"Alright Pete, stop looking so skeptical, I swear this program works," Jake said, his roommate now in view as he entered their shared dorm. Pete was tall, broad-shouldered with a chiseled jawline, a mop of coppery hair lapping at his eyebrows. He'd always reminded Jake of an Irish rugby player, rough around the edges but good-hearted. He was always dressed in his favorite red flannel and worn-in jeans - a wardrobe staple that never really changed.
Pete scoffed, folding his burly arms across his chest, heavy brows knitting together as he squinted at the screen. "You're telling me that this thing can change me? What a load of rubbish."
Jake just grinned, his fingers poised on his keyboard. He had to admit, even to himself, this seemed far-fetched. But he had nothing to lose. He was always up for a good joke, whether at his own expense or not.
"Watch and learn, my friend," Jake said as he typed his roommate's name into the system and instructed the Chronivac to change Pete's species into an anthropomorphic house cat. He hit enter, wondering if the surreal would become reality.
What happened next was beyond his wildest dreams. Pete's body started to shapeshift, his stance shrinking and limbs repositioning themselves. His hair fuzzed out into a soft pelt of fur, a striking blend of russet and cream. His facial features morphed, rounding out to a shorter, cuter visage - the transformation pulling his nose and mouth closer together while his jawline became softer. Green eyes, now round and almost luminous, stared in peculiar innocence. His human ears were replaced with triangular ones that twitched occasionally atop his head. A long tail appeared, slightly twitching at the end, covered in the same soft fur. And his clothes—miraculously they had adapted to his new form, shrinking and reshaping to fit, his flannel now a vest, remaining open to reveal his furry chest.
The small anthropomorphic cat looked at Jake, blinking in slight confusion, and a light-hearted chuckle burst through Jake's chest. Pete was still Pete — but in a cat form. The sight was too good to be true.
"See? Told you it'd work," Jake said, doing his best to hide his growing amusement. "You've become the perfect model for interspecies transformation."
Pete looked perplexed then, pads opening and closing as he looked at himself, probably expecting to see his average human body. Then he tilted his now furred head. "I don't see any changes," he said, his voice slightly muffled.
Jake chuckled again, "Trust me, Pete. You have indeed transformed, in the most adorable way."
"Well, what if we try again, but this time you remember everything that changed?" Jake asked. He inspected the program settings on his laptop and his gaze landed on the "Awareness" option. A grin formed on his face as he clicked it; maybe that was Pete's issue - he couldn't register the changes. He then typed in the new description: Pete would switch from being a plain anthropomorphic cat into a full-fledged, charismatic pirate cat captain.
As his fingers danced across the keyboard, he started with Pete's attire. A classical pirate captain's jacket, flowing to mid-thigh, sprouted from around Pete's feline form, dark as midnight with golden buttons catching the light. Half-length trousers bloomed into existence, changing the form of Pete's lower half. Practical and sturdy, but with an ample number of extra front pockets to store his pirate plunder.
Boots of high-gloss leather curled around Pete's feet, and an ammunition belt appeared across his chest diagonally, studded with bullets and flintlocks. In a flash, two revolvers hung from his belt, their handles inviting a grip. And to top it all off, a tricorn hat materialized on Pete's head, looking as if it had seen better days but emanating a sense of authority. A clear symbol that he was, indeed, in charge.
With the physical transformations begun, Jake typed in the next series of changes, and Pete's mannerisms started to transform to those as if he was a pirate, the changes extending even to his speech patterns. Jake couldn't help but chuckle as Pete’s typical slang started to blend with seafaring jargon.
"Wha' the blazes is goin' on, ye scurvy dog!" Pete roared, just as his now salt-weathered voice broke into a feline yowl. He scratched behind an ear with his hind leg, the whole action looking comically non-threatening despite the raging in his eyes. "Why do I feel like I've swallowed a dictionary of piratical phrases?"
Jake leaned back on his chair, folding his arms behind his head as he admired his work, “Oh, think of it as a rather inventive way to shake things up, Captain!” The look of fury on Pete's furry pirate face was absolutely priceless.