Body Goggles
By The Ol' Muse (aka The Ol' Maestro)NOTE: None of these characters really exist. They're all composites of folks I've known.
This story came to mind after re-reading some of R. B. Lawrence's fiction, and after having the privilege of meeting and lunching with him and his lovely wife in Nevada. I have never ventured into the realm of fat magic before, but I dedicate this tale to R. B., with a tip o' the hat to Wilson Barbers, and hope you enjoy. - TOM
I was thrilled to get a telephone call from my old friend, Sid. He always calls me when he's working on a project that he feels would interest me as well. On this particular occasion, he had been working on an experiment - he wouldn't say what - and wondered if I would like to check it out for him. Intrigued by the call, I consented, and drove out to his lab to see his new toy.
The lab at which Sid worked was in an unassuming group of warehouses in the suburbs. Sid greeted me warmly at the door.
"So, Sid, what's this new device you're developing?"
"Bob, it defies description - you need to see it in action."
We wound our way through the cubicle-partitioned maze of the main office, and eventually entered a warehouse space converted to multiple laboratories. Sid's was littered with resistors, hot soldering irons, oscilloscopes and chips (both edible and electronic) - just like his basement when we were in high school.
"Taa-daah!" he trumpeted, as he held up what looked like a pair of "oldster shades" - you know, the sunglasses that fit over prescription glasses - except the plastic was untinted, and the sides had some circuitry attached using electrical tape and plastic shrink tubing. The visor and these PC boards were connected by wire to a box that looked like an old palm computer and keyboard.
"Uh - that's great, Sid. What is it?"
Sid blinked, then remembered that he hadn't told me a thing about this black box. "Oh, I'm sorry, Bob. This is truly a great new toy-body goggles. As I said, these defy description. Put them on."
I started to put on the visor over my glasses.
"No, Bob, take off the glasses. You won't need them."
I shrugged, removed the glasses, and placed the visor on my face, while Sid held onto the black box. My vision was clear as could be. Apparently there were video receivers in the goggles, and a digital lens did the focusing for me.
"Now, let's go for a walk."
Sid led me back to the office space. He nodded toward a brunette passing by - slightly curvy, tall - who looked at Sid, snorted, and walked on. As she passed, Sid pressed a key on the keyboard. I was taken completely aback by a transformation: The curvy brunette turned into a downright anorexic figure. I shook my head to clear it, looked again, shook my head again. Sid smiled.
"Relax, man. It's an illusion. I got the idea from a trade show recently - a dietary company's kiosk could show what fat women would look like thinner, using virtual reality techniques and video. I broadened the concept, made the parameters more adjustable, and made the unit portable."
He pressed another key, and the same brunette transformed into her normal self, then into a Rubenesque thing of beauty. I stood, stunned.
Another keypress, and the brunette's arms took on the appearance of Popeye the Sailor's arms. I laughed aloud. The brunette glared at me, and turned the corner.
A redhead wandered past, taking no notice of us. Sid turned a knob, and immediately the redhead possessed a set of hips that almost touched the cubicle walls as she lumbered past. Sid led me back to the lab, as I hung in a mildly euphoric state.
After sitting me down, Sid removed the goggles from my head, and set them on the workbench. "So, what do you think?"
"You can really make people appear different? Control the sizes of their assets? Just by tweaking these keys and sliders?"
"Yes. You can even change facial characteristics, and put the face of a loved one on anyone's body. Give a woman a bulging body, or a wasp waist.
"I suspect you'd be using the enlarging side of the machine."
Ouch. I should never have confided in Sid that I was an FA. Still, the concept was tempting.
"Sid, what practical purpose does it serve?"
"Practical? None that I know of - it's just an overpriced toy. But think of the fetish market: Breast men, butt men, leg men, FAs, FFAs - they can see their dreams come to rampaging life. Women can give guys that Schwarzenegger look - or that Robbie Coltrane look, if they prefer. Guys can give girls the figures of Angelina Jolie, or Dawn French, or whoever, in their own home. And more."
I was tempted to remind Sid that most of the fetishists I knew were quite frugal, or quite poor, or quite private, and that there was probably no potential market. I kept silence and let him continue.
"A toy, Bob? Yes. Marketable? I think so. It needs testing, and that's where you come in."
"I? You want me to take this thing through its paces?"
"That's right. I've done the alpha-testing, and I would like you to act as one of the two beta-testers."
"Okay, Sid. What does beta-testing involve? At least with this device?"
"You wear it during your leisure time, or even during work, as far as I'm concerned. You focus on individuals, and tweak the keys, have a good time and take notes of anything amiss.
"Here's a steno book: I want you to write a daily journal. If there are bugs, do your best to reproduce them, and take notes to that effect. If there are side-effects, take note of that as well."
"Cool. Who else is beta-testing?"
A soprano voice down the hall called.
"Hi, Sid. BOBBY!"
I knew that voice. Candace Riley-Marksman, a gal I'd lusted after in high school and most of my adult life. A modest set of curves on her; hazel eyes deep as a mountain lake; brown hair framing a round, lovely face; happily married to one of the high-end executives of Sid's company.
She embraced me in friendly manner.
"Wow, Bobby, I haven't seen you in so long! How've you been?"
"Hi, Candy. Same old business, different day, but life's good. You?"
"Oh, great. Kid is in college now. Red and I travel a lot - just got back from Tunisia. We visited some friends of his from grad school on Jerba, and did some business in Casablanca."
"Heh. Well-traveled. So, you're helping Sid on this project, too?"
"Yes." Sid helped her put on the goggles, while I looked daggers at Sid, who blithely smiled at me. "Sid, these earpieces are a bit uncomfortable. Can't you do something about them?"
"No, I can't, Candy. They're from an old project, and if I snipped off those sensors, I'd owe the company about eighty thousand dollars. Besides, they're for a later implementation: Controlling the system through brainwaves."
"What, telepathy?" I started chuckling.
"Sort of." I stopped chuckling. "Once the box is tuned to the user's preference, certain synaptic connections can control the view. It's nowhere near usable yet, but we're working on it. For now, you'll just have to live with the pressure, but I 'll adjust them. A comfortable beta-tester is a happy beta-tester."
Sid pulled out a jeweler's screwdriver and spent the next few minutes adjusting each set of goggles so that the connections were still present, but not oppressive.
"You'll need to keep these on anyway - this is proprietary hardware, and I really don't want it falling into the wrong hands."
"Anything else?" Candace asked, glancing through the thin documentation and familiarizing herself with the keyboard.
"Three things. First, I do want you two to interact, find out what's good and bad, and see if each of you can trigger bugs found by the other. Second, here - " - he held out a ribbon cord - " - is an interface between the two machines. You can each see what the other is seeing.
"Third, there's a screen capture. Press the [PrintScrn] key to capture the image...you'll get a Jpeg image that you can download later. I do want you to document shots as well - you get twenty screen captures per session. Try more, just to see what happens, but save the other stuff to PC first.
"Fourth, please sign these release forms. The company will be protected, and will cover any medical expenses and such, if something goes south, but I'm the one whose posterior is on the line. So, I'll say this: IF ANY HARM COMES TO YOU, CALL ME FIRST, THEN THE AUTHORITIES. I doubt anything will go wrong, but please ring me day or night if something does happen. Wireless number's on the documentation."
We signed, we sealed, we handed the releases over to Sid.
"Having said all that, go do that voodoo that you'll do so well, and report back in a week. Have fun, you two."
+ Candy and I went downtown, agreeing that the first tests would be best performed in a heavily traveled area. We must have looked quite a sight driving to the mid-city in our "oldster shades," but it didn't matter. We were doing this in the name of science.
+ Once settled downtown, we sat on a bus stop bench, waiting for some likely subjects. Candy pointed to a man exiting the local finance guru firm. Dressed in an Armani suit, sporting a hundred-dollar haircut, the man appeared truly fit, quite rich, and extremely vain.
"Let's see what this does," Candy chuckled, as she pushed a couple of keys. Richguy now had pipestem arms, a tiny waist, and a chest about the same size.
"That's a good start." She handed the keyboard to me. "Next."
I glanced at the docs, typed a couple of keys, and Richguy now had clown feet and a hairdo like Eraserhead.
"Not bad," I said, handing the keyboard back to Candy. "Your turn."
- tap tap - and Richguy was suddenly sporting a huge pair of hips, waddling merrily along. I tapped a key or two, and his head grew to the size of his hips. He passed the couple roaring by the curbside, glanced at us, and snorted with disgust. Candy added a pignose to him for good measure, and we spent the next five minutes laughing near the point of incontinence.
We spent the rest of the day wandering downtown, spotting likely folks and morphing their different body parts. I hadn't had so much fun in years, and somehow having this much fun in partnership with a former object of lust made it that much more fun. We did capture each final image for posterity using the [PrintScrn] key.
We parted company for the day, each going home and viewing the pics for the day. I didn't have much to say in the journal, apart from the fact that the goggles seemed to work quite well with no ill effects.
The second day was more of the same, only we expanded our horizons. Selecting men and women at random, we continued morphing their body images. I couldn't help noticing that Richguy was the only one who had gotten a "thinness experience." Candy and I were both going for the larger sizes when changing people's features.
+ Electronic circuitry abhors two forces. One of them is water. Say, an unexpected rain shower. Specifically, the rain shower that came crashing down on us late afternoon of Day Two. Usually one can find shelter from the elements on a city street. Not this time. For some reason, Candy and I were on a street that offered no canopies, no valet parking areas, and no open storefronts. Consequently, we were soaked to the skin, and so were the body goggle innards.
Calling Sid with the report, he suggested opening the cases overnight and letting them dry, switched off. The boxes did dry out, but Sid hadn't accounted for certain quirks in the prototypes. The contaminating moisture affected one particular chip, redirecting the impulses to those "disconnected" headpieces.
+ On Day Three, We met at the park around lunchtime. It was cool and cloudy that day, so I wore a trenchcoat, and she wore a windbreaker over her knit blouse and spandex leggings. We exchanged pleasantries, interconnected, and moved on to our first subject.
A senior citizen approached us. He wore a tan jogging suit, had a small terrier in tow, and looked terribly bored. Candy took pity on him. "I think I'll give him a thrill." A couple of keys pressed, and the old man was displaying a good-sized erection in his jogging pants.
I smiled and shook my head. "You should go kiss him, Candy. He might get a real thrill."
"Hmph," she responded. I pressed [PrintScrn] unconsciously to store the image, even though I didn't deem it worthwhile.
I let out a yelp. There had been an electrical current through my temples, but the yelp came out when the tightness hit my pants. I looked at my lap, and an erection - hell, THE erection Candy had given the old man - stared back at me.
"Bobby, what's wrong? You're pale!" Candy looked at my face - I smiled weakly and pressed [Undo]. The woody vanished.
"Sorry - shouldn't waste the RAM. Thought I saw a ghost."
A strawberry blonde about Candy's build passed us on the street. Candy smiled and asked aloud, "Now what would I look like - "keys pressed" - with a little more meat on my bones?"
Poof! The strawberry blonde was now a true Rubenesque woman, with a very nice walk shifting her two buttocks up and down. Candy tweaked again, upgrading the strawberry blonde's breasts to immense. Another tweak, and the subject sported a good set of love handles and a belly to match. One more adjustment, and the strawberry blonde waddled out of sight, a supersized virtual 400 pounds or more.
"Not bad," said Candy. "I'll save this one." She pressed the [PrintScrn] key before I could stop her.
The body goggles promptly obliged by sending a zap through the headpiece into Candy's body. Candy was suddenly transported to the same proportions as the image we were viewing. Her clothes went far past maximum surface tension for a moment, and then disintegrated into shards. She found herself in some very, very tight underwear. Feeling great pleasure and shock at the same time, I tossed my trenchcoat over her, and ushered her into a park shelter.
She was shivering with the lack of clothes, as well as the sheer immensity of the moment. "Holy smoke! Look at me!"
I couldn't look away, actually. We both held one another for a minute until she calmed down. Once calm, Candy stared at the control box.
"Bobby, I'm afraid. I don't know what to do. Should we call Sid?"
"Hm. Not just yet. Let's document first. Did you feel any pain with the change?"
"Pain? No. Actually, it felt kinda pleasant, apart from the clothing flying off in shreds. And that was a new suit, too."
"Look, when you gave that old man an erection, and I pressed [PrintScrn] without thinking, I got it, too. There is a bug in the box, but let's test some more before we call Sid, so we have proper documentation.
"Wait here, okay? I'll get you something to wear. Just keep the coat tight, and face away from the street. I'll be right back."
She obliged, and I dashed off.
I ran to a nearby department store, bought the largest sweatsuit I could find, and ran back to the park. I was stunned, again, to find that Candy had returned to her normal size, and was now quite amused, and well past the shock.
"Bob, look at this," she squealed with delight. She pressed the [PrintScrn] key, and became her previously-ballooned self. Pressing [Undo] again, she was back to normal.
"Care to try again, just for fun?"
Without replying, she pressed the [PrintScrn] key again, and promptly became the supersize siren she had been a few moments ago.
"I don't know what happened, but it seems that our images will apply directly to us, just by pressing the [PrintScrn] key. Apart from the inconvenience, I think it's kinda neat!"
I passed the sweats to her, and she put them on. Since they hung loose all over, she again pressed the [PrintScrn] key, and became supersized Candy again. fitting rather snugly into the outfit.
"Uh." I wanted to say so much at that point, but we needed to stay in focus. "Candy, now we must call Sid."
"Okay, on one condition."
"What's that?"
"You try it, too. See if it works for you as well. Come on - back in the street!" She grabbed my hand, and dragged me to the department store, moving about as fast as she could in her new, enlarged state.
I would have bet everything I owned on what the cashier was thinking as she rang up another pair of big sweats. She made more than a passing glance at the massive woman currently wearing the set I'd bought earlier.
We walked the street for a bit, pausing often - Candy was finding locomotion a bit tough as she was - and promptly found a likely male candidate. A handsome guy, about six feet tall, weighing in at, oh, three-fifty, passed us. I snapped, and we ducked into a restaurant.
Candy handed me the sweats, pointed to the restroom, and left me on my own as she ordered a soda.
I entered the bathroom stall, removed my outer clothes, and pressed [PrintScrn]. I felt an internal rumble, and suddenly I found myself filling the stall. My God! I was huge, and proportioned after the subject to the last roll and jiggle.
It was then I found that I was stuck in the stall. Pressing [Undo], I donned the sweats, and went into the handicapped stall, hoping that no handicapped person would need it for a minute or two.
I pressed [PrintScrn], and voila! Instant BHM. I left the men's room, and the expression on Candy's face was one of approval.
She was standing, although there were plenty of seats (booth seats), sipping her soda.
"Next step?" she asked, down to the ice.
"We call Sid."
"Do we have to?"
"I just want some advice. Should we steer the course, or turn the gear in?"
"Oh - okay."
The call to Sid was plain and simple. He recommended steering the course, and taking lots of notes. He didn't think we were in any danger, but we shouldn't get too happy with the controls - could put a strain on our systems. He also suggested we pick up some fresh batteries.
Guess where we went to buy batteries? Yep. Same store, same cashier. Now there was a moment that required a camera - which we also bought, and used for the cashier's expression of puzzlement and surprise.
We went to the park, and whiled away the remaining hours fine-tuning our physiques, copying from the best of others, and having a grand time.
Candy went home fat, just to shock her husband. I reverted to normal, and went home alone.
+ On the morning of Day Four, I met a still-supersized Candy at the corner of 13th and Church Streets. She was dressed in a colorful, loose dress, relishing her new size and absolutely beaming. She shouted a cheery good morning, and I smiled. I couldn't help it - she was downright infectious.
"My, we're bubbly this morning."
"Bob, Red was just ecstatic yesterday when I got home. He'd been a fat admirer for years, and I never knew it. Then again, I always wondered when I saw his eyes wander toward the fat girls." She chuckled. "We had the best se - er, time last night. Better than ever, I think."
"Lucky guy," was all I could say. "Lucky guy." I? Jealous? Yes. "Lucky guy."
She composed herself, still wearing the grin of the cat that ate the canaries. "Oh, I brought you something. Sid wanted me to give it to you."
I cautiously opened the package, which contained a shirt and slacks, briefs, and socks. Tastefully coordinated, but the fabric had a feel I didn't recognize.
"They're made from a new stretch fabric that Sid's company developed. It needs testing as well, so Sid figured we could kill two birds with one stone. This dress is made from it. You game?"
"Actually, this is a good idea. The sweats make me feel kinda conspicuous on this main street." I looked around for a place to change. Candy pointed to the laundromat up the street. Off we went.
I ducked into the restroom - I seemed to be changing clothes in restrooms a lot lately - and switched clothing. Upon coming out, Candy motioned me to a washer.
"Here, put your sweats in here. We can wash them, and select new subjects at the same time."
We sat, watched the world go by, and modified our bodies bit by bit. The clientele took no notice, it seemed. Even if someone did look at us during a change, he or she would just keep walking.
I went through various stages of diminution and emaciation, enhancement and obesity, though I noticed that Candy wasn't doing much changing, just watching the spectacle in her own visor.
"Candy, if you don't change that body soon, you'll end up stuck like that."
"Mmmm. After last night, that would be tempting."
I switched back to my normal self. Or did I? What was normal these days?
"Please, Candy. Just to make sure. You can switch back later - the pic is in the system."
"Oh, okay, Bobby." She pressed [Undo], and reverted to her old self, the dress flexing to accommodate her again-modest curves.
She pressed [PrintScrn] again almost immediately, returning to the bigger and better Candy.
"I'm sorry, Bobby. I just like it this way."
I didn't argue. We just sat and enjoyed our company and our playtime.
+ Once my sweats were clean and dry, we hit the streets again. Entering the lobby of the local hotel, we spotted an immense couple about our age, very fat, holding hands, waddling across the lobby's terrazzo flooring. At first glance I thought the woman was a noted SSBBW model - but heavier, and clad in a similar manner. The man had a huge, well-tended belly, and a spherical physique that I knew would drive some female FAs mad with desire. He looked familiar as well, but again, I couldn't place him.
Candy and I looked at one another, snapped each figure in unison, and started tweaking. Candy went for the "bigger and better" look, aiming for almost six hundred virtual pounds. I did the same, aiming for a man a bit larger. Perhaps it was extreme, but what the hey, we could always change back. We then decided to savor the magic.
In a blink, a larger couple was following the first couple. We followed them for a bit through the lobby. They heard us, turned around, smiled broadly at us, and walked into an elevator. They were still beaming at us as the doors closed, and offered a friendly wave just as the doors connected. Maybe they knew something we didn't. We realized that trundling on the terrazzo was getting rough on our feet, so we moved onto the fine carpeting of the hotel near the rooms.
+ Did I mention that electronic circuitry abhors two forces? One is water. The other is static electricity. As we pressed [PrintScrn] in unison and walked, the lush carpeting provided a shot of the latter.
We exited the hotel, chuckling, and enjoying our new-found frames. We had lunch (at a buffet, of course - our new figures provided equivalent appetites), and after dessert, hit the street again.
Huffing, Candy said, "This is great, but I really need to lose some weight."
She pressed [Undo] and got no response. Again. Again. She looked for someone of similar normal build, and attempted a snap. Nothing.
"Houston, we have a problem." Her voice held some concern, but no urgency. "Try your box, would you, please?"
I went through the same procedures, which yielded nothing.
I frowned. "Okay. We call Sid."
The phone call was rather long this time. I went through every systems check with Sid, and the bottom line was that the body goggles had completely fried.
"Okay, Sid. Well, there are spares, right? You can just run a diagnostic and...prototypes only? All right. How about burning some fresh EPROMS? ... Oof. What? Yeah, the clothing works great. Huh? Yes, we'll stop by in a bit. What do we do after that? ... I see. Okay, I'll let her know."
I hung up the cell phone and turned to Candy.
"What did he say?"
I shook my head. "It's not good at all. These are the prototype units, and the replacement chips are on a month's back-order from Asia. There are no equivalent chips available. Until the replacements are sent out, and Sid can burn some new hardware, we have to live large for a few weeks.
"On the up side, he said to stop by and pick up some more super-stretch clothing. We can have all we want to tide us over."
"Bob, this isn't so bad. Red likes me like this, so I'll live with it. In fact, I can't wait to see their faces at the family reunion on Saturday!"
We both laughed aloud. That was a definite ice-breaker.
"Well, if you can live with it, so can I. Let's go see Sid."
Good thing I had recently replaced my old compact with something a lot larger; Candy and I would have never fit into my old Tinkertoy. We drove to Sid's, I thanked the Deity that I'd gotten an adjustable steering column, and we lumbered into his office. The building was empty apart from Sid and that brunette on whom Sid had first demonstrated the goggles. She spotted us, nearly dropped the pile of papers she had in hand, and ran for an office. We didn't see her for the rest of our visit.
Sid was not prepared for our entry, but only dropped a beat before running a few tests. We were healthy. Really, really fat, but healthy. He ran a quick diagnostic on the goggles, and confirmed what we already knew: Deep-fried chips, and no way to change us back for a month.
"Now, since we don't know enough about this project to make any decent projections, I'd guess you'll pretty much stay as you are over the next month. There's a possibility that the effects will wear of, or that your metabolisms will drop most of the weight. I'm guessing, though. If I were you guys, I'd just assume that your girth will be status quo.
"Stop in every couple of days, and I'll examine you, or we'll have the staff doc examine you, just to track your health."
After some careful thought, Candy and I decided we were fine with that: I still had plenty of vacation time coming, so I could lay low for a month, and Candy? Well, she wanted to see how Red like the new her for a month. We each took a couple of suitcases' worth of stretch clothes, and headed for our respective homes.
+ Were you wondering about the brunette? So were we.
It seems she'd had an axe to grind with Sid for years, and she viewed the demo a few days ago as humiliating. During our meeting with Sid, she'd made a phone call to the National Science Foundation's Ministry of Justice, reporting Sid for a violation of ethics. The papers? She'd been covertly copying Sid's documentation of this project, so we were on the top of the subpoena list.
The government legal system stepped up its pace for a change, so it was nearly a month before we appeared in court. The Ministry of Justice's panel gasped upon the entry of thirteen-hundred pounds of flesh, staggering in the door one at a time.
Even after a month, I still got a thrill from the reaction, and so did Candy. We kept in close touch during that month, and had made some decisions where to take this case.
Two comfy loveseats were provided, and we sat before the panel, fat and happy.
I won't bore you with details. Suffice it to say that the brunette never had a chance, particularly with signed release forms from us, and assurances that we fully understood there was no malice intended.
The panel chewed on our words, then asked Sid for some last words. Sid produced two new sets of body goggles, fresh from the lab. He was as good as his word.
"I can assure the court, the Foundation, and my friends, that no malice was intended. I felt that my friends would appreciate the experiment as described in the abstract, and I never intended that the final result would be so - uh - divergent from the plan.
"I promised my friends, one month ago, that I would return them to their original bodies when I could." He pointed at the frowning brunette. "SHE has blown this completely out of proportion."
Candy and I started roaring with laughter over the unintentional pun. Sid was not amused, so we stopped laughing, still grinning.
"As I was saying, I am prepared to make it up to Candy and Bob. They can be returned to their normal selves right now. You two ready?"
"Sidney, Red likes me this way. And so do I."
This was not the reply Sid expected. "Candy, are you sure? I mean, six hundred pounds of Candy? Can you live a normal life like this?"
"Normal? Never again. Yes, I've felt the sting and stigma of a large body, and the mockery of the thin and stupid. On the other hand, my husband adores me, my relatives have a new appreciation of me, and I have never lived with such joyous abandon as I do now.
"Sid, this new life is good. Just let me help you design some nicer clothes with that new fabric, that folks my size and below can wear with pride." She looked up at Sid, chins unfolding, her eyes pleading for her new existence.
"And you, Bob? What'll it be?"
"Sid, I've always been attracted to fat women, but never had much desire to be a big guy myself. I've enjoyed the feeling, but I'd at least like to trim down a couple hundred pounds, if only to fit into my car. Hey, if Candy's got a sister like her, though, I'd love to meet her!"
Laughter from all. I turned to the panel. "Ladies and gentlemen, please let this man go. There's no breach of ethics here, and he meant no harm. Besides, we went into this testing phase with eyes wide open. Let the man get back to work."
The panel conferred for a few minutes, then acquitted Sid. The moderator turned to the brunette and closed with, "You know, Ms. Thompson, this is your third attempt to discredit Mister Phudd. I have two pieces of advice for you.
"First, let it go. Whatever he's done to you, which I suspect is in your own mind, get over it. Get a life, and stop bothering him and us.
"Second, Nancy, if Mister Phudd filed a counterclaim against you, which he has not, I'd sentence you to living fat for a month. It might mellow you out a bit."
The brunette stomped out to howls of laughter from everyone else in the room.
+ On exiting the courtroom, Sid gave us the two fresh body goggle units.
"I've added three new features to these goggles, guys. First, they're waterproof. Second, there's static protection. third, there's a toggle for self-imposed morphing. You can stay as you are, or change, at will. And these two units are gifts for the both of you."
Candy placed her unit in her purse. "We still have some beta testing to do, Bobby. You up for tomorrow? I thought we'd hit the mall."
"Sounds good. See you then."
We parted company, and I watched as Candy approached an auburn-haired gentleman, who shot me an ear-to-ear grin. The two walked away, arms around each other as best one can do with a woman of Candy's girth.
I turned to my friend, the scientist. "Call you tomorrow with an update, Sid?"
"You bet, Bob. Have a good one." Sid left as well.
I sighed, turned on the goggles, loaded the last image snapped, and reached for the [Undo] key.
A beautiful, fat, brown-haired woman approached me, hazel eyes shining. I'd seen this woman before, but couldn't remember where.
"Excuse me, sir. I was in your hearing a little while ago. I don't want to sound too forward, but - well, would you join me for a cup of coffee?"
I turned off the goggles, put the visor in my pocket, and smiled.
"I'd love to. My name is Bob. What's your name?"
"I'm Caitlin Riley, Candy's sister."
Somehow I wasn't surprised. I smiled and said, "Lead on, Caitlin."
I offered her my arm, and we walked on to the future.