Another cold, winter night, another survey from my clifftop. There was someone I was worried about, someone I’d met recently… a grocery store cashier.
He’d looked terrible. Truly exhausted, like nothing I’d ever seen. I asked if he was okay, and he said he was “just tired”. One or two questions later and I found out that he doesn’t work the night shift or anything, just has severe insomnia. I told him I was very sorry to hear that, placing a near-invisible marker on his arm with my magic. To be honest he was so tired I probably could’ve done just about anything to him without his noticing, but this would be all I needed.
Conveniently, his bedroom window faces such that I can see him from my usual perch. And sure enough, he was right there, in bed, staring at the ceiling, completely unable to sleep. Perfect!
… After thinking briefly about what it usually means to use a gun to “put someone to sleep”, I line up the shot and pull the trigger.
I had to specially craft this spell to be as relaxing as possible. It wouldn’t actually knock him unconscious or anything, just make him so absurdly comfortable that he’d fall asleep without even noticing what was happening to him. Even if he did notice, though, he’d probably just think it was a dream…
I watched the changes eagerly through my binoculars. This was one of my favorite kinds of transformation, plus I was nervous about him noticing or reacting. He was beginning to gently swell in various places, starting with his increasingly furry arms, which were also sort of being pushed out to either side as their internal makeup shifted rather drastically. Any tension in his shoulders, elbows, and soon his wrists… his fingers… all of it was gonna go away as bones and joints were replaced by stuffing.
The swelling in his arms reached his hands, which began puffing up and rounding out, growing into and drawing in his fingers and reducing them to nothing. Alllll of those joints were gonna take an ontological break for the night… I giggled at the way his sleeves gently compressed his arms to fit them inside.
His shirt rode up his belly, which was growing fur and filling with stuffing. His organs went the way of his joints, without even an ounce of discomfort or pain. No bodily functions would disturb his rest tonight.
As his feet changed in a similar manner to his hands, his socks were simply pushed off. His pajama pants were quite baggy, and fit on his plushie legs surprisingly well. He yawned, his eyelids drooping, before the big finale began.
His mouth dried out, but not in a way that made him thirsty. He wouldn’t be getting up to get a glass of water anytime soon… not that I was making him unable to move, mind you! He’d probably be extremely clumsy at it now, but he was still plenty capable of motion. Anyways, his swelling cheeks were almost pushing his eyes closed, and said eyes were drying into shiny plastic orbs. Some of the skin on his nose was changing into black felt, and the whole thing was bulging out into a cute, cartoonish muzzle. Two round, furry ears pushed up through his newly-synthetic hair, and with the rest of his fur filling out, the changes were complete!
I watched the living teddy bear for about a minute, making sure everything had gone well. I’d fine-tuned this form with a fun little quirk that made it so his chest would rise and fall whenever he was asleep. He didn’t need to breathe as a plushie, of course, but I needed a way to tell whether or not he was conscious. Sure enough, he wasn’t! The grocery-store-cashier-turned-teddy-bear was fast asleep.
I lowered my binoculars, satisfied with my work, and looked out over the city with my own two eyes. The lights and such were beautiful in their own way, but also cold and uncaring. That man wasn’t the only one working endlessly without proper rest, be it due to a condition like insomnia or just good old-fashioned overworking. At least I’d made things just a little better for one person, though…
Later that night, as I lay at my camp, trying to get some sleep of my own, I had one final thought on the matter… It would’ve been cute if I’d had him keep the plushie ears the next day.