during which Reptilian gangsters threatened Clem, she shows up out of the blue for a Shaping makeover.” Halley’s hands ball into fists, “She waltzed up with an escort of bodyguards and the most imperious fucking attitude. She was wearing this slutty little harness garment and her body was bedazzled with lizard scales and she had a little stub of a tail. Apparently she was the personal property of the Reptilian Dragon and was looking for an upgrade. I told Clem to tell her to fuck off and refuse to help, but Clementine was so relieved to see her again that she would’ve done anything for her. I think Clem was eager to reconnect.” Halley shakes her head, “Clementine spent painstaking hours growing Halley-3 a beautiful head of feathers and a long jeweled serpent tail. She was beautiful but finally looked like the toxic snake she is. Fucking bitch.”

“I met her,” I say quietly, “She’s the Dragon now.”

“I heard. They say one night she wrapped the last Dragon in her coils and stabbed her in the heart while they were having sex. And then she stole her place.”

“Fuck.”

Halley-4 looks grim, “Not all of us Halleys are nice people.”

“No, no we aren’t.”

Halley sighs and puts on a smile, “Anyway. It wasn’t long after Halley-3’s visit that Teacher decided that Clementine was ready for her final test. Clem brought me and Saff to Teacher’s home, where we were met by Mistress Line, Teacher’s young caretaker and teaching model. Clem was nervous and so excited, eager to show off what she’d learned, but anxious about failing. I squeezed her hand as we were led to Teacher.” Halley frowns, “It was my first time meeting Teacher who was this small androgynous human, wrinkled and shriveled like a dried fruit, but with these intense sulfur yellow eyes that burned with intelligence. I’d heard that Teacher had been born a woman and had lived an entire life as a beautiful sorceress in a tower, but then had become a man, a wandering Shaper monk, who travelled the galaxy righting wrongs. This incarnation was Teacher’s third life, one spent sexless and ascetic and devoted to mastering the art of Shaping. They were here on Flotsam in semi-retirement, living out their final days and performing charitable acts of Shaping for the gender dysmorphic or maimed.”

“We met Teacher in a small bare room with tall windows and a polished wooden floor. Teacher was seated on a cushion and instructed us to remove our clothing. I stood nakedly with Saff and Mistress Line, and we were joined by two nude strangers, a young man and a middle-aged woman that I’d never seen before or since. Teacher had Clementine Shape us, moving from person to person, body to body, and form to form, easy Shapes and difficult, probing the limits of Clem’s technique and knowledge, testing her stamina. Trying to find the depths of what Clementine knew and how safely she could apply it. Teacher pushed and pushed and pushed, but Clem pressed on, breathing deeply and drenched in sweat, but gamely hanging in there, completing every Shape perfectly. Until finally Teacher clapped their hands and announced: Enough!”

“Did Clem pass?”

Halley nods, “Yes, the first test.”

“First?”

Halley nods again. “Teacher had Clem restore everyone to their default Shapes and had us all sit aside. Then they welcomed in a poor Blue dressed in uncharacteristicallly drab robes. The Blue’s left hand was wrapped tightly in a mitten of bandages, and after a nod from Teacher, they unwound them to reveal a deformed hand. Instead of a thumb and three elegantly long fingers, this Blue was completely missing their smallest finger and half of another. The damaged fingers were healed, it was obviously an old injury that the Blue had been living with for a long time. Teacher instructed the Blue to lay down on the floor and relax. Then Teacher told Clem her final test was to restore the Blue’s injured hand. We’d all gasped, none of us had ever heard about anyone Shaping an alien before. Clementine had protested that it was impossible, but Teacher persisted, and told Clem this was her ultimate trial. So Clem knelt next to the Blue and took their hand and started to focus, to somehow find a way to Shape this non-human sapient.”

I think about Bluebell, “Clem could do it.”

Halley-4 smiles, “Yeah, Clementine is so powerful that she can Shape other species. It’s slow and painstaking work, and Clem finds it totally draining, but she can perform that rarest of miracles. Which she did that day, crouched over the Blue amputee, already exhausted from the first test, her face pinched in total concentration and body tight with effort. At first we thought nothing was happening, but then almost too slowly to see a little nub appeared on the Blue’s hand where the missing finger should have been. Clem panted and groaned, but kept at it, slowly growing that nub millimetre by millimetre until it was a fully formed finger. Saff and the other models left, and Mistress Line went to prepare dinner, but I stayed and watched with Teacher. Once the missing finger was restored, Clem whimpered and swayed, but went to work on the truncated finger. She growled with effort and was heaving with breath, but slowly she grew back the rest of the finger. It took hours, but Clementine did it! She’d restored the entire hand! The Blue wept with happiness and Teacher clapped and smiled, clearly delighted. They announced that Clem had surpassed their expectations and passed the test! Clem had smiled weakly and fainted, and then slept for almost two days.”

“Teacher congratulated Clementine when she woke up and announced that she’d graduated. Teacher reminded Clem that mastering Shaping was a labor of lifetimes, but that she was ready to hone her craft independently. Teacher also gave Clem a bunch of money to start a business. A young Shaper must earn her livelihood, Teacher told us with a smile.” Halley-4 grins, “We we’re so excited and so out of our depth. What the fuck did we know about running a business? Opening a shop? Clementine was a hugely powerful Shaper, which was a valuable skill, but how do you monetize that? Or market it? We started to plan. Should we Shape out of the apartment? No, too small. Clem could do house calls? She didn’t love the vibes, and wanted a home base. Okay, so we rent a storefront. What do we charge? We asked our Changeling friends and got some estimates, and set prices that were a little lower, but based on the Shape rather than the time, since Clem was so much faster than even a skilled team of Shapers. Then it became a problem of how do we get the word out? How do we make a splash?”

“By showing off what Clem could do?”

“Exactly. We decided that I would become a living advertisement. We threw around some ideas, but eventually settled on Shaping me into an impossible body that would be beyond the skill of any other Shaper on Flotsam and too decadently expensive to ever commission.” Halley licks her lips, “Even for Clem the Shape we chose was difficult. It took days of painstaking Shaping to mold my body, taking long breaks to recharge from exhaustion, or to fuck when I couldn’t take it anymore and needed release. I think it took nearly three entire Shifts, nearly a month, but I was finally ready in my new Shape.”

“What were you?”

Halley smiles and shakes her head, “We wanted it to be a surprise, so we didn’t show me off to anyone, not even Saff. I was top secret. I hid out in our apartment until it was time for my debut. Under the cover of darkness I loaded myself into a big crate that was delivered by industrial drone to the Variety Show venue. My unopened crate was placed backstage where I had to wait, cramped and hidden, until Cerise unveiled me.” Halley-4 smiles, “I remember hearing her call my name over the bump of music and feeling so nervous I could throw up, but my stomachs were empty and anyway Clem had taken care of that reflex. I emerged from the crate smiling my best showgirl smile, waving and blowing kisses, my many hearts hammering in my body. I still had my face, it was important to be recognized, and my hair has done up in fancy crate-proof braids. At first I looked like my usual self, two arms and a torso covered in six big, gravity defying breasts, but then there were two more breasts at the level of my hips, and another pair on what should’ve been my thighs. I pushed myself further out of my crate and revealed that my legs had been merged into a single wide tail covered with more rows of breasts. I slithered onto the catwalk letting my body slowly spool out from the crate; ten feet, twelve feet, fifteen feet of tail covered in dozens of rows of tits. But there was even more of me: twenty feet, twenty-five, thirty feet of breasts and tail. My body was so heavy and cumbersome, and slithering on tits was so awkward, not the efficient glide of a snake but a kind of busty worming. I slowly oozed to the end of the catwalk and the end of my tail was still inside the crate, which felt anticlimactic. I was too big for the venue! I scooted myself foreword and lifted my torso up on a column of my own tail, head suspended twelve feet over the stage. I felt unbalanced and yet sturdy, the thick musculature of my tail more than strong enough, and I let myself swing out over the crowd. I still hadn’t managed to get my tail out of the crate! I flexed my tail up like a caterpillar to pull my rear free, and then let my tail slip off the stage and onto the floor, baring the blunt end of my body: my expanded round ass, my pussy and anus. All told I was forty feet long and hundreds of pounds of flesh with dozens of breasts. I was spectacular!” Halley-4 smiles, “The crowd was stunned silent, the Changelings who knew me couldn’t believe what they were seeing! My body was almost impossible to make, so much mass, so many internal modifications just to keep me alive. Even with a team of skilled Shapers and unlimited resources it would take years to build my Shape! But people had seen me only a few Shifts before, I had made certain of that, conspicuously attending all of the Changeling events in my usual Shape. Establishing a clear Before, before revealing this spectacular After. They all knew I had become this gigantic tit-naga in only a month! It was miraculous! And then I said as loud as I could: Clementine the Shaper is open for business!”

“That’s quite the advertisement!”

“Yeah I was a showstopper!” Halley laughs, “Especially since I had no fucking clue how to wiggle off the stage! In the end I had just had to stay put, a giant titty obstacle that the other Changelings performers had to work around on!”

I try to smirk, “Sounds like a success!”

“Oh yeah. We were absolutely flooded with requests! Which meant that when we opened our Shaping business Clem was too busy to turn me back right away. I was stuck as this colossal tit-snake for months!”

“Oh my God.”

Halley smiles and shakes her head, “It actually ended up being a good thing. We rented a storefront in a converted modular cargo pod that had once been a health clinic and pharmacy. We had two little exam rooms where Clem would do her Shaping with clients, a storage room, and a reasonably large waiting room. When a Client came into The ‘Tine, They Are A Changeling…”

“Oh Jesus, that was the name of your store?”

“Amazing, right!?”

I feel the perverse urge to facepalm, “That barely make sense in English.”

“Shut up, it’s perfect.”

“Christ!”

Halley-4 looks obnoxiously proud, “When a client entered The ‘Tine they met the receptionist, who was me. All of me. All forty feet of my tail and all thirty-six pairs of my naked tits winding through the entire reception area. I was so massive, I half filled the room! Clients had to step over, crawl under, and just generally share the space with my huge, stupid hyper-sexualized body. I was the politely smiling, unignorable living proof of Clementine’s talent asking them: What can I do for you today? As inconvenient as it was for me, it was fucking great for business.”

“How did you even live like that?”

Halley plays with her ponytail, “Yeah, it wasn’t easy. A body like that isn’t made to move around, it’s made to sprawl. Being that big and awkward, I couldn’t really leave the shop, so I ended up staying there full time. We made the pharmacy storage room into a nest for me: we filled it with cushions and blankets and installed some Reptilian heatlamps. It wasn’t luxurious, but I managed.” Halley frowns, “Honestly, it was a bit like being agoraphobic again, being trapped in a building like that. Except it was easier, since I was so busy during the day with work, and was meeting all kinds of clients. Plus the sex was really interesting.” She grins, “Having your pussy be forty feet away on a flexible body creates some possibilities. It was logistically complicated to set up but I could eat out my own pussy, or I could bracket Clem with my body so that I could lick Clementine’s pussy and asshole from behind while she fucked me, and there was something glorious about Clementine worshipping each one of my seventy-two tits as she worked her way down from my head to the tip of my tail to fuck me. That was a very sexy Shape to have.”

“Of course, eventually I was going to go crazy! So Clem started to reduce me a little bit every night after work, shrinking me by one or two tit-segements. It would take a while, but eventually I’d be my usual self again.” Halley-4 licks her lips, “I think I was down to fifteen feet when Villah dox Quillix walked into the shop and changed everything.”

I blink my eyes and suck on my labia, I’d heard that name before. “She’s that rich Changeling lady, right?”

Halley-4 nods, “Yeah, Villah was the heiress of the Quillix interstellar business empire and unbelievably rich. I once asked her what she owned and she’d smiled and said a bit of everything. I’d laughed thinking it was a joke and she said: in human controlled space, a lot of everything. We are talking like Space Jeff Bezos or Galactic Bill Gates levels of wealth. I think her family literally owned some planets. Good ones too, the kind with flora and fauna and afternoon picnics in the sun. She might have been the wealthiest person on Flotsam, and certainly the richest woman I’ve ever met.”

“Villah walked into our shop with six breasts arranged in a triangle down her front, 3-2-1, and was wearing a shimmering white romper with a cutout for her chest and platinum pasties on her nipples. She was also wearing jewelry made from liquid Grey metal, her own personal AI servant and bodyguard. She was effortlessly beautiful, with that casual perfection that reeks of money and invisible effort. She smiled at me and Clem with perfect white teeth and told us to clear our schedule, she was throwing a party.”

“Villah was enchanted with Changelings and wanted to throw a party, but she needed a new Shape, and heard Clementine was the absolute best. And she could very much afford the best. She’d thrown Changeling parties before: a jungle affair with animal Shapes and costumes, a Aquarian-themed mermaid beach party, and a gender-swapped bachelor party, but she wanted to up her game. ‘Small’ theme parties were passé, she wanted to push the envelope, to explore the limits of Shaping, and while she would never admit it, she wanted to show off just how much space magic she could buy. She wanted to throw an epic Changeling’s Ball and wear a spectacular, impossible New Shape! Money was no object.”

“Clementine had asked what Villah had in mind, and she’d smiled, sat on my desk, and told us she wanted to be a real sensation! She gestured at me: like your muse at the show, before all the shrinkage. Something big! I smiled and put my hands on the swell of where my hips should be and informed her my body had taken intensive weeks to make. Clem added that building all that extra mass was hard on a client, and so the time commitment was partially a safety thing. Villah had kicked her feet and told us that wouldn’t do at all. She looked disappointed and impatient. She said: what can you do then? I want to be something unique. Clem looked uncertain, but I had an idea. I said: why don’t we try something smaller but technically challenging? Something truly surprising. I explained my idea and Villah had clapped her hands and told me she liked my moxie. Clem had licked her lips, already considering the problem, told us she thought she could do it, but she’d need a few days to pull it off. Villah had smiled, hugged us both, and told us that this was the start of a beautiful new friendship.”

Halley-4 shifted her centaur body, “Villah’s new Shape wasn’t a quick job, so she had us come stay in her mansion while Clem worked on it. And let me tell you: the galactically rich live different. Her ‘humble bachelorette pad’ is the largest house I’ve ever been inside of, truly massive on a cramped planet like Flotsam. It was up in the Terraces, right near the summit, and had at least three dozen rooms, servant quarters, a ballroom and conservatory and library. An observatory. A full holographic movie theatre. A sports complex. A sex dungeon. A huge swimming pool. A full service spa. And for a few weeks we were pampered honored guests. The food was incredible; they even had real meat! Chicken! Beef! The spa was divine.” Halley blushes, “And so was the sex dungeon. Me and Clem had such a good time.”

“Of course the reason we were there was to Shape Villlah, and it took hours of daily effort. Clem would quietly work on Villah, frowning in concentration and moving around her body like a masseuse, while I watched and assisted when asked. Villah was stuck holding still and was clearly bored. She would sometimes noodle on a hologram, or watch media, or listen to something, but she also talked to me, about my life and especially about Earth, it’s history and culture. Earth was one of the few forbidden human places and she was fascinated by it.” Halley chews her lip, “I know the stereotype of the hyper-rich is entitled unpleasant monsters, and Villah could be vain and demanding, but she was also intelligent and curious and charming. She was fun to talk with, and she had a natural talent with people.” Halley gives me a little smile, “Anyway, by the time we had finished Villah’s new Shape, she had decided her Changeling Ball would have a Roaring ‘20s Earthling theme.”

I laugh, “Great Gatsby style?”

“The Gilded Age in Space! Villah held the party in her mansion ballroom and had filled it with reproductions of period Earthling wealth. She hired musicians to play Earthling jazz as best they could, there was a champaign fountain and free flowing booze, and the staff dressed in tuxedos. All of the guests wore Earthling costumes; some nailed it, but so many got it hilariously wrong. Like wearing a slutty cleopatra halloween costume to ancient Egypt.” Halley shakes her head, “Villah invited all the Changelings we knew, but also a ton of the Flotsam rich. There were wealthy but libertine Blues and Reptilian gangsters and a who’s-who of the human elite all dressed like 20s partygoers. The rich humans didn’t just dress the part either, most of them were Shaped for the occasion too. Mostly little things: being very tall or short, sporting an extra tit or two, having a furry tail or feathers. A few daring women went armless for the evening. Some of Villah’s closest rivals went big: a living peacock feather gown, a trophy wife covered in reflective golden scales, a werewolf flapper in a torn dress. Expensive choices, but no one had a Shape nearly as interesting as the body we’d made for Villah.”

“Clem and I attended, obviously. Clementine was nervous and opted for a simple and classy black cocktail dress. Saff was a better sport and let me dress her up in a wonderful red flapper dress that looked amazing on her tall lean body. Dog-Boy begrudgingly wore a tuxedo. Clementine had Shaped me into a humantaur for the evening, like my body now, four gorgeous long legs and a slender upper body. I was lithe and angular and just a bit androgynous. I wore a beautiful flowing seafoam gown on my front half and a matching skirt over my rear legs and my hair and tail were styled into cascading golden ringlets.” Halley smiles broadly and wags her tail, “It was my first time doing the four-legged body thing, actually. Kinda wild in hindsight.”

“Villah dox Quillah was fashionably late and made a grand entrance. She swept into the party lounging on a plush chaise lounge carried on a hovering stage. Her familiar face and body were squeezed into a beautiful black corset and her legs were covered by a shimmering silver sheet. She floated through the room waving, gathering everyone’s attention, as the music built to a huge fanfare. Her amplified voice thanked everyone for coming and then she dramatically yanked off the sheet to reveal her Shape to the entire party. There was an audible gasp! From the waist up Villah was a fancier version of her normal self, but from the waist down she had a second upper body! A man’s body! Instead of legs she had the torso, arms, and head of a gender-swapped male Villah dressed in a handsome white tuxedo. She looked like a playing card brought to life. Villah’s lower man-half looked around the room and smiled, said that he thought the reveal went rather well! The female-half tittered and agreed! Everyone was stunned, Villah had been Shaped into two conjoined people! It was unprecedented! Amazing! Of course, Clem and I knew it was an illusion: Villah only had one mind that was controlling both her halves, but that was still an incredible feat of Shaping. Even the sapients who caught the trick were super impressed.”

“Sounds like Villah got her sensation.”

“Totally!”

“How’d you manage that transformation?”

Halley smiles, “Not easily! It was a whole process. First, Clementine Shaped Villah back to her true baseline, mostly to get a feel for what it was, then she gave her body a quick glow up, made it classically beautiful with curves for days. Then she merged Villah’s legs and molded them into a big mass of flesh like a block of marble to be carved. Everyone rested for a couple days, and then Clem carefully Shaped the flesh blob into a perfect duplicate of Villah’s upper body: arms, tits, head, organs. This new body had a brain and was doing basic autonomic things like breathing, but didn’t have a mind. Villah basically had a braindead conjoined twin.” Halley smiles, “Then came the tricky part: Clementine had to somehow wire Villah’s mind into the new body. Normally the human body can naturally pick up Shaped additions like limbs, but the second brain was too strange to just magically integrate. We talked about a few options, like maybe implanting cybernetics and just puppeting the thing, but we ultimately decided to try an organic solution. Connecting up the nervous systems of the two bodies was straightforward for Clem, but making Villah able to actually comprehend having two heads was a problem. We ended up consulting psychics to build a mental subroutine in Villah’s mind to parse all the new sensory information and let her experience and control her second body.” Halley-4 rolls her eyes, “We ended up having to use three independent psychics for the job too! Just to make sure none of them were tampering with her mind. We let Villah acclimatize to her queen-of-hearts style double body for a few days, and then Clementine gender swapped her original body into a male version of Villah. At that point we’d done what we had agreed to, but Villah was unhappy with her lack of genitals, so Clem did some clever manipulations to make her outwardly ordinary mouths behave like sexy bits. Her mouths and lips felt like pussies and her tongues could swell up and be cocks. Villah’s Shape was an absolute masterpiece.”

“And was this the start of a beautiful friendship?”

“Yeah, for a while at least. Villah decided to make herself patron of the Changelings and kept throwing parties. She hosted a night in Earthling Hell where she became a giant demon king, while I was a sultry succubus for the evening. Villah held a hippie love-in where all the guests were Changeling nudists for the night. She held a Westminster dog show where Villah and her friends were all shaped to be four-legged dog-girls. I was a Dalmatian and was runner up, since obviously French Poodle Villah won Best in Show. Villah held a safari, an Earthling Halloween, a Christmas Party, and a gladiatorial contest where she rented out the fucking Arena. So many different parties! They always had an Earthling theme and Villah always had a brand new Shape by Clementine. And not just her, Clem was booked solid Shaping all of Villah’s closest friends and guests and whoever else could edge into a session. The ‘Tine, She is a Changeling had more business than we could handle! We were turning people away!”

“Sounds fun.”

“It was so much fun! Clem and I were suddenly two of the most sought after humans on Flotsam! We were wined and dined and invited to all the best parties. I finally knew what it was like to be popular!” Halley-4 tugs on her hair, “I started to spend more time with Villah and her friends, becoming another part of the entourage. I started to change my Shape a lot, and not just for the parties. I stopped seeing Parsaffony and Dog-boy and the other Changelings as much and spent less time with Clem. I was drinking more, and trying more drugs, and when the orgies started to happen, I convinced Clem that we should join in.” Halley sighs, “I was getting carried away with it. I felt so sexy in all my different bodies and everyone was so beautiful and available and nice… I wanted to dive in. At the time I thought Clem felt the same way, but in hindsight I think she was maybe playing along to make me happy. I was letting it all go to my head.”

“Uh oh.” I smell trouble.

“Yes, but not quite yet. Things were really good for a while. Business was booming, Clem and I were in love, and we partied all the time with our fancy new friends. I never thought it would end. And I think neither did Clem.” Halley pauses and takes a breath, “One night, we’d been at one of Villah’s parties and were both still a little high on Bliss. I was wearing my old hermaphorite Shape with my six tits and my big cock. I remember feeling so good, so adventurous, and wanted Clem to feel the same way. We had fallen into bed together and Clem had laughed and  licked her lips and started to suck me off. It felt amazing and I closed my eyes, floating in the pleasure of a good blowjob. I let my mind wander and fantasized about all the different women I’d been with that year, and all their exotic Shapes. I opened my eyes and looked at Clementine and boggled at how relatively ordinary she was. Here was this incredible all-powerful Shaper, and sure she had the three most perfect tits in the universe, but she was otherwise so physically ordinary. A gawky thin brunette, still almost boyish. I giggled as this wild idea formed in my mind. Clem, I’d gasped, is this your dream body? She stopped sucking my cock and looked up. She giggled: like, what do you mean? She maybe looked a little guilty, like I’d caught her somehow. You could look like anyone, like anything. Is this, like, truly the body you want to live with for the rest of your life? She snorted like it was a joke: like, seriously? Yes, I said, fighting off the Bliss, like, seriously. You should like totally become your fantasy self! Clementine frowned thoughtfully, I could see her do some mental math, and she fondled her three breasts and blushed. Like, okay, she said and straddled me. She pushed my cock inside her and started to slowly rock her hips. I sat up and started to play with her outer tits and suck on her middle nipple, not sure where this was going. She moaned and ran her fingers through her hair and I gasped as it turned from brown to silver. Yes! Beautiful! Clem’s eyes were wide and she smiled and giggled. She pulled her ears into elfin points and rubbed her hands over her face which went from plain to gorgeous with high cheekbones and a sculpted nose and plump lips. I gasped at her sudden beauty and she grinned. Her face pinched in a frown and I watched as curved goat horns pushed out of her skull and curled backwards. I grabbed them and pulled her in for a deep kiss, and she pushed her body against me. My cock was so hard inside her. She pulled back rolled her hips and ran her hands over her arms and stomach. I watched her limbs and belly become perfectly toned, new muscles growing under a sheath of soft feminine fat. Clem gasped and shuddered and I clutched her ass, felt it swell in my grip, her thighs and butt becoming a perfect blend of soft and hard, her hips growing broader. Clem arched her back and rested her hands on her tailbone, her three perfect tits pushed out, and she slowly, almost seductively, pulled a long sinuous tail from her spine. It was as long as her legs and as thick as an arm and it was covered in her velvet soft skin. The tail lashed the air uncertainly and then pressed itself against my cunt, making me gasp. Clem thrust herself against me and grimaced as her legs made a cracking sound. I leaned forward and watched as her feet stretched out and became cloven hooves, and her legs bent oddly, adapting to a new posture. Clem started to fuck me harder, faster, and I thrust back against her. She laughed and panted and gasped, and kept touching her body, tweaking herself slightly here or there, somehow becoming even more beautiful. I gasped, shocked at this perfect vision of a woman, this goddess, smiling and moaning, impaled on my cock. I could hardly hold back! I thrust my hips and growled, and Clementine rode me, squeezing her tits and letting out these pretty little grunts. My heart thundered in my chest and I felt my self-control buckle and break, and I clutched Clementine against me and came, cock erupting and she shrieked and clawed at me, body writhing as she orgasmed. I collapsed back panting and Clementine climbed off me. She stood confidently on her hooves and trotted over to the mirror, her body moving like poetry. She touched her cheek and studied her body, a look of wonder on her gorgeous new face. She had tears in her eyes and the prettiest smile in the world. She was the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen. She looked at me and purred: This is who I am, this is me. I’m finally perfect.”

“Fuck, she really is.” I sigh.

“As I sobered up I worried that Clementine might have regrets, that maybe this was a huge mistake. Clem was super happy though, so satisfied with her gorgeous new body, and possessed of this new confidence, like a flower that bloomed. She seemed content with herself, maybe for the first time.” Halley grins, “I think she’d thought about her ideal body before that night, maybe during all those hours of Shaping, and had already designed it in her mind. But she was too, I don’t know, hesitant? Embarrassed? Humble? Or maybe it was she didn’t want to fully surrender her masculinity? She didn’t let herself go for it.” Halley-4 shrugs, “Maybe it was me giving her permission or being high enough to lose her inhibitions, but I think she finally did something she’d wanted for a while. She realized a dream that night, and being there was one of the best moments of my life.”

“I bet.”

“Of course not all good things last.” Halley sighs, “Remember when I first Clone-appeared, how I thought this was all a hallucination?”

I nod.

“Well, those feelings never disappeared, but they receded into the background for a while. I started to accept that this was my insane new life: I was Halley-4 of Flotsam and I had a goddess for a girlfriend and a giga-gillionaire heiress friend.” She shakes her head, “Except that feeling of unreality started coming back. With a vengeance. All of the partying and drinking and drugs and orgies; everything was happening too fast. Things were starting to feel like a fever dream. And then I started to change my Shape almost everyday, trying to stay fashionable and show off, trying to advertise. But that just made the feelings worse: I was untethered, always being someone or something new. I felt adrift and artificial, more like a fantasy than a woman. I was losing myself.”

She grimaces, “I feel like there should have been some obvious breaking point: a giant fight with Clem about my partying, or a grand falling out with Villah, or bumping into Parsaffony on the street and having her not recognize me, or maybe an intervention staged by my Changeling friends. Instead I just had this moment of clarity where it clicked for me. I woke up in an unfamiliar bed and no real idea of how I got there. I’d been out partying the night before, but the night was hazy, a blur of sex and drugs. My head hurt and my mouth was dry and I could tell I’d had sex, lots of sex the night before.” Halley-4 rubs her face with her hands, “I didn’t know how I got there, or who I’d slept with, or where I was. I didn’t know where Clementine was. I didn’t even know what Shape I was wearing. My body was a mystery below the sheets and I didn’t know if I could even walk, crawl, or slither home. This wasn’t the first time this happened to me, but for once I felt the full reality of it. This was my life and I was fucking it up. I had to sort my shit out before I hit a real rock bottom. Before I fucked up badly and hurt myself. Before I hurt someone else.”

“That night I asked Clementine to return my body to baseline; not my sexy six-breasted herm standard, but my original Halley-clone factory default. I was shocked at just how odd my original body felt, which really cemented it for me. I needed to step away from the parties and the Changelings and Shaping and Clem. I needed to figure out who the fuck I was and I needed space to do it. I couldn’t be a good partner to Clem, in business or romantically, until I put myself back together.” Halley frowns, “I told Clem all this: about my fears and my unhealthy thoughts and my failing mental health. I told Clem I loved her but that I needed to go away for a while to figure myself out. Clem had tears in her eyes, I could tell she was hurt, but she hugged me and told me she was so proud of me. She gave me a big pot of money, my share from The ‘Tine, and promised to do anything she could to help. And then I walked away from the love of my life and started over.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “That must have been so hard.”

Halley nods, “The hardest.”

“So what did you do?”

“The business of building a new life. I had money, so I was able to find a nice little apartment and get by, but I needed something to do. I avoided any bars or clubs like a recovering addict, but waited tables at some tea shops for a while, just to be around sapients. I also started to walk a lot and explore the city. It’s funny how much moving is good for anxiety, just putting one foot in front of the other, you burn off that nervous energy and create a momentum for yourself. And it’s a great way to be invisible, no one really notices a walker. I wish instead of bottling ourselves up in that trailer on Earth we had discovered walking.” Halley-4 smiles, “Anyway, I was out for one of my walks when I bumped into one of Villah’s friends, a rich party girl named Exalted-Starscape. She was wearing this absurd Shape where her entire torso, front and back, was covered in huge tits. Like two-dozen of them. She could hardly walk and was only wearing rainbow tights and a stupid fashionable hat. She looked pretty upset and lost, so despite wanting nothing to do with Villah’s circus, I offered to help her. She sort of recognized me from the Changeling parties, but was also getting pretty desperate. Exalted was given seven sealed envelopes to deliver by her rich business uncle and had no idea how to find the recipients. Since I’d become something of a city explorer I was able to guide my boob-berry acquaintance to all her deliveries. She was so happy and insisted on getting my Contact info to keep in touch.”

“I thought that would be that, just a little good deed, but Exalted messaged me a few days later asking if I could deliver another letter for her. I was going for a walk and thought sure whatever, so I picked up her letter and dropped it off at a Terraces Mansion. Another good deed, but the male recipient thought I was courier and gave me this really generous tip.” Halley smiles wryly, “A thing about rich folks is they send each other hand delivered letters. It’s a privacy thing: anything networked or drone delivered can be intercepted and snooped on. A handwritten letter delivered by a trusted courier is way more secure, especially if it’s coded too. Well, before I knew it, my good deeds had turned into a business running secret missives for rich folks.”

“I had my little home and a steady hustle. I made up with Parsaffony and got my best friend back. And I kept my head down and stayed away from trouble.” Halley snaps her fingers, “Villah dox Quilla got summoned back to the family pantheon and left Flotsam. Without her patronage the The Changeling scene rapidly collapsed. The entire trend had been propped up by Villah’s fortune and fame, and without her throwing cool parties, most Sapients quickly found new pursuits. The only Changelings left were the originals, the diehards like Saff and Dog-boy.” Halley-4 shakes her head, “The departure of Villah also caused a mass exodus of the young rich and took a big bite out of my private letter enterprise. But by then I had confidential packet contracts with real businesses and launched my first delivery drones. I actually had so much work that I had to hire employees! Like Dog-boy and Tillzy.“ Halley grins, “Things kept growing and growing and now I own one of the biggest delivery companies on the planet. It’s called: Pony Express.”

“Fuck! You own Pony Express!”

Halley is very pleased, “So you’ve heard of it.”

“I fucking knew that centauress logo looked too much like me!”

Halley laughs, “You know I wore that centaur Shape once as a promotional gag.” Halley bites her lip, “Horrible idea: weighing a ton and walking on four hooves in a city made of stairs and ladders was idiotic! And I was so hungry all the time.” She blushes and whisks her tail, “And Clem never quite figured out the plumbing…”

“Speaking of, what about you and Clem? What happened there?”

“I took too long. By the time I felt good enough about my life to go back to her, she’d moved on to Halley-5.” Halley grimaces, “Which was a real kick in the cunt.”

“I’m sorry.” But not that sorry.

“Yes, well, it all worked out.” Halley tugs on her ponytail, “I focused on my work and friends, dated a little, well maybe a lot actually, and eventually met Kline.” She taps her Keyband and a hologram of a smiling Halley-4 and a rather pretty man appears. He has delicate features but dark stubble on his cheeks and short, shaggy black hair. He’s cute. “Kline’s a spacecraft mechanic and works on the same crew as Steadfast Freya. He’s kind and funny, and smart in a lowkey kind of way. Clever.” She grins, “And very good with his hands.”

“Sounds nice.”

“It is,” Halley beams, “I’m so in love! We agreed to marry, and are cohabitating for the prescribed period.” Halley tolls her eyes, “His parents are old school practitioners of rationalist life philosophy. Kline is much more relaxed about it, but in-laws, y’know? And honestly some of their ideas about conflict resolution are pretty helpful and…” She grins, “Sorry.”

“I’m happy for you.” I look at this successful version of me and I am indeed happy for her. It’s nice to see one of us make it. “Why are you a quadruped?”

“Oh this?” Halley-4 gracefully unfolds herself back up to her four feet and does a resplendent dressage pose.”I found baseline life too boring and wanted a more interesting Shape. After you’ve had as many bodies as me, two arms and two legs is too drab, so I paid Clementine for an upgrade.” She whisked her tail, “I felt my old six-breasted herm body was too tied up in the past, and doing something a bit equestrian felt on brand so: humantaur.” She smiles, “I only meant for it to be a temporary thing, but it grew on me and I think it might be my forever Shape. I guess I’ll always be a Changeling.”

My eye’s pinch in a smile, “It suits you.” Even if her body would look way better without arms.

“Thank you,” Halley-4 says, stretching out her legs. “Now back to my thesis: figure out what you want from life and get it. I built my life, mine, Halley’s, and it’s great.” She makes an emphasis fist, “You. Deserve. That. Too.”

“But…” 

“Let me finish,” Halley holds up a finger and stamps a foreleg. “You don’t owe Hallley-Prime anything, she’s our template not our mother. Just because she took out a glitchy dumbass insurance policy doesn’t mean you have to devote your life to finding her.” She shakes her head, “For all we know she’s dead or got abducted again, or flew herself back to Earth without telling anyone, or donned the Red Robe and embraced anonymity, or got herself assimilated into the Ürnaut collective, or who the fuck even cares! It doesn’t make a difference. You’re here, and chasing Prime never made anyone happier.”

I frown at Halley and wish I was standing up so I could stomp around too. “Did you know I learned that Halley-Prime wasn‘t even human? That all of us Halley clones are aliens.”

“Huh.” Halley-4 blinks, “That’s interesting.”

“Isn’t that worth knowing? Don’t you want to know what we are? Why we were on Earth? Who wanted to abduct us?”

Halley inclines her head, “I do. But not enough to blow up my life or watch more of our sisters hurt themselves.” She sighs, “Look, it’s your life, but it’s also your life, and you should consider what you want to do with it. Chase a ghost if you must, but consider the friends and life you could have here too.” Halley-4 turns to go. “Clementine’s a wonderful woman.”

“Wait? Where are you going?”

“I have a life to get back to. Kline is back from orbit today and I have a romantic dinner to make.” She smiles at me over her shoulder and lifts her tail, “And this Halley has two very horny cunts that miss their man.”

“Oh, okay. Nice to meet you?”

“Take care of yourself Halley-24.”

***

Chapter 30