A man goes shopping for his girlfriend and finds that the store policy on damaged goods is not quite as it appears~

My half of an art trade with Nikojolt on Discord!

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There’s a screeching sound from an alarm clock as Niko jolts awake and he checks the date on his phone. He jumps out of bed, realizing that today is his girlfriend’s birthday and he forgot to get her a present. If he misses this one, he’ll really be in trouble, so he races out the door, throwing on whatever clothes look the least dirty and heads for the store to find something. On his way, he spots a small shop that looks like it sells a lot of kitschy stuff like what his girlfriend would like, so he stops by. On his way in, he notices a hand-painted sign that says, “You break it, you replace it!”. “Whatever”, he thinks, “I’ve got enough money in case I do break something anyways.”

Niko starts browsing the store, perusing every aisle slowly. At some point he realizes that he’s gone down every aisle at least twice and is starting to get nervous because he can’t decide on what to get. There’s a few things that he’s seen that he would like to get but he can’t decide between them. He stops after the third round and goes straight for where he had seen a cute little fox plush before and examines it. He hadn’t really touched anything before because he hadn’t wanted to accidentally break anything. Sure, he had the money, but he didn’t want to replace something that he didn’t have to. He goes to pull the fox off the shelf, and it snags on a shelf rail. Against his better judgement, he keeps pulling harder and harder. It gives no resistance for the longest time until finally it comes loose, along with some thread. He’s already got it in his hands and examining it closely when he notices a hole in the plush. He goes to check it out and accidentally pushes some thread loose and makes the hole larger. Before he can put the plush back the store owner is behind him.

“Excuse me, sir, but it appears that fox you have is a little damaged…”

“Oh, yes, I had just picked it up off the shelf and it was like that, I swear!”

“Mhm…I’ve got cameras in here, you know.”

“I-okay…I accidentally tore it when I grabbed it off the shelf.”

“Mhm, that’s what I thought. Although it was an accident, it’s still your fault. And you lied about it to begin with so unfortunately, you’re gonna have to replace it, son.”

“But…okay, how much?”

“It’s not a matter of money, son. Follow me.” The owner grabs Niko’s arm firmly and pulls him towards the back. Niko instinctively resists at first but gives in after a few seconds realizing that he’s got no reason to fight, and it would only make things worse. He does wonder what the owner meant by it not being a matter of money, but he doesn’t get much time to think about that as the owner quickly brings him into the storeroom. The owner sits Niko down in a chair and starts rummaging through a cabinet.

“Okay, what’s going on? What did you mean by it not being a matter of money? Am I gonna have to work it off?”

“You could say that~”

“What? Just…please tell me what’s going on!”

“I think it’d be best to show you.”

“Uh…sure okay.” Niko sounds a bit annoyed at this point, and he starts fidgeting in his seat, eager to hurry up so he can go and not miss his girlfriend’s birthday again. After a while, the owner finally pulls out a mason jar that, as he turns around to reveal it to Niko, appears to be filled with a multicolor dust. It looks very similar to the colored sand that one might get to fill shaped containers with to make funky designs, but if a bunch of colors were mixed together into a large jar. He holds the jar up and examines it under the ceiling light, turning the jar around and staring at its contents. Opening the jar, he then grabs a handful of it and approaches Niko. “What’re you doing with that? And what is it anyways?”

The owner responds by simply opening his hand, getting close to Niko’s face, and blowing the dust at him. Niko coughs and waves his hands but it’s far too late as he’s already breathed in a good amount of the dust. As Niko waves his hand around, he quickly notices something is wrong. His fingers appear to be sticking together as well as being covered with soft, black material. He also notices that his hand feels lighter. Niko stops waving and stares at his hand, and he sees his fingers being drawn and then merging together. His wrist and hand plump up, losing definition. Before long, he’s got a little black stump where his hand used to be. “No way…what the hell?” Niko reaches over with his other hand and feels it, it feels a lot like fabric. He squishes his stub and confirms it is fabric – stuffed fabric! He squeezes as hard as he can but feels no pain, he only feels a light pressure and an almost pleasurable sensation!

Niko’s eyes go wide as he watches this black fabric spread up his wrists and turn orange. It reaches his shoulder, and he finds it much harder to move his arm, though with some effort he can.

“You see, son, when I say that you replace it…I mean you replace it. You don’t pay for a new one…or work for a new one…you are the replacement.”

“But-but can’t I pay?!? I have money!”

“Sorry, son, my merchandise is one-of-a-kind. It can’t be replaced with money.”

As the fabric crawls past Niko’s shoulder, his arm begins shrinking and thinning out, taking on a lither shape. It turns white as it nears his chest and starts spreading down his other arm, quickly turning that one into plush just like the first arm. His torso starts to shrink as his shirt loosens, looking more and more like a kid trying on his father’s clothes. In addition to shrinking, it also thins out like his arms do, while widening out some near the hips. His chest plumps up and out some, giving him a more hourglass shape. Soon, it becomes clear that he is now she. Niko panics, realizing that he’s now female. It’s bad enough that he has to be a plush, but he has to be a female one at that! The orange-and-white fabric reaches her legs and neck as she feels emptiness inside her. Her bones and organs quickly melt away into polyfill stuffing. Niko calls out in horror only for her screams to be muffled and soon she finds it impossible to speak any longer as her voicebox disappears among the stuffing and her tongue turns to hollow pink cloth. As her face is covered, her face and nose stretch forward to form a pointy, vulpine muzzle with a hard, acrylic canine nose. her ears stretch out and slide to the top of her head becoming fluffy, fuzzy cloth triangles. Black on the outside with fluffy white on the inside. Her eyes glaze over and become hard acrylic eyes with brilliant amber irises.

A fluffy orange-and-white tail pops out from her pants, her shrinking body getting no resistance as it sits in the pool of her clothing. The last bits to go are her legs, shrinking away and toes merging together. Soon, they’re just like her arms, covered in fabric and stuffed with polyfill. Niko struggles to move more and more until finally she realizes that no matter how hard she tries, she cannot move. She can’t move. She can’t scream. All she can do is see, hear, and feel. At least there’s that, at least she can see around her. The owner plucks Niko up out of her clothing which has pooled on the chair she was sitting in and looks her in the eye.

“You’ll make a fine replacement!” Of course, Niko says nothing because she can’t. She wants to. Oh, she absolutely wants to. Many things are flying through her head right now, none of them nice. Unfortunately, she has to suck it up as she’s now just another piece of merchandise on the shelf. The owner gingerly carries her back into the main store and places her on the shelf right where the original fox was. All Niko can do is watch and think. Think about what to do now. What can she do? She can’t move or talk! She starts to wonder how much of the merchandise here used to be human. After all, the owner did say his stock was “one-of-a-kind”, did he turn everyone into merchandise? Even the clothes? She’d shake his head clear of those thoughts if she could, but because of her situation the thoughts can’t escape her. They float and race around in her head eternally like planes racing over a field.

Back at home, Niko’s girlfriend wakes up and starts looking around for her. Of course, she’s not there so her girlfriend gets upset. “Damnit, that bastard better not have run off on my birthday!” She sits and waits, hoping that Niko comes back soon. She sits around channel surfing to pass the time. It feels like only a few minutes before three hours go by and Niko still isn’t home. “That bastard ditched me on my birthday! Fine, I’ll just go out on my own. I don’t need him!” She packs up a few things and gets ready for a weekend trip to a friend’s house and heads out.

“Can you believe it? On my birthday!”

“You gotta dump him! This is, like, the third time he’s forgotten or blown it off!”

“Yeah, but damnit he’s so cute!”

“Forget all that, Jessica, you gotta think about what’s good for you!”

“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks. I’ll see you in a bit, I wanna check out this little shop here.”

Jessica hangs up and parks at the same store Niko showed up to not long ago. She doesn’t even notice Niko’s car as she quickly walks in and starts browsing. The owner, who is manning the cash register, smiles at Jessica as she walks in.

“Can I help you find anything, dear?”

“Oh, well…I do like foxes! Do you have anything fox themed?”

“Oh, of course! We actually got in this adorable fox plush just today, and I think it would be perfect for you! Follow me!”

Jessica smiles and follows the owner. Soon, she’s brought to the same aisle and shelf that Niko walked down a few hours prior. The owner picks up Niko and hands it to Jessica.

“Be careful, now, you have to replace it if you damage it!”

“Oh, of course! I’m very careful!”

Jessica carefully turns it over in her hands, examining every stitch and cloth as if she were appraising it. After much careful examination she beams at the owner. “I’ll take it!”

“Excellent! I can ring you up right over here!”

The owner guides Jessica back to the front where the register is and starts typing away at the register. Jessica takes out her wallet and hands over a $10 bill to pay for Niko and heads out happier than ever. It’s almost like she’s forgotten all about the fact that Niko ‘forgot’ her birthday or ‘ditched’ her, and maybe she’s even forgotten about Niko entirely. That much is unclear as she drives away to spend the rest of the weekend with her friend, cuddling Niko as she sleeps, unaware that her boyfriend (or would girlfriend be a more appropriate term now?) is right there with her, the perfect gift.

The weekend ends and she comes back home. She seems to not be the slightest bit concerned that Niko is still not home. She goes into her home office and starts checking her emails and browsing her Facebook. She logs off for the day and heads into the living room, going back to channel surfing and wondering if she’ll ever find a man.