Russel was so annoyed at his friend Keith… for even ‘considering’ going through the transformation process. It was insane! Why would anyone do that? Sure, he had seen a few transformed people that made him a little curious about them while growing up but…
It was dangerous.
Well- not in a life-threatening way… kind of. That is if you didn’t mind living as something else.
The fact that a few countries were working towards banning transformation while others seemed to be trying to ‘encourage’ it was a testament of how divided the world was when it came to the technology. This was not a surgical procedure… neither was it genetic manipulation- which at least became a glimmer of what the true process was like…
This was a True Transformation… with all the implications that might carry. A force Humanity could barely control or comprehend… on sale like it was a spa treatment for about a hundred dollars! How scary could that be? Some people thought it would be like the comics and they might get special powers… others were genuinely unhappy and wanted something. A cure to their illness (which tended to at least be fixed), a change to their gender (which worked half the time) or rejuvenation (about 80% of the time.)
Russel decided to try and learn on the internet how the machines came about to exist. He browsed through a wiki article to look at the very basic of history and design of the various machines.
Like many technological innovations, the booths had their origin in war. A strange form of ‘radiation’ was discovered (technically not actual radiation) that appeared to resonate with humans. At first it was attempted to be turned into a weapon to create a ‘transformation gun’ … but nobody managed to find a way to make this work. It seemed the beam would have too short a range for one.
The booths were created to attempt to make super soldiers but… while one or two had combat potential most had ‘niche’ applications according to the research. It was far better to have a.. uniform army after all. Using the pods for military purpose was abandoned and it fell into civilian use. There were math and equations which described the process…
This was where the science became extremely technical… and Russel wasn’t sure he could understand it. I didn’t help that there was a whole bunch of different theories that all resulted in the same thing… and they could all be true with no way to confirm them. The one consistent theory was that it involved ‘higher dimension’ physics.
The most basic theory suggested that a ‘wave form’ was created when a person is subjected to this exotic radiation. This was like a ‘shadow’ of the human which somehow ‘fell’ into the higher dimension, much like light casting a shadow on a wall. The circumstances to create this wave are very specific… this ‘dimension shadow’ then underwent a ‘cascade’ through fourth dimension physics… mathematically it was described as a Hypercube collapsing into a normal cube when it re-entered the third dimension but still connected to the hypercube form by the extra dimension. How it configured itself would be the result of the transformation… or at least provide the basis of this change.
After this change some degree of a person would now exist in this other dimension… which is how the more unusual physics would be allowed bypassing normal space-time. For most this might be just a few basic allowances such as a mermaid beathing underwater despite very little- if any oxygen. Biology worked as it was ‘expected’ to, not necessarily how it ‘should’.
Russel then started to examine the ‘return’ systems... and why it was so difficult to change back human. Again, the science boggled him, and he gave up. It was something to do with Entropy, that’s all he figured out.
His research done, he returned to finish some homework then eventually was called for dinner. “Coming mom!” he called walking downstairs seeing his mother and father ready to eat. They always did like to eat dinner together for some reason. They all talked about their day and work, which Russel didn’t pay too much attention to work as he ate some beans on toast.
“Hm, what in the world happened to your shirt dear?” His mother asked suddenly.
“Huh? What do you mean?” Russel glanced down at the blue shirt he wore. It looked like it had become somewhat ill-fitting on his frame, sliding off his shoulders. The sleaves were now starting to go halfway towards his hands. He looked down at it confused. “Huh, that’s weird.”
His father shook his head. “Probably something in the wash,” he thought. “How was school today anyway?”
Russel shrugged. “Eh, same old… I think Keith wants to go in the transformation clinic though.”
There was some nervous laughter at that. His father sighed not approving of it. “Well, your friend is a bit of a nerd… nerds seem to be into that thing. Of course, I know you’ll never do that. I still can’t believe how.. accessible that stuff has become.”
“I wouldn’t,” Russel quickly said finishing his toast. “We saw this little rabbit and a mermaid. A… rabbit... girl.” He found himself blushing a bit. Jokes aside she was… cute.
“What?” Asked his father. “You mean like in a Disney movie?”
“Heh yeah. Exactly! The little rabbit tried to pick a fight with is. I showed her it was a bad idea though. It was rather sad…”
“Want any more?” Asked his mother a little concerned about the conversation. “You should be careful with people smaller than you are dear.”
“She picked the fight with us mom! I was just defending myself.” On the offering of more food he shook his head. “Um… not hungry. I got stuff to do anyway.”
“Sure hon,” She smiled to him watching him go… her eyes lingering a little again on his clothes with a concerned look.
Russel returned to his room, tugging at his oversized shirt. That was weird… in fact it wasn’t just his shirt. As he walked up the stairs he realized that his jeans were looser too. It was probably just something wrong with the clothes. After all… it’s not as if he went ‘into’ a transformation booth and it’s not as if there was some kind of way to ‘pass on’ transformations that he had heard of… and no way to shoot someone with a transformation beam… right?
…So he wasn’t too worried. That was until he got a text message from Kieth.
‘Something weird going on. You okay?’ Keith texted.
Russel looked at the message on his phone, leaning back on his bed. He started to type back. “No all fine here. What’s wrong?”
Keith could be seen tapping a message in reply, but it seemed like his friend was hesitant to say more. It looked like he was writing and deleting stuff before finally saying ‘never mind.’
Russel gave a slight smirk at that. His friend could be so weird. He decided to get up-
… but he didn’t.
… and he did?
He had not moved but his body moved. He looked up in surprised at the strange disembodied sensation of… well.. being disembodied. “AH!” He screamed as he realized his head had just separated from his torso.
Though that wasn’t all..
His body had gone into full panic mode much as his head screamed in shock and surprise. His body dropped the phone and started to scatter about the small room, bouncing against the cabinet, the desk- each sensation being felt by the head.
A strange aura of energy began to shine over where the neck was… sort of blue but some pink flecks of glitter showing. He stared in horror and fascination as the body- his body- the .. part of him that used to be his body started to shrink. It got smaller and smaller…
Jeans and pants fell from him/his body as the shirt he/they were wearing was now all that was on the torso. “W-What’s happening to me- to you- to- ARGH!” It was strange… he was watching his own transformation. Watching his body change as both viewer and subject. It was surreal.. crazy… he was watching and feeling it all at the same time, unable to do anything about it.
This was essentially a 2nd perspective transformation…
He held his breath watching the body change… Russel felt.. disconnected and not just in the physical sense. It didn’t feel like it was his anymore and yet it was? His own face had not changed but his body had! There was a connection though… a very confused one. He tried to get the body to walk closer to him but… it was afraid? Of him?
…wait was it because he was a disembodied head now? His own body was scared of ‘him’?
and it seemed that the body was just as traumatised as his head in this situation. He was tugging at his shirt and pulled up the hemline…
Showing that she was a girl.
“Oh… No!”
… his body- it had turned into a girl! Russel stared at the young girl’s body in shock not quite able to comprehend what just happened to him- to them?
The body was… his? Though not his. They knew that the other was ‘foreign’ and yet… were the same person. They both had this weird tenuous connection but… it was incomplete. (Likely due to being an incomplete transformation) The body was clearly its own ‘person’ … kind of showing a fearful worried pose. She was just a little girl who didn’t know what to do, with a disembodied head on the bed. She needed…
“Urgh- No I’m not getting our mom!” Russel seethed. “Wait- how did...” He knew what the young girl wanted. She was... stressed out about this. She needed her mom- their mom. The emotions from that body were so strong. The girl’s body couldn’t have been any more then seven years old! Would she even be able to … hold him?
“Hey! Get back here-“ Russel shouted as the body suddenly bolted and ran.
…and the household was filled with more screams as the headless girl ran out of his room, wearing just a shirt. She ran through he house trying to find her mother… Russel could feel the sudden grasp of a hug….
…Russel closed his eyes, his head still on his bed and unable to move. “…Great.” How did this even happen?
… now he kind of wondered what Keith meant and what weird thing happened to him. It couldn’t be worse then this though…
