A Sudden Change
Machida, a thirty-eight year old man struggled to make a living on his own, without the guidance of his parents. Currently he spends most of his time lifeless in his “Lair”, a dark hide-away in his parent’s basement were he works on various computer projects. Socially inept, and partially autistic from birth, he always had trouble interacting face-to-face with others. Contributing to his issues, he lives a sedentary lifestyle where he sustains himself on fast food and physically suffers because of it. In arms reach is a large half eaten pizza, a quarter of it thrown onto the floor. To his left is a 2-liter cola bottle, a box of scattered m&m’s, and all around him piles of spare computer parts laid out in no orderly fashion collecting dust. He ventures out rarely, but when he does, he is in search of various gadgets to add to his collection. Today, Machida leaves, battling the light of day and the three-minute walk to the local refurbishing warehouse, FixEm’Up Parts. It’s like a Goodwill on computer steroids — cheap prices, and a vast array of discarded electronics.
As Machida enters the store, the clerk says “Hey yo… Machida, your parents kick you out yet bro? I ain’t going to cover your ass this time B, you better got cash.” Machida awkwardly nods too intimidated to respond.
The floor to ceiling is tightly packed with old computer parts, a paradise for people like Machida who have the time to put them to good use. Familiar with the store he quickly locates the parts he desires, but continues looking just incase he finds something else so he doesn’t need to exhaust himself later on a return visit. Rummaging through the jungle of items, he enters the deep north forty of the store where most would not dare enter. There, all the good stuff is held; the antiques and ancient artifacts of the computer world, the things that only few would appreciate. He pauses, and scans his surroundings. An obscure black object catches his attention. It was strange compared to other items in the store; it had engraved details, but no noticeable brand of any sort. “Probably one of those old scanner prototypes that never made it into the market” Machida thought to himself. Intrigued, he drags the device out and plugs it in to test it. He looks for something to scan and finds a pile of old magazines on the shelf above. He pulls out a dusty 1990 Playboy edition with the shapely Shannel Latel, observes the cover, and pauses with a raised eyebrow. He places it onto the scanner and closes the lid. The device started to buzz, as a green light passes once… Ah Crud! Machida screams as a sudden pulse from his hand travels through the rest of his body. Everything seemed to slow down. He felt weak, fearing that he was having a stroke from his poor diet. He shortly recovers, but felt slightly…different. He ignores the incident, grabs the device, and goes to the checkout desk.
As he passes, the Clerk stops him. “Whoa! Yo Babe what’s good. When did you get in here? You know I would have seen you. You look fine like you from a magazine… Damn!”
Machida is puzzled thinking the clerk is hallucinating. He then looks into the window and sees his reflection. He saw himself with a perfect body, beautiful face, and huge breasts as if right from the cover of the Playboy magazine. He is stunned and had no clue of what happened. But who cares! “He” was hot, and life was good.