re:Dreamer Transformation Ideas (And Something More Too) (Patreon)

Hi everyone! I just woke up from sleep paralysis where a succubus revealed herself to me in my waking sleep and gave me outlines for transformations for each route, as well as the theme they fit. There's also finally details on a character whose absence is just as important as his presence: Zach's dad.

As a word of warning, this post contains spoilers for all the main routes.

The November Transformation: Parody or Pet

Between the first and second week of November, Ai comes to Zach with an interesting quest: Zach has to take on a temporary transformation related to his partner for a week. He can either choose to become a stereotyped parody of some aspect of the partner, or he can gain animal features related to that partner (absolutely not furry, but with some animalistic traits like a second set of ears, a tail, and personality adjustment). All of this happens during important midterms and causes Zach to bomb most of them, but the greater cost is Zach’s absolute embarrassment after a transformation regresses. Hindsight is 20/20 and Zach fully remembers everything that happened in this week, and he's not sure how much of it is something he could have resisted or how much he couldn't have fought against.

For Britney, Zach has these choices:

• The “Parody” for Britney turns Zach into a fucking fanatical otaku. Annoyingly so. Zach bails on his classes because wants to play Japanese video games and watch anime all day (but is very elitist about the media consumed), he starts throwing in “weebisms” of Japanese phrase into his speech, jokingly asks to be called ZoZo (it’s not a joke), and he’s a borderline “genki girl” who he gives Britney tackle hugs.
  This mortifies the shit out of Britney because it’s like a mirror into all the things about herself that she views as cringe, but the breaking point for her tolerance happens when Zach starts acting smug and elitist about series Britney likes when they’re in his dorm room. Britney runs to her dorm room, comes back with cosplay of a character for that series, gets Zach to wear it (Zach in this mode is totally cool with undressing in front of people, especially for cosplay), and she proceeds to absolutely top Zach while calling him the name of the anime girl he is cosplaying. It’s very rough and aggressive sex. Britney feels a bit guilty for it afterwards, but Zach wants to see what else is in her closet... hey, does Britney have any magical girl outfits that will show off his cleavage?
• The ”Pet” for Britney comes from a cow girl transformation. While Ai is able to pull some last-minute bullshit with locking Zoey’s breast size at their current 32H, Zach still grows a second pair of cow ears on top of the head, small horns, and a small tail. Also, Ai’s bullshit involved technically giving Zoey the mass of a cow girl, so she’s significantly heavier (like 250 lbs) while still being in the same body size and having the same locomotion abilities. Britney is like, okay, maybe this isn’t too bad, but it quickly becomes apparent how much this is going to be an issues when they realize that Zach lactates now and that the compression bra is going to need a very silly modification to it. Thank God they already worked it to be able to handle fluid!
  Mentally, Zach is turned into a very... docile person. Britney has to essentially herd Zach around and he’s got very little agency to make her own decisions. They try to go to the dining hall to eat one afternoon, and Zach has a panic attack from seeing a hamburger on the grill. It’s almost to the level of breaking out into panicked moos, but Britney calms Zach down before it gets to that. Weirdly, salads really calm Zach down.
  The sex scene in this is exactly what you would expect with nipple play, breast play, and lactation.

For Keisuke, Zach has these choices (which have already largely been outlined):

• The “Parody” for Keisuke turns Zach into a ditzy blonde. While not quite at the level of a dumb blonde bimbo, this “soft bimbofication” results in Zach starting using valley girl speech, gaining feminine mannerisms like twirling his hair/pouting, and being ever-so-slightly dumber, but the major change is that their concentration and focus are reduced to make them almost airheaded and they feel happier and hornier. Zach can technically fight back against their new compulsions, but it feels better not to; plus, his lower focus makes it harder to do that, and unless he devotes almost his full focus to it, he’ll instinctively end up doing stuff like twirling his blonde hair between his fingers, fidgeting with his clothes in a way that comes off as tempting and flirtatious, and babbling in like, a totally airy voice that sounds like, so uncertain? Y'know, like, ending each sentence in, like, a rising pitch that always seems like they're asking a question?
  "Like, oh my God! I wonder why I sound like such a ditz all of a sudden?" Zoey asked herself with a girlish giggle, not realizing she was thinking of herself as a woman without any hesitation or reservation. "I mean, I guess it really doesn't matter, does it? I mean, sure, I totally come off as a little dumb and junk, but whatever! Who cares when I'm this hot, right?"
  Zach/Zoey already has the 10/10 body from a TG transformation; turning the hair blonde and the eyes blue won't do much to change that, so the aspect I want to explore is purely mental, especially in regards to their constant anxieties and worries going away because a simpler mental process means they stopped overthinking everything. That specifically is the part they'd love, though they end up rather fond of the bubbly personality shift, increased libido, and general comfort in being overtly feminine.
  The sex between Zach and Keisuke is a lot... straighter and honest? I’m still figuring out how I want to phrase it, but Zach is now 100% okay with facing Keisuke during it, makes lots of moaning noises during it, doesn’t act tsundere in the slightest about how he enjoys Keisuke’s big, meaty cock hitting his womb like a battering ram, and oh GOD does he like kissing during sex now.
• The “Pet” for Keisuke is Zach turning into a very shy cat girl. Like a timid stray cat, he becomes reclusive and introverted and just a mess of social anxieties. He has to wear a big hat to hide his cat ears, but he constantly pulls down on it to hide his face and oh God, what if they see the cat ears? Just being in a crowded room makes Zach tremble now. Zach is especially afraid of large bodies of water and has a borderline panic attack when at a swim meet with Keisuke.
  As much as Zach’s social anxiety goes through the roof, he gets really cozy with Keisuke. When he’s not sleeping an inordinate amount (you know, like a cat), Zach wants to cuddle, he wants to lay on Keisuke, he wants to be scratched under the chin, and so on. Plus, he sometimes speaks in adorable neko speak nyow. Keisuke finds it kindnya weird, but Zach’s nyot stawping, okay?
  The sex involves Keisuke teasing Zach like crazy, pulling on his very sensitive tail, tickling his ears, and making "Kurohime" (you just gotta have a pet name in the bedroom during all of this, right?) mewl like a rutting stray cat.

For Rich, Zach has these choices:

• The “Parody” for Rich is into a spoiled trust fund bitch. Zoey is now a complete brat with expensive tastes. God help any barista if they accidentally serve her latte to her with almond milk instead of oat milk, because she can taste the difference and is going to throw it at the barista in disgust and demand they get it right this time.
  Designer labels, jewelry, fashionable purses... Zoey wants it all, and she knows she deserves it. In fact, her tastes get so expensive that Rich worries his deep pockets might not be enough and cuts of her credit card. Upon being left at checkout with $1,000 of clothes and no way to pay for it, she calls her (Rich’s) bank and screams into the phone, then calls Rich and screams into his phone, and then tries to get Ai to hack an ATM for her.
  The sex is rough. Rich is more than happy to put this bitch in her place, but she demands to be wined and dined like a princess before he lays another finger on her. Picture expensive designer dresses torn off of Zoey as they have rough sex in a penthouse hotel. After all, she’s not worth anything less.
• The “Pet” for Rich is an interesting one. Zoey figures going into it that it’s going to be a dog girl transformation, and hell, she might have taken a wolf girl transformation during Halloween and this will probably be easier that being turned into an aggressive and muscular tomboy who wants to arm wrestle an entire frat house (and wins).
  What Zoey doesn’t figure out is that this is a transformation into a well-trained dog girl. Zoey is now going to feel completely naked without a collar on (and conversely, feel fully clothed with nothing but a collar on). Rich finds all of this fascinating and does his best to see how much he can get away with commanding Zoey by testing the limits of the training.
  “Kneel” and “Sit” work as intended so no surprises there, but “Beg” is interesting as it makes Zoey beg desperately for sex and “Roll Over” works in bed. A few miscellaneous things that wouldn’t be considered “traditional” commands still work, such as Zoey being told to shut up while ranting about something and instantly doing it. Rich laughs, figuring that Zoey knows who the alpha is.
  Also, Zoey is a lot more expressive during all of this. She keeps her tail in her skirt, thick pantyhose, or up her blouse when on campus, but when at home, that thing wags like crazy, especially when being given head pats or called a good girl.

Valentine’s Day: The Heart’s Desire

For Valentine’s Day (actually, the Saturday after), the focus is on giving the route partner their secret fantasy, with Zach (or Zoey) turning into that for a day. Zoey is still aware of what is going on with all of this, but she’s pretty much just a passenger in her own body as it acts out the scenario detailed.

• Britney’s fantasy is no surprise: a dom goth girl who will top the shit out of her. This is close to peak taboo for her and something that she’s been fantasizing about since she was a young teenager, but... Zoey’s just way too much of an aloof bitch now. She realizes that she actually really misses Zoey’s usual vibrancy when it’s absent.
  Still, the sex is great, even if Britney has painful nails and bite marks on her and is weirded out by Zoey aching for a post-sex cigarette.
• Keisuke’s fantasy is a flirtatious, overly sultry MILF. Zoey hears this and is like, “wait, hold the fuck up dude,” but it’s too late. Zoey, the 45-year-old housewife who is just so lonely and needy throws herself at her new, young, and handsome boy toy. She is downright cooing and keeps caressing Keisuke, calling him a good boy, talking in an even richer and huskier contralto than Zoey’s normal voice as she breathes into his ear, and not being afraid to use her years of experience in the bedroom to drive Keisuke wild.
  After the transformation ends and Zoey wakes up from the nightmare of acting like even more of a MILF than her mom, Zoey and Keisuke have a long talk about boundaries, particularly in the bedroom.
• Rich’s fantasy is also a MILF, but it’s 100% chaste. Zoey turns into, for lack of a better term, “a mommy gf” and coddles Rich the entire day. She cleans his apartment, cleans his ears while resting his head on her lap and calling him a good boy, cooks him his favorite meal, and watches a lame family-friendly movie before going to bed without any sex whatsoever.
  When she wakes up, Zoey realizes she would have been less weirded out had she been turned into a rope bunny or leather slave.

This is something I had been struggling to do for a while, so thank you Mrs. Succubus! Maybe her secret advice is why I've been so tired lately...

There's also other arcane knowledge she revealed to me, such as better ideas for Rich, that I don't have formed in my head yet (I need to go back to sleep for that).

More importantly of the "other things," there's a full scene for Keisuke's route (very specific dialogue, narration, etc.) of something I've been wanting to do for a while, which is Zach and his dad having a heart to heart talk.

I don't have enough coherence or energy to do justice to the idea by fully writing that outline with how detailed I want it (seriously, that sleep paralysis dream was so vivid I have the specific animations, room composition, expressions, and music for it), but I need to get it on paper (or screen? idk how that phrase works with typing) before it slips.

The scene starts Zach and his dad doing their yearly father/son activity on Christmas Day of building something together, usually a piece of furniture. This year, it's a kotatsu for Keisuke's dorm as Zoey gets colder than Zach and she wants to spend more time there without freezing. Zach and his get into an argument over something trivial about measuring the wood for the tabletop, with Zach's dad saying, "I didn't raise you to be such a sloppy carpenter."

Zach just snaps at this and goes "ice queen" mode, saying that his dad didn't raise him one fucking bit. (Zach's dad swears like a drunk sailor who just stubbed his toe and Zach swears a lot more while around him; it's usually just how they communicate and there's no anger to it, but not today).

Zach's dad has seen this a lot, but not from Zach. "Oh, you do your mom's 'Frost Witch' thing too? I didn't know you could do that."

Seeing that his dad isn't fazed (and realizing that he took the icicle daggers out without real provocation), Zach calms down a bit and says that there's a whole fucking lot his dad doesn't know about him... because he's never there. But fuck it, Zach's in honesty mode now after confessing to Keisuke yesterday and figures now is the time to air his issues with his dad.

In a rapid-fire quiz, Zach asks his dad if he knows his son's favorite color, his favorite food, his favorite book, his favorite movie, etc., but also his proudest accomplishment.

Zach's dad... knows some of that stuff. 

Zach answers all those questions he just asked for himself, and then accurately for his dad. Zach knows all of this not because his dad told him, but because his mom told him.

Anyways, his dad's proudest accomplishment is literally building the house that they're in (both parents are architects, remember?) and Zach comments on how fucked that is given that he's in that home less than a month every year and that the answer to that question should be his family, not some fucking house.

Zach's dad comments with the usual excuses, how that's not fair and that's traveling for work and that everything he did has been for his family (cue Breaking Bad montage video of Walter ranting).

Zach actually gets furious at this, and he takes out the icicles again and starts ranting in an increasingly unhinged way like his mom. "Dad, take a good fucking look at your family! What are you doing for them?"

Zach explains to his dad how his mom's sanity is slipping and has been for over a decade. She wasn't quite... normal to begin with, but she's been going insane from loneliness. Cleaning the entire house once a week isn't normal already, but she's at three times a week now and does it like clockwork. All she does is clean, read, paint (she's good but only a hobbyist), sleep, and wait for the limited social interaction she gets (Zach can briefly pause and realize that maybe he's been a bitch/dick for not calling his mom when he clearly knows her sanity might be hanging on his regular phone calls). Zach's thankful that's she softened up since starting to slip (especially since the reveal of his new body, but Zach doesn't quite know what's up with that) but he thinks that's because she's been trying so much harder to keep herself together that she doesn't have time to focus on harshly raising him. "How have you not noticed this?! She's your fucking wife!"

And then there's Zach. Oh, poor Zach... he never got a dad. The closest thing he got was his grandpa (his dad's dad) but he died of cancer when Zach was 9 and his real dad never stepped up to the plate after he passed. Well, not getting a male role model does funny things to a young boy. Zach's closest approximation was his best friend (he very briefly blushes and corrects himself with "boyfriend"), and that was a toxic relationship and it's a miracle it ended up like as well as it has between them because he easily could have gone to the grave resenting Keisuke for having the masculinity Zach lacked.

He then goes on about how he's been miserable and lonely since he's been a kid and it was his status quo for all of his life and that he didn't even realize it until he was like 18 or so (he is currently 21 and a few days). The sabbatical was a stupid stunt and a mistake, yes, but somewhere deep down, Zach wanted his dad to intervene and tell him what he already knew. But his dad shrugged and said "have fun, traveling is neat." No, traveling is not neat, not when it costs him his dad!

"I hear all of these wonderful goddamned stories about you from Mom (admittedly, a biased reviewer), but you're like Bigfoot to me. I only catch glimpses of you a few days of the year. Do you know how much it even hurts to know you are around but aren't in my life? I wanted that great person my mom sees in you having a positive influence on my life, and I never got it! Instead, I got left alone at home with your wife. She didn't know how to raise me on her own (Zach actually kind of knows he was a menace as a child, but he minimizes it whenever possible) and she started to go off the rails more and more because of how fucking much she missed you. If you ever wondered why your son ended up so feminine, it's not that I look like her (maybe a bit more than usual for the last month and a half), and it's not that I have here genes or her smarts or her neuroses, it's that I was raised by her and her alone!"

So yeah, Zach didn't have a dad, so his dad doesn't get to complain if his son decides she's his daughter now.

This is said in a snarky and deliberately hurtful way with wording ambiguous enough to fit the wide truck of Zach's possible gender identities, but Zach hasn't fully dropped the bombshell to the family that his body transformation might be involving a new gender and has only vaguely hinted at it so far.

Zach's dad asks his son(?) to stop his raving for a second, and asks, "Are you my daughter now?"

From here, there are a number of options based on C.H.E.A.T.S. and the "therapy" answer and even the Keisuke Christmas Ever date outfit choice.

Here are some of them, broken up into the major variants:

• If our silly little protagonist is identifying as Zoey, she's uh... really flustered. She was not expecting to slip up and tell the dad first, but she wants to stick to the plan of being the one to break it to her mom and begs the dad to stay quiet about it for now. He's cool with that, but reminds his daughter that he's not good at keeping secrets from his wife.
  Honestly, bravo to Jeffery Taylor (I guess I'm settling on that because I want his wife, Samantha Taylor, to be able to call him a short name and a long name and it's way too cursed to give him my dad's name which would have been my first choice had it not belonged to my dad). He takes this news really well, doesn't ask questions, and accepts it. He only gets a 9/10 though because he doesn't ask his daughter's new name. Zoey is going to have fun when she realizes that there's a lot of overlap between Keisuke and her dad.
• If Zach is still undecided, he hesitates. He did not expect his dad to be the first person he broke the news to and considered him the "Y Factor" in this (as he has a Y chromosome and figured his first question would be "Why?"). Zach briefly explains that he's still figuring it out, so, y'know, don't tell mom. She's going to want to get a say in this and it's not her call. She's been trying to live through Zach since he was a toddler and showed signs of being smarter than the average bear, and this is his life, not hers.
• If Zach is still identifying as male (for now), Zach says no, but he was just trying to show how fucked it is that he got raised by his mom and turned into her. He obviously can't explain the re:Dreamer app (as Ai has recently made a strong implication that Zach is especially suspect to the game administrator and likely has extra monitoring on devices outside of her control, like hacked smartphones listening in), but he tries to vaguely muse that whatever shit happened to him might not have had his dad been around.

Zach's rant losing steam, he finishes his point that he lost along the way.

"You need to change your careers, and you need to do it soon. Traveling the country fixing houses for Zhulu (notZillow; Rich's dad is CEO and it explains some of that dynamic) is not fucking working for the family you say you care about so much. Fuck, kill two birds with one stone and start that architect design firm with Mom she said you were going to do before she had me and dropped her career to be a full-time mom. Mom is just as capable of an architect/engineer as she ever was (she's got degrees in both architectural design and mechanical engineering and Zach's precise word here changes based on how much he's accepting being like his mom). Don't let her waste those talents. Give her something to do all day besides clean the house over and over and sit alone with her intrusive thoughts."

Zach's dad says he's going to need to think about it, but he can at least take the next week off since he sees oh shit, this has actually been in crisis mode for a while.

Zach finishes up. "Think about it hard, Dad. Your wife needs you. I... your daughter/child/son needs you."

Zach's dad does the "guy nod" thing and asks his daughter/child/son if he's done, and if so, if he wants a beer.

Zach shrugs, sure, whatever. His throat is sore anyways.

They get back to work on the kotatsu, but Zach's dad, regardless of Zach's stated gender, suddenly says that rant was the most masculine thing he's ever seen his child do (God, you have no idea how hard it is to word re:Dreamer's protagonist once the variable gender identity change hill has been passed). He explains that he and his dad used to get into shouting matches full of swearing all the time like that after he was 17 or so, but they'd never trade blows and they'd always come out of it with at least an attempt at a mutual understanding, finishing with a beer as they reflect on the argument.

Zach briefly remembers that he got in trouble in school because his grandpa taught him all of the swears (even the exotic ones) by the time he was 8 and suddenly the connection for his rough language makes sense. Zach then asks his dad why he wasn't shouting right back at him since that's apparently what grandpa did to him.

Zach's dad says he's apparently not as good with being a husband or a father as he thought he was, but he knows when to shut the fuck up and listen. Plus, it didn't feel right shouting at someone who looks eerily close to his wife when she was 21.

From here, Zach asks what she was like in college. He's got a very specific question he wants to ask but knows he can't ("Hey, Dad! Did mom actually murder girls who got close you in college?") so he settles on the general things.

The answer from Zach's dad is shocking, as Zach's mom was a total dork with huge glasses, braided pigtails, and an extremely nervous and meek disposition when they first met as freshmen. Honestly, Zach's dad didn't think much of her when they first met, but that was apparently not the case for her as she had a massive glow-up next semester, letting her hair flow loose and straightening it, showing a bit more skin (as the uniform regulation would allow; like a classic sociopath/person with OCD, Zach's mom strictly adheres to rules), switching to contacts, and exuding confidence and sensuality.

Zach's dad doesn't want to give himself too much credit, but he was a bit of a playboy in college and this was just one of a number of women interested in him. But... then "the herd started getting thinner."

"Oh no," thinks Zach, "he knew and still married her." <He didn't, but the more immediate truth is that word of his antics spread and less girls got interested in him like how Keisuke gained a reputation and had less girls after him.>

After that, he kept bumping into his future wife in classes and got to know her better.

Zach has an epiphany that his mom likely changed majors to be with his dad more, but keeps it to himself.

A study session they were at fell apart and turned into a watch party for Star Fleet: The New Generation, and they talked to each other after and realized that they had a mutual love of nerdy science fiction and started going out from that alone. It turned out to be the best whimsical decision Zach's dad has ever made, and he's made thousands.

Zach tells his dad he'd be here all day if he asked his mom what she liked about his dad or what he liked about her, but he's never heard his side of the story before and wants to get it now... but not like it's relevant to Zach right now or anything...

In short, Zach's dad though his future wife was driven. She could go into any given room, control it, and get something done. He's still not sure how much of her intelligence was natural smarts and how much of it was obsessive self-driven study about specific topics, but she was a complete brainiac about almost every subject that could possibly be mentioned on a college campus.

Zach's dad starts gushing about his wife, and Zach remembers, oh yeah, these two people actually love each other very much.

Zach's dad says, "God, she had this adorable way she'd rant and rave for hours about what her new hyperfixation of the month was at an expert level despite only picking up the subject a few weeks ago. She'd get professors with tenure mad at her by correcting them and acting like a smug bitch about it, but she had this confidence that made people shut the fuck up and listen to her and I thought that was so attractive."

Zach asks if he ever thought his mom was "bluffing" (besides a general predisposition to dishonestly, Zach has a nasty habit of assuming he knows something, realizing he doesn't in an argument, and refusing to admit it). Zach's dad says that if she was, he could never tell.

But, Zach's dad continues, that's not what ultimately made him fall in love with her. She was just so passionate. It wasn't just her emotions, but her acts, and she acts adorable when frustrated, and she's got a great body, especially when it came to--

Zach asks his dad to stop. He thinks he knows where this is going and doesn't want to hear about the details.

Zach's got to chew on this one for a bit. He wasn't expecting Keisuke to have very similar reasons for liking him that his dad has for liking his mom.

Zach's conclusion is the obvious one: he's his parent's child. He's got his mom's look, intelligence, passion, and drive (which he always viewed as stubbornness), but also his dad's kindness, relatively easygoing and sympathetic nature, bluntness, and good sense of humor (dad jokes).

He also, unfortunately, got his mom's neuroticism (particularly anxiety and anger), and he got his dad's obliviousness and inability to plan for the future. He's not sure where he got his dishonesty (yes, he's finally being honest with himself that he's inclined to lie), ego, and confidence issues, but he's gonna say that's probably nurture, not nature.

This... has been an informative talk. The kotatsu got built like, at least 30 minutes ago. They don't have a good blanket or heating element for it, but Zach things Keisuke is really going to like it (he's on his own for today; as much as Zach wanted to bring him over, Keisuke insisted Zach have family time today). Even if he doesn't like it, Zach plans on using it when he visits. It's a total win-win, if Zach is the only player.

As they get out of the garage, Zach's mom is besides herself with nervousness. She heard the shouting almost an hour ago and it was really intense and she wanted to come in but like this is the one time of the year Zach really spends around his dad and she wanted to check up on them but she knows she'd be a third wheel and it was all probably okay anyways and--

Zach tells his mom to relax, either saying there was an argument, but they talked it through (possibly "like men" but damn that Trans stat has to be very low for Zach to be saying a thing like that now), further clarifying that it was "father/son" bonding or "daddy/daughter" bonding.

If it's the latter, well... shit. Okay, Zach guesses he's explaining the gender thing before presents since the cat just kind of stumbled out of Santa's sack.

You know, part of Samantha Taylor's issues are that she always wanted a daughter and never got one.

Honestly, I'm running on fumes. Enjoy lol ZZZZ (dat's me sleeping soon).