Mari leans over her bathroom sink, staring at her own reflection. She takes in the sight of her hazel eyes along with her other features, occasionally poking around just to see what happens. After everything those witches told her about shapeshifting magic, she never would have guessed that the hardest part of trying it herself would be actually deciding on something she wants to change.

  For as much trouble as the body she was born into has caused her throughout her lifetime, she has to admit that she’s been quite lucky compared to a lot of other trans women, at least in terms of how her body ended up. Considering the two most obvious things that people like her would seek external help for involve surgeries she ended up neither wanting, nor needing, she doesn't feel like she has all that much room to compin on this front.

  She realised a couple years into her transition that bottom surgery wasn’t for her, not that she could have afforded it anyway, and while HRT wasn’t as kind to her as it could have been in the curves department, she’s happy enough with what she ended up with that she never particurly felt like she was ripped off, to the point that she’s not sure she even cares about it all that much even now that the power to change things is in her hands. The single unfortunate downside of both these things being that she’s left without any obvious ideas on where she could even start. She was explicitly told to begin with something she’d really like to change, after all.

  “There has to be something, right?”

  As the minutes continue to pass by, with Mari simply taking herself in, thinking about what she looks like and what she might want to change, she realises that she’s never really taken the time to think about this before. What does she want to look like? Why has it taken this long to really consider it? Was she just too busy focusing on trying to get by, was she already happy with the progress she’d made, or is it just not something she particurly cares about? How is she meant to know the difference?

  Mari turns around a bit, watching how her body shifts before she starts tugging on her crop top.

  “I guess it’s the same with my fashion sense, isn’t it?”

  She’s always stuck to whatever’s felt comfortable to her, or whatever Cassandra recommended would look good on her. Not that her clothes look bad or anything, but the fact remains that she never thought to try something different once she settled into this look all those years ago. She can’t exactly bme herself for not knowing much about fashion, though. Cassandra hasn’t had much reason to be thinking about that stuff in the st decade or so either, and Mari’s never exactly had anyone else to talk to about this kind of thing, both before and after her friend got sick.

  But she can always worry about clothes ter, right now she needs to focus on her body. So what does she want to change? She supposes she used to have a bit of a thing for fit girls, but that might have just been because Cassandra used to fit in that category, and even then, she’s not sure how much she cares for looking that way herself. That’s the other challenge, what are things she would want for herself, and what are just things she likes in other women? Heck, what are the things she currently likes about herself to begin with?

  She adjusts her hair a bit, running her fingers through her bck locks. The trying events of the day have left it messier than usual, not that she ever keeps it particurly neat in the first pce, but beyond that she doesn’t have any real issue with how her hair looks. Keeping it fairly short makes it easier to manage, and she certainly doesn’t mind the colour, even if it does serve as a bit of a reminder of the familial ties that were cut all those years ago.

  Mari then leans over the sink once more, taking a closer look at her face. She supposes she’s mostly neutral about most of her features. Sure, she’s not a fan of how she looks when she smiles most of the time, but is that a problem with her face, or has she just never figured out how to smile properly?

  “I don’t know how people can just figure this sort of thing out for themselves…”

  This is why she never even thought about facial reconstruction surgery. Even ignoring the financial aspect, how is she supposed to know what features she’d want them to change, and what they should do with them? She supposes she wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to changing something about her face, but what would she even pick? What sort of face would she want to have instead? How much could she change before she no longer looks like herself? Would that even be a bad thing?

  “I guess Cass wouldn’t be happy with me if I did that…”

  …Cassandra…

  Even if her health has left her a shadow of her former self, Mari has always thought her to be a very pretty woman. It’s not exactly a look she wants for herself, nor is it one she could ever get away with taking even if she did want it, but when she thinks of faces that look nice to her, that one comes to mind before anything else.

  She’s not sure how many times she’s lost herself in those eyes. Those beautiful, amber eyes…

  “Wait… What?”

  She’s not sure when it happened, but the eyes looking back at her no longer entirely resemble her own. She knows this eye colour very well, and seeing it on herself creates an extremely unpleasant feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  Those are Cassandra’s eyes.

  “No. No no no no no, change back! I-I don’t want this!” Mari turns away from the mirror, rubbing her eyes as if the sight caused her physical harm. After several moments she finally drops her hands again, terrified that she’s going to see her entire face turned into a hideous imitation of her closest friend, but when she looks back to the mirror, she’s greatly relieved to see her eyes have returned to their usual hazel once more.

  “Shit, that was weird.” She says with a sigh. “I… guess I did manage to pull it off though.. What if I…?”

  After taking a moment to calm down, Mari moves close to the mirror once more, trying to repeat the steps that led to that unexpected change, although with a focus on trying to avoid any thoughts that might lead to an uncomfortable transformation like the one she just experienced. She gazes into her own eyes with great intent, and before long, their colour starts to shift again, settling on a nice shade of blue.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  Not intent on just stopping there, Mari decides to keep going and see what else she can do, shifting the colour to green, and then brown. Each change occurs quicker than the st as Mari starts getting the hang of what she’s doing, and she even messes around with some less than natural eye colours, including bright reds and purples, before settling back to her normal colour, now very satisfied with her effort.

  “Cool! I… I did it!” Mari excims, almost in disbelief. So far, all of the magic she’s learnt has focused on either getting herself around, or maniputing objects around her. Even if it’s just a small step, this is the first time she’s used it to change someone’s body, let alone her own. She can’t stop herself from letting out an excited ugh. She can use shapeshifting magic! If those witches are right, she doesn’t have to worry about HRT anymore, she doesn’t have to see a doctor ever again, in fact!

  After taking a moment to celebrate, she finally stops to think about what else this could mean, and looks at her hand.

  “Shapeshifting magic, huh?”

  She realises she still needs to be very careful, lest she accidentally use this magic in ways she doesn’t intend, as she already has two different times today, but still, this is a huge load off. One huge worry of hers is now just completely solved, taking a huge weight off her shoulders, as long as she can get the hang of this spell anyway.

  She’s still not sure if there’s actually anything in particur she’d want to use it for, however, outside of just making sure her body remains thoroughly feminized. It’d almost feel like a bit of a waste not to make the most of something like this though, right? Did anyone on the forums list any specific things she could use this spell for? Mari recalls them mentioning it works because of how their bodies adapt to the magic, and…

  “Fuck, that’s right… I guess I really am locked in to this magic stuff now, aren’t I?”

  For a moment there, Mari had almost forgotten about how her body no longer resembles that of a regur human anymore, despite its outward appearance. The thought still unsettles her, but at the same time, she still looks like herself, and she still feels like herself. Hell, if anything she feels better than she has in a long time, at least as long as you only focus on the physical side of things.

  While she’s undoubtedly very upset about the fact that the choice to continue down this path or not had been taken from her, she realises she doesn’t exactly have much room to compin considering she seems to have already solved the main problem that came about as a result of the changes to her body, or at the very least she now knows what the solution is and just has to keep working at it.

  Should she be more concerned about what’s happened to her? Probably, but considering all the new and unusual options she’s gaining access to as a result, Mari almost finds herself excited at the prospect of learning what else she’s capable of now. The one thing that could have caused her worry is what other people would think if they learned what was happening to her, but it certainly seemed like Cassandra wasn’t too bothered by it, and it’s not like there’s really anyone else she has to worry about.

  She takes another moment to think about the new possibilities, when her eyes suddenly light up.

  “Wait just a second, if I can change myself with this magic, can I also change…?”

  With that, she vanishes from her bathroom in an instant, ready to ask the witches a very important question.

  SyntaxSpeedway