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Subject: {ASSM} Zodiac Coin:Pisces
Date: Fri,  1 Mar 2002 04:10:04 -0500
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Here's my latest, the next in the Zodiac Coin series.  Before I 
start, I'm giving fair warning.  For those interested in stories 
about transformations and sex, this story is not for you.  This is a 
story about a woman dealing with the consequences of her acts, and as 
such, the transformation and sex are only lightly touched on.

On another note, I've worked out the coin effects for Pisces, Libra 
(the written stories), Leo, and Gemini.  I have some ideas for a few 
of the others, but nothing fully fleshed out, so any suggestions for 
the other zodiac symbols will be appreciated.  Full credit will given 
for any ideas that I use.  If you want to submit an idea, the rule is 
simple: each coin grants three wishes, but with a side effect based 
on its symbol that renders it useless for selfish or vindictive acts.

Now, onto the boring stuff

-------------------------

DISCLAIMERS

-------------------------

This story contains scenes of an erotic and/or controversial nature, 
and is not intended for the perusal of minors.  Further if perusal of 
such material is considered illegal in your area or immoral by your 
religion or personal beliefs, you should likewise bypass this story.

This story remains the property of the author.  Permission is granted 
to download, photocopy, copy and repost so long as any such action 
contains these disclaimers, and no attempt is made to profit from 
this story.

All characters in this story are the creation of the author, and any 
resemblance to real persons, alive or dead, are purely coincidental.

This story may contain aspects of fantastic science or magic.  The 
parameters of what this science/magic can accomplish are completely 
at the discretion of me, the author, and, as such, I make no 
apologies for any rules of "real" physics, chemistry, biology, or 
magic that may be broken within the story.

-------------------------

Now onto the fun stuff

-------------------------

ZODIAC COINS: PISCES

2400 YEARS AGO...

He was a trader, traveling from town to town with his wagon full of 
wares.  Unlike many of his peers, he always sought to be fair in all 
his dealings.  At that particular time, he was parked for the night. 
He saw a shooting star and gave a prayer to Zeus, lord of the 
heavens, his second that night.

He saw yet a third star streak through the night and strike the 
second (which was actually a repeat of the first), freezing in the 
night sky.  As he offered a third prayer, it was clear that Zeus was 
not listening, for the meteor, once two, now one, became a meteorite 
on the exact spot where he was resting.

************

TODAY...

Barbara, a plain woman with coke bottle glasses, walked into the 
house of her sister, Esmerelda, super model and aspiring actress. 
The house, really a mansion, was unusually silent.  Gone was the 
hustle and bustle of the servants, both those who were supposed to be 
present and those who were supposed to get the job done while never 
being seen.  It gave the place an eerie echo reminiscent of many 
horror movies.

Barbara walked through the house calling first for her sister, then 
for anyone, but getting no answer.  She was beginning to get worried, 
particularly since Esmerelda had called her and asked her to come 
over right away.  Ever since her husband had disappeared about a year 
ago, Esmerelda had been having problems, and about six months ago she 
had started fighting a losing battle with clinical depression, and 
Barbara was afraid that she had done something self destructive.

Barbara was about to call the police when she walked into the dining 
room.  One wall was taken up with big windows which gave a clear view 
of the beach part of Esmerelda's beach front property, and when 
Barbara looked through them, she saw her sister standing at the end 
of a rock jetty, wearing her full length, mink coat, facing out to 
sea.  Esmerelda was staring down at something in her hand that 
Barbara couldn't see.

Barbara was terrified.  Even if Esmerelda wasn't planning something 
stupid (which Barbara felt was a real possibility), the winds and 
waves were just high enough that being out there was a real danger. 
Of course, Barbara's extreme fear of the ocean was no help.

Barbara ran out to the beach.  The dismal, gray sky making the 
situation seem even worse.  She had to stop where the sand met the 
rocks.  She wanted to climb out there and drag Esmerelda back, but 
her fear was just too much.  She was only able to call out, 
"Esmerelda!  ESMERELDA!"

Esmerelda lifted her head, but didn't turn around.  "Hi, Barb, you're 
late.  I expected you a half hour ago."

"Bad traffic on the freeway.  Look, Ez, could you do me a favor and 
come in off those rocks?  It looks real dangerous out there."

Esmerelda looked back to her hand.  "Yeah, it's real nasty out today. 
But the weather matches my mood."  That terrified Barbara, but before 
she could say anything, Esmerelda continued, "I've got to go after 
him, Barb.  I've got to go after Jack."

"Your husband?  Look, I don't know what you're planning, but your 
husband ran away from you.  You're under no obligation to go chasing 
after him."

She shook her head.  "He didn't run away.  I drove him away.  He had 
to leave because of something he did for me."

"Even if I grant that, you don't have to do this personally.  We can 
hire investigators.  There are firms that handle this kind of thing."

Esmerelda gave Barbara a half-snort, half-laugh.  "No investigator or 
firm is going to be able to find him."  Esmerelda looked out to the 
sea.  "I know where he is, Barb.  He's out there."

"What?  On a boat?  That doesn't mean we can't find him.  Boats have 
to dock, Ez, for food, for gas.  He's going to leave a trail.  We can 
find him."

Esmerelda laughed, but it was a laugh tinged with desperation and a 
touch of insanity.  "Oh, god, if only it were that simple.  No, Barb, 
he's not on any boat, and he'll never walk through any port ever 
again."

Very afraid, Barbara asked, "Did he throw himself into the sea?  Kill 
himself?" fearing that if the answer was yes, that that meant 
Esmerelda planned on doing the same.

"Yes... and no.  He threw himself into the sea, right from this 
jetty, but he didn't kill himself.  He's alive, Barb, out there."

Barbara was afraid her sister was fooling herself.  "Jack was never a 
strong swimmer, Ez.  If he threw himself off these rocks, he couldn't 
have made it.  You'd have to be part fish to make it out there."

Whatever Esmerelda was holding, she clutched it close to her breast, 
looking up, and laughed insanely.  After she calmed down, she said, 
"If you only knew."
"Ez, I'm trying to understand what you're saying, but you're 
talking..." Barbara almost said crazy, but decided on, "in riddles. 
What happened to Jack?"

Esmerelda turned around.  "I suppose you should know that, so that 
you know what to expect."

"Maybe I should get a chair."

Barbara actually wanted to go call for help, but Esmerelda stopped 
her by saying, "If you go, I won't be here when you get back."

Barbara said, "Okay, Ez, just keep talking.  Tell me what happened to 
Jack."  Barbara figured that as long as Esmerelda kept talking, she 
wouldn't be doing something worse.

"You remember how Jack and I met?"

"You went to high school together."

"Yeah.  He was a year ahead of me, but he followed me around like 
everybody else."  Barbara cringed.  It was a sore spot with her that 
as plain as she was, Esmerelda was that beautiful.  But now was not 
the time to rehash childhood jealousies.  "I don't know why I chose 
to let him take me out.  He always used to say it was destiny.  From 
the first, I knew there was something special about him.  He was 
always so loving and caring, but that wasn't enough for me."  She 
clenched her hand tight around whatever she was holding, clenched her 
eyes tight, and yelled, "OH, GOD, WHY COULDN'T I BE CONTENT WITH WHAT 
I HAD?"

"Ez, stay focused.  Tell me what happened, and then we can find a solution."

"What happened?  What happened is that I was too selfish for my own good."

"Little more detail, Ez.  Tell me what happened.  I can't help if I 
don't know what's going on."

"Sorry.  So Jack and I were married, in secret so that I didn't have 
to worry about the protests."  Barbara remembered that.  Mom had 
exploded when Esmerelda had come home and told them.  "Then we moved 
in together and started our lives, me as an aspiring model, he as an 
electrician.  Anyway, there was only one real problem.  Jack had no 
real ambition.  He was a construction worker and content to be 
nothing more.  From the first day back from our honeymoon, I kept 
pushing him to try to be more, but the most he ever became was a 
supervisor.

"I finally got him to do something by telling him he was holding me 
back.  I told him that the hiring agents didn't think that the wife 
of a simple construction worker was upscale enough for their clients. 
I knew that he'd do anything for me.  I thought I could shame him 
into changing."

"So what happened?"

Esmerelda wiped a tear from her eye.  "It worked, just not how I thought."

"Ez, this is like pulling teeth.  Tell me what happened."

Esmerelda held up what she had been clutching, a gold coin about the 
size of a quarter.  "This is what happened, the Pisces coin.  I don't 
know where Jack got it, but I wish he had never gotten his hands on 
it."

"A coin?  What's so special about a coin?"

"It grants wishes.  Oh, I can see your disbelief, but it's true.  Do 
you remember ho my career just took off out of nowhere?  Jack wished 
for me to get that.  He didn't tell me what he had done.  Suddenly, I 
just had jobs lined up around the block.  I still wanted Jack to be 
more than was, but I was too busy to really make an issue of it."

"Sounds idyllic."

"Should have been.  Then I had my accident, after only a couple 
months.  The car accident left me with some scars.  Looking back, 
they weren't that bad.  Hell, I could've covered them with make-up, 
but I was such a drama queen.  I kept ranting and raving about how my 
career was over.  It didn't matter that I was still getting plenty of 
offers, I wasn't perfect, so I had to whine.  I pushed everyone away: 
you, mom, dad.  I even tried to push Jack away, but he wouldn't let 
me.

"I guess the crying finally got to him, because he came to me with 
the coin.  He explained about the wishes.  I thought he was talking 
nuts.  Like you're thinking I probably am.  Don't worry.  I know how 
crazy this sounds.  I wish it was just craziness on my part.  But 
when he wished that I was as beautiful as he saw me, I knew 
different.  I was perfect, more than perfect.

"I wondered why he hadn't used the coin in the first place, but I 
didn't want to risk anything by asking too many questions.  I should 
have asked, though.  I should have asked before he made any wishes. 
You see, Barb, there's a cost to using the coin, a cost Jack didn't 
tell me about.

"Jack started losing weight.  He also rounded out and became more 
cuddly.  I wondered about it, but I was too caught up in my own 
career to make much of an effort.  Then I came home from an 
international shoot feeling horny as hell.  I cornered him in the 
bedroom, ripped open his shirt, and found that he had grown a pair of 
breasts.  They were still pretty small, about your size, but they 
were unmistakably breasts.

"He was so worried that I'd reject him.  He didn't know that I was 
bisexual.  Not that I'd ever cheat on him, even with another woman, 
but I loved looking, and since the breasts were on my husband, I 
enjoyed the touching.  After a night of hot, heavy sex, he told me 
that he was changing into a woman.  He said it was the cost of using 
the coin.  I told him that I'd stay by him no matter what he changed 
into."

When Esmerelda paused in recounting her story, Barbara asked, "So 
what happened?  Did the female Jack fall for some guy and run off?"

"No, if that were it, I could live with it.  No, Jack was faithful to 
the end.  But Jack hadn't told me the full cost of the coin.  For 
five months, I watched Jack grow more and more feminine, more and 
more beautiful.  His breasts grew large and round, and his face 
became inhumanly beautiful.  He became more beautiful than I was... 
from the waist up.  From the waist down, nothing happened.

"I asked him about it, but he avoided the question.  It took me a 
while, but eventually I pinned him down and got an answer.  You see, 
Barb, the coin doesn't turn you into a woman.  It turns you into a 
mermaid.  After the first wish, you have two years before the change 
is completed.  After the second wish, whatever time you have left 
after the first wish is cut in half.  And if you make a third wish, 
you are immediately transformed.

"I was shocked.  I dug the coin out of the dresser where he had put 
it and started wishing on it.  When that didn't work, I became a real 
mess, shaking and yelling at it to work.  Jack casually got out of 
bed, wrapped his arms around me, took the coin, and tossed it into 
the drawer.  Then he sat me down and explained the coin.

"As long as the coin hasn't been wished on, it can be given to 
anybody.  After a person makes a wish, they're locked in; only they 
can use it until they either use all three wishes, their time limit 
expires, or they die.  All three wishes must be used on the same 
person, whereupon the coin passes into their possession.

"I broke down in tears.  He had wished for me; he had given up his 
life for me."  Esmerelda wiped another tear from her eye.  "He had 
sacrificed everything because I couldn't be satisfied with what I had.

"The next day I went berserk.  I hired a construction crew to 
transform the basement into a huge pool.  I invested in immense 
filtration units, oxygen pumps, and anything else anybody suggested. 
Jack asked me not to use up our last time together, but once again I 
wouldn't listen."

"So what happened?"

"The final day he was human I woke up alone in bed.  When I looked 
out the window, I saw him standing right where I'm standing now.  I 
came out here in my nightie and a robe and asked him to come back in.

"He told me that he couldn't.  I begged him to give the pool a 
chance.  He gave me a weak smile and explained that, although 
mermaids could spend a few days close to the surface, they were 
actually deep sea creatures, and, short of investing in thousands of 
dollars of pressure tanks, there was no way that he could stay close 
to me.  I was tempted to ask, but that would have meant condemning 
him to a life living in a space barely larger than he was.  Not even 
I'm that selfish.

"What came next was the worst, though.  You know what he did?  He 
apologized!  Here he was giving up everything because of my 
selfishness, and he blamed himself for the fact that we weren't happy 
together.  Then he held the coin, ran to the edge of the rocks, and 
leapt.  As he sailed through the air, he called out, 'I wish that you 
can find the one who will love you more than anyone else.'  I ran to 
the edge of the rocks, only to see a large fish tail sink below the 
water."

Esmerelda paused once more.  When she didn't seem to want to 
continue, Barbara asked, "Didn't his wish work?  You haven't been 
with anyone since Jack disappeared."

"Oh, it worked.  That's the irony.  When Jack wished his wish, I 
knew, without a doubt, that there was no one else who would love me 
as much as he did.  I also know exactly where he is.  I've taken a 
boat out to where he is, but I'm limited to what money can buy, and 
he's down so deep that even the toughest subs would be crushed by the 
pressure."

Esmerelda held up the coin and said, "The only way down there is to 
wish for someone and become a mermaid myself."  She looked from the 
coin to Barbara.  "That's why I asked for you to come over, Barb.  As 
a kid, I mistreated you.  I cared more for my popularity than your 
feelings, so I've chosen you to wish for."

"Look, Ez, I appreciate the thought, but you were actually a lot 
better than anyone else, and I don't want to lose you, so just put 
down that coin, come in off the rocks, and we can find another way to 
get to Jack."  Truth was, Barbara assumed that her sister had 
cracked.  She assumed that Jack had jumped off the rocks, and the 
coin was her sister's way of both denying it and rationalizing the 
guilt she felt.

Esmerelda just smiled.  She looked over the coin at Barbara and said, 
"I wish that you'd become as beautiful as you could possibly be."

Barbara didn't figure on anything happening, but her eyes went all 
blurry.  She yanked her glasses off, figuring something must have 
gotten on the lenses, only to find that her eyesight was now perfect 
without them.  She then realized that her sister's story was true.

Esmerelda started, "I wish-"

But Barbara interrupted, "Ez, wait.  No matter what our problems, I 
don't want to lose you."

Esmerelda got a sad, almost tragic, look on her face.  "I know, Barb, 
and I am sorry.  I felt the same way when I found out that I was 
going to lose Jack.  But the process has already begun, and there is 
nothing you or I can do to stop it.  Ironic, I guess.  The coin's 
effects were designed to keep it from being used for selfish reasons, 
what's the point of asking for fame or riches when you're eventually 
going to wind up in the sea, yet I manage it."  Esmerelda wiped 
another tear from her eye.  "I'll try to come back on your birthday, 
Barb.  I wish that you'll become a successful writer.  That is your 
chosen career, right?"

Barbara nodded.  When Esmerelda held up the coin, Barbara said, "Ez, please."

"I'm sorry, Barb, but I have to go to him.  I wish that you'll meet 
the one who will love you more than any other."  With that, Esmerelda 
turned, ran, and jumped from the rocks into the water.  As she ran, 
she let the mink she was wearing slide off her, revealing her nude 
body underneath.

Barbara heard herself yell, "NO!" and run out on the rocks.  She saw 
the mermaid that used to be her sister sink beneath the waves.  She 
called out, "Ez!  Esmerelda!"

After a few seconds, Esmerelda's head popped back up.  "Barb?" 
Before Barbara could think of anything to say, Esmerelda said, "Wow, 
I never figured that you'd ever get out on those rocks."

Suddenly Barbara realized where she had run to and her irrational 
fear of water took over.  She went to her hands and knees, saying, 
"Oh, my god!  Oh, my god!  I'm gonna die!"

"Look, Barb, just turn around and head back.  You won't even have to stand up."

"No, no, I can't.  I'm gonna die!  I'm gonna die!"

"Barb, take it easy.  You can handle this."

"No, I can't."

Barbara was going to panic more, but instead she heard singing, 
singing that drove all panic and fright from her.  Her only thought 
was to get to that voice.  Not even thinking about it, she stood, 
ran, and jumped into the water.  Esmerelda caught her and carried 
Barbara back to shore, using her enchanted singing to keep Barbara 
calm.  When they got close to the beach, Esmerelda threw her sister 
to safety.

Barbara took a rough landing, then, her own thinking restored, 
scrambled away from the water.  She turned and saw her sister waving. 
Esmerelda called out, "Are you okay?"

After a cursory check, Barbara yelled back, "A couple bruises, no biggie."

"I love you, Barbara.  Remember, I'll be back on your birthday.  I'll 
come back to the boardwalk at midnight.  It's got a high rail, so you 
won't have to be afraid of falling in."  Esmerelda turned, yelled, 
"Take care of that coin!" and dove into the sea.

Barbara stared out at the place where her sister had disappeared for 
a few minutes, then looked down at the coin.  Somehow she had held 
onto it through everything after it had come to her hand after 
Esmerelda had wished that third wish.  She suspected...  No, she 
somehow knew that that was part of the magic of the coin.  As long as 
she hadn't started wishing, she could give it away, hell, even throw 
it away, but she couldn't lose it.

The coin was a gold color, about the size of a quarter.  Embossed on 
its surface was a pair of fishes, each chasing the other's tail. 
Barbara also knew that the coin had a name, the Pisces coin.

The coin had a name, a name that she hated.  If this damned coin had 
never come to Jack, he and Esmerelda could have worked things out. 
At the very least, Barbara would still be around.  Barbara grew so 
angry, she flung the coin out into the ocean.  With a muttered, "Good 
riddance," she stormed back to her car.

On the way home, she was pulled over by a cop.  As the officer walked 
alongside, she said, "What's the problem?"  When she looked up at the 
officer, her heart skipped a beat.  The officer was a good looking, 
athletic, blond woman.  For Barbara, a closet lesbian, the cop was a 
walking fantasy.

The cop said, "Nothing to worry about.  You've got a taillight out. 
I'm not even sure why I bothered, but I need to make sure you've got 
a current I.D."

Barbara said, "Sure, I understand," as she got her card out of her purse.

The cop looked back and forth from the card to Barbara's face a few 
times.  "You know, this picture only barely looks like, and, 
according to this, you're supposed to be wearing glasses while 
driving."

Realizing that the truth would probably get her put in a funny farm, 
Barbara said, "Laser eye surgery.  I don't need them anymore."

The officer took out her ticket book, tore one out, and handed it 
with the back up, to Barbara.  "Read this."  It was a bunch of small 
print about how to pay and/or fight the fine, and Barbara found she 
could read it easily.  After a paragraph, the cop said, "Okay, if 
you've memorized that, there's no way I'm going to catch you in a 
lie.  You need to go down to the D.M.V. and get this updated.  Other 
cops may give you a really hard time."  After she handed the card 
back, the officer asked, "So, where ya headed?"

It had felt like a casual question, but Barbara thought she had felt 
an under current of personal interest.  She thought she might be 
imagining it, but decided to take a chance.  "I was thinking of 
checking out a bar I'd heard of, The Express.  Know anything about 
it?"  It was a lesbian bar that Barbara had heard of but not yet gone 
to.

Her risk paid off when the officer said, "I go there whenever I can. 
You realize that The Express only caters to a specific kind of girl?"

"I had heard that."

"I was about to get off.  Would you care for an escort?"

"I'd really, really like that."

"You know where it is?"

"Not exactly."

"I'll go call in, then you can follow me there."

Barbara watched the officer retreat and thought, "Ez, I hope you're 
happy, wherever you are.  And I hope this cop is the result of that 
last wish.  God, she's got a cute ass."

************

IN A CITY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA...

It was a city of mermaids, each resident looking like a half-woman, 
half-fish, even the males.  Although each mermaid's top was a 
straight man's wet dream, the one man floating at a table in the bar 
was particularly beautiful.  He had received many offers, but he had 
turned them all down.

Most thought he was a bit stuck up, but the bartender knew better. 
She knew that he was a transformee, a human changed by magic into a 
mermaid, and all transformees had a period of readjustment to life 
under the sea.  This one was just a lot longer than most.

Suddenly, a voice called out, "JACK!" and the transformee looked up 
as a new mermaid shot into the bar and slammed into him.  The 
bartender was going to swim over and separate them, but the new lady 
didn't seem to want to hurt Jack; she just held him tightly, 
professing her love.

Jack eventually got the new girl back a little to see who it was. 
"Ez?  What are you doing here?"

"I had to.  It was your last wish.  It showed me that no one would 
ever love me as much as you.  I was so selfish.  I never realized 
what a good thing I had until I lost you.  Please forgive me, Jack."

Jack kissed her.  "Of course I'll forgive you.  I love you, Ez." 
Finally happy, the two swam off together.

************

ON A BEACH A FEW MILES FROM ESMERELDA'S HOME...

It was just growing dark and the beach was empty of any visitors.  It 
was late enough in the season so that even in the middle of the day 
there hadn't been a lot of patrons, and it would probably be the same 
tomorrow.  Even so, sommebody would eventually notice the glint of 
gold from a quarter sized coin with a pair of embossed fishes on its 
surface.


-- 
"This is reality, not T.V.  Can't you tell the difference?"
"Sure, I just like T.V. better."

jrdss@alaska.net
ICQ#37222294
J R D

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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