PurpleCatGirl

This is the sixth installment of our Capsule Plushie series! It's stand-alone, you don't need to read the previous installments to understand what's going on here. But if you'd like to start with the first in the series check out Meow!

My heart was racing and my stomach felt like it was full of lead as I left the pharmacy and set off for home at a quick pace. It was all I could to keep my face locked in an expressionless mask rather than let my churning emotions out. Luckily home was only a couple blocks away, and if I held the bag tight enough my hand wouldn't shake too much.

The few minutes it took to get home was plenty of time for my brain to replay the whole thing a few times over. I was in such a good mood going in there, I was picking up my first prescription of HRT meds. Between the waiting list for the gender clinic, then having to get blood work and a checkup, then finally getting the prescription it felt like it took ages to get this far.

It should have been a happy exciting day, but all it took was one ignorant transmisic jerk at the counter to ruin it. He went out of his way to use my deadname at every opportunity, while he loudly questioned in front of a half dozen other customers why a 'guy' like me would be taking estrogen injections. He even suggested calling my doctor to inform them of their 'mistake'.

I knew I should have gone to a different pharmacy, but this one was so close to home it seemed like the obvious choice. And normally I liked to support small family-run businesses, instead of the big chain stores.

And after that ordeal I was positive half the people in the neighbourhood were going to find out I was trans. Not that there was anything wrong with being trans, but I wasn't ready to be fully out yet. I knew I was catastrophizing but I couldn't help imagining losing half my friends, getting fired from work, disowned by my family, and worst of all being dumped by my girlfriend.

That last thing was the most improbable of all, but anxiety doesn't care about logic and facts.

Realistically I knew it was pretty unlikely that Stacey would dump me. I worried about that when I first told her a few months ago, but she took it in stride. She told me she's bi, she said it didn't matter what my body was or what I had between my legs, she loved me as a person. And since then she'd been my biggest supporter.

Then again that was another thing for my anxious brain to latch onto. I almost felt guilty at times just how much of her support I needed. We were both college graduates, my diploma was in graphic design while hers was in information security. She got a decent job in her chosen career working for a national insurance provider, while I couldn't find anything and ended up having to work retail.

Stacey's salary was enough to get us a cosy apartment in north Toronto, my paycheque went towards food and bus fare and other small expenses. And now HRT meds too of course. It was already dinner time when I got home, but I'd lost my appetite after the ordeal at the pharmacy.

Our place was a two-bedroom unit on the ground floor of a converted house. It was an older building in an older neighbourhood, but the place was nice and the landlord seemed decent. The other tenants were mostly ok too, although we did have a gung-ho dude-bro type living upstairs I was a bit leery of.

As soon as I got in I slumped into my favourite spot on our old sofa and practically curled up as I let out a huge sigh.

"Meg?" my girlfriend called from our bedroom. "Are you ok?"

I took a couple deep breaths then replied, "I'll live. I don't know if I can ever go back to that pharmacy though."

She emerged from the bedroom looking worried as she asked, "What happened? Did you get the meds ok?"

"I got them," I sighed. My voice shook a little as I added, "Mr. Parker was an ignorant prick about it though."

Stacey moved to join me on the sofa. She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug as she said, "Hey, it's ok cutie. You got the meds, you're home, I'm here. Next time I'll go with you. Or I can even go and get them for you if you don't want to deal with that jerk again."

With her arms around me I felt safe, and I let out a soft contented sigh as I leaned into the hug. Even though I was taller and bigger than her, when she held me I always felt smaller. In a good way though, like she was strong and confident and protective. In her arms I could let myself be small and vulnerable, because Stace was there too look out for me.

Like she saw the real me, not the gangly awkward masc body I was stuck with. I just wished the rest of the world could see the same version of me that she did.

After cuddling a while she commented, "We got a few things in the mail today that might cheer you up. Want me to get them? Or do you want to think about dinner first?"

"I'm not very hungry right now," I admitted. "How about we think about dinner, then look at mail, but leave the actual eating part till later?"

Stacey smiled, "Sounds good. So what do you feel like? If you want to be responsible we've got some bread and sandwich meat left over from lunches, and I think there's enough vegetables in the fridge to mix up a salad. Or we could ignore all that and order something in? Though either way we'll need to get groceries over the weekend."

"Forget being responsible," I grinned. "It's Friday, let's get delivery."

My girlfriend smirked, "Good answer. So what do you feel like?"

That was the tough question and we spent fifteen or twenty minutes looking at various options on my phone before we settled on the 'Dinner for Two Deal Number Three' at the local Chinese take-away place. And once we had that out of the way we had thirty to forty minutes for me to to find out what surprises were waiting for me in today's mail.

Stacey got up and grabbed us both a drink first, she got herself a glass of white wine but I just had a can of cola. Then she ducked into the second bedroom we used as a home office, and returned with a small cardboard box and a big white envelope.

"This one first," she said as she held out the envelope. "Since it's addressed to you, and it looks important."

I halfway reached for it before I froze and my heart started racing. My eyes were locked on the Government of Ontario logo and the return address which indicated it was from the Office of the Registrar General.

Almost two months had passed since I mailed in my legal name change application, and even though they said it could take up to six months most trans folks I'd talked to got theirs back in six to eight weeks. I was right on the outside edge of that timeline, which was another thing I'd been trying not to worry about.

I carefully accepted the envelope, but I couldn't help noticing it was addressed to my deadname. My heart-rate spiked as my stomach felt heavy, and once again I started catastrophizing. They rejected my name change for some reason. I wasn't trans enough, I wasn't a real girl, the government were going to force me to keep the masc name my parents stuck me with, and they blacklisted me so I'd never be allowed to change it to something else.

"Can you open it for me?" I asked quietly as I suddenly pushed the envelope back to Stacey.

My girlfriend rolled her eyes but she didn't argue. She carefully tore open the flap and pulled out the contents. She took a moment to look them over then announced, "Congratulations Megan, your name is legally changed."

Just like that my mood bounced from anxious doom to elation. I found myself holding a new birth certificate and an official name change document, that proved to the world I really was Megan.

"Oh my gosh!" I gasped. "Yay! I'm Megan! I'm really truly Megan!"

Stacey pulled me into another hug as she reminded me, "You always were cutie. But now you've got the paperwork to back it up."

"Yeah!" I grinned. "Um, so I might call in sick on Monday? I have to go to a Service Ontario office to get my Driver's Licence and Health Card updated. Then I can start updating everything else. Bank account, work, all that stuff."

My girlfriend just smiled, "It's really exciting."

I actually felt almost giddy as I nodded, "It sure is!"

We exchanged another hug, then she asked "Are you ready for the next surprise?"

"Um, yeah?" I nodded. I carefully put my new name documents aside then looked at the box she was holding on her lap and asked, "So what did you get?"

Her expression became serious again as she asked, "You remember a few weeks ago, you were showing me something on one of your trans discords? Some folks were talking about getting instant transitions from magical plush toys? There was even a couple people here in Toronto that claimed to get them, but then the source of the toys dried up?"

"Yeah," I frowned. "It was a cute fun story and made for some fun memes, but you know that stuff's not real. There's no such thing as magic."

My girlfriend shrugged, "What if there was though? What if that was real? Some of those pictures you showed me looked pretty convincing. And there was that girl who posted the TikTok of herself actually changing into a cat?"

"Yeah but come on Stacey," I replied with a frown. "Folks can do wonders with photoshop, and there's all kinds of those cutesy selfie apps. I can think of a half dozen ways the video could have been faked, and probably a hundred ways the pictures could be faked."

She shrugged, "Sure, but what if they weren't fake? And what if someone got their hands on some of those plush toys, then made them available for trans folks who needed them?"

My eyes flicked down to that cardboard box and I got an uneasy feeling in my gut. I could easily imagine someone targeting desperate trans girls and ripping them off for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, promising magic based on a cute meme that came up back in June.

"Stacey how much did you pay?" I asked in a worried voice. "You know online scams have been around practically since the internet started..."

She gave me a hard look, "Meg you don't have to lecture me of all people about internet scams. And for your information they didn't ask for any money at all. They didn't even ask me to pay for the shipping."

That left me feeling conflicted, like I knew there had to be a scam in it somewhere. But if they didn't want money or a credit card number or something, I had no idea what it could be. And my girlfriend was the expert on that sort of thing anyways, information security was her thing.

I still felt weird about it as I accepted the box when she offered it to me. It had a standard Canada Post shipping label on it, addressed to Stacey. The return address didn't have a name, it was just a PO Box in a small town a little ways north-west of the city.

The box was still sealed shut so I used a key to cut through the packing tape then opened it up. Inside, buried among the foam packing peanuts, were two frosted plastic capsules.

"You got two?" I asked as I pulled the two capsules out.

Stacey looked surprised, "I did? I was only expecting one."

"Huh," I shrugged.

I couldn't tell what was inside, apart from one being black and the other white. I put the black one back and handed her the box, while my focus remained on the plastic sphere in my hands. I carefully popped it open then with wide eyes I gently picked up the little plush toy inside.

"I think it's a fox? Arctic fox?" I said as I examined the small cute toy. "It looks exactly like the pictures people were sharing, see? Knitted body, plastic keychain clip, little amber knots for eyes. Whoever you got this from, they really nailed the aesthetic."

Stacey pulled out the other capsule but didn't open it yet. She also found a card at the bottom of the box, hiding under the packaging material.

"Hey it came with instructions," she announced. "Check this out: 'Lightly hold or touch your plushy and say the word Kon out loud to become a fox. Lightly touch your plushy and think Kon loudly in your mind to become a fox-kin. Caution: do not lose your plushy, especially while in fox form, or you will be stuck for life. Warning: effects cannot be un-done, no refunds, no returns, use at your own risk!'"

I leaned over and looked, the instructions were handwritten on an otherwise blank white card. The writing was kind of messy, and it was in pencil. I got the impression of someone hastily jotting that stuff down as an afterthought then stuffing it in the box with the toys.

"Huh," I frowned. "The ones people were talking about online didn't have any instructions. That was part of the meme, you had to guess the magic word."

My girlfriend smiled, "Well this way we don't have to guess. You can just say it, and poof! Meg's a foxgirl!"

I smiled too, but it quickly faded. "It can't be real though. I sure wish it was, but it's impossible. Even if the ones other people found were real, this one isn't. I mean it's too improbable to be legit, right?"

She shrugged, "It's still fun to imagine though, isn't it? So pretend it's really magic, you're about to turn into a foxgirl, with white ears and a tail. What about the rest of you? Tall or short? Curvy or athletic? What do you look like as a foxgirl?"

"Smol," I replied without a second thought. My smile returned as I stared at the little plush toy in my hand.

"I'm sure that's a universal constant," I continued, "Tall trans girls want to be smol, small trans girls want to be tall. So I'd be very smol, very cute. My hair would be longer, like past my shoulders? The rest of my body would be smooth and soft and hairless though. Gods I hate my body hair. And I'd definitely have some curves. I'd want boobs, like not too big but enough that there'd definitely be some cleavage. And hips, a nice ass..."

My girlfriend chuckled, "Sounds hot. I kinda want to meet this foxgirl."

I was still grinning as I teased, "Well I'll just summon her up for you. All I have to do is say the word Kon and -"

Stacey suddenly stopped laughing as her eyes widened. Her jaw hung open as she stared down at me in shock.

PurpleCatGirl

This story is brought to you courtesy of Meg who commissioned it!

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