As Ethan dashed to fetch his Chronivac, Ryan had just learnt how to use his, and was finishing imputing the changes to Ethan. “Get rid of my hair, will you?” Ryan muttered. “Well, let’s see how you like this...”
Ethan got to his Chronivac, and started to make changes to Ryan before his skin started tingling, and he realised that he was too late. Small hairs started to grow on the back of his hands, and soon they had swept up his arms. Ethan removed his shirt to see the layer of hair spread across his chest, and stream down to his legs as the tingling crept up and around his neck, ears and face. The tingling finished at his feet, and Ethan rushed inside to look at himself in the hallway mirror. As he suspected, Ryan had given him a short layer of blond fur to match his hair.
Ryan came down the stairs to see him. “Ah-ha! How’s things, monkey-man?”
“Ryan! I’ll give you ‘monkey-man’,” Ethan said, holding up his Chronivac towards Ryan.
“Whoa, whoa! Hang on, we can have some fun with this,” said Ryan. “Come upstairs.”
Ethan reluctantly put down his Chronivac and followed Ryan upstairs to his room, hating how his new fur was rubbing inside his shoes. He kicked them off with his socks and a sign of relief when he got to Ryan’s room. “So what’s your idea?” he said, sitting down.
“I thought it might be fun to do a game with these,” Ryan said, gesturing to his Chonovac. “What sort of game?” asked Ethan, itching his feet.
“We can have some fun with these. How about you and I do a change on each other?” said Ryan.
“What sort of thing did you have in mind?” said Ethan.
“Well, we’ll start with something small; changing just one thing about each other,” said Ryan.
“I will if you will,” said Ethan, “but you’ve given me masses of hair, and you’ve only lost your pubes. I think we’re a bit uneven at the moment. We’ll start once we’ve levelled the field a bit,” he said, pressing a single button on his Chronivac.
“Hey, what did you...?” Ryan began, before he started tingling all over. For a couple of seconds he felt a strange pulling sensation all over his body, and then it went as quickly as it came.
“There,” said Ethan, “now you don’t have any hair at all.” Ryan jumped up and looked in his wardrobe mirror to see that it was true. He was now completely bald, and had no eyebrows or eyelashes either. His arms and legs were equally completely smooth.
“Jesus, I look like an alien,” said Ryan, looking at Ethan.
“Yeah, you do, but at least we start off on the same foot now,” said Ethan.
“Alright, alright, you win,” said Ryan, dejectedly. “Let’s do this, then.”
“I’m ready,” said Ethan. “Er... just so I know that it’s nothing too extreme, what sort of thing did you have in mind?”
“Well, I thought I might just stick to the theme I’ve already started, monkey-man,” Ryan said. “Why, what did you have in mind?”
“Hmm... well, I may as well stick to the theme I’ve already started as well, alien-man,” said Ethan.
“Fine by me,” said Ryan. “But nothing too... much, you know?”
“Ditto,” said Ethan. “Alright, I’m putting in the details.”
After a couple of minutes, they were both done.
“Do you want to go first?” said Ethan.