Chapter 21: 21 – Amerie

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Continuing the same way she’d been going, Amerie wandered past the huge main staircase. On her other side, she could look down to the floor beneath. The walls around the balcony were lined with paintings that looked interesting, and she made a mental note to come back for a closer look.

There was also an odd-looking suit of armour, or at least, she thought it was armour, but once she actually stopped to inspect it, she couldn’t imagine how anyone could get inside of it. The feet were solid and contoured like human feet, complete with toes, but from there up to the knee, it was a solid-looking spiral of thick wire that might have been shiny stainless steel; there was a decorated plate over the front of the knee itself, then another spiral up the thigh. The arms were much the same. There was a female-shaped torso in several pieces with another coil around the abdomen from pelvis to ribs, decorated beautifully with spirals of gold and silver and copper. The helmet was a generic face with vaguely feminine features and molded golden hair, the features picked out in gold and copper.

It was beautiful, but mysterious as anything aside from a work of art, so she went on.

There was a door to one side that was ajar, but just past that and on the other side, a door was open and she could hear motion from inside; curiously, she went to that one.

There was glass everywhere, tubes and vials and flasks and other things she had no name for, and in a couple of places she thought the things underneath might be meant for heating the container above; it rested on a long counter on one wall, and there was a table as well. Somewhere near the back, she thought she saw a bed and a dresser peeking out from behind a three-panelled screen, but mostly there were cabinets and shelves.

Sorting through the contents of a shelf, wearing a lab coat and grey pants of some kind, was a woman with snakes for hair.

Amerie stopped in her tracks. “Um, hi?”

“Hello there!” The woman turned and greeted her with a smile, her eyes hidden by tinted goggles. “Welcome, come on in. I’m Ophelia, the resident mad scientist.”

“Mad scientist? Like, experimenting on animals and people and trying to bring monsters to life and stuff?”

“Oh, nonono.” The woman... snakes were a Medusa thing, right? The woman leaned against the counter with her hands braced to either side, and shook her head. The snakes didn’t seem to mind. “The resident animals are much too adorable, and the monsters that matter to me are already quite alive. Although I might ask them to help me with experiments. They usually have fun with that, though, and come back to ask me for potions when they feel like it. Also no trying to take over the world or create an evil army or messing about with science that could mean the end of existence. Total downer. I’m more of a... what’s the terminology from that game that’s been getting attention the past few years in your reality... chaotic good mad scientist. I’m not much into laws or rules, but I’m not much into being unpleasant and doing unethical things, either. I get my kicks from beautiful things, not ugly ones.”

“Oh. Okay. Beautiful things are usually hard to find, but there are lots in this house.”

“Beauty lurks in a lot of places and sometimes just needs the right eyes to recognize it. Or a bit of help coming to the surface in a way that’s easier to recognize.” The mad scientist regarded Amerie thoughtfully. “Do you have any phobias?”

“I’m bad with centipedes and I have trouble with tight dark places.”

“Not a problem, either of those.” She turned around and walked down the length of the counter to a cabinet with glass doors. “Let’s see what I have in here. Someone told you the rules by now, right? It’s late enough in the night that you must have run into someone.”

“Um, the lady... Ségolène? And Tarragon. And Thalia.” She saw no reason to get into talking to herself.

“So you’ve got a good idea what’s happening, then. That’s good to know. I’m rarely the first person a guest runs into. I’m on the second floor, after all. Normally Sally or Wanda catches a new guest down on the ground floor. I’m quite sure they lurk down there near the door deliberately on Hallowe’en so they can be the first to greet guests. But Mistress found you instead, that’s unusual.” Ophelia took three mismatched small bottles, each about half a cup of liquid, out of the cabinet and arranged them on the table with the labels hidden, neatly spaced. That done, she perched on a high steel stool.

“If you’re here to play the game, and since you aren’t hiding in one room I’m going to assume you are, then here’s the challenge. Each of these will have an effect on whoever drinks it. Not, like, having hallucinations or getting overly agitated or extremely sleepy. These are effects that will change the drinker in some physical way for a limited time. Sometimes the results are rather... ah, whimsical is maybe a good word. The one on the right will be simple and easy, something not very dramatic or extreme, but it should be fun. The one on the left is more extreme, one that could be unsettling and take some real effort to adjust, although still fun once you get used to it, and the occasional person finds it easy. The one in the middle is a moderate option, less simple and also less challenging. There’s no hurry. Take your time and pick whichever one feels right to you.”

“All right. So that’s what you do? Make potions? That seems more like, I don’t know, a wizard thing than a mad scientist thing.”

“It’s kind of an alchemy, alternate-universe chemistry, kind of thing. It’s hard to explain. It does involve science, I promise, just maybe not exactly the science you’re familiar with.”

“Can I ask something... um, two things that might be a bit more personal?”

“It’s possible I won’t answer, but I don’t mind if you ask.”

“Don’t those goggles make it hard to see?”

“Not much. I’m used to them. I would rather not risk actually making unprotected eye contact with any guest. Residents are safe from me, but guests are not.”

“What happens?”

“I’m a gorgon. Anyone who looks in my eyes turns to stone. It would wear off at sunrise, but what fun is that? Besides, it seems to be rather traumatic and unpleasant. So if there is any chance at all of someone from your world looking in my eyes, which is all the time every Hallowe’en and a few other times, I make absolutely sure I keep them on.”

“That’s... I’m glad?”

Ophelia grinned. “Besides, I’m very into safety, and no one should be messing about with chemicals without eye protection, and these are way more groovy than my other options. What’s the other question?”

“Are the snakes friendly?”

Ophelia’s dark eyebrows rose above the goggles. “They are when I am. They’re only semi-autonomous—they have fragments of personality, you could say, and limited individuality. I can’t control them, but they do respond to my mental state. Since so far I like you, they’re friendly.”

“Would it be horribly rude to ask if I could pet one? I, um, I always thought snakes were pretty but I’ve never had the chance to touch one.” She was already so far out of her depth that she might as well go for it. What was there to lose?

“I don’t think anyone has ever asked before, but I can’t think of any reason to say no. Snakes aren’t normally very sociable, but mine are special and a few of them actually enjoy contact.” Ophelia slid off her stool and approached Amerie.

That really was a lot of snakes, constantly in motion, but they were pretty in a way too, a living moving rainbow, each a different colour that she was fairly sure snakes didn’t come in.

Their proximity could have been alarming, but so far, everything Ophelia had said had strongly suggested that she had good responsible intentions and thought about consequences. If she said the snakes were safe, Amerie should be able to trust that.

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Ophelia dropped to one knee in front of Amerie with her back towards her, and several snakes immediately oriented on her. Tentatively, Amerie reached out to touch one that was a rich magenta. It had markings, she noticed, in a paler shade of pink. It didn’t feel slimy at all, just dry and warm and smooth. It actually arched towards her fingers encouragingly. A golden-yellow one with markings in a deeper amber-brown tried to shove in between the magenta one and her hand; that startled her, and she drew back quickly, then cautiously stroked one with each hand. The yellow one twisted in place, so she was stroking its throat instead. A violet one with amethyst-purple markings, a white one with red markings, and a royal blue one with pale blue markings all hovered close with interest. Amerie figured there must be something like eighteen or twenty snakes, but probably no more than that despite initial impressions, all of them long and slender and active. None of them had any spiky bits or hoods or anything alarming like that, just faces that had little expression aside from looking rather like they were permanently smiling.

They might not be entirely normal creatures, but they acted like it, so she tried to make sure that all five that showed an interest in being petted got some attention.

Ophelia, after a moment, shifted her weight, then carefully stood up. When she turned around, she was smiling. “Get what you wanted?”

“Yes. Thanks for letting me. I wasn’t sure what to expect but they’re very pretty.”

“Thank you.”

Amerie eyed the trio of waiting bottles. She didn’t technically have to pick any, but her other self probably had a point about getting involved. Picking the easiest one might give the impression that she was trying to slide through without taking any risks at all. On the other hand, despite the boost from the flower and her chat with herself, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle whatever was in the most challenging one.

She stepped down to the floor and approached the bottles. The challenging one looked chocolate-brown, the easy one a creamy pale yellow, and the one in the middle was pinkish-red. She took a deep breath, picked up the red one in the middle, and worked out the glass cork.

It tasted like raspberries with a hint of dark chocolate and, even more faintly, mint.

“What’s your favourite animal?” Ophelia asked, as Amerie set the empty bottle on the counter.

“What? Um, cats, I suppose. Cats in general, I mean, small ones and big ones. Tigers are incredibly beautiful and elegant.”

Ophelia grinned. “Oh, this’ll be more outta sight than Wanda.”

Amerie started to ask what she meant, but didn’t have time.

Her skin itched, and in seconds, it began to grow short fur. Given the sensations under her hoodie and tanktop and track pants, it was happening everywhere, and it wasn’t all that comfortable. She hastily peeled off the hoodie, at least. The fur in question was white on her hands, but shaded quickly to orange up her arms, and developed black stripes. Something got very uncomfortable at the base of her spine, under her pants, but she wasn’t taking those off for anything. The straps of her bra felt tight around her ribs and over her shoulders, and her panties were digging into her hips like they were suddenly a size too small.

What on earth had just happened to her?

“Now that’s beautiful,” Ophelia said in satisfaction. “But you can’t see how you look and those clothes are just not appropriate in any sense.” She hopped down from the stool. “There’s an easy solution to that, just down the corridor and around the corner. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Cosmo. He’ll find you something more comfortable and properly fab, and if there’s anywhere in this house with mirrors, it’s Cosmo’s room.”

Feeling rather dazed and disoriented, Amerie followed Ophelia back the way she’d come, past the main stairs and the room with the magic mirror and around the corner, past the stairs she’d come up, all the way to the very end. She was quite sure she was taller than she had been the first time, and that she was a head taller than Ophelia, which she didn’t think had been the case before.

Ophelia opened the door there. “Hey, Cosmo. Our newest guest needs a dramatic wardrobe change, immediately.”

“Oh, goodness, yes.” A figure that looked like a male ceramic doll had turned away from laying out something on a worktable when the door opened. “Come in, I can certainly find something that will both feel and look better. Lovely work, Fifi.”

Ophelia laughed. “I just make the potions. Amerie, this is Cosmo. He’s harmless. If neither of you minds, I think I’d like to hang around and see the final result, because I bet it’ll be amazing.”

Cosmo shrugged, a weirdly fluid gesture for someone who looked like they weren’t even alive. “That isn’t my choice to make. Amerie, is it?”

Amerie nodded. “Um, that’s fine.” Ophelia’s nickname was Fifi?

“Good. Now, let’s get you out of those clothes, they must feel terrible with fur.” He bustled through a pair of inlaid doors, and returned quickly. “There’s a robe in there that will feel better for the moment while we find you something. Go get out of your clothes and into that. You can leave yours in the basket on the floor, they’ll be safe.”

“And so are you,” Ophelia said.

She’d been willing to drink the contents of a bottle with no idea what it would do. Getting undressed shouldn’t feel like such a risk.

Amerie stepped into the round dressing room and closed the doors behind her.

The inner faces of the doors were mirrored. Half the circumference was windows; she wasn’t sure about the three doors she could see, but there were more mirrors on the walls between.

Amerie stared at her own reflection, her exposed ankles and skin-tight tank-top, then hastily shed everything she was wearing, including her too-tight bra and panties. She was clearly a few inches taller, along with being more muscular and toned all over. Her breasts were about the same size, though they actually looked smaller on her larger ribcage. From the back of her wider pelvis, she could see and feel a tigerish tail, long and heavy and striped. Her face hadn’t really changed much, underneath the intricate striping; her messy walnut hair was now only jaw-length and black and very thick, around round tiger ears higher on her head than ears normally were.

And all over, she was covered in that short plushy dense fur, white on her belly and throat and inner limbs and her hands and feet, orange with black stripes everywhere else.

Dazed, she took the robe Cosmo had left on a hanger, a soft cotton thing down to mid-calf with short sleeves, a soft grey with blue flowers around the hems, and put it on, tying the wide belt around her waist. It was definitely less uncomfortable than her previous clothing. There was nowhere to put Thalia’s flower; she raised it to breathe deeply of the scent again, and kept it in her hand. That extra bit of calm helped: she opened the dressing room doors and came out.

“Oh, that came out beautifully,” Ophelia said in delight.

“Indeed,” Cosmo said. “And I can think of a few possibilities that will set that off perfectly. Here, let me take your hand, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Instead, his outline, under a flamboyant combination of long jacket and pants of a deep sky blue embroidered heavily with pink and yellow and white over a ruffled pale-pink shirt, altered to match what she’d just seen in the mirror.

“There we go. Now I can make certain that we’ll find the best and it will fit. Take a seat anywhere you like. I’ll be right back.”

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