Casper and Ashley left the bar, Ashley electing to pay for their drinks. The barman-turned-rubber-griffin asked her to turn around and aimed a scanner at her bar-code, the rubber lizard girl bending over slightly and striking a flirtatious pose. The scanner beeped softly as the laser swept over her marking. She gave a smile and a wink to the griffin barman, while Casper looked on, a look of surprise on his face.
He immediately blushed and looked away, chagrined that he felt jealousy at Ashley's actions.
They left the bar, Ashley wrapping her neon green arm around his purple one.
"Hey," she said, "I was only teasing back there..."
"I know," replied Casper, "I was just surprised at my reaction is all."
She turned to face him, taking his hoof-like hands in hers.
"Casper, you know that you mean a lot to me, don't you? I mean, I know we've only technically known each other for only a few days, but I don't care. You've given me a wonderful gift, and I have memories of a deep and long friendship with you."
"I know that, Ashley. I...I feel the same way about you."
She smiled at this, stepping closer to him, placing a hand upon his shiny chest. She stood up on her toes, and leaned in, kissing Casper gently. Their eyes closed as their lips met, Casper's arms naturally finding their way to Ashley's waist. Casper almost jumped in surprise as Ashley laid a hand over his and slid it down from her waist to gently cup her rump! They stood there for a while, wrapped in each other's arms and kissing, until finally, Ashley broke the kiss and lowered herself back down.
She looked into Casper's rectangular pupils, her hand gently tracing over the mold lines on his chest.
"I'm glad," she said, "and, well...I'd...I'd like to take our relationship further..." she stammered, blushing, continuing, "I know we've slept-slept together, like in the same bed...but I really want to sleep with you..."
Casper looked at the Synthetic lizard girl, gazing into her slitted, purple orbs, smiling as he did so.
"I've been wanting to take our relationship to the next step too. I'll admit I want to sleep with you too, Ashley. I don't know if we should, though. I mean, we don't know what is needed for one of us, or even both, to become pregnant with a Synthetic offspring."
Ashley looked thoughtful, then said, "I know that is a risk too, but...I'm not frightened of raising a family, if it's with you."
"Neither am I, Ashley." Casper responded.
She smiled again, the mischievous look returning to her face as she winked, her hand on his chest slowly slipping down, dangerously close to Casper's nozzle in his stomach.
"Perhaps...after the party tonight?" she asked.
"I'd like that," was his reply, "though, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to talking to Tommy and Lana at the party..."
"I'll be there with you," she said, "I'm guilty of forgetting about them too."
They continued walking, Ashley resuming her position of being wrapped around Casper's arm.
As they were walking, the two rubber creatures passed by the mouth of an alley. Ashley couldn't help but glance into it as they passed. A homeless man was taking refuge from the night's chill air in a poorly constructed shelter of cardboard and shipping pallets. She pointed this out to Casper.
"Is there any way we can help him, I mean truly help him?" she asked.
Thinking back to the prostitute whom he had transformed and the changes in her life it had brought, Casper nodded to the lizard girl.
"I think so," he said, "well, here goes nothing."
With that, he used the ring again, and he and Ashley watched as the homeless man lost his clothing, and the dirt on his skin. His skin took on the luster of shined rubber, darkening and altering from Caucasian to a rich caramel brown. His hair remained in dreadlocks, but darkened as well to coffee brown in color, shiny like the rest of him. His hands reshaped into great paws, a rubber retractable claw forming on the tip of each, while his feet underwent a similar change. A long tail sprouted from his backside, a tuft at the end forming and matching the color of his now rubber hair. His face pushed forward into a leonine muzzle, teeth becoming white rubber and his tongue a shiny pink, and his lips a shiny black of the same. Casper was intrigued at a pale pink scar over the man's left eye that had remained as the man had transformed, becoming synthetic like the rest of him. He supposed the ring was unable to alter reality to the degree needed to reverse this particular feature. His ears became rounded and migrated up the sides of his head as the man's muscles gained more definition as it appeared that he put on more weight. Casper realized this was reality changing about him. As the now latex lion-man stood, Casper could see his lack of genitalia or nipples and was confident a bar-code was on his rump like the rest of them. Molding lines formed on the surface of the lion-man's rubbery skin and a nozzle appeared in his belly.
As Ashley and Casper watched, the lion-man seemed to get a far off look in his green eyes as what seemed like ghostly images appeared, and vanished all about his head. The man's form itself seemed to blur slightly, until, with a soft, low pop, the rubber lion-man vanished from the alley.
"What happened to him?" Ashley asked, looking up at Casper.
Casper queried the ring.
~As the man had become homeless as the result of opiate addiction, being a Synthetic would render the use of such substances moot and unnecessary. Now, there are 530 Synthetics in this world.~
'You mean...' Casper thought.
~Correct. The man was married and had two children. His wife had left him and taken their son and daughter as a result of his addiction. Now, that event never happened, so he is with them, in his home.
'What about the scar?'
~I could not change that event, as it happened during the man's childhood, and was not directly related to the events that led to his homelessness. He was in a car-accident as a child and a piece of heated metal slashed across his eye, though did not damage the ocular organ. As a Synthetic, this hot metal melted a portion of his skin rather than cutting it.~
Casper relayed this information to Ashley, and she thanked him for helping the man re-unite, in a way, with his wife and son.
They went on with their walk, eventually coming up to Tommy's house. The after-party was in full swing, but not too loud.
Casper swallowed audibly, and nervously glanced at Ashley. She squeezed his hand, as he raised his other to knock on the front door.