Costume Trick

Happy Halloween!

I had the idea for this caption at about the same time as Starry Treat. They're sort of related, in that they both spin off of previous Halloween stories (which I added a tag for, as they seem to have developed into their own little series of sorts).

Once again, this one's quite long (I think it's even a little longer than Starry Treats, actually), so there's a "story format" version below:

---

Even before his graduation, Ferris knew exactly who he wanted to work with through grad school. Dr. Wright was his hero in a few different ways: The best theoretical physicist he knew of, an amazing teacher with an impressive enthusiasm for his material, and an all-around great person as far as he could tell. Fortunately, Ferris was no slouch as a student either, and his undergraduate research was good enough to catch Dr. Wright's attention. After Ferris went through most steps of the process of applying for grad school, he made an appointment to speak to the professor; not only did he agree to take him on as an advisor, but he was more than encouraging about Ferris's pursuit of higher education.

Fast forward some two and a half years later, and things were still going pretty well. November was a little odd; Dr. Wright took some months off and only communicated by email. But he'd left more than enough for Ferris to work on, and that communication was still prompt and helpful, so he didn't have too many complaints. There were some wild rumors floating around campus that something crazy had happened to the professor at a Halloween party, but...ever since the veil lifted and everyone knew about magic, wild rumors were rather common. It was just that, at the same time, they were also true more often than before.

Nonetheless, the following March, Dr. Cassius Wright returned to work with no obvious change. Well—he seemed happier and more enthusiastic than before, if it was possible, and had even more ideas that meant more work for his grad students—Ferris included—but that could be chalked up to a successful vacation (or whatever it was he'd left for). It was in late August that Ferris finally became a little suspicious, when a newly famous magician whose most recent act in late February had ended with her disappearing and then seemingly vanishing from the face of the Earth afterward—started doing shows sporadically at the campus theater. Her name was Cassilda, and...while it could just be a coincidence, there were a lot of dates that seemed to match. Anyway, nothing Ferris could find said what her last name was, which wasn't inconceivable for a stage name, but seemed to line up with everything else, too. That was why he decided to buy a ticket and go to her third show, in mid-September.

Besides the fact that he didn't usually have the time or money for this sort of thing, magic shows and stage performance in general weren't really Ferris's kind of thing. Still, Cassilda and her weird, two-tailed catgirl assistant put on a pretty impressive show for just a bunch of students. More importantly, though, the way she talked, and the enthusiasm with which she talked through each trick, was all incredibly familiar.

He still couldn't be certain. Of course, a scientific mind needed more than one point of data; preferably several. After all, it was a little absurd to think that a physics professor with a doctorate and tenure was also a famous magician capable of actual magic; anyone who had either of those jobs surely had no monetary need for the other. How would he have even learned so much magic so quickly? Ferris determined that this was his reason for buying a ticket to the next show, in early October, on his way out. After that he returned to burying himself in his work for the rest of the month like he usually did.

The first show, he'd sat in the very back to observe everything undisturbed; most of the crowd clumped toward the front, eager to volunteer for a trick or two. This time, Ferris decided to sit closer to the middle and try once or twice to volunteer himself to see whether she'd react to seeing him. The test would be inconclusive if she acted the way she did around every other volunteer, since maybe that was just professionalism and good acting, but if she hesitated or paused or something then he'd know she at least recognized him. Eventually she did pick him out of the crowd for a card trick. At first he was convinced this was one of her 'not magic magic' tricks, since it seemed to be the sort of thing that arose naturally but surprisingly from rearranging the cards a certain way, but at the last moment she did either some sleight of hand or real magic to give the trick a new twist that mathematics alone couldn't easily explain. At least..Ferris was pretty sure it couldn't. Either way, her reactions seemed more or less normal, so the test was a bust. Still..it was a little fun being a part of the show, he supposed.

Walking back to his apartment, Ferris realized there was one other thing he could do. Thinking through the steps of the trick, he wrote an email to his advisor. Essentially, "I was at a magic show tonight and I think they did some kind of card-counting trick." Then some of the details of how the trick had been set up and a question of whether he'd missed something in the setup. It wasn't too unusual for Dr. Wright's students to ask him questions like this: Not directly related to their research, but still regarding something he might know that they could learn from. The reply the next morning was just that he'd have to think about it and they'd talk at their next biweekly meeting; fairly standard overall.

Ferris came to that meeting, and Dr. Wright walked him through the steps, pointing out something simple the magician could probably do while the audience was briefly distracted to change the outcome to what he'd seen that night. Then he turned from the whiteboard to face his student and shrugged. "Anyway, this is fun and all, but I'd hate for it to start really distracting you from your work. So, I guess you've got me."

"Wait." Ferris's mind, still busy processing the last couple of steps of the explanation, took a second to catch up. "You're really...?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Cassilda, just so I'm not carrying a misunderstanding forward more than necessary. To give you some better evidence:" He swept his arms upward, and a kind of spiraling, sparkly lightshow whirled around him briefly, changing his body to that of the magician and his clothes to some female equivalents that fit the drastically different form. "See?"

The grad student leaned forward, adjusting his glasses and staring. "How did you do that?"

"Would it be too unfair to say 'magic'?" she said, putting her arms up helplessly. "It's a long story, but last Halloween—let's say I went looking for an adventure, and found one. I took some time off to think about what I wanted to do, and concluded that I wasn't done here. There's important work to do, and people—such as yourself—relying on me. Still, I enjoyed doing the shows quite a bit, and couldn't quit forever. Even though they're a lot of work, it's..mentally relaxing in its own sort of way to work on something besides research for a bit. I thought a few low-key performances here on campus would be a nice warm-up. Though, I never really intended this 'secret identity' business, either. It just sort of happened, and I leaned into it since magicians are supposed to be mysterious and stuff." Sweeping her hands down, Dr. Wright changed back in a similar fashion.

"I...hope you're not too disappointed with me," he continued after a moment, perhaps misinterpreting Ferris's stunned silence. "Imagine, a physics professor defying physics."

"Uh—no, I'm just. Surprised, is all," Ferris said. "Impressed is a good word, too."

"If you say so. Say, since you know my 'secret' now, I wonder if you wouldn't mind helping me out with that side job a little bit? It's not part of your coursework, and it's completely fine if you're not willing, but I could use someone to test out a few trick ideas on this month."

"Well, uh. I-I'll have to, think about it some," Ferris said. He actually knew his answer was yes, but at the same time his fried brain was trying to think through scheduling and logistics. Anyway, his decision might change once he was able to think straight again.

"That's fine. Just drop me an email to let me know. Now then," Dr. Wright continued, turning back the whiteboard to start erasing it. Just as easily as he'd turned into a curvy woman and back again, he smoothly shifted the subject back to the research they were supposed to be meeting to discuss in the first place. Ferris forced his frazzled mind to focus on that instead for the time being, reserving all thought about his advisor's revelation and request for later unpacking.

Ultimately, he decided to do it, and sent an email that night saying so. They went back and forth working out a schedule, and it wound up being how he spent his next few Saturday afternoons. Seeing the tricks "in development" was as amazing as seeing them on-stage, especially since Cassilda was practicing her stage-like presentation of them at the same time. There were rough edges, sure, some tricks not working and the magician herself tripping over her words occasionally, but it was still fun, in its own unusual way. Ferris gained an appreciation for what Dr. Wright had meant about this being relaxing; for him, too, it was a break from the research when he could just turn that part of his brain off for a bit and focus on something else.

Her assistant, Thana, was pretty cool too; she seemed to be closer to Ferris's age, although it was hard to tell since she was supposedly some kind of immortal cat-person..thing. One of the tricks in the middle of the first of those evenings was particularly impressive, and Ferris couldn't help but applaud a bit. Cassilda gave a brief bow and Thana visibly fumed in..what, jealousy?...until the magician went over and patted her on the head—which struck Ferris as a little strange, but it did seem to calm her down. After that the catgirl made a point of joining any applause he gave like it was a competition of who could clap the loudest for the longest, and he let her 'win', both unwilling to anger some powerful magical being again and hardly seeing the point of it in the first place.

On the last Saturday of the month, with Halloween the following week, they wrapped up a bit earlier than usual. Ferris clapped for the last trick, Thana joining in as usual. "Thank you, thank you," she said, bowing, sweeping off her witch-like hat and putting it back on as she stood up straight again. "Well, you've been a really wonderful guinea pig, I must say. It's good to have someone analytical enough to point out when the audience is gonna figure out a trick too easily."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Thana said, huffing.

"Nothing, dear." Patting the catgirl on the head (which Ferris was more or less used to seeing by now) quieted her down.

"Well, it's been fun for me too," Ferris admitted. "I guess we're done?" They hadn't scheduled any meeting past this one, anyway.

"For now, at least," she nodded. "I wanted an impressive repertoire for Narra's party next—oh, hey! I don't believe I've mentioned that in your presence before now. There's a big Halloween party going on next week. I guarantee I can get you in if you want to come. I plan to put on a special performance!"

"Uh well.." Ferris fidgeted nervously. "I'm not really the partying kind, you know. Anyway, I don't exactly have a costume or anything."

"Well, I won't push you. But it's good to try new things sometimes, even if you don't think you'll like them," the witch said. "As for the costume..hmm. I suppose I've stolen some valuable time from you this month without much in the way of compensation, huh?"

"You said this was a volunteer thing from the beginning," Ferris said. "And I don't mind, really. Paying me could get us both in trouble."

"I wasn't thinking of payment anyway. Rather, I could provide you with a more than impressive costume," she said, pulling out a dark red beret from—well, seemingly nowhere, but Ferris was sort of getting used to her being able to do that sort of thing sometimes. "Magic and all that. Actually—..."

The magician took a second to examine the object she'd just pulled from thin air, as if really noticing it for the first time. "I've just had an idea for a very special trick. Not sure if I could pull off something like it any other time of the year. It is rather unusual, but I think it'd be fun, and give you that costume—whether you decide to go to the party or not. Would you, be willing to help me try it out?"

The way she phrased the request—and the way Thana was leaning slightly toward them like a (regular) cat anticipating something to pounce on—made it seem like this trick was something serious, maybe not one she'd ever actually do in front of a larger audience. Ferris had experienced more magic in the past couple of weeks than he'd seen in his entire life before them, and he had to admit it was intriguing, often outright amazing to see it so up close. So, some more serious magic from his witch-like professor? How could he say no?

"Well, uh—sure," he said, and nodded a few seconds later as he mentally solidified the decision.

"Okay then! Now, you shouldn't worry about anything unusual, I'll tell you how to undo things and 'take the costume off' afterward, mmkay?"

"Yeah..?"

Cassilda nodded back, then eagerly stepped forward and set the hat on his head, seeming to take a second to adjust it so it leaned slightly to the right instead of sitting dead-center. Staying close, she seemed to think to herself aloud: "Now, what first...oh!" She snapped her fingers, producing a brief burst of sparkles from the same point as the sound. "Of course. Le~et's.." Her hands carefully took Ferris's glasses and slid them down his nose a little, and then—before he could ask what she was doing with them—her index fingers pointed each toward one of his eyes, producing a blindingly bright flash. He squintingly blinked by reflex, then blinked a couple more times as his eyes readjusted and became able to see again. At first he thought she'd pushed the glasses back up and he somehow hadn't felt it, but then he became aware of them still sitting way up on his nose. Pulling them up himself, he found his vision through them was weird, and without them was normal.

"Whoa—really? You can just—?"

"I guess so!" Cassilda said, shrugging as he took them off to really get a view of the world. "I think I'll make that stick when the costume's off too, if you like it. May I—borrow those for a bit? Aand, take these," she said, exchanging (with his cooperation) the corrective glasses for a pair with plain, unbent lenses which she produced from the same place as the hat. "They're part of the costume," she explained, and he shrugged, putting them on. "Great! Now then..."

The magician wiggled her fingers a bit, as if warming them up, and then made a downward-outward sweeping motion with her hands that started on either side of his head and went down to his stomach-level. Sparks of her magic flew from the hands into him, and he felt a faint tingly sensation starting from where they contacted his skin and rapidly spreading outward. He felt something tickling his ears, forehead and neck, and soon saw dark brown locks of hair sweeping down into his vision. At the same time, the room rapidly crawled upward around him, his eye level visibly sinking downward.

"W-whooaa..!" Hair tickled his cheeks and lightly brushed against his shoulders as he felt his shirt and pants loosen around him; looking down he could see not only floor rushing upward but his body getting slimmer and all-around smaller, too. His shoulders were narrowing, his arms and legs slimming down, and his very hands were turning smaller and more delicate-looking. Then he looked up again, as the downward rush slowed to a halt, to find his professor standing some inches over him, her smiling lips right about at his eye level. "Uh..t-this is..?"

"Relax, I'm not through yet," she said, and winked—which somehow, perhaps a part of the magic, made him feel calmer and less worried about suddenly shrinking so much. Her hands reached down to his shoulders and gently massaged them, and he felt them being pushed inward still more; his whole body felt like it was relaxing as some faint sparks of her magic trailed its way down it. He could feel his stomach tightening slightly as it grew flatter and slimmer, the sides caving in a bit, and his hips and bottom seemingly doing the opposite—feeling "looser", and indeed growing a bit wider and plumper. It all felt so..curiously nice, the sensation of his body changing comforting him even more rather than increasing his worry, and in no time at all it seemed she was done.

Cassilda took a very small step back, looking him up and down—admiring her handiwork, it seemed. But before Ferris could fully snap out of the slight stupor from what he'd just been feeling she raised her right hand to point an index finger toward his lower stomach. "Aaa~nnd..there!" she said, seeming to fire off a particularly bright, fast spark from her fingertip; it hit him not with a tangible impact but with a warmth at the point of contact which spread outward, particularly downward. He felt a weird, tingly sensation down between his legs as that pleasant, comforting warmth reached down there, and then a bizarrely pleasant slipping, pulling feeling. "A—aah...w-whaaaah..?" he mumbled, equal parts confused and...pleased..?

"Oh, right!" Cassilda, seeming to remember something, reached forward and very gently poked a spot on the front of Ferris's neck—his adam's apple, actually.

As it retreated away, he let out another "Aa~aah.." in response to the weird sensation downstairs and was treated to the sound of his own voice changing. "Aah—a~aa~aah..!" He could feel—it—getting smaller and smaller now, its mass steadily tugging itself into his body. It was an utterly bizarre feeling; a part of him understood that he was about to stop being male quite soon; and yet he couldn't help but want it to continue, and even to hit its logical conclusion.

"Ah—o~OOooh..!" His voice's pitch and tone changed rapidly now; already he sounded awfully androgynous, if not feminine. And then: "Oh-o~oh..! OOo~oh, oooh..!" As Ferris's manhood melted fully away, his voice shifted to a high alto or low soprano tone—unmistakably a woman's. At the same time, this became more literally true as she felt a gentle, fuzzy, tingly sensation down there accompanied with a faint upward push in her lower stomach.

The new girl was left gasping in some rapid breaths for a moment, suddenly aware of how very hot her cheeks now were, as she finally began to mentally process what Cassilda's trick was doing to her. "You—uh, t-this.." she stammered, finding the new voice very strange to hear coming from her own mouth. "Costume..a girl?" she managed after a second.

"Mm-hm!" the magician nodded, looking quite pleased with the results so far. "That's not all, though! Check this out." Her hands reached forward, fingers nimbly brushing aside Ferris's long hair to run across the shorter girl's ears for a second. No sooner did they begin to tingle than she let go, pulling back again before making a gentle tossing motion with her hand that caused a spark of magic to fly around behind Ferris and land squarely in the base of her spine. From all three locations she felt continued tingling and stretching; her ears were actually growing taller, and turning around she discovered a wide, bushy tail in the process of pushing itself out past the hem of her well-oversized shirt.

"Um..?" Ferris turned forward to look up at her professor again, who seemed equally pleased to see the short girl growing fuzzy parts.

"Ahh, yes. Almost forgot." Cassilda made a sort of sweeping motion with her hands from her own chest toward Ferris's, and some sparks slowly waved from her palms into the shorter girl's flat chest.

"Mmh..!" This brought on some sharp, yet pleasant tingling, followed by a gentle push forward centered on each of her nipples. Ferris shuddered as it began, then found herself blushing again as a fuzzy, deeply pleasant sensation hit her newfound womanhood in response to the suddenly sensitive skin brushing forward against the cloth of her shirt. "Aa~ah! Mmh, mrr~rrh..." Much to her own surprise, Ferris's initial involuntary cry of pleasure gave way to a kind of animal-like churring. Her ears, still growing but already quite mobile, lowered until they were pointed horizontally outward, and her tail swished back and forth behind her as it continued to get bigger and bushier.

"Mrrh, ah-a~ahnn.." Ferris squirmed with pleasure; the sounds she made were quiet but the feelings producing them were unbelievably intense. For a long moment, she couldn't speak or even think, only enjoy the feeling of those little bumps that had budded on her chest steadily blooming outward into a pair of generous breasts fit to compliment her slender, girlish figure. "Ah—a~ah..!" What little of her mind was active seemed focused on encouraging those bumps—and her tail, too—to continue to grow and provide her with more of that wonderful feeling down between her legs. And then there was one final push, drawing a somewhat louder "AA~AH!" from her lips as the sensations down below resolved very pleasantly, and she was left panting again, if anything even more heavily than before.

"Perfect! Now let's do the clothes." Ferris opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times, having done so just in time to see a swirling spiral of magic from Cassilda's hands going around her, causing the excessively loose clothes she had on to rapidly reshape themselves into something much more fitting. Her pants shrank shorter and shorter while her socks crawled up her smooth, shapely legs, pulling tight against them even as the pants spread out into a skirt. Her shirt became a sweater, gaining a deep v down the neck while her undershirt rearranged into a white button-down with a collar, and a bra gently fixed itself into place below that, neatly wrapping around her chest and cupping her new bosom. In no time at all, she was wearing clothes fit perfectly for her new, petite form—well, the sweater sleeves were still a bit long, perhaps.

 

Ferris adjusted the glasses even though she didn't need them to see—a nervous habit that was going to prove difficult to break, most likely. They were essentially being held up by her nose now that her ears were flopping around all over the place up there, sensitive fur running its way through her long, soft hair. "Um..this is..wow. Really something," she said.

"I agree," Cassilda said, nodding. "A good costume can fool other people, a great costume can impress them, but with the help of magic, I think an amazing costume could be something that gives one a whole new perspective on life. Soo, that one comes with foxy ears and a tail."

"Yeah—I, noticed," she said, turning around to look at the tail behind her again. She could control it easily, but it seemed to move with a mind of its own too—and yet she was already becoming quite comfortable with its presence. "Think I felt my teeth change a little at some point too," she further observed, taking a second to run her tongue along them and discovering some somewhat longer, sharper canines than before.

"So, what do you think? Pretty impressive trick, huh?"

"Hmm? Oh, y-yeah. I mean—I don't think I could call this anything less," Ferris said, sweeping a hand down to gesture at herself. "I..have to admit, I like the..'costume' too. It's weird in a lot of ways for sure, but it feels..good, too?"

"I know just you mean," the magician said. "But—right. To 'take it off', you just remove the hat a few times in quick succession." She demonstrated the maneuver with her own witchy hat, taking it off and putting it back on twice before taking it off a third time. "To 'put it on' you put both the hat and glasses on. Orr, as a failsafe in case you lose those, any hat and any glasses will do if you do that with the intent of going back and forth."

"So I can just..look like this, whenever I want to?" The witch nodded. "Well, that's impressive. Um..I guess I don't have much of an excuse to avoid the party now, huh?"

"Like I said, I won't force you or anything. But if you want to come, you're more than welcome!" Cassilda said cheerfully. "There's this candy witch coming who makes the best candy, and she'll be giving out the stuff for free. And lots of other folks have signed up to go, too."

"Hmm." Ferris didn't usually have much of a sweet tooth, but...something about her present form made her salivate a bit at the prospect of free candy. "Well—sure, it sounds like fun. I guess. I think I can make some time to go."

"Attagirl," the magician said, giving a thumbs-up. "You never know what kind of adventure's waiting for you if you're willing to try something new." The way she said it made it sound like it was coming from experience. Logically speaking, perhaps it was.

Ferris drove home back in his original form that night, both pairs of glasses sitting in a cupholder next to him. But no sooner was he back in his apartment alone than he put the 'costume' back on, rationalizing that he wanted to get used to being so short and...all the other things so he wouldn't be awkward at the party. The change was much quicker now that it had happened the first time, and he experimented going back and forth with different clothing, eventually pulling some outfits off in the female form to keep them that way because she liked them better.

Even though the new shape was a costume itself, Ferri couldn't help but get a more mundane sort of costume to go on over it. She settled on a vampire getup since she already sort of had fangs, and...because it was cute on her. That Halloween was her first time wearing the "fox girl Ferri" costume in public, and she had a lot of fun. There were all kinds of "magic" people at the party, including an actual werewolf, and the candy—which her costume had quite an appetite for—was as amazing as advertised. Also, her professor put on a more than impressive show; even though she'd helped test some of the tricks there was quite a lot of it that surprised her.

It was also very far from the last time Ferris wore that costume. Really, it may be more accurate to say it was the beginning of a long, steady trend from his original form being the dominant one toward Ferri "taking over", and hardly ever turning back by the time the next Halloween came around. This was, as Cassilda might have put it, quite a successful adventure indeed.