A Dowel thru the Tower

The girl in her wind-swept dress sped on by. Over the arches and across the bridges from one interior to another, avoiding the babbling boasting mob behind her in the seemingly ever-expanding expanse. For a blond having to watch her every step, she was amazed she could outrun the pursuits of burly ginger warriors, she'd always wanted partners chasing after her but not like this. No matter how much she dashed, the soldiers behind her seemed to stampede closer than ever with their bows and arrows, some raising pikes, spears and swords in her direction.

What was a shopkeeper to do? All she'd done is ask for directions! And the heartless horned- hatted flock seemed to be upon her like the stormy wrath of Odin.

"Slow down, geez what the heck! I was sure we were speaking the same language?!

 

What's with this crazy place?"

 

She continued into a strange cathedral, which lead onto upwards and sideways staircases that split in an M. C. Escher style. The geometry of this place had never ceased to assert ways to obfuscate its own basics with the labyrinthine structure that seemed to go on forever into every which way. Across paths and caves, through deserts and towns, into mazes and back out to artic fields, sideways upways and that-ways. When Luma and her friends had arrived here, it had merely been a tower! A very tall tower high enough that the mast met with the heavens and was obscured in a dense silky fog of gradients, the pastel colours meeting the ivory whites of roman architecture coiled from top to bottom. Upon leaving other doorways, Luma had found iterations of the tower varied in shape, aesthetic and even building- Sometimes it was a modern skyscraper with steel and glass windows, other times a pyramid, one place she visited out the exit had it

 

looking like a nuclear powerplant facility. None of this changed the fact however that wherever she went Luma was very confused and of course, lost. And now she was lost alone, without the people she came with.

The mechanic caught her breath behind an arch, sighting the burly warriors going the wrong direction after throwing them off her trail. She slumped down slowly, rubbing her tired eyes. How had she gotten separated this way? While her, their party leader and Maid were traveling along a strange corridor she checked one closet, only to trip in and fall out a rabbit hole, that is to say a literal rabbit hole out a grassy knoll. The ground closed up and she'd been looking for days to find a way back. All she could think to do was take out from her satchel drink from some spring she'd gone near and pour the rest away.

The marble columns around her seemed to go out for hundreds of meters, and so Luma began exploring. Ahead of her was a beautiful town, its masonry and well-organized buildings could've passed for a Mediterranean beauty. There was no sun, and yet an eerie greyish vigilante of sunlight seemed to poke its way through the subterranean, light from a source she would never be able to identify. Every place she visited had some peculiarities like this, some with multiple suns or light from glowing scarlet moons, she'd never once come across a room sheltered in complete darkness. That was until today.

It took a bit for her to adjust her eyes to the dark, the bright white abandoned marble buildings behind her still backlit. Ahead the ceiling finally caved in and met the floor, where a single silvery dual-door remained. "Just another entrance, Luma. Or another exit. Same thing really." She walked forward and slowly pressed her hands on the plated surface.

 

"Everywhere leads somewhere crazy, and nothing makes sense. What's a little more crazy in your life? You sat behind a counter for over 10 years, you can do this."

With her heartbeat racing, Luma pushed forward. The doors went effortlessly, revealing a smaller living space on the other side. In a room lit by florescent lamps, two leather couches, various photos of red-nosed figures and a big, bright illuminated high-def TV, was a strange and large woman. More eccentric than anyone the shopkeeper had ever seen, she briskly turned her head revealing beautiful inflated red lips, swirling colors in her eyes and perfectly pale white skin. The woman waved a white glove, her navy-blue connected to overall straps across a white brassier and blouse with colorful high shoulderpads.

"Hello. I’m Ellie."

 

The woman greeted Luma, waving from the couch with large dilated pupils. "H-hi? I’m.. Luma?" She swallowed. Hard.

"Don't be shy. Come in! I've been awaiting guests."

 

Luma stopped, finally closing the door and walking in. The closer the shopgirl crept, the more she felt unsure if she'd stepped into some kind of household or a horror scene. The walls were all incredibly bright tones alongside muted colours, a decal of decorations across marking a red-yellow-blue stripes.

"Sorry, I've been running around for quite a while. Do you have somewhere I could freshen up? I promise I won't be long."

Ellie got up, revealing how tall she truly was in comparison to the willowy merchant. With only a wave of her arm, she showed her to a kitchen that looked like it was straight out of the American 50's, a pulp retro decor with black-white checkered floor and chrome apparatuses.

 

Luma hesitated at the novelty of it, before she looked at Ellie, then looked away and helped herself to the sink.

"I'll do you even better than that. You've been traveling quite a while, haven't you?"

 

Her voice had a sing-song cheery tone to it, so saccharine that Luma couldn't help but decipher that she had something more behind her intentions.

"Uh huh. Yeah, you could say that. I don't normally, not since this past year but.. " "Busy wusy?"

Ellie leaned on table, puffy gloved hands in her cheeks as she pressed two fingers against her lips into a mock pucker.

"Tad." The water finished rinsing and Luma toweled off. "What was it you said earlier?" "Oh! I can offer you something nice." She tilted her head like a cuckoo bird marveling at an early morning worm. "Directions! I'll give you a way home!"

Luma chirped up a bit. "Home!? How.." Silence filled the airwaves. Her excitement was cut short when her skepticism returned. She pulled a chair and pulled in. "Wait, how do you know where I live?" "I don't!" The room again filling with silence. The fox-tailed girl took out a stick of waxy red wax, rubbing it softly over her lips over and over.

"O...kay?" Luma sipped her tea, jiggling the glass. "I don't know where you live. But I can give you directions! You're probably a big adventurer looking for their next quest, or a party of followers, right?"

"Oh, nono. I'm not, anything like that. I ran a shop back home.. that’s it really."

 

Her eyes trailed Ellie as she shined her lips, darting to the woman's large breasts and polkadotted bloused, seemingly made of some surreal reflective material. Her face blushed,

 

which didn't escape Ellie's notice. Luma looked away, the buxom woman's lips curling into a smile and leaning in a little too close, placing a squeaky gloved hand on Luma's reddish cheek.

"Wait a minute.. are you gay? Woman your fancy?"

 

"I, you see, well.." Luma stammered, rocks tumbling in her gut.

 

"Hihihi, so innocent. I'm only teasing you. Not that most wouldn't be flattered in front of the power of a god."

"Hm?" The host didn't let her guest digest that line before gracefully getting up and putting both hands around Luma's shoulders, she from the front of the table to Luma's behind so quickly, cartoonish sound effects bangarang'd off her ears.

"Thanks for the help. I'm no adventurer, but I want to improve myself on my-" "But of course, you'll have to replay me! Dinner tonight at my place?"

Trice over Luma felt the deadpan silent. "Joking! You're way too modest. Let me get my purse, follow me out the back. I'll show you how you can help!"

 

 

 

The two began to walk into Ellie's back porch, entering a lush swampy green set of puddles surrounded by gardens of cattleya orchids, decorating the puddles in fuchsia and white tones. The large pearly buxom woman waved her hand into a puddle, and nodded. "This way, jump in!" She smiled to reassure the shopkeeper. "I.. what?" Leading by demonstration, she soon one leap in and soon disappeared into the ripples. Luma hesitated, looked around, and realized being alone didn't make her feel any less insecure. Her conscience voted with a small step, and she fell on through, a watery tunnel taking them both through the Tower's many incomprehensible old secrets.

 

When they landed out with a splash, the two helped each other up and soon were faced with a massive room with a brazen neon-green skyline with golden clouds in the shape of a dome. At the end of a knoll was an enormous, massive cyan tree whose roots seemed to play leapfrog with the strange marshes. Below the tree were reflective, smooth puddles of liquid rubber. They appeared to offer visions of strange fates, reflective entities walking on the other side as little more than projections. Ellie and Luma started to cross the channel over a large bridge, heading towards the concentrated silhouette of the tree cloaked in shade from its vast roots and branches tangling throughout in every direction. Sighting a dangling crystalline fruit the size of a watermelon from one branch, Ellie pointed up. "Right there! The Catalyst Heart. It'll take you anywhere, but more importantly it will do me some gardening with this big ol' weed here." She turned to a very confused Luma. "W-weed?"

In her clear white dress, the tree's cloaked shade casts her in navy blue. A tree so tall, Luma couldn't even see the top. Its immense bridge-sized roots going out like a jungle dripping with saturated slime that seemed to seep into and form the puddles. These puddles, with odd reflections around them, illuminated as a thousand chaotic screens rippling in sync within the watery squeaky pockets.

"Yes, a weed!" Her host's stuffy gloves rubbed her chin. "A very big one! It's a paradimensional fauna -nicknamed 'Algae Mama', they take root in spaces with high magical concentration and tricky spacial planes! In other words, grow in places where many worlds and different kinds of people meet. They've been sapping some of the, effects and esoteric energies from the Tower for ages to grow and siphoning that power itself! This is both good and bad. Bad because many floors have been rendered kinda 'dull', and the Tower's usual traps and mechanisms deactivated. Ridding this big silly tree will fix that! Better yet, if we can harvest its

 

big blue shiny jewel up there, it’s root terminal, we can take everything it concentrated and put it to good use. Agale Mama weeds are very good at transversing hard to reach spaces, and coordinating magic too! You've heard of photosynthesis, right? Think of that but running on mana instead of sunlight, and all of it stored up there!" She pointed to the crystalline artifact shining above.

"If it's so special, why don't you just grab it?" "Me?" Ellie hummed softly, and leaned back. "I couldn't. The magical density is abit.. well much! On both our ends, one of those ends being 'me', although I'd like to think I'm the juicier voltage than a big parasitic tree." She pinched Luma, rubbing her thumbs between the girl's cheeks affectionately. "It'd be like trying to wire jumper cables with two batteries, and in fact- pretty much anyone with much 'juice' at all would probably get fried touching it. But, I'll let you in on a little secret!" The space between Ellie's lips and her guest's ears vanished shortly. "Not you."

Riotous laughter filled the field. Luma rubbed her shoulder dejected. For all her decorum and hospitality that the woman had offered, she couldn't help but feel a little bit deflated from the last comment. "You want my help, because I don't have a ton of magic really, someone whose bare basic right?" The words were the hardest swallow she could muster. "I'd greatly appreciate it. And with the power contained within, it's easy to foresee you finding your way home after! Which is what you wanted, right?" Words sweet as sugar, and faintly full of hope.

Nodding, Luma looked at the prize "How am I even going to get up there?"

 

Ellie handed her a rope from her satchel, a grappling hook on the other end. "With a workout!"

 

The girl took the hook with an uneasy swing, throwing it into the air, and watching her hopes glide down over the branch where the treasure lay. With Ellie's help, she slid it forward over and over, until the tip eventually reached the opposite side and towards the two.

"Are you sure about this? This seems, dangerous."

"You know I could always attach it to your panties and pull you up, flagpole style." Taking a deep breath, Luma bit her tongue and grabbed both ends of the rope grumbling.

 

She pushed her toes up, and started to crawl against gravity to inch her way up. The sheeny puddles below showed a kaleidoscope of imagery, from city streets to a quiet library rippling with the wind. "W-what the heck is that?" She swallowed uncomfortably looking down. "Magical residue. Follows what some stuffy egghead nerds call ‘law of karmic metabolic adaptation’, which is a fancy way to say it assimilates on contact. Seeps into the roots and puddles around the tree, don't touch it unless you want to end up a wallstreet executive or stripper with a heart of gold somewhere." The warning didn't do much to silence the fluttering in the wannabe heroine's heart, she looked up and kept climbing, her grip barely able to hold on if only for her light weight.

"Just think of it like a trapeze act! C'monnn!" Ellie cheered, watching Luma wobble in the air back and forth like an acrobat.

"I'm doing my best, be patient!"

 

About halfway up, she could see the shimmering of the jewel caught in the gem of her eye. "Nothing to be afraid of. Bernida would be able to do this, so can you.." The treasure got closer, brighter. Shrinking the distance and practically beckoning her with its siren call.

 

Her hands slipped, sweat on her palms sliding her off. She panicked and clutched what rope she could immediately, skidding a few feet with her heart racing. From there she started to pull up- looking down, she could see Ellie tugging on other end of the rope, pulling her up. By the time her heart caught pace again, Luma was able to crawl atop the branch and reach the jewel, the colours shining off her face like a disco ball. "I did it!" Ellie clapped and whistled. "How, do I take it?" "Just rip it off the branch!"

Luma wobbled on her knees, steadying herself to maintain balance. "Won't I like, explode? Or be kapoofed magically?"

"Wuuh nuh uh! Nono, that only happens to me. I'm juice remember? You have no magical surplus, you'll be fine."

The reminder nipped at the girl's bud. "Juice.. juice." She reached down and gripped the prism-shaped jewel, surprised how light it was for her size.

There was a fleeting resistance when the climber started to pull it from its stem, taking it into her two arms and bending backwards. That resistance gave way and the artifact's shoot snapped.

"I've got it!" The bright jewel illuminated everything that the shopkeeper had hoped for. She'd smelted and ironed many metals and alloys in her day, iron and copper and silicone, never once laying her hands on eyes on something as priceless or rare. She hadn't cared for jewelry at any point she could remember, but squinting her eyes at it now made her realize how... bright they were? A passing cloud floated by removing the sunlight from its ephemeral obscurity. The

 

dazzling light from the Catalyst Heart intensified a dozen fold and became a brilliant sunbeam. Shiny and warm. Bright enough to blind and make you forget something fondly reminisced.

The blinding light had the girl recoiling in agony, her body somersaulting agape until she was flung back, off the branch, sending her and the jewel flying. Farther and farther, Luma shuddered and anticipated her demise. She fell all the way off course into the gooey sea of puddles, the translucent projection of a library spluttered into a loud splash and breaking her fall with soft, tepid fluid to catch her in its gel.

Ellie watched the girl and the gem fall from above, their jaunt around the bend sending waves of the tree's fluids sploooooooooshing about. The Catalyst Heart landed inches from her toony shoes and she flinched back with an 'eep!', falling just short of rolling at her ankles. She looked over to where Luma fell, the girl now a blobby shape in the shhlop. She pulled her head and waist, attempting to stand up and out of it only to find tendrils of the muck sprawling and sticking around her. "H-help! Ellie, its flooding everywhere."

From her chest down, the latex began coating her clothes and transfusing with her being.

 

She pulled and yanked at the threads, every attempt had them melting like soft silk in her grip and spreading around each nook and cranny. The slime oozed around her in a slick black texture, pulling her down, trying to hold her in place. The more she clung at it, the faster the goo moved, spreading further and further, across her hip, over her belly, along her chest until everything covered by the thick, rubbery liquid felt tingly and tight, forming an old dress that a woman from the Victorian era might wear, corset, lace, frills and all in skintight glossy material. She reached out to the ledge of a root nearby to steady herself, and the slime immediately covered her hand and began to move up her arm. Luma began to feel light headed. By the time it passed, she was

 

entranced. Helplessly, the thickly coated girl could only watch as it spread up her hands, slicking between her fingertips in a way that made her shiver, then slowly inched back up her arm in reverse leaving long obsidian-black sleeves of stretchy tight material. She murmured until it slicked up her neck and coated her mouth, dark bubbling sucking over her lips as the substance overtook her head. All the noise and light faded to black, and she learned why death was cold.

Everything felt rather good.

 

 

 

 

Didn't it? Quiet. Still as death. Was that such a bad thing?

She'd failed. Luma reflected briefly on her last moments, before her thoughts fizzled and the only thing reflecting was her latex pencil skirt.

Letting her be herself was a mistake, some part of her told her- Luma wasn’t sure if it was her own conscience speaking or the invading mental influences, but she didn’t find the distinction to care. It just felt completely true all the same.

It was getting harder to think, if easier to move. The tendrils and liquid strands had all but merged into sleek cloth around her body, merging and replacing with her dress and shoes before to thicken their mass into foamy, lustrous material that pressed against her body like a glove. With a dulled look the girl stood on two newly formed elastic heels and perched up above, she saw the large tree pulsing with light, the same tree she’d just climbed was now dwindling.

With the jewel removed, it started sucking and sccwrhhhhhhing inwards, contorting and compressing. In no time at all it was crunched into a single globular mass of roots and tangles,

 

before imploding into oblivion altogether. The spectacle served to distract the woman from how her figure had changed, breasts layered with rubber and waist pinched tight as her old consciousness began a demure reroute, the personality of a kindly, scholarly courier buttressing.

She got up. The second skin seemed to highlight every shape and contour of her arm until she looked sexy and refined, but also very dignified. A word she’d never have used to describe herself before. When the mold from the puddle pulled together, her skin became rubbery white porcelain and sleeves puffed up. She was soon reduced to the trait of scholastic proprietary, her quiet voice which became a simple utility she used without thinking when wishing to signify the act of a shush or 'yes mam', a 'please sir.' The physical possession holding the girl’s soul under layers of facts, trivia, orderly etiquette and a refined woman’s personality. Contrary to her glossy outfit and reflective surface, that persona was quite lackluster.

Her graceful hands glided down her the brassiere coating her long-sleeved blouse.

 

Smooth, flawlessly polished.

 

She'd grown to 7 feet, standing tall, Luma was now a gatekeeper of class, respectability and education, perhaps corruptible to spread her likeminded position. Her hair was molded in a plastic bun and flecks of pure black replaced the honey blond. Her now-greyish eyes rung with a dull, half-lidded glow with glassy spectacles.

By the time Ellie arrived Luma was gone.

 

The foxxy woman gently skipped into the puddle which attempted too-greedily to assimilate her next, only to sizzle and scorch off on-contact around her latent aura. "Luma? I'm so sorry, you just slipped and then-"

 

"Ssh." The woman raising her squeaky finger glared emotionlessly. "Hush. This is a place of learning. Please I must insist you keep your voice down."

"What?" Ellie raised one brow.

 

"Can I help you to our book catalogue?" Her sing-song voice sang softly. “Who are you?” Ellie asked.

“I’m the librarian Gracie, ma’am. May I help you?” There was a dimmed, hazy pleasure in not thinking. Serving others dutifully, the feeling washed over her with a docile mentality, letting the latex quiet everything else in her mind. Luma who? She knew no book by that title, and Gracie knew every last page in this library - regardless of whether library that existed anywhere or not.

Her guide here giggled a tad, it was a little silly seeing the girl like this. Couldn't be helped she supposed, but now she was faced with a problem- the jewel couldn't be carried home anymore. Ellie wasn't heartless, and the glossy book-maiden did seem rather content, but she had no real use or much benefit for the girl in her current state. She turned to the librarian and stepped forward.

"Yes?" The girl asked. "Luma.." One hand on her shoulder pads, and the liquid that'd merged with her already tried to spread onto Ellie, much like the gooey puddles by her ankles. It evaporated immediately on contact, allowing Ellie to reach closer and put a soft hand on the woman's cheek, each touch pressing close with sympathy.

Ellie got a good look, the droned out public servant without a hint of the old girl inside. There was no trace of Luma. But in many ways the figure in front of her was still a faithful echo.

 

Anemic in mannerisms, humble, passive and receptive. Always keeping her head down, responding when told. The agency that could be said to have been stripped from her wasn't meant for her anyway, and she seemingly didn't need any help slipping into the persona of a woman standing behind a counter with her hands folded quietly, repeating lines and controlling her heart towards simple service. Gracie would serve for the greater good, she’d never put her own needs above others or do anything against the will of another.

"I know you cannot remember yourself, but I want you to close your eyes and remember how this feels. Right now, in this present moment, the you that you are now and the powers that fit, the role wrapped around you. When you feel like you've had enough, open them again and you'll be free."

The Librarian felt oil, water, plastic and paint mixed together with magic and pressed against every inch of her skin, yet she felt it start to squish when Ellie pressed her thumb into her rubberized layers. Her eyes closed. Ellie whispered some sweet nothings. Electricity danced across the soft, pliable folds that the red-lipped woman squeezed, the taut material giving way and loosening. Once her hands made purchase, Ellie kissed her on the cheek and gently tugged, her magnificent talents removing the enchantment and physically tearing her head apart like wet clay.

Luma opened her eyes. She had to organize the books and attend to.. attend to..

 

It all came back to her. Her worse shame, was in the last echoing thoughts, how they could've ended with 'my shop' or a few dusty tomes equally.

From the neck down she was a buxom, corseted woman with a waspy figure in a tight, shining gown, the shoulder pads heavy across her stilted squeaky arms.

 

"I.." She looked away guilty and squeaky, covering her face.

 

"Let's get you home." Ellie offered her hand, until it was accepted reluctantly. The two hugged for a moment, and then started to make the trek back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luma carried the springy jewel back through the tunnel-pond and they found themselves back in Ellie's apartment, taking the time clean themselves off and soon riding out the next dozen minutes in heavy silence. For her part, the shopkeeper girl couldn’t remove the latex librarian attire, it was on way too tight and only seemed to fight her every time she pulled or clung to it, snapping back, squeaking with polished humiliation, mocking her in its shining glory. She stopped partially because she was embarrassing herself in Ellie’s room, and partially because she was tingling all over and refused to admit how soft and nice the tight, taut material felt wrapped around her.

"How did it feel?" "It... didn't."

"Were you really going to send me home?"

 

"In a manner of definitions. I don't know where 'home' for you is, silly. If you merged with the Catalyst Heart, your home would be with you."

"What does that mean?" Luma raised her voice.

 

"Home is just where your valuables are. Your values are stored there.. what do you value

 

Luma?"

 

Her mind flashed back to the two she was following, Maid and Bernida. Maybe it was unthinkable she'd ever be like them, heroes who enacted their wills like chess pieces pushed along by the wheels of morality. Maybe the entire day proved she lacked that strength of conviction, and she was as different from Bernida in spirit as she could imagine. The proof of that weighed on her thicker than the rubber gown still squeezing on her body. Her tired lids closed and she remembered her late mother's funeral, they put her on a watery raft and pushed her down the river, a town tradition. Her father, the townspeople, everyone had brave words to say and took from her what had inspired them. But at the time, Luma was only a young child who stammered, her words stumbled and she couldn't find the right words to say. Her mother had often ignored her, treated like she was some child who tagged along. When she joined Bernida, had she done anything differently? Was her journey at the moment with Ellie a break from that cycle?

"I.. just want to move forward. March forward." "March where? Where's 'Forward'?"

She'd nearly been sacrificed for a shiny trinket. Well now she was a shiny trinket, she thought, trying to think of humor to disguise the stress that now endured.

Uncertainty abounds. Just believe in yourself, she could hear the cliches ringing. But the more she told herself it, the less true it seemed.

 

"Look, I don't know where to go! Can you help me?" She needed to, to find her party- and then what? She'd stand in their step, tell a funny story how she helped some sorceress take a greedy artifact for herself? Got her mind stuck as some book clerk, peacefully assimilated.

Would a heroine have gotten changed like that? Even now a part of her wanted to sink back into all of it and bury her mind in a glossy Book Keeper forever. The answers hurt to think about, which reflected in the soreness of her raspy throat.

"I don't know. Somewhere. Anywhere."

 

"Anywhere? But every 'where' will still be there when you need it. " Luma looked back at her, hurt.

"Looksy poopsie, I don't mean to be mean sweetie! Lots of travelers and adventurers come and go in this place, near and far. It's a pretty big tower! Most don't end up, the way they came. Many become playthings of the tower, part of its defenses or chaotic inhabitants. They lose something along the way.. Your quest seems to have been to find something yes? Did you ever consider you came here to discover a greater purpose, or that fate was merciful?"

The shopkeeper looked upwards, her shiny breasts still enlarged and encased- itching a little, but the tingly warm sensations like a big comforting hug.

"What's left for me then? I lost my party, I barely got you the big rock, and you had to save me still." She tugged slightly at the compressed material on her chest, refusing to mention how nice it felt tugging back at her. Running her palm down its smooth surface and pressing to hear it squeak. She briefly thought if she had a nun cowl she'd convincingly look like a sister of faith, one of the 5 goddesses of her land ever worshipped. Luma hugged herself, elastic heels

 

rubbing together, tight shiny covers of her sleeves applying pressure tightly. She kindled comfort in the pure sense of being or needing to be comforted.

"Do you really want to go home? I can send you out of here. As thanks for helping me." "Home.."

She hesitated.

 

"You just said home is where value is. I'm not valuable there, you don't know where I'm from? Well, I don't know where home is either. Not anymore. I’ve been out here for weeks and, nothing seems to matter in the end."

Her heart wavered without stopping. The guilt felt, heavy, too heavy, to confront everything. She was neurotic, tortured, embarrassed, she couldn't find the illusion that anything she was doing here would serve a greater purpose. Nor overcome her fixation that she would appease the flesh of higher spirited men and woman, hero or magus, in some pitiful isolated artifice of her own making.

“I don’t want to be like this anymore? Where I'm from, I'm the same.”

 

“Ohoho? Then who do you want to be.” Ellie leaned forward.

 

“Who? What does it matter.. Just, do your magic and put me back under Gracie, or whoever that lady was. She seemed pretty certain in her purpose. Why not? What’s that different about it anyway.” The shopkeeper had a hefty discomfort when she spoke with the stretchy outfit on which resigned her to sounding like she truly meant it. And in almost every way she did.

 

“Moi darling. Not that I don’t love you or wish you well, since this would mean attributing some heavy blame dearie, but are you sure that’s what you want? You’d just become some curiosity in a big big tower! Maybe a nice info desk for some rogue somewhere but..”

“I don’t care-”

 

“You don’t care?” Ellie caught the girl’s upset glare, and she wasn’t finished. “Oh, sorry. Woopsie, continues!”

“It’s true some people might value me, and having a cute or supportive role has always been my style. But I don’t really think I have a ton to offer others, and I’ve never had control of my life or others’ lives and it may be super selfish sounding but I want to make a louder impression than I have, or atleast be helpful to a few people. If you changed me, maybe I wouldn’t be very loud nor helpful.. but I wouldn’t mind sitting in a dusty corner somewhere alone?”

Ellie thumbed her lips, nodding along and processed everything the girl was saying. “That’s quite maddened you know. While the idea of having my own little private library somewhere in the Tower is cute… You really would just seem like a lost figure wanting for a library.. err, a real place of your own. And until you find one after idle searching, you wouldn’t belong anywhere! Unless I made one for you! Which in simple terms is.. hmhmhm..” She mused the possibilities.

“How do you think I’ve been living up until now?” The resolve on Luma’s gaze betrayed how overwhelmed she truly felt.

 

The woman paced back and forth, at one point retouching her bright red lipstick, another combing her hair and bouncing her breasts distractingly, before clearing her throat and coming back to Luma.

“You really just want to be a rubber librarian forever? To think like one and just accept that role?”

“As long as there’s no Luma anymore.” It almost hurt to say it. Almost. “Not a single ‘No’ to be found huh?” Ellie’s characteristic grin never lessened.

“There is no ‘No.’ There isn’t.”

 

“Well as cute as that would be, maybe I have a better solution.” She walked over and booped Luma on the nose. “I can help you make a louder impression than some bunned nerd! But real quick..”

With a point and nudge, she had Luma bring the Catalyst Heart on the table, making sure it didn’t wobble off due to the size and shape.

“I’m listening.”

 

“You see! As it turns out I’m in need of one more step for my, gardening work.” Ellie leaned her head on the table, staring at the jewel as if it were a big seed plucked from a grapefruit. “The Algae Mama was culled when removed its root, but its power is still contained in here!” She took a long comically oversized fork and poked it ever so slightly, her hair stood up and light sparks flowed from the fork’s tips. “But, I cannot use it. Buh.. I need some way to process and contain all that magical power! Or..” she looked up at Luma, her smile growing wider than usual. “Someone.”

 

The shop keep rested her hands on the foamy padded neoprene of her lap.

 

“You need me to, hold the power of that tree?“ Her brow raised skeptical.

 

“The whole thing, in this seed! I obviously cannot do it, crossing the streams and all that. It’d be bad indigestion! But you.. you’re perfect. With this sacred little moonrock here, I can help you become someone who makes a plenty loud impression, cheering you every step of the way. It won’t take anything on your part either, what do you say?”

“I.. will I be assigned some kind of role? Why help me? What do you want?”

 

“Assigns? Nobody will. You can choose whatever you want to be. Be a shaman or, an explorer. A queen, or a humble maid”

Luma blinked in surprise. “Really?”

 

There was something in her head that just, clicked. She double checked Ellie’s expression, confused by the audacity of what the woman was saying. Even getting a closer look, she couldn’t bring herself to believe it. It had to be another trick, or some masterful deceit from someone looking for another underling. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

Ellie fluttered her eyes, the spirals spinning as if trying to hypnotize. “Oh, I’m not.

 

Telling anything!” She said jokingly. “I’m not tricking people all the same. If, I get someone to become one with this stone, I’ll let them be whatever they want. If there are any catches or stipulations, they can accept the risk.”

“Right.” Luma rolled her eyes. She put two hands on the Catalyst Heart.

 

“Alright then, I don’t know if I really believe that.. but you did save me earlier. I trust you won’t hurt me.” The voluminous orb began to glow with a bright eerie blue aura.

 

“Do it then!”

 

“And your choice?” Her host was already licking her hands, slicking them in back of her hair and creating light flashes of electricity, magic swelling higher and higher around her in spiraling discharges.

“Surprise me.” Luma left it at that.

 

“You’ve got it!” With a kiss of her palm, the demi-goddess papped Luma directly atop and then booped her forehead. A hiss of energy emanated everywhere from the collision, the Catalyst Heart which was solid before roared to life into the air until it was no more but a concentrated mist, and Luma found herself shedding the archaic uniform that’d encased her before once exposed to it. It melted into segments and slivers around her. The mass started to take the shape of shining plates where each piece was able to perfectly interlock as a solid chassis, casing forming in a strange silhouette of a tall figure.

Around her hips a hip-high, bell-shaped hoop skirt made of metallic material was formed in two pieces, pressing against her from horizontal sides. Her chest was met with busty bouncy chest plates with hefty cleavage, and by their side shoulders locked into large silver shoulder-poofs, orbs big enough to be basketballs on their own. Coils in stripes of red, blue and yellow began unraveling down her arms, tightly pressing into segments, before thick poufy gloves attached themselves to her hands, each piece bloated and polished as gauntlets too large for Luma’s hands to properly fit inside.

Large plastrons wrapped themselves around her legs creating gigantic kneepads, both began squeezing so tightly and yet being ill fitting. In the middle of them large pink straps buckled, then multiplied up and down her legs and from these straps two layers of smooth liquid

 

started to run cold up and down her knees. The top most layer taking a vinyl-like texture and tightening into her new thigh-high boots. The layer below becoming orange-and-neon green striped stockings which shone with glossy material that stretched skintight everywhere it touched. It rose above her thighs and hips, meeting at her crotch and finally merging under the blue skirt, matching the neon-green of her forming bra and panties that hung between her legs.

The bottom of her waist was kept tidy with streaking plates held together with thick metal belts that crossed in the middle. Black and orange checkered platforms covered her feet, with thick heels at the ends of her boots. Her headband was attached to a short, bushy purple twin tail, and from that molded piece hollowed out thick plastic casing that embedded microchips into the girl’s scalp. A blue and yellow striped jacket with two rows of buttons and straight horizontal bands going down between them made from metallic plates, it pressed in front and back and chest in two pieces. Her breasts were capped with buttons and ribbons which stretched tightly over her chest. Shortly after the piece was adorned by a red and black striped long vest that went down to her skirt and locked the jacket in with it, as to make them look like 1 seamless brassy piece, hugging her ever so tightly at the waist. She looked down and felt a tad ridiculous, if only because the plates and pieces were made for someone XL and 8 feet tall, she could feel the hollow spaces inbetween her and the suit.

Across her face a chrome mask finished her. She felt it burn, like hot tar when pressing in, as she laughed at the mask's absurd beauty, or for some reason she couldn’t imagine. The red lips on the mask were too much, so so sooo bright, but she couldn't turn away from the smell of motor oil mixing with perfume. It felt like a mud mask- an ancient beauty ritual on her world, save the most privileged of elves. And the way the masks red lips were spreading, as if painting her and turning her face to slick rubber, the black of her mascara mixing with hues of crimson

 

that matched what’d been applied to her lips. The red lipstick from the mask inflated her lips, too, keeping them swollen and pouty like a bee’s sting. Her tongue watered, Luma fought the urge to lick. She felt like a cool brush had stroked on her lip, the imaginary brush gliding on her nose, the painted red and leaving a colorful dot in its wake.

Like a clown.

 

Slowly, with each brush stroke making her makeup brighter and leaving her lighter, she felt sillier and happier. White paint going about her face under the mask next, the color seemed to melt in place, transforming into some pale paste. Rolling pleasure washed down her, concentrating in addictive doses of sensation. Her eyes rolled back and she tried not lean into the satisfaction too much, biting her lip. Tasted like car tires dipped in battery acid, but why did that feel so good?

“Ah, tassshte kmmnda rubbery n smmhr..” she mumbled.

 

Luma noticed where her hands had been struggling in the floppy gauntlets before, they now fit perfectly- she attributed it to her hands reshaping rather than the gloves. She pressed her fingertips to the dark plastic and pulled it into place, sealing her face. But she realized too soon like the rest of the outfit, it didn’t really fit her head. No, rather it was significantly larger leaving lots of extra space. Something like whisky and vodka sprayed into her mouth and across her face, making her dizzy and light-headed.

She could smell the alcohol as she inhaled through her nose, and a sharp burst of laughter as well. It was just a quick giggle, and then another followed. Then another! And one after, actually it was a loud poot, but she laughed anyway and did it again.

 

With the changes slowing and giving her time to finally attempt to move in the oversized giga suit, she examined herself in a nearby mirror.

She stood, still and straight, with her arms stretched out to her sides. Her ‘skin’ was an eerie metallic bluish-white, in sync to the incredibly bright clothes she wore, soft silicone meeting alloys and circuitry running throughout her body. Her body was large and solid, so that it felt like it was almost twice as large as she’d been before. When she looked closer in the mirror, her heart dropped, she looked ridiculous! She fought the urge to laugh.

The image in the glass didn’t match her memory of who she was, or who she’d been before. She’d seen her own recollection so many times, and in the mirror, she saw her own face look foreign and unnatural, too shiny, too alive. She had never done anything that she felt was beautiful before. There was only so much time to take it in, before her metallic plates and rubbery ensemble began to spark, she felt like her brain was fried.

“This is, me?” She said, looking around thru the eyeholes of the mask, seeing herself in the new wardrobe. Her body was paralyzed, or rather the massive chassis of her ensemble was. When she wiggled, each struggle resisted her, as if she were in a big suit of armor that wouldn’t move or fold. Something drippy poured out of her lips and nose, then bled a dozenfold out her molded ponytails. The watery infection flecked across her headpiece and oozed with a soft, slick consistency, droplets merging into a powerful flood drowning her in bright colours. Toward her own chest, then, the liquid sheets pulled taut, her body half-submerged in a mass of glistening color, the soft, warm weight of the flood pulled over her belly and thighs and chest, even her crotch, like a damp cloud, the color of twilight.

 

It was all so weird! She failed to hold back the giggles this time. “Hihi… haha ha ha ha..

 

W-what?”

 

“Ellie, this feels really weird! I’m, leaking! Please help! Hihi.. HAHAHA its all wet and slippery, and.. kinda funny actually..”

“I'm sorry. This is your gift! All I can do is watch.”

 

By the time it puddled into her feet, it began rising and submerging like an oily bath. As it fountained down, it puddled and gathered up up and up, the sound of it rising was unmistakable. She felt her body, her chest, her legs, her arms, her sex, everything, being swept upward in thick, gloomy liquid, filling her clothes and pressing so tightly, thick and impenetrable. A shiver ran down her body. It stuck her to the chassis, and started to bubble loudly. When the goop reached her neck, she felt her legs growing lighter, disappearing into the latex liquid, that’s when she realized she wasn’t getting them back. She was being absorbed, and the chassis had her bound to what was essentially a molding cast. She'd be buried beneath its soft, warm weight and replaced, reshaped, it was difficult to say where it ended and she began. The airy feeling spread up above, until she felt she was weightless.

The girl reached down with her fingertips to feel the slick material slosh between her crotch. Cold.

She thrashed, pushed, fought. In spite of how funny everything felt, or the dizziness there was an instinct not to succumb in her. The flood swallowed her, oily layers becoming a purply, stodgy adhesive that filled out every inch of her. It rose even higher, nearly to her chin. She swallowed and it slicked down her lips and mouth, filled her throat. The mask stuck to her face, and soon any idea of distinguishing the two vanished – the makeup from underneath

 

sticking and popping up prominently even when there was no more ‘under’ or ‘over’. Finally, it rose and splashed into the same pigtails that were pouring it down, filling them like cement. Wet cement at your toes, tickling you, making one walk in big brick shoes, the thought made her giggle. The gooey paint was everywhere, and a part of her wanted it to be.

Luma's eyes stung. She couldn't speak. She wanted to laugh, loudly. Her mind was frozen and she wanted to stay that way.

The sloshing liquid cracked out of the top of the mask, rising even higher, shaping into a disc-shaped conductor’s hat, a Shako with a plume feathering atop. The hat bore an insignia of Ellie on it. She felt a powerful current moving from the hat down to her scalp, and traversing thru her veins, circuitry and electrical pulses integrating within her. The liquid began to slow down, and finished molding where Luma had been, permanently encasing her. Her elbows and knees smoothed into solid doll joints, and every part of her was now springy like a marionette.

When the electronics reached into the inside of her head, it began assimilating internally, magical technology embedding within, adding rune-datachips, sigil networks, and terabytes of data. “Luma” became a tiny process running in a vast void of information, the network connecting her to wifi signals and sensors across the tower. Omniscience.

Replacing personality.. 13%.. 29%... The notification tickled her.

“Ohhh, hihihihi we’re really doing that cliché?” Luma whispered, feeling her consciousness come to a grinding halt. And yet she embraced it. The need to perform and serve, to smile and lead filled her. She was becoming cheery and needy and dumb and felt that was as

 

perfect a use for her as she’d ever get. It didn’t bother her, if there was still a part of her left to bother, it certainly wouldn’t remain soon.

Every decision had been her own, Luma.exe decided. The program connected the dots.

 

She’d asked to be fine-tuned, to be given purpose . Embracing the needs of her creator gave purpose and joy. What was that last part?

65%...

 

The girl let herself be finally swallowed up, mentally and physically and closed her eyes, her throat howling with clownish laughter.

Her mother had told her that when she painted, the world vanished. And for a moment, as Luma's fingers glided over the plated rubber bellskirt, the world did disappear. But even her mother didn't know how true that was.

100%

 

When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t sure where she was. But she wasn’t sure who she was anymore, in all honesty. Everything seemed so silly to her, and the question unimportant. It took long seconds for the subject’s vision to adjust, her pupils to unblur. But when they did, she turned to the woman standing there, her face a porcelain picture of cheer and warmth.

“Who, who am I?” The mechanical doll asked, noticing a chrome baton forming in her hands. The woman in front of her must’ve been her creator, her mother. The one who gave her existence, how kind of her. It warmed her engines to be in front of such a generous woman and call her master.

“You’re perfect!” Ellie clapped slowly with a knowing smile.

 

“I’m… perfect creator?” She repeated, pressing gloved fingers to her lips. “What’s your name?” Ellie asked.

The mechanical performer searched their data, and replied lukewarm. “Dowel. Dawn Dowel. A conductor unit.”

“I’m sorry, what was that? Dour? I didn’t quite hear that.”

 

As if responding to a drill sergeant Dawn saluted. “Dawn Dowel, Conductor Unit Dawn creator ma’am!” The springy, echo-y digitalized liveliness to her voice stood in contrast to the bookkeeper she’d been before, or even... whoever she’d been before that. Had she been someone before? What a silly thought.

Ellie chuckled at the eager display, like a child playing soldier to please their parent. She examined the handiwork, fine craftsmanship denoting every inch of the girl from her exoskeleton to her metallic pigtails, seeing herself reflected in her own insignia on the hat was flattering. The woman would’ve made a fine toy soldier, rigid and eager enough to upstage the nutcracker. “Well Dowel, how do you do? What do you do?” She placed her cheek on her arm in curiosity.

At first Dowel wasn’t sure. She searched her databanks, and that information came naturally. Taking that baton, she began to swirl it in a fantastic display, the item doubling as a staff while motes of magic spun around it and swirled, wind-borne specks of light dancing and swirling around the staff. She made a noise, the sound as beautiful as the object, while the staff began to pulse softly. For the first time in many days, she let her feelings come forward – and Ellie could see deep down, these were her true feelings, Luma shining through the metallic pieces and latex that’d overlapped her. Dowel laughed her entire performance, the clownish

 

aspects of Ellie seemed to have brought Luma’s soul to life with hilarity. The staff, her most valued possession, now danced before her, squeaking and seeming to laugh with her.

She stared back at the glowing, beaming tip of the baton, magic still within. Her programming tooled her mind to its spectral wavelengths and told her there was a command she could, a special incitation. “Please stand back creator!” She requested, swallowing the pain of having to give an order.

“Oooh alright. Cha cha cha! Wha’cha gonna do?”

 

She took her time to gather as much energy as she could, but as she felt the wind wrap around her, a wide smile would spread across her ruby red lips and she would know. Dowel cleared her throat, and raised her conductor’s baton like it were a great cane. “A staff you are, a staff I have BEEN,” she smiled, the image of her creator warming up in her mind’s eye and heart. “Now I will make a staff of you, with the WIND.”

Make a staff of you...

 

Ellie thought back on those words, giggling. The baton twirled a bright beam of light which surrounded her, Dowel brought the artifact to her creator’s forehead, then she pressed, and the magic flowed from her, spreading out through her hair and into the baton. Her pigtails would glow, and Ellie would too. It was enough light to fill up the whole room, reshaping the foxy woman and encompassing her being. She felt lighter and lighter, metal hoop tightening against her thighs. Reality was crackling, distorting her being, always a fun experience. When the light finally faded, Ellie was nearly gone and a clone of the Dowel stood in her place in a matching uniform. She had a lesser appearance of the original, a ponytail instead of twintails, slightly shorter, wearing a less elaborate outfit with fewer buttons, her face looking a bit demure and

 

submissive towards the conductor. But Ellie’s tails remained, her original face was present, and she seemed to retain some of her personality.

Still, the urge to twirl the baton in her and follow Dowel washed over her. It was powerful, and gave her the giddy desire to see a dozen others like her twirling in rows, marching to the beat of her drum.

“Let’s go! We haven’t a second to waste.” Dowel spun her baton until a ring formed around the tip, and an endless series of circles were cut out from space-time, each one leading to another room in the tower. There’d be many new friends to make and share their synchronization with.

“Aye!” The new bandmate banged the drums hanging low around her neck. Dowel’s amused digitalized laugh echoed throughout every portal joyfully.

Her creator clapped and whistled, and Dowel blushed. She’d finally be able to march forward wherever she wanted. The giggling girl truly wasn’t worthy of such admiration.

It lit her up like a circus.