[SoylentOrange]

Mary felt her muscles slacken, and tipped forward before she regained her balance, throwing her strange tentacle-arms behind her to counter her balance. She realized as she struggled upright that the Body had left her alone. She was back in control of her body, such as it was at the moment. She brought one of her right "arms" in front of her, looking on in horror at the green, undulating tube of flesh that she knew was now part of her.
"Oh my God..." she breathed as she felt herself, the new tactile sensations coming from her tentacles alien and repulsive. Mary held back tears as she wrapped herself in her tentacles, huddling down against the ground. "Go away... Go away..." She whimpered, trying to banish the sensations of the strange appendages from her mind. A prickling, burning sensation made her unclamp her eyes and look down at herself. Past the shelf of her bosom, she could see that her arms were half-buried inside her abdomen, sinking further into the flesh as she watched. Fearfully, she pulled back, and the tentacle came out of her stomack, but only a few feet, not at all the floor-length monstrosities she had just wrapped herself in. Stranger still, the appendage was still shrinking, pulling back into her shoulder.
"Stop, stop, stop..." She pleaded again, her prior wish to be rid of the tentacles overridden by her fear of being reduced to a limbless stump. The tentacle, amazingly, complied again, the shrinking halting almost instantly. Mary blinked, the strange dots beginning to connect in her head. "Grow," she said, and the tentacle began to increase in size. "Stop," She said, when the appendage seemed to have reached the appropriates size. Mary bit her lip, hoping against hope that this would work. "Fingers."
Mary squealed with joy as five fingers stretched their way out of the fleshy blob- not a proper hand by a long shot, but enough to prop herself up off her carpet.
"It works! It works!" she squealed. "Okay okay okay- Let's get some legs and arms going here." This time, she didn't even have to say anything- her body reacted to her very thoughts, limbs and joints forming and correcting their shape as she willed it. In a few minutes, Mary was back to the right number and configuration of limbs.
"Okay, time to get- uwoohh!" Mary fell backwards as she tried to stand up, her legs folding under her like spaghetti noodles. Mary pulled her legs out from under her, realizing that for all their similarity in shape and size, her legs were still made up of the strange tentacles. No real bones, just a bunch of the ropy tentacles taking on the appearance of a leg.
"Well, okay," Mary said as she put her legs straight out in front of her, "if I can imagine them the right shape, maybe I can make them stronger. I'm training to be a lawyer, specifics are my job..."
At her mental command, she felt her legs firm up, save for a little give at the knees. She experimentally raised her leg up off the ground, giving it a few practice bends before standing up again. This time, she was able to make it upright.
"Okay, now we're getting somewhere!" She said, putting her hands on her hips. "Now let's see..." She looked down at herself, seeing that she'd regained her human form almost entirely. A mental nudge set her skin color fading back to the pale flesh-tone it was originally, and another replaced the tendrils coming out of her skull with her hair.

"You puzzle us," The voice of The Body said, shocking Mary out of her elation.
"Wh...what do you mean?" Mary asked, afraid that The Body would hijack her body again.
"Why do you insist upon this inefficient form? We improve your meat with the glory of The Flesh, and you cast it aside. Are there predators that could harm The Flesh in that form that cannot in this?"
"Uh, yes! Very large predators. Very scary."
"Then we can overcome them," The body said, and Mary felt the same lightheaded feeling that signaled The Body was taking over. She felt herself thicken, muscles bulging on her tiny frame, shoulders broadening as she took on the look of a professional body builder. Sharp tooth-like horns bristled from her back and shoulders, and her fingers grew out into razor-sharp claws.
"Against the purity of our glory, other predators are as insects to our omnipotence," The Body said. "Is this sufficient to ensure the growth of The Flesh?"
"No!" Mary yelled. "I mean, yes, but not like this!" She tried to will the changes back, and slowly returned to normal. She found herself tired by the effort.
"Again you pullze us," The body said. "If there are predators who threaten us, why remain in this inefficient form?"
All of Mary's speech and debate classes sprang to her head. If ever there was a need to win a persuasive argument, this was it. "Because... because the predators that can harm us look like this, and so long as I look like this as well, they won't see me as prey and will not attack. By blending in with them, we can feed as often and as much as we need without them attacking."
"But how can such an insignificant form be a predator? To our glory, the meat like what we first consumed is a helpless insect."
"That one was a weaker specimen of the species," she replied, heading to the kitchen. "The stronger members can, ah, throw horns at great speeds and call down fire from the sky."
"And how do those members of the species appear, so that we might emulate them?"
"They all look the same as the lower orders," she continued, taking the repairman's shirt off the floor and unbuttoning it.
"Then how are we to distinguish predator from prey?" The Body asked, sounding genuinely confused for the first time.
"It is very subtle," Mary said, already setting up her finisher. "If you were to attack the wrong predator, he could call out to larger and larger predators, swarms of them."
There was a silence as Mary put the repairman's shirt on, and then The Body spoke. "Can you distinguish between predators and prey?"
"Yes, I can. And I know exactly what form would be appropriate to avoid the predators attacking us."
"So you can ensure our safety and growth."
"Yes, but only if you allow me complete control over what my body looks like and does at all times." Silence again, this time longer. It appeared that The Body was contemplating.
"This pleases us," The Body finally said. "We have never been as such before, but it is the place of The Mind to lead The Flesh to glory. The Body will comply."
Mary finished buttoning the shirt and looked at the pile of clothes and tools, all that remained of the reapirman. She blanched at the thought of her being a murderer, but she pushed the thoughts away- it was The Body that had eaten him, or transformed him, or whatever you would call being turned into a mass of living tentacles beholden to a parsitic alien life form.
"But what a send-off..." she thought, reminiscing about the extra-terrestrial blowjob The Body had given him prior to his fatal transformation. She caught herself, blushing slightly. It *had* felt pretty good, feeling four tongues at once lapping and entwining...

Mary shook her head, realizing as she did so that she was hungry. She thought to look in her cupboards for something to eat, before remembering her inhuman binge the day before. There wasn't a speck of food left in her apartment, she'd made sure of it. Her eyes wandered to the crater left from the meteorite, then up to the hole it had punched in the roof. Katie's apartment would have food. They were friends, right? Surely she wouldn't begrudge her friend a little snack from her refridgerator. All she'd have to do is get some pants on, get Katie's apartment key from her purse, and that's it. Easy-peasy. But Mary's eyes stayed focused on the tea-saucer-sized hole in the ceiling as a new thought crept into her head.

Would she...? Could she...? But the hole was so small...