Ken peered out the window and saw his jock neighbor Frank tossing a ball around with the rest of the football team. For as long as he could remember, Frank had made fun of Ken for being bookish and made his life pretty miserable. He pointed the scanner out the window and was amazed when it pulled it up all of Frank's stats. Maybe he could teach Frank a lesson about what it was like to be bullied.
Frank had always made fun of Ken for being lanky and scrawny, so he figured he would start there. Ken fiddled with the height and weight slider so that he would make Frank a tall weakling. He clicked on "SUBMIT" to see what happens.
A warning popped up. "Would you like reality to shift to accomodate changes?" Ken didn't want anyone to know what was happening--not just yet--so he clicked on no and watched the page refresh. It now listed Frank as being 6'7" but only 140 lbs. He looked out the window and watched as Frank got taller and lankier, losing most of his muscle mass. Of course, without reality shifting, none of his friends seemed to notice.
"Oh this is going to be awesome," Ken said, elated that the device seemed to work. The next field was to describe Frank's fashion style and Ken went to town typing up the nerdiest attire he could think of. He pushed submit, ignoring the reality changing option again, and watched out the window to see the changes happen.
First Frank's football jersey began to change, turning into a cotton plaid shirt as buttons formed down the front of it. Frank's shell necklace shimmered out of site and then returned as a beige tie that hung around Frank's neck. His gym shorts started to lengthen, almost reaching the ground but still leaving a good amount of ankle visible as the fabric changed to twill and the pants began to rise up Frank's body until the waistline sat comfortably above his belly button. A pair of black and red striped suspenders shimmered into view as they helped secure Frank's pants in the high waisted position. Ken couldn't believe his eyes as he saw an overstuffed pocket protector appear in Frank's shirt. This program really could create anything! Finally, Frank's Adidas cross trainers started getting shinier as they turned into patent leather saddle shoes and his no show black socks became white crew socks visible in the three inch gap where the hem of his dress slacks ended above his ankles.
Ken burst out laughing. He couldn't believe it! Frank was a lanky looking geek who was dressed like a character out of Revenge of the Nerds but none of his friends even noticed. They just kept practicing their football drills in Frank's backyard like nothing had ever happened.
A wicked smile crawled across Ken's face. Frank was dressed like a dork, but he still had that classic all American handsome face. It was time to change that for sure. He pulled up the tab for facial changes and got to work. Blonde hair? That wouldn't work. Maybe orange. Ooh and a greasy bowl cut for sure. Complexion: Clear skin and tan? Well Ken would have to do something about that. Vision: Perfect 20/20? Ken giggled. What kind of nerd didn't even wear glasses? Ken put a new prescription in. +15 in both eye would give him some real embarrassing fishbowl lenses. Ear size and nose size were arranged in sliders with Frank's both at a 0, representing a perfect size. Ken slid them both all the way up to 100. And when it got to Dental Traits: perfect white smile, Ken knew that wouldn't last and he got to work typing in a description of Frank's new less than perfect smile. Satisfied, he pushed submit and watched with bated breath.
Frank's hair went first as it darkened and became an almost clownish orange hue as his hair became greasy and parted into a bowl cut that looked like it was done by his mom in the kitchen. Next Frank's skin grew pale as tons of zits and freckles erupted out of his formerly perfect skin. Next, a pair of thick black rimmed glasses appeared on Frank's face with the thickest fishbowl lenses Ken had ever seen. You could barely see Frank's eyes through the lenses. It just looked like he had two half-dollar sized pupils. Frank's ears and nose changed next to match Ken's specs. His ears nearly quadrupled in size, sticking out like saucers, and his nose grew bulky and bulbous, now dominating his face. Finally, Frank's teeth began to grow and stick out as heavy duty metal braces that were so clunky they looked like they were from the 80s formed over his teeth.
Ken was beside himself. He had never imagined someone could actually look so nerdy and now his neighbor, Frank Steel the all-American football player, looked like the nerdiest person who had ever lived. And the fact that this absolute stereotype of geekiness was still just playing football with the jocks of his town was hilarious to Ken. He would have to use that change reality option soon.
Ken was amazed but not satisfied. After all, looking like a nerd was only one part of the humiliation. It was time to give Frank the personality to match. Ken pulled up the personality traits tab and got to work. He slid Ken's confidence and coordination down from 100 to 0. He went into his hobbies section and deleted all the things that were listed there: Football, partying, dating, muscle cars, working out. None of that would do so Ken typed in some new options: Dungeons and Dragons, anime, fantasy novels, studying fantasy languages, Magic the Gathering, Warhammer, coding, LARPing, going to bed early, collecting action figures, playing the accordion; if it was a stereotypically nerdy activity, Ken put it into Frank's hobbies section. He pushed the submit button and when the reality changing option popped up, this time he pushed yes. Ken was ready to see what happened.
It would be difficult to tell if Frank's hobbies had changed, but it was immediately apparent that his confidence and coordination were gone. He hunched over, his posture seeming shy and as his friend tossed the football at him, Ken saw it change into a textbook and smack Frank right in the nose, cracking his glasses in half. The look on Frank's friends had gone from one of friendly competition, to absolute disgust and disregard. Frank dropped to his knees as he tried to find the two halves of his glasses as Frank's former friends dumped a bunch of textbooks and backpacks on the lawn. Based on how much they were laughing, Ken realized they were dropping off their homework for Frank to do. He had gone from being their best friend to the geek they pawned off all their schoolwork onto with just a few clicks of a button. Frank had just barely found his glasses and was taping them back together when his former friends lifted him up and hung him by his tighty whiteys from the doorknob of his front door. They laughed and headed off down the street, totally unaware that moments before, Frank had been one of them.
Ken was beside himself with laughter as he watched Frank struggle to get himself out of the immobilizing wedgie but after about 15 minutes of watching him fail to free himself, Ken figured it was time to go and enjoy the effects of the Chronivac up close. As he walked over to Frank's front door, he saw his now supernerdy neighbor squinting before recognizing that it was Ken.
"Golly j-j-j-jeepers," Frank stuttered shyly. "It's my neighbor Ken! Can you h-h-h-help me off this d-d-d-doorknob?"
"I would do anything for my neighbor the amazing Frank Steel," Ken smirked as he helped him off the doorknob.
Frank recoiled meekly. "Golly gee whiz, Ken, after all th-th-th-these years of living n-n-n-next to each other, you d-d-d-don't even know my name! It's not Frank Steel. It's Melvin Finklefart." It took all of Ken's self control to not burst into laughter right then. Melvin Finklefart was such a geeky name. Frank's must have changed when the reality shift had occurred. He grinned at Ken, his crooked teeth and braces a sight for sore eyes.
"What c-c-c-can I do for you?" Melvin Finklefart asked, pushing the taped bridge of his glasses back up his pimply, massive nose.