"Hey, look." Jake said in frustration. "Stupid text field won't let me enter in more than two digits. I did click smarter, didn't I?" Tim frowned and moved to the keyboard. "Let me try."
"Here's the problem," he said after fiddling with it for a bit. "The box won't let you enter in anything bigger than 255--I guess it only goes up that far, who knows why. But when you were trying to fill it with 9's, it would only let you go as far as 99 before stopping you from filling in more." Tim paused for a bit, then checked the "aware" box before committing the intelligence changes.
At first, Mandy just sat there. Then she took a deep breath and started to babble--or at least, that's as much as Jake and Tim could make of it.
"Oh my god you guys I understand it ALL now! This is so cool! I know how that program works! Incidentally, its internal measurement of IQ doesn't exactly correspond to actual mental age ratio--I feel a lot smarter than two and a half times my age--but I can understand EVERYTHING about this program!" She toddled up to the computer.
"One side, lame brains." she grinned as she stood on the chair to reach the keyboard. The first thing she did was set Jake and Tim's intelligences to the maximum also, and make sure their aware boxes were checked. Then she found the override control panels. She clicked Advanced, naturally.
After several minutes of the three newly-smart individuals breezing through override tabs and help files, they decided on a course of action.
Using the Sentient Object Bodyform Override control panel, they found all sorts of options where they could turn into animals, or meld on certain partial transformations to their bodies. "Wouldn't it be fun to look like a cartoon?" Mandy asked, and got enthusiastic agreement from the older boys. With some experimentation, they managed to get themselves to look like cute cartoon characters. Mandy turned into a fox, Jake became a panther, and Tim wanted nothing but wolf for his form. They set their ages all to the same, 5, but played around with the various settings. Awareness was, needless to say, always on. They set their strength levels to be about what they'd be as teenagers, so their kid--or cub--like bodies wouldn't be a burden on their ability to operate the computer. Ever.
Next, after committing the partial changes they set their clothing up. This was where some heated debate came in. "But I'm in a five-year-old body!" protested Jake. "What the heck do I need diapers for?!" Mandy smiled and explained her logic. "But this way we'll never have to leave the room. Installing a toilet in here with the computer would make it smell like a bathroom. But I can alter a diaper pail object to automatically scan and delete diaper objects inside. Plus you don't have to get up to pee and poop, just to get changed. And we can change each other, or ourselves."
Tim was impressed by this prospect, but something still bothered him. He twitched his new tail back and forth as he asked, "What about school?" Mandy grinned widely. "I already set all our Social Interaction levels to Minimal. People will know who we are--our parents, etc.--but they won't interfere in what we do. Not to tell us it's bedtime, or to require us to go to school. Plus, that way, nobody will care that we're cartoons. We can stay here forever, having as much fun as we want."
Tim grinned, showing his new teeth. "I certainly don't feel cel-shaded." He paused for a moment. "Hey, I just figured something new out. Remember how the IQ box wouldn't go about 255? I know, now that I'm smarter, why that is."
Jake nodded. "I do too. It only stores it as one byte. Umm, I just thought of something." He held up his lupine tail. "We're going to be wearing diapers. How will they handle these?"
Mandy clicked around the controls before finding the option to modify clothing for animal-based forms. Tailholes were the least of the mods available: there were mods that would make clothing fit full-animal forms. They wouldn't need those. ...Not yet, at any rate. She giggled and switched their clothing, making sure to spawn a changing table object in the corner, with several packages of disposable diapers modded for their cartoon bodies.
Mandy was now wearing a cute dress that allowed her tail to stick out. Jake and Tim had overalls with tailholes, and Jake had a concern he wanted to voice.
"What about puberty? We were just on the cusp of it when this whole mess started happening, and you weren't anywhere near it. Will our aware minds pass through the changes and start wanting sex from our bodies that aren't even close to ready?" Mandy shook her vulpine head, frowning. "No, puberty is hormone-based, and since I left those at the default values for this age, the only way we'd want sex is if we made ourselves older. If we did, though, it might be fun. I'd never even thought about it before."
"What about food?" Jake asked, his panther tummy rumbling. Mandy clicked around and spawned some delicious roast beef and cheese sandwiches for them all. "We'll have to monitor our own diets--our parents certainly won't, with the Minimal Social Interaction selection. Good thing we're smart enough to." Tim mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich, "Buh wha abouk ow animuh fohms?" Mandy answered calmly, "Not a problem. I left our digestive systems at fully human. We can still eat all our favorite foods!"
Tim noticed another option in the program. "Best of all, we can eat as much or as little as we like, and if we get too fat or skinny, we can reset to normal with the program! What do you think?" he asked Mandy.
Mandy just giggled and swished her fox tail. "I think...I need a diaper change."