Announcementcontent warning: brief mentions of consensual hypnosis / mind controlAs soon as I was back in my room I settled into my chair and focused on the little computer again.

  I was excited about the idea of getting us our own home. And since a house seemed like another kind of possession I figured it would fall under the inventory category, so that's where I got started. I opened up the inventory editor, and this time there were no more mismatch errors or anything else to distract me.

  "Huh," I frowned a few minutes ter. "Ok this is a lot more complicated than I hoped."

  Not only was the interface complicated and nonintuitive, but the amount of data it tracked was almost overwhelming. It actually had an entry for every single thing I owned, right down to the individual socks in my dresser. And ontop of that each and every item had pages of details and meta-data tied to it.

  It probably took me a good five minutes just to figure out how to navigate the inventory list more efficiently, then another ten minutes to understand the basic paradigms it was using. In a general sense it was simir to the way a lot of game systems managed pyer inventories, but the actual implementation was different enough that I needed time to learn how to use it.

  Which I did, over the next hour or so. I even figured out a couple cool tricks, like I could duplicate inventory items or have the system spawn new instances of things. The catch was I needed to know a long complicated 'tempte ID' to spawn new stuff, and so far the only way I'd found to get an item's ID was if I already had it in my inventory.

  After staring at that for a while another idea crossed my mind. If I wanted to learn how the system handled real estate then maybe looking at an example would help? And since the house belonged to Edward, it was probably included in his inventory list.

  So I opened up his list and sure enough the house was in there. I quickly figured out that real estate wasn't treated like normal inventory items though, which made sense when I thought about it. Property couldn't be duplicated like other stuff, because it was basically unique since it was tied to a specific geographic location.

  Digging a little further into the property data revealed something else I'd been wondering about for a while, completely unreted to the ptop. I never understood why Ed didn't kick me out of the house after I turned eighteen, but I was always too scared to to ask. According to what I found buried in the inventory details, my mom had part ownership of the pce. That would have gone to me when she died, except I was still a minor at the time. So her half went into Ed's name, but with a condition in her will that if he kicked me out the house would have to be sold and half the value would go to me.

  That left me thinking for a bit, but ultimately it didn't solve any of our immediate problems. The house still belonged to Ed, and there was no way to copy or duplicate it.

  So I kept digging, and after another minute or two I found another interesting option. Thanks to my root access, there was a way I could simply transfer inventory directly from one character to another. I had no idea how that would work in real-world terms, like if there'd be a deed transfer or record of a property sale or something. I had to assume there'd be something like that though, to make it 'official'.

  It was tempting too, I could simply transfer the house from Ed's name to mine. Except even though my mom apparently paid for half of it, I didn't have any rights to the pce. So doing that was basically just theft, and I wasn't sure I'd be comfortable with that. Although I had a feeling Chels wouldn't have any problem with us taking ownership of Edward's.

  "Let's not mention this option to Chelsea. Not yet anyways," I muttered to myself.

  "What aren't we telling Chelsea, miss?" Gwyneth asked as she walked into my room with a bundle of clean bedding.

  I startled then blushed, "Oh um, I found something interesting in here, but it's basically just advanced theft. And I don't want to steal, so I'm still searching for a solution."

  My best friend agreed as she started making my bed, "Stealing is usually wrong. Unless it's from a big corporation or something like that."

  "What about billionaires?" I asked with a grin. "Stealing from billionaires should be ok right?"

  Gwen stifled a giggle, "Heck yes. If that's an option then you should totally steal from billionaires. Assuming you won't get caught, miss."

  "I'll keep that in mind," I smiled.

  My attention returned to the ptop again, but with my best friend busy making my bed behind me I found myself a little distracted. And after another half minute or so I finally turned around to watch.

  She'd already finished getting the fitted sheet in pce on the mattress, but I got to see her spread out the duvet and get it all neatly tucked in around the sides. Then she put the cases onto the pillows, and finally arranged them neatly in front of the headboard.

  I still wasn't used to her acting like my maid. For that matter I wasn't even used to the idea that she was a girl yet, or that she was trans. Same with myself. Even though this new body felt comfortable and I liked it a lot more than my original one, it was all still very new. Like less than twenty-four hours new.

  It wasn't until she'd finished that she finally realized I was watching her. Her cheeks flushed a little and she asked, "Did you want something else miss?"

  "Not really," I shook my head. Then I blushed, "I was just um, admiring your new figure. And thinking about how we've changed and everything that's happened since yesterday afternoon."

  Gwen smiled, "It's pretty amazing. And I love my new body. It's almost everything I ever wished for."

  "Almost?" I asked.

  Her cheeks coloured as she admitted, "My perfect fantasy body would have been an elf, miss. Gwyneth the Grey was a character I created a few years back? Originally for a TTRPG, but then she became sort of a self-insert in some um, stories I wrote. She's a cute elven mage."

  "Of course," I nodded. "That's why you wanted a non-human species yesterday. And why you tried to change your css to Mage."

  My friend grimaced, "Yeah. I made my appearance as close to my character as I could. And my css..."

  Her voice trailed off as her blush grew brighter. Then she admitted, "Becoming your maid instead wasn't originally part of the pn, but I'm kind of enjoying it anyways. I'd still like to be an elven mage if we ever figure out how to do that, although I might keep the maid css too? Assuming I could dual-css as a mage and maid."

  That made me smile, as I remembered some of those details I read on her character sheet. I couldn't help asking, "What's your favourite part about being my maid?"

  "Oh um," Gwyneth hesitated as her cheeks seemed like they were on the verge of spontaneously combusting. "It's weird and embarrassing, but I used to hate these sorts of chores? It feels good though. Like cleaning, or making the bed? It's like, I can see the results of my efforts immediately, and know I've done a good job."

  That wasn't the answer I was expecting, but I decided not to pressure her for anything else. And it turned out I didn't have to.

  A moment ter she added in a quiet embarrassed voice, "There's also the other thing, that I told you before. The um, obedience thing? It kind of turns me on."

  "I have a thing for that," she admitted softly. "I've never told this to anyone, but um, one of my fantasies is being hypnotized or mind controlled? Being made to do things, or think things, or just being controlled somehow? So when I saw that being your maid meant I'd obey your orders, that kind of did things for me."

  Even though I already knew about that it was still good to hear it directly from her. "Wow Gwen, that's pretty wild."

  "Actually," I added with a little smile, "I could probably figure something out with the ptop if you want? Like I don't know, maybe we could set up a trigger word so I could put you into a hypnotic trance or something? If that's something you wanted to try, I mean."

  Gwen's eyes widened, and I'd swear I could actually see her getting flustered as she thought about my suggestion. She gulped then nodded slowly, "That um, yeah. I think I'd like that miss."

  My smile got a little wider as grabbed the ptop off the desk then banced it on my knees, so I could use it while I was still facing Gwyneth. Then as I opened up the character editor I asked, "While I'm doing this do you mind if we change the subject slightly? Talking about all the ways we've changed everything, there's something I'd like to ask you."

  "No pressure though ok?" I added. "It's probably really personal, and you don't have to answer if you're not comfortable."

  That seemed to leave my friend curious but maybe a bit wary. She sat down on the edge of my bed and nodded, "All right. What did you want to talk about?"

  My cheeks started to colour again as I asked, "I guess what I'm wondering is, how did you know you were trans?"

  She gave me a sort of knowing look that made me blush a bit more, "Right. So obviously this sort of thing is different for everybody, and I also want to point out that there's no right or wrong way to be trans. Some of us figure it out early, others stay in egg mode for ages before they hatch."

  "Egg mode?" I asked with a frown. "I saw that mentioned recently, 'trans egg'. What does that mean?"

  Gwen smiled, "An egg is a trans person who hasn't figured out they're trans yet. Um, typical eggy examples might include stuff like feeling envious of things one associates with the opposite sex, or even just wanting to be the opposite sex. Even innocuous things like hating one's given name can be eggy, if it's because the name is heavily gendered the wrong way. Some eggs are even envious of trans people for 'getting to transition' or stuff like that."

  "Like when I was still in egg mode I'd fantasize about being a girl," she expined. "I used to read all these fics where guys would get changed into girls, and I liked to imagine that happening to me. I was envious of how girls got to be cute and wear pretty things, and could have long hair and make-up and jewelry and everything? Basically I just really wanted to be a girl."

  The more she talked the hotter my cheeks got, because it felt like she was describing me. I finally asked, "How do you know that's not just normal stuff though? I mean, isn't everyone curious about what it's like on the other side of the fence? I'm sure everyone fantasizes about that kind of thing once in a while."

  Gwen stifled a ugh, "No miss, they don't. Cis guys do not fantasize about becoming cute girls. And if a cis guy was suddenly turned into a girl, he'd probably freak out about it and do whatever he could to fix it. He definitely wouldn't immediately start using a femme name and pronouns. Or put on a skirt, or experiment with lipstick."

  "Anyways," she became serious again and continued, "You asked how I knew I was trans? It's because I eventually stumbled into some trans spaces online. That's another eggy thing, having trans friends. Even if you don't know they're trans. Even if they don't know it yet either. So I found myself reting really hard to all the memes they shared. And privately wishing I could be trans too. Eventually someone posted something that hit a little too close to home, and basically led me to hatch."

  After a deep breath she repeated what it was, "If you want to be a girl, then congratutions! You're already a girl. Because only girls want to be girls."

  "Doesn't matter what you look like on the outside," she added. "It's what's inside that counts. And if deep down you want to be a girl, then that's what you are."

  By the time she was done my head was spinning, and it felt like all this was yet another big reality-bending revetion. Or at least, it was for me. It expined a lot, but it still took me a bit to get my head around it all.

  "Oh," I finally mumbled. "So if I um, if a lot of that stuff you just said applies to me, does that mean I'm trans too?"

  My best friend gave me a compassionate smile then replied, "Trans is just a bel, miss. Nobody but you can know for sure if that bel fits you or not. What I can say is it feels likely to me? Based on things you've said, questions you've asked, and everything I've observed. Not just since st night, I mean as long as we've been friends."

  "I've suspected you might be trans ever since I hatched myself," she admitted.

  Hearing that was another little shock, but it made sense given everything else she'd just told me. I nodded slowly as it all sank in, then finally gulped as I looked over at her.

  I took a deep breath then with my cheeks heating up again I quietly announced, "In that case I um, I think maybe I'm trans after all?"

  Gwen smiled, "I'm happy for you Lisa. And I'm here for you if you have more questions about being trans."

  "Thanks," I smiled back. I wasn't sure what else to say though, so after that I just went quiet.

  After a half minute or so my friend spoke up again. She was blushing this time as she asked, "So um, you said something a few minutes ago about trying some hypnosis stuff on me, with the ptop?"

  "Oh right!" I looked down at the little computer on my knees. It was already on her character sheet, and I'd navigated down to that Notes field that Chelsea used on herself. As I started typing I asked, "How's this sound?"

  "Any time your friend Lisa snaps her fingers and tells you to 'Drop' - as long as you are willing and only if it is safe to do so - you will instantly drop into the deepest hypnotic trance imaginable. While in that trance your mind will be bnk, calm, and quiet, and you will listen only to Lisa. You will accept and obey anything and everything she tells you. However, if anything Lisa says makes you uncomfortable, you may reject her words and the trance will end immediately."

  By the time I'd finished reading that out to her I could tell my friend was excited. Her cheeks were flushed and her breathing was a little quicker, she'd even shifted slightly so her thighs were pressed together. She nodded, "That sounds really nice miss."

  "I'm not sure how effective it'll actually be," I warned, "But I think it'll work. So should I go ahead and save that?"

  Gwen sounded eager as she replied immediately, "Yes please!"

  With her permission I saved the changes, and the ptop did the 'updating character' thing. It only took a second this time, and I noticed her body didn't go all pixelted either. I figured that's because there were no physical changes, or maybe because this was only a retively small update overall.

  "All done," I said. Then I asked, "Do you want me to give it a try?"

  "Yes please," she repeated herself, and this time she sounded even more excited.

  As soon as she gave me permission I snapped my fingers and stated, "Drop!"

  PurpleCatGirl