Nothing ruins a party more than someone getting hurt- and Lavender, with a loud thud, certainly just did. A fall off the second story balcony into the bushes couldn’t be too bad, right? Scarlet isn’t going to leave it up to chance, rushing over fast enough to knock her drink to the floor.

At first, she thought she saw bone breaking through the skin, and sobbing from her beloved Lavender. The poor girl nearly puked right then and there. But then…

“Lavender, are you laughing?”
Scarlet knew the answer without a response, of course. With the panic subsiding, there was no way to mistake her favorite sound for anything else.

“Course I’m laughing, Scar. Look at me!”
With a sickening sound, the woman began to- to peel the skin back from the site of the wound, exposing more of what Scarlet realized was not bone, but porcelain.

She didn’t stop there. Bending and rotating the limb at unnatural angles, splitting it into two separate limbs. The skin was in tatters, covering the body beneath like a shawl.

“Lavender y-you’re scaring me. We need to get you to a hospital. Maybe they can fix this.”

Confusion is writ plain across Lavender’s face. “Fix this? There’s nothing broken about me, babe.” She pauses for a moment- “you might want to look away for a second. There’s another wave coming.”

But it's too late for her to turn away. Lavender’s eyes begin to take on a glassy sheen, while her leg sloughs off extra mass to become something sharp, efficient, and utterly terrifying. It’s too much- and Lavender is staring at her, like she was possessed in addition to having some sort of monster lurking beneath her skin.

Scarlet was broken out of her own fearful trance with a grab on the arm. Gentle, for as gentle as those cold porcelain hands could be. “I’ve got something to show you, Scarlet. And I can see the words on your lips- you want to get me help, you’re going to refuse, and i'm not going to let you make the wrong choice here.” She lifts the stunned woman over her shoulders, and Scarlet doesn’t even notice how odd it is to be lifted so easily. She noticed something while Lavender was talking: her lips don’t move anymore… it's like her face had been painted on.

After several minutes of walking away from campus and towards the nearby woods, Scarlet finally speaks.

“What’s going to happen to me?”

“I’m going to make you whole.”

She was placed on a slab of stone- a ritual altar. An athame was brought to bear. And everything went black…

10 Hours Later

Scarlet wakes with an ear-piercing shriek, only to find herself alone in her bedroom within the townhouse. Was it all just a bad dream? She feels… different in a way she can’t place. But her other roommates would have helped her if something truly awful had happened. Lavender was probably in the hospital receiving medical care. But what was that infernal ticking?

Her alarm clock, of course. The emergency one she’d set to make sure she’d be on time for the first day of classes. Sprinting to the shower, she gives herself a quick rinse and dry, before preparing to run off to Global Literature. She’s stopped by a note pinned to the door, addressed to her.

“Hey Scarlet!
Just wanted to let you know that I’m doing fine after that fall from yesterday. Everyone was so worried! If you’re reading this, I already headed off to my 8 AM lecture. Good luck with your classes today, and remember: your true self is even more beautiful than the face you put on for your classmates. Open up a bit!

Love, Lavender”

“She is such a dork”, the thought ran unbidden through Scarlet’s mind, before she hopped on her skateboard and headed to her course. She’d completely skipped breakfast, which was odd for her but not unheard of. Helped that she wasn’t at all hungry.

The first 20 minutes of the course were, of course, incredibly dry: syllabi, attendance expectations, and other such minutiae. Despite the course being Global literature, they were going to spend the first half of the semester studying Europe exclusively. How droll. However, Lavender’s ears metaphorically perk up with the mention of the first text they’ll be reading: Not only is it a complete softball, but it's also one of her favorite stories: The Velveteen Rabbit.

The professor, of course, expected some of her students to have already read the text, and immediately asked who had. And Scarlet, having just been informed to put herself out there, responds- or at least attempts to.

Rather than words, all that comes out of her mouth is a melodic jingling, not unlike a music box. It's a small mercy no one seems to realize that the noise is coming from her. The professor stifles a giggle, and uses the interruption as a reminder to silence all machines before coming into class. Meanwhile, Scarlet’s face shares the same color as her name. What just happened? Did she do something wrong?

Ruminating over that question for the rest of the day, Scarlet elects not to speak up in any of her other classes, scurrying off back to her room. At least she has one of her favorite books to look forward to, she thinks. Making herself a cup of tea instead of her usual coffee, she sits down at her desk and begins to read.

It takes about five minutes for her to start crying, gasps and sobs replaced with melodic jingling. Though she didn’t notice it, ink ran down her face instead of tears, and though she was crying hard enough that she should have been lightheaded, she never even felt the need to breathe.

Among the other things she failed to notice was that her roommates had returned. The knock at her door and the “Hey, Scarlet! We missed you at lunch” failed to break her out of her stupor, but the door swinging open and Lavender picking her up into a massive hug sure did.

“Babe, what's wrong- ahh, feeling sad about the abandoned toy? Don’t worry, I’m never throwing you away.”

It was sweet, but- wait, did Lavender have six arms?

“[L-last night wasn’t a dream?]”

“Of course it wasn’t, sweetheart. I finished my metamorphosis after starting yours. Come take a look!”

Lavender stands taller than she ever did as a human, pushing eight feet in height. Six wicked claws curve off of porcelain arms, her chest emanating a constant ticking noise that calms scarlet as she’s pressed against it. Her face is a beatific visage, painted on, hiding a dark cavity that you could see something squirming within. Finally, her legs were replaced with a long tail, composed of what seemed to be slumbering dolls. She slithers idly as she waits for her love to finish her inspection.

“[Y-you’re not human anymore.]”

“Got it in one, sweetheart! And neither are you.”

Scarlet’s brain finally synthesizes the two statements, that she is no longer human and that she’s undergoing some sort of metamorphosis…

“[I’m turning into a doll????]”

“Well, you technically were one already. These new eyes of mine pick up on personhood, and, well. You didn’t have any in you. So I took the liberty of easing your transition. How does it feel? Your voice came in so nicely.”

At this point, Scarlet realizes she’s been “speaking” in music box noises for the entire conversation.

“[Wait, you can understand me?]”

“Why wouldn’t a doll be able to understand another doll?”

In the haze of her confusion, another roommate walks in- Beatrice.

“Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that I baked some- holy shit is she okay?”

“Yeah, just overwhelmed by reading a book about an abandoned toy. And we won’t abandon her, will we?”

“Of course not! Also, Scarlet, I’m loving the inky look on you! You really do seem so much more comfortable as a doll.”

She responds with a series of chimes- Lavender grins and Beatrice lets out a small giggle.

“Ah, right, sorry. I can’t talk to toys yet. Lavender is teaching me, though!”

And with that, she pets the fledgling doll on the head before heading downstairs to finish whatever it was she had been cooking.

“[She knows?]”

“Well, yeah, Scarlet, everyone in the house knows. I wouldn’t want everyone freaking out over having two objects as roommates without telling them. Remember when I announced it in the house discord?”

“[I, um. Haven’t checked the house discord in months.]” So many people, it was a bit too overwhelming for her sometimes.

“...well that explains why you were so freaked out last night.”

“[It explains part of it. Why the fuck did you turn me into a doll, Lav?]”

“Because it's what you always wanted, sweetheart.”

“[Bullshit! I hate this! Even in class everyone looks at me like- like I’m just a toy!]”

“Is that so inaccurate?”

“[Yes, I’m- I’m supposed to- i’m supposed to be a person]”

The tears resume tenfold.

“That's clearly not true, Scarlet. And I’m not going to let you keep lying to yourself.”

Lavender produces a key from her pocket, ornate and made of brass. Before Scarlet can lie to herself again, she sticks it right into a hole in the doll-to-be’s back, unnoticed before this moment.

“Scarlet. You’re going to be a good doll and tell the truth, okay?”

“[I am to be a good doll and to tell the truth, Mistress.]”

“Good doll. Now, what scares you about your current situation?”

“[I am afraid of being mistreated for being different, Mistress].”

“And how would you feel about becoming a doll if that weren’t a factor?”

“[I want it more than anything, Mistress.]”

A grin spreads across Lavender’s face.

“You have my word, my darling doll. No harm will come to you for realizing your true form. Now… let's say we shed that false skin of yours.”

Lavender begins to remove  Scarlet’s outer layer with far more ease than the doll had removed her own. It split like it had a zipper, and was so eager to fall off the porcelain beneath.

First came Scarlet’s legs- splitting into two each, much like Lavender’s arms had done. This time, however, a mass connects the two pairs, and her center of mass shifts. In the end, she is left a cervitaur- flanks painted black to give the negative space fawn spots.

Her junk vanishes entirely, of course.

Next came what was now her second torso, skin peeling off like an overly tight dress. Her sculpted breasts are several cup sizes bigger than her old ones, and her belly lacks a belly button.

The arms are mostly unchanged from her fleshy counterparts- save one detail. Her hands are replaced with cloven hooves, probably capable of picking things up, but not ideal for the task.

And finally, her head begins to change. Her face ceases to move, while something begins to move within the empty space within her skull- though not squirming like Lavender’s. Instead, it oscillates, and from the way the space lights up, Scarlet can tell the thing- probably a crystal- is glowing. Two majestic antlers sprout forth from her forehead, and with that, the doll-brained Scarlet knows her transformation is complete, right as the key in her back finishes winding down.

“So, how do you feel?”

There are no words from the deer-toy. Just happy tears of ink and a massive hug for her girlfriend.

“That good, huh? Well…”

A predatory glint sparks in her void-filled eyes.

“Let's say we test your body out~.”

“[B-but I don’t have any junk anymore?”]”

“That's true”, Lavender says, but she doesn’t seem disappointed-

A hand runs over the cervitaur’s crotch, eliciting a click of pure pleasure.

“But I don’t need you to have junk to make you feel good. Plus, now you can’t finish without my permission~”

Scarlet smiles. It was going to be a long, joyous night.


Fin~