Rain wondered how far down the rabbit hole of lies she would have to go until things sorted themselves out.
Normally she was an honest person and subscribed to the idea that if you never lied, you would never have to
worry about keeping your story straight, but this was very different. Involuntary morphing, mind control and
reality warping were things that people didn't take too kindly to. The Chronivac was a really, really powerful
device. How it was even available to the general public worried Sean/Rain in the back of his/her mind, but she
was too focused on the here and now to care at the moment. What she was worried now was how to smooth things
over with Sunny. Her brain analyzed and sorted out the possible lies she could tell in order of their
descending effectiveness.
"Jay...is my co-worker. Before I changed myself, he actually came over here a lot and all five of us hung out
together from time to time. He was a good guy, but a real chauvinist, and once he saw a new girl in the house
he couldn't wait to get his paws on me. I invited him over today, but once I had gotten the Chronivac I forget
all about our little 'date' and I panicked once he finally showed up. Jay asked who I was and I sort of evaded
his questions until I could get in a word of my own. I flirted with him and asked him to get me a drink from
the kitchen, so he did and that's when I changed him. I turned Jay into Jayne, and she left just before you
got here. As for looks, I made her a solid B+ on the prettiness scale, but she is not as drop dead gorgeous as
you Sunny."
"That doesn't answer why I would forget about him though. I remember Dan before you turned him and his friend
into that", and she pointed in the direction of Daniele and Misty. "Tell me the truth, Rain."
"It's obvious, Sunny. I turned off awareness of the previous reality for everyone except me. You see, I'm
considered the admin of my Chronivac, and therefore I can keep track of all the different branches, for lack
of a better word, of the old reality as well as the original 'root' reality. As for Daniele and Misty, the
awareness function was turned off for themselves, but left on for everyone else."
'I'll have to remember to erase the backlogs and get better security just in case Sunny wants to do anything
with the Chronivac' thought Rain.
Sunny thought about this, considered all the possibilities where Rain might be lying. She couldn't think of
anything air-tight enough to condemn her. Sunny was still suspicious, but was willing to give her friend the
benefit of the doubt.
"I guess that checks out Rain. You've never lied to me before, but just promise me that you'll never effect my
memories again, OK?"
"I promise. I swear. I pinkie swear" answered Rain.
"OK then", and Sunny and Rain did a pinkie swear.
Inside, Rain wondered how far she could keep her promise.
"That was really kind of an over the top thing to do though. You should change Jay back. I insist on it."
"OK, I'll invite him over tomorrow after work and change him."
A few feet away, Rain heard heard the two twins yell "Oh Shit!" in unison.
Rain stomped over to see what was wrong.
"It's OK, Rain. I can fix it. This happens all the time" said Daniele through her teeth as she went to go get
some towels."
Rain saw that her laptop had died. She rolled her eyes when she noticed Misty, drunk, on the comfy chair. She
crouched down to look at the computer. Maybe against hope it would work.It didn't. She pressed the power
button and the screen remained dead. Rain then took out the lithium-ion battery.
'Well, this is just great. Maybe I'll be stuck this way my entire life. Good going Sean, I mean Rain.'
'At least Danni had enough sense to unplug the power cord.'
Daniele returned with the towels, but Rain told her to not worry about it and that she would take care of
everything. She then took her computer and the temporarily useless Chronivac emitter and went to her room. She
then dried everything off. All in all, the water damage was minimal, and she thought that if she gave it
another ten hours and a night's sleep or so to completely dry, it might start running again. So she stuffed
the computer and emitter under her bed, and then went outside to say goodnight to the girls.
Misty was passed out, and Sunny just left through the door.
"Rain, do you want anything to drink?" asked Daniele.
"No thanks. I'm not in the mood tonight."
"Ooo. I hope you're not going emo on us."
"Goths have no relations to emo culture. Get your facts straight, ok?"
Daniele giggled. "Kidding."
"So tell me what you did today" Rain asked.
Daniele went to sit down. She layed her head on the top of the couch and spread her arms in a relaxing pose.
"We both went to the bar dressed" and she made a wave with her right hand to express what she was wearing
right now. "We chatted with the bartender for a bit, then we were about to order a few pints of beer, but some
boys from Beta Kappa...something bought us some tequila shots. Misty got hammered on them before I even knew
what was going on, and then we left because there were seven of them and only two of us. I like to play the
odds, you know?"
Rain sat down with her and nodded with a smile. Internally, Rain was excited at what just a few small changes
had done to her life. She couldn't wait to see what else she could do with the Chronivac.
There was a knock on the door...