Apologies for the very late posting of these. I got caught in a loop of 'It's too late, there's no point in posting them now' after New Years hit, and it just got harder from there. Got some motivation from my friends who said I should share them anyways, so thank them for all of these.

I'll be posting 1 a day, and try to keep them in order for OCD's sake.

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4) Paint

‘Be painted as an Animal for free!’ is what the sign had promised as you lined up to enter their booth. It didn't take long for you to reach the front of the queue, only a few people in front of you, as the painter reappeared through the doorway “Welcome. Come right this way please.” They would say as they escorted you inside

The painter would gesture for you to take a seat, as they took a closer look over your form as they paced around you, before taking a step back "Ah, I have the perfect idea. This will be a great painting, for sure" he would say with a grin, nodding to himself "Let me just go fetch my tools".

Alone for the moment, you looked around the interior of the booth. The floor and furniture was littered with dried splotches and streaks of paint, save for the chair you were currently seated on, and the walls were covered in paintings of what you could only assume to be previous satisfied customers. They were amazing. You could practically tell what their real self looked like despite the animal depictions.

Apon his return, you noticed he hadn't brought a canvas back with him, confusing you. What was he going to paint on without a canvas? Maybe there was already one and you failed to spot it? You turned your head to take a secondary look around the interior of the room, only to hear some tutting from the painter. "No no. I need you to keep still for this. Otherwise the painting won't turn out right. Okay?" He'd say calmly, tilting your head back forwards.

“Huh? Why are you doing that?” You questioned as he dabbed a few other splotches of paint on your cheek and arm. “Ah, just trying to find a good palette that suits you. Don’t worry, I’ll start painting you in a moment” He assured as he traced his brush down, leaving a few streaks of color behind, before taking a step back, seeming to size you up.

“Ah… hmm… yes, that can work. Very well, let’s begin” He would say, dabbing his brush against the wooden palette

It only took a couple seconds for him to finish, but each stroke seemed to move in slow motion, working his way across your arm, applying layer after layer, a intricate and highly realistic scale pattern starting to form. The paint seeped into your skin, seeming to rapidly harden on contact with your skin, forming a thin barrier over its surface. You were in awe at how quickly he was able to paint while still maintaining such lifelike detail, briefly forgetting your question and protest as to why he was doing this. He even painted your nails, using dark colors on the edges to make them appear like pointed claws attached to your new scaly digits. It all looked so real, you couldn't help but reach over and feel the back of your hand as he took a break to refill his easel. Strangely, not only had he managed to replicate the appearance, but also the depth and texture of scales. How was that even possible? Unless… they were actually real?

You pinched one, and tugged. It hurt, and refused to budge. Even scratching at the area didn't seem to dislodge any paint. Somehow, your arm was now covered in actual scales

As you felt the scales, finally came to realise what was going on. He was quite literally ‘painting you’. There was no canvas, because YOU were the canvas!

The feeling of the brush against your other arm snapped you back into reality, the feeling of paint seeping into skin, hardening into scales, fingers fusing into four, nails darkening and lengthening into curved talons.

The paint covered your clothes, forming more scales over the top of them, as though you weren't wearing any clothing to begin with, the paint overwriting even them as it became your new ‘skin’.

The brush continued to trace its way down your spine, a wave of scales following behind it, soon reaching your lower back, but shockingly, the brush continued to paint, your own torso lengthening out behind you to follow the new strokes and lines, becoming long and serpentine.

Paint washed over your legs next, the strokes of the brush covering every inch of your ankles and thighs, turning them into scaly hindlegs, lithe yet powerful. As the brush applied paint to your shoes, they seemed to melt, seeping onto your toes, all three of them, tipped with long curved talons, a fourth forming from your heel.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any stranger, you witnessed with your new serpentine body the artist to start… painting on the air? Lines and streaks of color held up by simply nothing as a shape began to take form. You recognized the scales, and what you could only assume to be the mane that your hair had become.

The artist drew out further lines, connecting them to your butt, as suddenly, new sensations seemed to spawn out of nowhere, as before your eyes you watched the paint shimmer and shine as it all became a real flesh and blood tail attached to you, swaying back and forth as a entirely new limb, a dab of color becoming a furred tip attached to the end.

“Done. Thank you for your patronage. I hope you enjoy your new form. However, I need to attend to my next customer, so I'm afraid you will have to leave now” The Artist would say as he put down his brush

Before you could muster a proper response, you found yourself suddenly outside, booth nowhere in sight. Around you were other equally confused creatures. A tiger. A cockatoo. A Red Panda? Seemed like these were the people who had been before you in the line. A question lingered in your mind, just what were you going to tell your friends, and more importantly, your boss?