Mike pulled up his pants realizing his son was in the room and despite his desire to explore, now is not the time, thankfully Jeff was trying to read what went wrong and didn't notice. "Hey uh Jeff, let me try..." Jeff got up and Mike sat down clicking buttons and reading page after page of information and details. "Oh, I think I see what all happened."
"What did I do wrong dad?"
"All right, it looks like you applied a transgender package to me, so I had female parts but it was effective now going forward and people would have referred to me as Mrs. instead of Mr. if they knew, but my puberty was still very male and you came from my sperm."
"Oh, sorry Dad, my mistake."
"It's okay, I think I found the right settings, Oh, more questions..." Mike continued reading and Jeff became entranced in his phone.
"Uh, Jeff, there's a little snag... My goal of being born a woman would normally mean you would get my X chromosomes and the Y chromosome would come from a different man. I found a way to maintain that your mother and I get together, and I can keep you, you, but I'd have to 'give you my masculinity'."
"Okay what does that mean?"
"It says it would then be able to use me as your father instead of any sperm donor."
"Well, that seems like a good option to me. I accept? How do you transfer your masculinity over?"
"The donor selects the option from the list below... the recipient applies the gift as applicable and the transformation will commence..."
"Alright, what are the options?"
"I'm getting... Oh God! Umm, well some of these seem to be geared towards couples... Beard applique! That's what we will do."
"What were the other options?"
"Things your mother and I would do if we were doing this together."
"Oh! Eww!"
"Yeah. So we should both remember what is normal, you should stay the same, but we should have a whole new reality to explore in a few minutes."
"All right. Fire it up."
Mike clicked the button, and felt a tingling on his face, he idly scratched his cheek feeling a fold. As he scratched at it more it pulled off what looked to be a latex movie prosthetic that covered his sideburns down his neck and everything in between. As he looked at it the discoloration from his 5 o'clock shadow was clearly visible.
The Chronivac beeped popping a message up, "Apply to recipient to continue."
"Oh my god, Dad your face is so smooth!" Jeff said in amazement.
Mike felt his face and smiled, "You're right. I guess you need to wear this now."
Jeff took it into the bathroom and aligned the sideburn with his; his dad's face shape was completely different but it seemed to readjust to fit Jeff and stuck to his skin like he was wearing a glue. A second later Jeff felt a tingling and could no longer find the lip between the applique and his skin, it all just felt like his skin. "How do I look dad?"
Mike grimaced, "Umm, the phrase 'bearded baby' comes to mind, I'm sure you'll grow into it." Mike chuckled
Jeff looked sullen for a second before getting excited, "Wait, does this mean I get to start shaving?"
"I don't think so, You're still only 16, I think it just means you won't be erased from the timeline."
Jeff laughed, "Well I guess that has to be good enough."
The Chronivac chirped that phase 2 was commencing and reality lurched, rewriting itself so that Mike was never a man.
Michelle found herself in the kitchen at the stove preparing dinner, the idea of ordering pizza and watching the game couldn't be less interesting to her but the idea popped into her head, "Where did that idea even come from?" it sounded like something Jeff would like, Michelle wistfully smirked, he doesn't yet see the value of a healthy balanced meal, though he can also eat anything and is constantly hungry, teenagers. "Jeff, honey! Come for dinner."
Jeff came bounding up from the basement ending his workout, loud thuds with every footfall. "Hey mom, you said food was ready?"
"Almost, set the table."
Dinner began and the pair began talking and their original reality came into clarity.