Game 4Game 4 Outline| Game 4 |
Game 4 Outline |
There is a small cat by your feet. You look up and are about to say something to the doctor, but the world suddenly goes black around you. Then, in a split-second, everything is back, although you are now on the other end of the room. However, the doctor is looking at you with a strange gaping expression on his face.
You look down at yourself. What you see is nothing like what you should be seeing. Your hands are covered in light calico fur and have black pads on the palms and short, retractable claws. Your arms are also furred, and your field of view is obstructed by what seems to be a short muzzle with a wet, pink nose at the end. You also see the tip of your tail curving around your waist. The strangest part, however, is that your chest is sticking out further than usual. When you realize why, you shriek.
"I'M A FREAKING GIRL!" you shout. Your voice is noticeably higher. The doctor rushes over to you as you pass out from shock.
You wake up some time later, lying on an impromptu cot consisting of the doctor's desk and a pile of folded cloth that serves as a pillow. The doctor turns as you wake. "Ah," he says, "you're finally up."
"What happened?" you groan. Dang, you notice, I'm still a...a cat-girl.
The doctor begins to explain. "I'm not entirely sure how," he begins, "but your body was merged with that of the cat that you were apparently going to tell me about. I don't remember having a calico housecat in our subject collection; Doris confirmed that it was one of her 'friends.' Anyhow, it got up onto the pad with you, and then we discovered a bug in the machine. Apparently, when more than one living organism is teleported by the same pad, the genes of both organisms will be randomly mixed. I went back and fixed the bug, but frankly, you're stuck this way."
You gasp. "Why?" you ask, frantically.
"Because," the doctor explains, "anywhere from one-third to one-half of your original chromosomes were eliminated. I don't know what happened to them. Frankly, I've yet to figure out how the bug produced this result in the first place."
""And why am I a g...a g..." your stutter.
"A girl?" the doctor asks. "I'm not completely sure. Both you and the cat were originally male, according to Doris, so my best guess is that the machine randomly selected each chromosome for each gene from the set of all four chromosomes (yours and the cat's) for that gene. That leaves two X chromosomes and two Y chromosomes to pick from, so you had an even chance of becoming a boy (XY,) a girl (XX,) or two genders (YX and YY) that do not even exist. All things considered you're lucky to have emerged as a viable creature at all."
"Isn't there something we could try?" you ask.
"No," the doctor sighs. "I've fixed that bug, and what with all the possible combinations it could produce (most of which would probably not be capable of life,) I can't, as an ethical scientist, allow you to do that again. Besides, you'd need another human subject to provide a set of human DNA, and that would effectively kill one or possibly both of you. We're just lucky, from a legal standpoint, that Doris dragged in a cat and not someone's child, or I could be facing involuntary manslaughter charges and you'd probably be counted as an accomplice. Simply put, you're going to be this way for the rest of your life, so you'd best get used to it. I'm terribly sorry about all this, so I'm going to bump your pay up to cover tuition for whatever college you may chooose to attend, when you are ready for college."
"But the ad said five hundred thousand dollars!" you protest. Really, college tuition is peanuts to that.
The doctor looks confused for a moment. "Five hundred thous...oh dear," he says. "I'm afraid Doris must have tacked a few zeros on while I wasn't looking. If you'll check your contract, it should say five hundred dollars."
Sure enough, the contract does say five hundred. You agree to the doctor's offer of college tuition. "Now listen," he says. "Adjusting to this is going to take some time. Like I said, I really am sorry for this, and if there's anything I can do to help, just ask, okay?"
You thank the doctor and head out. You make your way home and collapse on the couch. You're stuck as a catgirl for the rest of your life. What are you going to do now?
Written by nothingsp
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