It was really gross taking off my blood soaked pajamas. The blood had already started to coagulate and I had to practically peel my pants off. Really, really super gross. Then I thought about what mum had said to me as I left the kitchen, and my face lit up in pink. Really, really, ultra mega gross. The grossest. Ew. With my clothes off I turned the shower on, setting it to be pretty warm so I could get the blood off.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts about getting clean that I forgot to wait for the temperature of the shower to increase. I gave a kind of strangled squeak as the icy water hit my body. It was especially weird when the cold water ran over the new sensitive areas I possessed. Lucky for me we had a good water heating system in the house, because the temperature quickly climbed, and I could actually enjoy myself.

The blood came off quickly after the warm water and body wash was applied. Quite a lot of application in certain areas. I stopped myself when a finger slipped accidentally through the folds down there and suddenly I felt rather strange. I’ll explore that particular line of inquiry later. I actually hadn’t really explored masturbation much as a guy either. The act of wrapping my hands around that thing and doing stuff with it had always killed whatever vibe I was feeling. 

Currently I had a different problem. I just wasn’t interested in guys at the moment. I’d thought it would go away after I logged out, but my body had followed me out, so no luck there. It seemed kind of ridiculous that I stopped liking guys as soon as I turned into a girl. Bleh. Oh well, time to finish getting clean.

I tripled my usual shampoo and conditioner usage, because I had a metric shitload of hair now. My hair wasn’t just straight, it was wild and wavy, like each lock of hair wanted to dance it’s own dance. I could tell already it was going to be a massive pain in the ass to tame.

I stepped out of the shower and tried to dry myself, but my hair would not stay dry. It kept spawning water and then dripping all over recently dried skin. I mean, it’s not actually spawning water of course. I feel like I should clarify that since apparently magic exists now. It just held a lot of moisture, like a sponge. Finally I gave up being gentle and just attacked my hair with the towel. Then I used another towel because the first one got too wet to be helpful. My hair was a wild mess by the time I was done, but at least I had cut it’s direct connection to the water main.

I scampered back to my room with my towel vaguely wrapped around me and once inside I looked at my clothes. None of these were going to fit me. I settled on underwear, because I had nothing for my chest, track pants that could be zipped off at the knees, and a Tshirt. The Tshirt straight away fell off the side of my shoulder, stopping about halfway down my upper arm. The most dramatic change of my body had probably been the size of my torso. I’d lost about a foot in height, but as we say in New Zealand, per capita I’d lost much more of my total shoulder width. Of course this made me pretty fucking happy. I was so glad to not have to deal with male puberty in all its subjectively ugly glory. Once dressed, I went back down the hall and into the living room, where mum was just finishing with my mess.

She noticed me standing in the doorway, “Surely you could have done this in a less… dramatic fashion Sam?”

She was scolding me a bit, but she was also smiling so it was fine.

I shrugged, “I was kinda desperate mum, if you hadn’t believed me I would have been screwed.”

Her face sobered for a moment and she nodded, “Point taken. Now young lady, what are we going to do with you?”

When she called me ‘young lady’ it felt like a happy hole had been punched into my stomach and then the feeling had shot up into my mind. Phwoar. I’m getting addicted to this whole girl thing.

I shrugged, “What do you mean?”

“You have no identification dear, according to the government you don’t exist. I’m happy you get to live your dream, but you still need to go to school,” she said to me.

I sighed, “Yeah, might be a bit hard to go to school like this. I’m not even a human anymore.”

“Once your father gets home and we’ve convinced him of who you are, he can take a look at our options. As you well know, he’s very good at getting what he wants from the law,” she said.

“I was thinking, since I can, you know, use magic and stuff now, I might be able to find a way using that. I don’t really know if the game has anything, but when I go back in I can try and ask around,” I said as I watched her put the cleaning supplies away and throw out the rags she had used.

She held my eyes with hers as she thought about that, “I’ve been having quite a hard time taking in that your magic is real. I’ll be honest with you Sam, it’s a bit intimidating that you can do that.”

“Don’t worry mum, I don’t really want to go around being a superhero or blasting my way into bank vaults or anything. I’m scared of how the world would treat me if they knew about it,” I told her, willing her to see the sincerity of my words.

“That’s good, I’d hate to see that too. Which means we need to play this smart. I agree that if you can’t find a magical… I can’t believe I’m saying this… A magical solution to the problem, then we will need your dads help.”

“Yup! Sounds like a plan mummah,” I said the ‘mummah’ part in a funny way and she laughed.

‘You’re definitely still you in there. Except I can tell you’re happier,” she said gently.

I just nodded with a dopey grin on my face.

I’d been expecting her at this point to walk into the living-room area and we’d continue the talk, instead she looked at me, “Now, seeing as you definitely want to stay like that,” she paused for me to nod, “I think we need to get you some clothes that fit. Especially some shoes.”

“Sure, sounds good mum,” I said trying to play it casual. Ahhhhhhh girl clothes yay!

“Don’t get your hopes up just yet, we’re going to the Warehouse and we’re getting you the cheap and cheerful basics for now,” She said, trying to sound stern and failing as much as I had failed at playing it cool.

She grabbed her keys and we headed out the front door. The wind immediately grabbed my hair and turned me into a walking menace to eyes everywhere. Mum was downwind of me and got assaulted by dark strands.

She batted it aside and laughed, “We’re also buying you a hair dryer and some hair ties because that is ridiculous!”

“And a brush too mum,” I added.

“That too.”

Now, as you imagine us getting into the car and driving off, I should probably mention that The Warehouse is an NZ based department store, it carries everything from kids toys to kitchenware to clothing. It’s also really really cheap, and no one is going to bat an eye at a wild haired, shoeless teenager with weird ear prosthetics on. It’s Walmart basically.

When we arrived, I stood in the middle of the moderately empty parking lot and and stared at the entrance to the store with apprehension. I don’t know why I’m scared to go in. I know I’m gonna need the clothes. I can feel my more normal temperament asserting itself again after the euphoria of my transformation. Mum is standing a few meters ahead of me, waiting calmly while I get over my nerves.

Trying to break my own mood, I look at mum and joke, “We go in, we get the goods, we get out. No detours.”

She gave me an amused snort for my efforts, “Come on silly, let's go in.”

With a shuddering breath, I followed her inside.

Mum seems to have taken my request to heart, because she drags me to the womens underwear section and then turns back to me. Staring at my body for a bit she mumbles to herself and then starts randomly grabbing sports bras off the shelves. Well, not randomly grabbing, she obviously has an idea but still.

“Try these on, see which ones fit and feel comfortable. I don’t think it’s wise to be spending money on normal bras just yet, you may grow, and the bras here aren’t the best anyway. We’ll get you some good ones when things are more concrete,” She says to me.

“Um, sure thing. You’re the expert!” I laugh nervously.

Going into the changing booth, I take my shirt off and dutifully try each bra on. I quickly understand why she handed me so many different ones to try on. Some are too loose around my chest, some are weird and itchy, and some have too much give in the straps. I end up picking the ones that don’t hurt or feel weird, and they go in the basket.

Then just like that we’re going to shoes. I know I said I wanted to get this done, but not this fast wow. I guess I’ll shop for myself later on. I see another girl about my age messing around in the shirt section. I know her. It’s Dana. Oh crap. I quickly hide on the other side of mum and try to look inconspicuous. I take a peek back at her and she looks up at the same time, but doesn’t pay me any mind, barely stopping her gaze on me at all.

We pick me some purple vans knockoffs and some cheap running shoes. My head is already beginning to whirl at the speed of this.

“Hey mum sorry can we slow down. I know I said I wanted to get out of here fast but..,” I trail off my entreaty, looking up at her.

“Sure thing hun, we’ll go at your pace,” she said smiling down at me.

Wow, she's awesome. I wish we’d bonded sooner! We made our way to the pants section at a more sedate pace and that is when the trouble really began. Nothing fit me well. If we went to the kids section, the jeans and stuff would be just a bit too slim around the waist, digging into my hips. If we went to the women's section, everything is too long. If anyone in the house knew how to sew we could make some changes to the long jeans and stuff, but none of us can sew, so we can’t. We eventually find a few pairs of jeans that fit me.

Mum eyes me as she holds up the second pair to put them in the basket, “What about skirts? I think we’ll have a lot more luck finding things that fit you there.”

I can see the skirts and dresses not far away, and I stare at them for a moment. Whatever, it’s just clothing, no need to be apprehensive, “I’m already wearing a dress in Pellan, so I should be fine? And thigh high socks too!” I say the last with a spreading grin.

Mum gives a soft chuckle, “Pellan is your game right?”

“Yup!”

“Well if you’re already dressing yourself up we should look at the dresses too,” her smile has turned mischievous.

Uh oh.

I looked around and saw a few skirts on the shorter side and since I knew I had nice legs because I’d made them, I figured I’d like to try showing them off a little bit. One skirt was cut just a little bit diagonally and done in a faded red colour. The next one I’d picked was a fairly standard black one, I figured I’d need one like this. The last one was a pleated blue skirt. All three came down to just below mid-thigh on me, so they were probably super short on other people.

The dresses were the next port of call, and I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for here until I saw a dress that came down to below my knees. It was a very neutral grey colour, with a sewn on belt around the waist that looked like it could be adjusted. I grabbed it off the rack and walked back to mum.

“Hey hun what have you got?” she asked.

I showed her what I’d picked and she rolled her eyes, “You’ve been a girl for less than a day and I’m already going to be fighting you over skirt lengths!”

“No mum look! On me they’re just normal length!” I quickly showed her by placing one of them against me.

“Oh well would you look at that,” She snorted, “Alright then young lady, take these too and try them all on, see what works.”

I did so. All the ones I’d picked fit me well enough. Opposite to the jeans shopping, I was now very thankful I’d made my hips kinda wide. The ones mum had handed me were all way longer than mine, but they worked, the ones that fit anyway. One of them was a bright red/orange colour that I really liked. It was pleated and made of a really soft material. Not smooth and soft like silk, but fuzzy and soft like wool or velvet.

The dress she’d picked for me was a stereotypical summer dress with flowers on it. Not really much to talk about there. Unlike me, where I had kind of eyeballed my size and picked stuff that looked like it would fit me, mum had just grabbed a rack and emptied it in my arms. Not literally of course, but you get the picture.

I ended up with two skirts from her, a kinda tight black one and the really bright red one I’d talked about. The dresses were going to be a problem. They fit. Mostly. My thin shoulders were going to cause me to keep losing the shoulder of the dresses down my arms. It was probably going to look super cute, but I’d need to make sure I got presentable bras later on.

I was standing there staring at myself in the mirror and thinking all this to myself, when my mind did this funny out of personality experience thing. Wow, I can’t believe I’m standing here thinking about how I’ll need cute bras because people will be seeing them. This whole day was turning out to be super strange. Fun, but strange.

I took the clothing back out to mum after changing back into my guy clothes, showing her what fit and what didn’t. We were both fairly happy with that and moved on to tops. Tops were problem city, everything fell off my shoulders. I was going to be rocking the off the shoulder look whether I wanted to or not. I’m going to gloss over this part a bit, because it was painful. We eventually settled on a few tank tops and a lot of normal Tshirts. It took delving into the kids section to find tops that fit properly, and we got a few of those too, but they were all in pink and pastel with flowers and hearts and stuff. It was a little too girly for my tastes.

A bunch of generic cotton underwear and socks later and we were ready to check out. Until I remembered my hair.

We went in search of a hair dryer, and found them in an electronics section. We picked a mid range one up, then we had to ask one of the information desk people about the hair ties and stuff because neither of us had a clue where they would be.

Now we were ready to leave, hair taming equipment in hand. I was excited and drained at the same time. We went to the self checkout and beeped everything through and into renewable bags, paid and then took off out the doors.

As we walked back to the car, mum reached over and rubbed my back, “Once things are more settled down I can take you shopping for nicer clothing okay?”

“Yeah. Thank you though mum. I’m a bit excited about some of the stuff we got anyway,” I said smiling up at her.

The trip home was happy and quiet, and once we were through the door we took all the bags up to my room. It was going to be my job to search through my guy clothes for wearable things. The rest would be thrown in a box and left in the attic. Making sure I was in my guy clothes, I sat down at my computer and read online about what was happening ingame. I had a few hours to kill before dad would get home. Mum had called and asked him to come home early so we could show him his new daughter. Daughter! The word made me squirm in my chair with happiness.

Things in Pellan were looking pretty standard for an mmo launch. People were testing the rules. Seeing what they could get away with. The strength and power of the nation players were in was the deciding factor on how far the players could get. In some lawless regions the players were able to do whatever they wanted to each other and the npcs. I really hoped I didn't have to deal with any bloodthirsty pvpers until way later.

I heard the front door open and close, and mum and dad's voices talking. The plan was to have dad in the kitchen already, and I had a smaller knife with me now. I was going to have to repeat the process I’d done with mum. I’d be more careful this time though. I heard a knock on my bedroom door and I cautiously opened it. Mum beckoned me towards the kitchen.

She went through first and said, “William, I want you to stay calm for this okay? I know you're usually pretty collected, but this will test you.”

And with that, it was my turn. I stepped shyly through the door, “Hey dad, it's me Sam. I had a bit of an accident. I got turned into my character from a video game,” It was lame, but I was nervous.

“What?” he asked blinking.

“I’m Sam… your son. Last night I was playing my game, and when I logged off I looked like this,” I explained again. I was getting worried. His expression wasn't changing.

“That’s a funny joke. Are you Sam’s friend from school?” He asked slowly, not laughing.

Mum was wringing her hands and looking apprehensive. She spoke, “It’s true William. I watched her do magic today. Real magic. Then I spent the day with.. her, and it's definitely Sam in there.”

“Okay uh, I would use something different, but I don’t have anything that won’t break stuff or put holes in things, so this is going to have to do,” I told him.

Dads expression was finally changing. He now wore an expression of dawning disbelief. Before he could get his thoughts under control, I went in to fully put him off balance. I stepped to the sink once again and slowly drew the blade down my arm. The pain was every bit as unpleasant as before, and I let out a gasping whimper.

“Dad, look at the cut. You see it's real right?” I asked as tears welled in my eyes.

He looked down at me with concern, staring at the gash in my arm, “I see it. You can't fake… that,” he said.

I moved my free hand and touched it lightly to my upper arm, giving more room for the spell to play on my arms before it did its job. Bringing the spell to life with my mind, I saw it travel down my good arm, swirling as it sought the wound. When the energy made the jump from one arm to the other with a faint pop, dad’s eyes were already very wide. When the wound began to heal, I swear they were going to fall right out of his head.

He was silent as he watched me wash the blood off. I showed him the unblemished skin of my forearm.

“Magic is real dad, and I’m definitely Sam, used to be your son, now I’m your daughter… and I think I would like to stay this way too,” I told him, my voice shaking with fear and hope.

He opened his mouth. Then closed it and ran his fingers through his short hair, then walked to one of the couches and sat down.

Looking back over at mum and I, he said, “Okay. I believe you.”

We spent the next hour talking about my situation, explaining to dad that I had always wanted to be a girl somewhere inside me. I told him about some of the things that were starting to make sense to me, the little oddities about my reaction to experiences I’d had. I told him about the time as a small child when I’d used a wishing well and wished to be a girl. I told him about being weirdly jealous of the good looking girls, instead of the good looking guys. It was strange how I was picking up on little things in my life, things that I was realising had significance even by the minute.

He wasn't at all that surprised, and said so. Apparently he’s noticed some things in early and mid childhood, just as I was noticing them now. I think he was more surprised that magic exists at all.

Then he asked something that proved everything would be fine and he was an amazing father, “So my daughter, what is your name? Are you keeping the Sam and changing it to the feminine?”

“I was thinking of using the character name I chose, Sylanna. It can be shortened to Syl with people who are cool, and Anna with people who have sticks up their butts,” I told him, emotional but still unable to stop myself slipping a dumb joke in.

He laughed. Like a lot. Mum gave a giggle. She didn’t giggle very often, she was more of a chuckle person. I’d managed to bring the mood into comfortable home family territory.

“That’s a good name Sylanna, not one I’d have thought of, but then again I’m not a little geek am I?” he asked after he was finished laughing.

“Thanks so much dad…” I told him with a wobbly smile.

On a whim I climbed into his lap and hugged him. He was a bit taken aback for a second, but then he wrapped his around me just like mum had.

We had to move family bonding time to the kitchen so we could prepare some dinner, since mum and I had forgotten about it, but we talked and joked and it was fun. I hope I can entice them to come home early from work more often now so we can hang out like this again.

Dinner was an easy curry, and then after I had my fill with absorbing the feeling of a happy household, I excused myself and headed for my room. It was time to get back into Pellan Rise.