James sighed as he closed the door to his dorm room. In his hands was a package that was addressed to "Resident", then the address of his dorm room.
Sitting down on his bed, he glanced out the window. James was pretty happy with his accommodations. He had gotten a large academic scholarship for his performance in high school and the pre-college tests frequently used by university admissions. With the money, he was able to afford one of the nicer dorms. One of the larger ones, with a private bathroom. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the person, the common area, with the kitchen, tv, etc. was common. He had some nice roommates so the common area wasn't that big a deal. Though he wasn't friends with any of them.
He got up and closed the door to his dorm, quickly spying the 3 other doors that lead to the common space. Behind each one were similarly equipped rooms. On his way back to his bed he took a moment to appreciate the view out his window. James' dorm was on the third floor, offering an excellent overview of the courtyard without towering so high as to make details hard to parse.
In fact, the courtyard was one of the oldest at the university, the newest building, the Stewman hall. Built-in 1892 it was now used mostly by the engineering department. Though sometimes classes from other departments would be scheduled there as needed. Spying a friend of his, Dominic, he waved. Smiling when Dominic waved back.
Sighing, unable to stall any longer, James returned to his bed, pulling out his pocket knife. He made quick work of the packing tape holding the small cardboard box closed. Within the box was a letter and a small jewelry box. The kind of jewelry box given when someone buys a small piece of jewelry. Bigger than a ring box but not large, with a reasonably attractive pattern, and adequate construction.
Setting the box aside he opened the letter. It read:
Recipient,
Within the accompanying box is a small watch, upon opening it will transform into a style that most match the person opening it and their sense of style and wardrobe. I don't know why this is but it doesn't really matter for the watch is magic...
James scoffed before reading onward.
When the red button, (details vary on the style of the watch) is operated, after several seconds the watch will glow blue. It will flash once a second for 3 seconds before turning red. Once it is red, you have several moments to envision changes to reality that you would like to enact. Then the glowing will stop and reality will shift. Now, recipient, be careful. Stray and idle thoughts can disrupt this process, producing unexpected results. They can usually be undone but be warned. Every change you make, if you try to undo will almost certainly not return exactly as intended. You can't imagine the concept of undoing a previous change, you must envision a new change that will restore reality. Because of the limits of the human mind small imperfections or flaws can creep in. Making it impossible to fully "undo". Also after each change, there is a cooldown where the watch will only function as a normal watch. The time can differ depending on the severity of the change or changes to reality, though I have never seen a cooldown longer than 5 days for the most extreme changes. Another thing to mention, the mind cannot imagine everything, so the watch will infer and change things that must change for the main idea, and try to keep everything else the same. Just something to keep in mind.
This watch is powerful be careful with it.
Best of luck,
A friend
P.S. One more thing I thought of. You might find what I am about to say redundant, just remember that it is easy to mess up a hope/wish. Anyway, your vision for change should be thoroughly thought out, and cohesive. Several disparate ideas that aren't integrated will lead to unpredictable results. A sparse image with little details can have the same effects. Once again, good luck.
James scoffed again. What a ludicrous idea. Though thinking about it he was tempted to try it.
Opening it, he spied the watch. It had a simple face with silver hashes, each marking where the hour numbers would be. It had a white face and was unbranded. Overall it looked quite nice.
James slipped it on and walked over to the floor-length mirror he had in his room. Appreciating how well it went with his business casual outfit he had worn for a presentation earlier in the day.
If the letter was only right about one this, it was that it did go excellently with his clothes. And really matched his sense of style.
The real question was wether it was magic. On that, James was hesitant. Should he try it now or ignore the delusional claims to maybe try it later?
