After stopping by the store for a soda and some snacks, Matt rushed to the library, checked in at the lobby, and rang the elevator for the third floor to study for his exam. In the corridors of the upper floors, there were several hallways that had small, secluded “lockers.” You could literally close yourself into a locker and, with no visual distractions, get some serious studying done.
“It’s too bad Chris can’t use these…” Matt thought to himself, as he climbed into the locker.
Matt loved coming here, because it was usually peaceful and quiet, and he could concentrate. However, for the first ten minutes, while trying to read from his textbook, his mind kept wandering back to the Chronivac.
Something just didn’t make sense. The program had shown all the signs of working, but it was all in false hope. It had read in Chris’ info… and that was it. Why did it default Chris’ settings before it ran the change?
He needed to get back to studying…
…this mind-fuck of a problem led him astray.
Impatiently, Matt plugged his laptop in to the wall and opened up the Chronivac program. Was there some direction or words he missed the first time around? Damn, he hated doubting himself… he hardly ever messed up technological stuff. Maybe something on a sub-menu wasn’t set... but the options available all looked the same!
Another problem: he couldn’t remember what he entered prior to using the Chronivac on Chris. It was like he was experiencing memory loss. So he had to rationalize: was the program unable change a centaur in this version? No, that didn’t make sense – he had read all sorts of things being done on the forums. The only thing he could think of was that his laptop was not powerful enough to handle it. He wasn’t able to find any kind of documentation online for his version of the Chronivac – it seems that the release was very limited, so the developers didn’t bother.
Regardless, he was getting the itch to try again. He wanted do it on himself earlier, but he chickened out in front of Chris. There was an automatic tightening in his throat, but in the privacy of the library, there would be no problem on trying to get this thing situated... right?
Aside from computer games, Matt also enjoyed role-playing games, and in several of his D&D adventures with his friends, he had used a custom-created character named Brutus. He was a gigantic, fighter-type being: half-human, half-elephant, and all brawn. While the rest of his friends were rather stereotypical thieves and mages, Brutus was good because he provided the “wall” to most parties. Elephants were these ominous, complicated, wise creatures. This was one of the changes he had wanted to try on himself – even just the thought of knowing what it would feel like to be part-beast was enthralling!
But, there was the issue of the Chronivac itself. Hmm… well, instead of logging the change all at once, maybe he should do it in increments? He’d start with the most “extreme” part first – changing his nose to a trunk. That could be fun to try out on its own. And, if that worked, he’d do the ears next, and then the rest.
The program already had his personal settings scanned in, so after selecting his nose, via the Species alteration menus, he replaced it with the nose of an elephant. He once again set the slider bar to 100%. Simple enough. All he needed to do is set the duration (1 minute). He looked elsewhere on the screen, but there was nothing else to press.
He double-checked the hallway to make sure there weren’t any straddlers wandering around that would see him. The coast was clear, so he closed the door and cracked his wrists.
“Well, here goes…”
He clicked the Start button.
Again, a counter appeared with "1:00” and next to it, the words: "Check emitter and confirm status. Y/N."
…Of-fuckin-course! The emitter! ... But he had left it back at the apartment. What happened to that thing being “not required”? Well... sigh, maybe it was required with his version? Maybe that was the missing clue to his mystery… but what it came down to: he couldn’t confirm the emitter's status. Last time he clicked Y; this time he clicked N.
“Check emitter bypassed. Accept defaults? Y/N”
And yes, he wanted to accept the defaults he had set, so he clicked Y.
Upon doing so, the window disappeared and the counter started: <<0:59… 0:58… 0:57…>>
And so Matt waited, tapping his hand on the table.
<<0:48... 0:47...>>
And he waited...
<<0:36... 0:35...>>
His glasses nearly fell off his nose. He pushed them back up with the tip.
<<0:23... 0:22...>>
...and he waited. Matt sighed, resting a fist under his heavy head.
<<0:11... 0:10...>>
"I don't get it... I don't get it!"
<<0:01... 0:00... Process complete.>>
He had waited till the end. "Fuckin' program," Matt said, defeated, under his breath. A puff of air blew out from his nostrils.
<< Save Progress? Y/N>>
He clicked Y, as a precaution, but then slammed his laptop with his trunk out of frustration.
"I just don't get it... why did it freakin' default again? Uggh, whatever."
He angrily whipped his textbook out from his bag, scratching his face and flipping the pages with his trunk. Whenever he was frustrated or mindlessly stressed, he would pull down on it. He had to be careful not to hit or scratch his hands on his tusks, though. It was going to be a long study session...
----------------
Back at the dorm room, Chris had just finished a gaming session with three of his online friends via ZBox Live. They were playing a World War II era multiplayer game, and their goal was to try and keep the base. Lo and behold, they had kept the base... but they had also blown each other up in the process.
"C'mon, another round?" one of the friends said to him through the headphones.
"Nah - can't be sitting down for too long, y'know? Not good for me," Chris replied. He took great pride in his online username, JosephStallion. "Also, I got class in fifteen."
"Right on. Take care, dude."
"See ya."
Ripping the headphones off his head, and getting up to all fours, Chris stretched for a moment and looked around the room. Damn - he didn't want to clean, but he had made a mess of himself and the floor. He also felt stiff and unclean; he hadn't done his morning gallop. "Gonna need Matt to wash me down later. Speaking of which..."
He trotted over to Matt's desk, making sure he didn't hit his head on the ceiling fan, and picked up the pillow he threw at him earlier. That's when he noticed the emitter from the Chronivac.
"This thing... Matt's obsession. What even is this?"
The emitter had two LEDs that were flashing on and off, and a bunch of two-digit numbers going down the front. Most read "00" but a couple of them had digits filled in.
"You're so weird, Matt.." Chris decided to hide it by taking it with him in his backpack. As he did so, he took out his cellphone and called his guy-friend, Trent.
"Hey, stud," Trent answered.
"Yo. Need a ride? Headin' to Bradley Hall right now."
"Yeah, sure. Just... don't go fast today, it rained a bit."
Chris rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Be over shortly."
He hung up the phone and tucked it into his shirt pocket. With a fresh shirt on, combed hair, and his backpack full of textbooks and the Chronivac emitter, Chris waltzed out the door on his way to his next class.