The next day at work

Just like that, Chris was headed back to the studio for another long 10 hour shift. Stifling a yawn as he drives the back roads to work, Chris was surprised to feel the cold metal of the ring on his finger. He’d completely forgotten about the ring and the odd discovery in the storage room the previous morning! Chris made a mental reminder to make sure he put it back in the box before the end of the day.

With fresh coffee in hand, Chris made his way back to the dark rooms behind the TV studio that he called home every day. He opened the door to the office to find his coworker, Courtney, already set up and glued to her phone like normal. Courtney was what one would call ‘emo’ or ‘goth’ or some odd combination of both, but definitely not in an attractive way. While she may go overboard on the dark makeup aesthetics and have a serious butterface going on, Chris had caught himself watching her wide hips and ample rear many times before.

Chris and Courtney were amicable, but if she was in one of her ‘don’t fucking bother’ moods, which tended to be 70% of the time, then you might as well be talking to a wall that occasionally glares at you. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to be pissy today as she gave a small wave of acknowledgement at Chris’ typical “Morning” grumble. Chris sat down in front of the monitors, took a big swig of liquid energy, and got to work pouring over the logs for the day.

“How was Wyatt’s shit shift?” Courtney asked, not looking up from her phone still.

“It was shit, like expected.” Chris responded, trying to keep the exhaustion out of his voice. “Definite waste of a weekend, that’s for sure.”

Courtney snorted a laugh. “I would’ve told him to kindly fuck off if he’d asked me to cover.” She turned to look at the side computer monitor and prepare for the next show while Chris checked their current commercial break.

“See that’s the thing,” Chris sighed in annoyance. “Boss-man wouldn’t be okay with that response from anybody BUT you.”

Courtney turned to Chris with a challenging smirk on her face. “What’s that supposed to mean? You think I get special treatment?”

Chris sighed again, too tired to really start something so early into his shift. “No, I just mean that rebelling against the man is kind of your thing. Dark, gloomy, and rough is your style, isn’t it?” As he finished his question, Chris spun in his chair to face her. Subtly, he noticed a warmth that seemed to emanate from the silver ring on his left hand as he did.

“What? No, that’s not my style” Courtney said with a look of incredulity. Chris was stunned to find that she was right. In a matter of a couple seconds, her makeup had gone from dark and edgy to subtle and cute. Where black eyeshadow and dark lipstick had darkened her face before, now a light blue shading and pale lipstick did the opposite. Chris looked down to notice her clothing, in a flash, stretch and change as well! Her tanktop, skirt, and fishnet stockings combo in shades of black molded into a bright yellow blouse and light blue skinny jeans. In a matter of seconds, Courtney felt like an entirely different person while still looking like herself.

“The fuck!” Chris exclaimed, bewildered. “How.. how did you do that?”

“Do what?” Courtney said, confused. She looked down at herself and seemed not to notice anything out of order. “Chris, dude, you okay?”

“What do you mean!” Chris said getting out of his chair. “You just looked like a stand-in for MCR and then your whole... Christ pointed at her clothing and face. “Your whole EVERYTHING just changed! What was that!?”

Courtney sat confused for a bit letting the awkward tense air linger, then broke into a hearty laugh. Chris was floored again, he’d never heard Courtney let out a chuckle let alone a full-on belly laugh! “Whatever you smoked before coming in today, I hope you saved some for me!”

Chris stood there mouth-agape as Courtney continued laughing and turned back to her work. He remembered the warmth from the ring right before she changed. And he SAW her change, that wasn’t a trick of some sort. Cautiously, he looked at the small silver ring on his hand, but everything seemed normal with it. “You’re not freaked out by this?!” Chris asked incredulously.

Courtney shrugged. “Nope, not at all!” she chirped. “Confused with your paranoid antics for sure though.” As she worked, Chris noticed she was bouncing slightly and humming a tune. This was NOT the same coworker he’d started his shift with. Did the ring have something to do with this change?

“Um... are you feeling... okay?” Chris asked hesitantly as he sat back down.

Immediately, Courtney’s bouncing and humming stopped. “Oh... now that you mention it... I don’t feel OK at all...” Chris noticed a light sweat break out on her forehead and her complexion started to get pale. “I.. uhh..” Courtney shakily stood up and ran out the door saying “berightback, gonnapukemygutsout...”

Chris was stunned. A lot just changed in a matter of minutes and it all seemed to be correlated to questions he was asking of Courtney. Chris stood up and paced as he recounted the changes he noticed. He asked if the emo/goth vibe was her style and, boom, it was the furthest thing from her style. And just now, he asked if she was feeling well and she instantly went from being perfectly fine to perfectly sick. What in the world is going on? And does his new-found power only work with Courtney?