12DoC: Some Assembly Required

He shrugged and started walking down the street that was the most direct route to his girlfriend's home. The weather was nice, and even though the sidewalks hadn't been cleared yet, there was not quite enough snow to hinder his progress much. He was just a couple of blocks from his destination when he heard a truck pull up and stop behind him. "James Russell?" a strangely familiar voice said.

He turned to look and found the street empty except for a small truck with a peculiar cargo - some kind of tree (kind of hard to identify because trees don't have fruits in the winter) standing in a kind of tub filled with earth. Then he looked at the driver...

"Rick? What the heck are you doing here?"

"Working," the familiar driver replied. "And right now my job is to pick you up and deliver you and this tree at an oddly familiar address!" He paused. "Unless you don't know what I'm talking about, in which case it's my sad duty to inform you that your girlfriend is seeing someone else by the same name!"

"No, it's okay." Jim ran around the truck and jumped into the passenger seat. As Rick put the truck back into motion, he sat looking through the back window at the big plant behind them.

"So this is the pear tree?"

"You got it."

"And the partridge?"

"You're it."

"Come again??"

"That's the way the card series works. We provide the props and the magic, you provide the actors."

Jim sighed. "So I need both to get myself transformed, and to get other people to do the same for me?"

"You got it. Fortunately the package includes the gift of Persuasion. You can't order people around but they will find it harder than usual to say no to you. And they can be "reused" because the transformation spell expires at midnight."

"So I need... twelve people on the last day then?"

"And sixteen on the eighth. The milk maids need cows to milk, you know! Anyway, that's the economy package with just the new gifts each day. With the full package the gifts add up, and you need 81 people on the last day." (That's the sum of 1-12 plus 8 cows minus 5 rings)

"Well, I'm getting this for just tax anyway, but when do I have to make the choice?"

"When buying the second card. Just tell the wizard what you choose. But that's tomorrow. The choice you have to make today is if you want to be an anthropomorph partridge or a realistic one. The tree is strong enough for both, but as an anthro you can talk and.... do other things. I know Shar and you have been up to some kinky things in the past, but if she's done it with a bird before, at least neither of you have told me about it!"

1. Jim wants to be an anthropomorph partridge in a pear tree.
2. Jim wants to be a natural partridge in a pear tree.
3. Jim doesn't want to be any kind of partridge in or out of a pear tree, and asks Rick to play the role for him. (Does the Persuasion thing work yet?)
4. Say, how does this tree work anyway...?
5. Something Else

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