True to her word, the news that evening had no mentions of the fire, or the government efforts to capture any of the hundred-plus new monster girls running around. Everything seemed so normal.

There was a report about “new evolutionary quirks”, putting a positive spin on the new ‘exotic’ residents of the city.

“That reminds me, why did you get to keep your godzilla powers but I didn’t get any cool fox powers?” Fiona asked.

“Beats me… Have you tried to do anything? Do foxes usually have powers?”

“I think they could shapeshift and stuff?” She closed her eyes, concentrating. She felt a strange squishing sensation, and then her stomach dropped out as she fell a few inches.

“Woah! Gwen gasped.

She looked around, then up. Gwen was bigger than her now. She tried to talk, but a yap was all that came out. She spun around to check herself out, realizing that she was longer now, and fluffier… she was a literal fox! She pranced about on the couch for a moment before hopping down and zooming around the apartment.

“Woah, hey, settle down, frantic fox!” Gwen shouted, giving chase.

Fiona was having a blast, ducking under the coffee table and out the other side, springing up and off the furniture.

Finally, Gwen managed to cut her off and wrap her up in a hug.

She squirmed for a few seconds, until she gave up trying to get free, and focused on returning to her human self… but maybe not fully human?

“Wah!” Gwen squeaked.

“That was so fun! Oh!” Fiona flicked her ears, her tails wiggling. She looked down at her arms to see they were covered in the same fox fur, but she definitely had humanoid hands now.

“Well, congrats, you can turn into an anthro fox girl…”

“I wonder what else I can turn into…” she pondered, thinking about it.

After a moment, she opened her eyes again, only to see a smaller looking Gwen beneath her on the floor.

“Oh…” Gwen said, blushing.

“Huh, so apparently I can turn into a guy too… that’s neat… always wondered what it was like from the guy’s point of view… and look, I have a cute girlfriend that could help me find out.”

“Y-you… oh jeez…” Gwen swallowed the lump in her throat.

“What do you say, cutie?” Fiona leaned in close.

“M...Mmhmm…” Gwen nodded.

Their lips met, and Gwen wrapped herself around her temporary boyfriend.

==========

“I think I could definitely come to like this whole post-party world,” Fiona said, back to her usual female human form.

“Uh huh…” Gwen agreed, still seeing stars.

“You okay over there?”

“Uh-huh,” she smiled dumbly, leaning against Fiona.

“Someone liked being dicked, huh?” Fiona teased.

“Uh-huh…” she giggled, reveling in the afterglow.

“Maybe I overdid it. I seem to have fried your little lizard brain,” she grinned, kissing Gwen’s forehead.

“Mmm… you can do that any time. Totally fine with me…”

“Well, I guess I’ll have to pull out all the stops next time when I’m in girl mode… can’t have you go falling for boy-mode exclusively!” She pulled Gwen in closer, snuggling with her. 

“I love them both,” Gwen said, grinning and nuzzling her girlfriend.

Her girlfriend. It had only seemed right after what had happened since the party to admit that she wasn’t much of a guy anymore. Even her brain had stopped protesting that she was supposed to be a guy, supposed to be… that old name. She was happy being Gwen.

Of course, that was just the flash-in-the-pan sex stuff talking, presently… but even beyond these moments, she had started to feel more comfortable as her new self, and less attached to her old identity.

The worries of her paperwork, telling her parents, and how she’d sort things out with the college were all distant now, though. They could be future-Gwen’s problems… because nothing was getting her out of this bed right now.

==========

“Look, the story is full of plot holes. How are you going to resolve these?” the gryphon woman asked, pointing a taloned finger at the screen.

“It’s fine, I’ll just wrap them up in other short stories,” the brunette said, shrugging and leaning back in her chair.

“I don’t think that’s how it works in a self-contained short story,” the flapper orc said, stroking her hooting anthro-owl partner’s head.

“You’re both being really meta about a story you’re in,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“It’s definitely strange to watch what you’re saying appear on the screen,” Foxx said.

“So don’t watch the screen.”

“You should consider fixing the people that want to be fixed, Kae.”

“Alright, fine, I’ll fix the ones that want fixed… but I won’t be happy about it. They were jerks.”

“Oh, and don’t forget to update the information of the people who do want to remain the way they are. Otherwise it’ll be a mess of trouble,” Na’tali said, scritching her partner under their chin.

“Yeah, yeah… sheesh, editors…” she teased, rolling her eyes playfully at them. 

She sat up in her chair and began typing, aiming to set everything to rights.

==========

“Woah, take a look at this, babe,” Fiona said, holding up some of the paperwork she’d been helping Gwen sort out.

“What’s up?” she asked, shuffling closer.

Along the page, golden text was shifting and replacing Gwen’s old name with her new one, changing sex markers from M to F, and even changing his middle name from Ryan to Rose.

“Woah, cool!” She leafed through the papers, grinning ear to ear. “It’s official! I’m Gwen on paper now too!”

“Congrats, babe. Huh, I wonder if any of mine changed?”

“Why would it? You’re still you…”

“Yeah, but, what if I’m guy-mode?” She shifted quickly to Boy Mode, watching her driver's license as she did so. To her shock, the picture changed, as did all the information, now listing her as Theo instead of Fiona.

“Cool,” he grinned, pocketing the ID. 

“I’m never going to get used to that,” Gwen mumbled, looking away, color rapidly filling her cheeks.

“What? Me being able to change back and forth?”

“Yeah… and how freaking good you look either way.”

“Animal magnetism, babe,” Theo said, grabbing Gwen and pulling her close. “How about another lesson in what’s so great about being a girl with a girlfriend who can be a boyfriend on command?”

“I-if you insist,” Gwen stammered, carefully setting her paperwork aside.

==========

“So you decided not to turn back after all, huh?” Emilia asked, reclining back on the overstuffed couch, legs crossed at the knee, her right foot bobbing slightly in time with the music in the background.

“What can I say? My food review blogs have really taken off since I started including pics of Elreana, the Dessert Thief.” She winked and gave them a quick peace sign flash before going back to editing her most recent article.

“I’m not sure if I should praise you for working with what you’ve got, or be embarrassed about you falling into an e-girl stereotype,” Amber said, tucking a strand of hair behind her pointed ear.

“You could always get in on the business,” El said.

“No thanks. I’m busy being the head of my own newly created House, apparently. Whoever is responsible for this certainly has a sense of humor… ‘House Sangreal indeed.” She rolled her crimson eyes.

“Do you all ever feel like we’re just side characters in some bigger story? Almost like we’re being included for some kind of cheap reference?” Emilia asked, popping a grape into her mouth.

“That’s just silly,” El said, “we’d definitely know we were in a story.”

“How?” Christine asked.

“Well, because it would all begin on a dark and stormy night…” Suddenly, a peal of thunder split the quiet of the night, followed by a flash of lightning, and the pounding of rain against the balcony sliding door and all the windows.

“Okay, it might be a story,” she admitted.

The girls collectively sighed.

“So what are we doing for dinner tonight?” Christine asked.

“How about pizza?” Emilia offered.

“Sounds good to me. No garlic though,” Amber said, flashing a fanged grin.

“Alright, make that two extra large pizzas, extra garlic and holy symbols,” El joked, tapping away at her phone.

The other girls giggled, dismissing the oddness of their revelation that they were within some kind of story.

==========

“That’s how you’re going to wrap up their story? Pizza and a girls’ night? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but… you could do a little more, you know?”

“Nah,” the author mumbled. “I still have to wrap things up for Gwen and Fiona, and I only have like… a chapter to do that.”

“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” Na’tali teased, leaning on the back of Kae’s chair.

“I know. That’s why I need two proofreaders to keep my ridiculousness in check.”

“You’re usually much better than this! That pen is a menace,” Foxx said.

“Yeah, I promise this is the last reality bending story I write. I’ll be a good girl and go back to normal writing after this. I got carried away in the spooky season mood!”

“As long as you don’t go turning everyone into monster girls every year for Halloween…”

“No promises, the author smirked. “Maybe next year we’ll do a gender-bender zombie apocalypse thing.”

“No, Kaela!” they both said in unison.

Kae just giggled, spinning in her chair.