Wendell and Harris sat in front of the Chronivac. Its emitter was humming softly as its unreal scan of Wendell continued to show on the engineer’s laptop.
“So… what are you going to do with it?” Harris stared at the display.
“Turn myself into a werewolf. Obviously,” Wendell grinned.
“Of course,” Harris laughed, “Nerd.”
Wendell was the low-key furry in their friend group. He didn’t exactly run around with a tail pinned to his pants, but he always used an icon of a black wolf on his various social media accounts. To say nothing of his tabletop character. Wendell had been running the same werewolf rogue for as long as Harris had known him. He had a high intelligence stat and great lock picking skills when in his human form, but got a nice boost to his acrobatics and dexterity when he wolfed out for a fight. Harris could see Wendell type in some familiar stats as his hands flew over the keyboard.
The 3D model updated in real time as Wendell keyed in his changes. There wasn’t a fancy “wolfing out” animation. The preview just shifted between a human and a black furred bipedal wolf with a few frames blending in between. The beast on the screen was shockingly detailed. Rich black coat, piecing yellow eyes, and just the right glint off the wetness of its nose. There was just the issue that it was dressed up like a sophomore engineering student. The cheap department shirt and some baggy jeans didn’t really fit with the whole apex predator vibe.
“Oh wow, that’s incredible,” Harris stated dumbfounded.
“No kidding,” Wendell nodded. “But let’s see if we can update my wardrobe a bit…”
The shirt started snapping between a few different options. The leather jacket looked a bit too biker bar. The sport coat gave the air of a business major try hard. Wendell kept clicking when Harris finally leaned in.
“Try something flannel,” he grinned.
Wendell clicked on a classic red plaid design. He spun the model around curiously.
“I dunno, looks a bit woodsman to me,” Wendell tilted his head.
“Maybe change it to blue? That’ll stand out against the black fur less,” Harris suggested.
“I can’t believe I’m spending this much time on clothing,” Wendell clicked his mouse a few more times. Harris was right though, the blue shirt did look a bit nicer.
Wendell tried adjusting a few more sliders. It was close, but not clicking just yet. He tried toggling through some of the pants options and- Damnit. His folks were right. A pair of tighter cut jeans did look better than his current old ratty pair.
Everything was starting to fall into place. There was still something missing though. Hmm. Wendell curiously clicked a toggle that made the preview model unbutton the shirt to show off its chest fur. “There we go.”
“You’re not going to eat me the second you grow a muzzle, are you?” Harris wasn’t sure how serious he was being about the question.
“Nah, I set it so it’s still me,” Wendell tabbed back to the main screen, “Werewolf engineering major. Civilized, part of polite society, that whole chestnut. I don’t want to be a bloodthirsty monster.”
Harris watched his roommate review his stats. He tweaked things here and there. Adding an inch of height, shaving off a couple of pounds, that sort of thing. Harris couldn’t help but notice Wendell nudge the “Outgoing” personality trait up a bit. Eventually he started dragging his mouse down to the big 'Apply' button.
Wendell paused over the ‘Awareness’ stat. Harris had suggested he zero it out earlier. He still wasn’t completely clear what it did… but growing a tail in sounded painful. To say nothing of a fur coat. He kept it at zero and moved down to apply the changes.
“Ready?” Harris scooted his chair back.
“Here goes nothing,” Wendell smiled nervously. “Wish me luck.”
“Luck,” Harris stared.
The click rang out in the dorm room. A small progress bar appeared on the Chronivac’s screen. “Applying changes, please wait.”
Wendell’s ears immediately started to change. They grew a bit longer and tapered off into a pair of noticeable points. His black hair grew out and took on a more thick texture. He gained a mullet as his hair grew further and further down his neck. Eventually it was pushed over some tipping point and just became jet black wolf fur.
“Anything yet?” Wendell asked curiously.
“Not that I can see?” Harris continued to stare. He completely failed to notice the black fur growing out of every pore on Wallace’s face.
The sophomore blinked. When he opened his eyes back up, he was looking at his oblivious room mate with a pair of wild yellow eyes. The room’s details grew sharper to Wendell as the colors became more muted. He leaned over into a chair to double check his reflection.
“Come on…” Wendell growled, looking for any sign of a change. A pair of canines started to poke out of his lips as his throat grumbled.
His nose went black in the mirror. His entire head was changing shape now. It was like someone had grabbed him by the ears and started stretching things into a more sleek shape. The pointed ears traveled up to the top of his head, and his nose began to push out into a long pointed muzzle.
His glasses teetered precariously on his growing muzzle for a moment before shimmering and adjusting in size. Their style was still the same, but the proportions were changing to better accommodate a muzzle. The arms slid off of his now out of reach ears and instead grew small combs at the end. They dug into the fur on the back of his cheeks and held the glasses firmly in place.
His view got blurry for a moment before the prescription in his lenses shifted. He had bifocals now, giving him a set of readers to make out anything directly at the end of his muzzle.
“Huh,” Wendell looked at the wolf head on his shoulders for anything out of place. Not seeing anything, he leaned back over to his computer and shook the mouse, “I don’t think it froze?”
The progress bar kept moving. The black fur rippled out from his head in waves. It crawled over his shoulder and made its way down his arm. The young man didn’t react at all as the hand holding the mouse shifted into a large canine paw.
The mouse itself grew in size. One benefit of being an engineer was being able to justify splurging on expensive custom computer hardware. There was a shop online that did amazing custom mice for paws. They did a digital scan of your paw pad locations and everything.
The fur continues to grow out on Wendell’s chest. The cheap t-shirt he had bought at some department fundraiser was shifting in appearance. The material improved in quality, taking on a dark blue plaid pattern as a collar grew out around the neck. A seam began to form on the front of the shirt, peeling apart and leaving a row of buttons in its wake. It’s shift into an over shirt passed without comment.
Well, it was sold as an over shirt at least. Wendell never wore anything underneath it. That’s what his fur was for after all! The thick black carpet of fur curled just the way he liked it. He enjoyed preening the tuff on the center of his chest out when he knew humans were staring. There were some weres who tried to conform to human fashion standards, but he was confident enough to flaunt his canine form.
His pants shifted more subtly. The largest change finally came when a well sewn tailhole appeared on the seat of his pants. Almost immediately Wendell grew out an impressive black wolf tail. It ran into the back of his chair, but that too grew a hole to accommodate it. The furry appendage wagged in frustration as he watched the Chronivac’s progress bar.
“Is… it doing anything?” Harris finally asked.
The laptop underneath Wendell’s paw gained a custom canine-friendly keyboard. His shoes vanished underneath his desk and reappeared in his closet. His feet were growing a proper pair of wolf paws now. His spare sandals all but vanished.
“I don’t think so?” Wendell shook the mouse again.
The contents of the dorm room were shifting. Wendell’s belongings started to spill over into the common areas. He had a full wardrobe of wolf sized clothing along a few spare human-sized pieces of clothes for the new moons and other situations where he absolutely couldn’t be a wolf. (Biology labs and sensitive noses didn’t mix it turned out.) Likewise his fur care products and brushes started to dominate their bathroom’s sink.
The room became a blur for a moment as the two suddenly were huddled over a different desk. Wendell and Harris were good friends. They had met their freshmen year and moved in to an on-campus dorm at the start of their second year. They both knew Wendell would need a bit more space, so Harris got to pick which desk and bed he wanted. The posters on the wall also shifted to reflect Harris’ design sensibilities and taste in films.
The computer finally let out a soft chime. It proudly proclaimed, “Change complete!”
“Uh…” Wendell poked at the 3D model again. It was still showing his usual scruffy black werewolf self. “That’s weird. It just reverted back to my normal model.”
“Huh,” Harris tilted his head. “Maybe they blew their R&D budget on the unreal scanning tech and didn’t quite have time to solve the impossible reality altering part?”
“Maybe?” The wolf slumped down in the chair, “Ugh. No wonder it was on eBay.”
“Hey, come on, this modeling tech is pretty cool at least!” Harris tried to cheer him up, “It knows how many inches long you keep your head fur trimmed for Pete’s sake!”
“I guess,” Wendell poked at the mouse. “I’m surprised it knows my age too.”
“Come on, you didn’t really think it was going to work, did you?” Harris chuckled.
“I- Probably not? I mean, some of the urban legends online are pretty convincing,” the wolf man huffed.
“Oh don’t be like that. Come on, we can at least have fun with the 3D preview?” Harris reached over and rubbed Wendell’s ear.
Wendell sat up. He flicked his ear firmly against Harris’ hand. Few of his friends could pull that stunt and get away with it. But he was trying to cheer him up.
“I guess the scanner is pretty neat,” Wendell finally admitted.
“Want to take my model for a spin?” Harris chuckled.
“Fine,” Wendell’s tail started to wag again. “But I get to pick your ‘changes’.”
“Deal,” Harris sat back down and watched. “So, what do you have in mind?”