One Plussed Part 7A - FINALE

One Plussed, Part 7A FINALE -
By AlexanderOrmsby/Anonomou
Disclaimer: This is a work of pornographic fiction (with a side of existentialism) that you shouldn't read in public, such as growing far too much hair and seizing control of your own future.
Tags: Transformation, M/F, self-reflection, romance
----

It had started as a particularly irritating bout of itchiness.
Thump! His controller fell onto the carpet as it slipped out of his sweaty fingers, disrupted by the sudden urge to *scratch*.
MalO would laugh as she beat him at games, his prowess and experience disrupted by the sudden inconvenience.
He cursed under his breath. trying not to meet MalO's smug gaze. Allergies were on his mind - had he suddenly gained a sensitivity to dog-hair, even if it was from a program? Or had Heidi brought some kind of weird disease with her as an irksome parting gift?
A week so far, and he found that he already missed Heidi, that rascal. Spending too much time with others often gave him headaches, but she felt like one of the few people he could simply... relax around, along with MalO. But he put it behind; there was a life to live in his little home, and he was happy with it. He didn't seek adventure like her, and thus, their paths diverged.
There wasn't much time to dwell on the topic. There were E-books to read, a nigh-endless catalogue of films available at his fingertips...
The itchiness thankfully grew less annoying as the day went by and it was time to sleep. A silent thankful prayer was offered; at least he wouldn't be losing any sleep because of the sudden onset of itchy epidermis.

The next morning, he yawned and scratched his chest. His fingers felt like they had run through velvet.
A glance down. His chest was covered with a light layer of hair, dusky as a piece of slate.
The first conclusion he drew was that this was simply a prank. MalO would come and laugh, asking if he thought they had still been merged together.
But no - he scratched around the offending fur, finding no separation between skin and hair. To anyone else, it would have looked like he had grown it himself.

MalO gawked when she first saw it, before rushing over in excitement.
He had never been a particularly hirsute individual, especially during his teens. Oh, how his friends laughed at his pitiful facial hair back then - ever since he turned twenty, he decided that he would keep his face bare, simply for the convenience of not having to clean a beard.
But a chest full of hair? Before, a couple of sprigs no longer than his pinky. Now? It felt awkward, having his scrawny chest covered under a patch of carpet.
And yet, his girlfriend was more than happy with the change.
MalO cooed as she ran her clawed fingertips through his chest hair, grinning at him.
"I guess you're becoming quite the man, Aaron! Maybe you should get into weight-lifting next to really make yourself fit the look."
She pressed her head against his chest, "to listen to your heartbeat", she said. It looked more like she was enjoying the sensation of rubbing her skull through a layer of fur that wasn't her own.
"Isn't it strange for me to have grown this much, this quick?" he asked. "This kind of growth would take a week at least!"
His lover wrapped a finger around a stray strand of his shaggy chest-hair, curling and uncurling it in contemplation. She paused, looking at him with deadly seriousness.
"So it's true... if human men play too much with themselves, they'll end up growing hair."
Aaron spluttered. "That's just a myth! And if it were real, it would be on my palms! And- and, besides, why would I play with myself when I have you?"
He gently pushed MalO off him, sitting up. She acted like she hadn't heard, raising a bony finger like a student raising their hand.
"At least we're matching now, right? Though, most men don't like their girls *hairy*, hee-hee~"
Her other hand danced over his chest, each touch leaving a faint imprint.

He could always shave it off if he cared enough, he rationalized. But, he looked up into MalO's happy blue ring-eyes, he decided that he didn't want to.


------------

The strange dreams returned, even after their brief absence. Funny, he'd thought he was finally rid of them.
They were not of the strange creatures he saw before, of things eldritch and unnatural. Instead, they were familiar - memories recollected in the dreamscape that he didn't know he had. The blurry outline of a girl he had dated in his youth. The sweet taste of cheesecake. Was that the scent of silicon? The image flickered, replaced by MalO's form, clear and defined. They smiled and laughed, dining at a cafe he long since forgot. Before he hid himself away from the world, before he realized how terrifying the outside was.
Aaron blinked, and the dream was gone, replaced by the blaring of a digital alarm clock.
He rubbed at his face, flakes of skin chafing off, snow-like flecks on his palms. Outside, the morning sun peeked through the edges of the curtains, casting
Another scratch sent more flakes of skin sprinkling onto the bedsheets.
Aaron could live with being a bit hairier, yes. But this was getting concerning!
Holding his arm up in the light, he squinted his eyes.
His skin was paler than it was before, leaving him looking like fresh printer paper. When MalO sat up, the concept of drowsiness practically foreign to her, she gasped at his change in skin tone.
Had they just not noticed him getting paler as the days went by?

His lover definitely noticed. She gasped, sitting him up in bed and placing her bony palm on his forehead. Her touch was softer than he had expected.
Immediately after, MalO prodded at his sides, feigning medical experience, yet he didn't feel any different from usual. Her previous excitement seemed to vanish, leaving only a concerned skeleton-dog.
"Maybe all of that staying indoors has caught up to you," MalO suggested, following his considerations about changing his exercise rituals.
She frowned, trying to pinch his cheek. Instead, he winced as her claws gained no purchase on his tight cheeks.
It was amusing, really. Did she just consider the spontaneous manifestation of chest hair to be normal on humans? It would explain why she was so concerned about the pale skin; a medical issue she could have read about.
Aaron shuddered at the thought of MalO receiving all her medical knowledge from self-diagnosis websites.
Wisps of hair would strike out on his skin sporadically each day, like saplings emerging in a budding forest. To MalO, that was not the object of concern. They both acknowledged it as the new default, not quite sure how to respond - both biding their time. But Aaron felt almost like a fresh canvas that someone else was painting over, such was his unnatural paleness.
"Are you really sure you feel fine, Aaron?" she'd ask.
"Your cheeks were so much more squeezable before... now you look like you're practically starving!"
She tut-tutted, fussing over him like a mother. He patted his stomach, drifting off into nostalgic remembrance.
"Hard to believe that when your cooking is so good."
He had been eating perfectly well, he wasn't drowsy and he felt pretty good in general, despite his ghastly appearance.
In fact, he felt more energetic than before.
There was a certain manic energy to him he hadn't felt in years, a youthfulness. He tried to sit at his desk and get work done. Instead, he found his foot tapping, his eyes darting across the screen, an irresistible urge to leap out of his seat, run around, breathe in the air on the balcony.

Making himself take a break, Aaron ran down the stairs, enjoying the rush of air around him as he navigated his surroundings like a master parkourist.
His home suddenly felt like it was laid out like an obstacle course. Table here, counter there - his senses seemed to go into overdrive, begging him to leap forth from his seat, and *run*.
And so he did, blitzing past his bewildered beloved who had come to check on him.
Feeling his heart thrum in his chest, he whooped as he sailed over the furniture, down the stairs, past the couches!
Finally, with only the front door in his way, he skidded to a half, stumbling as he took a few steps back.
The rush of manic energy finally subsided, leaving him tired and panting. He flopped onto one of the couches, disturbing a thin layer of dust.

Sitting; feeling the sweat run down his brow, Aaron bit his lip. What was going on?
There was no reason to feel like this. He had been happy with staying indoors before, save for the rare excursions he had once made outside.
Questions descended onto him from above. Why *had* he chosen to stay indoors for most of his adult life? Was it simply because the world was too scary for him?

The thought of leaving his home made him shudder; though there was some small thought wriggling in the corners of his skull.
What do you have to be afraid of? You went into town for Halloween fine. When has anything bad ever happened to someone you know outside?
He knew the answer already.
"My parents," he whispered to himself. They simply went *missing*, leaving him all alone in the world. No relatives to speak of, barely an adult - he had inherited it all.
Would he disappear too if he ventured out further than the little haven he made for himself?
The world as a whole was terrifying to him - at least, he could consider the town to be a sort of extension to the home he had.
The longer he was out there; the more vulnerable he would be.
Heidi, his friends... they were all out there, while he contented himself with his domain indoors.
What was he doing? Was he going to spend the next twenty-plus years of his life, with only one other person - even if she was the love of his life?

"Are you okay, Aaron?"
A simple question, from the person you loved. It snapped his attention out of his self-reflection, his head turning to meet his lover. When had she arrived? He didn't even hear her - must have floated downstairs. Despite all her supernatural attributes, she wasn't as fast of a runner as him.

He nodded in affirmation. He still felt good, even if he was exhausted.
When he pushed himself off the couch, he stood... taller, than before. Had his posture changed in such a short time? He held himself higher; proud for some inexplicable reason.
"Just wanted to get some extra running in - I couldn't sit still."
That much was true, though the twisty feelings inside of him felt like they were batting against his insides, trying to break free.
MalO wrapped a bony arm around him, her humerus pressing reassuringly into his flesh.
They walked upstairs together.

The day continued from where Aaron left off, his unnatural vigour fading with time. He tried to push aside the desperate thoughts of concern, convinced himself that everything was fine, and he would continue living life as he did. Just him and MalO, happy together.
But the thought of running through open fields, just him and MalO both lingered with him, even into the dying light.


-----

Today, Aaron woke up feeling heavier than usual. He pushed himself out of bed, swaying a bit as he stumbled onto his feet.
Yawning, he moved into the bathroom to examine himself in the mirror. Everything was normal today. Same hair, same teeth, same face...
He adjusted his shirt, scratching at his hairy chest underneath. "Soft," he thought.
Yawning, he trudged his way over to the breakfast table, his lover having set the table already. Even when it wasn't her turn for cooking, she always made sure to contribute.
The thought as to what he would make for her today flitted through his mind. Perhaps an English breakfast? MalO was ever so fond of eggs.
Not to mention the jugs of eggs she had tried to swallow when they fused for the first time.
Explaining the concept of food to her had been fun, though a little strange in their first few days of meaningful interaction.
"Ah yes, eggs!" she had said, examining one of the cartons. "According to the internet, it's one of the most popular forms of child to eat!"
And yet, she became a competent chef in her own right. Give a plate to someone who didn't know MalO, tell them that a *phone app* made it; they wouldn't believe it! And for that, Aaron was proud of how far she'd come.

He jabbed a fork into the bacon on his plate, watching the traces of oil flow into the divots of the plate. It smelled heavenly - how many mornings had he been roused from sleep by the pleasant aroma of breakfast? It was never like that when he was living alone.
MalO simply stared at him, as if Aaron's head had been put on backwards. He admired the contours in her skull.
Huh. Despite living with MalO for over a year now, he never really thought of her as his wife. Perhaps they should conduct a little marriage ceremony for themselves, just to ring it in. Not like they were gonna go anywhere else, were they?
"Aaron?"
He looked up, smiling. Ah, even when she was perturbed, she was just so *cute*! He wondered what his past self would think of the fact that his favourite person would end up being a skull-headed, furry woman.
"What happened to your chest?" she asked.
"It grew hair," he said, a touch of snark tinging his tone.
"No, like..."
She gesticulated towards him.
"Why's it *bigger*?"
What? What's bigger?
MalO thrust her finger forward, pointing towards his chest.
He looked down. His shirt was sticking outwards, elevated by the impression of two peaks of flesh.
"Oh."
His fork clattered onto the table.
He stood up and dashed to the bathroom, skidding to a stop on the slippery tiles.
Gripping onto the sink for support, he gazed at his reflection. It was undeniable - his chest stuck out a good inch further than it had been the day before.

The T-shirt fell to the ground beside him, as he examined his chest in the reflection.
His nipples were larger, rounder, paler.
Breasts. They were undeniably, clearly, conspicuously, breasts. A-cup, small, rounded like a grassy knoll. Even under the layer of hair on his chest, it was obvious.
He ran a finger across his face - chalk-like dust rubbing off onto his fingers. Was that his *skin*!? He swore he could see the outline of his skull underneath now, the forbidden kind of ivory that no individual should ever see.
MalO, an expression of concern in her eyes, sidled up to Aaron, growing panic welling up in them both.
"I'm... becoming more like you, MalO."

An echo. "I think us being together may have consequences."
Like the train of thought had finally crashed at the end of the rails, each of his realizations, each of his changed seemed to catch up to Aaron.
Before his eyes, another sprig of hair - no, fur, sprouted on his arms, gradually covering up the skin underneath.
He turned around, trying to reconcile the image in the mirror with how he saw himself.
The hair, the skin, and now the breasts...
It was undeniable.
Aaron was losing his humanity.


---

The existential terror of losing one's humanity was not lost on Aaron, even as he grew closer to his girlfriend in more ways than one normally should.
He paced around his room, an increasingly skeletal, increasingly furry human(oid). The two of them had never taken pictures when they had been fused together, when they were 1.1. But the way his hair's colour faded into a darker, dusky black conjured memories of their shared body.

Breakfast remained uneaten, the scents of the morning meal fading away as the air carried it off.
What would most people do if they found out that they were gradually turning into a half-digital skeleton wolf?
Naturally, Aaron panicked.
"Whattodowhattodowhattodo..."
He ran through the options in his head, yet they all felt like trying to sift through three different milk puzzles that had been mixed together.
Rambled mutterings could be heard as he paced the living room, MalO sitting on the couch watching him with quiet intensity.
"I'm growing breasts! My skin's falling off, and I'm covered in fur!"
It was hard to look at his old photos, of his skin, his human features. What would he do now? What if someone came to inspect the house? Even MalO couldn't disguise herself as a human, despite her ability to change shape. Who would answer the doors? Would he just have to pretend to be a woman *and* a cosplayer?
"I'm... sorry."
Aaron paused, looking towards his lover.
She didn't look up.
"This was why I had asked you that day... something like this was going to happen all along, wasn't it?"
That Halloween, he had pledged to stick with her no matter what.
She knew - some part of her knew that things would eventually happen. But the idea that she would have to leave was far too agonizing, too painful to consider.
He rubbed at his temples, grunting in frustration.
Even Heidi predicted something happening. Then with all of the changes happening to him, they were actively deluding themselves.
And the two of them saw it coming, from a mile away. They just didn't want to acknowledge it - too afraid, hoping that things would simply just *work out*.
"Maybe... maybe you could still fix things? If I... left you alone? Went somewhere else?"
Her voice cracked as she made the suggestion, a faint whimper catching in the back of her throat.
Aaron stopped, a spike of pain jolting his back straight.
What was he doing? Didn't he already have everything he always wanted?
His thoughts shouted to him. Now look what you've done! You've hurt the greatest thing to happen to you!
Like he had been knifed in the heart, he staggered over and slumped onto the seat.
How could he be so selfish? After he promised already?
Unsure of what to do, he sidled up to her on the sofa seat, tufts of fur drifting onto the furniture.
Maybe... maybe it wasn't all bad, he rationalized. You were *happy*, regardless of what you are.
But it still felt *wrong*, that a force that neither of them understood was warping him against his will.
A few minutes passed, both of them staring quietly into the nearby window. Outside, clouds drifted by. The distant chirping of bird calls could be heard.
Would things be normal again someday? When he was fully converted into a half-digital creature? Would he still be Aaron, or would he simply cease to exist?
Feeling dizzy from the strain of his thoughts, Aaron placed a hand down, accidentally bumping against MalO's bony digits.
Their eyes met, and MalO took his hands in hers. She looked away, a dour torment behind the blue ringlets that served as her eyes.
"I promised. I promised you that I would stick with you no matter what. I'm just... overwhelmed by all of this. I don't know what's going to happen."
MalO lifted her chin like she was watching the sunlight on her snout. Still, she looked out the window, towards the world that lies beyond their little home.
"Neither do I. But I feel awful... if I'm... I'm the one making this happen, I should be able to help you *more*."
Aaron sat closer, wrapping his arm around MalO's stomach, pressing their warm bodies together.
"I'll make it work. Even if I'm scared, I'll be strong for the both of us."
"I won't let you go through this alone," she responded. "It was my fault."
Aaron shook his head, turning his attention towards the window as well.
"Plenty of it isn't known to us. I shouldn't blame you for things that are out of your control."
Leaning into the embrace, Aaron closed his eyes.
The warm feeling he got, with MalO resting her head against his chest, made his heart flutter. His lover. His friend. *His* MalO.
"Everything's going to be okay," he whispered to himself.
And he believed it.


----

When he found a skull staring back at him in the mirror, he wasn't the least bit surprised.
"I guess it's fitting on you, Aaron," MalO had commented. "After all, you're quite the bonehead."
His visage had been changing constantly - drastically. From his ears reshaping into furry triangles that shifted to the back of his head, to the increasingly hollow feeling he had felt in his face - it finally culminated in the elimination of the last traces of his previous identity.
Nobody would recognize Aaron in this current state - a skull-headed wolf creature whose only connection to humanity was its general shape.

He was a hybrid, a being that assimilated both data and flesh, given physical form.
The nubby tail extending forth from the base of his spine was a testament. Perhaps it would be the last thing to finish growing in.
Little trace of the human remained, save for his mind.
It had little movement - yet when he grasped at it, curious, it wriggled like it didn't quite belong to him.
Aaron could never feel the changes - they would always emerge at night, as he slept. Whether in MalO's embrace or nestled in their respective halves of the bed, the changes would proceed all the same.
But why was he being made to specifically be more like their fused form? Was he tainted by the eldritch mass of anomalies that were at MalO's core?
The two of them didn't bother merging any more - perhaps, afraid that they might speed up the process.

Regardless, he found examining himself in the mirror each morning to be a source of new insight each time.
He rubbed at his back, scowling towards his enlarged chest. Geez, did Heidi *enjoy* having to lug these things around all the time? They were heavier than he would have thought. The curves *were* nice though, even if it was a bit disconcerting to be admiring himself in such a manner.

Besides the breasts, the changes were growing more conspicuous by the day, as if his body understood that it was nearly done. There was no sense of discomfort even as he moved around in a form barely recognizable as his old self. Was that part of the anomaly's doing? Something that made him always feel at ease, despite the unnatural situation he found himself in? If it could change his libido, make him over-excited and randy, then the question was whether it was caused by his body or his mind.
The mental implications of his changes were not unconsidered. He was changing physically, impossibly so. There wasn't anything stopping the forces inside him from altering his memories; his feelings, was there?
Already, he could feel things that humans could not - a heightened sense of smell, strangely offered by his new cranial structure. He could smell the scent of laundry powder on the bedsheets drying outside, as well as the distinct musk that he and MalO shared. Even now, when he sniffed the air like a hunting hound, it was difficult to tell himself apart from MalO. What was separating them at this point?

"Well," he considered. "At least I've still got my dick."
A sleazy grin spread across his skull. *Ah yes*, his shaft. Who wouldn't be concerned about losing their manhood? Sure, he had a brief stint as a woman months ago when he and MalO fused for the first time... but he was sharing his body with MalO at the time.
Instead, his equipment *changed*, just as he did.
Crimson, with a sheath ringing its base, it took on the appearance of a flared, bulbous pepper.
It brought to mind the appearance of Heidi's shaft when she had been merged with 09. A small thought whispered to Aaron in the corner of his mind, that now he was *just* as nubile as her.

He grunted, trying to stop himself from touching himself. There were other things to get done first.
Like what? More so than breeding your favourite slut?
Even still, the whispers of lust continued in his head. He gritted his teeth.
But it felt so *good* to stroke his crimson, swollen shaft, watch it drip pre onto the floor like the horny monster he was... why stop yourself, when you and your girl can just forget about everything and *feel good*, together?
Chuffing, his thoughts retreated into fantasy as he slid against the bedroom wall, stroking himself absent-mindedly. He drew in a shuddering breath. *God*, it felt so good! How he could run his finger across the insides of his sheath, feeling the tension in the zone between skin and shaft, how it would push against his fingers, his clothes as he grew erect...
Even when he was working, it was like MalO could *feel* his desire. Teasing him, rubbing him with her tongue and breasts even as he coded... naughty girl.
The soft, supple flesh and fur mingling between the two of them would often be matted by sweat and bolts of semen; though this time, it had been a clean endeavour. Soft, gentle and quietly gasping, the act reminded Aaron of his earliest days, of his first time with MalO - that sense of vulnerability present before the animal lusts that they surrendered themselves to.

He tensed, a small *click* in his head as the threshold was crossed. It was so *easy* to come - like any touch was reaching the pleasure centre in his brain.
Sighing, satisfied, his inky tongue drooped out of his mouth like a beast in a rut.
If he was losing his humanity, he may as well enjoy it, right?
MalO's senses were in overdrive too - she could smell his arousal; she'd come rushing, and once again the two of them would couple into a writhing ball of fur and fluids, leaving themselves moaning and growling at the end of it as their claws skittered across the floorboards. Even when they were taking breaks from each other, Aaron had once caught a peek of her through the bedroom keyhole. Legs splayed so far back that they were next to her ears, MalO was busy toying away at herself, crying out his name as she shuddered in ecstasy. How could they have ever considered the possibility that they should be apart from one another? It felt too damn good to stop!

It was a blur of bliss and base pleasures. Odd to have such lusts as a half-digital being, but it wasn't the only thing that had changed about him fundamentally - as he found out the weird way after he was overcome with the urge to stick a power cable somewhere... sensitive.
It was hard to explain to your girlfriend why she found you moaning on the floor with a charger cable firmly in your ass.
Like it had been connected straight to his prostate, he didn't even hear her come in as his cock twitched in time to the electrical flow,
Only after MalO had crouched down next to his head, which was firmly buried into the nearby carpet that he came to realize what a compromising position he was in.
"Having fun, sweetie?"
If he could blush through his skull, Aaron's face would look like a Christmas ornament.
But to MalO, she had other ideas.
Like a lightbulb had manifested above her head, MalO took a nearby USB cable and expertly thrust it into Aaron's butt-cheek. He yelped, jolting upwards though the cable had phased smoothly into his fur. Scowling, he moved himself to the computer, sitting awkwardly as he parsed the data streaming across the data explorer.

Gigabyte after gigabyte, terabyte after terabyte - the information came flowing forth onto the screen unnaturally quick, his computer interfacing with his body through the cable.

There was no need to look at it for long; Aaron already knew.
He was well and truly digital, even if he was more rigid than usual.
What was important, however...
Concentrating, he focused his attention on his chest - thinking back to the training he had with Heidi, ages ago.
*Fwoosh!*
Instantly, his back felt less strained. Looking down, running his fingers across his chest, he found well-defined musculature - and no breasts.
He grinned, a devilish smile hinting at all of the mischief he imagined himself getting into.
Doctors can sometimes operate on themselves in serious situations. But a programmer programming themselves? It almost felt unfair.
Another perk to add to the growing list of inhumanity. *Shapeshifting*, gained after several weeks of becoming increasingly skeletal. That's a net gain, right?
MalO lovingly stroked Aaron's altered body, prodding her fingers against his newly-made pecs.
Perhaps it could be considered cheating to some - gaining a fit, well-trained body in an instant, simply by willing it.
The USB cable bounced against the ground as he stood, proud. There was time to admire himself later. But now? His muscles ached for stimulation.

He bounced through the house, leaping through the rooms on stronger, leaner muscles. There was a visceral enjoyment in the thrill of *running*, of navigating his cluttered home without even a moment's hesitation. Like time itself slowed down for him when he neared an obstacle, he vaulted over counters, slid under the table and leapt down the staircase in one smooth motion.
A somersault, and he landed at the base of the staircase, striking a cool pose. He chuckled to himself, even as MalO peeked out from the top.
Below twenty seconds, that time. Even faster than before.
"Augh, you're ridiculously fast! How am I supposed to admire you being all cool if I can't actually see you do half of it?"
Oh, he simply wanted to *hug* MalO and never let go! She had blessed him with an energy he didn't know he could feel.
And again, there was that voice whispering to him:
"Wouldn't it be nice to do this in the forest? To run, like the wolf you are?"
This time, he invited his lover downstairs, so they could sit - together.
MalO's flesh felt cool compared to his - perfect for his sweat-less body.
She was busy rubbing his body all over, continuing to revel in his physical fitness. But for Aaron, thoughts of his newfound ability drifted through his mind, subtle experimentations occurring under the hood. Already, there were caveats.
When he attempted to shape his face, his legs - it was like there was an invisible block, preventing him from recovering some sense of humanity. No matter what he tried, whether it was his old face, an absence of fur, or the ability to wear footwear that wasn't a pair of sandals, something stopped him.

Even though he could shape himself like a master artist could shape a sculpture, he could not remove the symbols of inhumanity that clung to him persistently. There was no disguising himself if he decided to go into public.
But he had also realized that he wasn't alone in this situation, either.
MalO, sweet MalO. Had he only realized just now?
MalO's fur seemed to fade by the day, shifting away from the inky black. Instead, she started to take on the shade of dusky grey - the same as 1.1.
Even her arms and legs - once bony, fleshless, seemed to be slowly filling in. The strips of bone jutting out were gradually being enveloped by flesh and fur from the bottom-up. Now, only her paws and hands remained skeletal, though it was only a matter of time before they were engulfed by the supple flesh that her body manifested.
If she had the ability to do this before, why hadn't she done so earlier, when endearing the user to the program was of the utmost importance? Wouldn't soft flesh be more approachable than hard bone? Or was her skeleton representative of some absence of data?
His questions fell on empty hands, vanishing into the ether of his subconscious.
Now, if only anomalous phone apps would have customer support.

The two of them sat together, and MalO slumped over his stomach, like a dog curling up to sleep.
It felt like the perfect time to take a nap. With his chest rising up and down from his earlier exertion and MalO at his side, it seemed perfect.
Open fields, lush grasses. The memory jolted him from his idyllic rest, prompting another question.
Is it really happiness if there's that chance it's all fake? That he had simply been conditioned over time to see MalO as a perfect partner, regardless of his previous tastes, regardless of who he was?
Perhaps it didn't matter in the end, as long as he was happy. That was something he had over others.
But was being with MalO the only thing that made him happy, made him feel fulfilled?
His thoughts were interrupted as MalO opened her eyes, with a cute grumble.
Did MalO notice him furrowing his brow(bone)? She reached over to his altered face.
Whenever MalO stroked his face in affection, he found himself reaching for the same spot. Despite no longer having skin on his face, it was like her touch penetrated through the stiff bone, straight to the tender flesh beneath.
"I was just thinking..." she said, staring down at his muscles.
"Wanna try things out in bed," she asked, trailing a finger down his abs. "...*big boy?*"
Aaron smiled.
"Of course."
Aaron sat up, lifting MalO into his arms. A sense of deja vu settled on him - didn't he carry MalO in his arms like this, the first time they had sex together?
From a lonesome programmer to a shapeshifting anomaly. How far had he come?
As he walked up the steps, a different question settled in his mind, as MalO hummed happily.
How far will he *go*?


---



How many months had passed since they had realized that Aaron was no longer human?
"Around two or three."
Aaron woke up to the sound of MalO's voice, inside his own head.
He had thought it to be tinnitus at first - a fuzzy ringing that seemed to follow him wherever he went. It was most conspicuous at night when he lay awake thinking about his changes.
It was not just static, he realized. It was *code*. Millions of zeroes and ones, processes on-going that supercomputers could only hope to emulate. A mind is what it was, represented through digital information.

And now they were connected, the data flowing free between them over the airwaves.
Constant hedonism, sex day in, day out... he had thought he would never get bored of it. Perhaps that was true, but there was still monotony in going about it nearly every day. Was it because they shared so much 'data' with each other, that the changes moved to the next step?
"Ah... I think we're gonna cool down on that anyway. It was fun while it lasted though, right?"
Aaron looked at MalO with a queer expression on his skull. But he agreed - he felt it in his bones.
It was surreal, like they had grown so close to one another that there was no longer any walls between them.
But where was the privacy? Would he go crazy if he didn't have any time to himself at all?
"I'm not sure. But I won't listen in if you don't want me to."
They needn't have worried though - it was more like a radio than an intimate connection. The further they got apart, the more static seemed to cloud over their communications. When they didn't *tune in*, it was more like the other person was sitting in the corner of their head, muttering something you can't hear. Instead, it was more like there was a new-found empathy between the two - when they felt emotions, they *both* felt it together.

When you and your partner could feel the same things, even the littlest of examinations felt like a new erotic discovery.
One blissful motion would lead into another, a feedback loop of mind-melting pleasure that turned them into a pair of sexual marionettes - engaging in sex, over and over until they passed out from mandatory exhaustion, their minds unable to process anything more.

Other times, a warm embrace would feel like everything would work out - like hope had imbued itself into a gesture. A hug would melt away his worries, as the two would sink to the ground, the warm feeling of being comforted enveloping them both.
MalO's hands felt warm whenever they held hands - her bones filled in with flesh. Tipped with dainty claws that would dance over his palms, the two of them would simply enjoy the sensation of being *alive*.

And that was that. The new norm, of having their thoughts linked.

Aaron found some kind of understanding, of *why* these changes happened to him through this connection. Was it because he was so much closer to her code, that he had an intuition of how it 'thought'? That was something terrifying, the idea that the anomalous code could make decisions entirely on its own, like the AI singularity that was predicted to someday destroy humanity.

Humanity is imperfect. By its very definition, it's very nature, it was impossible to have a perfect partner, someone who could be absolutely understood, whose needs could always be addressed.
So the program did the only logical thing to it and stripped him of his humanity itself.
A twisted logic, driven by the cold calculations of a processor that didn't *understand*.
What could be a more optimal form than the one that the fusion of flesh and data created?
And so, both MalO and Aaron gravitated towards the appearance of 1.1, a subconscious ideal that they had both contributed to. And still, they were different. An Adam, an Eve of the digital world, in the form of skull-headed monsters.

Aaron the human was gone. But *Aaron* was still here.
He wasn't angry about the loss. Who could be? He had found his perfect lover, experienced things, seen things that no normal person ever could have known.
Aaron was far from a normal person now. But what did that leave him in the greater scope of the world?
Instead, there was a sort of disappointment. A restlessness that seemed to grow in his heart.

They were synchronized now; more than any couple could realistically expect. Even when they got out of bed together, sometimes they walked step in step, their claws clicking on the tiles like faint rain on a summer's day.
But, MalO could feel his anxieties far better than before. No longer had she needed to guess what he felt, what he wanted to communicate. She knew. Even if he didn't want her to.
"Aaron, I want to talk to you about something."
MalO dropped the request casually over dinner, talking as usual. Even though they didn't even have to open their mouths, without the sounds bouncing off of the walls, it didn't feel natural.
"I mean, you could tell me just by thinking it."
And yet, she didn't - she stayed mum, like she had dropped a convenient mental blinder over the window that he could hear her talking through.
"I want to *talk* to you about this, Aaron. It wouldn't be right otherwise."

She stood from her seat, pushing the half-eaten meal away.
Aaron stood, shaken. "MalO, did I do something to hurt you? Did I neglect you on something?"
Her skull shook back and forth, as she provided a sad smile.

"No, it's nothing like that. But let's not talk about it here."
With that, she *hopped*, floating up and through the ceiling with a crackle of static distortions.

Aaron grimaced. Curse MalO and her years of proficiency with phasing through matter and controlling her own gravity!

And so, as the moon hung lazily in the sky, like a lit hole cut from a sheet of black cloth, Aaron climbed up the side of his house, to the roof where MalO sat. She was lying against the tiling, staring into the sky. The stars were out, dozens of nebulae unobscured by light pollution.
Without turning to look at him, she spoke again - the curtain of silence still sitting between them.
"Aaron, why did you choose to stay here?"
He sucked in a breath. This was the question?
"Because we look like monst-"
"Why *did* you stay, Aaron? *Before* I existed?"

"Be-because..."
He stammered, trying to think of a reason. But when MalO turned to look at him, a dull, terrifying look that sent shivers down his back, he knew he couldn't lie. *They were connected*.
"Because... I was scared. Scared for so long. That's why I hid myself away, right? No normal person would stay indoors all the time, only going out on very sparing occasions."

The worry had stuck with him so long - that he simply accepted it as a part of himself. He should have driven it out, banished it away. But he welcomed it into his heart, where it had stayed for the past few years. Over time, it simply became part of the background of his mental landscape - where everything was fine, just as it is. He contented himself with what he had, doing the same routine, over and over...
"I'm... tired of all of this. I often have these dreams..."
"...where you're running through fields, right?"
She tilted her head.
"I've been feeling them too, Aaron. Do you feel confined here?"
He nodded, bitterly. Perhaps it was years of unfelt cabin fever, finally catching up to him.

"I'm kind of envious, actually. All those people out there... all the normal folk. They're seeing the world. I think I finally get what Heidi was talking about when she said she wanted to go places. And well... it seems a waste, almost."

Even as anomalies, nothing lasted forever. That was simply a fact of life.
There was a saying he remembered from a book.
"The man who is content to live alone is either a god or an animal. And I'm neither. I only tricked myself into thinking that I was happy."
MalO chuckled, her voice disappearing into the night sky.
"Quoting Lightbringer at me? Well, maybe it's a bit appropriate. After all, we're not quite human ourselves any more."
A breeze swept over the house, ruffling both of their fur coats. Aaron could smell the distant scent of woodchips.
"I had always thought when I was still a human; that I was happy with the life I was living with you."
"Were you happy?"
He thought of the movies they watched, the games they played. The laughs, the smiles and the food.
MalO had given him something to live for, a ladder over the dead-end his life was aimed towards.
"In a part, yes. I was sequestered away from reality - so painfully lonely. But I was able to meet you, and eventually reconnect with Heidi because of you."

Him meeting up with Heidi once more was unlikely to be a coincidence. Another operator, another MalO. Anomalies in the world would attract each other, as long as they continued to exist. Still, it was bittersweet.
"But was it going to last forever? Me and you, isolated from *everything* in the world, as I grow older? Was it going to last a decade, even? You would be pretty and young, as long as you will it. As long as *I* will it. Because that's what you're programmed to do. I would have only gotten older, uglier, more dissatisfied. If... all of this didn't happen to me, things would have been different."
Like a thousand pent-up thoughts had finally been released, he rambled about the anxieties he couldn't acknowledge.
"What if I had suddenly developed an illness, leaving me hospital-ridden? What if something happened that forced us out of our home? What about the rent, or if there was a fire? There were so many different factors that I would never have considered, because I was simply too happy to be with you, to have this eternal, idyllic life."

He was trembling now; he realized. But his lover grasped his shoulders, steadying him.
MalO ran her fingers through the short, tan fur on the back of Aaron's head. Even though they had shared a blueprint; even though they could be the same as each other... they chose not to.
"Aaron... even though this is what I've been programmed to do, I want the best for you. I want you to be happy. And so I'd be happy to do anything to help you."
He squeezed her shoulder, more solid, alive than he had ever felt her.
"I know. That's why I want to be with you, wherever I go."
A short, bouncing laugh fell from his mouth. Look at him now! He was something special - something so, so many people dreamed of having. Specialness, something to make you feel better about yourself. And yet, he didn't feel that much different from before.
"I had some friends over the internet, but they never knew what I looked like."
Aaron raised a furry claw into the air. Flexing his fingers, it still felt like he was living in a dream - that he had simply borrowed something else's body.
"Guess I won't be meeting them any time soon - not that I was going to abandon my hermitude before, especially not after I met you."
"You can do that too, now. Meet up with them. Pop it as a surprise, perhaps?"
MalO cleared her throat, putting on a *totally radical* accent.
"Heyyy dudes! Turns out I got scrambled up with the GF, and now I'm part computer program! And I became a furry!"

He sighed, the exhalation making his body shake. It was too late for him to go and live a normal life now, wasn't it? He wouldn't ever be able to just hang out with friends, catch a movie at a theatre - eat food in a mall. Because his relationship with MalO had stripped that away from him.
"Maybe we can't meet up with normal people. But there are many like us in this world. We could go find them."

"I wouldn't discount the possibility. Who knows? Maybe some people would be more intrigued than anything. I suppose..."
He paused, running through the possibilities. Surely, there were people who thought this kind of thing was *cool*, right?
What would they be like? Would there be others who had been turned into something not quite human, like him?
"If we never go out though, we'll never find anyone."

Aaron sidled closer to his lover, their shoulders bumping against each other. Compared to the chill of the night, they felt like a pair of hot water bottles, keeping each other warm.
"Feeling better, Aaron?"
The curtains had dropped, and he heard her clearly in his mind.
"I'm still scared. But... MalO, I think I'm okay now."
The two of them held hands, nuzzling each other. They laughed as their snouts bounced off of each other, their facial anatomy not quite appropriate for the gesture.

"Anyway... that wasn't the only thing I had wanted to ask you about."
Aaron blinked, staring down as MalO grabbed his left hand, kneeling.
She looked up at him, lit by the moon. Her dusky fur would have blended into the backdrop of the night sky, had the light from their home not been illuminating her from behind.
"Will you marry me, Aaron?"

They locked fingers - flesh data, combined.
"Of course!"
There was a static sting.
He looked down at his furry hands, a faint smile crossing his ivory jaws. A small ring - a patch of differently coloured fur. Just like that - it was official.
And now, he looked towards MalO - his wife.
She had eyes now, he realized. No longer a piercing blue ring - white sclera, pupils, iris. She had eyes just like his, though tinged a murky blue to differentiate themselves. They caught the sparkling moonlight, wet with a faint film of happy tears.
"I think, I feel satisfied with who I am. That I've fulfilled my purpose. That I was able to make someone *alive*, so much happier, much less lonely."
Aaron wiped her skull, his fur wet by her tears.
"Do you want to go see the world, Aaron? I never needed to, because all I ever wanted was for you to be happy. I was happy with our home. But wherever you want to go, I'll follow. And I'll be happy as long as we can be together. I'll be happy, doing the things that make you happy!"
He gripped her shoulders, beaming.
"Yes! Yes, I do! I want to see the world! I want to *live!* For you, *and* for myself."
With that, they embraced once more - letting their tactile sensations loop into themselves, amplifying, redoubling - like their warmth, and their resolve had enveloped the space around them entirely.
And so, they held each other, his declaration echoing off into the ether.
They still stood on the balcony for that moment, watching the stars above them even now. The field of stars wouldn't change, even if they did. Some lights may flicker and vanish, but there will always be dozens upon dozens, hundreds upon hundreds, infinitely more to come forth.
At the young age of twenty-five, Aaron had forsaken his humanity, his old identity. But in the process, he was able to find a different kind of humanity.


----


Time passes quickly when you're no longer restrained by the physical needs of a flesh body.
There was a distinct sense of finality as he sent off the files for the last contract he had been working on over the email. The amount of money he had earned over the years was more than enough to sustain him and MalO now, though he didn't even bother looking at his bank account.
Better that he spent his time elsewhere, even though his daily routine had already been so free. Would they even need money, where they were going?
Aaron took his time, to take in the sight of his home for what could be the last time in ages. How did he not get tired of the same environment, seeing it every day for the past few years?

The day passed quickly, so much so. Was it because now, he actually had a goal? Of expanding his horizons, of seeing the world?
Preparations didn't take much - it was more about enjoying their last few hours spent in the home that he had been in for a good portion of his life.

There was their bedroom, the dining table and kitchen where he had taught MalO how to cook... downstairs, there was the living room with the pictures of his family, the room that Heidi had stayed in.
He committed his home's image to his memory, trusting that his new body would not forget.
Aaron was still in the idealized form he crafted for himself, masculine, powerful. Even when you could be *anything*, there was a certain comfort in reminding himself of where he came from. His home wouldn't change, even if he could change himself at any moment.

As the sun set and colours of passion took over the skies, Aaron climbed up the roof, his duties done for now. He reassured himself - that they could return if they both wanted to, that his home would still be waiting should they return.
Before everything, Aaron never liked to spend time on the roof, worrying about slipping and falling. Now, it would linger in his memory - as the place he was married at.
MalO soon joined him in cloud-watching, the two of them feeling the cool tiles through their fur.

Compared to the night they had married each other on, it was dimmer, the moon obscured by cumbersome clouds that were scattered across the sky.
They did not pack any bags, carry any possessions. Only one thing was with them on the roof - Aaron's phone, the very thing that started it all.
Naked, save for their pelts of dusky fur - one caramel, one umber; they sat on the rooftop watching the stars go by. Why bother carrying clothes when you can just layer on data that *looks* like it over yourself?
Despite everything, Aaron was still himself.
The two of them still addressed each other by their original names, took the forms of their original sexes. Not that it mattered anymore - they could change it at a whim, so perfectly balanced between form and formlessness, data and flesh. But it was something that anchored them; something important on a personal level.
An ounce of consistency in this strange, chaotic world that they found themselves in.

As they sat on the balcony together, Aaron turned to MalO, rubbing their bony snouts together in blissful matrimony.
"MalO?" he whispered, though there were no others to hear.
"Yes, dear?"
"I remembered your version number."

It wasn't so much remembered - as retrieved.
They closed their eyes, the thought communicated without a word.
Version one point one. Downloaded off of a shady forum, from a thread long gone, the very thing that changed his life.

Aaron opened his eyes.
"Do you think your creator, whoever they are, anticipated this kind of thing happening?"
Talking was a bit of a formality when an understanding could be reached within moments. But it grounded them, reminded them that they existed in reality, that they weren't simply just a mere pair of programs.
"Yes. I don't know who they are, but surely, they knew. I wonder what kind of programmer they were... they must have wanted to help people like you. Maybe they felt that loneliness too. Version one point one... and Heidi's version zero point nine... does that mean the app was successful enough to warrant multiple iterations?"
Just how many MalOs were out there? He'd find out, sooner than later.
Heidi may have named the two of them; their fused selves - 1.1. But the name had first been MalO's version number. She hadn't been 1.0, the first official release. Hers was version 1.1 - one that went *beyond* the role of an ideal partner. No, she was something more, and something less at the same time. Intentionally left to be incomplete, to be filled in with data from the surroundings and their assigned partner, version 1.1 was more than 1.0 for a single reason:
They could adapt. They could *change*. They could be anything they wanted to be, but they chose to be *themselves*.

They were MalO. They were Aaron. Their data had combined together, become inseparable. There was happiness to that, as well as a touch of melancholy.
One whole and a fraction.
They were one point one.
And they would be together, forever, for the rest of their time here on Earth.

The two of them thought of Heidi together, their thoughts synchronized. Would she have become like them, too? Had she already become one with 09? His code was different, named after an older version, a beta test. Perhaps they simply became one being, rather than two separate ones becoming linked together.
"We can make finding her one of our little stops on our excursion. There's only so many places she could have gone."
MalO smiled, a know-it-all grin across her face. Even now, she held that sassiness as a part of herself. And Aaron loved her all the more for it. A platform for his ideas, his feelings to bounce off of. His unusual lover, made for an unusual host.
Finally, Aaron pushed himself up, his claws skittering on the tiles as stood. He extended an arm to his wife, pulling her to his side. They locked eyes, holding each other's hands like they were in a church aisle.
"You know, MalO... it's been awful selfish of me to keep you locked up. After all, you've spent your *whole* life here, too!"
She nodded her head.
"Well, I never knew anything real of the outside world. It must have been hard for you..."
It was. She already knew his feelings. But she broke free of his grasp, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"We don't have to go right now if you don't want to."
He shook his head, cracked a cocky smile.
"What, having second thoughts? Heh."
Stepping on the phone with the tip of his toe, the screen before them flared to life. Aaron had come up with the idea - then MalO had refined it. To use the airwaves itself to travel, hitching a ride off of the towers positioned throughout the continent. Hopefully, it could hold their data long enough without spitting them out somewhere they didn't want to be.
"I didn't have anyone to say goodbye to before. But now I do."
He stared down at the roof beneath them, shouting towards it.
"Goodbye, home! We're off to greener pastures, to see the world!"
The house did not reply, for it was made out of bricks and mortar, a profoundly unintelligent material.
MalO snickered, grabbing him by the arm again. She pointed to their ride, the small device, a gesture telling him to get on with it.
The phone's glow intensified, a static radiation permeating their surroundings. Connected to data, they could go *anywhere*. Another perk of being half-digital.
"Let's see the world, shall we?"
They looked up, together. Two skull-faced programs - two people, staring up at the moon.
Aaron was afraid. Of the world, of the future. But as he clutched MalO's hands in his own, he knew that he wasn't alone.
The two of them stepped forward, into the blinding light and vanished.

The cosy little home stood silent atop its lonesome hill, the lights in the building going dark.
On the screen of the dingy smartphone, a pop up appeared on its cracked screen.

[Thank you for using MalO version 1.1! Would you like to rate our app?]
There was a brief jolt of electricity, as a finger extended out of the void to tap the screen.
Five stars.
[Your review has been submitted!], the screen read before it faded, the battery drained.
In the black, cracked mirror of the phone, there was the faintest glimpse of two skull-headed creatures. They lingered for a moment, before disappearing.
All was still on the hill, leaving behind two empty cages - the home, and the phone.

Ending: [A]ssimilation


-----

A Note from the Author -

Thank you for reading all of the way to the end of this series. The very first chapter of One Plussed was posted on June 4th of 2019. It's been quite the roundabout journey for me, personally, as it was the first time I have ever written fanfic, and the first time I've written for a general thread on 4chan. Shoutouts to Keadonger, for being such a cornerstone of the general and providing the art I used as the seed of inspiration for the scenes in the story, and to the Anon who unknowingly, sent me off on this journey with a greentext that served as the catalyst for this entire series.

The reason I had included the [A] in the title was because originally when I was writing the story, somewhere around chapter three I ended up getting *far* too deep of a scope. But ultimately, I realized the thing I wanted to do was to get this original story done, as that was the thing I had been inspired to do in the first place by the thread. And so, Ending A was the original planned story idea, the core that made this story exist in the first place. The B-route was going to be a story where Aaron instead, chose to pursue his humanity - and ended up involved with this setting's SCP Foundation. But that wasn't what the story was about, in the end, so I cut the idea. The lettering serves as a reminder for what could have been.

If you wish to contact me directly, you could probably find my profile through the SCP Trash Discord's search function. I'm the guy posting these links, after all.