This dream was weird. Voices don’t usually come so clearly in Andrea’s dreams. The premise is kinda strange too. Oh well, better than the usual dream of still being at boarding school, or a confusing almost sex dream.

“Uhhh sure I guess.” Superpowers seemed cool to play around with, even if they probably wont even remember the dream properly when they woke up.

"Oh? Not even asking questions? Alrighty then~"

The dream figure wraps Andrea up in a warm, soft hug, and plants a kiss on their forehead, and the dream dissolves into formless impressions of comfort and rest...

...When Andrea actually wakes up, there's a very distinct sense of something to reach out and do. Like grabbing something off a mental shelf. There could clearly be more options, plenty of room on the shelf- But for now, there's only one. It feels active, light, cheerful and happy.

Andrea is kind of… emotionally affected by such a strong memory of being hugged and kissed. They haven't been hugged in literal years. Ah, his poor heart. Why do the nice dreams almost make him want to cry.

When he gets over being hopelessly touch starved he notices the weird new sensation. “The fuck?” 

Andrea mentally pokes at the new feeling and suddenly they are a harpy! The first thing they notice is THE HORRIFIC SUDDEN LACK OF HANDS. WHAT THE FUCK WHERE DID HIS HANDS GO! AHHH HIS FEET ARE CLAWS! ALL THESE FEATHERS!

He’s lucky he lives alone or someone might notice his freak out and see a bird person thrashing around under the sheets (that are being sadly torn up by harpy claws).

Once he is done hyperventilating over losing his arms and being part bird. They notice also being a girl. Normally they’d be freaked out by not having their penis anymore, but both of his arms are wings now, and that is kind of a bigger deal.

The freak out takes a while. But eventually Andrea calms down enough to inspect himself (herself?). Waddling unsteadily over on clawed feet to the bathroom to look at themself in the mirror.

Cute… is probably not the first thought he should have. But it is. The body he is now in is seriously heccin cute! He looks like one of those almost unrealistically pretty cosplayers.

The next thing he notices is… well, Andrea is 19, and this is the closest look he has ever gotten at boobs, and since he does not sleep with a shirt on they are on full display, what do you expect him to do? Not look? The lack of penis is suddenly welcome or this would get even more embarrassing than it already is.

”What the actual fuck….” He spends a looooong time looking himself over in the mirror, at the new girl body, at the new bird parts, at where the wings attach to his shoulders. This should look like some body horror but it kinda works somehow?

Andrea spends so long with his freak out and self inspection that he misses morning classes. And that is weirdly the thought he has once he is done looking at himself. He has already missed too many classes this semester! Even worse, he cant show up to class like this!

Then he realises being a bird person is a much bigger deal than just missing classes. They have no arms! How will they do anything, would his family even believe it was him? Is he stuck like this forever?

Well, the spark currently nestled in his head has something to say about that!!!

It's been long enough since you grabbed it that you could just let go of it and change back! Also! You could totally F L Y ! It wouldn't even be hard! And you can carry things with your feet!

Nope, Andrea is not at all curious enough about flight to not change back immediately.

ARMS! HOW I MISSED YOU! Also you too penis ol pal, the feet also get an honourable mention. The claws didn’t seem the best for walking on.

The reality of having bird girl shapeshifting superpowers sinks in. Like literally everyone not massively afraid of heights, they had always wished they could fly, but the fantasy involved flying like superman or green lantern, not by having wings. And just being a bird person is a lot less powerful a powerset than some of the other supers that have appeared. Could still be useful for search and rescue? Were they seriously considering being a superhero? That wasn’t like them at all. But just… not using his power at all seemed like a waste.

The girl he turned into was super cute… very cosplay anime girl… Okay no, the idea of becoming the bird girl version of Jessica Nigri was insane. Plus, the thought of having people take photos of him and pay attention to him made his heart clench, bad idea.

Andrea misses the rest of the days classes. By the end of the afternoon he gets curious enough to poke that mental thingy that turns him back into a bird girl.

He feels incredibly guilty and weird about it, but this time it’s without clothes on. He has access to a girls naked body AND HE IS ALLOWED TO BE CURIOUS, it’s definitely not weird okay?

After a good long while definitely not perving at himself and marvelling at how pretty and cute the human parts of his bird girl form are, he decides to change back to human and get dressed.

He gets an old ipod touch out, the only thing with a camera that Andrea can make sure wont ever connect to the internet, sets it to record, and shifts in front of the camera. This way he can prove he’s not crazy if he wants to tell anyone about this.

Once he’s done definitely not making cute faces at the camera while being a pretty girl, Andrea shifts back to human and goes to bed.

Andrea goes to classes the next day like normal, he really can’t afford to miss too many classes.

He spends part of the night shifting into gird girl form, getting used to having wings for arms and claws for feet and being a girl. 
The rest of the week continues like this.

When the weekend hits, Andrea has realised that no matter what he does with this bird girl form… he is going to need clothes for it (her?, it’s still just him though). None of his boy clothes really fit that body. And he at least needs something to… hide the nips that poke through his shirts. Even if the bird girl form perfectly hides his secret identity it would be way too embarrassing for people to see him with girl nipples poking through a shirt.

He is way too embarrassed to visit a proper mall or department store, so he visits Fred Meyer, they sell clothes there as well as groceries so there’s plausible deniability. He still hoodies up so hopefully nobody will recognise him there.

Once Andrea is there at Fred Meyer and in the womens clothes section, he realises he has no idea how the sizing works! Now there is a very anxious boy nervously wandering the womens section.

Eventually one of the store staff will come up to him. "Hey, do you need help finding anything? For your girlfriend or something?"

Oh god someone is talking to him, he wants to die on the spot.

”I uhhhh… yeah… no! Not girlfriend.. but yeah clothes for a… cousin” LYING IS SO HARD. There is a reason he almost never does it.

”but I don’t know how sizes work…”

"Oh. ...Oh. Well, whatever. If you don't know their size, uh... Lemme see your phone for a sec and I know a good link for that."

“Uhhh sure, thanks” He practically thrusts his phone at her, wanting this social interaction to be over and for the earth to swallow him up entirely.

Typety type. The store clerk makes sure to keep the screen visible and pulls up a women's self-sizing guide.

"There. Once you know your cousin's sizes, it's all kinda... Just right there. It's all good, don't worry... Thank you for shopping at Fred Meyers."

Clerk walks away and seems to consider this Social Event over.

Andrea spends time trying to find suitable basic underclothes and t-shirts and shorts. Having to mime cupping his chest to guess at the sizes needed. This is going to take a decent chunk out of his spare money. Hopefully he can find a way to make some money with bird girl powers to make up for it.

After a painfully awkward moment at the cashiers buying obviously girl clothes despite not being a girl, hoping nobody assumes hes a creep about it, clothes have been purchased!

Andrea has girls clothes, he has a free weekend…. Time to find out what flying is like. He busses to where theres a park-ish area at the edge of town, with a public bathroom to change in.

He has it all planned out, go into a stall, change into slightly too small women's clothes, shift, and hope nobody notices a bird girl come out of the mens room.

Everything works fine! Andrea is now a bird girl at a public park, fully dressed and decent… and his instincts are yelling at him to try flying.

After some stumbling attempts to launch off the ground, Andrea is flying! You wouldn't think the wings would large enough to hold up a human body but there is probably superpower shenanigans going on here. Flying is as awesome as you might think, and for some reason heights are much less scary in this form so Andrea is not even a normal amount of terrified.

Wheeeeee! Flying! This is awesome! Someone might notice a ginormous flying thing over the park though, but Andrea could not think of a more perfect shield for his secret identity than an entirely different body so he isn’t overly worried.

Wow! That is exciting! There's a new hero! Shortly there is a small crowd looking up and pointing and waving. Some are taking pictures.

Oh gosh, attention. A whole crowd of attention. Weirdly enough theres a lot less anxiety about that than normal. The normal part of him wants to fly away and find a another public bathroom to change back in, another part feels kinda bubbly and wants to show off.

It’s not like anyone will know it was him even if he totally fucks up and seems weird in front of these people…

With a slightly clumsy landing, Andrea lands in front of the crowd.

They back off, slightly nervously. But also clap! Someone asks, "Are you a new hero?" Someone else shouts, "That was SO COOL!"

“Uhh thanks!” Gosh their voice is… much cuter in this body. They just never really had a chance to use it before.

”I had… sorta thoughts about being a hero? But its not like I can do that much like this, just fly. For search and rescue you’d probably prefer a helicopter right?” Their feathers fluff up nervously. “I’m still figuring things out…”

"What's your name?"

"My dad's a fireman! He can help you rescue people!"

"Can you sing like a bird?"

Several other people shout questions, they're kind of indistinct.

"Let's give the lady some space, people! One question at a time!" A big guy with a foreman-like demeanor stands in front and waves people back a bit.

His feathers were fluffing up more and more as people crowded him, Andrea gives the foreman looking guy a grateful smile. Being called a “lady” was weeiiiird though.

”I hadn’t really thought of a name yet… Honestly it’s my first day out like this. i don’t have much figured out at all.”

 Can they sing like a bird? It’d be cool if he could. Not that he is going to try it for the first time in public.

Someone askes what her favorite food is, and what she thinks of ordinary birds. Someone asks if they can touch a feather. People kind of want autographs, but they're stymied by the lack of a name. Someone asks to be picked up and carried, you know, to see if it's good for rescuing people, but the foreman-guy pushes against that for safety reasons. (Her spark seems to think it would be both easy and safe though?)