Casper Thomas was tempted to ask his parents about Synthetics birds and the bees, but a collage man asking that question would be embarrassing, and he was worried asking a question reality hadn't finished filling in might be a problem.
Casper wondered if there was a Synthetics exclusive restaurant yet, but given there were only 80 of them, he wasn't sure if that was a large enough population to warrant that such a place could stay in business yet.
80 down, 420 to go. Ugh. Casper decided that changing the entire human race would be too much trouble, even if he went to every sporting event in the world . . . While the idea of an entire rubber earth to transform six billion humans seemed impractical (Casper did have bills to pay, grades to may, jobs to apply for, etc), he still wanted there to be a large enough number of his people so they had a stable population. His people. Yeah. Ironic since NOTHING had shown the changes altered political or religious views, maybe they were just a tiny tinny bit more civilized about it?
Then again, the wizard had warned him that trying to crown himself king or the like WOULD be see as over the line by whatever high powers watched over the world.
Casper thought to look at his barcode, and then looked at Ashley. He searched his new memories, seeing that Ashley's birthday was after his. And yes, her number was higher. Being discrete, he checked is parents' behinds when the opportunity presented itself and yes, their numbers were lower than his or Ashley's. But his father, who had been older than his wife, his number was lower.
This meant, the serial numbers were not random meaningless birth marks, did they representing the date they were 'born'? Or the number in which they were created? Both? And other bits of info like gender and species? His memories didn't say yet. But he could tell that they weren't random.
The hebrew word for soul was the same as 'breath.' Maybe they were all souls inside rubber suits? What as the name of that anime? 'Ghost In The Shell?'
Or maybe more precisely, they were all rubber golems? In the original jewish folklore, the golem was a protector, if a dangerous one, born of clay. In modern fantasy, golems were the fantasy equivalent to robots, mindless machines. They were powered by the spirit of an Earth Element in role playing game.
'Breath.' Casper looked down at his nozzle. He had a strange feeling that touching it where his parents could see might be in bad taste maybe. It seemed even his ideal 'fantasy' might have its own taboos and code of conduct.
Then again, deep down he knew 'perfect' was a fantasy, maybe what he was really hoping for was just to have people act just a little bit better. And like Ashley said, so far that seemed to be going well.
Breath and soul. Casper wondered, was he air inside him the seat of their consciousness and not their rubber shells? His memories didn't give an answer. But it did make the idea of popping or losing air even more frightening, thankfully so far the rubber creatures had proven VERY resilient.
He saw his mother cut up some bouncy balls, and the knife had landed on her finger by accident, the knife had bounced back, and his mother's finger didn't even have a mark.
Casper knew that their nozzles had something to do with their reproduction, maybe their bodies were molded, but their life, had to come from two other Synthetics?
Could Synthetics then 'switch containers?' Or would that be as absurd and impossible as a human being trying to 'switch brains?' After all, an ID card or a police badge wouldn't have an ID number for something that would have been a glorified set of clothes if that was the case.
Casper still wondered what would change if he greatly increased the number of Synthetics, would they remain seen as people? Or be become treated like robots? He hoped not. His goal hadn't been to create a slave race. In particular since he was now a part of it.
Barcodes were for things that were bought and sold. But slavery last he checked his memories was still illegal, and everything from how people acted suggested that Synthetics weren't see as things or property, and there wouldn't be Synthetics on the POLICE if that was the case anyway. Could it be a left over? Something so engrained into Synthetics' cultural identity and attitudes that it would be impractical to remove?
Casper's parents served a block of Styrofoam, breaking off into tiny bit as it was taken apart and served to the six naked rubber animals around the table. Casper found himself again loving the taste, and able to identify by smell the different chemical compounds found within.
Casper also found he liked the taste of an old plastic computer casing, and some clear plastic packaging that had turned yellow from the sun had a unique preserved flavor.
He tried to think of eating a hamburger, but all that came to mind was the flesh of a dead animal, and salad was just the leafs of dead plants . . . he didn't feel any appeal to them at all. He REMEMBERED that he had liked the taste before he had changed himself, but now, they felt as appetizing as a rock.
He wondered again how the stuff he was eating was assimilated into his body, since technically, he and other rubber creatures he'd created, were like jellyfish, no heart or brain or other internal organs, just air. But he didn't fell them fall into his legs or feet, they down his throat and felt them no more. He wondered if it had to do with the inherent magic the rubber anthros seemed to have, and the synthetic material suspended in air and dissolved, or broke apart into atoms before it even reached his legs, once inside and was digested that way.
He watched his parents, Ashley, and Ashley's parents eat. He had done this. He had change them. Without hesitation or thought. He almost wondered if he was like a virus, infecting reality. But Ashley had said she felt like reality was in flux from his first change, and more details filling in as he changed more, so it was likely FOR THE BETTER than he finished his worked. He didn't know what it would mean if the universe STAYED in flux between one state of reality and another, but his gut said it might not be good.
A thought occurred to Casper.
He had NOT had his parents in his line of sight when he used the ring to change them! But when he had tried to use the ring on people in a photograph, both from years before and from that day's news paper, nothing had happened. He had assumed he NEEDED a line of sight to change someone.
Maybe he needed to focus on that person's where-and-what-not they were AT THAT MOMENT that he used the ring. Maybe he needed to OBSERVE or KNOW where the person was in relation to him when he used the ring? Not just guess or assume? He had been hearing both his parents when he changed them, and he had known WHO he was changing, so he had he idea fully formed in his mind.
He looked out the closed window, and saw a couple of the neighbor's kids playing, he turned his head, closed his eyes, and will them to changed. When he looked again, he saw they were still human. Maybe he needed to SEE or HEAR or otherwise have a direct observation of some sort of who he was changing? He still hadn't tested if the ring worked with live TV or not.
If live TV worked . . . he shuddered a little . . . he scared himself a bit there . . . then all he'd need is a few cable news channel, and the number of people he could change would be nearly without limit. Athletes, random bystanders, victims of disasters from around the world, there'd be no limit.
He could transform politicians and world leaders. . . He wondered if that last one counted as the 'no taking over the world' rule . . . He wouldn't be changing their political views, (and he had learned long ago that BOTH sides in political debates saw themselves as doing the right thing, and the other as engaging in an evil plan to destroy freedom), but he might accidentally bring down the hand of some angry divine auditor if he DID end up changing the leaders' on TV's political views to suit himself, by mistake or not!
Ashley herself meanwhile, actually felt a bit like the odd one out, wearing her pink scarf, she was the only one at the table wearing anything. Did that make her a minor rebel? But no one said anything, and nobody seemed to mind, so that was a relief.
She imagined the fashion industry might take a nose dive along with piercings and tattoos parlors when there got to be enough of her kind and enough humans had been fixed up into Synthetics. The fashion industry for the average fashion designer she knew from a friend was cut-throat as it is, as the market grew smaller, it would be only more ruthless.
There being so few of them, it was something Ashley all her life hadn't thought about, but now that she knew that they'd be created more of their kind from humans, that this would become a reality somewhere down the road. But like Casper, she felt it was wrong to leave things half done.
Personally, all Ashley saw was those transformed still living their lives, and the big difference was that they didn't have to worry about getting a concussion if a potted plant fell on their heads on the walk to work. Her life still had challenges and obstacles to overcome, same as anyone else's.