Nate couldn’t believe how well the afternoon was going. His friends weren’t freaking out about the existence of the Chronivac as much as he thought they would, and it was fun watching the satyrs play off each other.
Well, “satyr” and satyr. Marcus had all but confirmed what he had originally suspected: It was really hard to go from being a satyr to being a human. The two species were just wired far too differently. The Chronivac’s mishap had caused all of this, but at least other satyrs would respond similarly as he did.
So… that was settled then. He was staying a satyr. Marcus was staying a satyr. The two quarterbacks were staying a canine-feline rivalry. One in ten people were staying some sort of mythical creature. This was Nate’s new life now.
Was he going to get a call from TransDem at some point yelling at him to right reality? He could deal with that when the time arrived he supposed. Now all that was left was to sit back, enjoy the game, and tease the hell out of Allen. Baah, it was fun watching him get so flustered. Still, there was the lingering question… Could he tolerate being human again? Did he even want to?
“Baah? I did promise a free change if you’d humor me,” Nate held up the Chronivac, “What can I do for you Allen?”
“You two are having way too much fun with this,” Allen laughed, “Uh- Okay. Fine. I want to try being a satyr for a bit.”
By Pan’s grace, this was going to be the new Allen too, wasn’t it?
“Baah?” Marcus’ tail curled up in the air. He plopped down on the sofa and patted the cushion beside him. “Then pull up a seat. It sounds like we’ve got a few hours to convince you to stay like this.”
“Yeeeeah, that’s my ask for the Chronivac actually,” Allen rubbed his neck, “I don’t want you two buttering me up for the rest of the day. You mentioned that thing has perception filters Nate?”
“Uh huh…?” Nate tilted his head.
“Can you… just make me one of the guys?” Allen blushed. “I’m curious how you two would treat me for the rest of the day if you didn’t know I changed and thought I was just another satyr.”
“Oh! I think I can do that?” Nate started tapping on the gadget. Owen was listening to everything and kept helpfully surfacing the right screens for him. “One of the guys huh? You make us sound like a couple of bros.”
“Uh, bros don’t have dad-bods,” Allen laughed and jiggled his stomach, “I don’t want to explain why I look just like Marcus. Can you make me just a goaty version of my old self first?”
“Hey, first of all, it’s called Big DILF Energy,” Marcus snorted, “Satyrs have different sensibilities. This…” He gestured down at himself, “Shows we have a zest for life and-“
“A taste for wine?” Nate snickered.
“Baah! I’m being serious!” He put his hands on his furry hips, “Look, I’m the only real satyr here apparently. This is something one aspires to. You should be happy to look like me.”
“Fine” Allen ran his fingers over his paunch again. “Can you really make me his brother Nate?”
“Baah?” Marcus blinked.
“You said I should be happy to look like you. I’ll settle for being proud of some familial resemblance,” Allen teased.
Nate watched as his Chronivac tried to keep up with Allen’s proposal. It eventually shifted away from the knob-tweaking screen to another one of those tricky bulleted lists Nate had come to know.
• Genealogy Update: Move Allen Winters into Marcus Proudhorn’s family tree.
• Relationship Update, Allen Proudhorn: Twin of Marcus Proudhorn
• Relationship Update, Allen Proudhorn: Friends with Benefits with Nate Steelhoof
• Relationship Update, Marcus Proudhorn: Twin of Allen Proudhorn
• Relationship Update, Marcus Proudhorn: Friends with Benefits with Nate Steelhoof
• Age Progression, Allen Proudhorn: Add 2 years, three months, two days, six hours, and forty five minutes.
• Reality Alteration: Allen Proudhorn work and social histories replaced with Satyr-Template-16-C. (Vineyard Satyr, Outgoing.)
• Mental Shift: Nate Steelhoof will have no desire to make further changes with the Chronivac until midnight tonight.
• Perception Filter: Only Allen Proudhorn is aware of above changes until midnight tonight.
Sweet Pan! That was quite the alteration! Owen was dropping him in the hooves of a satyr’s life, but what was all this about friends with benefits? He tried to tap the screen for more details. A discrete text bubble from Owen popped up.
“You called the Proudhorn twins over out of the blue,” the device said. “If not to test your Chronivac, then what? You three hardly care about sports. The closest reality matching this situation is a booty call.“
Baah! Oh man. Inviting a satyr and a human over for sports probably didn’t have any ambiguity. Throwing a small satyr-only house party apparently had others connotations? But they were going to be brothers! How would that even work? Sneaking off one at a time? Both at once?
Nate’s tail started to wag. That sounded pretty fun actually.
The device buzzed in his hand. Owen’s bubble now read, “I can provide other parameters sir? Would you like me to make you three sports ‘bros’ as you put it?”
Baah! It didn’t even occur to Nate to just make the three of them bigger sports fans.
“So… Can you do it?” Allen asked curiously.
“Baah! Oh, uh, yeah, I think I’ve got it all set up? You okay having us be oblivious until midnight?” Nate considered flashing up the list of changes but then thought better of it.
“How long is this party going to last?” Marcus grinned.
“Baah, I just want to give your ‘brother’ the proper satyr experience,” Nate winked.
“That’s a bit longer than I was expecting,” Allen rubbed one of his horns.
Nate fidgeted with the Chronivac, “Come on, you should give it a fair shot. You can just call me in the morning to change things back.”
“If he wants to change back,” Marcus wagged, “Who knows, he might like having hooves.”
“Oh man, this is a bad idea,” Allen laughed nervously. “Are you sure it’ll be alright Nate?”
“Baah, relax,” Nate poked around the Chronivac’s screen, “I just backed up your human default. It’s just one day as a satyr. You’ll be back to yourself in no time.”
“Umm…” Nate recognized a nervous horn rub anywhere. Allen was acting coy, but he had clearly forgotten about his new tail. It was arced up fully in the air. He was so totally onboard.
Now all that was left to do was finalize the changes. Was he going to push Allen into the satyric deep end, or should he tweak the parameters some?