FSE

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"You might wanna put your costume on, Cliff. They'll be here any time now."

Jennifer called from inside the bathroom. Since he got the costume two days ago, Cliff had been putting off actually trying it on. There was no particular reason, at least none that he could recall. His mind just wandered elsewhere whenever he got the notion to try it on. The bathroom door was cracked open just enough for him to see Jennifer preening her hair and ears; the air conditioning was on, blowing the scent of her hair product throughout the flat.

They'd spent the day getting ready. All the snacks were laid out on the table; Jennifer had hung up decorative cobwebs on every surface that would hold them, and Cliff had set out a cheesy ensemble of jack o lanterns and a couple plastic skeletons in the windows. There was a knock at the door; Cliff answered it to find Seth standing there holding a shopping bag under his arm.

"I'm not late for the party am I?" He said, his face breaking into a sheepish grin.

"Not at all, Seth. Matter of fact, you're the first one here." As Cliff said that, Seth had already pushed by him into the flat, heading towards the snacks. He had already assembled a plate of chips and queso blanco dip when Cliff caught up to him.

"Hey man..." He said in between mouthfuls. "I got my costume but I didn't put it on yet, you don't mind if I change somewhere in here?"

"Jen's in the bathroom, you can use the closet." Cliff said.

"Thanks man," Seth said through a mouthful of corn chips and cheese. He brushed his shaggy brown bangs out of his eyes. "Where's yours?"

"I was just about to put mine on." Cliff said, "Jennifer talked me into dressing as a satyr. What about you?"

"I got this thing called 'Selkie Skin'. The picture on the label looked pretty cool, this dude half-turning into a sea lion or whatever."

"Well hello, Seth!" The two young men turned and saw Jennifer standing before them. She was wearing the vinyl dress she picked out at the store, with a red choker added to the ensemble. Seth silently admired how she made the bunny ears twitch in such a convincing way.

"Can you believe I'm early for once?" he said.

"I can, actually!" Jennifer said with a slight laugh." She looked him over. "So where's the costume?" She shot a glance at Cliff. "Cliff, honey, I told you not to let anyone in without a costume." The three of them laughed at Jen's ribbing.

"Sorry about that, Jen." Seth said, trying to remember where he put the bag. "Hey if you're done in there, can I change in the restroom?"

Jen nodded and Seth took the bag with his costume, nearly dropping it twice, from where he dropped it on the kitchen counter. Inside the bathroom, he took his time changing out of his hoodie and faded jeans. He was never really clear on the etiquette of changing clothes in other people's houses. He crashed on people's couches and used their showers sometimes, but he didn't know about leaving his clothes unattended on somebody else's property for a while. He knew there had to have been some unwritten code of behavior he wasn't aware of. When he got down to his boxers, he stuffed his clothes in the shopping bag and took the selkie pelt out, admiring it in the sterile white light.

It really did look just like a real sea lion skin, with dark brown spots on a light, warm gray. Beneath the soft, silky fur was a dense layer of what felt like gel; when Seth pressed it between his fingers, it yielded surprisingly quickly for how thick it was. And it was just as quick to regain its shape when the pressure was let off. Stepping one foot into the tail portion, he was surprised at how flexible it was, stretching out so he could fit in and then snapping back into a perfect, tight fit. He got his second foot in and eased it up to his waist. It was like a second skin, how well it conformed to the shape of his body; He sat down on the cold linoleum floor and worked it up to his chest; there was something about how it felt against his pudgy belly. It felt tight and firm, like the compression tights athletes wore, but it was also very soft; he could see himself forgetting he even had it on. With some difficulty, he got the sleeves on; he didn't expect the webbed hands to have just four fingers each.

The hood of the costume was next, the blunt sea lion muzzle gave him plenty of breathing room; the mask itself felt like it was latex with a layer of the gel and fur on top, and yet all that material over his face did nothing to make it awkward or hard to breathe or see. He fumbled with the zipper on the back for a few seconds. He wore a morphsuit last Halloween so he was familiar with the set up, but it was harder with his hands forced into broad mitts with four webbed fingers to work with. After he zipped up, he laid back and checked himself out; He really did look like a big, chubby sea lion. He stroked his belly, wondering if the gel was supposed to be insulation; because it wasn't too warm or stuffy at all for a full-body costume. Despite being quite a bit thicker, it actually felt more comfortable than the morphsuit. It was easier to breathe in, and it didn't constrict his midsection. Best of all, it actually had openings for his eyes. He had a fleeting image of himself reclining on a rocky beach, the ocean nipping at his fins... inviting him in...

There was a knock on the door.

"Seth, you okay in there?" He heard Cliff's voice say.

"Yeah."

Seth pulled himself to his feet, the tail of the costume allowed for him to stand and walk in it, but only just. When Cliff saw him waddle out with it on, he broke down laughing.

"Hey Jen! Come here and look at the walrus!" Jen came up and her ears folded back, she bit her knuckle as she nearly double over with laughter. Seth took the attention in, doing a few exaggerated poses; he even clapped and did a seal bark that would have been frighteningly accurate had his voice not cracked.

"I didn't know the mouth moved like that." Cliff said. "Is there like a string you pull or what?"

"I didn't see anything like that..." Seth said, making side-steps towards the couch.

"And the fur... Is that velour? It looks so soft." Jen said, stroking his side.

"Yeah I think so... Isn't it great?' He plopped down onto the sofa, letting out a grunt of relief, for some reason his ankles felt strained, like he was on his feet all day.

"It's not hard to walk in that thing, is it?" Cliff said; he couldn't help but notice how fat the suit made him look. Seth was always sort of husky but the costume, it had to have been padded for how much bulk it added. "It's got some kind of gel in it, like the stuff that shoe inserts are made of? It keeps it from getting too hot in here."

The doorbell rang. Jen's bunny ears stood stark straight. "Oh I hope that's Mai. She's bringing the pizza..." she said as she rushed for the door. Cliff was unable to take his eyes off the way her behind moved under her dress.

"She's pretty cute in that outfit." Seth said, stretching out over the couch. "Has she been working out? She looks a bit more..."

"Athletic?" Cliff finished.

"Yeah. Like, not ripped but you know she's got muscle." Seth looked at Cliff, his brown eyes matching the spots on the costume. "I like athletic chicks, what about you?" There was an awkward lull in the conservation, both men were silent. "Forget it..." Seth said. Just then, Mai and Jennifer strolled in, laughing about something they hadn't heard. Mai was dressed in a witch outfit accented with a set of black cat ears and a tail.

"How was the flight over, witchy woman?" Seth said with a self-satisfied chuckle.

"I had to drive; my broom was in the shop." Mai shot back, rolling her almond-shaped eyes.

"Seth, could you move over so Mai could have a seat?" Jen said, nudging him on the shoulder.

"Sure... I was thinking of getting up anyway." He grunted as he got to his feet, where he promptly fell forward on his face.

"I can't get up."

"Very funny, Seth."

"Cliff, I'm serious." Cliff looked at his prone friend and indeed, the joints in Seth's feet were not bending the way they should.

"It must be the costume. Cliff, could you help with the zipper?" Seth said, pawing clumsily at his back.

"What zipper?" Cliff said.

Seth huffed. "The one in back, it goes up to the back of the head and... It was then he realized he could feel no such zipper anymore. Where it should have been, where he very definitely remembered it was, there was just more of the fur, with not even the slightest trace of a zip or any sort of opening.

Mai looked at Seth, then at Jennifer.

"Is something wrong?"

Jen coughed. "No, no... Seth's probably drunk. Cliff, help him up and get him sorted. Somebody could trip over him."

Cliff pulled his friend up to his feet; Seth put an arm over his shoulder as he walked stiff-legged, leaning on his friend like a drunk. Cliff steered him with some difficulty given Seth's hefty build, he could hear Jen call after him.

"...And put your costume on! I wanna see you with hooves!"

They reached the main bed room and Seth fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes the second Cliff let go of him. Seth tried once again to stand only to topple over under the weight of his upper body. Either his legs had gotten shorter, or his waist had stretched itself out. He tried once again, pushing Cliff away with one of his flippers-his hands; only to once again hit the hardwood floor.

"Come on, Seth."

"Cliff I can't stand up."

"Sure you can."

Seth wanted to say something to Cliff but he was interrupted by a sharp, stabbing pain that began somewhere below his ribs and rippled out through his joints. He didn't know it, had no way of knowing it, but the pain was the feeling of bones being compressed into new shapes. He got up on his hands and feet and was rewarded with relief in the form of his joints popping into their new places. It was unusual, but at least the pain was gone.

"Seth, you didn't break any bones did you?"

"It's not just a bone that's broken I don't think..." Seth couldn't finish, he felt dizzy, short on breath.

Cliff took his costume from the bed and stepped towards the door.

"Sorry, man. I'm gonna get dressed and then we'll think of something."

And he left. Seth was alone with his thoughts and he was finally aware of an odd sort of sound that wasn't heard as much as it was felt in his mind. It was whispering, half voice and half the sound a seashell makes when held to one's ear.

"You are a sea lion."

But he wasn't, at least not yet. He looked down at his hands and found that his fingers were shorter, broader. He didn't even feel like the costume was something he was wearing; more and more; it felt like he was growing into it like a plant takes the shape of its pot.

"You like the water, swimming is joy."

What the voice was telling him was untrue, at least for a bit longer, and Seth knew this; but he couldn't argue with it.

"Just relax. Picture yourself now. A happy little fat sea lion..."

"I'm not a sea lion."

"Not yet. You will be, don't worry."

"But..."

"A sea lion doesn't stand. Are you standing?"

And indeed he wasn't. His feet were just finishing their transition into rear flippers, growing out longer and flattening out into just the right shape for paddling through brackish seawater.

"I can't stand, you did this to me."

"Nobody made you put it on. You did this to yourself. You want to be a sea lion. You are a sea lion."

His shoulders felt really tight, and then they got tighter as they drew up closer to his body. His arms were starting to look flabby.

"I'm not letting you change me. What can I do to stop this?"

"Neither of us can stop it now, my dear. Just let it happen, you're going to really like being a sea lion."

His once lanky arms were now blunt, floppy appendages. Flippers, good for diving for fish, delicious fish.

"I'm not listening..."

"A big, huggable soft sea lion, that's what you are. You might as well embrace it."

His neck felt heavy, and the feeling turned to a hot, dense aching as the vertebrae pulled out longer, with the fabric, now a coat of fur and oily skin, growing thicker with each passing moment. His body had now taken on a sleek bullet shape, perfect for cutting through water, beautiful blue ocean water.

"You have such cute flippers, a cute brown nose and whiskers..."

And the mask over his face felt tighter, tighter. It was getting very hard to tell where the mask ended and his face began. The fibers at the edges of the mask's eye-holes were growing like ivy over and into his own eyes; he could feel little pinpricks as the costume merged itself with his eyelids, and as it worked itself deeper, the pinpricks became stings. Tears streamed down his cheeks, he clinched his eyes shut; leaving only the voice.

"Does it hurt? Just cooperate and it won't hurt anymore. You could be enjoying this."

It sang to him, he felt the beginnings of sleep creep over him. His sea lion nose was now sprouting a full set of whiskers, pretty little white whiskers. The voice's song was indescribable, its words from before were now thoughts.

"I am a sea lion."

And with the suddenness of a popping balloon, he opened his eyes. He couldn't feel the costume, or indeed any clothes for that matter. This was entirely appropriate because sea lions did not wear clothes, and to do so would be silly. Seth took a few flopping motions and then rolled over onto his back, feeling the open air on his soft, pale-furred cushion of a belly. He made a mental note to ask Cliff if he could run some water in the tub the next time he saw him. Nice, clear water. He yawned, baring to the world a set of sharp, white teeth. His throat felt a little parched. He scanned the room with his now-dark eyes and was quite relieved to see that Cliff had left the door just a little bit ajar. He rolled over onto his flippers and took short, waddling steps towards the door.