Casper admitted, his balloon animal people being glorified waste disposal units did pull things down a bit in reality. The more he created, the more they became a part of reality, the more they were based on RULES. Rather than a fantastic abstract ideal.
However, he KNEW that they were NOT glorified nanite colonies or something. He actually felt the ring reassure him of that! That deep down, yes, his latex anthros were indeed creatures which contained magic of some sort or another that enabled them to function. In fact, to say it realistically, they were a hybrid mix of technology AND magic!
While his memories said the Synthetics could 'breed', there was no real info on how that happened. After all, the female rubber anthros had no vaginas or other sexual organs besides maybe their nozzles that males also had.
After all, the Synthetics had been created by this group likely as a PRODUCT before realizing they had living creatures on their hands. And there no sane way that they would have ever made their product able to reproduce on their own, no more than a selling a car that could make more cars.
Did that mean that while the Synthetics could breed, they still needed their makers to complete the process? After all, if you were going to create an entire new species of creature, giving them the ability to reproduce without your help might make YOU disposable. And there were way too many 'robot rebellion' scenarios in popular culture to allow that. After all, the Synthetics could still use computers, packaging, and then chow on them after they'd served their purpose.
Plus, it very likely WASN'T something they were designed for to begin with, and they still had the barcodes in spite of legally being people. Perhaps the pair provided the spark of life.
If it WAS part of something added later, (maybe a compromise between humans wanting to remain relevant and Synthetics wanting more independance?) it might explain why it could work with Synthetics of either gender, the gender they had might have been just for appearance, nothing more than molding shape and programming, blue-prints speaking, there being no difference between the two.
The way he saw Ashley besides him, her beautiful body, her sleek skin, her fine molding lines, her precise barcode, her beautiful eyes . . . he felt a need to connect his nozzle to her nozzle, and let air into her!
The idea of Ashley pregnant present itself as her with a image of her with a large belly, filled with naught but air, but at the same time, some of his as well, mixing together, and becoming something new, developing. Then of her connecting her own nozzle nozzle to something, her belly shrinking, but the new life within not vanishing, simply beginning its journey, Ashley herself stiffening slightly as things from her were downloaded.
He shook his head and the image faded before it could go further. Hopefully the details would streamline or smooth over or revise after more were changed. More . . .
Going from 80 to 150 in one evening walk. 70 people at once. Over a dozen families. And of such assorted forms and colors. He imagined the Synthetics now rented a convention hall for their New Years party. His own memories still staying much more the same than Ashley's did to adapt to this new reality he was creating.
150 down, 350 to go. Not that he planned to STOP once he hit that number, it would just be a relief that if anything happened to him after that, his creations would survive without him. Not that any but Ashley would ever know that, but he was fine with that.
He wondered if the wizard visited MANY universes, after all, he said, 'the ring will become a part of your world once you leave the shop', meaning the wizard himself was not part of Casper's world. Maybe there were people on different worlds, enacting different singularities to transform mankind into something new.
Maybe one world had humanity being turned into chaotic, prank loving cute little imps who made anarchy WORK as a system, and another world where the world would then be populated by playful but compassionate cherubs who just wanted each other to be happy. Or the one the wizard mentioned of humanity all being made into ant-eater-people achieving world peace through their unified love of polka.
Maybe humanity was just the fetal stage, and humanity was MEANT to grow and change into something more. Or maybe he was thinking up a bunch of hooey, who could say?
Maybe the more Synthetics he created, the less unique and special each one became . . . but still . . . he still had a job to finish as Ashley would say.
"Let head to class, what's your schedule like today?" As it turned out, both he and Ashley only had a few classes today.
"Let's head to the beach and see a movie afterwards?"
"Sounds like a date to me." Ashley said. He had to go back home to get her homework and books. They kissed each other good-bye and separated.
Casper took a shower, and found it odd how the water felt against his hollow body, and the sound it made. It was almost hypnotic. But he had classes to go to, magic ring or no magic ring.
'Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry later.'
Even after he had finished TFing people, he'd still have a job to look after, taxes to pay, and possibly more. Technically, given he had promised himself not change people's species, age or gender after he changes them the first time, this meant the ring would be meaningless and worthless . . . and this was a ring that WANTED to be used!
Casper realized that was a BIIIIIIIIIIIG problem. He had never thought about that, for the ring, it would never end, even if Casper wanted it to. Was this part of the wizard's warning that the ring wouldn't bring him happiness even if it had brought him and Ashley together?
He'd have to cross the bridge when he came to it.
One thing Casper found out was that he had a lot less clothes than before except for his favorites and formal wear and the like. And his favorite cereal, had been replaced by cut-up pop bubble wrap in bags.
On the way to collage, Casper spotted a woman breast feeding her baby under a blanket. He tested the ring.
The purple and green lynx woman was now bottle feeding her baby green and purple lynx. Casper felt the ring itself tell him the bottle was now filled with a liquid polymer. He also noticed the baby was no longer wearing a diaper, which made his barcode obvious to all to see. Or Casper guessed it was he, at that size and angle, telling what gender the baby was was pretty much impossible. The baby never once opened their eyes, and just kept feeding, still with their entire future to decide on their own with help of their parents. 152. More than the original pokemon.
Thinking about it, he doubted the ring would let him make octopi, since the ring seemed to only allow species that had endoskeletons (perhaps as a form of irony).
Realizing he was running late, he got on the bus. By a million to one chance, he was the only one besides the bus driver.
"Exact change only kid," the bus driver said.
Casper had a thought, and in a moment, the bus driver was now a cheetah-man shaped balloon. Everything on him vanished except for his driver's hat and ID (which had his barcode on it), along with his nipples and manhood, a nozzle replacing his bully button. His tail sway behind him in a hole in in his seat. The bright yellow with black spots latex creature said.
"Okay buddy, just turn around for a sec'."
Casper obeyed in confusion, and the latex cheetah took a small red light projector like you saw delivery men use Casper hadn't seen there before and . . . BEEP!
Did he just scan my butt?! Casper thought looking at his barcode.
And then he saw the amount of bus-fair appear on a LCD next to the driver.
Was there a bank account now in the name of his bar code? He imagined there were a LOT of thieves who would EAGERLY take advantage of that to zap someone's rear and empty out their live's savings.
Hopefully most rubber anthros knew this . . . but he still didn't see the cheetah, or any of the families he spotted here or there covering their rears. Maybe the technology was that new, or they knew not to keep that much in there.
At collage, he saw the couch's wife, still human seeing off her big bear husband for the day, her little blue bear boy in a seat next to her playing a video game. Well, a second past, the beautiful blond skinned bear latex walking balloon, was telling her husband good luck for the day. Her chest was impressive, so was the rest of her, looking ready for a good brawl of need be as much as her husband.
154.
Sadly, Casper and Ashley didn't have the classes together, studying different things, but he was sure she'd remember the changes.
His first class of the day was history. Lana was in this class, and he saw her talking to some friends of hers. Unlike yesterday at practice, she was as naked as any other Synthetic. Talking lively with two friends of hers that were still human. Most of the chat seemed to be about Tommy, the squad, and a new movie that had come out that the three of then wanted to go see.
Heh. By the time he and Ashley were done today, they'd me much much closer to their goal, maybe even making the amount they'd changed yesterday look small.
As a cautious experiment, Casper took the ring off, and put it back on. Yes, the right could be removed. Maybe it was a safety-measure against people granted rings that decided they were more interested in ruling the world than changing it like they were supposed to.
Counting himself and Lana, there were 36 people in class, not counting the teacher.
"Hey Casper!"
"Hey Lana!"
"How do you think me and Tommy did yesterday?"
"He was great at bull rushing, and you are your friends are totally foxy."
"Ha ha. Funny the first five hundred times I heard it. Why didn't you say anything? Goat got your tongue?"
"Technically, I'm a sheep Synthetic. And I spending the day with Ashley."
"Oh."
"Lana . . . I'm sorry things didn't work out between us."
"It's okay . . . don't forget, I still remember when I was a Fox Sage Synthetic named Larry. And Tommy was a cow Synthetic named Tabitha, not a bull."
So they still had gone to see the wizard. And since they HAD GONE to see the wizard, having still fallen short of their old dreams, and ended up using the wrong trinkets. The fact he remembered her explaining that she and Tommy were happy as they were, suggested Synthetics changing the 'gender' they were created/molded/born wasn't something that happened outside of movies.
"So did I date Tabitha before?"
"No one dated Tabita before me as Larry."
"Oh . . . Sorry."
"It's alright. You and Ashley wanna catch a movie later?"
"Maybe. Call ya later," The naked rubber foxy hopped back to her friends.
The teacher came in. Unmarried, bald, round, and with a monotone voice. How he managed to make wars, where people died, sound boring, was still beyond Casper.
Time to fix this. With a will and a thought, the teacher changed.
Now a purple and teal vixen with a middle age figure that was a total knock out, she swayed her hips and tail as she moved, and eyed each student playfully. She was actually TALLER than before, with dark blue hair that was actually a part of her body like her arms cascaded down her naked back, hiding her barcode. Her nipple-less breasts swayed side to side as she animatedly moved across the lecture floor. Her voice was now powerful, commanding, and held every student's attention even more so than her body did. She actually struck a student on the hand with a pointing stick when he didn't seem to be paying attention enough. Unlike the human she had been who had recited lines like a robot, the rubber air golem had inflection and life in everything she said.
Casper himself found himself enraptured by her wild grace.
Then she did she one thing she had never done before.
"So which side would you say held the most justification for their actions? If either?"
Before, he had always TOLD the students what to think. HOW to interpret the events. Now she was asking THEM? Casper was stunned silent.
But from the way the students chatted, it was clear that for her, this was normal.
And for the first time . . . Casper felt a little . . . uninspired . . . unsure of how to will the ring to proceed.
One thing Lana and her fellow vixens had proven, even when creating Synthetics of the same 'species', they weren't clones of each other. So that made him feel a little less restricted.
He decided to turn both Lana's friends into pink hedgehogs . . . their quills looking more like triangles than sharps points. The barcodes on their rears didn't have the same numbers, and their voices and body language remained different, and their height also was still different. Both were as naked as Lana, both that was bar the course. Their tiny tails swayed back and forth as they spoke. They created an interesting contrast with being on either side of Lana.
Also, a big difference between them now, was the one on the left now had breasts the size and shape of beach balls, and couldn't have looked more at home with them. Casper did NOT include that, he had a feeling it was a unconscious desire of the girl herself.
He then made two of the boys on the other end of the class room blue hedgehogs, but not the same shade as the two police from before. The word 'human' was being thrown about more, but maybe that was to be expected. Since Casper doubted that Synthetics existed in the early 19th century. They were naked, had he nozzles, the bulge of air were their manhood should have been, and of course the holding lines and barcode. They didn't even pause in their chat as they had changed.
He created fifteen more pairs, from the class debating with each other. Himself merely staying back for the moment.
A pair of green monkey boys discussing impressment and if Britain did have the right and if the matter was already settled by the time the war started.
A pair of white kimono dragons talking about the burning of Washington.
A pair of gold elephants talking about the battle that happened after the peace treaty was signed.
Red wolves talking about the native american's involvement in the conflicts.
Blue weasels discussing Canada's involvement.
And four pairs of tigers and three pairs of zebra, each with a different color inversion.
Red/blue. Gold/bronze. Green/orange. Green/black. White/silver. He also made a orange and black zebra pair with a black and white tiger pair. And a pink and black zebra pair.
189.
A classroom FULL of naked rubber anthro animal, with no definitive biological sexual traits between any of them besides a bulge of air between 'males' legs and breasts that were equally just latex and air for the females. All discussing like the day was perfectly normal. Which for them it was. The teacher looked pleased at her students' animated debating, laying back on her desk, smiling, almost smirking.
The bell rang, she assigned homework, and 36 (including Casper and Lana) naked, sealed up bar coded butts carrying their school work marched out the doors to their other classes. Their lives going on, oblivious to the changes in reality.
Up next was gym. Gym uniforms still exist? Yep. But at least it was easier to change into now without having to get undressed first.
This one Tommy shared his PE class with him, along with four other of his mintuar football players.
Including himself and Tommy, there were 32 students.
The gym teacher was already there. And Casper didn't hesitate, and now was a great green gorilla. Still with his hat, whistle, and jersey. Actually using his feet to handle the clipboard and his coffee, and his hands to hold his pen and whistle. He also now towered over the other students more than ever.
"Alright little men! Get going!"
Unlike before, Casper already knew his design.
The students taking sprint track became as fast as sport cars as their shoes vanished, and they became rubber cheetahs, their spots black, but their fur also gold, yellow, orange, bronze, silver, and red.
For the endurance runners, it was actually a hard call, after all, humans WERE actually built VERY MUCH for endurance running rather than speed. Humans were actually BETTER than horses as endurance running, even if they only about half as fast.
Casper wondered how much the shape actually mattered though, they were all latex and air.
The team of eight rubber huskies boys, still in their uniforms but with a hole for their tails, were made to proactive their endurance running, various shades of gray, white, and black, and patterns for each other.
The four climbing ropes became rubber monkeys, using their new extra set of hands and tail to their four advantage, being orange, green, blue, and red.
The remaining eight humans, who were swimming in the pool, became glorified living pool toys. All of them humanoid dolphins and porpoises, floating on the water with ease, their colors silver, white, blue, teal, azure, turquoise, gray, and gold. Like the rest, they were still expected to wear their uniforms as they swam.
216.
Then Casper got the honor of doing push ups because he had been standing around doing nothing. Ooops.
He guessed Synthetics could get tired after all. In his math class he was too tired to change any of the students . . . he changed the math teacher into a black and red jackal woman, her attitude and personality didn't change in the least, and she was still the bane of his life. Maybe math teachers was a force even his ring couldn't oppose.
217.
"You've been a busy beaver," Ashley told him when they met for lunch. He changed the the woman behind the counter into a purple hippo, still wearing her apron and hair net.
218.
"Over fifty new Synthetics?"
"Yes. Would have done more, but even a Synthetics gym teacher is still a gym teacher it seems."
"Well, it is their job they're doing. Sooooo, beach and then a movie?"
"Works for me. You had all morning classes today?"
"Matter of fact yes. So how about we do this thing?"
"Lana's friends are going to the movie too, she offered for us to go together."
"Works for me." She shrugged. Don't worry I brought my stuff for this.
Casper nodded, wondering what you NEEDED for the beach when you were a living pool toy.
So from collage to the beach they went. Having to pass by some family own beach houses along the way. One of which was having a birthday party for a seven year old girl and her friends in their backyard. The theme was magical ponies, unicorns and pegasi, many of the girls with foal horns and wings as party favors.
Casper noted the blue kitten and her green kangaroo mother were in attendance.
Casper and Ashley knew they couldn't pass this up. But it was sealed when they heard the girls' birthday wish (having forgotten you weren't supposed to say it out loud). "I wish me and my friends could become magic ponies." The parents chuckled at the wish.
Casper actually felt SAD he couldn't make them pegasi and unicorns like he knew many of them wanted . . . The wizard did say the abilities of the ring expanded as the wearer used it as they got in sync more.
This might have gone against his 'one person/one change' policy, but he gave an instruction to the ring. 'Should the power to create Synthetics based on pegasi and unicorns ever became available, transform these children into the ones they desired to be. Regardless of where I am in relation to where they are.'
Casper felt a wave of acknowledgement from the ring as the trigger was set, so if the ring's magic ever reached that point, they'd gain their horns and wings.
For now, the small herd of seven year old pony girls ironically kept their part hats. But were now standing on bright colors rubber hooves.
The cake became something more digestible for Synthetics as yellow soft foam, and the frosting was now wax. It was a delicious work of art. This was no garbage cycle, this was a professionally done job for a small child's birthday.
The girls' dug in.
None of them, their parents included, minded, they were exposed to the world. Their bright colored bodies shinned in the sunlight like a bunch of little rainbows. Their barcodes plain as day on their rears. Their giggling attitude and girls posture and eye-shape was what implied they were girls.
Some actually began putting happy colorful stickers over their barcodes, laughing and joking.
There was one purple pony girl, the birthday girl, with a dark violet mane and magenta streak, and a tail to match.
One hyper active girl who was pink, with a magenta mane who never seemed to shut up. And enjoyed tickling her friends along their molding lines.
A pair of tom boys, one blue with a rainbow colored mane, and another who was a relatively normal looking palomino style rubber pony who were enjoying rough housing (and their parents not complaining as much as before).
A marble white pony girl with a sparkling amethyst mane who looked like she didn't want to get dirty.
A shy butter-yellow girl with an impressively long pink mane who the white pony girl with the amethyst mane one pulled along to get out of her shell.
And a blue one with a silver mane, who was wearing still a purple cape that might have been really a baby blanket.
The parents of the seven girls girls quickly joined their children in plastic ponydom. And a teenage lad who was identified as the birthday girl's big brother who became a white stallion with a blue mane anthro horse, and his girlfriend who became a pink horse girl, with a purple, magenta and yellow stripped mane and tail.
"Why do I have the strangest feeling those girls who THANK YOU if they knew the truth?" Ashley whispered as they made their way to the beach.
Casper shrugged. He did admit, the seven girls and their kitty friend DID seem to be even more happy after their change, so much so it was almost explosive. Maybe fate led him to them. Unlike some of the others, he almost felt like he had help them become what they were meant to become. Or maybe he was just being egocentric.
241.
"So what did you bring with you?" Casper asked.
"This!"
"A pink swim suit?"
"Why not?"
"BUt you go around almost naked all the time!"
"Well, I can't wear my scarf to the beach, it'll get sandy or wet."
"Granted."
"Now let's see how much we can raise the beach's pool toy population before it's movie time!"
"That's a rather self-stinging joke."
"Hey, one of the joys of life is to be able to laugh at one's self. Didn't you ever make monkey jokes when you were human?"
"Only a few."