"I did a couple of minor things just to make absolutely sure I'd be able to change things back," said Leonard. "That's Reality Alteration Science 202."
Jon rolled his eyes. "Fine, you know what I meant. What's the third thing you tried?"
"I was inspired by the very name of the device, RAM."
"What, you did something with random access memory?"
"No, just think about it -- RAM."
"Something to do with pickup trucks?"
Leonard sighed and pointed to his head.
"I still don't know. You changed your hair color?" Jon guessed.
"No, these." Leonard ran both his hands along the curved horns that extended from the top of his head.
"What about these?" Jon mimicked the gesture. It was something a lot of guys did as a nervous tic, or when they were thinking about something, although usually they'd only do it with one hand.
"I gave humans ram's horns. Human males, that is. I thought it would look cool! We look like Marko from Saga," Leonard said.
"What are you talking about?" Jon asked. "Human and ram horns are only superficially similar. That's freakin' Human Biology 101 -- no, that's kindergarten biology. And what's Saga?"
"Sorry, I thought you'd read it," Leonard responded. "It's a Brian K. Vaughn-Fiona Staples graphic novel series about married aliens from different species. The main male character has horns like this, although his ears are different -- not like human ears."
"Never heard of it," Jon retorted. "I've been too busy reading the Brian K. Vaughn-Fiona Staples graphic novel series Ice Princess, the one about the dystopian near-future Earth where fusion generators were never invented and the ocean levels are rising and the weather's all screwed up. The lead character is a teenage Inuit girl named Akna. It's won three Eisner awards for Best Continuing Series in a row. I think your comic book store is selling you counterfeits."
"No, it's just that --" Leonard stopped himself, then muttered, "I guess I should have realized that a major change such as fusion would alter popular culture somewhat."
Jon felt the old human instinct to ram his horns into Leonard to express his displeasure, but he suppressed it. He was doubting that this was the "interesting" thing he'd wished for. He started to say, "Look, if all you're gonna do is make up stuff --"
Leonard interrupted, "No, I haven't even told you everything I did. I also changed girls, to give them --"
He was himself interrupted by a voice from the top of the basement stairs saying, "Okay, I'm finally here."
Jon looked up, and Leonard turned, to see that coming down the stairs was...
