Sorry this is a little late. The Closet was in maintenance mode and I had to go do something before it came back on line again.
     

     
--- a week later ---
     
     Brianna sighs as she quietly watches the sunrise from her place beneath the branches of the large spreading tree she is resting under. Looking to the side she smiles to see Peter coiled up on top of a very large rock where the full effect of the light from the rising sun can bathe his rather large serpentine form and warm it. She leans her equine barrel to the side and lets the sturdy trunk of the tree take more of her weight while her four legs are partially curled up beneath. The furry orange-red, brown, and white ball sleeping at her side grumbles at having been disturbed and shifts closer to again rest against the side of her belly. A moment later the branches above shake lightly and a few leaves fall as a large figure lands above Brianna’s head, its talons easily getting a firm grip on the thick branch it chose as its perch.

      “Enjoy your early morning flight?” she quietly asks.

      “That was just what I needed to clear my head after last night,” Amy replies just as softly.

      “I’m surprised you’re still not up there riding the winds. Watching you fly is a true joy.”

      “Really? Why?”

      “You really were born to fly and it shows. Granted I need a good pair of binoculars most of the time, but seeing the way you slip through the air, going from one slipstream to the next, and the totally satisfied expression on your face is nothing short of bliss. Karen told me last night that you have learned to control yourself up there faster than anyone in the company expected or even thought was possible. You’re doing things they would have attributed to a much more experienced flyer in their opinion.”

      “Oh, like they’ve got such a large pool of flyers to compare me to,” Amy says sarcastically. “I’m the only one after all.”

      “Actually Amy,” comes a slightly muffled voice from the ball of fur lying up against Brianna’s side, “they’re comparing you to real birds. Eagles, hawks, vultures, most types of raptors actually. You’re right up there with all of them in their books. Bree’s right, it’s amazing.”

     Jun’s face appears out from underneath the covering of fluffy fur as she talks and shifts a bit so she can use her tails as a pillow to lay her head on. A quiet splashing is heard nearby and a moment later the whirring of a motor makes the members of the group who are a bit more awake look expectantly at the path from the sea pool. A motorized wheelchair appears carrying a still damp and happy purple scaled woman around the bend and up to join them.

      “Even wet and stringy that hair looks beautiful, Susan,” Brianna states.

      “That was a bit of a surprise yesterday afternoon when you showed up with your hair dyed,” comes from above in a different tree. “I love it.”

     Brianna glances upwards at the voice and frowns for a moment.

      “I figured that getting my hair colored to match my tail would be a good compliment to the overall look,” Susan replies, obviously pleased by the compliments from her friends.

      “Who did you get to do it?” Jun asks. “The fade from the pale seafoam purple at the roots in front down to the deep royal purple at the ends is perfect.”

      “I wasn’t sure how it would work out, but I found someone online who had a bunch of videos showing their work and they do things like this frequently. I called and got an appointment in time for the big ball last night.”

      “What did everyone think about the big reveal at the party last night?” they all hear from the rocks.

     Peter is lifting himself up to a position that is closer to sitting like a person with normal legs, but the mass of his snake body still reminds anyone looking his way how dissimilar he and the rest of them are to humanity in general right now with their costumes still on.

      “The promotional teams for the bash did a great job of playing up a new surprise for everyone to see despite only having less than a week to get the news out. And they still kept all the right info hush hush and out of the media. The crowds were huge before sunset, unlike in past years when people would wait to arrive later,” Jun says.

      “I’m really glad the company decided to do the reveal while there was still daylight. I quickly learned in the middle of last week that flying at night is not really my cup of tea.”

      “That bad?” Brianna queries.

      “Yes and no. I can fly at night, but once the light fades enough, and especially when it gets dark, I lose my ability to see clearly. I am essentially night blind with these contacts in, and I definitely need to have them in when I fly. Flying without them is out of the question.”

      “Well we most definitely were the only thing that got talked about all night long,” Peter announces. “I kind of feel sorry for anyone who was trying to debut something new of their own.”

      “Yea, It’s a good thing we all agreed that trying to let us enter into any of the competitions would not be fair to the other party goers,” Susan says nodding her head. “I still can’t believe the entire crowd voted to give us the award for best new costumes even though we tried to turn it down three times.”

      “Hey, they loved us. There was some light jealousy that floated around, but it was not anything serious,” Jun responds.

      “I thought that some of them were going to have a heart attack when you trotted out where you could be seen,” she says, poking her warm pillow in the belly. “Then Susan made a huge splash, literally, over in the lagoon pool a few minutes later which got yet more attention with the beautiful Centaur walking over to help pull the Mermaid out of the water. And as if that wasn’t enough both of you went over to the rocks just in time to greet a gleaming, green Naga that slithers up over them as he waves to everyone. And the coup-de-grâce that damn near killed a few of them was having a Harpy cry out from above and swoop down to land beside us. I know I saw several people fall over in a dead faint.”

      “Don’t sell yourself short Jun. I saw your appearance clearly as I glided around silently from above. You getting to act as the hostess announcer to direct everyone in the right directions was brilliant,” Amy admonishes her. “Standing up on the stage with the microphone and the spotlight suddenly kicking on to highlight you out of nowhere got their attention right away. I mean, how do you ignore a Kitsune who is telling you hello and waving her three tails around?

      “Look at you. You have red and white fur all over, and it’s a natural fox orangey-red too not a fire truck or candy red, brown fur on ears and paws, and three tails! Those ears are on top of your head, not off to the sides where they should be on a human, and I can’t even tell you have human ears under that fur. There’s no hint of them at all. You walk on paws that have no resemblance to human feet, or legs for that matter, as if you were born with them. And how in the hell do you talk with that muzzle? A fox snout is not designed for human speech yet you sound just like normal Jun. Your voice is barely changed at all.”

      “Yea, how are you doing that?” Susan asks. “I have my voice, but it’s still breathy, a little weak, and off from normal as long as I have my gills in.”

      “Just lucky I guess,” Jun smirks. “But speaking of voices. Amy, where did that eagle cry come from that you let out as you flew in last night? I swear it sounded like the real thing.”

      “I don’t know, really. It just came out. I wanted to do something more dramatic than scream out ‘woohoo’ again so I cried out. I didn’t really have a specific thought about it in my head, I just let myself go and that’s what appeared. It felt, natural.”

      “Well it was perfect. You capped the presentation of the five of us with a cherry on top with that call.”

      “Susan,” Brianna speaks up, “I know you still have a little bit of trouble talking because of the device they put in to give you gills. But I am wondering, what about trying to sing? I mean, technically you are a Siren now.”

      “Sing? Me? Come on. You all have heard me try to sing before. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, let alone try to sound decent enough with my normal voice,” Susan says softly.

      “Are you so sure? Just because you are having trouble talking doesn’t mean you’ll have more trouble singing. A different part of your brain is used compared to your speaking voice so maybe it’ll make a difference.”

      “Go on, give it a try,” Pete encourages her.

      “Alright, I’ll try something. But don’t blame me if it sounds like two cats fighting in a wood chipper.”

     Susan pauses for a moment to think of something she can test out Brianna’s theory with. Slowly and almost too low to hear at first, she starts to hum a tune she partially recalls. As she remembers more of the song she begins to vocalize the music running through her head. The song has no words to it and Susan closes her eyes to better concentrate on the memory that is being pulled from deep in her early childhood. As the recollection finally surfaces whole in her mind Susan’s voice rises in volume and fully releases the music that she is trying to produce. She lets the music take over and carry her into a semi trance like state as she continues to sing for over five minutes. Once the song is over she blinks her eyes and looks around at the stunned faces of her friends.

      “I guess it was as good to your ears as it was to mine then?” She asks hesitantly.

      “Susan, that was simply incredible,” Amy breaks the silence. “I’ve never heard something so enchanting. Where did that come from?”

      “I don’t know for sure,” Susan replies. “It just came to me. I barely remember hearing it a long time ago when I was a very little girl. It felt appropriate and as I started to sing it just flowed through me.”

      “Well, I dare say that you are definitely now a Siren,” Jun tells Susan. “That voice could definitely lure sailors to their doom with no hesitations. It was almost angelic.”

     Susan blushes happily from the compliment she was just given.

      “However, the real surprise for everyone, and especially for me, was when a certain black red white and yellow spider dropped down and snatched me up off the stage! You scared the crap out of me Alexa! I had no idea you had even received a costume, let alone were up above me.

      “Then you wrapped me up in a silk cocoon in seconds right in front of all those people and left me hanging there for what felt like an hour! I was picking your webs out of my fur for hours once you finally let me out. If it weren’t for all the little kids helping me I’d still have half of my fur stuck together,” Jun complains as she pulls another small bit of spider silk out of a tail.

      “Yes, that was a rather shocking surprise,” Brianna says lightly glaring at the Drider who is climbing down out of the tree she was in. “I am still upset with you, Alexandra. You went behind my back.”

      “I am sorry Bree. I didn’t want to disappoint you,” She says ashamedly. “But you didn’t exactly tell me to not pursue it. I contacted my friend and we worked on finishing the costume on our own.”

      “Hrm. I sometimes forget how literal I have to be with you. You are usually pretty good about not doing something stupid, most of the time. But this was a pretty big risk! They had been telling me that the problems were pretty serious, even to the point of being dangerous. You gave me such a scare when I saw you in that thing! I’m still worried about how it is affecting you.”

      “I am doing well. Gwen was able to figure out how to work through some of the problems, and I think they were over stating the others. I do admit the first time I put my beautiful exoskeleton on and had to wear it for twelve hours was a bit rough. I had a hard time figuring out having eight legs and getting them to work right. Gwen told me that the computer programming wasn’t as thorough as yours, Bree, and I had to work out using eight new limbs on my own instead of having just four and getting it fed to me by a computer program. I got it figured out eventually and the processor learned as I did so now I can walk, climb, and use my legs normally.”

      “You are still tripping over them occasionally,” Brianna admonishes.

      “Maybe a little bit,” Alexa admits.

      “The hair and eyes are a pretty striking contrast, especially with your dark skin,” Amy says.

      “My African heritage really came in handy with how dark my skin is for this it seems. But the hair is just a wig,” Alexa tells them as she reaches back and tugs on some of the long white strands behind her back. “The solid black eyes are really great looking though, I really like these full sclera contacts Gwen gave me with the costume. They really complete the look for a Drider. I did leave out the fangs for last night though. I am still having trouble getting used to them and I can’t talk very well with the fangs in place.”

      “What about the interesting striped pattern and colors? Where did those come from? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spider that looks quite like that,” Peter asks, peering at Alexa’s abdomen. “And you’ve got four different colors in those stripes.”

      “Yes. They used a couple of different spiders for this. Gwen told me that it is a combination of the Black Widow, Golden Orb Weaver, and Australian Red Back. The Red Back and Widow gives the red coloring, while the Orb Weaver gives the horizontal stripes and colored patches on the legs along with the yellow and white colorations. The distribution of colors though is unique and is a result of mixing the families.”

      “How are you fitting in there? You’re torso is sitting nearly upright and you don’t appear to be straining to maintain the position. I don’t really see where your legs would go except backwards into the large abdominal section.”

      “I am actually sitting on my legs. My hips and knees are bent to fold my legs up with my feet turned inward and sideways under my butt. It’s pretty comfortable even after this long.”

      “You can still feel your human lower half?”

      “Well, no. The sensor strip up my back takes care of that just like the rest of you. But I have some specialized padding between my upper and lower legs so I don’t cut off circulation. Although after this long I’m probably going to need a good long massage to work some kinks out of my legs I bet.”

      “I’ll take care of that while we have a long talk,” Brianna informs her. “I don’t want you to be hurt by that costume.”

      “So, what’s next?” Jun asks to change the subject. “I know we need to get out of these costumes this morning and take a break from them so we don’t go over the twenty-four hour limit. But then what?”

      “I don’t know. I so don’t want to give up my wings again. I want to keep flying, but I guess we have to give these back now that their big reveal is done,” Amy says sadly. “At least we can still rent them out again, if we can afford it.”

      “Didn’t they tell you?” Peter asks her with a serious tone as he slithers down from his rock and moves over to join the group.

      “What? Tell me what?” Amy blurts, her voice getting a slightly panicked edge to it. She flutters down to land on the ground before Peter with a worried look on her face. “Tell me. What’s wrong?” she demands, deducing that there is something bad because of how he spoke.

      “There’s a major problem with these costumes,” Pete intones with a frown, intentionally teasing his petite and flighty companion.

      “Because of all the customizations they had to do with these costumes they are all going to have to be ...” and he pauses dramatically.

      “Destroyed? Destroyed! Oh no, that’s what you’re about to say, isn’t it!?!” Amy frets as she hops up and down agitatedly.

      “Peter! Stop it and tell her!” Brianna tells him.

     Peter smirks at Brianna then looks Amy directly in the eye as he grabs her shoulders.

      “The costumes are ours, for life.”

     Amy stands completely still, her eyes as wide as they can get.

      “Really Amy, it’s yours,” Brianna tells her.

      “It is? For reals? It’s mine?” Amy whispers as she starts to quiver.

      “I found out that they had to customize our costumes too much for anyone else to ever be able to use them,” Peter explains. “They weren’t quite done with the final development of their production line and pushed the final generation for our display costumes on a fast track which meant they skipped some small details to get them ready on time. That’s why there was no announcement of when the public is going to be able to go rent out costumes just yet. They’re still finishing up working on the primary production details for the rentals.”

     The joy that creeps into Amy’s face quickly infuses her entire body as she starts to squirm like a happy puppy.

      “I get to fly when ever I want to? For...ever?”

      “Yep, I’m afraid so.”

     Peter is only mildly surprised when he is engulfed by feathers as two wings embrace him in a tight hug.

      “You turd! You just had to make me think they were going to destroy my beautiful feathers. I’ll have to think up a proper punishment for you. But this will have to do for an opener,” Amy tells him.

     Pulling him down so he is at her level she gives him a kiss on his cheek.

      “Amy, are you sure you’re twenty-two?” Jun teases.

     * PTHBT * Amy give Jun a raspberry in response. “Just because I’m the youngest out of all of you, with the exception of our little sister here, does not mean I’m still a kid. And you all are not that much older. Susan’s only four years older than me and she’s the oldest. I’m just more in touch with my inner child than the rest of you,” she giggles. “Besides, I think that Jun gets the kiddie prize for last night.”

     The ball of fur unravels as Jun rolls over onto her back and stretches out her arms and one leg and a couple of tails, the four toes at the end of her paw splaying out.

      “Hey, those kids were cute with their Pokemon costumes. How could I disappoint them when they wanted to know if I was a partially evolved Vulpix? Of course I played along and they ate it up. All their parents seemed to enjoy it too. Besides, I like kids, even twenty-two year old ones,” Jun says with a smile, her tongue lolling out of her snout.

      “Well, as much fun as we all had last night, I don’t want to be a downer but we do need to get up to the barn and out of our costumes this morning. We should probably get moving,” Brianna tells everyone.

      “True. Good reminder. My costume is so comfortable on me and feels so natural while I’m in it I do sometimes forget the time limit to get out of it,” Peter replies. “Sunning myself in the early morning sunlight on that rock just felt too good.”

     The others nod in agreement as they get up off the ground and begin to amble along the path.

      “Can I get a ride Bree? Or are you going to make me fly?” Amy asks with a smirk.

      “Really? You’re going to start that again? As if it’s such a terrible effort for you to have to put out all that horrible work to get airborne. Go fly you twit. Nobody rides this Centaur without my permission and a really good reason.

      “Oh, once everyone is back in human mode again come on over to the house and let’s meet up in the lounge for breakfast. I have something to propose to everyone.”

     Amy giggles and with just a few quick steps launches herself up into the air.

      “I’ll see you all there!” Amy calls out as her wings lift her up into the morning sky.

      “Dang. She’s even perfected getting up into flight from the ground. There really is no question that girl was born to fly,” Peter comments.

      “I know. It only took her all of one day to figure that out and make it work,” Brianna says. “The ornithologist on her team thought that was going to be the hardest item for her to learn, and maybe not ever.”

      “And she did it in one day,” Susan repeats in admiration.

      “Um, it may take me a little longer to get out of my tail,” Peter announces as they travel. “I probably should make a stop at the enema wash machine so I can clean out all the food and drink I had last night before I get my legs back. I’m sure I’ve processed enough of it through my own intestines that it’s been passed along into my serpentine system by now.”

      “Not a bad idea,” Brianna says. “I guess I should make a pass through there too for the same reasons. Don’t want to leave anything sitting in there for a few days. What about you, little spider? Do you need to clean out?”

      “Um, I don’t know. Gwen told me I have the same, um ... internal tubing ... in me that the rest of you have. But, I have no idea how it’s getting processed. I mean, I do know spiders eliminate waste. They only have one route for that, an anus, and they produce a nearly solid uric acid instead of urine that goes out along with the rest of the solid wastes. But I have no idea about how fast or how much may be getting produced in this costume. Hopefully Gwen will be here and I can ask her.”

      “I just wish they could make the cleansing process a bit less uncomfortable,” Susan adds in. “Having to get flushed out by that machine leaves me feeling violated it goes so deep.”

      “Well think about how Bree and I feel with how much more intestinal length we have,” Peter complains.

      “It’s uncomfortable, I agree,” Brianna interjects before an argument can get started. “At least the machine is able to interface with our internal processors and dampen down the sensations a good bit.”

      “Why can’t they just turn off the sensations completely?” Susan asks.

      “From what I’ve been told the PC is now always on once it got activated,” Brianna explains, “there’s no turning it off. So as long as we are wearing the costumes and it is hooked up into our own nervous system it would be like trying to destroy our nerves and paralyze us. There’s a risk that going that far could actually do our human bodies some harm.”

      “So, if they try to fully shut off the sensations from the costume there is a chance we could really be paralyzed?” Peter questions.

      “That’s at the worst case scenario end of the spectrum, but yes it’s possible. On the lighter side of it we could have lesser degrees of permanent nerve damage resulting in any combination of one or more things like numbness, muscle weakness, constant tingling, spasms, or chronic nerve pain.”

      “Um, I think I’ll deal with a little discomfort from a deep cleansing enema session once in a while, thank you very much,” Peter says to which Brianna and Susan raise a hand and give a supporting “Amen.”

     Brianna twists her upper body around quickly as she feels eight prickly claws climb onto her back and settle the weight of her sister onto her back.

      “Okay, you get a pass being my little sis,” she tells Alexa and gives her a kiss on the forehead. “Just don’t make a habit out of it.”

     The earth bound group of friends makes their way on up toward the barn where they can get out of the costumes.
     
     
--- ---
     
     
     Brian nods in agreement a couple hours later when Alexandra complains as she joins him.

      “Okay, that enema, no matter how warm, was just a bit disturbing,” Alexa tells Brian as they sit to eat their breakfast.

      “Shouldn’t you have been the first one here?” Jun asks Amy with a smirk when her petite friend finally wanders into the lounge room carrying a plate of breakfast goodies and wearing the headpiece for her costume.

      “Why would I have been first? I still had the better part of forty-five minutes to use up before I had to get out of my feathers. I went for a nice trip around Bree’s property first.”

      “Um, you’re still wearing the feathers girly. Shouldn’t that be back with the rest of it?” Peter points out.

      “I took it off first and had a full shower with the green goop after getting plucked. It’s really comfortable and warm, so after my shower I asked if it would be okay to put just that part on again this soon and Jenny thought it would be fine without any of the other parts attached. It’s just a nice hoodie cap this way.”

      “Fair enough,” Brian says. “Grab a seat and enjoy your food and some good company.”

      “I admit that I kinda miss my tail when I get it off, but I also enjoy getting those tubes out of me too,” Peter notes.

      “You think those tubes are all that bad? You men have no idea. We have to deal with those plus having to shove a double-fist sized ball of soft rubber up into a rather sensitive place then pull it back out again when the costume comes off,” Susan reminds him. Then she sees the frown on Brian’s face.

      “I’m sorry Brianna and Alexa, I didn’t mean to call you all out like that. We all know how you feel and accept you both, but you two still don’t have the anatomy that we do. I’m sorry if my statement hurt.”

      “It’s okay.”

      “I know Su, and you’re right. All of you accept me and treat me well when I present as Brianna which I am so grateful for. But I do still have this ... body ... to live in and deal with every day that I just don’t want. You meant no ridicule or harm, but the truth still bothers me. I don’t like it but I do have to find a way live with it. I was born with a male physiology and a female mind and soul.”

      “And you don’t even get to work on trying to transition. At least not yet,” Jun commiserates with a pained look. “It’s not fair.”

      “No, in a way it’s not. But Brian has taken over the full ownership and running of the family horse breeding ranch and I have to keep that up for now. Give it a few years and I’ll be able to start the initial steps to transition. I have a very good psych that understands the problems and is working with me. We’ll get there.

      “And hey, I now have my costume. At least I can run around as a Centaur Mare now whenever time allows. That’s something.”

      “Changing the subject a bit, but didn’t you say you had something to talk to us about?” Amy says through a mouthful of donut.

      “I did, and you’re not actually changing the subject all that much in fact,” Brian tells them which gets a couple of raised eyebrows as everyone waits to hear what he has to say.

      “None of us have taken a real holiday or vacation break in more than a year. We all have got to have built up a good bit of leave time at our respective jobs, right?”

     Looking around he watches as his friends mentally calculate the numbers and nod in agreement.

      “Would you all say that you have at least two weeks of paid time off you can use?”

      “Yea.”

      “Sure.”

      “Probably more than that.”

     The other two simply nod.

      “Then this is what I am proposing. We all are enjoying the new costumes a good deal, one of us possibly to an entirely infatuated level,” he says with a grin as Amy giggles. “When is the last time we all got away and went camping together? Just the six of us out on our own. Four, five years?”

      “A camping trip with the six of us out in the middle of nowhere with our costumes? Oh yeah, that sounds like fun!” Amy exclaims.

      “Where would we go? And when?” Peter asks.

      “Where is easy,” Brian tells them. “We’ll just go out to the far end of the ranch in the back forty. You remember the cabin out there by the private lagoon? We could use that as a base and go another day or so out from there on foot to pitch a camp.

      “As to when, well, I would like to make it happen in about two weeks. That would give us a week or so to get things settled at work for those who need it. Does everyone think it’s doable? Can everyone get the time off and arrange whatever you need to cover for your absence by then?”

      “What about me, Bree? Can I go too?” Alexandra asks hopefully.

     Brianna looks thoughtfully at her adoptive sibling as she considers the question.

      “If Gwen can convince me that your costume is safe enough and can show me that the problems I was told about have been mitigated, then yes you can Kohai. You’ll have to bring your school books and spend time studying, two weeks is too long to skip it completely.”

      “Thank you Senpai! I will study velly well!” Alexa intentionally slurs her words to sound Oriental as her face lights up happily.

      “Jun, I know you probably have the hardest time with short notice like this, but could you do it?” Brian asks.

      “The hospital frowns on short notice time off requests, but like you say I haven’t taken any personal time off in a long time. I’ve got a big build up of paid leave to the point that I could turn it in for pay instead of taking the time. The buy off for that is one-and-a-half to one in my favor, so letting me actually use the time would cost them less. I bet I could push it through in time.”

      “So, you’re in?”

      “Yea, I’m in. It’ll be fun to run around with fur for two weeks, minus the required time out of costume, of course.”

      “That’s three counting me. Anyone else think they have a problem?”

      “Nope, not from me. Make it four,” Susan reports.

      “I can pull it off, so that’s five,” Peter adds.

     All eyes turn to Amy.

      “Well, I have to get everything moved to my new place in the next week.”

      “Moved? You’re moving?”

      “Well, yea. I got a place downtown.”

      “Why would you move there?” Susan wants to know. “You have a nice place on the edge of town.”

      “I got an apartment on the top floor of the Alcondrosa building. It’s got a really great view from up there ... and the greatest balcony for flying from.”

      “Wait, are you telling me that you signed for an apartment just so you could fly from it? You didn’t even know the costume was going to be yours until this morning! What were you thinking?” Susan asks incredulously.

      “I may not have known my feathers were mine to keep, but I damn sure knew that I was going to be getting to use the costume as much and as often as I could afford to. After getting to experience true self flight there is no way I am going to give it up ever again.”

      “I guess it’s a good thing for your bank account that you get to keep it then,” Jun says with a shake of her head in amazement.

      “Alright, so can you get moved in a week?” Brian steers the conversation back around to the question at hand.

      “Um, can I get some help from you guys? If so, then yes.”

      “Of course you can get help from us,” Peter speaks up. “Like we wouldn’t offer as soon as we found out anyways.”

     The others agree and talk moves into figuring out when different people can be available to help Amy move on which days, then making plans for their two week fantasy camping trip.