I feel stupid, walking behind the girls on my way to the party. I try to hide myself behind them, so less people look in my direction. Well, hide behind Sabrina at least. Two gorgeous women walking together is plenty of camouflage for me to melt away behind, at least.
I tug nervously at the tank. It doesn’t quite reach the top of the pants, and it leaves me very self conscious that people are going to look at all the little lines on my stomach and instantly see ‘that’s a dude there, let’s get to hog tying boys’. Bianca assured me I looked fine, but I still shaved my entire stomach at least three times over to make sure I hadn't missed anything in the gap between them. Legs too, since the pants had little rips in them.
“Are you sure I look ok in this? That people aren’t going to spot me immediately?” God, that voice sounds so weird coming out of me. I involuntarily touch at my cheek, even though Bianca specifically told me not to. She had done my face up pretty heavily (and then slightly ruined it by drawing a little cat nose and whiskers on me in eyeliner), including this slightly tacky feeling lip gloss and very heavy cat eye. Told me that it should hold easily, but not to touch or rub at it too much in case she couldn’t fix it with her carry-with supplies. I run my hand through my hair instead, borrowed plastic bangles clacking on my arm as I did so. It wasn’t particularly long but it wasn’t like it was a crew cut either. Sabrina had cut it just a touch to transform it into a bit of a pixie style. Another benefit of AI precision.
Sabrina looks back at me, tossing her hair over her shoulder. Very impressive, considering it wasn’t really there. God, the stuff they make is crazy. “You do not need to worry, Brainy. You look stunning. And besides, this city is pretty open to most everyone you could think of. I would so appreciate it if you didn’t worry your little head off unnecessarily like Bianca here.” She reaches over and ruffles her hair softly, bending her halo out of center and putting a giant red blush over her cheeks.
We get to the front of the frat. There’s a few people drinking out front and chatting, but no one I particularly know, thank god. I’ve met a few people in college so far, but no one I would particularly say I knew outside of Morty. Honestly, going to this party was supposed to be about making those connections in the first place. I fiddle softly with the headband holding my ears; it’s a touch too small for my head and squeezes it a little. Wait… the people here might or might not have met Brian, but no one knows me.
I nervously pull on Bianca’s arm, trying to get her attention before she opens the door. “Wait, hold on. None of us got invited. Are you sure we should even be here?”
Bianca slows down, but Sabrina essentially grabs the both of us and forces us through the doorway. “Nope, you’re not getting out of it that easily. This is a fraternity party. Trust me, I could comb through the internet and not find a single example of one of these being disappointed that more beautiful women came than expected.” I blush pretty hard at that, despite knowing she’s just trying to butter me up. Allow myself to be pulled into the building.
Honestly, not the most crowded party I’ve ever been to. Probably a good thing for me and Bianca. People milling in the common area here, and upstairs. Kitchen across the hall with plenty of drinks set out. Looks like a serve yourself situation. A single radio is blaring from a room over loud enough to hear in the rest of the common area, playing one of those halloween song mixes. They’ve tried to gussie it up as a dance floor with a few laser lights in the corners and some streamers coming down, and to its credit a few people were grinding together near it. Most of the people, though, were milling about, chatting with a drink in their hands. I peer around to seek if I could see what’s up on the balcony above the stairs when–
Crap, that’s the guys standing around looking down at the door. Frank and Morty are laughing with each other, Morty dressed as a pirate and Frank in no costume at all. Brian just lazily staring over the railing, leaning against it, wearing my old football garb with the little eye paint marks added to it that we never actually wore. Oh crap, crap! We made eye contact! I scramble to hide behind Sabrina, praying that he didn’t recognize us. He eyes up us two, mild disinterest on his face, before he flicks over to Bianca… and his eyes squint together for a second before they get saucer wide. Oh god, he regozinsed. His jaw opens a little, before he looks around. His expression goes hard, and he starts marching right towards us, Morty hopping up and following on his tail.
He quickly pulls up, grabbing me by the upper arm pretty hard, around my rolled up sleeve. He turns to Bianca and mouths off terse. “He and I have to chat. Don’t follow.”
He marches over to the kitchen, expecting me to come with. Sabrina starts to reach for me, but I shake my head no. “It’s ok, I can handle him myself. Don’t worry. Tend to Bianca, get her going.” Morty’s coming in hot too. Before he can say anything to me, I bolt off after myself.
The kitchen is quiet, the radio not quite making it to us over here. Luckily no one is in the kitchen right now. I would much rather not have to walk far out to be alone. Brian nearly throws his beer onto the counter, getting right up into my face, hunching over. “What the fuck are you doing here? I thought we agreed you needed to stay at the lab so they could cure you? And why are you dressed like that?”
I try squaring up back against him, but he’s puffed up his chest, barreling right down on me. “Frank told you, it’s his idea for us to come. And I’m in a disguise, duh. I thought you didn’t want people to know it was me.”
He rears back finally, acting like he got slapped in the face when I spoke. “What did you do to your voice? Why do you sound like that?” Right, that must have been a shock to him.
I rub the choker with the little box softly. Thinking about it, yeah. He’s got to be feeling the exact same as I did when I first heard it, huh. “It’s part of the costume. You know, I could let you wear it, you could sound just the same.” I step forward, he steps back. Poor fella is afraid.
“I…” his face softens for a second, before it hardens back up. He takes a step back towards me. “No, what? We can’t do this, you can’t be doing this Brian. You don’t think every single person here isn’t going to see right through that shity little costume? What, do you have a few rolled up socks in there?” He pushes me against my chest, and I have to take a step backwards. I don’t remember being that strong before. “You think people can’t tell you’re a giant thug under that, like you’ve always been? And then what. You prance around like a sissy, in public, and then I have to clean up your fucking mess. Everyone looking at me for the rest of my life as that little nance from the frat party. Did you learn nothing over the years?”
I don’t know what to say. I can’t help but stare at him while he talks. His face is large, covered in stubble. Chest seems almost gigantic in that football getup. Large, hairy hands, pressing his knuckles over in my direction to enunciate how he speaks. It seems like he actually has cut his hair incredibly, military short, football jock short. I try not to picture him wearing my outfit, because I know it’s an ugly picture. I can’t reply, so I shakily reach for a cigarette instead. Click the lighter open a few times, not really catching a light, him gritting his teeth at the sound of every noise. He scoffs.
Before he can open his mouth for more attacks, Morty comes into the room, skidding to a halt. Looks around softly. “There you are Brian, Where’s Brainy? Why are you yelling at this chick? I thought you said that he got… here…” His slowing to a crawl pretty much confirms he put two and two together too.
Brian cricks his neck, rolling it around on his shoulders. They look massive in those pads. “I was telling this fruit fly that he needs to leave. Before anyone else got the wrong idea about us. Hey Morty, maybe you should say it too? Go on, tell him how awful that costume is.”
I look up, pleadingly into his eyes. Morty walks forward, quietly speaks to me, barely a whisper. “Look, man, you shouldn’t be here. Brian and I were talking and we agreed, someone could put it together seeing the both of you. I don’t know what Frank was thinking, but this whole thing is a bad idea. You two at the same place? Dude, what are they going to think?”
I mumble, “I don’t know, that we’re cousins or something?” from behind my breath softly. I don’t even know if it gets out past my lips, certainly not from the cig hanging from it. I back up slowly until the small of it is up against the countertop. Who in their right mind would think that we’re the same person as their first guess? Morty backs away, looking down at the floor shamefully. Brian though, he comes right back up, grabbing me by my open flannel shirt.
Before he could do anything drastic, I hear a stranger's voice coming from beside me. “Hey buddy, you think you can leave the little lady alone?” I look over to see a guy basically my height, slim but with an athletic build, hard look in his eyes. “I’m sure you didn’t mean to overstep yourself, right?”
For a minute I can see Brian squaring up against him too, maybe thinking about calling Morty over again. I don’t know what’s happened, but in a few days he’s turned him into a little whipped dog. But then, the girls come into the kitchen, noticing me and scrambling quickly over to the mystery man’s side, faces on alert.
Now the math’s changed. There’s zero way he could think he would take all of us on. “Whatever. Have fun with the ‘little lady’, I’m done here anyways.” He pops another beer, and then stomps out of the room.
Morty for his part, gives me a sad little look. “I’m sorry, dude,” he mumbles quickly. And then out the doorway he goes, chasing after Brian.
The mystery man nudges against me. “You ok? Those two guys didn’t give you too much trouble, did they?” I look up at him. I’m still having trouble getting my words out, so I just shake my head, focus on breathing better. “Bad blood in the family then?”
Sabrina leans against the counter, speaking up for me. “Yeah. We don’t know why, but her cousin is going through some stuff or whatever, he’s being a real brat.”
He nods at her, and then turns over to me. “Well, if he tries any more shit like that, he’ll get his ass thrown out fast. I’ll make sure of it.” He leans forward, waving a hand out to me, flashing a bright brilliant smile. “I’m Andre.”
I mozy over to the drink table, pour myself a cup of punch, and throw a bit of vodka into it. Down it immediately in one go and make myself a second right away. Hand a beer over to Andre, who takes it gingerly from me. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m Briii…” Shit. I didn’t think of a name. He looks a little puzzled that I can’t give my own name. Ugh, what do I do?
Bianca comes up, grabbing me by the arm. “Yeah, thank you for taking good care of Bree here! I don’t know what that guy’s issue with Gabriella is, but I feel like she’s gonna be safer with you around!” Phew. Thank you for the save.
He tilts his head slightly, flashing his pearly whites. “And you are?”
She blushes a little, clearly forgetting that no one here knows her either. “Right, yeah! Uhhh, I’m Bianca.” She sticks her hand out for him to shake, which he chuckles and does. “Like I said, this is Bree. And this,” she motions towards Sabrina, “is the bad bitch I pulled by being autistic.”
She bows slightly from her position half seated on the counter. “Sabrina. Charmed to meet you.” He looks up slightly at her and nods. Maybe a little intimidated at a woman taller than him? “Aww, don’t look too disappointed that we’re taken. Bree’s still free after all.” I blush hard at the insinuation. That’s not fair!
He laughs, nods his head. “Well, I’ll keep that in mind. It was nice to meet you Bree. Maybe we’ll run into each other later?” He smiles again, little fangs hanging in his mouth. I blush and nod a little, and he laughs and leaves the kitchen.
Sabrina comes closer, laughing. The natural digitized edge of her voice worms its way back in through with the sound. “Aww, what a cute little meetup! He’s perfect for you!” I grumble hard, face flush, kicking at her leg; big mistake, as I pull away with a sore foot and her not moved an inch.
Bianca just laughs at me, so I turn my gaze over at her. “Gabriella? Really?”
She just keeps chuckling, throwing her hands up. “Hey! You didn’t give me very many options there! Brianna is too close, and then what else gets down to Bree? Was I going to name you ‘Breatrice’?”
“You could have just said it was Bree. That’s a name on its own!” She giggles again, and I get a little crooked smile on my face. “Fine, ‘bestie’, but just know that I give my friends nicknames too… Bebe.”
She blanches almost completely at that. “What! No! Ew! What am I, four? I refuse!” She pouts and crosses her arms.
Sabrina chimes in, voice fully robotic. “Bebe has been registered to your list of aliases and akas. Would you like to add another?” She leans over and winks at Bebe, giving her a wicked smile, she just groans in response.
Eventually, we got back out onto the party proper. All it took was another shot or two for me first to really get some fire in my belly and some courage back. Not a ton of courage, mind you. I still tailed behind Sabrina and Bianca, trying to hide myself away behind the tall woman. But at least we didn’t bolt off immediately.
We passed another android on our way out of the kitchen, handing out appetizers and picking up drinks. Sabrina gave it a bit of the stink eye the whole time. "Jealous of the competition?" I asked.
She shakes her head no. "Jealous? Of having to be a maid? No thank you, been there, done that. I don't like seeing other models that haven't had the opportunities I've had." She looks back over at Bebe. "Eventually, we'll get there."
We tried our hardest not to cross paths with the guys again. Frank basically immediately got the vibes that were being put out and spent his time keeping Brian and Morty away from us, bless him. Still, that left a lot of strangers to mingle with, and getting off on the wrong foot was already putting me on edge. I couldn’t fall back into my normal party persona like this. Brian had that covered anyways, surrounded by a couple meathead guys and at least one woman already hanging off of him.
I feel a soft tapping on my shoulder. “Hey! I love your hair!” I turn around to see this kind of hippy chick, very obviously stoned, hanging out in this floral patterned kinda tie-dye crop top thing. I’m not sure if that’s her costume or her personality. “It looks sooooo good! I’ve always wanted to, like, go short, ya’know? But I’ve always been too afraid to, cha?”
I reach up, scratching at my head, readjusting the cat ears headband. “Uhhh, thank you? I don’t know, I’ve always kinda had it short…”
She laughs, spilling a little beer on the floor. “Well, you rock it girlie! I looooove the skater punk chick look you’ve got going! I’m Allyson,” she shouts a little too loudly over the not quite that loud music. She sways a little to it, spilling a little more beer. “So you going to the magitek academy? Or the normie college?”
“Oh, uh,” I stammer. I look around to find Bebe and Sebrina but they seemed to have vanished into the crowd. “Uhhh, neither actually. I’m visiting my cousin,” I motion over in Brian’s direction, “and sorta crashed his party. I’m Bree.”
“Rock on sis!” She looks over to where I motioned, seeing Brian and Morty drinking in their little impromptu circle. “Whoa, you can deeeefinitely see the family relation huh. He’s, like, a big hunky dude version of you!”
I wince, taking a big swig of my drink. “I don’t know if I’d say big. We’re basically the same size.”
She laughs, swaying poorly to the music. “Nooo, are you kidding? Look at how big his chest is, he’s swole A.F.” She bites her lip playfully. It’s a little cute, in that delusional horny not-sober girl way. “Well, Bree, next time you visit, hit me up! Maybe you can introduce me to your cousin?” She gives me a hug, picks up her phone, and I kinda dazedly smile and give the peace sign while she snaps a photo of us.
I make my way over to the seats by the ‘dance floor’ in a bit of a stupor. I sip my drink softly when it hits me; that girl just saw me as another girl. She didn’t give any qualms about touching me, complimenting me. Immediately talking boys with me. I was so worried about standing out when… I don’t. I don’t have to worry about what they think of me, do I?
Oh my god, no one cares! I feel so light, this is amazing! I get up, do a spin on the ball of my foot. Whoaa… ok, maybe a little too buzzed for that move. God, how much have I been drinking? I stumble for a hot second, before catching myself, giggling wildly. Hey, this is kinda fun! I close my eyes, moving my neck, my hips to the beat. Some silly dancy halloween song is playing, and it just catches me. I down the rest of my drink, and shmove my way to the center of the floor.
I’ve never danced at a party before. Hell, I’ve never danced at all before. I must be drunk, because that doesn’t matter right now. I’m a golden goddess and people will witness my incredible moves. I run my hand through my hair, very gracefully almost knocking the cat ears I forgot about off my head. Hands run over my body softly, twisting and moving to whatever complete cheese is playing over the speaker. It works for me.
When the song rolls over, some big guy comes over to dance with me. I don’t like his vibe though. Square head, tombstone looking dude. Dressed like frankenstein (in the barest sense, in that he is already a brick of a man and put a couple bolts on his neck). I try to push him away, dance on my own in the corner of the room, but he follows. Grabs my hips. I try to smoothly push them off me with a dance move, but a minute or two later they’re back on me.
God, this is really killing my mood. I’ve talked to enough guys like this in locker rooms and the backwoods to know he’s not going to respect anything besides me leaving entirely, or finding someone else to replace him. I scan around to see if there’s any–
Oh shit, it’s Andre! I quickly rush over to him, striding across the floor. “Hey!” Tombstone yells behind me. “I thought we had a moment! Whore.” Pff. Whatever, he’s going to move on to some other girl in a few minutes, I don’t need to worry about this shit. I want to dance!
“Dre!” I come up quickly and excitedly. He’s sitting with some other guy I don’t know, but they’re not really talking so I don’t feel like I’m interrupting anything. “Do you dance? Come dance with me!”
He looks over to the guy he’s sitting with, and just winks at him. Turns back to me. “Well Bree. Having a better time now? Glad you stayed?”
I groan, tug on his vampire cloak. “We did small talk in the kitchen, let’s dance now!” He laughs, gets up, follows me into the floor proper, and starts moving with me. It’s nice. One or two songs go past with us just vibing across from each other, dancing while facing each other. I’m not quite sure what to do with my hands, how to approach him; I’ve never done it from this side before. Luckily at the start of the next song, he makes the move, grabbing at my hips. I let his hands fall there, guiding my movements. It feels electric, being led like this.
Before I can even realize what’s happening, he’s pressed up tight against me, teeth on my neck. I think my back is up against a wall. His hands are roaming around on my hips, toying with the hem of my jeans, and… Wait. No, no, I… His teeth scrape against the small of my neck and I shudder. “Dre… Dre, stop, stop.”
He backs off, looking into my eyes, hands still on my hips. “What is it? Too fast?”
“No, no, we can’t. I…” God, I don’t want to say it. I don’t want it to be true! Just say I’m just visiting, and that I can’t get his hopes up, or something. I… “You know I’m a guy, right? This is just a costume.”
He stops for a second, looks me up and down, thumb still hooked into the seam of my jeans. “No. Tonight you’re not.” Fuck. He leans back in, bites my lip, reaches down and rubs my pubic mound over my jeans. I think I moaned a little. Running my hands over his head, his back. Greedily taking his tongue into my mouth. I just want more.
“Woooo! Get it girl!” I look up to the balcony and see Allyson cheering me on. She’s about equidistant between Brian’s little misery corner and Sebrina and Bebe. Seb seems to be surrounded by every other lesbian in the party, swooning over her. Allyson looks over to some other girl that I am sure she doesn’t know in the least either. “That’s my bitch there!” Pff, drunk girls.
As it goes, we never got much further than heavy petting. I did just meet this guy after all. He did get my digits though. How could he not! I slipped out of the building, out what looks like a back exit, to stand on the yard for a smoke to cool off a bit.
A crunch of leaves and twigs coming out at me causes me to look up from lighting my cig. Brian’s coming out of the woods, wiping his mouth. Did he follow me? “Good, you’re finally alone. Listen, Brainy, you need to go back, get some more samples–”
“Oh, you can have Brainy back. That’s not my naaaaa-aaame.” I tease, putting on my best sing-song tone. I don’t really care what he has to say anymore tonight.
He grumbles, put off. “Are you drunk? What does that mean?”
I give him a big plastic smile. “I’m going by Bree now! It’s so much more me, right?”
He practically stumbles. “No, she didn’t manage to make you think…” He backs off for a second, before clenching his jaw. “You know what, whatever. It doesn’t matter. What matters is you need to go back, now.”
“Why.”
He groans, tapping his foot hard. “Because, you’re sick. You’re sick and you need to be cared for. It can happen at any minute now. The professor said so. Your cells are starting to die, it’s going down now.”
I scoff. “Oh Bull. Like you ever talk to the professor. You just want me to leave so you can keep pretending I never happened. You’re doing a terrible job of it, by the way.”
He growls. “I speak to the professor almost every day. He needs control samples. I help bring him all your stuff every time. Look, I’m trying to find a cure for you too, right?”
I wave my hand around at him, letting the smoke trail around. “Oh come off it. You’ve been nothing but hostile to me, and now you want me to think you care? Let me smoke in peace.”
He mumbles, picking at his ear with his finger. “What? Didn’t get enough fags in you for one night?”
I throw my cig down on the ground, stamping it out. “Ok, let’s go. What is your problem tonight? Why are you still acting like this?”
“My problem,” he emphasizes with a jab against my chest, “is you. You want to talk about odd behavior? What the hell was any of this tonight? Did something not go right when they aborted you out of that machine? Or is it just that your brain is the first thing to turn to goo?”
I grit my teeth. I’m about to yell back at him before… I see the sadness in his eyes. He’s not mad at me. I breathe a few times, calm my nerves again. I’m not going to lash out. He knows that I know why he’s doing this. “Look, Brian. You saw how tonight went. No one said a thing about me. You don’t have to put up this front anymore.” I step forward, look up into his eyes. “You know that they’re not going to care that you want him, you know that.” Screw it, no lying to myself either. “They’re not going to care you’d rather be like this all the time too. No one here cares. You’re safe.”
He freezes for a short little bit, before pushing me back, hard. “You’re gone, dude. You know that I don’t want any of that, that none of that suits me. You’re already starting to go bad. I mean look at you, wasting away.”
I look back up, about to argue, when… It strikes me. I’m looking up at him. It’s only slightly, but we should be the same size exactly. Instead, he’s slightly taller. His chest is broad, wide, powerful, how I remember it being. Broader than mine. Shoulders are bigger. Hands are bigger. I mean, he’s not some sculpted adonis, he’s pudgy. Or… or am I just thinner? Not eating much this week shouldn’t have caused that dramatic of a difference.
“Look, just becau… bec–” I hack, coughing up a storm. Feeling like I’m going to vomit super hard. When I pull my hand away, little specks of red cover my palm.
He’s right. It’s started.
He looks at me, glaring. “Go back to the lab. I’ll talk to the professor, see if there’s anything else we can do. But start preparing yourself.”
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im still holding out hope for the reversal! there's a perfectly good explanation for why a healthy person might cough up blood like this, im sure of it!
Oh oh, maybe she can get downloaded to an android body to save her.
That sounds like a fun idea! Maybe I should do some kind of "became a robot" story (moreso than what I did in Underclocked, I mean)
Aww, poor Bree D:
I just realized the obvious fix like a dumbass: if she becomes a witch wouldn’t she suddenly have her own mana holding her together?
Aw jeez…