Judy was unsure of what she thought of Jeff's game and how much information it had on them all. She was tempted to delete most of it but decided to try the Clown Option. She had always liked clowns and was curious to see what the people on the computer, including herself, might look like all clowned up.
However, not being a tech savvy person, Judy accidentally pressed a that caused the changes to not just be physical, but mental as well....
*******
The Chronivac began randomly changing the people into clowns. The program itself wasn't cruel or vindictive, simply doing as it was instructed. The changes were mental as well as physical, the the former affected them all differently-some would be aware of what happened, and others would act like it was perfectly normal. A couple would even hate it, but still would be compelled to behave in a clownlike manner.
And the first person the Chronivac picked was Ricky Benson.
Outside Ricky was playing with his pals Peter and Leo, when he noticed Leo looking at him oddly. "Rick, have you been into your sister's lipstick?" the African American kid asked. "It looks like you got a spot on your nose."
"No." Ricky rubbed his nose. Nothing came off.
"And it's spreading," added Peter.
"It is?" Rick asked. "Excuse me," he said as he ducked inside and ran towards the bathroom.
As he approached the bathroom, Rick felt his shoes get tight against his feet.
As he entered and looked in the mirror, Rick saw his nose was indeed now bright red, and worse, it was growing bigger, into a red fleshy bulb.
And that wasn't the only thing happening to him.
Ricky's hair, a sandy brown color, was turning neon yellow and becoming thick and curly, at least around the sides and back of his head. At the very top it looked like it was thinning. Ricky allso saw the hollows of his eyes and the area around his mouth fading to a pale white while the rest of his complexion became a pale pink.
Looking down, Ricky saw to his horror his waistline stretched against his shorts and tank top as his body became thick with fat. Reaching down, he found it a struggle to take off his shoes and socks, and to his amazement his feet stretched to a size twenty with-eight-inch pancake toes poking out under his new beer gut.
Ricky started to look up at the mirror, only to sneeze. When he opened his eyes, he now saw that his eyebrows were gone, replaced by black arches atop the patches of white around his eyes, making him look surprised. His eyes inside were outlined in black; over his eyes were vertical black bars giving the look of exclamation marks. Inside his white muzzle his lower lip was now black and stretched into a wide smile that looked open all the time. Bright red blush adorned his chicks, which rather suited his plump new face.
At the very center, Ricky’s nose was a perfect sphere, bright red and nearly as big as a tennis ball. The hair that had been turning blue and curly stretched halfway across his shoulders but on top, the nine-year old’s head was bare, pink, and smooth. ‘Oh no,’ he thought in dismay, ‘I’m bald!’
Clothes appeared on Ricky’s new body-his shorts and tank-top became baggy, the former blue with white polka-dots the latter had the same colors in a tie-dyed pattern. From out of nowhere red and white striped socks appeared on his oversized feet that reached up to his knees, followed by shoes perfectly sized for his enormous feet with yellow saddles and red wingtips. Next came blue pants fitted for his rotund waist, a baggy yellow shirt, red lined blue vest, puffy red bow tie and fingerless blue gloves on his hands. As a final touch, a tiny red derby with a yellow band appeared on Ricky’s smooth bald head.
As the changes to Ricky’s body and clothes finished, his mind reset to match his new appearance. His horror and trepidation were gone, replaced by giddiness as well as a full knowledge of clown routines and jokes both practical and impractical filled his head. He touched his big red nose and gave a squeeze. HONK!
Ricky, or now Rizzo as he thought of himself, took one last at his reflection. Nodding in approval at how silly he looked, the nine-year-old Auguste clown waddled out the bathroom door to rejoin his friends.
Meanwhile....