The text cursor at the head of the document blinked in and out of existence hypnotically, dutifully marking where the next words would manifest themselves into being just as soon as they were typed. It patiently did its job, ready at any point to scream down the page at the 90 WPM it was accustomed to as it's master input page after page of legal findings into the document. Were the cursor a sentient being of some kind, capable of anticipation and eagerness, it would likely be feeling quite frustrated at the moment, as it didn't appear there was any input at all.
Type
, it would try to shout.
Type!
Alas, the hands that rested upon the keyboard were still, motionless paperweights with two index fingers resting on idle F and J keys, as the arms they rested at the end of hung limply from two sunken shoulders. Those shoulders connected to a body that draped itself almost fluidlike over the lumbar-supporting back of the office chair with no posture to speak up, legs splayed out under the desk before them and opened to an unseemly angle.
Atop this portrait of sloth sat the head of a rather haggard man, albeit admittedly whipped into the imitation of professional appearance. His hair was combed, his teeth were sparkling, and his beard was trimmed appropriately. The bags under his eyes betrayed his principled morning routine, however, and the bloodshot eyeballs just over them stared blankly at the screen, their heavy lids drooping slightly more by the moment. Sleep. That's what they wanted. That's what they needed.
"You alright there, champ?"
Maybe a nap in the parking lot at lunch, the eyes requested politely of his scattered brain. Maybe we could swing an early bedtime, even. If we just could convince Alic-
"Nate! You there buddy?"
Nathan snapped back into reality and righted his seating posture into a more professional position, jumping to attention at the sound of his boss' voice. "Uh, yes, good morning Mr. Kimura." His voice was slightly hoarse, and he cleared it as he whipped up a weary smile, coughing into his hand. "My apologies, sir, I was somewhere else for a second."
His boss smiled. "Late night?" he asked knowingly. "On a Sunday, even! You kids these days, I don't know how you manage it."
Nathan laughed, glad to bend to his assumption. "Haha, yeah, my uh folks were in town, they just left this morning." He stretched his legs covertly under the desk, willing some circulation into them to wake them up. "We were out to dinner last night and we had a few drinks more than we should have." He studied his boss' face as he spoke, hoping he hadn't used that excuse a few weeks ago when they were
actually
in town.
Mr. Kimura nodded. "Ahhh. Your folks like to party huh? Good for them, as long as they were buying." He pointed at Nathan in that way that suggested he was trying to relate to the young judicial clerk, despite making seven times his salary at a conservative estimate. Nathan graciously pointed back jovially.
"Haha, yeahhh," he said, lowering his hand and rubbing one eye. "What else are moms and dads for!"
Mr Kimura laughed back at the young man. "Well, perk up! It's Monday morning now, and I need you sharp today. The briefing with Judge Gates is at 3, and it's a big one. Can't miss a beat, alright bud?"
Nathan nodded, his face straightening back into a professional blank slate bordering on a grimace. "Yes sir, I'll be ready."
"That's more like it. Grab a coffee and get to it, let's crush this Monday!"
Nathan's boss pumped his fist as he finished the middling motivational speech and walked away towards his office. Nathan thought to nod or call out after him, but Mr. Kimura was already long gone, on his way to buddy up to another clerk. He rubbed his eyes once more, and stood up, allowing for the fact that his boss had at least given him one good piece of advice: he really should grab a coffee.
What's he so passionate about this job for anyway,
the young clerk thought to himself as he walked toward the elevator down to the cafeteria.
This wasn't that exciting a field of work.
His own thoughts took him by surprise, and he paused as he went to press the down button in the elevator bank. He used to love this job, he thought. He was passionate, eager, and driven about the work not five days ago. And that all seemed to change over the course of the weekend. He shook away the intrusive thought and pressed the button. After all, he knew what had sucked away the passion for his job. It was a passion at home, one that had also changed dramatically over the weekend. He smiled as his weary thighs led him into the opening elevator doors, and rested against the back wall as the doors slid closed once more, the car lurching downwards.
What had changed over the weekend was his fiancee. She had changed quite a lot, actually. She had become a little more confident, a little more bold, and a little more flexible. She had also become the flirty secretary from his Christmas party a few years ago, as well as about four dozen supermodels and Hollywood actresses. She had become a towering pillar of infinitely shiftable protoplasm, then a foot deep sea that sloshed around their bedroom and oozed out into the hallway beyond. She had become eleven feet tall, and she had become half a foot small. She had become rubber, she had become water, she had become creation itself. And she had become
indescribably
horny.
Nathan winced as his tight calves protested against his exit from the elevator. He nodded at familiar faces as he wearily made his way into the cafeteria and got in line for a coffee. Each passing face was another person who didn't know that his fiancee had become a seemingly infinitely-abled shapeshifter that weekend, and that for a nominally-priced ebay purchase, their spouses, or they themselves, could become one too. He stared blankly at the floor as he shuffled forward in line while each person ahead of him ordered and moved aside. All that power, he thought, just ready for the taking on ebay, for anybody dumb enough to believe it worked. It did, of course, work. The things Nathan had seen and felt that weekend were proof enough of that.
"Your order, sir?" the barista chimed. Nathan's eyes bolted back up and met hers. She was a cute twenty something, not much younger than him. Her caramel skin glowed in the fluorescent lighting from above, and her brown doe-eyes shone at him from beneath her company-branded cap. He smiled and gave his usual order, latte with oat milk and a croissant, and paid for his drink. As he stepped aside, he glanced as casually as he could at the young woman, watching as she turned around to grab his croissant from the display case behind the register. The apron she wore around her front betrayed a toned, well maintained figure, curved in the right places, not too thin. Exactly the kind of person Nate might have flirted with in college. She was a good candidate, he thought. But of course, Alicia had never met her, she wouldn't be able to do the barista justice.
He grimaced at the thought. This was a real person, he thought, just somebody going about their days, unaware of the wonders that Nathan had become almost accustomed to over the past three days. Alicia had, of course, asked him to "keep an open mind" and brainstorm a few ideas for new things to try, people to play as, but he was sure she'd meant things more along the lines of movie characters, public figures, that sort of thing. He forgave himself the errant thought, it was after all so new to him, he couldn't blame himself for letting his mind run wild when that was exactly what Alicia wanted of him.
He barely met the barista's eyeline for the duration of his wait for his drink and breakfast, politely taking them from her hands with little more than a glance and a gentle grin as he turned back towards the elevator banks. He shook his head, marveling at the fun new ways he was able to scold himself, before taking his phone from his pocket as he headed down the cafeteria hallway. He opened his text message with his fiancee, curious as to how her first morning without him around was going, especially with the challenge she had set for himself. He composed a short message, and hit "Send".
Alicia's phone buzzed, chiming with the familiar tone of a text message from her fiance. She picked it up gracefully and brought it to her hand. Going to swipe the lock screen open with her thumb, she paused. Looking down past her phone, she grimaced and groaned to herself.
"Ugh. Come on." she muttered, as she followed her wrist down to her arm, then further down the limb, which curved bonelessly where there should have been a joint, her elbow replaced by a smooth, arcing pole of skin that resembled macaroni more than a human limb, extending out from one side of her tank top. Focusing, she flexed her arm, and the familiar point of an elbow joint firmed itself into existence at the apex of the curve, and the gentle bending of the limb on both sides of the joint firming into straight lines that resembled something that actually had bones in it. Shaking her head, she scolded herself. This hadn't been the dream start to her self-imposed challenge that she would have hoped for.