You aimed the remote at Jenna, then pressed the button, and much like earlier, time had stopped, but with a clearer idea on what to do this time, you were able to get a proper look at the display. There were 3D holograms of you and Jenna, with lists of each other's traits by them. Now, there were plenty of crazy swaps you thought you could do from here. You weren't really sure why, maybe it was just the power at your fingertips, maybe it was the fact nobody would apparently notice the swaps that had awakened something strange within you, maybe it was just scientific curiosity, maybe it was a mix of all of them, but many strange thoughts popped into your head. You could put Gumbo's goofy, drooly dog head on Jenna's feminine, proper human body and vice versa, or making Gumbo walk Jenna, or having Jenna walk you, or giving yourself a female body, or keeping yourself male while swapping some of Jenna's feminine traits onto yourself, or making yourself or Jenna bark while Gumbo spoke English. But while it was clear there was much to be done with your new gadget, there was something much more mundane and more tempting than all of these.
As a kid, you'd kind of wanted a dog, but as your siblings came into the picture, you'd had to accept that fitting a dog into the house too would have just been too much, as your parents explained. Thankfully, you weren't too heartbroken over it - you understood that owning a dog came with a lot of responsibility, and you'd accepted it was probably for the best there wasn't a pet in the mix by the time Heather came into the scene, though you'd still felt at least a teeny bit of envy when you saw people with dogs, like your girlfriend or Jenna. But with this remote, and Jenna with her dog in front of you, your childhood fantasy could seemingly be made a reality, and it would be a good and safe enough test of if the remote worked before you started entertaining any crazy ideas. This would deprive Jenna of her beloved pet, but the manual did say nobody would notice the swaps, and you were familiar with her enough and saw her often enough that you could probably give Gumbo back if you felt it right.
Scrolling through the list, of Jenna's traits, the option for 'Pets' seemed to fit the bill, so you swapped that over. While this could be satisfactory, you didn't have much hands-on experience with actually caring for a dog, but she clearly did. It might be wise to make sure that you're properly prepared to take care of Gumbo before jumping into it - you had all the time in the world. However, it didn't seem you'd need a whole lot - after some scrolling, an option named 'Pet ownership skills' seemed to be just the ticket. You quickly dragged it over and said "Confirm", like the manual said.
Time had resumed and the display had disappeared, but something didn't seem right. Jenna was still walking Gumbo. Shouldn't that be you? You had definitely made those swaps, and time was definitely stopped. Was it busted? Well, that was a little disappointing, but maybe having a time-stopping device would be useful for-
"Oh, hey, Michael!" Jenna greeted, making you slip the remote into your pocket. You could think about it later. "What were you doing on your phone?"
"Hi, Jenna," you greeted back. "Just, uh, texting Avril."
"Riiight," she said with a smirk. She didn't seem to buy it, but she did seem to mistake the remote for your phone, which was good, and thankfully she seemed in the mood to just mind her own business. "Anyway, thanks for letting me walk your dog for a little while!" She then handed you Gumbo's leash. "You know, sometimes I wish I had a dog!" ...Well, 'later' had certainly come sooner than you expected.
"You're welcome," you replied, smile getting wider. Not only did you just fulfill a long-held desire, you had verified that the remote let you rearrange reality how you saw fit... or unfit. "Um... Do you feel... prepared to own a dog, by any chance?"
"Well, maybe not right this instant. I know you need a lot of skills in order to take care of one, and I've never taken care of a dog before, let alone had one."
"...Interesting." you commented. "Well, I'm glad that you had fun with Gumbo and I'd love to talk, but... we've gotta go," you said.
"I understand. Bye!" Jenna waved goodbye.
"Bye!" You also waved her farewell, and continued walking through the park. "Come on, Gumbo!" you said once you'd done so, very pleased with how things had turned out. Really, you'd just wanted to have a moment to just think about all this as you kept walking Gumbo, as your head was too full of questions and ideas to focus on conversation. You'd had a device that was at least able to swap you with anyone you wanted. You'd used it to give yourself a dog. What now? You looked at Gumbo strutting along with curiosity. You had been thinking about using the remote on him. Now you knew the remote worked, at least on humans, perhaps you could act on some of the stranger thoughts you'd had if it worked on animals too, swapping attributes between your different species. On the other hand, maybe you should just focus on walking Gumbo for now - this was your first time walking a dog, so while not quite as crazy as some of the things you'd thought of, it was still a novel experience for you. Who knows? Maybe you'll find some inspiration, or more targets for swapping along the way. Either that, or you could take Gumbo back home, where you could see just how much things had changed there now there was a dog in the equation, and also be a more controlled environment to experiment on the remote with. One thing was for sure - your life had officially stopped being normal.
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author
