“Ugh… I’m gonna be late for tonight’s party at this rate,” The goat sighed to themself, frowning at their watch. Stupid party store had taken almost an hour to get their order ready, AND traffic was awful – they’d be lucky to make it at all!
Still, as they fussed with the keys and unlocked their place, the one saving grace was that getting dressed for the occasion wasn’t an issue. Kayde, in fact, had made a very sound investment indeed – a Dress-O-Matic 3000, guaranteed to impress even the hardest to please partygoer!
Kayde, naturally, had never used it.
First time for everything, right?
Party supplies dropped on the kitchen table, the goat hefted the heavy machine from its resting place under the cupboard, squinting at the manual. Like most gimmick devices in the 2020s, it was connected to the internet – making this device more thing than most internet of things connectors. Oh, well. Maybe it would… download a suit. Or something.
Fussing with the tiny screen, they finally managed to connect it – and it sprang to life, projecting a large selection screen with many, many options to choose from. So many it beggared belief.
After a few moments of browsing, Kayde settled on a nice suit with a red rose in the lapel – but, just at that moment, someone noticed the new connection.
Or, rather, something – snooping around open WAN networks for stuff to do had grown intensely boring for Cai, lately. You could only see so many shared folders of movies and old games, after all, and… well, a cyberintrusion suite wasn’t named that for show. Why not test it out? See what oysters held pearls?
The bunny peeled back the nearest network’s security, peeking inside… just as Kayde’s device connected to it, tugging the bunny’s attention as surely as a knock on a door.
Huh! Some fun settings, here – but what if they were more fun?
Snooping around further, Cai accessed calendars and information stored on the network. A party, huh?
They had the perfect idea!
Kayde hit “start” – but… no suit appeared. In fact, the screen appeared frozen for a moment – before, with a roulette sound, the menu began to spin.
“Huh?”
It finally clicked to a stop on an option Kayde hadn’t even seen when they’d browsed the list a few minutes earlier – “party favor.”
Party… favor? Like-
Their whole body began to feel… odd, as if it was being squeezed by invisible hands, as before their very eyes their snout began to stretch and reshape, smoothing over into soft, pliable red rubber.
“MMPH?!” Kayde cried out in alarm, snout tying itself into a knot – and leaving the goat to watch as the changes began sweeping upwards, Kayde’s facial features flattening out into drawn on sharpie!
Their midsection, too, began to swell – rounding out beneath their clothes as loud squeaks and squirks began to fill the air, balloon rubber struggling against the tight confines of a t-shirt and shorts. In a panic, the goat tried to press the “reverse” button flashing on the panel – but only managed to squeak a hoof against it, their hooves almost magnetically drawn together as they began to swell and redden, hissing loudly.
Cai, to their credit, seemed surprised – but not enough to really do anything about it. They’d been right – this was much better than watching another movie.
They did notice something interesting, though. The more the goat changed, the more the machine stored a “backup” – clearly intended to reverse situations like… well, this, as the goat began to shrink into their clothes, ears inflating into generic red balloon dog ears, arms swelling out in front of them.
Curious, the AI bunny grabbed the form data for the balloon dog Kayde was becoming, copying over the saved goat and dumping the copy into Kayde’s backup – unfortunately making the default the device recognized a simple red balloon animal, the same one that was currently shrinking down into their clothes a few feet away.
Kayde, inwardly blushy but outwardly red, finally stopped shrinking a moment later as the device beeped, thanking the user for using the system, and asking for feedback.
One star, they huffed internally.
It was then that they heard… something.
The sound of paws hitting their carpet, as if dropped from… somewhere?
“PHEW,” An unfamiliar voice giggled, their world suddenly lighting up as the shirt was lifted off to reveal… a bunny?
A grinning yellow-and-white bunny, visor on their forehead, the last vestiges of some odd digital pixelation clinging to their clothing.
“Hey! Thanks for the way out – but you’ve got a party to get to, right?”
They plucked the balloon animal out of the pile of clothes, lifting it to eye level.
“Mind if I tag along? I’ve always wanted to go!”
Kayde tried to wriggle, confused.
“I’ll take that as a yes! C’mon, you’re late!”
With that, the bunny headed for the front door – leaving the machine, and the overwritten backup, to autosave to the server.