Jeff sat down cautiously at his bed. It was Riley’s turn to use the Chronivac per the game rules, but he was unsure about giving someone else control of this… toy. Wait, no; it couldn’t be called a toy any more; it was a magical device. It was a miracle worker. His pointed ears felt as real as ever, and Riley looked straight-up like a male model. The ‘toy’ could do things that put all other toys to shame.
He was still reacting to his sister’s hand transformation. He looked at his own hands and flexed his fingers. The thought of having extra fingers was very intriguing.
“What do you mean, ‘whatever’? I think it’s cool.”
Riley grunted. “Out of all the things you could choose from?” The 18-year-old turned 22 plopped into the chair, front and center, at the command station - Jeff’s computer.
Jeff crossed his arms. “I’m not going to - I don’t care about Kristen… much. And what if it somehow couldn’t be changed back? At least she can have surgery or something, right?”
“You were laughing off the walls at my ears, but are freaking out about everything now. Surgery?”
“Yeah,” Jeff said, “Now I know this thing has no limits.”
All the while, Riley was still admiring his muscular body. “Oh maaaan, Jeff. This is a weird feeling… but I’m loving this!”
Jeff scowled a bit. “You’re gonna break my desk chair.” As if to mock him, he started jumping up and down on the chair. Jeff got up off the bed to ambush him, so he quickly stopped.
He reviewed some of the functions of the program on the computer screen. Admittedly, the user interface was outdated and clunky, like a Windows 2000 program.
“Hey… can you just make sure that I’ve got the normal settings right?” Riley asked.
Jeff looked everything over with a keen eye. It looked okay, he guessed. But the apprehension of giving him “the steering wheel” was very strong. Certainly he was entrusting control of his self to someone else. Now it felt like a toy...
“Dude, no offense, but…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you’re gonna say,” Riley interrupted. “That’s why I asked you to look it over. I learn quickly. You pointed out the Cancel and Undo buttons about five times already. Just chill. You asked me to close my eyes, and I trusted you...”
Jeff backed away to his bed. He needed to let his trust issues subside. Riley was his best friend; he wouldn’t let anything bad happen, or he’d cancel it.
He closed his eyes and tapped his fingers on his quilt. A minute or two passed while Riley made small comments about football scores and Riley’s family, about being able to drink alcohol now, and wondering what he would go do at the university.
Things went silent for a few moments, which didn’t mean much in context, but Jeff got barely any warning when a stretchy, pulling feeling flooded his senses.
“Alright, it should be starting!”
“What?”
His eyes whipped open. As soon as they did, he felt something dizzying with his balance... with his head. He could feel it moving on its own, increasingly weighing him down. His nostrils flared. Wait… his nostrils flared?
“Twenty - oh, yeah! Holy fuck, Jeff, it’s working!”
“No... warninnnnng …” Jeff wailed.
Whatever was happening to him, it was happening too quickly. The source of dizziness was focused entirely on his head. Jeff’s mouth and jaw felt wrong, like it was loose and… melting?
His anxiety took over. His vision was greatly affected; he couldn’t see straight. He put his hands to his face, and that’s when he noticed it was entirely covered in furry hair. He could feel it … his head! … growing outward, forward, away from him.
He had an idea about what was going on. He turned again to his mirror to try and confirm, but his vision was just too blurry.
“Holy...” Riley muttered. “Holy shit.”
Jeff didn’t have time to think. But briefly he sensed what were his ears rotating on the top of his head: first, towards Riley’s voice, and then toward something going down the street.
“This is wicked awesome.”
Jeff tried to speak. It came out gravely and scratchy.
“You...”
“I just HAD to, Jeff, after all that donkey ear stuff. How does it feel?”
He looked into the mirror, and sure enough: he now had the entire head of a donkey. Everything else about him was the same. He was a man with a donkey’s head.
In those initial moments, the sensory changes were recognized: two lengthy donkey ears covered in tangled, grey fur; a long face, the lower part mixed with shorter, darker gray and white hair; two large nostrils and a rubbery muzzle with big teeth, operated with a jaw built for grazing grasses. Longer, blacker fur that dangled down his forehead and down the back, down the neck… until the lines faded to nothing against the contours of his collarbone, and his hairless, human skin began once again. Where the species met, exchanged genes, and went on their merry little way.
He couldn’t see some parts of his face unless he turned his head to one side. The middle area of his eyesight was obstructed.
So even if it looked unreal, it definitely felt real.
“You should still be able to talk.”
He turned to Riley, still sitting at his computer. He was just as awestruck.
“DUDE!”
Riley was unphased. “...Your voice is really different!”
“...”
“... so?”
Jeff turned back to the mirror. He blinked a couple times. “I’m… like that one guy from the Shakespeare play.”
Expecting a reaction, Riley looked perplexed. “I… guess? I thought you’d hate this more than anything…”
But that’s when reality (if you want to call it that) kicked in, and the ramifications of the situation surfaced. He certainly should be angry! But… he was too amazed.
“Should… should I be hating this?!”
Riley crossed his arms. “Ain’t it obvious?”
“Well...
…
… I can’t go out in public, can I? What should I … “
“Of course you can! How ‘bout you check your license?”
Jeff dug out his wallet from his shorts pocket. He had to hold it out in front of him in order to see any details, and even then, his vision issues were debilitating. But indeed, the picture on his license looked like a really dorky, clueless donkey. But that cluelessness and impotence was him. It listed the same height, a bit more weight, brown eyes, and black/grey hair.
It… it was kind of amazing.
But, damn. He couldn’t let Riley think so. What if he found out … that he liked it?
“See? Donkey-man. Your lifelong dream.”
“Uh… no?” Jeff wheezed.
Riley got up from the desk chair and walked up to him. “I swear I’m not gay, dude, but I have to do this.” He brought his hand to Jeff’s head and lightly stroked the fur on the sides of his head.
“Wow…”
Then, playfully, Riley grabbed one of Jeff’s ears and gave it a tug.
“OWWW!!!! Damn!” He pushed Riley back into the chair, laughing.
“Hot damn, son! Now you know what it’s-- OWWwwwWW!”
Jeff had returned the favor. After all, Riley’s ears were just as much donkey’s ears.
“Shit!”
Jeff smiled. He probably looked like a goofball.
“Yeah, that settles it. I know what I’m doing with my second change… screw this.”
With that, Riley turned back to the computer and clicked away. Within 20 or so seconds, he clicked the Start button of the Chronivac. Another 20 seconds later, his asinine ears were back to their normal human selves.
“Awww…”
Riley grimaced. “Damn. I can still feel that pull, though…”
“I think pulling your ears is gonna hurt no matter how big they are.”
The two looked at each other subconsciously for a few moments, and then Riley got up from his desk. “Okay. What should we do today?”