As Jeff removed the arm from the 3D model, he realized how excited he was feeling after seeing all the different settings come to life. To have the power to manipulate the anatomy of a human so seamlessly, just like that…
And it got him thinking about arms. All of the great things that humans have been able to achieve, build, create, it’s thanks to their hands and their arms; our greatest assets. They can reshape and manipulate the world.
So, imagine how much better things could be, how much more could be achieved, if humans had more arms? What would it feel like?
While it hadn’t been his initial plan, it seemed like a no-brainer; he loved the idea more and more. Using the same options, he dragged an extra arm from the options menu, and put it back to one side of the body. Then he selected another arm, and mirrored the positioning on the opposite side. It was cool, but the program options kept recommending an Auto-Adjust option. When he clicked that button within the menu, the arms snapped into place much more nicely, and the upper part of the body filled out a bit to adjust for the additional appendages. The physical design looked so realistic!
He set the arms to be standard for both genders, and for the change to complete in about one minute. Finally, he remembered to check the light on the device that it was set on Unaware. As the controller of the Chronivac, he would be aware of what had happened, but clearly nobody else should know.
Jeff knew what was coming next, though. He took off his shirt and threw it onto his bed. Without any more hesitation, he clicked the Start button on the computer screen.
Within a few seconds, Jeff began to feel pressure from the sides of his upper body, just below his armpits, and he smiled brightly. It wasn’t painful; just a little uncomfortable. As the model on the screen indicated, the four-armed human design didn’t have doubled pectorals. If anything, the shoulders were much broader, and the torso a bit longer, to accommodate for the physiological change.
The great thing about it, though, was that the machine was working. Moments later, the skin from the sides of his body was stretching out like rubber. Two lumpy but large knobs of flesh and bone poked out from within his body, and were gently pushing the skin, molding it to the shapes of the muscle and bone. He lifted his arms up to get a better look. They grew with each passing second, until they were about one foot long.
He played along with this process a bit. He tried closing his arms, sandwiching the fleshy limbs between his arms and body, but this started hurting a lot, so he stopped. He had to keep his “upper” arms raised. Then Jeff felt a bit of popping and cracking from his back, and along his spine. The bone and muscle needed to support arms would require some help, so he stopped moving around. He would relax and just let it happen… but he was so intrigued by the process.
Eventually, the arm-like limbs began looking more like actual arms. They were developing into three sections: the bicep, forearm, and hand. The ends of the limbs didn’t seem much more that rounded bumps, but this changed pretty quickly when the stretching of the skin broke out into five little parts. The arms started to respond a bit to his inner thoughts, as well, but not very much. There was nothing more than pressure and tingling sensations.
His spine snapped again. Then, there was a quick-fire pulsating vibration from within his body. He freaked for a moment, but maybe it was like his body was updating itself. By this point, the new arms and hands were almost fully developed, but he could not move them much… until something dizzying and nauseating flooded his brain. His eyesight went blurry, and there was a lot of pain. Before he could get up or react to it, though, the pain subsided. Then, he noticed immediately after that his arms and hands were moving.
Jeff was perplexed, and he couldn’t stop smiling about it. This was a lot to take in at once… he now had double the sensory feeling, and he was awestruck by how he didn’t give much thought to move them. In fact, the arms acted like normal, but… double the capability was there. It was so hard to describe.
A little ding from the device marked the end of the transformation. What a rush!
The foreignness, and yet the familiarity. The first thing he did was stand up and stretch. He could feel the shoulder blades shift in his back, and the muscles independently lifting the weight of the arms. He moved one arm at a time, almost like clockwork. He wasn’t the strongest of 16-year-olds, but he felt very energized... and pretty horny.
He tested out a few more obligatory things, like flexing his biceps, wiggling his fingers, and attempting (but failing) to do push-ups with only one set of arms. Then he thought about all the other things he should try to do, like playing basketball or video games, or even mundane stuff like cooking a meal or putting on clothes.
It was upon getting up from the floor that he looked over at his bed and looked at the shirt he’d threw off earlier. It now had two additional holes.
Reality had altered itself for the change…
But he wasn’t alone; everyone on Earth had four arms!
Excited to see someone else, he remembered that his sister had just got home...