Carol pressed on the 'TIME PERIOD/SPECIES' button, which activated a slider.
As she moved it from right to left, the image went from herself wearing modern day clothing to a 1970s club dancer, to a Victorian milady , to a medieval peasant, to a prehistoric "cave woman" and so on until she looked like some sort of a single celled organism.
"Okay, let's just still be human first. Hmmm...maybe around 10,000 years or so. That would be the Neolithic era, right?
She then looked at the time before choosing the form of transformation.
"Hmm, I guess I have a few hours left. Let try out that 'time travel' option."
When she went to 'transformation speed', she saw another slider and some writing saying,"You can change the speed and pause your transformation during the process." She left it at one year per second for now.
Now she went to the "Mental Settings". Even though she was still going to be human, she chose the 'Instinct' mode like the instructions recommended.
The environmental setting sounded intriguing, but Carol left it off and added five minutes to the timer.
After she was done with the settings, she pressed the 'Next' button, which brought up a display with some information.
SUBJECT: HENSON, CAROL.
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Species: Homo sapiens sapiens
Period: Modern (2016 CE)
Time: 5 minutes
Below it, she saw a question asking “Do you want to start your De-evolution?” with ‘yes’ and ‘no’ buttons underneath it. Once she pressed ‘yes’, the current year was shown. A moment later, it started to change to 2015, then 2014, then 2013. She looked back to see that her clothing and hair were changing by the second.
In a panic, she hit the pause button and closed her eyes. She took a few breaths to calm herself before opening them again.
The woman in the mirror had the same face and body, but with a different attire. Her hair was now shoulder length and wavy, her pink hair dye replaced with sun-kissed blonde highlights. Her makeup was more simple compared to what she had on a moment ago.The most drastic thing that changed was her shirt and pants. She was wearing a pair of low denim jeans and a white cropped top, exposing her midriiff. A simple silver navel piercing was on her belly button. On her feet was a pair of chunky sneakers.
She looked at her phone, and saw that the date read 2002. Back then, she was a 14 year old loner who cared more about school work and reading fantasy books, than the latest fashion trends at the time.
Even today, she thought it would be embarrassing to wear such clothing. But for some weird reason, she didn’t feel ashamed at all. “I actually look good in this.” She made a few poses before she realized something. “Hmmm. So that's what Instinct setting does?” It made her fully aware of the changes, but have the knowledge and the behavior to fit the period.
She looked back at her tablet and smiled before pressing the 'continue' button.
2001,2000,1999,1998,1997...
It was like a scene out of The Time Machine, but instead of the environment, she was the one going through time.
1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986….
Around fifty more seconds, and she went from looking like a daring club-goer from the beginning of the 21st century to having a more conservative housewife look of the 1950’s. She wanted to say, “Oh god! This is fucking amazing!” but it came out as, “Oh gosh! This is amazing!” The Instinct setting was also changing the way she was speaking.
1953, 1952, 1951, 1950, 1949 ...
The conservative look continued though the Second World War and the Great Depression. That all changed when she started to see the thin, boyish silhouettes, rising skirt lines and short hair styles of the Roaring Twenties.
1928 1927 1926 1925 1924……
Once she entered the earlier part of the decade, she started to feel pressure around her abdomen.
1920, 1919, 1918, 1917, 1916….
As the years continued to go back she noticed that her waist was becoming smaller. It was now obvious that she was wearing a corset.
Once she was in the Edwardian era, she pressed the pause button again. Now the date read 1900. Looking back at the mirror, she saw a woman wearing the fashion of the last year of the Victorian Era. The front part of her bodice was puffed out to look like a “pigeon breast”. The skirt went all the way to the floor, covering her narrow mid heeled shoes. Her waist was narrow and sloped from back to front with a belt around it. Despite how small it was, Carol felt no pain or discomfort. Her hair, now back to its natural shade of brown, was swept up to the top of the head and gathered into a knot. A small decorative hat with fake flowers was covering most of it.
“What a wonderful form of attire.,” she said as she struck a few poses that were more apropos for the time, “Surely all the gents will be turning their heads all through the town.”
She then looked at her tablet, first looking at the timer, then the clock. “Hmmm, looks like only a few moments have passed. Still, my lover will be here soon, and it will be unfortunate if he caught me looking like this.”
Carol increased the years per second to five.”Let's hasten this a bit,” she said as she pressed the 'continue' button again.
In seconds, she went through some elaborate and cumbersome clothing of he Victorian era,
1890,1880,1870 1860, …
before passing briefly through the simpler designs of the post French Revolution years, then back to the fancier ones of the Rococo period.
1820,1810, 1800.1790, 1780…
It wasn’t long before she was entering the last, or more accurately the first, century of modern history.
1550,1530,1520,1510,1500…..
She had now entered the Middle Ages, where she once again paused the transformation. The app showed that the year was now 1350 CE. In the mirror stood a woman wearing a loose fitting sleeveless gown over a fitted kirtle. A wimple covered her head, save for her face. She observed herself for a minute before speaking in Old English, “(Thank you Lord for blessing me with this beauty. I will cherish it while it lasts.)” It didn’t feel weird for her to speak in such a way despite the fact that Carol was not a religious person. She once again grabbed the tablet and restarted the transformation.
1300.1250,1200,1150,1100
As she went from the Middle Ages to the Roman era, she started to notice that her attire was not the only thing that was changing. The light brown hair started to darken and her skin began to tan. Her eyes also changed color from hazel to brown. She now looked less Western European and more Mediterranean. Her language was changing again, going from Brittonic, to Latin, then to Greek.
100BC,150BC,200BC,250BC,300BC…
Carol was still dressed in a conservative look as she went deeper into the classical era, wearing a Chiton with a Peplos over it and sandals on her feet. But soon enough her attire did another drastic change.
1500BC, 1550BC, 1600BC, 1650BC, 1700BC...
As much as she wanted to stop, she knew that her boyfriend would be at her place soon. The attire was similar to the 19th century, but with beautiful colors of blue, yellow and white. Her skirt flared out in a bell shape, with rows of ruffles from waist to ankle and a tight metal belt around her waist. The top however was more…revealing. Her top was now an extremely low cut, close fitting blouse which exposed her breasts. Again she didn’t feel embarrassed by what she was wearing. Her hair had darkened to black, became wavy with an assortment of braids, and reached down to her lower back.
Instead of stopping the transformation, she increased the speed to 100 years per second.
1800BC, 1900BC, 2000BC, 2100BC, 2200BC…
The clothing started to become less sophisticated, shaped into a long tunic with the fabrics of linen, leather and wool turning to animal hide. A necklace and bracelet of sea shells materialized around her neck, leg and arm. The shoes disappeared from her feet, leaving them exposed to the elements.
The changes to her body was just as drastic, with her height going down a few inches. The palms of her hands and soles of her feet were getting calloused. Her hair was still the same length but it was less sophisticated with a simple ponytail held by twine. Her complexion was now a deeper shade of tan, looking more Middle Eastern.
7500BC, 7600BC, 7700BC, 7800BC, 7900BC…
When the process finished, Carol heard a beeping noise. She looked down at her tablet and saw:
“De-Evolution complete!”
“SUBJECT: HENSON, CAROL.
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Species: Homo sapiens
Period: Early Neolithic (around 8000 BC)
Time Remaining: 4:30”
She looked back at the mirror, and saw a totally different woman from her old self. She didn’t looked like a clean-faced B-movie cavewoman, but she wasn’t cartoonishly ugly either. It was a somewhat natural beauty, like she might see with some tribal natives in a page of National Geographic. It was astounding how this app has turned her into a legitimate prehistoric farmer, and she wondered what more this odd gift could do.