In Oddly Shoes, pt 2

It was the most awkward moment for both cybermessenger and human boy to come to the conclusion that they have switched sides with each other; the first realisation of which was how each one was suddenly struggling to adjust to their external bodies, their new hosts due to the unexpected glitch from the Print-o-Scan. The fact that Nick now had to deal with being the host of his cybermessenger friend’s body (in fact, Nick himself felt that every inch from Twipsy’s previous asymmetrical arms, and in a sense, even innards, was definitely not his own; the same was arguably said about Twipsy now having to deal with occupying Nick’s human form, and especially now coming to terms with what it early means to live as a human) made him a little more uncomfortable with his current predicament. Both of them were already walking along the kerb of cyberspace’s most busiest highways, now left to wonder how to deal with the situation.

“This is unbearable,” Nick manifest-in Twipsy’s body confessed, finally managing to stabilise his balance on his current body’s oddly shoed feet, and especially his current body’s large orange arm trailing behind him. “How do I explain to Albert that something had caused us to switch bodies? I don’t know about how you’re feeling, but I feel a little fuzzy, inside and out. How are you feeling, uhm, Twipsy?”

It was also a greater shock to the cybermessenger, his consciousness now trapped in Nick’s human structure, and so far he was walking well on more stable, symmetrical sneakers, but with the realisation he now has to deal with Nick’s more symmetrical arms, in place of his recognisable large orange hand, balancing was a bit of a problem for him. So much so, he tripped over and fell over forwards, but Nick’s structure had another surprise up his sleeve - his reflexes kicked in, as he landed on his hands, in his push-ups stance. Twipsy manifest-as Nick was easily as startled, but he knew so well that Nick was the athletic type, and that saved him the embarrassment of a total face plant, had his human counterpart not had those reflexes prior to the unprecedented switch.

“At about hip level, Nick,” admitted Twipsy manifest-as Nick, as he managed to get on his feet, brushing the non-existent dust off his knees. Apart from getting the hang of his posture and stance, there was something else about occupying a human body that unsettled him very much, even clasping his fleshly thumb and forefinger on his left arm, inspecting his left biceps that was earlier not his… “And I don’t know how to explain this in our terms… but I feel every inch as awful and crampy all over… is it a problem with you being all, well, muscle and bone?! It’s scaring me!”

“Just don’t fret so much,” Nick manifest-as Twipsy reassured, even managing a smile usually complementing the cybermessenger’s demilune head. “As long as you don’t think about it too much, you will be fine, but you might have to be a little careful…”  You said you were pure energy all over, did you?”

“Well, until the switch,” answered Twipsy manifest-as Nick, kneeling down towards the human-now-as-cybermessenger, and placing his right hand over the lesser left shoulder of his friend. “But I might want to ask you something first. Off the top of your head, what’s the most delicious thing on your mind?”

It was only a brief thought before Nick, still in the form of his cybermessenger partner. piped an answer. “Turkey and salad?” Normally Nick dreaded turkey, but the human-now-cybermessenger tried to cycle through some thoughts, even if they were in the form of binary blips and sparks… it wasn’t very easy to decipher, but all that Nick knew at present (if his thoughts remained inaccessible had to translate in a human-readable form), he tried to throw at least some answers… “Perhaps with orange juice and a side of ice cream?”

“And how are you feeling?”

“I don’t feel as hungry as much before the switch, Twipsy,” Nick manifest-as Twipsy admitted, rubbing his energy-particled banded belly, “and my mouth isn’t watering as much as I could… It feels just fuzzy… but I guess I feel like I can play two more matches before I could consider a bite, maybe five more!” He added, admitting that having a body of pure energy meant that he doesn’t need to rest as the usual.

The cybermessenger-now-human-boy came to a realisation…Twipsy did recall Nick explaining that as a sentient energy being, there’s no need to worry about any need to stop over for lunch or extended sleep, like other animals from the outerworld. And since the tables have turned, Twipsy’s conciousness now felt a dull setback. To his displeasure, he picked up hunger pangs. Not the peckish, ‘I could do with the odd snack’ kind of pangs, but really dull, throbbing hunger pangs. Now he really felt just how it feels to be hungry as a human. Clutching his fleshly belly, poor Twipsy could only sustain a little whimper..

“Wait, is there something bothering you?” consoled Nick manifest-as Twipsy, as he tried to steady his human counterpart, seemingly uncomfortable, and clutching his belly. ‘Poor Twipsy,’ he pondered, ‘I don’t think he’s ready to handle having my body for a test drive. It’ll take square one and the biology teacher to help him. Maybe Albert, or a doctor? I’d have to find a textbook!’

And there he heard it, an awkwardly loud stomach rumble; if one was able to translate it, it would have been spoken in a gruff, tempered, protesting voice that intimidated al who would have heard it… somewhere along the lines of “DINNER. NOW.” The cybermessenger-now-human was startled, having never heard a noise that loud before… it almost unsettled him badly. that he even blushed in embarrassment. Belly rumbles were not necessarily a frequent noise or feeling experienced when Twipsy was in his energy form, but since the swap, it was one thing he will have to deal with. He had only one question  to ask his human companion-as-cybermessenger, already attempting warm-up star jumps, and successfully landing on both his asymmetrically shoed feet.

“Sorry to interrupt your stretches, Nick, but… is this how your kind feels… hungry?” Twipsy moaned, dissatisfied that putting up with his human form felt far more uncomfortable to deal with. “I heard the noise, but what’s the easy way out to solve this?”

Nick’s jumps came to a stop, as he finally remembered, dinner was just nearing closer, and perhaps, this means he better find his way home soon. In fact, he better send back Twipsy (occupying Nick’s figure) and get him to blend in with the rest of the family, without causing trouble. But Twipsy had other concerns for Nick (now occupying Twipsy’s energy-particled figure), as he had to make sure Nick followed in his figurative footsteps to blend in correctly.

“I don’t know how to say this,” Nick manifest-as Twipsy explained, “but maybe you should wait a while here, and perhaps teach me how to get around cyberspace… maybe to beam a message back to Albert?”

But before cybermessenger-now-human can attempt a beam-back to the real world, they remained unaware of a figure sprinting along the kerb in the distance… tall, blue, with a small propeller-antenna on his domed head, a dark patch over both his eyes, spreading across his forehead, and a large orange nose; the outfit looked a little like a space-age jumpsuit, and trailing from his back, a singular orange and yellow wing… Drywell, yes, that was it, Twipsy recognised the second he turned to look him in the eye immediately, and even if he was still trapped in his human shell, he spoke out to catch the blue cybermessenger’s attention.

“Drywell, over here!” the cybermessenger shouted towards his blue coworker, but it was a bit of a shock. In fact, Drywell did recall meeting Nick, and through the long and winding roads of cyberspace, becoming fast friends long enough to recognise the teenage human through his voice, and associate his face with it. But Nick, speaking in Twipsy’s recognisable, higher voice? Poor Drywell paused to figure out whether it was mind tricks again, or unbearably, if it was actually a joke they organised, or if he was really worried, a nefarious act by a virus - programmed or endemic to cyberspace.

“You seem to speak differently, Nick,” Drywell asked, scratching his head, trying to figure out what is really going on. “You seem to have picked up Twipsy’s voice all of a sudden… but I’m so happy to see you again!” The blue cybermessenger brushed it aside and hugged the human boy, reunited since the unexpected failure of the previous Print-o-Scan model some time back. Alas, for Twipsy trapped in Nick’s human shell, it was hard to explain, but he did manage to learn a lot from Nick’s mannerisms, especially with regards to how he spoke and how he walked. Perhaps Twipsy even picked up on some of Nick’s prized memories, and perhaps decided to play along with the situation, just to give it a test.

“Drywell, after all those cyberminutes,” Twipsy manifest-as Nick replied, trying to lower his vocal pitch to match Nick’s usual voice, but accidentally letting slip his own vocabulary from his cybermessenger days, “I am so happy to see you! Albert would have sent you a message to see how we went!”

‘He’s not doing too bad, for once,’ Nick manifest-as Twipsy happily agreed, even with the nod of his demilune head of his cybermessenger figure, and with his asymmetrical arms behind his back, ‘but I wonder if  Drywell is going to notice… uhm, maybe he did…’

Perhaps Nick was right after all, as Drywell picked up Twipsy’s attempt to be in character for his human shell, comically out of place by Nick’s own standards, probably because of his attempts to lower his vocal pitch. He smirked, given Drywell’s great response to humour, trying to hold in a bout of laughter just to play it nice, before he could tell the human boy with a straight face…

“You did end up switching bodies with Nick, haven’t you, Twipsy?” The blue cybermessenger guessed right, blowing the cover off the unlucky cybermessenger-now-a-human, trying to cope with being, well, human. Then Drywell paused to a realisation… “Wait, if you became Nick, Twipsy… then where is the actual Nick?”

Poor Nick, as he covered his mouth of his cybermessenger form, framed between his large turquoise nose and his dark tipped chin, his large orange right hand the dominant cover. ‘Yup, Drywell is certainly that smart for playing a lot of games,’ Nick paused, and then prepares to out himself…

“That would be me,” Nick manifest-as Twipsy admitted, speaking in his typical deep teenage voice, “and I am quite as surprised as you were, Drywell. How is cyberspace for you?”

Drywell had lots of news to tell to both the human and cybermessenger (albeit they have switched places), especially since their unexpected absence and unluckily their separation. He could make mention of just how much new networks were already under construction and in operation… he could update on just how many new information portals were built, and who is in charge of them - perhaps Rumor Rumor, that infamous lime green spherical being whose primary job is spreading all sorts of useless information to current news, just got a job spreading important news updates and entertaining snippets of joy (the ‘meme’ as humans generalised it)... it was so much to wrap his head around.

“We’ve been worried about you two,” Drywell explained, “and we were wondering if we should do a welcome back party or a minute’s silence, waiting for you two. But I wonder, what just happened?”

“Albert had finalised the new Print-o-Scan,” Twipsy manifest-as the human teen explained, “and we finally gave it a test drive! Apart from the switch, it worked particularly well.”

“Mosey told me about it,” Drywell agreed, making reference to the time when Albert previously tested the gateway with a cupcake - beaming it towards cyberspace, and inadvertently beaming it back with Mosey drawn to it as bait. “In fact, imagine his joyful smile on his face telling others that Twipsy might be finally…”

“...here!” A voice interrupted the trio… it was Mosey, the cybermessenger who finaly saw the duo, and given his short stature, he jumped and gave the human boy a much needed hug. Little did he know that it was his cybermessenger workmate, Twipsy, whom he just hugged. “Nick, I’m so happy you are here! Thanks for the cupcake!”

“Glad to finally be home in cyberspace-!” Twipsy manifest-as Nick confessed, but immediately came to a realisation that, yes, he’s still in Nick’s human shell, and he quickly corrected himself, “I mean, to see you guys after a long time!”

Mosey was suddenly startled, confused a little by the sudden change of voice for the human teenager… did Nick adopt Twipsy’s way of speaking? Mosey was just about to ask Drywell, but Drywell cut to the chase…

“They accidentally switched bodies,” Drywell explained.

“Wait, so, if you must be Twipsy,” Mosey settled, trying to make sense of the situation, “then does this mean Nick is…?!” Now Mosey was just as shocked and bewildered. He finally decided to take a stand right there and then. “I’ll go notify Albert as quickly as possible, I’ll send him a message about what just happened!” It was notable that Mosey was the slowest, or laziest cybermessenger in the group, and oftentimes would be seen sleeping along the highways in cyberspace. But this was an event that was of grave importance, and against his normally docile and dormant state, Mosey took to the highways and sped past the other messengers. Poor Drywell can only wonder, what now?

“Pardon the pun,” Drywell asked, “but how well are you walking in each other’s shoes?”

Immediately Twipsy, realising that his hunger pangs in his human shell are still there, was quick to answer. “Not as pleasant as it is,” he confessed. “I was once one very lucky cybermessenger with nothing to worry about being alive, just a short energy shake and little sleep… now I’m worried about everything else!”

Nick, in his cybermessenger shell, could only face his large turquoise nose towards his friend, and paused to make a decision. “Given that dinner in the real world is not long to go, I guess you’ll be able to eat your way through this easily, but I’ll have to discuss a little more with Albert.”

Twipsy remembered, with whatever little of his memories he had managed to migrate along with him… during his time as a cybermessenger in the real world, he remembered just how much of a thrill he got from eating real world food (since in cyberspace, anything consumable was all just data and energy… boring to a cybermessenger), and just how uncomfortable he was after the inevitable pigout… one mistake he learnt from), and now he realised… maybe he’s just got what it takes to get through a whole meal, but being the temporary ‘pet’ during the Print-o-Scan’s rebuilding, he now has learnt a lot about what to expect during meals, through observation of the family - that dinner plates and cutlery are not to be actually eaten with the meal, for instance. For once, Twipsy couldn’t contain his joy, but he contained it, just to be on the safe side.

“We can discuss it with Albert later,” Twipsy manifest-as Nick agreed, trying to make sense of the situation, “because we need to get home… Your father, erm… Dad will be so worried about me, and especially you too.” The poor cybemessenger’s consciousness almost tripped up on his knowledge on the Walker family, almost forgetting that he’s now in charge of looking after his human self now. He hoped that Nick too knew what to expect living as a cybermessenger, in the similar vein too.

“In this case, we better go home, uhm, Drywell,” Nick manifest-as Twipsy decided, but before both human and cybermessenger can return to the real world, Mosey returned to the same place along the highway, and pulled over to meet them, this time with a little green envelope in his hand. Mosey had just picked up an important message along the way.

“Albert sent you some specific instructions,” Mosey gasped as he tried to catch his breath, and he presented the green envelope to Nick in his cybermessenger shell. “This has to do with keeping Twipsy in tune with his human shell, now.”

The human boy in his cybermessenger shell dutifully received the email envelope, and with a steady hand, he carefully he opened it by the top flap, and gently he took out a small postcard - its contents written in binary - and carefully read it. Despite not being able to initially decipher the binary code, Nick tried his best to make the best of his cybermessenger form’s knowledge of such code, to speak it, if he may.

“Dear Nick,” the postcard read, “since you have switched bodies, and yet have a close friendly relationship with each other during Twipsy’s temporary period as the house pet, give or take the term, you might need a crash course in living life as a cybermessenger. And see to it that Twipsy has to learn how it feels to be human, and judging by most aspects, it's not going to be pretty.” Astounded by how well he easily read the postcard by himself, Nick paused in shock… “goodness, I really wish I knew what it really meant.”

This was no easy task for the duo… while mealtimes were the easy part, let's say there's everything else that needed to be explained to Twipsy, if the worst happened to them. In a hurry, they successfully beamed back to the real world together, but even stranger, was that the brain-switching glitch did not trigger again on the return trip. Poor Nick and Twipsy were destined to spend a day or two in each other's shoes, it seemed.