Simon played around with the mouse, grabbing a slider bar and watching the index change from 15 to 30. He lifted his finger from the mouse and then a box popped up on the screen:
APPLY CHANGES?
Simon clicked the "Yes" button, then watched as a graphic of his little brother appeared on the screen, naked and rotating. Well, his little brother except it was Jeff with a bunch of chest hair, which as he rotated, became denser and denser with more appearing on his back and shoulders as the numbers crept from 15 to 16 to 17 to 18 and so on.
Meanwhile, Jeff, in the bathroom, had just about finished shaving his face when he noticed he'd missed some on his cheekbones. He hadn't realized his beard went up that high, but once he finished shaving his cheeks, he saw a lot of hair around his neck. He applied some foam, but halfway through shaving that off, he realized that the hair was going all the way around his neck, connecting with his shoulders and going down his back.
Jeff gasped then looked back at the mirror. The hair on his hand holding the razor thickened in its reflection, curling around the side of his hand, sticking up from his knuckles like wires. Then he looked at his face. Hair had grown up even higher on his cheekbones, up above where he'd shaved it, and even where he'd shaved it, the individual shafts were so thick and so dark it looked like he had a five o'clock shadow even when cleanshaven. Then hairs started to darken on his ears and the end of his nose and he looked down at his chest and couldn't even see his skin.
"Simon," Jeff called querelously. "Are you playing around with my computer?"
There was a pause, and then Simon said, "Yeah." Another pause. "What sort of program is this?"
"Could you hit 'undo' and fix whatever it is you changed?"
There was another pause, a longer one, and then Simon called. "Uh, it says something about about 'Changes are permanent. Cannot revert to previous state. Original data overwritten.'"
Jeff put down the razor, glacing at the mirror, then took his shirt and put it on. The hair on his arms went all the way around and stood out, and long whisps of it poked out around his collar on all sides.
Jeff went out to his room, where his brother sat in front of the Chronivac. Simon looked at him and said, "Dude! What's with all the hair?" He stared at his little brother.
Jeff thought to try the most plausible lie he could invent. "I, uh, have been having this weird hormone problem lately. I was using the computer to document what's been happening to me."
Simon looked at the Chronivac. "Did I erase your pictures?"
"Yeah, I'm afraid so."
Simon looked at Jeff. "Dude, you're freaky hairy! How long's this been going on?"
"A while," Jeff said. "I've been hiding it from mom and dad with long sleeves, but it's sort of getting beyond that."
"I'd say! Dude, you've even got hair on your ears!"
Jeff rubbed at the hair on his arms. He'd wanted to be the hairiest guy in school, but he hadn't intended to be the hairiest guy on the continent!
"Dude, that's so weird. I'm, like, still pretty smooth, and I'm in college."
Jeff thought. "Oh, it'll probably happen to you too," he said. "Runs in our family. Sometimes takes a while."
"Dad's not that hairy."
"Eh, sometimes skips a generation. You don't know till it hits you. Sometimes does other stuff instead." Jeff paused. "How long you back for?"
"Little over a week," Simon said. "Spring break." He stared at his little brother. "Dude, I can't get over how hairy you've gotten!"
"Yeah, well, I'm trying to get used to it," Jeff said, actually truthfully.
"Okay," Simon said. "I'll be back in a few. Need to get some stuff in from the car."
"Okay," Jeff said.
Simon left, and Jeff was looking at himself. He was stuck looking like a yeti! Stupid Simon...
Jeff then thought some more. Well, he shouldn't be the only hairball in the family. He ran a scan, finding his brother's stats popping up:
Simon
Age: 19
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 171
Body Hair index: 5
Muscle mass index: 11
Penis Length (erect): 6.45"
Jeff then pulled up a menu that said: APPLY CHANGES GRADUALLY and chose an interval of 10 days so he'd get to watch.
He then played around with some slider bars and looked at Simon's new stats:
Simon
Age: 19
Height: 7'1"
Weight: 371
Body Hair index: 27
Muscle mass index: 28
Penis Length (erect): 18.45"
He hit "Apply" and saw the emitter of the Chronivac flash. He shut the screen as his brother came in, as yet looking no different than when he'd arrived.
"Dude," Simon said, "I, like, was just carrying my laundry in when I suddenly got this huge boner. These hormone surges, how fast do they hit?"
"All of a sudden," Jeff said truthfully. "One day you're normal, and next, Bam!"
"Weird," Simon said, still staring at his little brother. "I can't get over how hairy you are, man. I hope I don't get that hairy."
"Oh, you probably won't," Jeff predicted accurately. "But the hormones might have other changes."
Simon laughed. "Well, so long as they give me a bigger dick, I don't much care."
Jeff grinned, but kept from laughing. He wondered when Simon would decide too much was too much.