Josh gathered some friends together. Pete asked, "Okay what's the occasion?"
Josh said, "I've found an opportunity where we can make some money." He set a small object on the table. The object was about the size of a laptop computer but it was shaped like an eight sided dice and it was standing on it's tip. It was mostly black but there were several small windows and several more strange symbols all over it. There was a keyboard attached to it with a small ribbon of screen so that someone could type a line of text at a time and hit enter but there was no undo button.
Rick asked, "What is that?"
Josh said, "It's a game. It's like a betting game only we don't have to put any money into it. This game comes with cameras and the perverts who want to watch us play this game are the ones paying the money."
Todd said, "You mean it's like a web cam. The perverts want to watch us have sex. I'm not doing that."
Josh said, "No wait, it's not like that. It's a game. They want to watch us take risks and the greater the risks we take, the more we can win. We are in control though. They don't want to tell us what to do, they want us to surprise them. If you want to play it safe and take only tiny risks, you can still win a few dollars. They won't force you to take any risk you're not willing to take but they will give bigger rewards to those who take bigger risks."
Michelle asked, "So what are we risking then if we aren't risking money?"
"Transformations" said Josh, "For each one of us playing, this machine will randomly decide either to transform you, reward you, or do nothing at all. If you're interested in the odds, 99 times out of 100, the machine will do nothing at all but that one time out of 100 you will either get a reward or a transformation. I'll go ahead and enter my information and start playing so you can understand better."
Josh continued, "Okay, first it's asking me what kind of transformations am I willing to risk. Possibilities include changing gender, changing species, changing size, or a list of other options. I want big rewards so I'm going to select gender, species, and size. I'm also going to select flattened, being turned into a car, being turned into a shirt, and being made stretchy. The flattened option has one of the biggest rewards since they know few of us would want to be flattened."
Josh continued, "Now it's asking how much of a change am I willing to risk. For example, I can risk becoming a complete donkey or I can risk just having donkey ears. The more change I'm willing to risk, the bigger the rewards so I'm going to nearly max out the risk here."
Julie asked, "So if it turns you into a donkey, you'll be a complete donkey?"
Josh said, "Not quite. First, the machine will randomly choose how much to change me and what to change me into. What I'm typing is just limits that this machine will not cross. Second, I'm not setting the amount at a complete 100% transformation but I'm setting it at 99% so it might turn me into a donkey but I'll still have at least a little awareness."
Josh continued, "Third, it's asking how long a duration am I willing to risk. None of these transformations are permanent. The people paying us to play this game would get bored if all their players were permanently transformed. However, if we're willing to spend a day or a week transformed, we can win bigger rewards so I'm going to go ahead and set myself at a week."
Josh continued, "And finally, it's asking how frequently do I want to take a risk. Do I want to risk once a month or risk once an hour. If I risk once an hour, I could win once an hour. If I'm still transformed and the machine decides to transform me again, it will store the transformation to begin after the first transformation is complete. And there you have it. I'm now a player and if I do get transformed, one of you needs to get a camera and film me in my transformed condition. Now who else wants to play?"
No one moved at first. Then Pete said, "Why not. This is just some elaborate joke since there is no way this machine could transform any of us."
Then a few other people took their turns entering their limits in the machine. After several of them had started playing, Josh said, "Pete is partly right. This machine cannot transform you but the satellite in orbit can. The moment you touched the machine, a microscopic trace worked it's way into your finger and found a comfortable spot inside you, the satellite can track you wherever you are and can transform you no matter where you are. And just to prove to you that this game really works, one of us is going to be transformed right now."
One of the strange symbols on the machine glowed and then Pete's clothes fell into a pile on the floor. A few people gasped. Then they saw movement in the pile and Pete crawled out of his clothes. He was only one foot tall.
Josh asked, "Pete, how long did you set the duration for?"
Pete said, "A week."
Josh said, "Well it looks like you get to be someone's pet for a week." Josh picked up a camera, "Smile."