It felt like one of the longest days Jon had ever lived. Biff being an asshole like always, Mr. Reynolds breathing down his neck... And even Karyn! It wasn't her fault, but because of her wish, she seemed to be getting a lot more attention, which took her away from any time she'd usually spend with Jon. Hoping she wasn't enjoying it too much, but still! That was his best friend... and she decided to go to Board Game Club at lunch with some of the cooler kids instead of sitting and being able to vent about how hard the day has been.
Finally, Jon makes it back home and it's not much better: chore after chore after chore. Taking out the trash, folding laundry, drying dishes. Can't Mom see I have a ton on my mind?! Jon thought. In my pocket, I have something that could shape worlds and, with all the temptations, I haven't used it once! Doesn't that deserve some credit?
As part of his AP Computer Science homework, Jon had to study digital images to tell fakes from real ones, but all he wanted to do was keep working on his murder mystery story set in 1950s suburbia. It was a brilliant cat-and-mouse tale, full of drama and intrigue, but to him, it just felt... empty. It needed a character, a twist. He opened up the website he was supposed to be studying and generated a random face. "What's she like, what's her life like? She'd be perfect in my novel. I just really wished I knew what her life was like..."
The stone pulses, hotter than ever, glowing through his pocket. It was a mere sparkler when Karyn made her wish compared to the energy it was radiating. Now it was like a supernova! These were AI images, not real people; little did Jon know that it was busy, vibrating, phasing in and out of time, creating realities to make these AI images real, making a reality for all of them! And Jon was very quickly about to find out what her life was like.
Since the stone needed so much power to conjure this task, things seemed to move slowly. Time burned to a crawl, Jon's hair started itching almost, draping closer and closer to his shoulders. He tried to move to a mirror, but it seemed further and further away as his legs became shorter and shorter, the stone making space-time feel like moving through molasses. His skin glowed, becoming tanner and tanner, his hips making his steps wider and wider. He knew he did something horrible. Why didn't he put the stone in a box or something?!
His chest started to shake with every step, the vanity getting taller and taller... Wait, vanity? In his moment of distraction and disorientation with his new body, he slipped and tripped headfirst into the cabinet, hitting his head, passing out. When he'd wake up, he'd find himself in quite a different world...
