Part two continued from here: (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50383923) with another illustration by
I started getting more into manip paired stories right after writing part one, so I had to force myself to finish this or else I knew I wouldn't get to it again. As a result it turned out shorter and more like an epilogue.

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“Well, where shall hit first?” Zoe folded her arms underneath her second pair of breasts while looking down at the mall’s electronic map. Clearview Mall was recently renovated, with an expansive selection of clothing stores. It was still early in the morning on a weekday, so other shoppers were few, though what few there were all gave the trio of changed women wide eyed stares and panicked whispers.

“Shoes!” Nicole piped up beside her friends, not missing a beat to point at the map with her nose. She’d already mentally adjusted to her lack of arms, reflexively gesturing with her chin or middle leg.

“Whatever’s close!” Sujitra threw up her hands in exasperation and let her tentacles fall to the floor. The shuffling and squelching movement of her octopus’ limbs were giving her quite the workout.

“Shoes are close!” Nicole’s head bobbed excitedly as she shook her smooth shoulder space. “Tajor is right over there.” They were right at the center of most of the high-end boutiques. All their purchases today were supposed to be comped by the researchers, so money wasn’t an issue.

“Sounds go-“ Sujitra nodded and then froze as she reached down to lift her tentacles. Zoe had hooves and spider legs, leaving Nicole as the only one of them needing traditional footwear. “Uh… you might be alone in this one actually.”

“Nonsense.” The cow woman snorted, droplets of milk sputtering from her udder onto the marbled tiled floor. “We’ll find somewhere there, or on the way. Plus, I’m not going to let Nicole go off on her own.”

“Hey!” Nicole scowled at Zoe and crossed her center leg defensively. “Zoe, I can take care of myself too.” She could tell Zoe regretted her words as soon as she said them, so Nicole softened her brow and took a firm step back with her left foot. “I don’t want to split up yet though, so its fine.”

Zoe turned aside, massaging one of her sore nipples. “Ah, uh, I’m sorry Nicole, I didn’t mean to…” Protective instincts, she’d meant nothing by it, and had to hope that Nicole understood where she was coming from.

Sujitra slapped a tentacle on the ground between her friends as she rose to full height. “This is a fancy mall. Nicole has nothing to worry about.” Nobody around was bold enough to even approach them and ask invasive questions about their bodies.

“Thanks Sujitra.” She was nervous about it herself, truthfully, like what would happen if someone manhandled her without consent when her friends weren’t there. If a person really wanted to menace her, being armless wouldn’t change the equation. “Yeah, people are good at heart, and…” Her middle foot’s toes traced the lines between the floor tiles. “We’re too intimidating when we’re together, don’t you think?”

Zoe’s spider legs clacked in counterclockwise waves as she turned her body away from the mall’s map. “She has a point… are me and Sujitra going to dampen you chances at flirting?”

“N-noo!” Her cheeks flared up, stammering up a response before Sujitra made a vocal groan.

“Uhhg. Can we just get some fuckin clothes already? I’m freezing my ass off and I don’t even have underwear yet!” That drew a few more head turns from spooked bystanders.

Zoe narrowed her eyes at the octopus woman. “Can you even wear underwear?” Sujitra refused to meet her gaze, sorting at such an accusation. To be honest, she never planned to wear underwear ever again.

“Let just stick together for now.” The others nodded at Nicole and then followed her lead towards the shoe boutique. Their cohesion was short lived as they split up almost immediately upon entering the store. Zoe was accosted by a employee for leaking milk all over the floor, Sujitra climbed her way over to a wall display of stockings, and Nicole zeroed in on a stand with giant thigh high heels.

“Ma’am, you’re making a mess. I’m going to have to ask you to leave?”

Zoe stamped down with her front hooves. “This is discriminatory! I’ve done nothing wrong.”

The employee kept trying to push her back out the door without touching her, though Zoe’s spider abdomen had enough trouble backing up as it was. “No, we have a right to refuse service! No shoes no service.”

“Hnnnmp!” She huffed, squeezing one of her lower teats that was starting to feel especially sore. “And how am I supposed to get shoes if you won’t let me in?”

“I… ma’am, please, I don’t want to call security!” They looked desperate to avoid conflict, while Zoe’s obstinate nature was revealing itself more fully.

“I should be the one calling security on your store, for refusing to allow a woman to use the restroom!” Another frustrated tug on her udder shot a stream of milk at the worker’s feet while Zoe shivered down her spine. “Hnn, I need to be milked, clearly!”

“Uhhmm…” The last straw snapped in the hapless employee’s head, turning back to checkout line for anyone who could save him. It only got worse however, with Nicole meeting his gaze while holding a pair of boots in her mouth.

“MMHn hhHeyeyh! Cam Itrry thesn on?” Her teeth bit down gently on what was thousand-dollar leather. “Ttwo paers please!”

Before the worker could muster a sensible answer to the armless woman’s incomprehensible demands, Sujita rejoined her friends with dozens of packaged black stockings under her arms, and a few wrapped in her tentacles. “Oh hey, do you work here? Can I get these in bulk?” She looked down at Nicole while Zoe ignored all of them to drip her way to the lavatory. “Oh whoops, yeah help her out first, I can wait.”

It was closer to midday when the trio left. “What a bunch of assholes!” Sujitra proclaimed loudly within shouting distance of the store entrance. The customer service had become quite hostile to their unusual needs, would’ve been a nice way to put it. Zoe said as much on a one-star review through her phone.

“I’ve never felt so disrespected.” She shook her head and mooed. “But let’s not let it ruin our day.”

“Mmh.” Nicole nodded while walking ahead of her friends and looking down at her glossy black leather boots. They felt fantastic and would have cost a fortune regularly, so she couldn’t complain too much about the haul. She even got a fourth shoe to use as a replacement down the road. “Can we go… “ Her words sputtered out as she realized the disaster at the shoe store came from her idea. Maybe it would be better to let her friends decide on their destination from now on.

“What did you say Nicole?”

“Oh, uhhhhh…” She tucked her middle leg behind her left leg. “There’s another store that I wanted to visit. It should be more cozy, I hope.”

Sujitra stretched her arms up over her head, a few of her tenacles curling into U’s. “Ehhhh, yeah sure. Can’t be worse than that place.”

“Cozy sounds like just like what we need right now.” Zoe gave her agreement with the hurrying skitter of her spider legs. “Lead the way.” Nicole warmed up her fading smile and kicked up her heels across the mall’s main pavilion. There were more people now, which meant more gawkers and curious watchers of the trio. Few of them ever addressed the women directly, but even those who averted their eyes seemed to wish they had spared a glance. Nicole didn’t meet the gaze of the strangers either, her mind half focused on putting her feet forward in the right order still. Thankfully her lumbering eight legged companions were also taking their sweet time.

“Ehgghh.” Sujitra balked as they neared the storefront of The Knit Kit, a very cottage-core shop with a widow display of hand-woven sweaters.

“Not your style?” Nicole really didn’t have to ask, she could see the way Sujitra’s sensitive sucker cups ‘bristled’ at the thought of being smothered in itchy wool texture.

“Yeah. Pass.” She peered further down the wing of the mall for an alternative. “They look cute though, so go ahead and I’ll meet up with you later.”

“Don’t wander too far.” Zoe chided before hefting up her abdomen to slip through the wood frame doors behind Nicole. Sujita scoffed at the idea of getting lost from her fellow freaks, stocking sheathed tentacles gliding down the mall’s marble tiling’s. She already had a place in mind for her shopping, and not one which Zoe would approve of. Fluorescent pink lighting streamed out of a matte black store interior where collars and riding crops decorated the walls.

“Helloo!” A younger goth woman with two charcoal piercings over the bridge of her nose looked up at Sujitra’s towering form with glee. “A-are you a special customer? I mean, uh, looking for anything in particular?” She gestured over to a display of dildos and vibrators.

Sujitra waved her hand. “Oh, I’m good with that stuff. Just wondering if you have any clothes?” She tapped her upper lip. “Or body straps, garter belts, that sort of thing. I’m not picky.”

The employee nodded. “Yeah, well… I wouldn’t really call them clothes, but I think I have a top harness in the back that might suit you?” A few helpful adjustments later and some spins in the mirror had Sujita bound up with a dress of leather straps hooked to her stockings and wrapped around her chest. “Is that comfortable? To wear out in public?”

“Eh, I’d have settled for a T-shirt, but I’ll get some use out of this too, don’t worry.” She eyed the girl’s translucent jacket. “Hey, not to be as asshole, but could I buy that off you too?” Another swipe of the scientist card and Sujita draped the slick plastic overcoat across her shoulders.

Crawling her away back to where she’d split with her friends, Zoe and Nicole emerged at the same time. The younger wore a three-legged hybrid turtle-neck approximation of shorts combined with a top. She did a quick twirl on her central leg to show off to Sujata. “Look! They sewed me this custom!” There were shoulder holes to showcase Nicole’s hips.

“Yes, much better customer service here.” Zoe tugged down on a large sweater with a breast window, one that looked fit for a pregnant woman and just barely covered down to her udder. It would be a mystery how she got the clothes on over her horns without shredding them.

“Nice finds!” There wasn’t as much deliberation and trying on as with a usual shopping spree. When paying with someone else’s money and what still felt like someone else’s body, they all jumped at the first piece that reasonably fit. Fortune favored them to make such clean outfits out of their strange circumstances.

Zoe’s stomach gurgled, the cow woman passing gas before rubbing her turgid udder. “Oh my. What’s the time? Past three?” They hadn’t eaten since breakfast the energy shocked into them through the changes was starting to wear thin. “Goodness, I’m getting famished. Either of you mind stopping at the food court?”

“Yeah, I was just about to call it quits if we didn’t get something to eat.” Sujitra let her tentacles go limp and leaned against Zoe’s abdomen. “What about you, Nicole?”

“Oh, I could keep going…” Her smaller frame used less energy, but she was still running on fumes. “No, you both look tired, lets get a late lunch!” With tired strides towards the mall’s main plaza, they settled down their bags at a table near the least greasy looking Chinese fast-food store. Sujitra collapsed into a chair, smothering the seat with a spread of tentacles in all directions that latticed her against the ground.

Nicole shuffled her way into a booth seat that fit her double wide ass, while Zoe carefully let her spider legs extend and keeled down as her abdomen settled on the floor behind her.

“Quite the adventure so far!” Zoe and Sujitra shared a yawn.

“Mmhm. I thought there would be more…” Nicole knocked her knees against the underside of their table. “I don’t know, its just so natural now.” The exhilarating strangeness was fading as she grew more accustomed to her changes. She’d hoped that fresh feeling would last forever, not to become her new normal.

Sujitra nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I feel that. But can’t say that I’m unhappy either.” She folded her arms behind her head and closed her eyes as her tentacles pulled at the neck of their stockings. “Still got plenty of things I want to try.” The black lace snapped firm like a surgeon’s glove, one eye cracking back open to see if their order number was being called

“Ah, the day is as young as we are.” Zoe said sagely while prematurely snapping apart her chopsticks, eliciting a healthy scoff from Sujitra.

“Might as well call it quits now then.”

Nicole looked down at the plastic fork on the side of her tray, then crossed her left leg over her right-side lap while taking a sip from the straw Zoe had kindly placed in her soda cup. “I know what you mean Sujitra.”

“You do? I don’t think I even know what I mean. Or meant. Whatever.” Zoe was the one softly laughing this time.

“Yes, it’s extraordinary, isn’t it? As much as we change, old habits stay the same. Is this what you wanted to say, Nicole?”

“Well…” Nicole thought about it for a moment, looking up at the fluorescent lights hanging from plexiglass panels in the mall’s distant celling. “No, I take it back actually.” Blinking, she refocused on the placid faces of her two friends, one now with a broad bovine tongue that licked over her lips, the other with a deceptive smile and subtle rectangular pupils. “It’s better now. Because now… I got to spend the day with my friends. And change with you, and shop together…” She snickered to herself, realizing she wasn’t even making any sense to herself. “It was the right thing to do… the best thing we could have done. And so, I’m glad! I’m glad we’ll always be friends!”

“Well put!” Zoe agreed with an approving moo.

Sujitra narrowed her eyes and grinned. “Sure you’re not just saying that cause we’re going to be the ones hand feeding you now?”