"I am so disappointed in you, young man." John huffs, placing his hands on his hips. "You have such incredible potential, I've always said that, but what you just did was entirely inappropriate." Jon shakes his head and scowls, while Leonard continues to wear a goofy grin. Growing irritated, Jon continues. "Making me run home naked? Did you even think about what you were doing? Did you even consider how I feel?" John wags a manicured finger at him. "Don't think I won't be telling your mother about this." Leonard keeps staring in amusement, and Jon finally crosses his arms over his non-existant bust. "You've had your fun, now give me the tablet."
At last Leo's non reactive demeanor breaks. "I don't think so, JON."
"Excuse me, young man. My name is Mrs. Black." Jon huffs again. "Heavens, I don't know what's gotten into you. We always knew you were an odd child, but your mother raised you better than this." He approaches Leonard, the kitten heel of his pumps clicking against sidewalk, and reaches for the tablet, which Leonard holds back defensively. "I'm not joking young man. Give. Me. The Tablet." Jon's words are cold, and his gaze carries the fury of a hundred generations of mothers. For a moment, Leo actually is cowed by the familiar gaze. He'd seen it from his own mom plenty of times.
He breaks out in a sudden laugh. "Wow." He scratches the back of his head. "The effects are a lot stronger than I though." His fingers start to dance across the tablet while he mutters to himself. "That's why we test..."
"You've done quite enough! Now give me the... the..." Jon's fury is cooled, and he stares vapidly forward as a contradicting pair of memories begin to ebb and flow in his mind.
"Hold on... Almost done." He keeps tapping at the screen. "There IS a difference in the mind and the brain, but it's not as clean as I thought." He states flippantly. "I'll try to bring you back so you can..." He smirks, and glances up at Jon. "Enjoy what I'm doing." He keeps tapping and plucking, while his brow furrows deeper, and a scowl grows fouler on his face, then at last he beams happily. "There we go! That should do it. Human souls are so tricky to manage."
Jon blinks, then looks down at his body. Nothing really feels out of place, but he can't help but examine himself. He's wearing his usual pair of black slacks, and pastel v-neck blouse, with a casual black suit jacket. Sure, he'd put on a bit of weight during his time as a stay at home mother, but he thought he still wore the style well, and Mr. Black still seemed to appreciate his curves. He still was a mother, first and foremost, but he and Todd had decided it would be best for him to get a part time job at the bank to help pay for Karen's college... Only... There's nothing usual about any of that at all.
"What's going on?" Jon stammers, a hand goes to his head.
Leo starts to cackle with delight. "Are you still in there Jon?"
"Jon?" he murmurs. That was his name, right? He was just a highschooler, not all that nonsense about being Karen's mom. Hell, Karen was his best friend, not his daughter!
"I'll admit I overdid it at first. I'm still getting used to the power of this technology." Leo explains. "I wanted to try a bit of an identity swap, but that's harder than you might think, right?" He gestures towards Jon's body. "How much of you is just your knowledge and experiences, and how much is ACTUALLY you? That abstract thing we can't really define. A soul, if you will." Jon staggers, suddenly feeling very clumsy in his own body. "I mean, maybe you were still you, down underneath all that Mrs. Black stuff, but you really thought you were her, didn't you?"
"How did you do that?" Jon stammers, suddenly chilled at the existential weight of the discussion.
"Don't you worry about that!" Leonard chirps. "Point is, I've given you your memories back, but not all your experiences. You're still Jon, where it counts, more or less, just wrapped in a nice Samantha Black shell!" He looks down to the tablet. "I need to save this setting."
"You've had your fun, young man.." He states curtly. "Now change me back, right this instant. I feel ridiculous in Mrs. Blacks clothes." He shifts his bra strap self consciously.
"You ARE Mrs. Black." He laughs. "At least as far as the rest of the world is concerned." He crosses his arms. "And no. I still need to fine tune this setting, and run some more tests." He laughs. "Don't worry Mrs. Black," He emphasizes Jon's new name. "I'm not evil, just having a bit of fun while I figure things out. Now, unless my reality machine is bugging out, you have secretary work to get to."
"I'm an administrative assistant, thank you very much." Jon quips. "I didn't get my degree in business management to be called a secretary."
"My bad." Leo holds up his hands to placate Jon, while holding back a smile, "Go, enjoy your work day. I'll visit once I'm done reviewing this data." He states pointing to his tablet.
Before Jon can protest, Leo vanishes, leaving him standing out in front of his... Karen's house. He shook his head at the contradiction, then, with reservation, he scurries back inside to get his purse, and keys to drive to work. She was already running late thanks to that boy, so she'd have to skip breakfast and settle for a coffee from Starbucks on his way to work.
