Subject: [Taking Agents Vid and Trask out for their first spin.]
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Posted on: 2012-08-27 17:20:00 UTC

Agent Vid had just opened the portal to headquarters, eager to get to someplace where the progression of time made at least a modicum of sense, when he heard his console beep loud enough through to be heard through the portal.

"Shut that goddamn thing off," he told his partner, who sprang through the portal with goodwill and a velociraptor's agility.

Upon hitting the ground on the other side, however, something completely unexpected happened. Vid watched in amazement and not a little horror as the claws on Trask's toes shrank, his head enlarged to grotesque (but somehow still endearing) proportions, his limbs shrank, and his yellow eyes became large and fawn-like. The velociraptor took one look down at his forelimbs, which had shrunk to chibi proportions, and sat down on his haunches with a thud.

"Vid?" His voice came out in a chirp.

Vid stepped through the portal after his partner and couldn't help but chuckle. It wasn't often that you got a good excuse to laugh at thirty seven pounds of velociraptor.

"I don't know what happened," he told the theropod, still chuckling, "but we'll get it fixed as soon as I take a picture."

Trask's eyes had gone wide, which meant that they took up more than eighty percent of his face, and Vid snapped a picture quickly. Instead of complaining, however, the velociraptor still looked shocked.

"Vid, something's happened to you, too."

Despite his better judgement, Vid looked down.

A skirt. The was wearing what looked like a long, black skirt, and his feet were clad in shoes that looked like flipflops on stilts. In a daze of morbid curiosity, he yanked open the door to the bathroom to get to the cracked mirror that hung over the sink.

His hair was long, tied in a ponytail, and... red? It took him a moment to even register the thought, and another second to notice the long and improbable red scar that crossed the bridge of his nose. Then he bolted from the bathroom and slammmed the door shut behind him.

Trask was fretting. "I've been turned into a cute animal companion, I just know it," the chibi velociraptor was muttering, not quite as darkly as usual. "And you've become some sort of self-insert swordfighter."

"Swordfighter?"

Trask pointed to the katana sticking out of Vid's duffel with one tiny foreclaw. Vid suddenly remembered that he had a skill in sword combat, and while he'd never, ever seen the katana before, surely it wouldn't be hard, in theory...

The console beeped, very quietly and apologetically. Vid automatically punched the button for the message, which blared through the room.

"Twenty-four hours?" Trask asked, incredulously, "I'm supposed to go around with arms this small for twenty-four hours?"

Vid shrugged. "I don't know what you're going to do about it, buddy," he said, "but today, I'm going to learn to use a Katana."

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