"Can you believe some of this stuff?" Karyn said. She picked up what looked like a small remote control. It had an antenna sticking out of one end, and on top were two buttons, one red and one green, on either side of a large dial with several marks along the outside. "What's this? The Empathy Tuner? It doesn't look like anything special. See any good costumes, Jon?"
"Not really, Karyn," Jon said. "I mean, there's some interesting outfits here, but I'm not sure I'd call them 'costumes', and even at 50% off, some of these prices seem a bit steep."
A short while later, the old man reappeared from behind the curtain. "See anything you like?" he asked.
"This is an interesting shop," Karyn said. "But I'm not sure we're willing to spend the prices you're asking."
"Ah, I see," the old man replied. "In that case, let me make you an offer. I'll loan you one item in this store, for oh ... let's say, a week. You can try out the item, and if you're not perfectly satisfied, you can rent any costume here for an 80% discount. What do you think?"
Jon and Karyn thought for a moment, then Jon spoke up. "Well, the costume dance is just over a week away, so I guess we still have time to get costumes. I'm game. What do you think, Karyn?"
"Yeah, I guess," she said.
"Well, do you know what item you'd like?" asked the old man.
"This Empathy Tuner seems interesting," Jon said. The old man grinned and pulled the device out from behind the glass and showed it to Jon.
"Ah yes, the Empathy Tuner. There's a terribly long and interesting story behind this one, but I won't bore you with it right now. But allow me to explain some things. When the device is pointed at a person and the green button is pressed, it will scan that person's mind and store an exact copy in the internal hard drive. Every last memory and personality quirk will be uploaded. Then, when the red button is pressed, the person that the device is pointing at will have the scanned person's mind downloaded into their own. The dial adjusts how much of the mind you want downloaded (from 1 to 100 percent), ranging from just a few thoughts and emotions, to the entire mind. But be warned: a 100% download will cause the person to believe they actually are that person, regardless of their physical appearance."
"How do you change people back?" Jon asked.
"Depends on how much of the mind you download, as well has how strong that person's personality is. A small mental change may last only a few seconds, but a full mental download could last anywhere from a couple of hours to a few months. Are you still interested?"
"Sure," Jon said, still not really believing the old man's story.
"Alright, here you go young man," the man said as he handed him the control.
"See you in a week," he said as Jon and Karyn left the shop.
"What a weird guy. You really think this thing will work?" Jon asked.
"I don't know, maybe we should try it out."
"Why don't you try?" Jon said, handing the device to Karyn.
"Okay... "
