Imagine a world where there are transformation booths in malls in place of the old photo kiosks. Two people step in, and each selects a change for the other. Welcome to that world... the world of the Trust Machines – known colloquially as Venn Machines due to their interlocked-rings logo.

Note: The Trust Machines setting was inspired in part by Elrod W’s MAU stories.

This story was one of the earliest Trust Machines stories to include a notable TG element - the first few were mostly inanimate TFs, with one silly twinning story as well. It was originally published on DeviantArt in 2012.

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"Hi Rod."

Rod looked up blearily. A curvy blonde came into focus. His first thought was, damn, Jim is a lucky guy.

"Hey Shelly."

"Don't you 'Hey Shelly' me. Where is Jim?" Her voice was as cold and sharp as an ice pick. That was about how it felt to Rod's hung-over head, too.

"I, uh... We kind of lost him."

Shelly's hands closed around Rod's neck. "You LOST my GROOM? How can you just... LOSE your best friend?"

Rod gurgled something that sounded a bit like "I don't know."

Shelly started to shake him. She wasn't especially strong, but Rod was far from his top form. "I'm getting married in six days. Six days!"

Rod's reply was to puke all over her shoes.

A shower and a cup of coffee later, and still the worse for wear, Rod recounted the story as best he could remember it. He'd been working on ideas for a stag party for some time, but the budget was a bit tight to get good strippers. That was when Grant mentioned that he worked security for the same company that did the local mall, where the Venn Machine was.

"So Grant came up with this bright idea. Why hire strippers, when we can be them? It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"How could that possibly have seemed like a good idea?" asked Shelly, sharply.

Rod clutched the icepack a bit more tightly to his head. "Not so loud. Uh, probably because we were all drunk when Grant suggested it. The next day, a few of the guys started having second thoughts, but nobody was willing to back down when Grant started calling them too chicken to do it."

"OK, now that I believe."

"So we all got there just as the mall closed, and Grant bribed his buddy to let us stay after hours. We were supposed to clean up after ourselves... Crap. We owe him on that too."

"Never mind that. What happened?"

"We started out with the drinking, of course. To make it seem like a good idea again. Then we drew names from a hat, and whoever we drew had to be the next stripper. I think we put Jim's name in three or four times."

"Wait, Jim turned into a stripper? Is that why you can't find him... her... ow, now my head hurts."

Rod frowned in concentration, then winced. "I don't... I'm pretty sure he got changed back. The first time, anyway. Oh, that's right. He was the first one up, I cheated to make sure of that. To be honest, he didn't make a very good stripper. That might have been my fault, I was impatient and picked the first halfway cute girl the Venn Machine offered."

Shelly grumbled. "Not the only one getting impatient here. I... guess I'm glad Jim made a bad stripper, though."

Rod laughed, then quickly thought better of it. "I... sorry. Jim was a bad stripper. But he made really good ones. He changed the others, he's got a hell of a knack for it."

Shelly ran a finger down her curves, grinning at a memory. "Oh, don't I know it."

"Right, I remember. Anyway, things got a bit crazier still when Grant pointed out that strippers in shirts and jeans didn't really... y'know, work. Our clothes changed to fit, but... they were still just plain. So when Jim turned him into Gren..."

"Gren?"

"Grant seemed to like it, gave herself a new name and everything. Anyway, Grant comes out one side as this sex-bomb calling herself Gren, and in the other... no Jim. Just a sparkly red bra."

"So Jim's a bra?"

"Uh... well, not that bra. Things get a bit fuzzy around then. We all took a few more shots before we started drawing more names. First would be the dancer, second her bra, third the panties."

"Ah. Drinking yourself blind almost seems reasonable, in comparison," Shelly snarked.

"Hey, everyone was having fun. Well, except Jim. When Busty Betty tried to go down on him, he balked."

"Who's Busty Betty?"

"I... uh... don't remember. One of the guys really got keen on the stripper thing, and... yeah. Said she wanted to stay that way, and make Jim her first time. He said no. I don't remember much after that. Except getting rolled into the Venn Machine. Turns out if you're too drunk, it won't work."

"And?"

"That's it. I woke up the next morning with the sun in my eyes, and stumbled home. Nobody else was there. I'd just gotten home when you started strangling me."

"So where is Jim?" It was asked quietly, but all the more menacing for it.

"I don't know!"

"Find him!" Shelly stormed out the door, slamming it behind her.

Rod whimpered as the echoes died down. He wallowed in self-pity until he started to think about what Shelly might do if he didn't find Jim. He shuddered.

Rod's first stop, after chugging a few aspirin and a large bottle of water, was back at the mall. He found Grant's mall-guard friend scrubbing the floor, and queasily pitched in. He asked if any bits of female clothing had been found during the cleanup, but the answer was no. All that had been left behind was a couple of pools of vomit.

One mess dealt with, Rod pondered his options. It was getting toward noon on a Sunday, most of the guys should be waking up before too long. Hopefully some of the others had answers.

Rod called every guy from the party list. Most of their cellphones didn't even ring, which worried him. Nobody answered.

Rather than report such massive failure to Shelly, Rod went home. He knew the names of most of the guys' girlfriends, hopefully they knew where a few of the missing party members had gone.

After the fourth call where Rod got yelled at, he started to lose hope. Thankfully he got a better response from Tina, Grant's girlfriend.

"Oh yeah, Gren's here. Thanks for planning the party! I had no idea she had it in her."

"Um, can I talk to Grant?"

Tina giggled. "There's no Grant here. But Gren might be able to answer a few questions. Why don't you come over about four? That should give us enough time."

"Wait, but..." Rod sighed. It was his only lead, so he figured he'd best follow up on it.

Rod paced outside Tina's apartment door for ten minutes before pounding on it exactly at four. It took three tries before someone answered.

"Rod!" called Tina as she flung the door wide. "Thank you so much." She swept him into a hug and spun him into the room. Standing there shyly was a curvy brunette woman that looked passingly familiar.

Rod stared at this other girl, gears grinding slowly. "Grant? Is that you?"

"Gren. And yes."

"You're freaking gorgeous."

Tina hugged Rod a bit harder. "I know! And I have you to thank for it."

Rod squeaked, "Actually, it was Jim that did it."

Tina let Rod go. "Jim? As in Shelly's Jim?"

"Yeah. Guy has a knack for design. I don't know how he does it. He's also why I'm here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." Rod launched into an abbreviated version of the story he'd told Shelly about the Stag party gone slightly awry. "... and you're the only one who answered the phone without yelling at me."

Tina hugged Gren, and kissed her on the lips. "I have good reason not to. But I don't know how we can help."

Rod looked uncertainly at his friend. "Gran... I mean Gren. Do you remember anything more about what happened? I kind of overdid the booze. I think Jim got transformed, but I don't even know what he is now."

"Oooh, good point. I kind of lost track of things, too. I don't remember what happened to Jim. Something... you're right, he got changed. And we... and we... Damn. We did something, but I don't remember what."

"Oh great. I am so dead."

Gren frowned cutely. "And... ooh, I just remembered." She stripped off her top and took off her bra, giving Rod quite the show. She tossed her bra in Rod's face, then covered up again. "I'm pretty sure that was one of the guys, but I don't remember who."

Tina stared at Gren. "You were... wearing someone, while we were fucking? Oh, that is so hot!"

Rod was still staring at Gren's chest. "Wait, what?"

"Change him back. Maybe you'll get another lead?"

Rod took a few moments to process that. Gren's boobs had been magnificent. "Uh, right. That sounds like... right."

He hesitated in the doorway. "Want to come along? We could change you back, too."

Gren shook her head. "Nah. I think I'm going to stay this way a while."

"Really? What about work?"

"You don't pay attention to the union newsletters, do you? They got the company to handle this kind of thing under the transgender clause. Heck, the company approves of it, as it helps fill out their quotas of females and minorities."

"That's... too many kinds of wrong for me to deal with right now. Catch you later."

As Rod let the door close behind him, he heard Tina say, "Maybe we should go to the mall. I could be Tony for a while."

Rod shook his head, and drove back to the mall. He wasn't quite sure what to do with the bra, so he dumped it into one side of the Venn Machine, then stepped into the other. "Oh, Hi Ben."

They aborted the changes, and Ben stumbled out into the light of the mall. "Uh, are you OK?"

Ben shook his head, and ran to the washroom.

Over coffee from the food court, Ben recounted what he could remember. "I was pretty pissed by the end, too. Busty Betty went on a rampage, and everyone who didn't protest enough ended up as her wardrobe. I'm just glad it was Gren that got me, or I'd be stuck for a year."

Rod laughed. "So you were... lucky to be her bra?"

"Heck yeah. She has amazing tits. I kinda wish I could go back for a little longer."

Rod pointed behind Ben. "Now's your chance."

Ben looked around, and grinned. "Damn, she's hot. Aw, they're heading for the Venn Machine, I guess she's going to change back."

"Nope. Tina wants to be Tony and Gren for a while."

"Damn. 'Scuse me, I have a question to go ask."

Rod watched as Ben approached the Venn Machine. He wasn't too surprised to see a guy and a girl emerge, and the girl was Gren. From the way Gren hugged Ben, it looked like her answer was yes.

Rod wandered up while the two were inside the Venn Machine. "So. Tony, was it?"

"Uh, I guess. For a bit. How do you guys walk with this thing between your legs?"

Rod snickered. "Gren went over the top, did she?"

"Girl knows what she likes."

Gren grinned at Tony. "I do, at that. C'mon, lets grab my new bra and go shopping."

Rod sighed, and wandered off. Was he going to be able to find anyone that could help? His only remaining lead was this so-called Busty Betty.

He spent the next few nights cruising the clubs and asking after her. It wasn't until Wednesday evening that he found what corner she was working. The other girls working that corner rolled their eyes when he asked after Betty, and told him to wait a few minutes. Sure enough, she got dropped off at the corner in a nice looking car, and waved cheerily to whoever was inside.

"Hey Bet!" called the dark-haired hooker. "Someone wants to see you!"

Betty bounced over, in more ways than one. "Hey, Rod! I hope you're not angling for an old-friends discount... Girl's gotta have her standards."

Rod sighed, and reached for his wallet. "Look, I just want to talk."

"Time is money, you know how it is."

Betty was willing to part with her 'starter outfit' - she'd bought quite a bit of clothing with her earnings. It still set Rod back more cash than he'd cared for. And there was the matter of the missing bra - her second client had run off with it.

Rod raced back to the mall with what he did have. The guys were quite grateful to be restored, and none of them wanted to talk about the ordeal. Worse, Jim wasn't among them.

For a time, Rod considered using the Venn Machine to get turned into clothing, himself. But three years wouldn't be long enough for Shelly to cool down. So he went to her place, to admit defeat.

Shelly greeted him cheerfully at the door. "Come on in, Rod!"

Rod entered warily. "Look, Shelly, I'm really sorry about all this."

"Oh, don't fret. Everything worked out."

Rod twitched. She was being too nice. That never ended well. "What do you mean?"

Shelly tossed him an express delivery envelope. It was filled out in Rod's own handwriting, addressed to Shelly. Contents were listed as 'Jim.'

"Oh. I wonder who's stuck as the missing bra, then."

Shelly waved off the concern. "Someone was very naughty. And very creative. He arrived this afternoon, and we've had... quite a bit of fun together."

Rod's eyes widened as he put the fragments of memory together. "God... Busty Betty was so pissed at Jim for turning her down. She changed Jim into... that, and I got him out of there before she could use him."

"You've covered for him at work, right?"

Rod nodded. "Of course. Some of the others, too. I've had to actually work hard for once, to make up the difference."

"How long will he be a sex-toy?"

Rod gulped. "I don't remember. Probably a year." At Shelly's look of panic and anger he held up his hands defensively. "Just take him to a Venn Machine, it'll change him back whenever you want."

"Oh! Well, that's OK then. Can you keep covering for him until the weekend? The whole abstinence for the month before the wedding thing was really getting hard on me, so... well, I think I'll keep him this way a little longer."

"Sure. The others are back, they'll help too."

"Cool. See you Saturday!" Shelly turned, and went into the bedroom. Rod let himself out, shaking his head. Jim was a lucky guy.

Rod had a lot of fun preparing the Best Man's toast. Shortly after Jim and Shelly had gotten together, Jim had gotten Shelly to pose just like she had in one of her pictures from before, and had gotten Rod to create a morph between the two images. Rod had kept a copy, of course...

"So there Jim and I were, spending yet another night at a bar getting shot down by all the cute girls. We went to a diner to wind down and commiserate. Jim struck up a conversation with this mousy girl sitting beside us at the counter." He gestured to the AV guy, and the 'before' picture of Shelly went up, a shot of her in one-piece bathing suit that didn't have a lot to hide. There were some murmurs of recognition from the audience - Shelly's old friends and family.

"They had a lot in common - including getting shot down by the sort of person they were looking for. She was bummed out over getting dumped for someone 'blonder and curvier'. So Jim offered to use a Venn Machine to make her even blonder and curvier than her rival, if she'd go on a date with him. She agreed, on the condition that it had to be a date in front of the jerk who dumped her. So Jim turned her into..." He gestured to the AV guy again. "The wet dream that we all know and love." The image changed slowly from the mousy brunette to a spectacularly curvy blonde in the same bathing suit and pose - only now, it barely contained her.

That got a good laugh from the audience. Most of the audience, anyway. There was some seething coming from the head table. "The date went so well, they forgot all about the jerk. That was a year ago, and today... well, here we are. To Jim and Shelly."

Afterward, Jim and Shelly changed into their departure clothes and went around the room saying their thanks and goodbyes. They were off on their honeymoon in the morning, and had a luxury suite lined up for them somewhere even Rod hadn't been able to find. And he'd tried.

Just before they left, Shelly grabbed Rod in an iron grip, and dragged him along with them. "You have an appointment with a Venn Machine, mister."

Rod went along meekly. He didn't even object when Shelly set the time for a month. When she held him up as a sexy leopard print teddy, she grinned. "Oooh, you turned out nicely. I was only going to use you like this for one night, but then you went and dug up that morph. For that... you're going in our luggage for the whole honeymoon. Well... I bet you won't spend too much time in the suitcase. Rowr."

Shelly wore that teddy pretty much the entire week, except when she was making love to her new husband... and sometimes even then.

Afterward, Rod went into the lingerie drawer instead of into a Venn Machine. Shelly loved having her 'power teddy' to wear, and wasn't quite willing to give him up yet. She wore Rod pretty much every other day, hand-washing him and letting him dry on the off days.

About a month later, on a quiet Sunday morning, Rod appeared standing beside Shelly's dresser. He looked around the dim bedroom, and then realized he could hear Shelly moaning Jim's name. Rod tried to sneak out quietly, but tripped over a half-unpacked carry-on case.

Shelly sat up in bed. "What? Oh, it's just you. Hi, Rod. Has it been a month, already?"

"Crap, really? Do I still have a job?"

Shelly nodded. "Jim took care of it. Something about a new clause in the disability section? You should be good to go."

"Where is Jim, anyway?"

Shelly squirmed, and grinned. "Oh, he's here. Your stunt with the Venn Machine opened up a whole new world to us. Thanks again."

Rod blushed, and hurriedly left.

At work the next day, he found out that since 'involuntary transformation' was covered under disability, there'd been some paperwork involved to prove he was 'disabled'. It had included photos.

Everyone at work called him 'Spotty' after that. The worst, or maybe best part was... every time he got called that, Rod remembered what it had felt like to be worn on that gorgeous body. He wondered if Shelly would take him back.

A few months later, after he'd built up a month of vacation time, Rod found out the answer was yes.