“...but I wish you’d tell us what happened.”

Rex’s mother was sitting on his bed playing peacemaker while his father searched through his room.

“I’m telling you, ma, I didn’t do any drugs.”

“Well, maybe,” she said diplomatically. “But we saw the test results from the other day.”

“You can’t hide from us!” came a muffled voice from the closet.

“The test results were wrong! They don’t know what they’re talking about!”

“Maybe, but it’s not just… you know your growth spurt the past few months has seemed a bit… odd.”

“Well that’s just because I used a magic app to make myself taller!”

A moment of silence passed as Rex realized what he’d just said. Keeping his secret had been simple when it was just a matter of not talking to his parents.

The father’s head poked out of the closet just in time for a simultaneous “what?”

It was at that moment that his brain began overclocking. His hand went to a pocket where he had his phone. They’re going to take it from me! The thought was overpowering, so much so that it spun him around and sent him out the door.

He only half heard the “wait” from behind him.

A few blocks later a car passed him and he realized his parents would likely give chase before too long. Them or the cops! He turned down an alleyway and crouched next to a trash can in the dark.

Rex’s stomach grumbled. It occurred to him that he’d run away just before dinner. The phone came out and he adjusted the hunger slider. Nothing happened, because he wasn’t asleep. He rolled into a ball to try muffling his hunger sounds and found it was also decent for helping with the cold.

Hours passed through the night. Then another figure came down the alley, the only other life save for Rex and the flies.

Maybe he won’t notice me?

The old man sat beside him.

Think… invisible thoughts!

“I take it things aren’t going well for you.”

“EEP!” Rex immediately covered his mouth. Maybe he didn’t hear that?

“I’ll cut to the chase. You’ve been using the app bod.io, I’m here to undo its effects if need be.”

Rex gave up on stealth. “Bullshit.”

“I assure you, I’m fully capable.”

“But you can’t! I need it!”

“Are you terminally ill or something?”

“What? No?”

“Then how do you need it?”

“Because… um… well, it made me tall and strong and stuff.” He added “And I need that.”

“Sure you do bud.”

The old man reached into his coat. Rex lunged forward and aimed a fist at the head. His fist didn’t connect, instead it seemed to pass through as though the head had briefly turned into fog. He stumbled back, stunned.

“Your phone made you taller, kid. There’s more power in this world than you know.”

“Please, sir, don’t take the app away! I… I’m… uh… Oh! I don’t have a home. And I don’t have any money. So I can’t buy food, right? But the app can fix hunger. But if you undo it I’ll be hungry. So, like, without the app I’ll die.”

The old man frowned. “Do you not live around here?”

Rex just stared at him, hoping he’d said enough.

Sighing, the old man took his hand away from the coat. “Fine, I don’t see too much harm in leaving you. Be aware that the app has its days numbered. Find a way to live without it, because you’ll need to.” He got up and started walking away. “Also, until then, if you’re going to use the app instead of eating, you’ll be better off going through the advanced settings.”

Rex watched the old man leave. Before too long he was alone. He looked down at the writing on his arm and chuckled.

“Yeah, you better run. Nobody can stop me.” Keeping his voice down, he added “The name’s Rex, you hear?”

----------------------------------------

Sam collapsed onto his bed and pulled out his phone. He navigated to the 3D model in the app. A button appeared which read “load”. He pressed it and verified that the height slider had reverted. Thought so. His finger hovered over the “update” button. After a moment of thought he saved a copy of his current body. Then, back to waffling over the button.

This could all go back to normal just like that. He sighed. Back to square one.

A moment lying in bed turned up another thought: There’s a history test tomorrow, I should study.

But he was tired. So, in addition to returning to the old body from before he changed anything, Sam found and turned up the “awake” slider and turned down the “tired” slider. After noting the time, he pressed “update” and went to sleep.

Naturally the thing worked. Assuming the change happened the moment he went unconscious, it only took him about ten minutes to fall asleep. A look in the mirror showed the reset had worked too. He noticed that his pajamas’ size had reverted, but didn’t notice that a hole which had formed in the intervening months was now gone.

Sam sighed. I guess I’ve got no excuse now.

Those ten minutes were all the sleep he got that night.

----------------------------------------

Jerry’s job as a swimming teacher was, thankfully, not that complicated. He’d explain a technique, the kids would do the technique, he’d record their performance, and that’d be the class. Utterly straightforward.

Unfortunately for Jerry, not everything in life is straightforward. Sometimes you come into class, you pass out snorkels, and you notice that

“You’re not as quick as usual today Sam, what’s up?”

Sam shrugged.

Jerry furrowed his brow and squatted down for a closer look. The face was right and the goggles were the same as always, but…

“Hey, Sam?”

“Yeah?”

Right voice… “Could you get out of the pool real quick?”

He could and did.

“Hmmm… yeah, no. Jokes over, where’s Sam?”

“What? I’m Sam.”

“You look like him, I’ll give you that.”

“I am Sam! Sam I am! I am he and he is me.” Sam looked over at Cyborg, as though she was gonna back him up while floating with a breathing tube. All he got were the curious goggled eyes of the rest of the class.

“No, see, Sam comes up to like here,” the teacher gestured. “And he’s more of an athlete than you. You got his place in the class, but you’re hardly the third best swimmer here, no offense.”

Eyes still on Cyborg, Sam saw the exact moment that she realized what had happened and started laughing. He then turned back to the teacher, also having realized at about the same time.

“You can’t prove I’m not me and I can prove I am. Student id, fingerprints, you name it.”

Figuring this wasn’t going to be as simple as he expected, Jerry brought the suspect to his office in the locker room. Luckily, swimming was taught by a pair of instructors so the class was not totally abandoned. Unluckily, the student kept answering questions correctly. He seemed to know Sam’s student id, his locker combination (which, in hindsight, was obvious given his swim trunks), his date of birth, really everything Jerry asked for. The interrogation was beginning to wear on both their patience.

“Oh, yeah? Well, what about Sam’s home phone number?”

Sam rattled off a string of digits.

Jerry began navigating to the school directory to verify the number but then stopped himself. A wolfish grin spread across his lips.

“Would either of your parents be home right now?”

“Yup. My Mom should be. You gonna call to see if I’m lying about this too?”

“As a matter of fact I am.”

Sam sunk a little deeper into his chair as the teacher dialed the number.

A yawning woman’s voice picked up, “H… ah… hello?”

“Hello, this is a teacher at Nash High. Am I speaking to the mother of Sam Saxon?”

“Yes, I’m… ah… sorry, I just got up. Is Sam in trouble?”

“Well I was… wait, did you say you’ve only just got up?”

“Yes?”

“Your son’s been at school for over an hour now, how are you only just getting up?”

“My husband works a night shift. I don’t want to miss him, so I work at night too. Is this relevant?”

“No, just” suspicious! “curious. Anyway, I was wondering if you knew where your son was.”

“...you just said he’s at school, yes?”

“I… guess I did say that, but the situation is not so clear cut. I have reason to believe your son skipped class and asked someone else to cover for him. I was hoping you could talk to this someone else and tell me whether or not that’s Sam.”

“O…kay?

Jerry handed the phone over.

“That you, Sam?”

“Yes.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“Probably not, honestly.”

“Okay, you can hand me back then. Oh, and have fun at school.”

Sam handed the phone back.

The teacher was not impressed. “That’s it?”

“I know my son, that’s him.”

“But… you didn’t ask him any identifying questions or anything.”

“Can’t you ask him for his student id or fingerprints or something?”

“Alright, I see what’s going on. Pleasure meeting you but I think I know what’s happening here and I’m not falling for it.”

“What?”

“Bye.” He hung up. “Now this is elaborate. Giving me a fake number and having some third person pretend to be Sam’s mother. But the joke’s on you!” He finished navigating into the directory. “The school keeps records of phone numbers so now I can just look the real Sam up. As soon as I pull this number up your whole house of cards will…”

The teacher trailed off when the computer reported the exact same number that Sam had rattled off and which he had just had a conversation with.

“But… wait… how… Sam, is that really you?”

“I’m pretty certain, yeah.”

“That’s not… You shrunk. How is that possible?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Jerry released Sam back into class and called his mother back to apologize.

----------------------------------------

“Back to normal, eh?”

“Yeah.”

Sam and Cyborg were walking to lunch.

She clearly found the swimming situation hilarious. “You must’ve had a hard time explaining that one.”

“You’d think, but he mostly just tried to prove I’m not me.”

The cafeteria was a floor below them and stairs didn’t much agree with Cyborg’s crutches, so they boarded an elevator.

“Hmmm, are you you, Sam? Or is there an imposter among us?”

“I’m me, alright. Stupid app can change a lot of things but it can’t change that.”

They got food and met up with Ben.

“So is this another one day change or what?”

“No, I’m back to normal for good.”

Ben frowned. “Then… won’t that make basketball hard?”

Sam shook his head. “I am no longer balling.”

“Huh. What happened there?”

“It just… wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do.”

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Cyborg, who had been diligently eating lunch, looked up. “Is this another Helen thing?”

“Honestly? Yes. It didn’t work, I feel stupid, and I’d rather not talk about it.”

Ben whistled.

She kept pushing. “So… you done with that now?”

“I dunno. Another reason I stopped basketball was because I need to get my grades up, so I may not have time anyway.”

“Well, I’ll repeat my two cents from last year. I don’t think this Helen thing is gonna go well.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“Easy for… what do you mean?”

“Well, the two of you have been friends since elementary school. Here I am wishing I were… Ya know what? I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

They ate in silence for a minute before Ben decided to play peacemaker-by-distraction.

“Hey Sam, could you stand up real quick?”

Sam sighed, “okay.”

“Right, so a week ago you were way up to here, right?”

“Sure, something like that.”

“Before you started using that app, I remember we saw about eye to eye. Now I’m looking at your forehead.”

“So you’re a bit taller, so what?”

Ben sat back down and Sam followed suit.

“I’m just thinking, did you set your height a little too short or something?”

“Nope. The app lets you load saves, so I just loaded a save from before I used the app the first time.”

Cyborg chimed in, “So you changed back to the way you were a couple months ago?”

“Yes?”

“Well, what if Ben’s been, you know, growing.”

“Of course he’s been growing. We’re all growing.”

“Are you?”

“Why wouldn’t I-” The realization knocked the fork out of his hand. “I guess I haven’t grown these past few months. I… ha… ha ha… I’ve been sitting frozen in a phone. Oh fuck, that’s crazy.”

Ben shook his head. “I don’t get it. I talked to you yesterday.”

“Did you? Or did you talk to someone else that was just covering for me? Sure I remember it but… those weren’t these feet in those shoes, you know?”

Ben started to say something but then doubled back into thought.

Cyborg spoke for him instead. “He’s saying he talked to you, not your body. Stupid app can’t change that, right?”

Sam nodded, “Right… right…” He chuckled, “I was actually thinking about mentioning the app earlier. I figured out last night that you can wake yourself up and, like, make yourself not tired with the app. I pulled an all nighter studying that way.”

His earlier “I need to get my grades up” echoed in their minds.

Cyborg’s concern showed. “That… doesn’t sound good.”

“You’re one to talk. Haven’t you done the same?”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly studying. But… I also wasn’t doing it with some weird body app thing.”

“Yeah? So what?”

“So when I was all drowsy and stuff the next day we all basically knew how that works. This app… well, it seems impossible. We don’t just not know how it works, we don’t know how it can work in the first place.”

“You’re right, and it is weird, but maybe that’s not an issue, right? Like if I just use it to stay awake occasionally when I need to then there aren’t a lot of unknowns.”

“What if there’s more to staying awake for a long time than just getting tired? We don’t know how it works so we can’t exactly know what it’ll do.”

“Here’s an idea,” Ben interjected. “Suppose Cyborg was the one with the app, right?”

“Okay?”

“Okay, now suppose she turns up the pregnant slider, right?”

“...where are you going with this?”

“Well, who would be the baby’s dad?”

“Oh, so this is another example of an unknown?”

“No, we know. It’s the app, of course. So then the baby would be a real Cyborg.”

----------------------------------------

Rex was on a sidewalk when he found himself thirsty. He pulled out his phone to fix the issue before noticing the building he was next to. Earlier that day he’d made his features look a bit older to get around truancy officers, not realizing that his athletic modifications would’ve taken care of that for him. He had to bend over a bit to get through the door.

He beelined for the bar, intent on tasting freedom. Two quick turns of the head located the bartender to his left.

“Yo! I-”

“With you in a minute,” she said with a dismissive gesture.

Rex’s eyes scanned the back shelf while he waited. There was a preference among the bottles for amber tones but the variety of colors was impressive, going as far as bright blue and green. What’s more, none of them seemed to have price tags.

“Sorry for the wait, how can I help you?”

“Oh? Well uh… I… uh… Say, you’re… um…” He shook his head. “Beer. Give beer.”

She was a bit perplexed by the nonspecificity but pressed on politely. “Alright sir, can I see your id real quick?”

“What?”

“Your id. Like a driver’s license or something.”

“Hey lady, I swear I haven’t done anything!”

“What?” she chuckled, rationalizing this as a joke. “It’s to verify your age.”

“How dare you, I am an adult!”

“That… tracks, but the rules say we have to check everybody.”

“And you’re going to follow those rules when it’s obvious that I’m a grown up?”

“Rules are rules,” she said while omitting that ordering unspecified beer was a bit of a red flag.

“FINE,” he shouted storming off.

The bartender then watched as he turned around and walked back up to her.

“which way is the bathroom?”

She pointed, he walked. After a moment, a new customer arrived at the table. She didn’t notice the similarities in his outfit to the person who’d just gone to the restroom. This is understandable since the one now in front of her was an unassuming white-haired grandpa.

“Hello, how can I help you?”

“Yes,” he rasped. “I was thinking a shot of that one.” He pointed at a green bottle.

“Right, mind if I see your… um… know what? Never mind, one shot of absinth coming up.”

Rex eyed the green liquid curiously before taking the cup. He sniffed and frowned. Now, when he was adjusting his age he made sure to prepare his body’s alcohol tolerance. What the app didn’t change, though, was whether he knew how to take a shot. Halfway into a slow sip, he spat out his drink onto the person sitting next to him. The bartender received an offended glare before the geezer hustled his way to the restroom.

The bartender then watched as the big guy without an id emerged from the bathroom and left the building. Sadly for her, the older guy never came back to pay.

----------------------------------------

Sam’s mother was looking at him from across the dinner table with her head tilted. She was halfway down her bowl of soup and the two of them had already filled the father in on the swimming incident. Then her brow unfurled and her eyes widened.

“Say, did you get… shorter recently?”

The father looked over and adopted a similar look. “Yeah… your mother’s right. I remember you had a bit of a growth spurt before you started basketball but now it’s like that never happened.” He leaned forward. “Oh, son, is that why you quit the team?”

Sam leaned away from him. “Other way around actually.”

“What?”

“I changed my body back because I didn’t need it for basketball.”

A quiet moment passed where Sam was the only one eating his soup.

“No you didn’t,” the father said.

“Yeah? And how do you know?”

“That’s kinda just biology,” his mother replied. “Sam, you didn’t do something drastic did you?”

“Of course not. Look, I’m back the way I was a couple months ago and I was okay then so I must be okay now, okay?”

The talk was light after that as the soup diminished. After it ended Sam got up, delivered his bowl to the dishwasher, and headed for the stairs.

His father called after him as he went. “You know you can come to us if anything’s wrong, right?”

“Yeah yeah.”

Sam went up to his room. Yeah, like I’m gonna run to you with girl problems, Dad.

He stood between his bed and the table where he would do his homework & study. I’ve gotta get my math done don’t I. He went for the bed.

Lying down, he held his phone up over his face and pulled out the app. You’ve been controlling who I am these past couple months, haven’t you. He typed “math” into the search bar, hoping something like “good at math” or “mathematical proficiency” would come up. None did. What, you can’t help me when I need it?

After a bit more wandering, he poked his account’s name in the corner and found a dropdown menu. “Log Out” and “Account Info” were obvious but “Advanced Settings” was less so. He tapped the phrase and got a number of togglable switches with a “default” button at the bottom.

The first one that caught his eye was “Sleep Mode”, which was turned on by default. You’re telling me I didn’t have to deal with that this whole time? Each switch came with a little warning underneath it. This one read “Sleep Mode restricts change to when user is unconscious. Disabling may result in experiencing discontinuity and accidental changes.” Naturally he disabled it for convenience.

Next was labeled “Mental Settings”, turned off by default. “Mental Settings enables changing mental traits such as personality, sexuality, and gender. Altering who you are is not recommended.” Still contemplating his math homework, he enabled this one.

The last one was “Skin Color”, off by default. “Skin Color enables changing skin color. This is not recommended.” Sam didn’t touch that one.

He moved to the chair at the table before he inspected the new options. “Good at math” still wasn’t appearing but he managed to find some sliders related to logic and thinking speed. After updating, he was struck by how utterly unchanged he felt. By now, though, he trusted the app so he got out his algebra worksheet and started into it.

Distraction kept him from getting that far though. I guess she didn’t say she doesn’t like me, just that she’s not into athletes. He leaned back and stared at the ceiling. She didn’t bring up the height thing either, so I guess it’s consistent.

But it’s not like she likes me either. Obviously she wasn’t into the whole basketball thing, and that’s most of what I’ve been doing these past couple months. I was just doing what I thought she’d like, but I had no reason to think she’d like it. Maybe that’s the strat, I just have to-

By that thought he was leaning his chair too far and wound up tumbling backwards. Picking himself up, he sighed.

What am I even doing? Cyborg says it’s not gonna go well and she knows Helen way better than I do. Why even bother.

He sat on that for a moment before the thought reoriented itself.

Hmm, why do I even bother? Why Helen?

Is it just looks? Well, she does look good, but so do some other girls that I don’t feel the same way about. How about personality? Well, she’s a good person but I don’t talk to her that much so it can’t just be that. He ran down a few more traits of her’s that he could think of, only for each of them to fall down like dominoes.

Do I even like her if I can’t come up with a good reason? As he pursued this question, he came upon thoughts that he couldn’t articulate to himself. Memories, sensations, and so on. The orange of her hair as she entered a room. The feeling of locking eyes with her.

He remembered her smiling at him as they passed each other in the hallway. It was only for a moment, and for that matter probably only a polite “oh hi” type thing, but the warmth was somehow still in him.

He remembered their hands meeting during a PE class last year. She was soft in a way which was somehow both completely normal and completely electric. It was like it wasn’t hands that he had felt, but somehow just her. Sam imagined himself in her arms, but not her arms, just her in a state of complete closeness.

He remembered hearing her give a book presentation in class. The specifics had passed, but something of the way those tones rolled off her lips stuck with him. Something about the way she stood, shifting to turn a page or to glance at the class. Something in the way she moved was uniquely magnetic.

Warm, close, magnetic. Helen was the sun rising on the horizon. Helen was the breeze swirling through the trees. Helen was the force holding everything together.

Sam sighed and checked the time. When he found that he’d lost a solid hour pining away, he leapt up and returned to the table.

----------------------------------------

Curiosity overcame Helen and she tapped Sam on the back before class started.

“Hey Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you, like, shrink or something? Oh, uh, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Sorry for my friends the other… you know.”

“No problem, I… Yeah I guess I’m a bit shorter than I was on Monday.”

“How? Did something happen?”

“Nothing too big. See, I’ve got this app and, well… this’ll be easier if I just show it.” He took a moment getting his phone out.

“An app changed your height?”

“Oh yeah, it’s been doing stuff for months… Ah, here. Watch this.” He pointed at his head, said “boop,” and his hair turned bright green.

She took a moment to process that. “Huh. How did you…?”

Sam turned his phone around. “See, there’s this slider that says ‘green hair’, I just turned it up and pressed ‘update’.”

“Huh.” There was a confusion on her face that he wanted to alleviate.

“And, look, if I search up your hair color I can change to that too.”

She let out that kind of half-chuckle that appears in the presence of profound strangeness, even when nothing is particularly funny.

“Hmm… I wonder how quick I can update this actually…” He began tapping away at the screen, and as he did so his hair alternated between a dark black and a light blonde. By now a fair number of his classmates’ heads had turned.

“Hey,” came a call from the teacher’s desk, “I don’t know how you’re doing that but quit it.”

Sam returned his hair to normal. “Cool, eh?” He grinned and then turned back to his desk.

----------------------------------------

Rex spent most of his time wandering, satisfying hunger, thirst, cold, and all manner of discomforts with the press of a button. At one point he had been sleeping under a bridge when a raccoon approached him to investigate. This woke him up, so he strengthened his arm and flattened the thing. Washing off the dried blood the next day was irritating.

Wandering like this made for other new experiences too. He was suddenly able to go to new places, to parts of town he’d only ever heard about. In particular he found his way to a street lined with red lights in windows.

A petite woman in a pink skirt and a tied white shirt approached him. “Hey big guy, you looking for someone?” Truth be told, the line felt awkward to say, but she’d found it did its job well.

“Whu- what? No, I’ve never been here… um… wait… Yes, actually. I guess I am.”

She led him into what looked like an apartment complex. They took an elevator up a couple stories for logistical reasons that never would have occurred to Rex. She sat him on a bed, shut the front door, and headed to the restroom.

“Sit tight, I’m gonna freshen up real quick.”

OH MY GOD THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!

Rex dropped his lower clothes and then had an unfortunate thought. I ought to give her something to remember. Pulling out the app, he made a quick modification.

Now, the woman’s original plan was to return in a slow, sultry way to set the mood. Instead she froze in the doorway.

Typically the slang phrase “third leg” is used in an endearing way. Most people don’t encounter extreme enough situations where it would be most apt, so it usually functions as an exaggeration. It conveys the size of the thing by overstating it, this is a typical thing in language. That said, the term only retains its positive connotation because people don’t typically worry about the actual experience of trying to insert something the size of an actual leg.

That’s all to say that the altered cock staggered her professional composure. “Uhh… wow.”

Rex smirked. “Like what you see?”

Can that thing even get hard? “You’re very… uh…”

“Large? You mean my magnum dong? My super schlong? This weighty weiner? This powerful, punch-packing penis? This double-duty, domineering, dirty ducking di-”

“Yeah, that. I think it might be a bit of an issue.”

“What? But bigger is better, right?”

“No offense, but you’re too long and too wide to fit anywhere. If you like I could use my hands but… I’m not sure where I’d start.”

“But I have money,” he lied. “I can pay you!”

“Yes, and I’m really sorry but…” A thought occurred to her. “Actually, let me talk to my manager real quick.”

Rex let out a “Wait!” but couldn’t stop her before she was at the door. After a knock, there was a clicking sound and a guard just outside opened it up. This guard was there for the same reason they were a couple stories up.

She went down the hall and into an apartment room outfitted to look more like an office. Inside was a middle-aged man in a white dress shirt. As it happened, this particular establishment had an unusually healthy business structure for its industry, so the title “manager” was actually appropriate.

The manager looked up from the paperwork on his desk. “What’s up?”

“I’ve got a client.”

“Okay, shouldn’t you be servicing him?”

“I would but, well, dick’s too big.”

“Too big?”

“Yeah, like I don’t think condoms even come in his size.”

“Hmm. Well, a handjob costs less but it’s still honest work.”

“You don’t understand what kinda size we’re talking. I think you should come see it for yourself.”

He was doubtful but then she mentioned his business contacts in the circus and this peaked his interest. Unfortunately for her, the situation was far more reasonable when they got back to the room.

“See? This size is more normal, right? So we should be fine?”

The manager was unimpressed, the prostitute indignant.

“Where’d it all go?”

“I… uh… got rid of it?”

“So it was fake? Is this some kind of joke?”

The manager interjected, “Well, maybe it’s not so-”

“Shush! I didn’t take this job to be made fun of!”

She called in the guard from the door to remove Rex. She didn’t know it, but this also happened to save her from accidentally servicing a minor.

The guard didn’t exactly throw Rex out, but he made things clear and blocked the door with his body.

“But I swear I can pay!”

“Listen man, they don’t charge upfront. You’ve lost nothing.”

“Oh yeah?” Rex spat on the doorstep. He was aiming for the guard’s shoe but didn’t quite have the distance for that. Turning around and leaving he muttered to himself, “fucking women.”

----------------------------------------

“Hey Sam, could you come help with dinner real quick?”

“Sure mom.”

She was pouring soup from a large pot into some storage bowls. It took two hands to hold the cooking pot and she needed a third to push the last bits of it with the spoon. They were halfway through when a timer distracted her.

“Oh! The pie’s done, hold on a moment.”

A thought occurred to Sam as his mother went over to the oven. Three hands… He pulled out his phone and found a slider that would give him another right arm. After looking to make sure his mother wouldn’t notice, he pulled up the side of his shirt to make room and pressed “update”. Then he was struck by the consequences of his actions.

The extra arm appeared just underneath his existing one. Before pressing the button, it didn’t quite occur to him that it would come with its own distinct senses. It felt deeply strange. He rested one hand on the counter and let one dangle. His brain was saying “right hand feeling” but sending two different signals. His heart was pumping faster, partly because of the shock and partly because it suddenly had to move more blood.

He tried to grab the pot with his original hands while holding the spoon with the third. When he tried to move the right hands in different directions, though, they cramped violently. Between the heightened demand of coordination and the difficulty of sending the two right arms in different directions, he realized this idea was a total failure.

Using his left arm, he turned down the slider and returned himself to normal. The relief was immaculate. He chuckled remembering Cyborg’s cautioning. Yeah yeah, you told me so.

“Okay, I’m done. Say, why’s your shirt up like that?”

“It’s nothing, just a dumb idea I had.”