...as Chris continued on about his trials and tribulations.
"Like, really... she asked me something like... 'Do you know the answer to that equation problem, I need some help' and I said, 'Sorry I'm busy'... like... grrr, I'm an idiot!! I wasn't busy, I just didn't want to give her the answer... outright, you know?" Chris collapsed onto his bed and buried his head into his pillow.
While Chris really enjoyed the first-person shooter and killing spree type video games, Matt was more of a PC gamer. He enjoyed RPGs, the fantasy genre, and the worlds and myths that surrounded them. It was his interests in the other-worldly that led him to finding the Chronivac machine online. Some of the online acquaintances he had made from the forums he frequented swore by it, but there was a limited quantity of testers the company could supply, so he had to act fast. If this program could do what they said it could, he'd be using it all the time.
"She has the best hair... red, wavy hair..."
Matt was brought back to Chris' reality.
"Sorry to bum you out, Chris, but it's not like I'm seeing anyone right now," he interrupted. "But I'm sure it'll work out. Girls aren't a science project. At least..." shifting his glasses, "I don't think they are..."
"Yeah, right. It never works out. Look at me," Chris moaned.
Matt gave a quick glance. "Oh, yeah... Misery at its finest."
"Shut up!" He threw his pillow at Matt. It nearly knocked his glass of water onto his laptop keyboard.
"Hey hey, HEY! Careful, I - I finally got that program in the mail, and I'm setting it up right now!"
"Oh, yeah? That thing, the Chronopac? The thing that 'changes' people?" Chris asked, with air quotes.
"The Chronivac - yeah."
"Cool! What are you gonna do with it?"
Matt turned and smiled. "I'm gonna change you into a centaur."
"Me? A centaur?" Chris sat up from his bed. "Why?"
"Dude... You're always saying 'Oooh, I'm small', 'I'm weak', 'I can't do anything...' and it's like, think about it. The centaurs were these Greek mythical creatures - half-man, half-horse. Strong, sturdy, well-built, and - huge with the ladies! Plus..." he said, shifting his glasses again up his nose, "I just kinda really wanna see if this thing works."
"Waste of time and money if it doesn't work..."
"Yeah, well - you hangin' out for a while? I'm gonna set this up..."
"Yeah - but listen. I don't wanna end up being a big, fat creature thing!" he said, grabbing his ZBox controller.
"Whatever..." Matt sighed, irritated.
The Chronivac had scanned Chris' personal information into the system. Via the Species alteration menus, he could "interpret" the Greek legend by selecting the lower half of Chris' body to be replaced with the body of a horse. The slider bar for this change was set to 100%. On another menu, he could alter Chris' weight and body size to match that of the counterpart change. That way, his human half wouldn't be dwarfed by the size of the animal half. It took a while, but he got it to where he thought it should be. Without a preview or any guided instructions, however - and because it seems this wasn't a simple alteration, he had to improvise. Hopefully he did it right.
The change was set to take one minute to complete. 'Really quick...' he thought. But he saw the Undo button, so if something didn't work out, they could easily fix it.
"Alright, dude - 'ya ready?"
"Huh?" Chris said, taking off his gamer headphones.
"The Chronivac. I press this button to start the transformation! It's supposed to take one minute," Matt said loudly, over the sound from the video game.
"Uh, okay," Chris said, pausing the game and sitting up from his bed. "I'm ready. Make it happen."
Matt eagerly pressed the Start button, which was succeeded by the pop-up of a counter, which was labeled 'Transferring...' and displayed "1:00" in a digital format. In front of the counter, a small window displayed: "Check emitter and confirm status. Y/N."
He looked to his desk, where the emitter was sitting there. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to 'check' since the program didn't require the emitter, and none of the LED lights on it were flashing, so that meant everything was good... right? He clicked Y.
With that, the timer started counting down: '0:59... 0:58...'
"Alright, the counter is going!" Matt said, smiling wide. "It's going!"
"What does that mean?" Chris asked, as he shifted slightly, tugging his shirt forward.
"The counter? I think... once the timer reaches zero, the changes are supposed to be complete. It said one minute to complete, and it started at one minute."
"So... what's it at now?" Chris asked, as he undid his pants, exposing a large mass of skin and bones that filled out his entire midsection.
"Almost 50 seconds now... hmm..." Matt was looking to the monitor and back, checking for progress or other indicators. The laptop was running a lot of processing power...
"I don't feel any different. Do you see anything?" Chris asked. His shoes had fallen off, as well, which exposed his darkened legs.
"Nope..."
He rolled his eyes at Matt.
The massive midsection under Chris' back now resembled more of a barrel shape, and it was quickly growing in size. The texture of his tan-shaded skin was covered in finite brown-colored hairs that complimented his head hair and mane. Off-balance from the body shift, Chris fell back down onto his bed.
"Yawn..."
"Oh, quiet!"
"Maybe - it happens all at once?" Two short limbs were poking out from below his stomach.
"That doesn't make sense, though!"
"What's it at now?"
"30 seconds."
Chris stroked the bedspread with his hand. He had washed it yesterday to get the hairs out.
"Oh, well - "
Chris sat up as his bed started to creak. "Yeah?"
"What was that noise?"
"The bed," Chris said, nonchalantly. "I can't lay on it for too long, you know." Holding onto the table, he stood up on his hind legs so that his forelegs could try and find the right footing.
"Ah, yeah. Well..." Matt turned back. "14 seconds left."
"Yeah, nope..." Chris said, flicking his tail.
"Darn... what did I do wrong?"
"Well, did you actually specify what change you wanted?" Chris picked up the shredded pants and lumbered over to the trash bin. "Did it say what it was going to do?"
"Uhm, duh..."
"Did you click Save?"
"Well... uh, I don't think so."
He crossed his arms. "There you go."
With three seconds to go, Matt sighed in disappointment and rolled his head up toward the ceiling as the timer ran out. Immediately thereafter, another window popped up. It solidified Chris' theory: "Save Progress? Y/N."
Matt grumbled. "Yeah, whatever 'progress' this was..." He clicked Y.
"Sorry, dude." Chris said, laying his lower body back down on the carpet floor to continue gaming.
"Nah, don' be. It's not like these things ever work on the first try,"
"If at first you don't succeed..." Chris started.
"I should say the same for you, and your girl issues!" Matt spouted.
"... try, try again. Hey!" Chris turned back to the TV, absentmindedly scratching his hide and reaching for a bag of chips.
"Yeah, maybe I'll try it again later..." Matt said, getting up from his desk. "Maybe it has a hard time processing your data."
He looked unimpressed. "I'll have you know..." Chris said, pausing the game again, "... that I have excellent data. I have the best data!"
"Yeah... maybe you can send some of that data over to me? And share it with your girlfriends?" Matt sarcastically said, with a wink, as he was showered with crumbled potato chips.
"You bumbling stud..." He shut down his laptop and put it in his backpack. "Listen, I gotta run down to the store, and then I'm headed to the library to study for Friday's exam. I can't spend any more time hovering over this program - even though I want to. Need anything?"
"Apples..." Chris said, half-paying attention. "... and some shaving cream."
"Yeah, figures. Be back in a few hours. Have fun," Matt said as he left the newly-changed centaur in his dorm room.