Because Jeff's room was directly above the kitchen the whole family was within range of the emitter the Chronivac was able to analyse Jeff's brain activity and find a solution. The proposed actions weren't intended to be actual solutions but could be given a strong enough response. They were more so intended to add a layer of moral guidance to the AI that TransDem simply couldn't program in for all situations.
For example, pretend your parent passed when you were three and you turned your best friend into the deceased parent temporarily, with consent, to get some guidance as a teen. Now pretend you accidentally left "alter reality" active and two or three siblings suddenly popped into existence. Returning your friend to their life as you promised would result in erasing your siblings, but would be the desired effect of avoiding the paradox...
There was no way Jeff was going to erase his siblings or give David more power... he thought about becoming the dad himself but hesitated, he didn't want to be an old man... Several moments later Jeff concluded that he should just go and have a look, so he thought really hard about pausing the machine but it was too late, the Chronivac had already passed that menu and was no longer waiting for a direct response, knowing that mid transformation pauses could mean the difference between life and death.
With paradox avoidance activated, the AI had nearly free reign to rewrite reality to make the original goal come to fruition. The Chronivac re-calibrated and recalculated suddenly having nearly infinite options available to it. This process took several minutes and in that time Jeff had stolen countless glances at his family members confirming the changes had indeed stopped. Satisfied, he dropped his guard.
Above, the Chronivac submitted a paradox avoidance feedback report to Transdem and a team of data analysts were on hand to review the proposal. In reality they received a 5 line summary of the cause and actions to be taken with the option to review the full 145 page report. After a 10 second cursory review, the analyst saw that nobody was going to be placed in a state of torment from this transformation and allowed it to pass. The Chronivac which had queued the transformation began to whir into action with 10 minutes to spare. The analyst shot off an email recommendation to place the paradox analysis before the transformation begins and provide a warning.
The paradox process works to carefully untangle messes, and makes incremental changes instead of simultaneous changes, it also lowers awareness until the process is complete. Katie began shrinking rapidly, her clothes disappearing and reforming as she regressed to a 1 year old in diapers and a baby seat. Jeff's status switched from brother to Father. Mykala offhandedly mentioned that Katie will need a bath tonight. Jeff just grunted in affirmation focused entirely on the pizza.
David was next, going from 18 to 4 in just a couple minutes. His chair became a booster seat and he began talking about aspirations of being in space, or being president of the world. Jeff's role switched to father. Mykala commented, "You fuel his imagination, just don't forget that you also get to help him with his homework when he's older and trying to reach those goals." Jeff chuckled, "Yeah, yeah..."
Jeff was next due to David's age, a 12 year old with a son would cause problems. Jeff went through the rest of puberty in a minute reaching age 22. He grew taller, wider and a 5 o'clock shadow creeped its way onto his face.
Mykala then regressed from 36 to 20. Undergoing the mental changes needed to be the perfect spouse to her now husband. Rings appeared on both her and Jeff's hand and her underlying fears regarding the kid's future melted away because she was no longer a single parent.
The Chronivac had two minutes remaining and used this for reality clean up. All the rooms in the house changed to suit a young family instead of a single dad and 3 teens. David's car turned into Jeff's crossover SUV. Mykala became 3 years older so she wasn't pregnant at 17 and Jeff became 25. Knowledge flooded out of Mykala and experience flooded into Jeff.
The Chronivac beeped that it was done and Jeff took a sudden deep breath as if waking from a dream. He looked around and saw his family whom he loved dearly, He realized this wasn't what he expected, he wanted a girlfriend, but the package was called perfect spouse after all. His mature brain realized just how short sighted he had been.
"Sweetie, do you want to give Katie a bath tonight or do you want to put David to bed?" Mykala asked with a tired look in her eyes. "I can do either." Jeff replied with a reassuring smile. "I want DADDY to put me to bed! He tells the bestest stories and makes funny voices!" Jeff and Mykala shared a smile.
"Okay then Kiddo. You got it." Jeff replied.
The evening continued without a hitch. By 830, both kids were down and Jeff was cleaning up the kitchen when Mykala came in. "You're great." Jeff said as Mykala walked in. She stared at her husband cleaning the dishes and noticed he had already wiped down the table and swept the floor. "And you're even better." she replied overwhelmed with the deepest sense of love and trust she has ever felt.
"I'd kill for you baby, you know that right?" Mykala said, trying to quantify her feelings. Jeff put the dishes down and looked at his love. "You still surprise me..." he said with a smirk "but let's hope it doesn't come to that." Jeff dried his hands and moved in to kiss her. The passion quickly overtook them and the remaining chores were left for morning.
Jeff loved his new life but completely forgot that he had set up a timed transformation intending to have a girlfriend nights and weekends. The next morning, the time constraints of the transformation effect has come into play but how will the paradox alterations effect it?