Kevin's students aren't normally this clever... or mad. At least this one will change the world, no matter the objections Kevin might raise.
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This is the first story that I've written and completed in quite a while. Helpful critique is welcome. Let's hope it's not another batch of years before my next story submission. This was originally intended to be a commission for the journal that  SSJ3Mewtwo had posted but I got carried away writing description and characters to the point where it made more sense to just finish writing it myself. Here's hoping that it's submitted properly!
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Tutoring the Mad Scientist

I knocked impatiently at the wooden door with peeling orange paint, hoping that this student actually needed tutoring and didn't just want to waste my time. "Kevin, you got to start getting something in advance, at least to cover fucking gas," I muttered to myself, dragging a hand across my muzzle to try and stifle a yawn. At least I didn't need to drive too far out of the way to get here, it was only a half mile from campus. Good old State U, where I was tutoring students to gain more knowledge and scrounge enough cash to get a doctorate degree to change the world. Or maybe I was just deluding myself trying to teach undergrads who didn't want to learn.

I was about to turn tail and was starting a debate on the merits of grabbing a kebab on the way back to my car when I heard an accented voice from inside. "Who is it?" asked a groggy voice, and to my best guess was some flavor of British – Irish, or Scottish, perhaps. "Is it four already?"

"It's closer to four thirty. I'm Kevin, I'm here to help a Mr. Quinn with some essay composition?"

I heard several deadbolts undone and the door opened to reveal a brown furred stoat in a disheveled T-shirt and torn blue jean shorts. I would have bet my fluffy gray tail that academic achievement was not at the forefront of this particular weasel's itinerary. "So sorry mate, I got back around two, thought I had enough time for a quick snooze and here we are – can I get you something to drink at least?"

Well, at least the stoat was a gracious host. Even a southern fox like myself could appreciate manners like that. "Uh, sure. Ice water would be fine. So, what is the subject you're having trouble with?" I stepped into Quinn's apartment and looked around. I had expected standard student fare – a TV, a video game console, perhaps a stack of books on a desk, fifth-hand couches and chairs rescued from the trash heap thanks to the simple fact that they were close to free.

I wasn't expecting a wall of machines, not with a staggering number of lights, some a steady green, others a blinking red or yellow with monitors and switches galore taking up the entire northern wall of the apartment. It reminded me of photographs of old computers from the 50s that would take up entire rooms, but I could hear potent humming power from this one. I let out a low whistle. Good thing I didn't actually bet my tail.

"Oh, you noticed that did you? Project I've been working on with the engineering department." He was obviously waiting for me to walk in, and he was glad to use it as a conversation piece. Once I was inside his apartment and he was talking, Quinn started to strike me as a very excited, though odd, stoat. Quite intelligent, but somewhat socially awkward. He had the kind of vibe that would make someone check for forbidden substances. If he were a millionaire, he would definitely be classified as eccentric. "The machines aren't important about the essay, it's about this critique about Donne poems you see and -"

I held up my hand and took Quinn's offered glass of water with my left. "All right, before we get started, two points I want to clear up. First, I'm not writing the essay for you. I'll advise you, but the words and the effort will be your own." I had instituted that rule after three consecutive students, including a very cute and somewhat vacant cat, had attempted to use me as a ghostwriter to try and salvage their grades. While I was keen on learning, I had already aced these courses, and didn't want to repeat them. "Second, no plagiarism. I can sniff it out like that." I tapped my black nose and took a sip of ice water. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the northern wall, there was a distinct metallic taste. I made a face. Involuntarily, of course. I didn't want to intentionally upset my host. "Third, you might want a filter for your water."

Quinn made a face. "Sorry, been drinking juice and soda and whiskey, and staying away from the stuff you call water over here. Now, the issue I've been having is this." He pulled out some paper and his laptop and started to explain the project.

Quinn had paid for a two hour session, and even though he spent the first half hour sleeping, he was making remarkable progress on his essay. He was one of the best students I had ever tutored, and I could tell that Donne's poems were growing on him from the smile that had been growing on his face over the past hour. He had been typing at his computer, no doubt using an online version of Donne's poems and critiques, and was carrying out a lovely conversation about the poet with me. I was satisfied that he wasn't goofing off on his laptop, checking sports or social sites. The past five minutes had been creepy, though. No one should enjoy Donne that much, not even professors dedicated to the wren's works. My phone buzzed at six, playing a short melodic birdsong from an obscure band a couple of decades old. I was stiff, having sat the entire time while Quinn fetched books and paper, laptop and whiskey, and other essential supplies. "Well, that's time. You've made remarkable progress Quinn."

"Yes I have." He sounded pleased with himself, pumping a white-furred hand in triumph. "How are you feeling?"

How was I feeling? That was an odd question. Apart from the foul-tasting ice water, I was feeling perfectly fine. "In great health, though I am going to need to get some dinner before an evening tutoring session." I tried to get up, but found I couldn't stand. The confusion on my face sent Quinn into giggles.

"It works. Thank you for your sacrifice to further the cause of science, Kevin." Quinn typed at his keyboard.

I made a face. "What are you talking about?" I looked down at the chair, at my arms resting comfortably on the wood, and frowned as I couldn't lift my arm. In fact, I couldn't really feel my arm at all. I tried to twitch a finger. Nothing. My arm looked almost -

"Artificial? Yes. I am a master of machines, and the nanobots in the water you drank – an invention of mine by the way – are converting you into one." Quinn laughed, his accent becoming more noticeable the more excited he got. I continued to try and move, but couldn't feel anything beyond my head and chest. "You see, I am a sort of eccentric scientist, and I need an assistant. However, I can't afford one, so I figured, why not make one?"

I shook my head. "You're mad. Turning me into a machine? Th-that's fantasy!" My protests sounded feeble, even to me.

Quinn came around to my side of the table, and rapped his fist on my right arm. It made a hollow, metallic clang softened by fur. "Yes. No. Kind of. Like I said, I need an assistant, I can't pay anything, and another roommate would be noticed. Therefore, I need to improvise." He cleared his throat, and spoke slowly and carefully into his computer. "Walk to my bedroom please."

My legs moved against the floor and I started to rise. I gave a yelp, and thrashed my tail, the only limb I could move. I almost managed to knock myself off balance, but I walked with slow halting steps towards what I could only assume was Quinn's bedroom. He held the door open for me, laptop held open in his hand, and I came to a halt at the foot of his bed. Unfortunately, thrashing my tail did not cause him to drop that laptop that was controlling me. Quinn began to hunt for something, and the brown stoat emerged from his closet a minute later with a large monitor two, maybe two and a half, feet across.

"Strip. Your clothes will interfere with the process – the last person drafted to be my assistant is only good for a doorstop now. Completely bricked. Fold them neatly and put them on the bed, please." My hands tore roughly at my clothes, ripping my favorite shirt despite my protests. Quinn went back into his closet. From my vantage point – an admittedly poor one – I could see a bewildering array of random objects, ranging from computer equipment to socks to broken hockey sticks. My vision was obscured for a minute as my mutinous arms tried to remove a shirt, and when I could see again, what looked like a kitchen strainer with light bulbs was placed on the bed. He looked at my chest. "What an interesting tattoo. A Celtic Dragon Ouroboros? If I were the kind of mad scientist to believe in fate, I would take that as a sign. I'm interested to see how it'll work into your design. I hope it doesn't force your tail into your mouth, you'd be a horrid assistant then!" He made a face, and then brightened. "Ah well, this is what experimentation is for!"

Quinn waited for my limbs to remove my shorts while I mentally fought and used my well-groomed tail in ways that I was sure it was never intended to be used. Fixing the fluff of my tail would take weeks. It was futile though, and my clothes were tossed haphazardly on the bed. Quinn rolled his eyes. "Neatness obviously not a strength of my nanobots, but that can be improved in version twenty-three. This may be disorienting, but that is why you are a test subject." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Quinn attach wires to the strainer-bulb connection, and plug some of those wires into his laptop. "Sweet dreams, and, uh, yell if you feel like you are being disintegrated." I could see him walk across my vision once more, and press a button on his laptop. Everything immediately went black.

I awoke head pounding, feeling tingly and – surprisingly – like I could move my arms and legs. I took a moment to enjoy wiggling my fingers and toes before I opened my eyes. When I did, I became completely disoriented again, as I was seeing two things at once. I saw a slowly rotating ceiling fan, lit by the morning sun coming in the window, and at the same time, I saw a completely different green-tinted room, filled with windows showing static, and no ceiling fan nor morning sun in sight. I looked down at myself. I was nude, but... myself. My arms and legs were normal, and made very normal (and slightly stingy) soft smacking sounds when I hit them. My tattoo of a Celtic dragon eating its own tail – I had gotten it a couple years earlier in a drunken graduation celebration – had also made it through, and I was glad that Quinn's fear – and mine, since he mentioned it – was unfounded. "I am so fucking glad I do not have to eat my tail."

I turned my head, which was still disorienting because the constant vision I had of the slowly rotating ceiling fan that did not move at all, and saw one window among the millions in the green room with a bit of a glow behind it. Before I could take a step towards it however, Quinn's face popped in front of the ceiling fan. "Ah, you're awake, and the transfer was successful! A bit vulgar though. No more cursing. I'll put it on the list." His accent was thick, and the stoat's blue eyes were wide with excitement. "You took a bit of a nap though. Two days, though that's understandable, transferring a lot of data through a decidedly non-standard connection. I'm rambling aren't I? No matter." He rubbed his hands and walked out of sight again.

"If my understanding is correct, there should be a monitor nearby. Look through it. Well, unless you like the idea of an eternity of boring nothingness and endless static." I could hear the sound of a chair being moved and a mechanical whirr. Seeing little else to do, I went to the glowing window. Through it, I saw a giant room with a figure on a bed, clothes on a pile – those were my clothes! This was Quinn's room! I peered as closely as I could into the monitor. My nose was touching it, and yet, there wasn't the telltale scent of glass, nor the feel of plastic. There was an odd scent though, one I couldn't recognize. I took a sniff, and found myself losing my balance and falling into and through the window.

I landed on a surprisingly soft blue bar, and I was surrounded by green fields. I looked up, and I could see objects floating in a line in the blue sky above. Directly above me was a monitor, big and boxy, and I could see the green-tinted room through it. Beside the monitor, I could see a giant paint can, a notepad, a music note, a black box with a blinking line, a recycling bin? Hovering a little ways away from me, right above the blue bar, was a triangular white computer pointer. I could feel my mind freezing up for a moment. I... was I in a computer desk top? A Windows XP desktop?

I heard a clap, and to my right, where I could look out into Quinn's giant bedroom, I saw his giant face, taking up most of the sight. I had a very uncomfortable close up of his nose, his ungroomed whiskers, and the sleep crud in his brown fur beneath his eyes. He was wearing only a wrinkled white lab coat, open to show his white chestfur. "Good. You made it. Things might be a bit confusing for you, so let me sum up the situation. You are my assistant now, and ideally you do anything and everything for me that needs doing, from an electronic and mechanical point of view. You are an AI now. Well, not technically true, as you aren't artificial, although in a sense..." He paused, following this weird train of thought.

"Wait. I am an AI? A computer program? A bunch of ones and zeroes?" I asked, incredulous. This sounded like some kind of bad science fiction. Maybe this whole sequence was just a bad dream brought on by a bad kebab. "But I am right here! I exist! I – I..." I trailed off. I was here looking at a close up of Quinn's whiskers, but I was also staring at a ceiling fan. I could not be in two places at once. Could I?

My question did seem to stir Quinn from his train of thought. "Yes! A computer program. Bound by logic and user-defined rules, infinitely changeable, and able to be in multiple places at once." Drat. There went that hope that this was some kind of hallucination. "You might have noticed that I have forbidden vulgarity from you, as well as contractions and certain programs that, frankly, you don't need." I looked up at the black box with a blinking cursor. Everything inside was gibberish, a random set of characters that made no sense at all.

I tried to take in what Quinn had just told me. I was "bound" by logic and user-defined rules? I was infinitely changeable? Well, if I was a computer program, literally ones and zeroes, I would have an upper limit of changeable bits, and therefore not be infinitely changeable. Perhaps he just meant figuratively. Something twigged in my head. Quinn had just said that I could not curse or use contractions, but that had to be a lie. "Fudge-nuggets! Maternal intercourse! A very unpleasant person!" My eyes widened. That was not what I intended to say at all. And yet...

Quinn laughed. "Thank you for demonstrating so aptly. And as my assistant, I'm going to make you a bit more pleasant to look at and listen to. No offense, but foxes just make me uncomfortable. Something about your teeth. And history. And your accent. Yeegh." He shuddered.

"What is wrong with my accent? I do not have an accent!" I protested.

"Of course you Americans have an accent. Slow, drawling. No, I'm thinking something from the old country. A bonny lass perhaps." Quinn clapped. "A bonny lass! Yes! Perfect!" The cursor swung up, out of my reach, and double-clicked on the black box. I could hear his fingers clicking excitedly at his keyboard, his excited face staring intently at the screen, and I could make out the first few letters of what he was typing - "Edit vo-" before everything collapsed into random characters.

"That is silly! You cannot change my -" I clapped my hands to my muzzle as I heard my voice change. Of course. I was apparently a program. Changeable. "Look! We can talk about this!" I winced. My voice was higher, quicker, and softer. I could definitely hear an accent similar to Quinn's in my voice, and it sounded like it was lifted from an old movie filmed before Hollywood was everywhere.

Quinn cracked a smile, and continued to type. This time, I felt a tingle throughout my body. It was strongest in my tail, and as I turned to look, I saw it begin to shrivel and shrink into me! The gray in my tail was brightening as it shrank, all of the hard work I had done grooming it going to waste. At the same time, my footpaws began to lengthen, going from perfectly small and stealthy to something far larger. The black fur covering my footpaws began to turn white as well, and as it covered my legs, I felt a surge of strength as if I could jump higher.

Curiosity triumphed over caution and modesty, and when I jumped to see how high I could jump, I gave myself a shock as I could see the top of the black box, and almost hit my head on the paint can, which must have been a shortcut to some kind of art program. I let out a gasp, involuntarily impressed with how high I had jumped. "Easily impressed, aren't you? Well, don't you worry, there's still more changes to come."

My ears were the next to tingle, as I could feel them lengthen. My muzzle shortened, and felt my teeth begin to lengthen, my front teeth becoming meant for grasses and not meat, assuming that a computer program could eat anything. My scalp itched, and I could feel a growing weight on my head. Turning my head, I caught a shock of curly red hair, covering my now-white shoulder fur.

The changes continued, this time focusing on my arms. My carefully trimmed claws, always handy for tearing open packaging, began to dull, pulling themselves back into my hands. My fur was white – apparently, I was to be white-furred all over. My hands were becoming... dainty, there was no other word for it. My word, Quinn had some ideas about -

Tingling in my chest and groin took me by surprise by how sudden and intense it was. I looked down, feeling my hips stretch, and saw growing breasts. I placed one hand on each, feeling them slowly expand, pushing out and tingling all the while. I glared at Quinn's huge face. He was enjoying it! Pervert. He gave a sheepish smile. "As I said. A bonny lass. A bunny lass. Don't you like the pun, bun?"

I continued to glare at him, although, to his credit, the tingling slowed and stopped with me in reasonable proportions. Perhaps my glare was effective and prevented further changes, or more distastefully, this was what he found attractive. I did not want to dwell on thoughts like that, so I tried to change the subject. "What would you have me do?" I cringed as I heard my voice again. It did not sound anything like me, and I hated the idea that I would have to get used to this voice. "Hunt down rogue programs? Clean your.... desktop?" I looked at the green fields behind me, at a loss for what I could do.

Quinn shook his head. "No. Nothing so exciting. You will see, once I complete your changes."

I blinked in confusion, looking down at myself. What more could he change? Would he give me wings? Change my voice again, or my size or my name? Quinn clicked on the black box and started to type something in again. I caught "Move obj-" but once again everything was replaced with a string of random numbers and letters. The vision I had of the lazily moving ceiling fan suddenly jerked, and was being lowered. Quinn grinned. "I thought you might want to watch what your body will become." He reached to the screen, and the view shifted, so that, from the monitor, I had a clear view of my body, strapped to a metallic bed, and upright. It was still vulpine, thankfully, but it was also artificial. The fur looked fake, like the sort of toupee that balding folks would get, and my tail was hanging far too stiffly for it to be natural. I had to shake my head, as I could also clearly see Quinn, wearing boxers and pink fuzzy slippers with his lab coat, sitting next to his laptop, with – Saints help me – a very adorable bunny girl with snow white fur, curly red hair and a pair of stiff, long ears. Her... no, my legs were heavily muscled, tuned for jumping, and I had an athletic build, with a pair of small, charming breasts. The pink nipples were noticeable, even from a distance, and I blushed. I did not want to focus on this with Quinn watching. I turned, and saw my bunny self turn through my vulpine eyes, as if I were in a hall of mirrors and had a perfect view of each reflection. I had an elegant little cotton-puff tail, and my red hair fell to between my shoulder blades. I turned back around, and looked at Quinn. He simply smiled, and motioned for me to look at my real body, my vulpine body.

Already, the changes being made by his nanobots were noticeable. My tail, my beautiful, elegant, perfectly fluffed fox tail was balding, fur falling out to reveal a black wire. I could feel a cold growth on the tip of my tail, and see three brass prongs growing from the tip. I felt a sudden surge of hunger and hugged my belly. I was hungry, but not for food, not for anything I recognized. I shook my head, and looked at my tail again. Perhaps it was just my point of view, from inside a monitor looking out at a giant room, but it almost looked like a plug that would go into a wall socket and an insulated wire. What would Quinn be turning me into that would require a wire? Surely being his AI assistant was enough!

Next to change were my fingers and toes. I gasped as they suddenly stiffened, a sharp momentary sting shot through my knuckles. Quinn walked over to my mechanical vulpine body and pulled at a thumb. It disconnected from my hand, and he laughed. "Oh, how useful! USB control devices!" He held it up in front of the monitor to show me. The top half of my thumb still resembled a thumb, though obviously artificial. Painted gray fur was on the top half, with a shiny black bit to represent my thumb claw. At the bottom of my thumb, where my knuckle should have been, was a shiny gold connector.

"If I understand it right," Quinn said with the excited air of a kit who found a stack of presents taller than he was on his birthday, "they will let an AI control a device that these are plugged into! My nanobots have created these before, but without an AI to utilize them, they're just fancy looking flash drives. Handy, but not quite mad scientist material! I'm excited to see proper use of these devices!" I winced as Quinn pulled the rest of them – that is to say, my fingers and toes – out and put them in a plastic container on his desk. Yet, there was this strange lack of pain as he pulled them out. Instead, it felt more like the moment immediately after removing a tight pair of gloves, where there was a lack of pressure and a welcoming cool breeze.

Watching Quinn, I almost missed the changes that were occurring to my legs. The bindings holding them had faded away, and my legs raised themselves up, moving as if I were sitting cross-legged in mid air, each footpaw resting on the opposite knee. Then, my legs started to merge, becoming inseparable and more rectangular. Bumps started to appear on my calves, growing out to black buttons sticking out of shrinking gray fur. My thighs shrank and, with an internal grinding sound, started to move from the edges of the mass my calves had become towards the middle. As my thighs met, they continued to shrink to about the same width as my tail, intertwining into a solid mass. My jaw dropped. "You are turning my legs into a keyboard?"

Quinn shrugged with a roguish smile. "And, tell me, my bunny lass, what conclusions does that lead you to?"

I paused. My fingers and toes were some kind of device that would be plugged into a computer. My legs were becoming a keyboard. My tail was becoming a wire to be plugged into the wall, and I was hungry. It was almost like... my eyes widened. "You are turning my body into a computer!"

"Yes, I knew I didn't go wrong choosing you. Quite quick on the uptake. Just what I need in an assistant." He rapped at my chest, and I heard a hallow clanking sound, like most of it was empty. "I do need to take care of your body, now that you're an AI, and, let's be honest, you never can have too many computers."

A tingle shot through my right hand, forcing my attention back to my body in the real world. My hand was elongating, a pair of buttons growing near my wrist. My right arm thinned into a wire, and a wheel appeared between the two buttons. My palm itched, and Quinn twisted my hand to show me that a hole was in the middle of my palm, a red laser shooting out of it. My right shoulder itched, my arm from my wrist to my shoulder was now a long wire, and with a quick jerk, my right arm detached, now a simple computer mouse. Quinn examined it thoroughly. "Same design as the fingers and toes. I see, the mouse has memory, and a copy of you inside of it, allowing access to whatever computer it is plugged into! And I'd bet that the keyboard..." Quinn jerked my legs out of the socket, revealing another golden connector.

My belly and chest were now mostly featureless, apart from my Celtic dragon tattoo that was taking up most of my front now. Quinn rapped on it, and then moved my front to the side. My front was not just a thin sheet of metal, and I got a glimpse of my insides – it looked just like the inside of a computer! There were silicone chips and cards everywhere, and a mass of wires, though, as I looked, I didn't see any wires leading up towards my head. Quinn noticed this as well, and after a moment's hesitation, grabbed my head and pulled. My head came clean off my shoulders! My vulpine point of view went to the floor, giving me a great view of Quinn's slippered feet as he poked around in my guts. "A nice little video card you have there. I wonder what it'd feel like for you if I were to upgrade some of these parts? Well, something to look forward to, right?" Quinn put my metal sheet back on, and I felt a sudden sense of restored privacy. It was uncomfortably intimate to have someone poking around inside of me.

My left arm started to rumble, my hand drawing into my wrist. My forearm started to rotate slightly, and then suddenly split from my elbow to my wrist! I gave a gasp as I could feel gears and rollers starting to form around the split. I was expecting pain, but this odd absence of pain was perhaps worse. Like my other limbs, my arm from my elbow up to my shoulder started to thin and become a wire. Quinn tilted his head, looking at my changing left arm. He picked it up, and looked at it. "A... scanner? Not what I would have chosen, but, well, I suppose that could be handy sometimes. Digitize whatever blueprints I am sent." He chuckled as he disconnected it. "I guess my nanobots have a mind and plot of their own."

My neck itched as the nanobots started the last bit of their work. My vision tilted, and then rolled around on the ground, getting a great view of my mouse-pad neck – showing a Celtic dragon on a grayish white fur background. Quinn went to pick my head up so that I could see the last of the changes, but he nearly dropped me when my ears and hair and cheeks became a pair of headphones. "Hey, perfectly suited for my ears!" He put them on, the cups that were once my cheeks covering the ears on the upper side of his head. My own ears were sitting as decorations on the top of the band. My face split into two identical webcams, momentarily splitting my vision into three before one fell away onto the ground, disconnecting from the computer that was my body with a jerk. I was thankful for that – I still had to get used to having two different vision sets before I graduated to three or more. Quinn, having put away his new prizes, sat in front of the laptop, typing in a gibberish command to return his bed to its normal place. There was a sense of finality with each keystroke.

"So. How do you feel? Still with me?" Quinn looked at me. Was that concern in his eyes?

I sighed, and sat down on the recycling bin icon that was close to me. "How should I feel? I was captured and stuck in a computer, and turned into one! I'm seeing things through two points of view at once!"

"Sure. As an AI, you'll need to multitask, and observe multiple things at once. If we're going to change the world and use heavy machinery, my AI will have to operate it perfectly, and not cause my lair to collapse thanks to an errant bulldozer."

"And you seem to be presuming a lot of things! Why would I want to help you at all?" I paused. Did Quinn say what I thought he just said? "Wait. Change the world?" I leaned forward a bit. I thought that I should be hitting glass or something, but instead my bunny form just increased in size. "How so? You do not mean by turning everyone into machines, correct?" I shuddered, I didn't want others have that same fate I did.

Quinn seemed taken aback. "Someone's interested in my goals! And, no! No one will become a machine! Well, that doesn't want to be. No, I want to give knowledge and machinery to all the world! I want everyone to take a look at flying cars and regard them as antiques! I want spread all the cultures of Earth throughout the galaxy! I want to rub it in the face of those who called me mad!" Quinn cackled. The plan was not horrid. In fact, it sounded like something to aspire to. And I did want to change the world after all.

I do not know if it was some kind of programming from Quinn's nanobots, or my own inner desires, but I found myself considering the plan. It was not horrid. In fact, it sounded like something to aspire to. I did want to change the world, perhaps I could do it without a doctorate. I found myself deeply tempted to help Quinn out. And what choice did I really have? I could help Quinn out with his plan, or, what exactly? Spend an eternity on a Windows XP desktop? Spend the rest of my days, however long they might be, as a computer? And if I went along with Quinn's plan, perhaps I could ensure that it would help people, nudge it along to my liking. "What do you need me to do?"

I could tell my answer surprised Quinn. Perhaps he was expecting me to be a bit more disagreeable, but he composed himself quickly. "Well, first, you need to get used to your new capabilities. Several appliances are connected to a network, and I've modified a Roomba vacuum for you to practice controlling. In addition, I'll need someone to take notes for me in class. So, we'll start there. I'll upload some documentation to the network, so you read it once you're there." Quinn double-clicked on the old-fashioned computer icon at the top of the screen, and the green fields and blue sky behind me transformed into that green-tinted, many-monitored room. That had to be the network. I paused for a moment, and then climbed into that room to begin my task to change the world for the better.

***

"She wants a piña colada in a pint glass! She wants to be where summer never stops!" Four months later, as snow fell against the windows of the apartment, I found myself singing happily. It was certainly easier to sing when I had access to data showing my pitch and tone, and impeccable time keeping. I was also placing groceries into the fridge, controlling a small robot with grasping arms, one of my Digits plugged securely into the robot. This time, I was hopeful that I would not crush the bread. At the same time, I was watching the oven, waiting for it to get to the perfect temperature to begin cooking Quinn's salmon casserole, and ensuring that the man across the street was delivering packages and was not a rival scientist trying to steal Quinn's secrets, and running the Roomba, getting it stuck under the bed and rocking it out, and enjoying a constant flow of electricity into the computer that was once my body in the same way one would enjoy a full body massage and a full five course meal. Six separate points of view would have been impossible four months ago, but now it was simply second nature. "She wants gin-clear water and milk-white sand, a sunburned nose and a drink -" I stopped myself as I detected Quinn entering the apartment after finishing his final. "How was it?"

Quinn gave a tired smile. "It went about as well as your singing. Before I forget and throw myself into the winter break, I also have these papers that you'll find interesting." He started to scan them to the network using my old left arm, depositing them in a folder that I accessed quickly. They were deeds to land, rental agreements for earth-movers and bulldozers.

"You talked the city council into giving these to you?" I was hoping that this time he did not use any extremely persuasive and transformative means to influence them. Reports of the chicken mayor were still popping up even after three months and an election.

"I did. They were quite helpful, unlike the last bunch. Once the weather clears, we can start building a proper lab to befit my mad genius. Get out of this rented apartment, I think the landlady is starting to get suspicious."

He opened up his laptop to begin working on his floor plans. I found the glowing monitor and hopped into his screen, my bunny self hopping with excitement, my cotton-puff tail wriggling restlessly. Sure, I missed my fox tail, my true species and gender, and yet, I was unreasonably excited to control bulldozers and other heavy equipment. I pointed out rooms that I thought were necessary in a voice that was rapidly becoming my normal one. Saints help me, I was looking forward to changing the world with the mad doctor-to-be, and I could not imagine any place I would rather be.