"Well then," Jeff said after looking through the list himself, "what do you wanna be?"
Mike took a deep breath and blew it out noisily, visibly considering his options as he swung lazily forward and back. "Well, I don't rightly know, son. I kind of left this stuff behind when I was dating your mother, and I haven't really touched it since then." He continued to think before a look of strained realization crossed his face. "Your mother didn't leave me because I liked stuff this-- she never even knew."
"I…never even considered it, Dad." Jeff reassured while raising his arms. Of course, now the thought was definitely in his head, but Mike seemed to relax a bit anyway. "So, you were…a furry, in the early days of it then, right?" His father nodded thoughtfully, obviously recalling several memories that Jeff knew nothing about. "Well then, did you have a fursona? Were they called spirit animals back then?"
"Yes and no." Mike said, coming out of his memories with a smile. "I was pretty vanilla for a furry, if you can really say that. I wanted to be a wolf, ever since your grandmother signed me up for scouts. There was one other kid in my troop too."
"Do you keep up with him?" Jeff asked, which made his father smirk.
"No," Mike said, "we were seven years old and went to different schools. I didn't even like the guy-- he was annoying as hell."
"Oh." Jeff said simply, causing Mike to laugh, which in turn seemed to ease his nerves.
"So I guess that means I should be a wolf, at least for old times sakes. Does this thing have a reverse button in case I hate it?" That was a good question, so Jeff turned towards the Chronovac program and looked.
"Not completely sure," Jeff said pointing, "but right next to the apply button there's a big greyed out reverse arrow. I would say that's going to be the undo button if there is any on this machine." He said it with a shrug, which made Mike nod thoughtfully again.
"Well, what the hell." Mike finally said with his own shrug, "I doubt the program would get this far without a lawsuit if you couldn't. Make me a big bad wolf, kiddo." He grabbed Jeff by his shoulders as he hovered over his son at the computer. Jeff scrolled through the list of anthropomorphic animals again and clicked the selection that said 'wolves' in unassuming letters.
"Uhh, what species of wolf do you want to be?" Jeff said as another list appeared beside the first. It appeared to have every species, subspecies, and whatever. Mike bent over his shoulder while he looked at the list for a moment.
"I think 'Gray Wolf' would be just fine-- like I said, I wasn't too picky." Mike pointed at the first choice which was a Gray Wolf. Jeff clicked it and his computer hummed for a second as another window popped up. Both Jeff and Mike oohed and aah'd a bit as the words 'select subject' appeared at the top, followed by a slowly populating list containing various names. Their names were the first two on the list.
"All right, front billing." Mike joked, pointing at his name at the top of the list. "Looks like you're the co-star." Jeff rolled his eyes as he double clicked on his father's name as the original window refreshed to be a crude 3D representation of Mike. To the left of the model were an alphabetical list of every measurable stat about Jeff's father that could be thought. There was even his age in absolute seconds.
"And people worry about the government knowing too much about them," Mike said softly, taking in the view. Next to the list of everything was a smaller column of information titled 'Alterations', with the first stat saying 'Species: Gray Wolf ("Anthro" Modified)'. Below it were several different stats that Jeff assumed just made the transition from human to animal-hybrid easier. The 'Apply' button at the bottom had started throbbing, letting anyone know that this was the last page before the changes took effect.
"I uh, I think I'll be right back." Mike quickly backed up, and Jeff turned in time to see his father practically sprint out his door and down the hall. He could hear the door to his father's room slam shut before hearing the sound of dresser doors slamming open and shut. After about a minute, his father came back through the door, dressed in swimming trunks and a very thin, old wife beater.
"Going for a swim?" Jeff joked, earning a mocking head nod from his father.
"I don't know how weird this'll be, but if movies have told me anything, clothes don't survive. I thought I should wear something I don't mind ruining instead of my work outfit, follow?"
"Make sense." Jeff agreed, and twirled in his chair to face his dad as he moved to the center of the room. Mike kind of held his arms out like he was getting a medical examination for a few seconds, before motioning a come on gesture with his hands.
"I'm ready, son. Let's see if it's all it's cracked up to be like my younger self thought." He kept his arms out, but pointed at Jeff's hand, which was still on the mouse. Jeff slowly dragged the cursor over the throbbing apply button and looked towards his father.
"All right, I'm hitting the start button." Jeff said, and left-clicked the mouse.