Changing Island: Entry 10

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At this point, individual entries are getting long enough that each qualifies as a full-size story part on its own. Expect to see me post more of these soon, hopefully this week.

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Entry 10

Last night's entry was the last one I wrote as a man. I suspect my last entry for today is going to be my own. But, as I've said before, I want to wait until it's completely over before writing that. For now, I want to talk about the girl I interviewed this morning.

I was very surprised to see Ara's cat ears and tail, but now that I've been here a few days and started to meet a lot of the girls here, I've found that she's far from the only one to get odd traits like that in the process of turning into a cute girl. People like that are definitely a minority here, but it happens often enough that those who've been here for a while aren't particularly shocked to see it happen again. It's rare enough to be notable, certainly, but not unheard of. Now, halfway into the first year—that is, half a year after Najira's arrival—nothing like that had happened yet. That's where Kate comes in. Only, at the time, she was a guy named Kale.

Did you know that people get stranded on Hawaii? They go there for a vacation, or thinking that they can live on that island paradise for one reason or another, and then they end up jobless and homeless and can't afford plane tickets back to the mainland. It's such a problem that some charities on the island offer to pay for people's plane tickets back to the if they have friends or family on the other end to receive them, as long as they promise not to come back. Kale was someone like that.

Kate wouldn't tell me much about how she wound up on Hawaii—I think it's still a painful subject, so I didn't press—just that he didn't actually have anyone to "fly back to" and got desperate, eventually deciding to stow away on a shipping boat headed across to the mainland. No one caught him, but a few hours out at sea there was a huge storm, making the sky dark and the seas particularly rough. In his efforts to keep from getting crushed by a poorly-secured shipping container, he wound up slipping overboard all on his own, and there was no way to call for help. He gave up on swimming beore long, not having much strength to begin with because of how little he'd been eating up until then, and sank below the waves.

The first thing Kale thought when he woke up on the beach here was that he'd miraculously washed up back on Hawaii, despite how far out at sea he must've been when he fell overboard. He pushed himself to his feet and staggered inland, hoping to find someone kind enough to get him medical attention—but eventually realized that, apart from some stiffness and hunger, he actually felt a lot less terrible than he had when he'd gotten on that ship. He was walking normally by the time he found the houses, and from there some girls noticed him and welcomed him to the Changing Island.

"People actually welcoming me and treating me like a person again? It seemed way too good to be true," Kate told me. "But I was starving. So I asked if I could have something to eat, anything." Najira took him to her place and microwaved some leftovers from lunch—it was about mid-afternoon—and explained our situation here while he scarfed it greedily down. His responses all took the form of affirmative grunts and "uh-huh" and "sure" while she explained; he didn't believe a word of it. "Gotta be some kinda weird cult," she said she'd been thinking at the time. "But, hey, she fed me, soooo..."

Kale was suspicious of everyone. He didn't believe that he'd get to live in an actual house with free food provided; he didn't believe the attractive girls all around him had once been men who then had their own accidents at sea and wound up on this island too. He put up a neutral front as best he could, but some sour responses revealing his actual emotions bled through here and there, quickly earning him a reputation as a "grump" that's stuck to this very day. Still, Kale was determined to take advantage of his strange situation while he could, and he used the ingredients in his house to make himself a nice, big feast for supper that night. Kate told me that he learned a lot of recipes and techniques for cooking in general from his mother when he was a teenager; she'd insisted that it would help him "survive in college or whatever." The two girls already living there found him making it and asked if they could have some, and he shrugged—which they took as permission. In his greed, he really had made more than he alone could eat, so it turned out to not be a problem when they showed up and started helping themselves, thanking him for the delicious food.

By this point, Kale hadn't undergone any noticeable transformation. But as the two pretty girls living in the house with him thanked him once again and offered to take care of the dishes, he shrugged again. Then, still sitting there at the table with a full stomach and an empty plate in front of him, Kale felt a weird sort of push from both of his ears at once—"like the ears themselves were pushing, y'know", she said. In a matter of seconds, his ears had grown from human ears into two gigantic triangular things covered in fluffy fur—mostly black like his hair, with some white tufts on the inside. And then a similar feeling came to his lower back, and a long, equally fluffy black-furred tail burst its way out from the base of his spine just as quickly as the ears had grown.

The girls stopped in their tracks and silently stared for a long moment. Kale reached his hands up at the big, twitchy ears and turned around in his seat, trying to make sense of what he was feeling and seeing. It was a shock, to be sure. It didn't help that their first instinct (after quietly staring) was to run out and get everyone else's attention on the weird thing that had happened to the new arrival. Before he knew it, he was an unwilling celebrity, every girl on the island barging into "his" house to come have a look at the freak (Kate's choice of word here). That was until Najira seemed to notice how much the attention was annoying him, and commandingly yelled at everyone to give him some space before eventually kicking everyone who didn't live in that house out. She apologized to him, saying nothing like that had happened before and everyone was just very curious about it.

At this point Kale thought he had to be the subject of some bizarre science experiment, or maybe a Truman Show kind of thing. The pretty girls, the house, the food—all was just to lure him in so they could give him weird furry parts and see how he reacted. But he resolved then and there that he'd at least take advantage of the food and shelter until he was fully well, and then the instant he thought things were going south, he'd find a way out. Build a boat in secret and sail off the island in it himself, if he had to.

The girls living with him apologized profusely for the incident after Najira left, and repeated their offer to "at least" do the dishes. Kale just shrugged, said "It's whatever," and went upstairs to his room to sleep. Kate noted to me at this point in her account that he actually paused to look at his ears and tail himself in the mirror, and thought, "These really aren't too bad, for being the result of mad science or whatever. They don't hurt or anything. They'd even be pretty cute on...a girl." He'd actually forgotten at this point that Najira had told him he'd be turning into a girl pretty soon.

Kale hadn't changed any more by the time he woke up the following morning. He took a shower, deciding to shampoo the new fur, and went down to get himself breakfast. Once again, he mistakenly made too much, and once again his housemates were happy to share the "burden" of eating it in exchange for their doing the dishes.

It was while he was eating that Kale found another strange thing happening to him. He thought he was slouching in his seat, and tried to sit up, only to find that he already was sitting up. His perspective sank steadily downward from there, and his legs even pulled themselves upward so much that he found his feet lifting off of the floor entirely until he scooted forward in his seat—twice. He kept eating, watching the girls at the table with him for a reaction. They definitely noticed it was happening—stealing glances here and there—but seemed hesitant to comment on it.

Besides getting shorter, and his limbs getting shorter, Kale's body became decidedly smaller everywhere. His shirt tented out around him more and more as he shrank, his shoulders narrowing and his frame slimming away. Just as he was finishing up his breakfast, the shrinking finally, mercifully, came to a halt, leaving him shorter than both of his housemates—in fact, shorter than most everyone on the island, even now. It was then that he brought it up in conversation.

"Sooooo...I just shrank. Right? Like, a lot?" he said. Both of them agreed, saying something about how his change was starting for real after the strange addition of the fluffy ears and tail. He asked, "'My' change?" and one of them said something like you know, how everyone who washes up here gets turned into a girl? It was then that he remembered Najira saying something like that in his first encounter with her. He couldn't muster any response to that other than "Oh."

He gathered his baggy clothes up over him and made his way up the stairs, eventually giving up and letting his pants fall off once he got to his bedroom. Then he went to the mirror, shrugged, and tossed his shirt off too, to really get a good look at what had happened. Not only was Kale now very short, but his skin had already smoothed over too, losing its body and facial hair and turning soft and supple.

Since he'd been homeless before, suffering from some malnutrition, Kale had been gaunt when he washed ashore; now his body looked thin, with a narrow frame, and yet perfectly healthy. He remembered at this point that the effects of starvation really should've made it impossible for him to enjoy meals the way he had since washing ahore—it seemed like he'd genuinely become healthier and healthier since coming here. "Score one for mad science," was his dry remark about that.

He turned around to get his shirt and put it back on, only to find that it had shrunk to a size that matched his new short, slender self while he wasn't looking. The pants he'd discarded on the floor had done something similar, not only becoming something that fit his now-diminutive size, but also losing most of their leggings in order to convert into some jean-shorts. His clothes had also "repaired" themselves, losing all of the tattering and tearing from their stint as his only set of clothes while homeless to become just like some brand-new clothes. He half-wondered if someone had snuck in behind him, grabbed his old clothes and set down new ones in their place...but surely his humongous ears would've heard something like that.

Kale didn't feel like going to a ton of effort for lunch; he just made himself a sandwich. He expected his housemates to be disappointed or upset that he wasn't making something for everyone, but they seemed to instead happily walk in (having been off at the beach for the morning), make their own lunches, and ask politely if they could join him at the table. His response was a shrug, of course.

It was a few bites into the sandwich that Kale felt hair tickling his ears, his forehead, the back of his neck and the sides of his face. He set it down and reached up to find soft locks which were at least twice as long as they had been before, and which were still growing. It was at this point that he picked up on a pattern: Apparently, his body went through another bizarre change every time he ate. But..this time, it was seemingly just his hair getting longer. He shrugged to himself and went back to eating his sandwich.

The girls asked him if he wanted to go out to the beach, maybe meet some more people? He started to respond "Sure, I guess", but didn't get farther than "Su—" before pausing because what he heard come out of his own mouth didn't sound at all like his own voice. He cleared his throat, and the throat-clearing voice was still thoroughly unfamiliar. "Uuh. My voice?" he said aloud. Kate's voice is about as deep as a girl's voice can get, but there's no mistaking it for a guy's voice; it's a woman's through and through. That was the unfamiliar voice coming out of Kale's mouth after he finished eating his lunch. The girls didn't seem nearly as surprised as he was, remarking that it must have changed along with his hair. He sighed—deciding that at least the rules of the weird game he was stuck in were consistent—and went back to nominally agreeing to go outside and meet some more people.

"You know how everyone on this island is like..ridiculously supportive about the whole 'getting turned into a girl' thing?" Kate said. "I mean, I'm sure you've noticed by now." I said sure. "Well, it's pretty much always been that way." Everyone was talking about how cute Kale was already starting to look, how they loved his hair, and the ears and tail were bound to make him look even better. There were plenty of apologies about everyone swarming his place before, too. However, he had some suspicions of an ulterior motive behind their friendliness when he realized that his housemates had been telling everyone how good his cooking was. A few people were asking if he'd make dinner for them that night, too. He tried to clarify that he'd just been making himself food and made too much, but the requests kept coming anyway. It seemed like some of the girls were even ready to fight over who he'd make dinner for first or something. So, remembering how she'd defended him from a crowd before, he went to Najira.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to," she told him first of all. "I'm sure everyone would be happy to get to taste your cooking, but it's up to you if you ever want to do it again."
Kale thought about it and said, "Look, I don't mind making supper. But I don't wanna make someone angry 'cause I went to someone else's house instead of theirs, y'know?" From this, Najira got an idea.

The community center didn't exist at this point, but Najira's house is a little bigger than everyone else's. Her dining room is large enough that it can seat about as many people as were on the island at that time. She suggested that Kale just make supper for everyone—just this once, and never again if he didn't want to—using her kitchen, and then they could all eat together in her dining room. She offered to help with the cooking, and find some more volunteers to do the same if he wanted them. Kale thought about this offer, then shrugged and said "Sure, okay." To feed that many people, he needed three helpers, and the girls who'd been living with him and benefitting from his cooking so far were quick to take up the two empty positions. Well—he needed three 'half-competent' helpers, he clarified, and said if they started burning or cutting themselves or screwing things up, they'd have to go find someone else to take over for them.

While Kale worked with Najira and his housemates to make that night's supper, he noticed his shirt steadily shrinking. It lost its sleeves, pulled itself up off of his stomach to show his slim, flat midriff, dipped its collar down to expose his neckline. He was too busy cooking to really worry about some strangeness with his clothes; he just had to be careful not to spill anything hot on the increasing amount of exposed skin. His shorts also decided to get shorter, and the underwear he had under them pulled tighter—but not quite enough to be too uncomfortable. By the time they were serving the meal, Kale's shirt had been reduced to something like a very short crop top.

Since he'd done all the real work of cooking, Kale was invited to take a seat while some of the girls served the food. He dug in, feeling ravenously hungry after all of that work, and...well, at this point in her account, Kate said, "I was actually happy for the first time I could remember. Prolly not the first time in my life, but in a really, really long time." She isn't prone to saying things like that, and quickly brushed it off to go back to her usual way of speaking, which only makes me feel like it was all the more genuine. Kale basically didn't care anymore what kind of bizarre situation he was in, as long as things could continue to be like this—delicious food, a home of his own, people being generally nice to him.

Of course, he expected by now that another meal meant another step in his transformation. This was confirmed when he found himself wriggling back and forth in his seat, feeling an odd discomfort. It turned out this was his hips spreading themselves wider, and his shorts and underwear pulling tighter as a result—and maybe they were also shrinking. This pushed at his manhood, which in turn seemed to actually give way and shrink to help ease the discomfort. Kale slowly realized that all of this was happening as he continued to eat, but it came to a point where he couldn't focus anymore because of it, and quickly hopped down onto his feet and excused himself to go to the bathroom.

No sooner was the door shut behind him than Kale felt it happening: A gentle, almost pathetically weak tug between his legs took away the last of what was there and his time as a man on this island came to an end. Slowly walking up to the mirror in the bathroom, she found that her top had also shrunk again while she wasn't paying attention, becoming a positively tiny string bikini with only two little triangles of cloth to cover her flat chest. Well—it wasn't flat for very long; Kate told me she felt one little push almost as soon as her eyes focused on her own chest in the mirror, and in an instant two small but easily visible breasts puffed out into view, completing her change. Speaking of eyes—Kate looked up at her face at this point and noticed that the deep blue color they'd had before had brigthened into a very light, almost glowing shade instead. (This is my own description here, she just sort of nonchalantly mentioned that this is when she noticed they were different.)

She took a deep breath, then went back out to the table. Everyone could see right away that she was a girl now—the tight shorts holding flat between her legs and her clearly-visible breasts didn't lie. Someone asked, "Wow, you finished changing already?" and Kate said "Yep." This resulted in an eruption of people saying how cute and pretty she looked, which she admitted to me felt "pretty great to hear".

We don't have a picture of how she looked as a guy (Kate would probably say 'good riddance' or something like that), but Saya took her picture in that initial round of photos. Kate was busy eating a popsicle at the time, and gave her permission to have the picture taken with a shrug and an "Mmph," not even bothering to take it out of her mouth. I have to say, she really is one of the cutest girls on the island; the ears and tail bring it together in a way I wouldn't have thought furry parts would. I suppose this is true for basically everyone on the island, but I think Kate must also have a positively ridiculous metabolism; she eats snacks fairly often and downs huge portions at mealtime, but her figure hasn't changed a bit since that photo.

Kate still pretty much works as our town chef—not every day, just whenever she feels like it, which isn't too infrequent. In fact, the way I met her was this: Everyone was invited to the community center for a big breakfast this morning, and Kate was the one who'd decided to make it and organized people to help her do so. And I'm happy to say, it was delicious. While I was thanking her for the food, I explained a little about my project and asked if she had time for an interview. We conducted it right there in the cafeteria, sitting at the table across from each other. For the record, she does tie her hair back and use a hairnet (plus some custom-made "earnets") while cooking. She's even threatened to have a "tailnet" made if anyone complains of fur in their food, which nobody has.

At the end, I asked her how she felt about being a girl, and..maybe you can guess: She shrugged. "Beats the heck out of what I was before," she said. "Listen: I was a homeless guy, basically human trash to everyone else around me—and pretty much treated like it too. Here, everyone acts like I actually matter. I get food and shelter, and I have an easy 'job' cooking for everyone sometimes—you know, whenever I feel like it. I could be a snail and still be happy if that stuff happened to me. But, yeah, being a cute girl is pretty great all on its own, too."

Well, it's hard to argue with an answer like that. A part of me wonders if she's happy being female just because it's part of a package along with acceptance, food, and everything else...but it sure didn't sound like it.