Bondage and Other Tales

“There,” Claudia said, from the passenger seat. “That one.”

“What did you do, plug into the GPS?” Marisa asked from the backseat.

“I have the address on my phone and the number matches. Plus, seriously, it’s understated but hard to miss if you’re looking for it: old barn, traditional red, black silhouette of a cat on the side? Exactly that, right there.”

“Don’t start fighting,” Harley said. “Or so help me, I will turn this car around.”

“Yes, Mistress,” Marisa giggled.

Adrenaline levels in the car were high, and it was primarily excitement. Three weeks of talking repeatedly to Octavia, who had insisted that they call her Tavi, and occasionally to Sky, had led to substantial respect from all three for how smoothly the pair worked together and how attentive they were to details. Tavi had asked questions that hadn’t occurred to any of them, and even arranged a video chat with each alone, which she said was her standard requirement for making certain that everyone involved genuinely consented on their own behalf. With that kind of care, how could they be apprehensive?

Well, very apprehensive, anyway. Inviting someone to change all three of them physically just had an inherent degree of that, even if it was heavily outweighed and tamed by trust and desire.

Once they were up the rather long paved driveway, a modest wooden sign told them where the parking area was, and another, next to a regular-sized door in the barn’s stone-and-mortar lower level, announced the office.

Puddles still showed on the grass here and there, although they were no longer a mixture of ice and water, as spring rapidly progressed.

“Security cameras,” Claudia observed, slinging her ever-present laptop bag on her shoulder. Marisa passed Harley her backpack, looped an arm through the straps of her own, and and slid out of the backseat.

“I’d want them too,” Harley said. “Just to be able to keep track of who’s coming and going.”

Just inside the office door was a comfortable room, not large, which held only a row of hooks on one wall with a boot tray beneath it, and a friendly sign asking that they please remove any messy footwear and wait.

“I think we’re okay,” Claudia said, lifting her right leg so she could check the bottom of that shoe. “There was nothing between the car and here. Also, there’s another camera up there. They know we’re here.”

The inner door opened from the far side. “Come on in.” Marisa knew that voice, by now, but hadn’t expected to be looking at someone covered with short dense fur patterned like that of a red fox, with dramatic markings. He was wearing only a grey-and-green kilt, which was probably more comfortable with that great floofy white-tipped tail. “Tavi is just finishing with her last regular client, but she’ll be done soon.” He turned back nonchalantly to stroll into what was clearly the office proper, with a desk that bore two computer monitors, and several comfortable-looking chairs along the walls. It did not look like anything that should exist inside a barn rather than a fairly upscale office building, with deep-blue industrial carpeting flecked with other colours, and walls painted a mellow cream broken by a border at the top and one at waist-height, showing brightly-coloured birds and butterflies and flowers. “Yes, I’m Sky, I’m a fox right now, which might be at our daughter’s instigation, I’m actually not sure. I won’t ask whether you had trouble finding us, because with a tech-witch along, she probably just tapped into the GPS or... sorry, did I say something funny?”

“Inside joke,” Claudia said, with a roll of her eyes, but she was grinning. Marisa tried her best to swallow her giggles. Harley just shook her head, smiling.

“Oh. Okay. This way.” With a shrug, Sky beckoned to them, and escorted them past the desk and down a hall. They passed several closed doors on both sides, before Sky opened one and gestured invitingly to them, standing back. “Take off as much clothing as you want, although in at least two cases, I don’t think you’re going to have a problem with anything suddenly not fitting properly—but hey, where’s the fun in not being able to see what’s happening? Nobody’s getting in here except Tavi. Have a seat, relax, practice breathing... whatever it takes. At this point, even the most determined who have wanted this the most for the longest still feel a little nervous. Nothing to it. I literally cannot remember the last time I looked the same for a solid week. The water’s for you.”

“We did watch the videos,” Harley said. “Although you didn’t mention that it was that frequent. It might look like we made decisions fast but we do know what we’re doing.”

“You probably don’t want me to go for my best kind of relaxation here,” Claudia muttered.

Sky grinned at her. “You sure? But you probably only have maybe ten minutes at the most, so keep that in mind.”

“You’re sure you’re okay with the cameras?” Marisa asked.

“Absolutely. A lot of people want to record this, even if it’s just on a phone or something. Tavi’s used to it, so set up however you want, feel free to move things around if you need to. She’ll be in shortly, your three changes are unlikely to take her very long but she’ll go at your speed, and then you can have time to get your balance back. After which, we can head over to the house and you can meet my husband and our daughter, have something to eat, and talk. Piece of cake.”

He closed the door behind him.

The room was large and welcoming, the floor covered in thick wine-coloured carpeting, the walls panelled in warm golden wood. On each wall, offset from the centre, was what looked like a shallow cabinet or wardrobe; in the middle were a couch, a long upholstered bench without a back, and chairs of three very different styles, plus a low round table in the very centre; four glasses of water and ice waited there on a small round tray. There were several other tables, smaller and higher, and two of them actually had simple supports on them that could keep a phone in place upright. Framed sketches in watercolours or pastels or pencils, that looked something like the ones Tavi had sent each of them to confirm her visualization, adorned the walls.

Harley settled herself at one end of the couch, and dropped her backpack at her feet. “Just as nice in person. And this room is gorgeous.”

“Very,” Claudia said, strolling along the walls to look at the sketches. “Man, these are really creative. Give me a sec, Ris, and I’ll help you set up.”

Marisa just dug out the two GoPros she’d brought, and surveyed the room, trying to concentrate on that and not on the inside of her head. This was mad... her family were going to be horrified, possibly even her beloved Nani, she was going to lose most of the audience she’d put so much effort into building, it was just going to be a nightmare all around, all because she’d decided to...

... to what? Do something that really mattered to her? Give visible existence to a side of her that had been buried ruthlessly for as long as she could recall?

Harley laid a hand on her shoulder. “Breathe, Ris. You were absolutely certain when we left home. That’s just nerves. You’re okay. We’re here.”

“I know,” Marisa said. “All of us on the couch would make sure we’re visible but it would block some views. That chair, maybe? Lighting’s good and it should be a clear line of sight. I think I might use my phone for a third perspective, even if the quality won’t be as good. Phone for a bit of a distance shot covering the whole couch, and the GoPros oriented on that chair? And the mic can go on the table the water’s on?”

“You’re the expert,” Harley said. “I’ll just smile and nod and agree with whatever you say, and offer hands if you tell me exactly what to do with them.”

“I think we’ve got it,” Claudia chuckled, coming back over. “If Tavi seriously did all of these, then she’s even more amazingly strong and talented than I thought. The changes she did for that TV series were nothing compared to this. No security cameras in here, by the way.” She set her laptop bag on a different chair and opened it to pull out her laptop. “Got that mic, Ris?”

“Yep.” It was standard Bluetooth and they’d already established that it worked fine with Claudia’s laptop—not that Claudia couldn’t have forced it to—which meant she could tell the cameras to concentrate on getting good video and put it all together later. She pulled that out, turned it on, and set it on the table, then started arranging tables.

“Got it,” Claudia said. “Recording all sound.” She closed the laptop and left it on another table. “This is going to be brilliant.”

“Yep. And a million times better than hormones and surgery and stuff for Harley. I’m all right. It really is just a bit of nerves.” Which were fading rapidly, between something to focus on and the reminder that she wasn’t alone.

All three were overdressed; wanting the possibility of sharing the video, they’d compromised on minimal clothing, all in basic black—Claudia’s sports bra and spandex shorts, and Marisa a cropped tanktop over her bra plus a short wraparound skirt, which still offered more coverage than her outfit in Reverie. Harley wanted the video, but had been torn between that old discomfort with being captured and wanting her new self able to show off; she’d decided on a sports bra similar to Claudia’s, and a green-and-black sarong tied around her waist as a sort of skirt that bared one leg all the way to her hip, while still making her feel less self-conscious. Claudia had offered to help with makeup; she’d declined, after some thought, preferring to actually see the change without interference.

With everything set up and all of them with a lot of skin showing, Marisa joined Harley on the couch and leaned against her; Harley obligingly wrapped an arm around her. Claudia, meanwhile, went back to looking at the pictures on the walls, oohing and ahhing appreciatively.

Knuckles rapped lightly on the door, and after a couple of seconds, it opened.

“Hi, guys. Glad you got here okay.” Tavi closed the door behind her and came over to perch on one of the chairs, facing them. She didn’t look like a ridiculously-powerful morph-witch, just a woman a few years older than Marisa, her hair dyed deep purple that transitioned into a shocking pink, average of height and a few pounds overweight, in colourful pants so loose they edged towards skirt territory and an unbleached fitted tanktop and a bead necklace that looked like it might have been made by a child. Then again, what did a witch of any kind look like? Marisa saw her gaze sweep over the cameras, then dismiss them as unimportant. “No last-minute changes, nothing I need to know about? It’s okay to change your mind.”

Neither Harley nor Claudia said anything immediately, probably waiting for Marisa.

Marisa said, “Nothing in the world is going to make Claudia or Harley change their minds, trust me. And I really want this, although I don’t know how I’ll feel long-term.”

“Then tell me and I’ll undo it. Always an option. Just to repeat, it doesn’t hurt. My part only takes a few seconds, and it generally finishes within a couple of minutes. You saw the videos we did of me changing Sky and Ben and a few others, right?”

“Research is kinda part of what we do,” Harley said. “So yes.”

“Good. That’s why we made them. Technically I don’t need contact, just line-of-sight, but outside of a very few people I know are fine with it, I won’t do anything until I actually touch you, just so you know it’s coming, okay? Who’s first?”

“Claudia.”

Claudia immediately came over and sat in the chair the cameras were pointed at. “Can’t tell you how long and how bad I’ve wanted this,” she said.

Tavi just smiled. “Can’t tell you how happy it makes me to be able to do it. Ready?”

“Yep.”

Tavi nodded, and simply leaned forward to lay her hand over Claudia’s right hand, without any trace of reaction to the missing finger, her eyes fixed on the tech-witch.

No drama, no storybook magic spells, no flashy effects.

Claudia’s breath caught, just once, then she smiled, watching bright silver flowing slowly up her arm. The scars turned gold, a startlingly-delicate filigree in places, with a couple of bolder stripes. The silver reached her shoulder and swept down over the right half of her body in graceful irregular curves, extending across her bellybutton after being narrower above that under her sports bra; having passed her shorts, it turned her entire right leg, with the exception of a few inches of her inner thigh at the top, to gleaming metal, all the way down to the metal implant at the end. More silver edged its way upwards across the outer third of her collarbone and the right side of her neck, stopping just below her ear but creeping onto the joint of her jaw. Her lips and fingernails and toenails all turned to the same silver, and it lined her eyes as well, though her blonde lashes darkened considerably.

“That’s it,” Tavi said. “It’ll regenerate like normal skin but stay silver. Don’t ask about the mechanics of that, unless you want to be here for several hours. I’ve had less success with long-term deeper robot-ish changes, although if it worked for anyone I’d expect it to be a tech-witch, but at this level, I have no reason to believe it’s anything but fine permanently. Happy with that? Those cabinets open up into three-sided mirrors. If there’s anything you want me to adjust, I can.”

Claudia bounced to her feet, almost stumbling but she caught her balance, and headed quickly for the nearest mirror.

“Looks amazing,” Harley said.

“Seriously gorgeous,” Marisa agreed.

Claudia wasn’t in front of the mirror for longer than five seconds before she all but ran back and leaned down to give Tavi an impulsive and probably rather fierce hug. “Thank you! That’s me!”

Tavi laughed, but returned the hug. “Glad to hear it, and you’re very welcome.”

Claudia straightened, looked back towards the mirror, but oriented on Marisa. “C’mon, your turn!”

Harley moved her arm, and Marisa got up, moving over to the chair.

She wanted this, even if it scared her. But then, asking Harley to tie her up had been scary the first time, no matter how much she’d wanted it and knew she was safe, and that... well, it still made her nervous beforehand, every time, but all the nerves went away once they started, and looking forward to it was making it easier to ignore the nerves each time.

“Ready?” Tavi repeated, and offered a hand, palm-up.

“Yes.” Marisa laid her hand over Tavi’s.

She felt a kind of tingle that ran through her whole body, not an unpleasant sensation but a bit odd.

The skin of her hand paled to a bright white, far beyond normal ‘white’ skin.

Tavi withdrew her hand and sat back, watching with a smile.

The white started on her other hand, as well, and soon caught up to the first. Ginger and grey patches swirled into existence, the three colours roughly evenly-matched as far as the area they covered. She tried to watch, though she lost track when it reached her chest and flowed upwards; she could see it spreading downwards, across her belly.

She wasn’t sure whether it took only a few thudding heartbeats, or an eternity, because it felt like both.

She felt pressure on her lower spine, and squirmed forward so she could reach back to investigate. Right at her coccyx, there was something growing longer and furrier; she stood up entirely and twisted to test whether she could see, but she couldn’t. Well, the cameras would catch it. It kept going until it was long enough to brush the ground.

A sort-of itchy feeling made her raise her hands to the sides of her head. She found only smooth skin where her ears had been, which was briefly unsettling even though she could still hear with no trouble, but a short way above that were furry scooped ears that twitched when she touched them and sent confusing messages to her brain about where she’d just touched. Her hair, which she’d been letting grow out a bit, had more curl to it than before, although not to extremes, and when she pulled a lock into sight, it was orange; another one, from the other side, was grey.

A sensation low in her throat was even stranger, a vibration that started soft and escalated until she could feel it through her entire body. She’d experienced it before, cuddling a happy cat, but this was more intense and not localized to the area of contact with the cat. It felt absolutely wonderful. Tavi had suggested it, and Marisa had pounced on the idea, though she’d wondered whether it could be a mistake.

It couldn’t. It wasn’t.

“All done,” Tavi said. “It may take a little time for your brain to map out nerve impulses and motor controls for your tail and ears, so don’t assume that something is wrong if you can’t track them or get proper control right away. There were no other structural changes, just superficial ones, so there shouldn’t be any complications. Anything I should adjust?”

The ginger and grey patches even had subtle tabby striping, and the boundaries between colours were soft and looked natural and organic. She ran her fingers over the ginger patch on her lower arm, following the edge of it.

“I think she’s speechless,” Harley said affectionately. “Ris? Talk to us. As though that purr doesn’t say enough.”

“I... wow. That looks... right. Like that’s how it should always have been.”

“Perfect,” Tavi said in satisfaction. “Harley?”

Marisa glanced towards the mirror, but that could wait; Harley wouldn’t actually do anything to interrupt her. The mirror would be there later. She moved over to the couch, and let Harley have the chair.

“This is deeper and it will take a bit longer,” Tavi said. “Nothing’s wrong even if it feels like it’s taking forever. It will still be less than five minutes.”

Harley nodded and offered a hand. Tavi leaned forward to lay hers over it.

It was hard to track exactly how the changes happened, because they just... did, without looking like a movie time-lapse or CGI linking multiple shots of an actor’s makeup progression. Hands and feet grew smaller, though not drastically; shoulders narrowed a bit, though there remained visible muscle on her upper arms; breasts grew, gently, and stopped well before they became unrealistic; her waist narrowed more dramatically, but her hips widened, and the relative proportions of torso and legs shifted; the lines of her face softened and smoothed out, as did her skin all over; fuller lips reddened, and black lined her eyes, emphasizing them; her hair lengthened somewhat, darkened to near-black, and gained those red highlights she’d had in Reverie. Still unequivocally Harley, no one would be likely to fail to recognize her, but unambiguously a woman.

Harley never moved, eyes closed, breathing slow and steady—just feeling it, Marisa thought.

She’d decided against the dragon-wings as excessively impractical, but liked the scales enough to keep them, somewhat reduced in scope: they were still super-saturated candy-red shimmering iridescently with purple highlights so dark they verged on black, but they formed only on her outer upper limbs in a swathe on each, a minimalistic swipe along the back of each hand and the bridge of each foot, in a sort of hourglass that widened on her chest and her belly but narrowed between her breasts, and while Marisa couldn’t see it from here, there should be a wide stripe of them along her spine as well.

“Finished,” Tavi said. “Some of those changes are deep and it may take a few days for everything to remap thoroughly—or it might not. Every brain and nervous system is unique. However long it takes, nothing’s wrong and it’s perfectly normal. This goes for all of you: if anything worries you, just call. Sky can answer most questions and knows when to get me involved. That’s everything, unless there’s anything you want me to change.”

Harley opened her eyes, glanced down at herself, and ran a hand, shaking slightly, from her shoulder down her side and over her hip.

“No,” she said quietly. “I haven’t looked but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing to change, and you didn’t just save me months or years of struggle to be me, you did a better job than anyone else would have. Thank you doesn’t begin to cover it.”

“Of course it does. You don’t think I do this just because it’s a job or I feel like I have to, do you?” Tavi stood up. “Take your time, there’s absolutely no hurry. I need to finish up a couple of my notes and then I’ll be out in the front office with Sky. If you do find anything on closer inspection, please, just tell me so I can fix it now, okay?” Smiling, she crossed the room to the door and slipped out.

“That woman,” Claudia said, “is genuinely and truly both an artist and an angel. Come on, you two, mirrors!”