The implement vibrated and it read “YOU WILL REGRET THIS!”. While the message was a bit unsettling, Daniel didn’t really feel in any danger, after all what could the Scribe even do now, if they could neither find nor see him.
Not wanting to waste anymore time, which he could be using to get a better understanding of the implement, Daniel scanned the area for a potential test subject. Problem was there were just so many people here, he just couldn’t decide who to use as a test subject. After awhile he then decided on a girl sitting on a bench reading a book not too far from where he was sitting. He unlocked the implement, which still had the form of a smartphone and froze. It hadn’t dawned on him until just now, but he had no idea how to change someone he didn't know.
Looking at all the Scribe’s old entries, he could see that everyone was named, unless the Scribe was referring to themself, in which case they’d refer to themself in first person. Daniel figured that meant the Scribe must have had some power that let them know the names of the people he wanted to change and the implement was aware of who was writing in it. That’s also when he realized the Scribe probably knew his name. Not that it mattered anymore, after all he was safe from the Scribe now or at least that’s what he told himself.
He looked up, wondering how to best give himself the power to know the names of strangers, when he saw his classmate Hugo. He was walking down a path, which eventually would pass nearby to where Daniel was sitting and led out of the park.
Hugo was a tall muscular guy, who had the tendency to be a show off and a real jerk. Still a lot of people seemed to still like him, this was likely because he had the body of your generically good looking jock, he was educated and smart and his family had money to boot.
Daniel and Hugo had never gotten along. When they both just started at the University, Hugo would go out of his way to make fun of Daniel and his obsession with the Scribe. Hugo had been convinced that the Scribe was only a childhood delusion of Daniel’s and that he really was just trying to be special and get attention, that was until Daniel found proof of the Scribe existing in ancient legends.
Though even afterwards Hugo would brag how he was becoming an expert on real and important mythological creatures and figures, not some weird creature so irelevent they were barely even mentioned in footnotes. He constantly stated only someone, who desperately wanted to seem special and craved attention would do something that stupid.
Daniel smirked. He had found his perfect test subject. The ability to learn people’s names without actually meeting them could wait until later, this was an opportunity too good to pass up on.
“Oh, what to write! What to write!” he thought excitedly. “Well, I’ll keep it simple for now, so let’s start with getting rid of his athletic figure.” Smiling to himself, he wrote: “Hugo has grown to be a scrawny man ever since he started at Columbia University, leaving no trace of him former athletic body.” and watched as Hugo slowly deflated in front of his eyes.
Hugo’s pecs, which had been visible through his tight shirt even at this distance, started to get smaller before eventually they completely vanished behind his shirt. By the time his pecs were out of sight, he had also already lost most definition and muscle mass in his legs and arms, which were starting to look like they were barely strong enough to lift a paper bag. All the while Hugo’s clothes shrank with his build and his walk seemed to change as well, going from a powerful stride to a weak unconfident walk. By now Hugo looked like a beanpole, which could be blown away by a strong wind at any moment.
Admiring the changes he made with the implement, Daniel wondered how he should change this entry in the implement’s notebook app. If he had more time before Hugo would eventually be out of sight, he’d have left him like this a bit longer. It would have been interesting to learn of any other noticeable, but non-physical, changes which might have occurred. However he’d have to save that for another time.
Knowing how much Hugo seemed to dislike and look down on fat people, Daniel figured it would be the perfect choice. So he replaced the word scrawny with obese and watched as Hugo slowly inflated with fat, his a clothes and posture adjusting again. Daniel watched as Hugo’s stomach began to bulge ever so slightly and push against his still tight shirt, slowly growing bigger. Soon two small moobs formed where his toned pecs used to be and joined his belly in pushing against the fabric. All three adipose lumps grew steadily before they eventually were joined by a nice pair of love handles, which with his belly formed a nice spare tire. Hugo’s butt had also grown noticeably larger becoming a fitting counterweight to his still growing belly. His thighs and legs had also grown plumper, it wouldn’t take much longer before he would have to start waddling. Hugo’s face had also steadily grown rounder and softer, gaining a second chin, which had become quite a prominent feature of his face now.
By the time the changes had finished Hugo had passed Daniel without even noticing him. Waddling on with his new voluminous belly and butt, like it was normal. Dan guessed Hugo probably weighed somewhere around 350 pounds, much bigger than he had expected, but admittingly also not as enormously huge as the wording would have allowed.
Daniel had to suppress a laugh, amused by the notion, that this once fat hating fitness nut, now had become the very thing, he had always looked down on and made fun of. Sadly he couldn’t enjoy this for long, if he wanted to see what deleting an entry did, he’d have to do it now. Kind of bummed by the fact he had to undo both of his most recent changes so soon after implementing them. He made a note to himself, to make sure his next subject would be stationary and observable over a longer time frame.
Daniel marked his entry on Hugo and hit delete. He then watched Hugo attentively as he waddled on, at first he thought nothing was going to happen, but then he noticed Hugo’s arms were looking stronger and more defined. As time went on more and more of Hugo’s fat faded away being replaced by muscle, by the time Hogo had left Daniels field of sight, he looked the same as before Daniel had changed anything.
While happy with the knowledge that he could completely undo any changes he made, Daniel wasn’t too pleased with Hugo regain his athletic build, he prefered him scrawny or fat.
Noticing the screen had gone dark again he hit the button on the implement to wake it up, as he had done before whenever it went into sleep mode, but nothing happened. He pushed it again and nothing happened. “Oh god! Did I break it?” Daniel said, a feeling of panic overwhelming him. He tried going over all possible reasons for why it no longer was responding. The first thing he tried was to just simply restart it, after all it might have just turned off, to his delight the implement vibrated and a light went on, but soon after the light faded and once the light went out, nothing else happened.
After spending nearly half an hour panicking and trying various other way to turn it back on, all resulting in failure, he decided the best thing to do was go for a walk try and clear his head, maybe even doing the actual things he’d planned on doing today, before trying to fix the situation again.
He was always amazed anew by how huge central park actually was and how pretty it could be, during the day at least. While still mad at himself for potentially messing up the chance of a lifetime, he did still feel like going on a walk to clear his head had been a good idea. Once he felt he had enough he headed into town to get something to eat, before heading into a museum, which he hadn’t done in a long time.
After roughly three hours had past since Daniel had deleted his entry on Hugo, the implement vibrated in his pocket, letting out the start up sound of his phone. Excitedly Daniel pulled it out of his pocket. It seemed to be working again. He opened the note app and looked at all the entries, seemed like everything was back to normal. After this scare Daniel was certain he wasn’t going to delete or remove any more entries unless absolutely necessary. He’d have to fix Greg another way.
Looking at a clock, he could see he still had about two hours until he was meeting up with Greg and Abigail. That was plenty of time for him to head back to Central Park to test the implement again or he could go somewhere else to test it.