"You just HAD TO make yourself something out of this world didn't you?" Ashley said smile.
"You mean the ram? Actually I wasn't-"
"I meant the metallic purple hooves and horn, and purple eyes with red centers, and the fire colors of the burning red and burning orange. No one could NOT pick you out in a crowd of Synthetics!" She teased.
"Oh!" Casper didn't feel himself blush, but he saw from Ashley's expression that he was. "Well, maybe."
"Hey, you started this shindig, I guess I'll forgive you for going overboard with the coloring . . . Whoa . . . "
And Casper knew Ashley's surname: Ashley Simmons, it was the surname her human parents had given her. Just as his human parents had given him his surname. Since they were part of the Synthetics community, both adopted, and living in the same city, the only place that Synthetics currently existed . . . Suddenly . . . Casper remembered being her friend for years.
"You . . . you feel it too?" Ashley asked seeing the look in his eyes.
"Y-yes, I do."
"I-I guess we can't say we're so much strangers now can we?"
"N-not really." Then Casper remembered. "The ring!" He looked down. It was still there.
"Well that's a relief," Ashley said. "I read in a book somewhere that a population needs around 500 for long term survival. 50 is only short term survival. We're nowhere near 500 Synthetics yet."
"Like you said, for all we know, Synthetics are immortal. I've seen us survive some tough things." He said us then again, his humanity was now gone, and it was never coming back. He'd made his bed, and now he'd sleep in it.
"Yeah, but let's not push our luck, I doubt we'd survive a skinny dip into a volcano." Ashley said.
Casper nodded.
"Hey." She put her rubber hands on his, "Let's go make sure this baby still works!"
Casper dumbly nodded as she pulled him along, he moved with his body like he had had it his entire life, which accord to reality itself, he had.
"You sorry I didn't make myself a lizard like you?"
"Don't even go there! I already told you, diversity is the spice of life, we're just changing the spices in the soup."
Casper nodded. Looked down and touched his bulge again and felt no sexual stimulation, reached behind, and felt his rear that had never had an opening. He hesitated to touch his nozzle again. What he felt there was powerful, but a part of him feared accidentally deflating himself or something.
One thing Casper realized, is that his bulge between his legs no longer served any sexual purpose, let alone any practical one, and in his instincts and new mind, he was completely fine with that. It was just another part of his body, like his fingers or toes, just latex and air.
He knew he should panic or be worried or something, but deep inside he wasn't. And he wasn't worried he was wasn't worried either. Instead he felt at peace. He really had stepped through the door. Now whatever fate awaited his 'creations' as the world changed more, for good or for evil, he'd share it with them. It was his responsibility.
"You know it's interesting." Casper said, "So far, we've seen nothing to suggest Synthetics are second class citizens, or the like, but the same time we're allowed to go around town naked like we're not people."
"Well, we're not showing anything to begin with. Or how humans would define them, and I haven't exactly felt uncomfortable in weather humans have had to cover up or shade themselves from. So maybe there's just no point in it."
Casper nodded. He felt so light inside, then again, he was now a living balloon shaped like a goat man.
One thing Casper now theorized was that when an rubber nthro 'flexed' their 'muscle' it tightened and hardened like muscle fibers did. Explaining why the minotaurs weren't crushed by their own equipment.
On another random musing Casper wondered, as the changes progressed, would the appearance of human fictional characters change? Or humans simply be the 'go to' creature for fictional characters?
Outside, Ashley and Casper still hadn't decided on where to continue to add to their numbers when they saw an adult, tall, muscular, and decidedly silver minotaur jogging down the street. A naked silver statue in motion with a perfect physique that made even some of the humans turn their head.
The pair were struck dumb as he jogged on by, neither saying anything until his barcoded butt vanished around a corner.
"I didn't create that one." Casper said.
"Actually . . . I think you may have. At the restaurant."
"He's not the collage boy who parents I changed. He's too young."
"No, but the big guy is old enough."
" . . . meaning?"
"I was thinking. My memories tell me plain as day that in sex-ed I was told Synthetics can reproduce with either gender, a part of me is beginning to wonder if we HAVE genders for real, and we're not just approximating humans. But the ring ALREADY told you that if someone who had already had kids had their gender changed, then that child's other parent would flip genders too. I don't think the ring would lie to you."
"So are your sex-ed memories faulty?"
"No I don't think that's it. I DO remember my biology class that said species that reproduce by mixing their traits into the next generation, have a better survival and adaption rate that species that reproduce WITHOUT the need for sex . . . So no, I don't think my sex-ed class memories are 'broken' that Synthetics' parents can chose the 'species' of their child. Which isn't really the right word since 'species' would be the synthetics. For us I think it's simply like 'blues eyes' and 'brown eyes' would be considered a species, or a hair cut.
"Nor do I think it's wrong that Synthetics of either gender can have off spring together . . .
"That's assuming we can get pregnant, and we aren't made in some fantasy or produced artificially. That's SUPER creepy for me, but would explain our barcodes and mold lines like you said. It does suggest we have an artificial origin. We ARE called SYNTHETICS after all. Something synthetic is something MADE. Just feels a bit creepy for me . . . of course if it does turn out to be true, then I think I'll then see it as just the facts of life. I guess we'll know soon enough.
"But the ring did lay down a ground rule with transformations with what it told you before. It's ground rule had to do with you changing reality, not how Synthetics did the birds and the bees. So if those two cows chose to have kids now, however that happens with us, I hope they're happy together. BUT-
"What I'm say is . . . Since the mother didn't turn into a bull after you changed the husband . . . "
"That he wasn't the boy's father . . . his wife was having an affair with the minotaur we just saw passing."
"Or DID have an affair in the old reality. I don't know the parents of the silver bull boy that well, there are quite a few more of us than there were yesterday after all. So I don't know if that still exists in this new reality, I don't know if that's how we even produce.
"But I didn't CHANGE the mother's gender! I changed the father's gender! And when I changed parents before! The other stayed human! It doesn't make any sense!"
"It could be we're looking at this from the wrong end, maybe the father had the affair. Or maybe even, the silver rubber minotaur we just saw was a woman he had a fling with and she abandoned him leaving him WITH the boy, and he remarried. I told you I didn't know that family that well."
"I see, so it's not that you're memories are wrong, it's that the RULES the ring already established for what happens when humans who have had are changed changed the father's ex-wife or mistress or whatever, otherwise, his wife would have become a bull when I made him a cow because they had already had children."
"Seems to be that way."
Casper thought of the Blonskis' three children. Like the kids from the park, there was really nothing to imply the three were one gender or the other except their body language and a difference in eyelashes.
He was hit by the odd thought that if he had turned into a ewe, it meant he and Ashley would have still have had a family. To be perfectly honest, those sort of relationships had always been the last thing on Casper's mind, let people feel what nature made them feel.
It was a pity that the next official youth swim team's big meet wasn't today, or he could likely transform all the otter boys' parents at once. Even played by rubber anthros, Casper found he still felt football was still football, and not his thing. But at least he'd able to make it interesting himself changing the opposing team and cheer squad along with the audience in the bleachers.
He saw a teenage girl looking none too happy and her arms crossed as she waited for the light to change, " Stupid traffic. I wish I could sprout wings and fly there."
Time to test the ring.
A flick of the twist, some thought and will, and the teenage girl inside became sealed air, her outside became rubber. Her clothes were no more except her backpack and walkman, her body became pure white except for her golden eyes, beak, and claws. A fan of feathers appeared above her bottom and barcode. She spread her pure white wings and flew off, humming a hymn to herself. She looked positively angelic as she flew through the air.
It still filled Casper with a strange and strong sense of satisfaction seeing a Synthetic honestly truly fly.
"Any new memories?" He asked Ashley.
"Wouldn't yours now?"
"I think the ring is still shielding my memories from changes in reality done to OTHERS, likely so I don't accidentally lose myself or something."
"I see. And nope, no new memory changes here."
That was when Casper saw a police officer giving a man a speeding ticket. He found he couldn't resist the idea, and just HAD TO see what changes the ring made.
In a flash, the transformation happened.
She was now a rubber inflated husky. Her skin was now the blue of a police uniform. And unlike most of his changes, this time the uniform suffered.
She was effectively naked. No shirt, pants, or underthings. But she still wore her police utility belt (which still included her gun) and her radio, and still wore a police hat (but with holes in it for her ears). Around her neck was her police badge.
He noticed that a replica of her barcode was now on her police badge. He notice with some irony only now, that her first name was 'Tiger.'
Also the word 'POLICE' was now marked on yellow on her back. And she now wore an armband that showed her strips.
She still had all the normal markings of a Synthetic, mold lines, no nipples or sexual traits beyond her breasts and body shape, her barcode, nothing between her legs, her mouth being her only real opening.
He noticed with surprise, that while he could tell her nozzle was still there, there seemed to be a removable rubber patch the same color as the rest of her protecting it.
She noticed the man in the car reaching for her nozzle, she grabbed his hand and twisted ever so slightly the wrong way, he cried out, and whimpered, making it clear he'd now be good.
Given the blue husky woman WAS a police officer, and given this was not yet a more perfect world, and given the feeling of pleasure Casper felt touching his own nozzle, it made sense the police Synthetic would have it covered up in some manner to prevent someone using it as a distraction.
This made him wonder if the bulls from the sports gamed patche their nozzles during practice and games. (That he had seen no other rubber creatures do it, again implies it was NOT a matter of modesty or public exposure).
With another thought, the man was a naked lime green newt rubber balloon anthro, a Synthetic, who politely took his ticket, promised not to speed again (it was an accident), and calmly drove off.
Guess Amphibians were fair game for transformations as well.