(Originally written on October 2, 2023.)

My witchy friend, you know, the one with the green hair, always gets so excited for Halloween that she throws several costume parties every October, whenever she can fit them in. She asked me to help her set up for the first one this year, which was on… well, the first of October. Like I said, she’s really really excited.

So anyways, I show up at her house, and she throws open the door and immediately frowns at me. “No costume?” she said, and I mumble something about not thinking I needed one, since I’m helping set up and you might have something I could use anyways and hey you aren’t even wearing a costume yourself, etc etc. After thoroughly explaining to me that she’s dressed in the pointed shoes, striped socks, buckled belt, and curl-tipped hat of a “classic Halloween-style witch”, and not her usual getup, she looked me up and down and got this mischievous grin on her face and…

You probably know where this is going, or at least you might think you do. Before I could step out of the way she zapped me with some spell or another, and the changes were immediate, though somewhat strange. Pointed, furry ears grew from my head, but without replacing the original human ones. Fur puffed out from the collar of my shirt, but I felt no tingle on my skin. My shoes were reshaping into paws… this wasn’t normally how she did things at all! She never liked the idea of clothing just merging into the person during the transformation…!

When a long, feline tail that I couldn’t move snaked down behind me, I finally understood that I wasn’t the one transforming. My clothes were simply becoming my costume, and that costume’s form was Cat. I let out sort of a stressed laugh, feeling my paw boots squish against the ground, and said something like “Hah! I thought you were gonna magic me into something else and have that be my costume!”

I regretted these words immediately. “Oh! Is that what you wanted me to do?” she asked (was she messing with me?? Of course that wasn’t what I wanted!), and before I could get another word out she zapped me again. This time I felt the tingling, and the stretching, and all that good stuff. The paw boots that used to be my shoes ripped open as claws I couldn’t control yet extended from my fattening toes, socks having already given way, newly furred feet exposed to the air as the torn fake paws clung around them. My ears sifted up through my hair, resting not far from their clipped-on imitators. A new tail sprang to life behind me (punching a hole in my pants, ow!), and I couldn’t seem to keep it from playing with the other one, batting the lifeless thing to and fro.

The witch was smiling giddily now. “Perfect!” she said, “Now you have two costumes! They’re both cat. Now be a good familiar and help me with these decorations!” She didn’t let me take off any part of the original cat costume for the whole night, by the way. Well, not that she stopped me, she just looked so sad whenever she noticed me removing something…

So, I was a cat in a cat costume, and honestly it wasn’t too bad. A lot of the partygoers had similar stories of their own to share when they saw the state I was in, and it made for a pretty good conversation topic. She changed me back when it was over, even reverting my clothing into my original getup… except for the costume’s cat ears and the tail. Maybe those were actual objects she owned…? She told me I should keep them, thanked me for my help, and sent me home…

Her next party? Oh yeah, it’s this week. You seem pretty excited all the sudden… what’s your costume gonna be?

What do you mean you aren’t gonna bring one??