Tag looked shocked at the frozen 3D-image of Paul on his V-pet. It took him a minute or two before he looked the V-pet all over to find a way to release him. Without finding anything he finally had no choice but to select Paul as his pet. Seconds later Paul groaned in the V-pet, then asked: “What happened?”
“You got downloaded as my pet, Paul. And on the V-pet is no release button, so I had to select your frozen form.” Tag replied. Paul looked at him a bit angry: “Then find a way to release me, I´m not your pet to play with.”
Tag himself got angry now as well. “That wasn´t my intention. But there is no help button either. I will look for anything in the manual, but don´t disturb me searching.” But Paul wasn´t a patient one, so after a short time of around three minutes he complained again. Tag did the only thing he had found to silence a pet, as there was no volume control. He opened the editor mode, again freezing Paul's form.
After half an hour of reading he had found a way to release a pet again, but by now he wasn´t sure if he really wanted to. Yes, Paul was his roommate and they got along most of the time, but they didn´t see each other as friends. And how he demanded to be released wasn´t nice either. So, after some thinking Tag developed a plan to deal with Paul.
Being already in the editor Tag made a back-up of Paul's whole data and then stored him away for later use. It would be no use if Paul would drive him nuts. Then he used the scan option to scan himself so he could use his own data later as well. When that was finished, he closed the editor and returned to the start screen. He pocketed the V-pet, put his shoes on and left the apartment in search for more data.
He had learned from the manual that he could download everything, but also could just scan things to use the data, like he did with his own. But to release something there must be downloaded data available. So, he could release Paul, but not the scanned copy of himself directly. To release his copy, he would need to override a downloaded profile like Paul was at the moment. But all data could be projected like a hologram.
The size and mass were only relevant for the released things, so he would be able to release Paul as something small like a mouse, storing the additional mass for later use. But to make Paul something big like an elephant he would need extra mass to add. For the downloaded mass it was irrelevant if it was something living or not to use for this. There was something called the spark of life, which was needed to release something living. You couldn´t create a new life from only lifeless mass. So, Tag could download a chess piece and transfer Paul's spark to it, making the chess piece living and Paul just a lifeless mass in the real world. But inside the V-pet he could make anything be alive as a pet if he wanted to.
Tag decided to download at least two animals outside while scanning almost everything other. So, when he returned home an hour later, he had downloaded two big stray dogs and six pigeons, while he scanned various other dogs, cats and birds, as well as some humans. He also had scanned various objects from a super market and a clothes shop, as well as some parking cars and plants in the park.
At home looking over the scanned data he found one mistake he made. While the scan of himself was complete as if he had downloaded himself without the mass attached, the other scans were just like overlays. With the manual he found out that to scan something complete it would need to touch the V-pet, or else it scanned only the surface, not the insides. “Well, I got what I needed. Maybe the next time I collect data I could think about that, but now let´s start with Paul.”
Tag chose one of the dogs he had downloaded and put it in the editor. He made a back-up from it as well before he pulled the back-up from Paul's data up to override the dog’s body.
Two things happened when Tag confirmed the overriding. First, a process bar appeared at the bottom of the screen. The other was that a shudder went through the frozen dog. While the bar slowly filled, the dog changed. It´s tail receded into its back while the brown fur thinned out into simple, black body-hair. It formed Paul's spiky hair-form on the dog’s head, longer than elsewhere on the body. The claws receded as well while the paws changed into hands with long fingers and feet with short toes, but both were longer than the dog ones. The muzzle shrunk away, flattening the mouth while the black nose got skin colored and formed a short nose on the face. The overall body structure shifted, bending the knees and the back to a two-legged being. The last visible change was the sheath shrinking away, leaving a human cock with balls in its place.
While the bar was only filled up to fifty percent at the moment to Tag it was Paul standing in place of the dog on screen. Tag realized that the rest must be inner and mental changes.
It took two more minutes before the process ended with a ping and a short message, saying that loading the back-up was successful. Tag grinned before he edited the new Paul a bit. He would be friendlier, not so stingy, more orderly and careful. The finishing touch was for the new Paul to be truthful and easy suggestible by Tag. Grinning while saving the edited Paul he would soon release him.
But before that he used the other dog he had downloaded for his own scanned data, creating his clone out of the dog. The change went similar to Paul's, only his hair turned blond and messier.
He then released the new Paul to the real world. “There, I´ve found a way to release you, Paul. Sorry it took some time.” Tag explained. “Finally. But I didn´t notice how much time has gone by. Found out anything interesting about the V-pet?” Paul answered with a question while putting the clothes the original Paul has worn on.
“Well, I made a back-up of your data, so I could use a copy of you as a pet. I also found out I can scan data to use, so I scanned myself. I thought about making our copies my pets. I could even made them think they were the originals of us and see how that would play out.” “Sounds interesting, let´s try that.”