It was a little disappointing that the Chronivac had ended up being a bust. Still, the scanning and 3D render part was pretty cool. The two sophomores huddled around Wendell’s computer. Both of them were still completely oblivious to the fact that the Chronivac’s owner had just transformed into a massive black-furred werewolf.
“Alright, let’s see what this bad boy can do,” Wendell growled playfully. He slid his paw around his computer mouse and started clicking around the Chronivac interface with renewed enthusiasm.
It took him a moment to get back to the scanning page. Harris was trying to cheer him up, and had just given Wendell cart blanch to make any sort of change to his roomie’s profile that he wanted. He was all ready to click on Harris’ name, but he noticed there were now a few more on list.
“Wendell Wolfgang” and “Harris Lees” were still the closest two within range, but now “Clarence Quinton” and “Samuel Stern” were showing up under the Chronivac’s purview. Both of them even had small little profile images next to their names.
“Huh,” Wendell paused, “Sam’s in one of the dorms next to us, right? But who’s Clarence again?”
“Sam’s in 107,” Harris pointed to the corresponding wall. “Clarence is in 206 directly above us. I guess this thing can go through walls?”
“I guess so,” Wendell shrugged, “How do you know our neighbors so well? I never have had to deal with any noise complaints.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re the noise complaint Mr. ‘I can’t sleep on a full moon’,” Harris teased.
“Hey!” Wendell felt his hackles rise, “You know I-“
Harris got that, “Oh shit…!” look all humans got when faced with an angry looking wolf man. It was just for a split second though. He quickly reverted back to his usual teasing grin. He knew exactly how to push Wendell’s buttons.
“Alright, I see how it’s going to be,” Wendell licked his chops, “Let’s go ahead and get your profile open…”
“Uh oh, why do I suddenly not like the sound of this?” Harris laughed nervously.
“Re-lax, I’m totally not going to take a print screen of whatever super embarrassing profile I manage to put together,” the wolf wagged.
“Wendell…!” Harris sat up straight.
“Your dad’s hassling you to go to another football game, right? Maybe you should have some more team spirit…” Wendell smirked.
He ran a quick search in the interface and was surprised to see a slider existed for exactly that stat. It was hovering towards the bottom end of the range. (Although perhaps a little higher than the werewolf would have expected.) Wendell clicked on it and gave it a nice firm drag to the maximum range.
The Chronivac’s interface immediately responded. Not only did Harris’ preview model update, but the screen flashed several other stats that had been updated accordingly.
Harris was your typical computer science major. Brown hair, average build, and a little less fashion sense than his werewolf peer. His preview window had shown him idly standing there in a black t-shirt with some punny pop culture mashup on it. As Wendell nudged the slider however, the shirt became a familiar shade of their school’s blue.
The design changed as well. The lettering shifted into a bright gold font, and the cartoon characters faded away only to be replaced by the numbers for… some player? Whoever number 14 was.
The preview kept going. Harris’ hair shifted into a… bright shade of blue? Oh wow! It wasn’t a spray dye either. This was a go-to-a-salon-and-dye-your-hair-for-the-season look. The 3D model smiled and rolled up its sleeve. It turned to the screen and the virtual Harris showed off a large shoulder tattoo.
“What the hell, I don’t have a Lakeside Lions tattoo!” Harris went bug eyed for a second. He knew it was just a computer simulation, but he had to roll up his sleeve just to check. The tattooed outline of a large lion head was unmistakable on the screen, but thankfully his real world shoulder was still bare.
“Maybe I overdid it a bit,” Wendell let out an amused bark. He dialed the slider back until the tattoo vanished and hair shifted back to its usual brown.
“Thanks,” Harris laughed nervously. Thankfully Wendell appeared not to have taken a picture of that little mockup.
“Of course, why settle for just being a fan when you could be on the team?” The wolf growled in amusement. He found a promising looking box called ‘Affiliations’. It listed Lakeside University, the Computer Club, and even the “Wild Things Guild” from their favorite online game. Wendell deleted the last two and instead add, ‘Lakeside Lions’.
Another dozen boxes updated. The preview changed again. Instead of wearing a t-shirt, Harris’ model was now sporting a classy blue looking polo with a small lion’s head logo. Players didn’t apparently wear their own t-shirts. The boxes kept flashing and updating. It was doing things a bit slower this time, like the program was struggling to think.
“Oh wow, the system’s trying to rationalize a football player who’s also a CompSci nerd,” Wendell pointed at the screen. Harris’ model gaining muscle mass, but he wasn’t bulking up to an absurd amount. “You’re the backup quarterback!”
“Really?” Harris leaned forward a new option had appeared under the wardrobe section. He toggled to the ‘Uniform’ entry and watched as the clothes on the model switched into athletic gear. The Chronivac layered them on piece by piece as if it were making all the choices on the fly.
His clothes entirely vanished. Before Harris could make an outburst about his nudity, an athletic cup appeared. They were quickly followed by a white pair of athletic shorts and a matching white undershirt. They both were made out of high performance wicking material, and showed a few sweat marks and grass stains. Next came the protective gear. A massive pair of shoulder pads appeared over a protective vest, and a pair of pants with knee pads built in appeared on his legs. Cleats and blue socks came into view a moment later. Finally his jersey was layered into place over everything. This hypothetical version of Harris was apparently number 48.
“Wow, look at you,” Wendell spun the model around.
“This software’s amazing for something that’s a few decades old,” Harris stated in disbelief.
“It must have gotten some updates…” The wolf scratched his muzzle, “Speaking of which, let’s give you a more realistic background.”
Wendell started clicking on a random array of profile options. He started with- Hey! Harris’ major!
The wolf howled with glee as he replaced, ‘Computer Science’ with ‘General Business Administration’.
The page now reflected Harris’ apparent aspirations of achieving a basic business degree. Various stats started updating on the page to match, but Wendell made particular note to find the intelligence slider. STEM majors had a reputation for being a bit stuck up when it came to their business major peers, and the wolf was no different. He gave the intelligence stat a solid tug, cranking it down by several notable increments. Harris wasn’t completely sure what the Chronivac’s scale was for all these different stats, but it looked like business major Harris was at least two notches below the average.
The backup quarterback in the render immediately updated. The football player grew in size, easily gaining another hundred pounds of muscle. Behind his helmet his face lost some of that intelligent spark. His role on the team updated to… huh, starting linebacker.
He hit people and could take a hit. The role had a few plays to memorize, but it were hardly complex. Just being an imposing physical force would be all that was required of him on the field.
“Are you trying to make me look like some dumb jock?” Harris laughed incredulously. The screen even updated to show that he got only got accepted to the university as part of an athletic scholarship.
“You catch on quick!” Wendell wagged. He moused up to Harris’ personality section and started typing on the keyboard.
Harris would have been worried if any of this were real. “Nerdy, Curious, and Friendly” got replaced with, “Jock, Content, and Friendly.” At least his chipper demeanor wasn’t going anywhere.
“Let’s see…” Wendell started scrolling through the page.
“I think you’ve done enough wolf,” Harris leaned forward to see what other embarrassing stat his room mate was thinking of tweaking.
“That’s it!” Wendell scrolled back to the top, “You play for the lions! Ever wonder what a tail would be like?”
“You’ve got enough tail for both of us,” Harris laughed, “Woah, wait, what are you doing?”
Wendell clicked on the ‘Species’ dropdown and then selected, ‘Feline - Lion’. The preview started to change again. Harris’ helmet grew out to accommodate a muzzle, and bits of scruffy brown fur could be seen around the edges of his helmet.
It was honestly hard to see all the changes underneath the uniform. His posture was changing though, and eventually the Chronivac removed his shoes and gloves. Four intimidating paws framed the brick of an athlete. With one final touch, a long tasseled tail started to wag behind it in real time.
“Wow, not bad,” Harris stared. He hadn’t really thought about what he’d look like as another species before. Shame he couldn’t make out much of his face underneath that mask. “You think I’d make a good lion?”
“Grr, I hate cats. I thought you’d look goofier,” Wendell growled a bit.
“Come on, switch back to his usual clothes. I want to see what he looks like without the padding,” Harris leaned forward to try and grab the mouse. “I want a good look at him.”
“I think the human one was more embarrassing,” Wendell pulled the mouse away. “Let me switch you back to a human so I can send a pic of this out to our guild’s group text. This’ll help explain your raid performance last weekend.”
“Hey!” Harris’ eyes went wide, “You wouldn’t!”
“Just try and stop me,” Wendell smirked.
Wendell had pulled the mouse out of reach… but his laptop was also a touch screen. Before Wendell could change any more settings, Harris leaned forward and quickly tapped the ‘Apply’ button with his finger.
“I think you’ve had enough fun for today,” Harris grinned as the ‘Applying Changes’ progress bar popped up. That should keep him busy for a while.
“Spoil sport,” Wendell stuck his tongue out at him. The gesture didn’t really carry over well from humans. Wendell’s tongue already had a penchant for panting.
Harris’ nose twitched sympathetically. A set of whiskers grew out as Harris thought about his own large tongue. He wasn’t as uncivilized as a big drooly canine tongue, but humans could never tell when he was teasing them, or just lapping up milk.
His nose pushed out and began to form the basis of a proper feline muzzle. He rubbed it gently, teasing his whiskers as the laptop’s fans kicked on. His ears perked as he heard the sound. Two large yellow-furred semicircles began migrating further up his face.
For some reason he couldn’t put his finger on, Harris’ face felt unusually itchy. His brown hair was growing out at an astonishing pace, taking on a wavy texture as it came down to his shoulders. His sideburns grew longer and longer until the young man had a proper beard. Harris scratched at it without even realizing how novel the new the facial feature was. He was proud of his beard, even if the mane of hair needed a good rub every now and then.
The beard grew bushier and bushier until Harris’ humanity slipped enough that it stopped being a mane of hair. It was just his mane now! The last of his hair shifted into fur, and tawny yellow scruff was growing in any place that his mane wasn’t already covering.
“It’s a shame this gadget doesn’t actually do anything,” the lion-headed man purred.
“Yeah, I guess the dongle’s just for DRM?” Wendell picked up the glowing emitter. The red LED had switched over to a ‘Applying Changes’ light.
“What’s DRM?” Harris kicked off the floor to send his chair back over to his desk. When he held up his feet, his shoes and socks had completely vanished.
“Digital Rights Management,” Wendell explained. “D. R. M.” He made sure Harris knew that’s what the acronym stood for. “It means the software doesn’t work without this little plastic thing. That way someone can’t just upload it to the Internet and let anyone download a copy.”
“Oh, okay,” Harris nodded. He tried to understand how that related to the 3D modeling software. His head was feeling mentally fuzzy instead of physically fuzzy now. It was like he had skipped a beat in the conversation.
Harris settled back into his desk space and started dragging his index finger along a groove in the wood top. Moments later his hands and feet started to grow a coat of fine yellow fur. A claw popped out of his index finger and started to trace the scratched pattern in his desk.
“They’re going to charge you for that you know,” Wendell pointed down at his paw.
“My scholarship will cover it,” Harris gave him a toothy grin.
The chair beneath him started to sink a bit as its occupant suddenly exceeded its intended weight capacity. Harris’ shirt strained as his chest barreled out, his shoulders widened, and everything about him grew larger.
“I don’t get it. Why did you buy some dohicky from who knows where again,” Harris tilted his head.
Just as his shirt was about to tear, it suddenly grew in size and shifted material. He liked the feeling of athletic wear against his fur. The t-shirt was now Harris’ usual form fitting undershirt.
A second layer of material appeared over the undershirt. A bright blue polo shirt with a familiar school logo shot across Harris’ torso. The collar framed the bit of his mane around the base of his neck in a really fun way. He usually didn’t even bother buttoning it up.
Harris scratched the polo shirt absent idly. They gave these shirts out like candy at practice. It was important for him to be a brand embassy. Err, and ambassethound? He needed to make the team look good. Harris was the only lion on the Lions after all.
“Someone in Slovakia happened to have one of these still,” Wendell explained his package to him. Again.
Harris’ ears twitched self consciously. Wendell always got excited about this nerd stuff, but he had a hard time following along. Something about this afternoon was making it so hard to think straight.
“Right,” Harris nodded. “Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to hit the gym today. I’m kind of distracted.”
He pawed anxiously at his blue jeans. They were nicer than the pair he wore in high school. Some donors had gotten everyone on the team tailored at the beginning of the season. He still had to buy the pants himself due to some league gift rules, but fit a lot better than what he could buy at Target. Looked nicer too. He was lucky they made sure he had written the numbers down in two different places so he didn’t lose it.
Harris tapped his foot. He wish he could just change into his gym shorts already. He already had a short attention span, and his impatient muscles weren’t helping any.
“It’s cool,” Wendell panted, “You still got class today?”
“Ugh, ECON 201.” Harris felt a growl form in the back of his throat. “I’ve got a test today.”
Wendell’s ears perked, “You’re supposed to tell me when those are coming up. You study enough?”
“It’s a test, not an exam,” Harris nodded.
He got to his paws and picked up his backpack. Harris slid his laptop and a textbook into it, applying a bit of extra pressure to make sure everything fit. Between class, the gym, and practice, he hardly spent any time in the dorm. Practically his whole life was in the backpack. Despite its size, the lion was easily able to sling it around with one paw.
Harris was still careful as he pulled it over his back though. Coach always warned about unnecessary sprains. He stood a bit hunched over in the dorm room. The ceilings were at least eight feet tall, but he always felt a little cramped in here.
“I think I’m ready for it,” Harris purred, “I was going to get some lunch first before class. You wanna come with?”
“I won’t say no to a free lunch,” Wendell wagged.
“Nyao, you should come by the gym with me afterwards too,” Harris gave his roomie a toothy grin.
The werewolf got up from his desk. Harris was still a good foot taller than him. The lion was one of the few people on campus who could make him feel small. When he was out of his helmet, he really let his mane fluff up. His shoulders were so broad he was blocking Wendell’s entire view of the room’s window.
It must be terrifying to see this big bulk of feline rushing at you on the field. Thankfully he was more of a gentle giant. He might be able to lift Wendell clean off the ground, but there’s was no getting rid of those innocent puppy dog- Err, kitty cat eyes.
Wendell reached for his own laptop, but stopped when he saw the progress bar was continuing to chug along.
“Still going huh?” Harris trodded over.
Wendell nodded, “Yeah, I don’t know what’s up.”
He glanced around the room for any sign of change. Harris was his usual big cat self? Why were his computer fans spinning so fast?
The room continued to shift around their obliviousness. Wendell’s outsized wolf personality was now having to contend with the ego of a starting player. Both of them were used to spreading out, and their first few weeks living together was rough. The layout of the dorm’s furniture was still the equitable “invisible dotted line” setup they had originally agreed upon when they were randomly assigned a room together at the start of their freshmen year.
Wendell really disliked cats. There was an exception to every rule though. The two had remained fast friends into their second year of college. The computer’s fans grew even louder as if the machine itself was trying to hold their two lives together. The werewolf hated to publicly admit it, but the big dumb cat was so affable it was hard to stay mad at him.
(Even when he left his weights scattered around where Wendell could trip on them.)
The posters around the room changed again. Half pro athletes, and half astronomy posters. The two really had almost nothing in common when they first met. Someone at the university just thought hey, they’re both beast men, why not put ‘em together? It’s not like there’s literally a turn of phrase about how poorly cats and dogs got along.
It wasn’t just that of course. Harris really rubbed Wendell the wrong way when they initially moved in together. (True, he might not have cut him that much slack.) Wendell was busting his butt trying to pass his wash-out science classes, and Harris wouldn’t take his much easier workload seriously. They were here to learn, and Harris was just letting a critical moment of his life fly by!
…or so he thought. After some poking and prodding, the lion finally managed to drag Wallace out to one of his games. Suddenly the wolf saw where all his attention and focus went. Despite the relative simplicity of his position, Harris was seriously talented. They were still a ways away from graduating, but people were starting to whisper about the pros.
Once Wendell realized the cat could be just as passionate about sports as he was about engineering, the two finally clicked. They’d been fast friends ever since.
Wendell tutored Harris for his math-focused courses, and Harris tutored Wendell in the ways of football. The lion’s grades had improved a lot in the most recent semester, and Wendell had to begrudgingly admit that flag football intramural games could be pretty fun. It was hard to tell with all his fur, but he was probably one of the few students in his engineering classes to avoid the freshmen fifteen.
With the final addition of a few stray footballs on Harris’ side of the room, the computer finally let out a successful chime.
Wendell glanced down at the screen with a furrowed brow. The preview window was showing a large lion linebacker. The Chronivac was once again just describing reality.
“Hmpf, I don’t get it,” he scanned the settings one last time. Everything looked right. The Chronivac had carried over most of the options from his initial attempt.
Including the absolutely zeroed out awareness factor.
He growled and tossed his laptop into his bag. He then more gently coiled up the Chronivac’s cable and placed it into his backpack, “I’ll have to figure this out later. Come on, I can quiz you down on your amortization formulas while we eat.”
“Ugh, do we have to?” Harris rubbed the wolf’s ear as they shuffled out of the dorm. “Neeeeeerd.”
Wendell bumped his head up against Harris’ paw, “Jooooock.”
The wolf stepped out into the dorm’s hallway. He tilted his head in a canine manner when he saw the lion had stopped.
Harris was standing in front of their dorm room’s mirror. He purred curiously, staring at his wavy mane. He brushed his paw through it briefly and the adjusted his collar to frame it better.
“Are you coming?” Wendell panted.
“Yeah, sorry, I just…” Harris turned in front of the mirror. He checked his tasseled tail and smoothed out his pants. “I just got the weirdest feeling that I wanted get a better look at myself.”
“Ah, so you’re not just a jock, but you’re vain too,” the werewolf grinned.
“Don’t be mane-jealous,” Harris fluffed his mane up one last time. He wasn’t looking forward to having to trim this back for the main season. Maybe that’s all it was.
The two headed over to the student union. Harris ran off to grab them food while Wendell got them a seat. Food for formulas was their standing arrangement, although at this point Wendell should really reach out to the football department and see if they had any paid compensation programs for tutored.
Wendell spun around and got settled in his favorite corner by the entrance. Despite how civilized werewolves got, some things never changed. He liked having his back to a wall. His ancestors would have been scanning the front entrance for new threats, but he just liked people watching.
Actually. Hmm, that game him an idea.
He reached into his backpack and pulled out his laptop. After mulling it over for a moment, he discretely plugged in the Chronivac. Its software pulled up automatically and switched over to the scanning page. Sweet rawhide, there were a lot of people in range!
“What are you up to…?” Harris purred. The linebacker shook the table as he sat down with a triple order of chicken nuggets and waffle fries.
“Just seeing who’s in scanning range.” The wolf pulled one of the chicken boxes closer towards him. He flicked his ears towards the crowd, “You wanna take a peek at anyone’s profile?”
Harris scanned the room. There were a couple booths from school clubs handing out recruitment fliers. Chess club, drama, computer club, and one of the intramural sports teams. Some group was even trying to run a bake sale. Further down, he could see a few of his teammates checking their mail at the campus post office.
Wendell looked around as well. He recognized a few friends from the computer club booth. A pair of his professors were walking out of the cafeteria as well. Finally at the far end of the hall, some college tour group was getting formed up. Hmpf, all these potential new recruits and not an animal person in sight.
The lion flicked a claw out and skewered a piece of chicken. “I thought you were supposed to be helping me study?”
“We can have some fun while we eat,” Wendell wagged. “Then it’s quiz time for you.”
The two beast men leaned closer towards the laptop and browsed the list of available targets for their next experiment. All the while the Chronivac kept the awareness slider at its lowest setting.