Casper wasn't ready to test the ring on live TV just yet, the thought of all the mischief he could cause was a bit daunting to him. He also wanted to avoid any sort of cosmic auditor intervening before the work was done.
The work. Listen to me, he thought. He knew that he wanted his people to flourish, but this wasn't a crusade.
With the meal finished, the Simmons and the Thomases cleaned up the dishes, and Mrs. Thomas brought out another, a candy dish filled not with candy, but with the clear cellophane wrappers that Casper remembered such hard candies coming in.
They all took one, and popped them into their mouths, Casper chewing thoughtfully. He thought about all the food that he and his family and Ashley's family had eaten recently, and realized that, with the exception of the bouncy-balls, balloons and gloves, all of it had been waste products. Pieces of an old computer case, plastic packaging from a gadget, styrofoam from a box. They were eating the trash that humanity produced! It was clean and he had to admit that he liked the taste, but maybe Synthetics ate refuse because humans were making too much trash, and this was the universe's way of cleaning up, or regaining balance.
In that light, he saw the relationship between humans and Synthetics as symbiotic. In fact, he searched his memories and remembered seeing new recycling bins dotting the city, requesting that clean plastic, rubber, and a host of other synthetic materials be deposited within. Perhaps this was for the Synthetics, for their food source.
Another idea occurred to him, he could ask people their thoughts and make more Synthetics as well, if he needed some form of contact with people to transform them. He wasn't sure if this was a hard and fast rule of the ring, but he had to assume some things in order to not be paralyzed with fear over doing the wrong thing.
"Ashley," he asked, "would you like to go for a walk?"
She smiled, sucking another wrapper into her mouth and swallowing it quickly. "Sure!" she said, smiling.
Casper's and Ashley's parents both exchanged knowing looks, but the latex ram and rubber lizard decided to ignore them.
"It's getting late anyways" Mrs Simmons said, rising from the couch. The other five rubber creatures rose from the couch as well. "Thank you for the lovely dinner, its always a pleasure to see you, and you Casper."
"You too, Mrs. Simmons"
They all took turns hugging, shaking hands and saying their goodbyes, their shiny latex bodies squeaking against each other pleasantly.
Walking them to the door, Casper's parents waved to them as they departed, saying "Enjoy the walk, have a good evening."
As they began to stroll down the street, Casper turned to Ashley.
"Did you notice that everything we've eaten since we became Synthetics has been cast-off packaging material?"
"I did," she replied, "I figured that is part of why we were created, Synthetics, within this reality, I mean."
"I had that notion too," he said, "I feel that Synthetics came into existence as a creation of humanity, I mean, we're so varied and strange from organic life I don't think there is a way we could have occurred naturally."
That thought chilled him a bit, though he remembered that he had the ring and that it was the true source of all of this, within the confines of this reality, Synthetics were created, possibly even manufactured.
He felt that this question could be answered if only there were enough of them to warrant reality to fill in the blanks, so to speak. He needed to make more.
He turned down the driveway of a neighboring house, and clopped up to the front door, knocking on it politely.
Mrs. MacGillicudy answered the door, smiling as she saw the two latex creatures on her doorstep.
"Hello Casper, what can I do for you?"
Casper remembered that Mrs. MacGillicudy had been kind to him as well, and that her youngest boy was on the swim team, the same one he had changed yesterday. He remembered that she also had an older boy who was just starting High School.
"Hello Mrs. Mac" he said familiarly, "I was wondering if you'd help me out for a class project? I have to take a survey of the neighborhood about a recent event in the community."
"Of course, Casper, I'd love to help"
"Thank you. How do you feel about Synthetics?"
"Oh, I think they're lovely, especially my Johnny. Oh, he is just adorable, with his webbed paws and tail. I'm so glad that our adoption application was accepted, Mr. Mac and I always wanted another child, but there were, ahem, complications, so we decided to adopt."
"I see, is Mr. Mac around?" Casper asked.
"He's in the den" the lady replied, "Steve?" she called into the house.
"Yeah?" came the slightly gruff reply from within.
"Casper is here, he has a survey he has to do."
"Thats okay Mrs. Mac" Casper said, hoping that hearing Mr. Mac's voice and knowing vaguely where he was in the house was enough to do what he had in mind. He concentrated, and heard the sound of balloons being rubbed together, looking up to see Mrs. Mac in the middle of changing into a rubber otter, soft pop announcing her nozzle's arrival, as another rubber otter, Mr. Mac rounded the corner. She turned to him, showing Casper her barcode, and Casper looked over her shoulder.
"Sorry to bother you Mr. Mac, I think I have everything I need."
Mrs. Mac turned back to him, "I'm sorry, where was I?"
"You wanted another child?" Ashley prompted.
"Oh yes, we were so happy that we had conceived again, and well, Johnny has been a wonderfull child."
"I see, and what are your opinions on Humans?"
"I suppose I'm a bit grateful to them, for creating us that is."
"Do you know how they created us, Mrs. Mac?"
Mrs. Mac got a confused look on her face, then turned back to Casper. "I'm sorry, love, what were we talking about again?"
"No worries, Mrs. Mac, thank you for your time." he replied.
"Okay, dearie, happy to help."
They left the MacGillicudy residence, noticing as they walked on, two rubber otter boys were laughing and wrestling in the back yard.
Casper and Ashely continued on, knocking on houses, asking questions, changing the occupants, whole families. Any time he found another of the swim team boys, he changed his parents into latex otter Synthetics, but he made other families other types of animals, dholes, mice, owls, bears, tigers (that one was fun, Casper inverted their stripe colors), a donkey family, and others.
Soon, the entire neighborhood, save for the folks that weren't home was peopled with a rainbow menagerie of rubber animal critters.
Casper and Ashley braced themselves for the influx of new memories, learning that Synthetics could indeed breed, though they were initially created by some group or company. They learned that said company had realized their creation sentient and also as a new life-form and had uncharacteristically lobbied the government to pass legislation declaring Synthetics as people, and citizens, and all the rights therewith.
They learned that humans sometimes adopted Synthetics, when the Synthetic child's parents were killed in some accident or crime. They learned that since the introduction of Synthetics, the city's recycling program surged to an almost unheard of 85% adoption rate by the human population.
It became late enough that Casper felt that he should be getting tired.
"Ashley, its getting late, do you want to call it a day?"
She did some calculations "Sure, I think there's at least 150 of us now, after all those 'surveys'" she giggled.
They wandered back through town to Casper's apartment.
"Would you like to come in?" he asked her hesitantly.
"Mmm, I'd like that Casper." came her reply.
He unlocked the door of the building and walked with her up to his floor, his rubber hooves squeaking on the linoleum flooring. Unlocking the door to his flat, they went inside. Casper was nervous, as he had never asked a girl to stay the night before, never actually invited a girl into his apartment before.
"I guess, uh, would you like to stay the night, Ashley?"
She giggled again, "Yes, Casper I would."
He shifted from one metallic purple hoof to the other, "o-ok, I guess I'll take the couch and you can have my bed then."
She smiled again, stepping up to him, pressing her inflated body against his, "Goodness, you're cute when you're flustered. Come on silly." She took his rubber hands in her own and pulled him down the hall and into his room. Once inside, she gently pushed him onto the bed, crawling onto it herself, and snuggled up close to him, her latex skin squeaking against his own.
Together they lay there, as Casper felt himself drift into some kind of meditative state, he was conscious, but resting, time meaningless, until the first rays of sun poked through his windows, warming their colorful skin.
Ashley sat up, yawned and stretched, smiling at Casper "Good morning, what would you like to do today?"