![Click to change the View A Raccoon of Flesh and Stone [statue TF + story]](http://d.furaffinity.net/art/sqrrkdragon/1660767716/1660767716.sqrrkdragon_ring.jpg)
A Raccoon of Flesh and Stone [statue TF + story]
Originally uploaded on
RemyMorph.
The tf ring craze may have passed, but Remy’s not one to follow trends! However, buying an unreasonably cheap tf ring at a weird store in the central suburbs forces them on a reluctant adventure when the ring gets stuck around their waist and they can’t pull it back up again...
CW// accidental partial petrification, tf caused by ring/hoop, some mentions of pain, unwarranted bullying, a really stupid raccoon, an F bomb, kind of sort of a bad end, uhhh I think that’s it
No sexual content whatsoever, and apart from a couple profanities this story is suitable for most ages
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“So, what’s this thing gonna turn me into, then?”
The curious raccoon held the bright red ring in their paws, examining it with inquisitive eyes. It looked like an ordinary hula hoop in every way, albeit one that was wrapped in crinkly plastic.
The crow behind the counter let out a cheerful laugh. "That's the fun part! You won't know what it'll turn you into until you've used it! It's completely random!"
"No kiddin'..." Remy, the curious raccoon, replied quietly, tapping their digits against the loud wrapping encasing the ring. "And how come it's wrapped in plastic?"
The crow leaned over the counter and pointed a thin feather at Remy's paw. "Notice how your fingers are through the ring, but it hasn't transformed them yet?" He slipped his entire wing through the ring, and it came out the other end entirely unaltered. "It's a protective sleeve that blocks the magic of the ring until you're ready to use it!"
"Oh!"
"Also, no refunds once you take it off."
"Oh." Remy placed the ring on the counter and pulled out their wallet. "I'll take it! How much for it again?"
"That'll be fifty dollars."
"Fifty dollars? Don't you need to make a living? That seems way too cheap," They questioned, pulling a fifty dollar note out of their nearly-falling-apart wallet.
"Ah, my fine young masked friend," the crow grinned, "I make quite the profit from rings that invoke a specific form." He opened the cash register and waited for the *ka-ching!* sound before continuing. "Those are much more expensive, but you know what you're getting with those. With that one, though, it could be anything! Although, for safety's sake, it'll be something that can fit through the ring again easily. And no objects… I think. That would be a lawsuit waiting to happen!"
Remy's eyes strayed away from the counter and towards the rest of the store, admiring the many different objects that lined the shelves on the back walls and the glass cabinets in the middle of the store, as well as the detailed suits and costumes that hung from clothes racks or sat lifelessly in boxes. "Oh, I bet," Remy replied, still paying attention to the conversation as their eyes scanned the store. "The risk is part of the fun, though, I think."
"You strike me as someone who's been in many shape-altering situations before," the crow remarked, leaning on the counter with a single bent wing.
"Oh, yeah!" Remy grinned, taking up the ring with one paw and throwing their other arm behind their head. "Can't seem to avoid it. I only just moved here but back in my hometown I went through all sorts of crazy forms. Heck, just before I moved here, I spent a month in the body of a clone I made with a magic tome, which… eh, that wasn't all that great. Hang on, though…" They raised a single digit to their furry chin. "How did you know?"
"This crow has keen eyes, let's just say that." The crow smiled; what he had said sounded sinister, but Remy couldn't detect any sort of hostility or ulterior motive. It was a very warm and kind smile. And, in this world of people slipping hula hoops over their head to transform into things, they didn't really question it. They thanked the crow for the good deal and slipped out of the store, eager to get home.
As the raccoon scampered up the steps and slipped through the front door of their flat, they shut the door behind them and threw the ring, still wrapped, onto the couch, eagerly awaiting the moment where they could slip the ring over their head and lose their form to another. There were a few precautions to take before doing so, though. To avoid unnecessary interruptions from nosy neighbours or friends who didn't understand the widely accepted concept of knocking before entering, the front and back doors were locked. Not that they had to worry about that too much as Remy had yet to introduce themself to their neighbours, nor make any effort to find like-minded people to hang out with, but that would come in due time. Remy also ran a bath, just in case they'd found themselves in the form of an aquatic creature. Sure, they'd seen sharks and such that seemed to fare just fine out of the water, but they figured they could never be too careful.
Once they were ready, they ran back out into the living room and picked the ring up once more, excitedly but carefully ripping the plastic off, making sure none of their fingers slipped through the hole just yet. They threw the plastic over onto the couch and took another good long look at the ring, wondering what it would turn them into. Remy had found themselves in many forms before, both living and otherwise, but the prospect of becoming something else still filled them with childlike glee.
Maybe they'd become a bird? A handsome bluejay, fluttering about in the skies, looking down on everyone like the tiny specs they would be from that altitude? Or something reptilian? Being a snake might be fun, and seeing as people were unreasonably afraid of so-called danger noodles, it might be fun to play a prank or two on people. Heck, it might even be fun to just be a dog, leaning out the window with that big, slobbery tail dangling in the wind! So many possibilities…
The excitement overcame the raccoon, and without thinking much more on it, they held the ring up over their head with both hands, and steadily pulled it down over their body.
They expected their body to start changing as the ring passed over them, but instead as the ring was pulled down past their head, nothing seemed to be all that different. Maybe there was a delay? "Ugh, I knew it," Remy groaned, looking down as they held the ring around their waist, feeling a bit stupid. "It was cheap, of course it was gonna be a dud. Too good to be-"
Remy's disappointed ramblings had suddenly been cut short as, out of nowhere, their vision took on a grey hue. They could still see clearly, but everything almost looked like it was a black and white movie, albeit a high definition one. They instinctively tried to blink to adjust their vision, only to find their eyelids wouldn't budge, though thankfully their eyes weren't stinging. They would have gasped at the sudden change in view, if their mouth hadn't also seemingly frozen in place, hanging agape in shock. No sound seemed to want to escape from their maw, as much as they tried to, let alone any breaths.
In a mild panic, sensing that something was obviously up with their head, they took their right paw away from the ring so they could reach for their head and find out what was wrong, but only a moment after starting to lift it up, it too seemed to freeze in place, their hand open and unable to close into a fist again. Their next thought was to let go of the ring and reach up with their other paw, but it too wouldn't budge, firmly clasped around the ring and unable to let go. Everything above the ring, their head, their arms, their torso, refused to listen to any signals sent out from their brain, and wouldn't move so much as a millimetre.
Below the ring was fine - their legs and tail were all still fully moveable. With this in mind, Remy decided to make their way to the bathroom mirror to get a closer look and figure out what awful mess they'd just gotten themselves into. They took a step… and felt the weight of their upper body pull them forward, almost falling to the ground.
Remy managed to steady themself before they fell too far forward. Their upper body was weirdly heavy now! So much so that trying to balance it with just their legs was proving to be a bit of a challenge. They took another step forward, this time much slower and more carefully, but still felt their center of gravity try to tug them forward and face first into the ugly blue carpeted floor. It took all of Remy's concentration to keep their body upright as they waddled unceremoniously into the bathroom and peered into the mirror.
At first, it looked like nothing was wrong. Remy's face was stuck in a surprised expression, their right arm outstretched, looking as if it were trying to reach for something, while the other kept a firm hold on the ring. The grey tint that washed the world around them out wasn't really helping here, it seemed, because everything looked normal, except for what kind of looked like a scar on their cheek? And there was one next to their nose, too, and on the inside of their ear, and on their… hoodie? They were all down their arm, too, even on the sleeve of their iconic top. How do scars start appearing on clothing?
Or, maybe they weren't scars. Remy got as close as they could to the mirror to examine them, and on closer inspection they looked less like cuts to the skin and more like… cracks. The kind of cracks you'd see in cement, or stone.
This stupid ring turned me into a statue!?
Remy's unchanging expression masked their frustration and anxiety over the situation, and their mouth of stone kept their sudden need to shout and swear at bay. It was lucky that Remy had stopped halfway when pulling the ring down, otherwise there would have been a statue of a very surprised raccoon standing in the living room. That would have been disastrous. The front door was locked so people wouldn't have been able to get in, and if the police showed up, there was only a small chance they would connect the dots and realise there was a raccoon trapped in solid rock right before them, or instead just assume that a very narcissistic raccoon had gone missing.
As Remy returned to the living room, trying their best not to stumble under their newly induced weight, they were thankful that their legs were free, even if it left them in a very cumbersome state. At least they had a chance to fix this themselves.
Their first idea for freedom led them into the kitchen. They positioned the ring above one of the countertops, then bent their knees slowly, trying to lift the ring up as their body lowered. For a brief moment, it seemed like a good idea, as the right side of their body gradually returned to flesh and blood, but they could only bend down so far before the risk of toppling over made itself known, and even then, with the ring stuck firmly in their other paw, it was probably never going to work completely anyway. They sighed internally.
The next idea was to break the ring. As it was made out of plastic and was probably no more durable than a regular hula hoop, Remy figured it might be easy to snap in half, but they had no idea how the magic in the ring worked. They were afraid that, if it didn't return them to normal, they would just be stuck with an upper body made of stone and no way to reverse it. That idea was put to the side as quickly as it was formed.
They clumsily returned to the living room once more, already feeling like all of their options were exhausted. Panic was starting to set in now. Their petrified upper body was not only throwing off their balance but was also putting incredible strain on their legs due to the added weight, which must have been a couple hundred pounds. Remy's tiny legs wondered how they were supporting that added weight but that was also the least of their concerns right now. They had to do something. And after pondering the next course of action for a few minutes, they came to the conclusion that they couldn't free themself alone. They had to go for help.
As they made their way to the front door, however, they encountered the first roadblock to their freedom… the front door.
How am I supposed to open this when I can't move my arms? They thought, as they uselessly scraped at the door handle with their immovable paw. Somehow, much to their displeasure, they were going to have to use their feet.
Of course, that was easier said than done. They started to lift their foot into the air, but as they lifted it only a small distance from the ground, they could feel their upper body tilt backwards, and they brought their foot back down again. There was no way they were going to get their toes on the door handle like this without falling over.
They turned around, looking for something that they could lean on while they tried to open the door. There was nothing close enough to the door that would work, let alone sturdy enough - their shoe rack probably wouldn't support their weight, even if their upper body wasn't made of stone - so a bit of furniture rearrangement was in order. Reluctantly, they made their way over to the opposite end of their couch, turned around, and pushed against it as best they could, hoping that they could move it, and sure enough, the chair started to move, albeit only a small distance. It took them several agonizing minutes to push the chair over to the door, taking note of the miscellaneous items that appeared under their feet as they pushed it. Remy mentally pushed "clean under the couch" near the top of their to-do list, right under "go find the crow who sold me this ring that apparently wasn’t supposed to turn me into an inanimate object and kick his feathery ass."
Once the couch was positioned in front of the door, they stood in front of it again, and gently leaned back against the arm of the couch as they lifted their leg into the air. It was slow goings at first to make sure they didn't tip back over the couch, but once they were confident that they weren't going to fall, their foot shot for the door handle, awkwardly fumbling with it, until they got a decent grip on the polished steel knob and began to turn it.
Their toes slipped off.
Ugh! Remy groaned inside their stone head. Their leg was starting to ache, being held in the air for so long, but nonetheless they persevered and gripped the handle again and turned it. It slipped off again. They tried a third time, a fourth, a fifth, each time getting closer, each passing moment sending uncomfortable pulses of pain up their side, until finally… click! The door parted ways with the doorframe and slowly creaked open, lightly banging against Remy's stone shoulder as they ducked around it and out onto the front porch.
They hadn't realised how late it had gotten, though. Even through their grey-tinted vision, they could see the sun disappearing behind the mountains in the horizon. They were going to have to be quick.
Remy's half-baked plan was to get back to the shop that sold them the ring that left them in this unfortunate state, hopefully before it closed for the night. On paper, this sounded easy. A quick jaunt down to the store, and the crow would see Remy in their helpless state and immediately come to their aid. With the ring firmly lodged in their immovable paw, seeking help from ordinary folk seemed out of the question, so the store was the raccoon's best bet.
The problem, however, was that it wasn't just a few blocks away. When Remy asked their phone how far the store was from their house earlier in the day, the phone claimed it was 4.1 kilometres away. A casual stroll over there was about an hour's worth of walking, and with their body in the state that it was in, it was probably going to take a lot longer than that, and strain their legs a lot more, too. I can probably skip leg day for the next six months after this is over and done with, they thought, trying to find the silver lining in their situation as they carefully walked down the sidewalk, leaving their house behind.
Things were already proving difficult despite only having walked a couple hundred metres. As their eyes were caught looking down as the transformation washed over them, their eyes were practically glued to the pavement, which made seeing things further ahead next to impossible. And while their legs were free, their hips were not, which made the simple act of walking a strenuous chore, as they couldn't naturally sway with each step as they would under regular circumstances. It felt less like walking and more like they were shuffling their feet. And their hearing seemed a little muted, too - not enough to block out all sound, but to the point where it felt like they were wearing a pair of noise cancelling headphones. Noises seemed distant; cars driving past almost sounded like they were coming from a block away.
A breeze kicked up behind them, and as it brushed past their half-stone body, they felt the ring wobble slightly in their paw, rubbing against the cracked material of their paw pads. The feeling seemed faint, like their body was in a constant state of pins and needles.
Crossing the road near their house was simple enough, as traffic wasn't particularly dense in this neighbourhood, but soon enough Remy reached their first major obstacle between them and freedom. Separating their neighbourhood and the commercial district where they were headed was a freeway, six lanes of rush hour traffic zooming past without a thought for anything else but themselves and their destination. The traffic lights were much further down the road, and they figured that trying to cross there would only eat up precious time, though thankfully, from where they were standing, there was an island right in the middle of the road. Mentally, Remy breathed in and out, waiting for what they hoped was a gap, and made a break for it.
Remy ran as fast as their legs could possibly carry their heavy upper body. Not fast enough. They heard a horn from their right. A sudden gust of wind whizzing right behind their back. How close had they been? They couldn't tell.
More tires in front of their feet. They stopped, waited a moment. Then ran. More honking. Tires screeching from their right. Oh, crap! One final push for the island as the screeching went straight past them.
They were safe.
On this tiny little island in the middle of a sea of threatening two tonne mechanical monsters, Remy found a moment of calm. Their legs were shaking, aching, barely able to keep their hefty form upright, but they steeled themselves as they stepped out onto the freeway once more.
They ran. Even faster than last time, pushing themself to their limit. Nothing. No sound to their left at all, only behind them. They cheered internally, slowing down their pace a little.
Then they heard it. The blaring, frightening honk of a truck horn.
They couldn't afford to turn to see how close it was. That would only slow them down or maybe even make them lose balance. All they could do was run. They didn't even notice their heart wasn't thumping against their chest as they bolted to the other side. One final step…
Whoosh!
The wind the truck created as it zoomed past swept Remy up. They stumbled to the side, struggling to find firm footing. No! Please don't fall…!
Clunk! Remy's flailing had come to a stop as their body collided with something on the sidewalk. They stepped back. The base of an old lamp post was at their feet.
I would hug the shit out of you if I could, mister street lamp.
Remy's stumbling had continued for several more blocks, passing by shops that had already closed for the day. It was getting dark, and increasingly hard to see through the grey-tinted eyes of a half-petrified body.
The strain on their legs was growing increasingly more unbearable, too, and they decided a moment was needed to catch their breath, metaphorically speaking. They leaned their body against a brick wall situated between a bakery and a newsagent, the sound of their body against the wall like two bricks beaten together, a chilling reminder of their situation. No one had offered to help them, despite it sounding like they had passed numerous other people on the way there. Not surprising. Ever since the raccoon had moved to the inner suburbs, they'd noticed that others weren't exactly concerned about others. The number of times Remy apologised after someone else walked into them was uncomfortably high, so it was either they really didn't care, or something in the city's water was making them less perceptive or something.
They laughed in the back of their mind. It wasn't even a bad place! They just weren't used to being surrounded by so many people at once, they supposed. In fact, the crow at the store was the first person the raccoon had had more than a two-sentence conversation with outside of being forced to interact with cashiers at stores where self serve checkouts were yet to be implemented. If it weren't for this stupid ring, Remy mused, he might be an alright bird.
Pap.
Remy heard two tiny little sounds right next to their right ear. Pap pap. They couldn't turn their head to see what it was, but they felt the very distant feeling of two tiny feet standing on their shoulder. Pap pap. Some sort of animal, maybe? As they played a useless guessing game in their mind, they heard a high pitched chirp! It seemed a bird had mistaken the raccoon for an inanimate object it could perch on.
I am no object, puny avian! Remy leaned forward and started to twist and turn in an effort to shoo the bird away. The bird, startled, leaped off their shoulder and hovered around in their face. Remy twisted their body more vigorously, but the bird was adamant about its new perch sitting still.
"Shoo, shoo!"
A pair of lightly-coloured paws entered Remy's vision, batting the agitated bird away. Remy assumed it flew off elsewhere as the body of a woman dressed in heels and a skirt of unidentifiable material came into view, though they couldn't tell what exactly they were as they couldn't look up to see their face. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?"
Remy's first instinct was to thank the lady, but of course, no sounds left their mouth. Instead, she leaned down directly into Remy's view, revealing the face of a young female cat with a ponytail. "You poor thing! You were at that crow's shop, weren't you?"
When Remy elicited no response, the cat brought a paw to her chin. "Hm. Let's see… How about you tap your foot once for yes, and twice for no?" The raccoon happily obliged, tapping their right footpaw once on the cold pavement. "Yup, figured as much. I recognise that ring from anywhere. My husband went through a similar thing last year - slipped that ring over his head and got stuck as a big ol’ body pillow. You didn't immediately drop the ring and get stuck like that for three days straight while your partner was out of town on a business trip, though, so you've got at least a few more brain cells than Taylor does."
Remy tapped their foot twice. "No? What do you mean, no? Your legs are still all fleshy!"
That was true, but Remy still felt pretty stupid about the whole ordeal. They should have at least done it feet first to avoid their arms transforming and becoming immobile, but at this point regrets were useless. Finally, someone had stopped to help them!
The cat gave off a warm smile. "Tell you what. I've got my car parked two blocks away from here. Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back, and then I can give you a ride. How does that sound?"
Remy tapped their foot repeatedly.
"Mhm, I'll take that as a yes. Sit tight! I'll be right back!" The cat stood back up again and briskly walked in the other direction, leaving Remy to stand around and wait impatiently.
A few agonizing minutes passed, the pain bearing down on Remy's legs close to becoming unbearable. They leaned back against the brick wall as before, but that was doing little to combat the sharp pain now shooting up their side. They only hoped the cat woman would hurry back soon.
Suddenly, they heard footsteps. Was it the cat? Remy feared her car may have broken down, but then they noticed that there was more than one pair of footsteps headed their way. Just a bunch of guys out painting the town red, probably.
"What the hell is this?"
Two thick boots stepped into Remy's view, accompanied by a set of legs clad in denim. Another foot placed itself in the very corner of their vision - there were at least two people ogling the raccoon. "Looks like this trash eater got caught in one o' those ring deelies, huh?" The man with the boots blurted.
"Heh, yeah, looks like they screwed up real bad!" The other voice chimed in enthusiastically.
"How is someone that fuckin' stupid?" A third, raspier voice joined in. "An' what are they doin' just standin' 'round here? Shoulda gone for help or somethin', right?"
"Yeah, they shoulda." Boots man agreed, stepping forward, placing their paws on Remy's shoulders. "But now this dumbass is our little playtoy."
Before Remy could question what was happening, the paws pushed forward, shoving the raccoon backwards, stumbling as their weight shifted. Something caught them, however, but was quick to push them back forward, where another pair of paws caught them. All the while, the three faceless hooligans laughed and cackled, a simple, primal delight formed from witnessing the suffering of a poor, helpless, ring-tailed mammal.
The pushing and shoving continued for several minutes as the men shouted profanities and made fun of Remy's situation, until eventually, one of them pushed a little too hard. Remy's body was sent hurling into the arms of one of the other hooligans, who nearly stumbled back under the weight of the stone raccoon. "Hey, watch it, ya fuckin' idiot!" In retaliation, Remy was pushed back towards the other man with even greater force, but instead of catching them, he moved out of the way of the incoming raccoon.
W-wait!
Remy couldn't find their balance in time. Their legs flailed about, trying to gain solid footing again, but the weight of their upper half was too strong, pulling their body closer and closer to the pavement.
Someone catch me!
Their right foot tripped over their left, propelling both their legs into the air. For the brief moment they were airborne, their legs thrashed about, desperate to find the solid ground that had once been so hospitable to their feet. But it was no use. Their body crashed to the cement floor with an alarming thud.
And beneath their incredible weight, the ring snapped.
The cat woman had soon returned to the location she had told Remy to wait, only to find the raccoon from before, legs kicking about as their body lay motionless on the pavement, unable to stand of their own accord, the ring snapped cleanly in two halves, pinned under their petrified shoulders. She disappeared out of Remy's sight again, returning a few minutes later with the crow they had bought the ring from. A sorrowful look adorned the bird's face as he and the cat bent down to lift the poor raccoon into the still-running station wagon parked on the curb, laying their back down along the rear seat.
The cat and the crow took the raccoon back to the store, and stood them in the middle of a room in the back, cluttered with unopened boxes and shelves lined with miscellaneous junk. The crow held another ring in his feathers, hovering it over Remy's head and pulling it down over their body repeatedly, expecting something to happen. But nothing did.
"Why isn't anything working?" The cat asked worriedly, her paws clasped over her muzzle.
"This is… a bit of a unique situation…" The crow sighed, still waving the ring over Remy's head. "You see, the way these rings work is, when they're used, they sort of magically remember the form of the person who used it, to put it in the simplest terms possible. I could explain exactly how it works but we would be here forever and frankly, it's getting rather late."
Unsatisfied with the ring's results, he gently placed it down on the floor. "The ring holds a magical connection with the user that remembers the user's original form until they use the ring to revert back to normal, at which point the connection disappears. When the ring snapped under this poor fellow's weight, I fear it may have prematurely severed the connection between the two."
"What does that mean?"
"Well, um…" The crow picked the ring up once more, holding it firmly with both of his black wings. "This is only a hypothesis, but nothing happens when we attempt to use this ring on our ring-tailed friend here because rings can only be used on living organisms. This ring can't detect a source of life under all that rock, because I suppose, technically speaking, there isn't one. When the link between this raccoon and their ring was severed, the image of their original form may have been lost, too. No other ring can determine that this statue once held life within." He placed the ring back down again, and rubbed his forehead in frustration. "For all intents and purposes, we don't have a raccoon partway turned into a statue. We have a statue with legs."
"So what you're saying is it's per-"
"I don't want to jump to conclusions just yet." The crow let out a heavy, distressed sigh. "We can have the ring sent off to be repaired, but with the link already severed, we may not be able to re-establish it once it's fixed."
"So it IS per-"
"DON'T-" The crow snapped, but quickly regained his composure. "Don't use that blasted P word in my store," they stated through gritted teeth, pointing a long, black feather at the concerned cat. "We never say that word in this line of work. It's a bad omen. We always believe that everything is reversible, even if it takes a while. Until then, we need to figure out what to do with you."
The crow turned to Remy, who finally felt acknowledged like the living being they were supposed to be and not the object he had been treating them as for the past few minutes. Still coming to terms with the fact that this predicament may be very long term, they could barely focus on the crow's words. "I don't think there are many places in the world that would find a use for a clumsy set of legs attached to a statue." He prodded at Remy's stone eyeball, sending a weird feeling throughout their head, and lacking the ability to tell him to stop. "But, I might have a place for you."
The crow unlocked the front door to his shop, careful not to spill his cup of StarDollars coffee in one wing as he battled the lock with the other. As he walked inside, he flipped the sign on the back of the glass panel door from CLOSED to OPEN, and kicked it shut with one of his talons, whistling a familiar tune. He briefly disappeared into the back of the shop before returning a few seconds later, parking his rump down on the swivel chair situated behind the front counter, and placing his head in the sturdy rest of his wing as he calmly sipped his piping hot latte.
Everything was as it should be. Mystical items lining the shelves and glass cabinets, suits hanging off clothes racks. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for the crow's out of the ordinary shop. Except one thing.
For a while, the front window had been a miserable, empty space, with nothing interesting to fill it. In that very spot, a statue now stood motionless, staring out the window at those who passed by. One hand was outstretched, the other positioned by its side, fingers curled as if clasped around some invisible, cylindrical object. From the seemingly worried expression on its face right down to its bare paws, it was completely made of stone, a lifelike image of a lazily dressed raccoon.
Inside the cracked stone was the soul of a poor raccoon, who had for a while struggled in vain against the petrified body that kept them a prisoner, but quickly gave up, falling reluctantly into the new role that had been offered to them by the crow - spend however long it took to fix this mess as a half-statue, half-living creature who would barely be able to do anything on their own and struggle under the weight of their mismatched body, or have their legs turned to stone by a second ring, and sit comfortably in the store window. Though they didn't like the idea of not being able to move or speak at all, being in such a form was oddly comforting. All worries had been pushed to the side, and they had all the time in the world to think about things. What they would do when they were set free. Maybe even start planning out that story they'd been thinking of. They weren't going anywhere anytime soon, so now was the perfect chance for them to really start nailing those characters and narrative beats. It was a less than desirable situation, but not having responsibilities was a net positive.
The only thing that bothered them was the sign that was placed at their feet, an embarrassing and indefinite reminder of their rash behaviour and clumsiness:
"REMY THE RING SAFETY RACCOON
Don't be like Remy,
Learn the basics of ring safety!"

The tf ring craze may have passed, but Remy’s not one to follow trends! However, buying an unreasonably cheap tf ring at a weird store in the central suburbs forces them on a reluctant adventure when the ring gets stuck around their waist and they can’t pull it back up again...
CW// accidental partial petrification, tf caused by ring/hoop, some mentions of pain, unwarranted bullying, a really stupid raccoon, an F bomb, kind of sort of a bad end, uhhh I think that’s it
No sexual content whatsoever, and apart from a couple profanities this story is suitable for most ages
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“So, what’s this thing gonna turn me into, then?”
The curious raccoon held the bright red ring in their paws, examining it with inquisitive eyes. It looked like an ordinary hula hoop in every way, albeit one that was wrapped in crinkly plastic.
The crow behind the counter let out a cheerful laugh. "That's the fun part! You won't know what it'll turn you into until you've used it! It's completely random!"
"No kiddin'..." Remy, the curious raccoon, replied quietly, tapping their digits against the loud wrapping encasing the ring. "And how come it's wrapped in plastic?"
The crow leaned over the counter and pointed a thin feather at Remy's paw. "Notice how your fingers are through the ring, but it hasn't transformed them yet?" He slipped his entire wing through the ring, and it came out the other end entirely unaltered. "It's a protective sleeve that blocks the magic of the ring until you're ready to use it!"
"Oh!"
"Also, no refunds once you take it off."
"Oh." Remy placed the ring on the counter and pulled out their wallet. "I'll take it! How much for it again?"
"That'll be fifty dollars."
"Fifty dollars? Don't you need to make a living? That seems way too cheap," They questioned, pulling a fifty dollar note out of their nearly-falling-apart wallet.
"Ah, my fine young masked friend," the crow grinned, "I make quite the profit from rings that invoke a specific form." He opened the cash register and waited for the *ka-ching!* sound before continuing. "Those are much more expensive, but you know what you're getting with those. With that one, though, it could be anything! Although, for safety's sake, it'll be something that can fit through the ring again easily. And no objects… I think. That would be a lawsuit waiting to happen!"
Remy's eyes strayed away from the counter and towards the rest of the store, admiring the many different objects that lined the shelves on the back walls and the glass cabinets in the middle of the store, as well as the detailed suits and costumes that hung from clothes racks or sat lifelessly in boxes. "Oh, I bet," Remy replied, still paying attention to the conversation as their eyes scanned the store. "The risk is part of the fun, though, I think."
"You strike me as someone who's been in many shape-altering situations before," the crow remarked, leaning on the counter with a single bent wing.
"Oh, yeah!" Remy grinned, taking up the ring with one paw and throwing their other arm behind their head. "Can't seem to avoid it. I only just moved here but back in my hometown I went through all sorts of crazy forms. Heck, just before I moved here, I spent a month in the body of a clone I made with a magic tome, which… eh, that wasn't all that great. Hang on, though…" They raised a single digit to their furry chin. "How did you know?"
"This crow has keen eyes, let's just say that." The crow smiled; what he had said sounded sinister, but Remy couldn't detect any sort of hostility or ulterior motive. It was a very warm and kind smile. And, in this world of people slipping hula hoops over their head to transform into things, they didn't really question it. They thanked the crow for the good deal and slipped out of the store, eager to get home.
As the raccoon scampered up the steps and slipped through the front door of their flat, they shut the door behind them and threw the ring, still wrapped, onto the couch, eagerly awaiting the moment where they could slip the ring over their head and lose their form to another. There were a few precautions to take before doing so, though. To avoid unnecessary interruptions from nosy neighbours or friends who didn't understand the widely accepted concept of knocking before entering, the front and back doors were locked. Not that they had to worry about that too much as Remy had yet to introduce themself to their neighbours, nor make any effort to find like-minded people to hang out with, but that would come in due time. Remy also ran a bath, just in case they'd found themselves in the form of an aquatic creature. Sure, they'd seen sharks and such that seemed to fare just fine out of the water, but they figured they could never be too careful.
Once they were ready, they ran back out into the living room and picked the ring up once more, excitedly but carefully ripping the plastic off, making sure none of their fingers slipped through the hole just yet. They threw the plastic over onto the couch and took another good long look at the ring, wondering what it would turn them into. Remy had found themselves in many forms before, both living and otherwise, but the prospect of becoming something else still filled them with childlike glee.
Maybe they'd become a bird? A handsome bluejay, fluttering about in the skies, looking down on everyone like the tiny specs they would be from that altitude? Or something reptilian? Being a snake might be fun, and seeing as people were unreasonably afraid of so-called danger noodles, it might be fun to play a prank or two on people. Heck, it might even be fun to just be a dog, leaning out the window with that big, slobbery tail dangling in the wind! So many possibilities…
The excitement overcame the raccoon, and without thinking much more on it, they held the ring up over their head with both hands, and steadily pulled it down over their body.
They expected their body to start changing as the ring passed over them, but instead as the ring was pulled down past their head, nothing seemed to be all that different. Maybe there was a delay? "Ugh, I knew it," Remy groaned, looking down as they held the ring around their waist, feeling a bit stupid. "It was cheap, of course it was gonna be a dud. Too good to be-"
Remy's disappointed ramblings had suddenly been cut short as, out of nowhere, their vision took on a grey hue. They could still see clearly, but everything almost looked like it was a black and white movie, albeit a high definition one. They instinctively tried to blink to adjust their vision, only to find their eyelids wouldn't budge, though thankfully their eyes weren't stinging. They would have gasped at the sudden change in view, if their mouth hadn't also seemingly frozen in place, hanging agape in shock. No sound seemed to want to escape from their maw, as much as they tried to, let alone any breaths.
In a mild panic, sensing that something was obviously up with their head, they took their right paw away from the ring so they could reach for their head and find out what was wrong, but only a moment after starting to lift it up, it too seemed to freeze in place, their hand open and unable to close into a fist again. Their next thought was to let go of the ring and reach up with their other paw, but it too wouldn't budge, firmly clasped around the ring and unable to let go. Everything above the ring, their head, their arms, their torso, refused to listen to any signals sent out from their brain, and wouldn't move so much as a millimetre.
Below the ring was fine - their legs and tail were all still fully moveable. With this in mind, Remy decided to make their way to the bathroom mirror to get a closer look and figure out what awful mess they'd just gotten themselves into. They took a step… and felt the weight of their upper body pull them forward, almost falling to the ground.
Remy managed to steady themself before they fell too far forward. Their upper body was weirdly heavy now! So much so that trying to balance it with just their legs was proving to be a bit of a challenge. They took another step forward, this time much slower and more carefully, but still felt their center of gravity try to tug them forward and face first into the ugly blue carpeted floor. It took all of Remy's concentration to keep their body upright as they waddled unceremoniously into the bathroom and peered into the mirror.
At first, it looked like nothing was wrong. Remy's face was stuck in a surprised expression, their right arm outstretched, looking as if it were trying to reach for something, while the other kept a firm hold on the ring. The grey tint that washed the world around them out wasn't really helping here, it seemed, because everything looked normal, except for what kind of looked like a scar on their cheek? And there was one next to their nose, too, and on the inside of their ear, and on their… hoodie? They were all down their arm, too, even on the sleeve of their iconic top. How do scars start appearing on clothing?
Or, maybe they weren't scars. Remy got as close as they could to the mirror to examine them, and on closer inspection they looked less like cuts to the skin and more like… cracks. The kind of cracks you'd see in cement, or stone.
This stupid ring turned me into a statue!?
Remy's unchanging expression masked their frustration and anxiety over the situation, and their mouth of stone kept their sudden need to shout and swear at bay. It was lucky that Remy had stopped halfway when pulling the ring down, otherwise there would have been a statue of a very surprised raccoon standing in the living room. That would have been disastrous. The front door was locked so people wouldn't have been able to get in, and if the police showed up, there was only a small chance they would connect the dots and realise there was a raccoon trapped in solid rock right before them, or instead just assume that a very narcissistic raccoon had gone missing.
As Remy returned to the living room, trying their best not to stumble under their newly induced weight, they were thankful that their legs were free, even if it left them in a very cumbersome state. At least they had a chance to fix this themselves.
Their first idea for freedom led them into the kitchen. They positioned the ring above one of the countertops, then bent their knees slowly, trying to lift the ring up as their body lowered. For a brief moment, it seemed like a good idea, as the right side of their body gradually returned to flesh and blood, but they could only bend down so far before the risk of toppling over made itself known, and even then, with the ring stuck firmly in their other paw, it was probably never going to work completely anyway. They sighed internally.
The next idea was to break the ring. As it was made out of plastic and was probably no more durable than a regular hula hoop, Remy figured it might be easy to snap in half, but they had no idea how the magic in the ring worked. They were afraid that, if it didn't return them to normal, they would just be stuck with an upper body made of stone and no way to reverse it. That idea was put to the side as quickly as it was formed.
They clumsily returned to the living room once more, already feeling like all of their options were exhausted. Panic was starting to set in now. Their petrified upper body was not only throwing off their balance but was also putting incredible strain on their legs due to the added weight, which must have been a couple hundred pounds. Remy's tiny legs wondered how they were supporting that added weight but that was also the least of their concerns right now. They had to do something. And after pondering the next course of action for a few minutes, they came to the conclusion that they couldn't free themself alone. They had to go for help.
As they made their way to the front door, however, they encountered the first roadblock to their freedom… the front door.
How am I supposed to open this when I can't move my arms? They thought, as they uselessly scraped at the door handle with their immovable paw. Somehow, much to their displeasure, they were going to have to use their feet.
Of course, that was easier said than done. They started to lift their foot into the air, but as they lifted it only a small distance from the ground, they could feel their upper body tilt backwards, and they brought their foot back down again. There was no way they were going to get their toes on the door handle like this without falling over.
They turned around, looking for something that they could lean on while they tried to open the door. There was nothing close enough to the door that would work, let alone sturdy enough - their shoe rack probably wouldn't support their weight, even if their upper body wasn't made of stone - so a bit of furniture rearrangement was in order. Reluctantly, they made their way over to the opposite end of their couch, turned around, and pushed against it as best they could, hoping that they could move it, and sure enough, the chair started to move, albeit only a small distance. It took them several agonizing minutes to push the chair over to the door, taking note of the miscellaneous items that appeared under their feet as they pushed it. Remy mentally pushed "clean under the couch" near the top of their to-do list, right under "go find the crow who sold me this ring that apparently wasn’t supposed to turn me into an inanimate object and kick his feathery ass."
Once the couch was positioned in front of the door, they stood in front of it again, and gently leaned back against the arm of the couch as they lifted their leg into the air. It was slow goings at first to make sure they didn't tip back over the couch, but once they were confident that they weren't going to fall, their foot shot for the door handle, awkwardly fumbling with it, until they got a decent grip on the polished steel knob and began to turn it.
Their toes slipped off.
Ugh! Remy groaned inside their stone head. Their leg was starting to ache, being held in the air for so long, but nonetheless they persevered and gripped the handle again and turned it. It slipped off again. They tried a third time, a fourth, a fifth, each time getting closer, each passing moment sending uncomfortable pulses of pain up their side, until finally… click! The door parted ways with the doorframe and slowly creaked open, lightly banging against Remy's stone shoulder as they ducked around it and out onto the front porch.
They hadn't realised how late it had gotten, though. Even through their grey-tinted vision, they could see the sun disappearing behind the mountains in the horizon. They were going to have to be quick.
Remy's half-baked plan was to get back to the shop that sold them the ring that left them in this unfortunate state, hopefully before it closed for the night. On paper, this sounded easy. A quick jaunt down to the store, and the crow would see Remy in their helpless state and immediately come to their aid. With the ring firmly lodged in their immovable paw, seeking help from ordinary folk seemed out of the question, so the store was the raccoon's best bet.
The problem, however, was that it wasn't just a few blocks away. When Remy asked their phone how far the store was from their house earlier in the day, the phone claimed it was 4.1 kilometres away. A casual stroll over there was about an hour's worth of walking, and with their body in the state that it was in, it was probably going to take a lot longer than that, and strain their legs a lot more, too. I can probably skip leg day for the next six months after this is over and done with, they thought, trying to find the silver lining in their situation as they carefully walked down the sidewalk, leaving their house behind.
Things were already proving difficult despite only having walked a couple hundred metres. As their eyes were caught looking down as the transformation washed over them, their eyes were practically glued to the pavement, which made seeing things further ahead next to impossible. And while their legs were free, their hips were not, which made the simple act of walking a strenuous chore, as they couldn't naturally sway with each step as they would under regular circumstances. It felt less like walking and more like they were shuffling their feet. And their hearing seemed a little muted, too - not enough to block out all sound, but to the point where it felt like they were wearing a pair of noise cancelling headphones. Noises seemed distant; cars driving past almost sounded like they were coming from a block away.
A breeze kicked up behind them, and as it brushed past their half-stone body, they felt the ring wobble slightly in their paw, rubbing against the cracked material of their paw pads. The feeling seemed faint, like their body was in a constant state of pins and needles.
Crossing the road near their house was simple enough, as traffic wasn't particularly dense in this neighbourhood, but soon enough Remy reached their first major obstacle between them and freedom. Separating their neighbourhood and the commercial district where they were headed was a freeway, six lanes of rush hour traffic zooming past without a thought for anything else but themselves and their destination. The traffic lights were much further down the road, and they figured that trying to cross there would only eat up precious time, though thankfully, from where they were standing, there was an island right in the middle of the road. Mentally, Remy breathed in and out, waiting for what they hoped was a gap, and made a break for it.
Remy ran as fast as their legs could possibly carry their heavy upper body. Not fast enough. They heard a horn from their right. A sudden gust of wind whizzing right behind their back. How close had they been? They couldn't tell.
More tires in front of their feet. They stopped, waited a moment. Then ran. More honking. Tires screeching from their right. Oh, crap! One final push for the island as the screeching went straight past them.
They were safe.
On this tiny little island in the middle of a sea of threatening two tonne mechanical monsters, Remy found a moment of calm. Their legs were shaking, aching, barely able to keep their hefty form upright, but they steeled themselves as they stepped out onto the freeway once more.
They ran. Even faster than last time, pushing themself to their limit. Nothing. No sound to their left at all, only behind them. They cheered internally, slowing down their pace a little.
Then they heard it. The blaring, frightening honk of a truck horn.
They couldn't afford to turn to see how close it was. That would only slow them down or maybe even make them lose balance. All they could do was run. They didn't even notice their heart wasn't thumping against their chest as they bolted to the other side. One final step…
Whoosh!
The wind the truck created as it zoomed past swept Remy up. They stumbled to the side, struggling to find firm footing. No! Please don't fall…!
Clunk! Remy's flailing had come to a stop as their body collided with something on the sidewalk. They stepped back. The base of an old lamp post was at their feet.
I would hug the shit out of you if I could, mister street lamp.
Remy's stumbling had continued for several more blocks, passing by shops that had already closed for the day. It was getting dark, and increasingly hard to see through the grey-tinted eyes of a half-petrified body.
The strain on their legs was growing increasingly more unbearable, too, and they decided a moment was needed to catch their breath, metaphorically speaking. They leaned their body against a brick wall situated between a bakery and a newsagent, the sound of their body against the wall like two bricks beaten together, a chilling reminder of their situation. No one had offered to help them, despite it sounding like they had passed numerous other people on the way there. Not surprising. Ever since the raccoon had moved to the inner suburbs, they'd noticed that others weren't exactly concerned about others. The number of times Remy apologised after someone else walked into them was uncomfortably high, so it was either they really didn't care, or something in the city's water was making them less perceptive or something.
They laughed in the back of their mind. It wasn't even a bad place! They just weren't used to being surrounded by so many people at once, they supposed. In fact, the crow at the store was the first person the raccoon had had more than a two-sentence conversation with outside of being forced to interact with cashiers at stores where self serve checkouts were yet to be implemented. If it weren't for this stupid ring, Remy mused, he might be an alright bird.
Pap.
Remy heard two tiny little sounds right next to their right ear. Pap pap. They couldn't turn their head to see what it was, but they felt the very distant feeling of two tiny feet standing on their shoulder. Pap pap. Some sort of animal, maybe? As they played a useless guessing game in their mind, they heard a high pitched chirp! It seemed a bird had mistaken the raccoon for an inanimate object it could perch on.
I am no object, puny avian! Remy leaned forward and started to twist and turn in an effort to shoo the bird away. The bird, startled, leaped off their shoulder and hovered around in their face. Remy twisted their body more vigorously, but the bird was adamant about its new perch sitting still.
"Shoo, shoo!"
A pair of lightly-coloured paws entered Remy's vision, batting the agitated bird away. Remy assumed it flew off elsewhere as the body of a woman dressed in heels and a skirt of unidentifiable material came into view, though they couldn't tell what exactly they were as they couldn't look up to see their face. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?"
Remy's first instinct was to thank the lady, but of course, no sounds left their mouth. Instead, she leaned down directly into Remy's view, revealing the face of a young female cat with a ponytail. "You poor thing! You were at that crow's shop, weren't you?"
When Remy elicited no response, the cat brought a paw to her chin. "Hm. Let's see… How about you tap your foot once for yes, and twice for no?" The raccoon happily obliged, tapping their right footpaw once on the cold pavement. "Yup, figured as much. I recognise that ring from anywhere. My husband went through a similar thing last year - slipped that ring over his head and got stuck as a big ol’ body pillow. You didn't immediately drop the ring and get stuck like that for three days straight while your partner was out of town on a business trip, though, so you've got at least a few more brain cells than Taylor does."
Remy tapped their foot twice. "No? What do you mean, no? Your legs are still all fleshy!"
That was true, but Remy still felt pretty stupid about the whole ordeal. They should have at least done it feet first to avoid their arms transforming and becoming immobile, but at this point regrets were useless. Finally, someone had stopped to help them!
The cat gave off a warm smile. "Tell you what. I've got my car parked two blocks away from here. Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back, and then I can give you a ride. How does that sound?"
Remy tapped their foot repeatedly.
"Mhm, I'll take that as a yes. Sit tight! I'll be right back!" The cat stood back up again and briskly walked in the other direction, leaving Remy to stand around and wait impatiently.
A few agonizing minutes passed, the pain bearing down on Remy's legs close to becoming unbearable. They leaned back against the brick wall as before, but that was doing little to combat the sharp pain now shooting up their side. They only hoped the cat woman would hurry back soon.
Suddenly, they heard footsteps. Was it the cat? Remy feared her car may have broken down, but then they noticed that there was more than one pair of footsteps headed their way. Just a bunch of guys out painting the town red, probably.
"What the hell is this?"
Two thick boots stepped into Remy's view, accompanied by a set of legs clad in denim. Another foot placed itself in the very corner of their vision - there were at least two people ogling the raccoon. "Looks like this trash eater got caught in one o' those ring deelies, huh?" The man with the boots blurted.
"Heh, yeah, looks like they screwed up real bad!" The other voice chimed in enthusiastically.
"How is someone that fuckin' stupid?" A third, raspier voice joined in. "An' what are they doin' just standin' 'round here? Shoulda gone for help or somethin', right?"
"Yeah, they shoulda." Boots man agreed, stepping forward, placing their paws on Remy's shoulders. "But now this dumbass is our little playtoy."
Before Remy could question what was happening, the paws pushed forward, shoving the raccoon backwards, stumbling as their weight shifted. Something caught them, however, but was quick to push them back forward, where another pair of paws caught them. All the while, the three faceless hooligans laughed and cackled, a simple, primal delight formed from witnessing the suffering of a poor, helpless, ring-tailed mammal.
The pushing and shoving continued for several minutes as the men shouted profanities and made fun of Remy's situation, until eventually, one of them pushed a little too hard. Remy's body was sent hurling into the arms of one of the other hooligans, who nearly stumbled back under the weight of the stone raccoon. "Hey, watch it, ya fuckin' idiot!" In retaliation, Remy was pushed back towards the other man with even greater force, but instead of catching them, he moved out of the way of the incoming raccoon.
W-wait!
Remy couldn't find their balance in time. Their legs flailed about, trying to gain solid footing again, but the weight of their upper half was too strong, pulling their body closer and closer to the pavement.
Someone catch me!
Their right foot tripped over their left, propelling both their legs into the air. For the brief moment they were airborne, their legs thrashed about, desperate to find the solid ground that had once been so hospitable to their feet. But it was no use. Their body crashed to the cement floor with an alarming thud.
And beneath their incredible weight, the ring snapped.
The cat woman had soon returned to the location she had told Remy to wait, only to find the raccoon from before, legs kicking about as their body lay motionless on the pavement, unable to stand of their own accord, the ring snapped cleanly in two halves, pinned under their petrified shoulders. She disappeared out of Remy's sight again, returning a few minutes later with the crow they had bought the ring from. A sorrowful look adorned the bird's face as he and the cat bent down to lift the poor raccoon into the still-running station wagon parked on the curb, laying their back down along the rear seat.
The cat and the crow took the raccoon back to the store, and stood them in the middle of a room in the back, cluttered with unopened boxes and shelves lined with miscellaneous junk. The crow held another ring in his feathers, hovering it over Remy's head and pulling it down over their body repeatedly, expecting something to happen. But nothing did.
"Why isn't anything working?" The cat asked worriedly, her paws clasped over her muzzle.
"This is… a bit of a unique situation…" The crow sighed, still waving the ring over Remy's head. "You see, the way these rings work is, when they're used, they sort of magically remember the form of the person who used it, to put it in the simplest terms possible. I could explain exactly how it works but we would be here forever and frankly, it's getting rather late."
Unsatisfied with the ring's results, he gently placed it down on the floor. "The ring holds a magical connection with the user that remembers the user's original form until they use the ring to revert back to normal, at which point the connection disappears. When the ring snapped under this poor fellow's weight, I fear it may have prematurely severed the connection between the two."
"What does that mean?"
"Well, um…" The crow picked the ring up once more, holding it firmly with both of his black wings. "This is only a hypothesis, but nothing happens when we attempt to use this ring on our ring-tailed friend here because rings can only be used on living organisms. This ring can't detect a source of life under all that rock, because I suppose, technically speaking, there isn't one. When the link between this raccoon and their ring was severed, the image of their original form may have been lost, too. No other ring can determine that this statue once held life within." He placed the ring back down again, and rubbed his forehead in frustration. "For all intents and purposes, we don't have a raccoon partway turned into a statue. We have a statue with legs."
"So what you're saying is it's per-"
"I don't want to jump to conclusions just yet." The crow let out a heavy, distressed sigh. "We can have the ring sent off to be repaired, but with the link already severed, we may not be able to re-establish it once it's fixed."
"So it IS per-"
"DON'T-" The crow snapped, but quickly regained his composure. "Don't use that blasted P word in my store," they stated through gritted teeth, pointing a long, black feather at the concerned cat. "We never say that word in this line of work. It's a bad omen. We always believe that everything is reversible, even if it takes a while. Until then, we need to figure out what to do with you."
The crow turned to Remy, who finally felt acknowledged like the living being they were supposed to be and not the object he had been treating them as for the past few minutes. Still coming to terms with the fact that this predicament may be very long term, they could barely focus on the crow's words. "I don't think there are many places in the world that would find a use for a clumsy set of legs attached to a statue." He prodded at Remy's stone eyeball, sending a weird feeling throughout their head, and lacking the ability to tell him to stop. "But, I might have a place for you."
The crow unlocked the front door to his shop, careful not to spill his cup of StarDollars coffee in one wing as he battled the lock with the other. As he walked inside, he flipped the sign on the back of the glass panel door from CLOSED to OPEN, and kicked it shut with one of his talons, whistling a familiar tune. He briefly disappeared into the back of the shop before returning a few seconds later, parking his rump down on the swivel chair situated behind the front counter, and placing his head in the sturdy rest of his wing as he calmly sipped his piping hot latte.
Everything was as it should be. Mystical items lining the shelves and glass cabinets, suits hanging off clothes racks. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for the crow's out of the ordinary shop. Except one thing.
For a while, the front window had been a miserable, empty space, with nothing interesting to fill it. In that very spot, a statue now stood motionless, staring out the window at those who passed by. One hand was outstretched, the other positioned by its side, fingers curled as if clasped around some invisible, cylindrical object. From the seemingly worried expression on its face right down to its bare paws, it was completely made of stone, a lifelike image of a lazily dressed raccoon.
Inside the cracked stone was the soul of a poor raccoon, who had for a while struggled in vain against the petrified body that kept them a prisoner, but quickly gave up, falling reluctantly into the new role that had been offered to them by the crow - spend however long it took to fix this mess as a half-statue, half-living creature who would barely be able to do anything on their own and struggle under the weight of their mismatched body, or have their legs turned to stone by a second ring, and sit comfortably in the store window. Though they didn't like the idea of not being able to move or speak at all, being in such a form was oddly comforting. All worries had been pushed to the side, and they had all the time in the world to think about things. What they would do when they were set free. Maybe even start planning out that story they'd been thinking of. They weren't going anywhere anytime soon, so now was the perfect chance for them to really start nailing those characters and narrative beats. It was a less than desirable situation, but not having responsibilities was a net positive.
The only thing that bothered them was the sign that was placed at their feet, an embarrassing and indefinite reminder of their rash behaviour and clumsiness:
"REMY THE RING SAFETY RACCOON
Don't be like Remy,
Learn the basics of ring safety!"
Category Artwork (Digital) / Transformation
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1024 x 857px
File Size 113.9 kB
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