First things first... walking. Should be easy, right? Two legs, balance, a little waddle—simple.
Nope. Many stories may have told the hypothetical situation of people becoming women, demon or even a rock and ended well. But they were wrong. A new body not only meant you had to deal with now organ sticking from places, learning how to use them as well as the new brain. You even have to deal with sensory issue—
An ant could never deal with the euphoric ascension of rising from mere insects to humanoid might.
As seen how the mad scientist breathed a sigh of relief. «the feeling is not very alien. i would probably lose my sanity if i changed too much.» Thankful he was not in the body of an insect.
He also made sure to check down there and sighed in relief upon learning his gender was male.
«Getting new body is shitty already. I don't wanna be dealing with dino periods and hormone swing.»
The moment he tried to take a step, his new, oversized claws dug into the dirt, and his tail—his new tail—swung like a wrecking ball, nearly knocking him off his feet. He flailed, barely catching himself, and let out a noise that could only be described as an undignified squawk.
«Okay. Not as great as I thought.»
He steadied himself, took another step. This time, he adjusted for the tail. Another step. Then another. And just like that, he was moving. Awkwardly, sure, but moving.
He took a deep breath and flexed his claws, feeling the raw power in his limbs. His new body was strong. Agile. Efficient. He crouched low, then jumped—
swish
He launched at least ten feet into the air, completely overshooting his mark, flailed midair like a malfunctioning jetpack, and crashed face-first into a bush.
«Alright- never doing that again.» He spat out a leaf and shook himself off.
He kept taking steps and leap, each at a different level of intensity, making sure he knew how to really use his physique adeptly before really considering going elsewhere. It would be a disaster to trip if a predator were to chase him later on.
While moving around, he sensed the feeling of having Velociraptor skin. He didn't really feel the feather. «that made sense. human have facial hair but didn't sense them much either.» Though, it was still a bizarre sensation as he was used to his old human body.
He tried bending and as opposed to when he was a human, bending like this just felt different.
raptors body were already like this, hence— there was less strain to his body when he stretched it or used the muscle in specific ways. «this feels really uncomfortable» he thought while testing out his tail whip like a pokemon.
His swing cut nearby small plant fairly easily.
«and very strong it seems...» He noted.
Taking in deep breath to soothe his stressed mind, he came to a realization. «the air is thicker... i guess this is one of the reason for gigantism. animals have enough air for their big bodies»
«alright, back to priorities.» He gathered his focus and tried moving his claws around.
Turned around, a little bit too fast— now he's a fidget spinner.
Feeling the dizzyness, he beared throu with his vestibular system. «huh, raptor's brain is tougher to brain shaking.. nice discovery! but i'm not gonna box with anyone»
He tested his leg and the attempt was just as bad. Occasionally, it was good, yet another moment. it suddenly went bad.
It left him looking like a drunk man. well.. a drunk raptor that is.
He was scrambling his mind trying to figure out the reason why it was happening when he felt a wrathful irritation in his heart.
Followed by a pang of panic and some part of his body moving in ways he didn't want.
After which, the strange situation was deciphered. The mad scientist started running down the list of reasons why this may happen.
«first thing first- it is the first time someone totally hijacked another entity's body, and i did throu a machine that bends reality itself. Not a strange thing that such occurence would happen as a side effect... the key is to figure out why and how.» his mind started running wild as he tries fighting back the dissonance.
«my invention.. that junk would rewrite reality and hijack a body. Allowing me to manipulate them. but.. if it's already that hard to control what time i land on.. perhaps even the body steal part is just as horrid.» he quickly cooked up a theory.
«which means.. the original body owner's soul may still be here and fighting control over it with me!» He theorized.
He began trying to find a place to settle this insanity, but his movement were an issue. The original dinosaurs soul is vying for partial control. «of course the original owner is still here and fighting over control. UGH»
Within a few minutes, he found some comfy space with no threats around. Immediately, he threw himself down to the ground to let the mess settle. A rough situation, but he had no one to blame but himself. «every big discovery have big trials, i have to bear it!»
It felt like the usual overthinking issue, where your body just refused to listen. Except this time— it was not his brain, but another souls in this same vessel.
He heard sounds of creature nearby and started panicking.
«i hope this settle, now. please, please, pleqase, please—»
A moment later... There was no opposition, and he felt okay. Dissonance was no longer around.
«well that was convenient.» he sighed in relief.
«that shitty hunk. this late!» He shook his head disapprovingly, thinking «i DEFINITELY have to fix it later.»
He started testing this new body now that the original soul has been put to a rest by his machine's power. Albeit a tad bit late in activation.
He decided that he should test this new body.
---
moments later.
Now that mobility was sort of handled, he took in his surroundings. The place looked like a nature documentary before humans started bulldozing everything. The trees were as massive as a skyscrapper. Ferns the size of couches sprouted everywhere, and weird, alien flowers oozed some kind of iridescent goo.
The noises was just as exotic.
Not the deep, bellowing roars Hollywood had promised. No, these prehistoric beasts had the vocal range of dying bagpipes. Some honked like angry geese. Others screeched like they were in a horror movie. One in the distance let out a noise so ungodly it sounded like a kazoo having a fight with a blender.
He sighed. «As I expected, these guys are like birds.»
Which made sense. After all, hippos had skulls that looked like demonic kaiju skeletons, but in reality, they were just chunky water cows. Dinosaurs probably faced a similar situation. Anybody is scary enough- if you judge from their bones
Still, no time to dwell on scientific misunderstanding. He had bigger problems—like the whole stranded-in-the-past-with-no-idea-what-to-do-next situation.
He plopped down onto a log, staring at the horizon. «Alright, let's think. I intended to go ten minutes into the past. Instead, I got launched into dino era from 66 million years ago. Given how wildly this machine screwed up, another failure might kill me. Or worse—turn me into a trilobite or something.»
That alone should've made him panic, but then he thought about it. Dinosaurs went extinct long before humans even showed up. Meaning? No major butterfly effect would that could erase civilization. His future wife, his phone, his WiFi? is Still going to exist.
Small victories.
But that still left one massive question
«What the hell do I do now?»
«Plan A, Go straight for the machine maybe?» he first considered in a heartbeat but was quickly swayed by his logic.
That thing crashed way past the mountains. There were likely predators, obstacles, and who knows what kind of prehistoric nightmares lurking in between. Charging in blind was a way to get yourself killed.
«Plan B. Say screw it, leave the machine, and just... live here?» random thought pops out but he also dismissed that. he can't give up just like that.
Yeah. No. He was not about to settle down in a time period that doesn't have a toilet. skibidi or not, he needed them.
«Plan C. get something like tools or ally, survive, then plan for extraction.» he thought of another way.
Not ideal, but logical. Rushing in without resources was suicide. If he wanted any shot at getting back, he needed a strategy.
He exhaled through his nostrils—flaring them way more dramatically than expected. «Right. Step one- don't die.»
His stomach immediately growled. Forcing him to change his plan
«okay, new step one.. don't starv.»
He thought back to The Book. The book that every nerd with fear of civilization collapse had read at some point—"How to Rebuild Society from Scratch." It had everything. survival tactics, fire-starting techniques, how to manufacture aspirin. He could picture the pages flipping through his brain.
Then he looked around.
The terrain was garbage. Thick forests, alien-looking plants with wood color and pores like they breath, and—oh yeah—he had no idea what was poisonous in this time period. If he ate the wrong thing, he'd find out real fast if velociraptors could get food poisoning. He knew method that could dicern some stuff but that can only work in his original, human-body.
«So, Plan B... watch the locals.» He decided.
He crouched low, scanning the area. A herd of duck-like dinosaurs waddled by, honking at each other. A smaller, feathery predator was perched on a log, lazily sunbathing like it had zero responsibilities.
Okay. So far, it looks like another one of those National Geographic episode.
As he wandered the dept of this vibrant jungle, he basked in the wonder. The fresh breath of air nowhere found in modern world, creatures of all kind, myriads connection between the animals, as well as a very lively world... this is life before the industrial horror brought by mankind.
it was serene,
It was gorgoeusly beautiful.
But he knew, this was no moment to enjoy. he had to hurry and get to the machine.
And then it dawned upon him, a realization that solely he would notbe able to do much, let alone trying to topple this place.
If he wanted to get that machine back? He couldn't do it alone.
He needed allies. Manpower. Dinosaurpower. more specifically a pack of velociraptor. Had to be the same colour too. There was no record telling racism between dinosaurs. only ant does but he had to be sure.
It made perfect sense. Strength in numbers, safety, and they would know how to survive in this world better than he did. If he could integrate himself, become alpha—then he would have a small army at his command.
The question was how. and that's when he spotted it.
A Quetzalcoatlus— one of the biggest flying creatures to ever exist. lying on the ground, injured. One of its wings was bent at a bad angle, and it looked like it had crash-landed. With how dirty it was.
His machine had hit something when it came to this era. and it was this fellow right here.
«...Well, crap»
He hesitated for a moment before letting out a sigh. «I guess you're coming with me, big guy»
Carefully, he approached the massive creature, trying his best not to get his face pecked off. The Quetzalcoatlus eyed him, but it was too exhausted to even move.. That made things easier for him.
Grunting, he lifted the injured creature onto his back. It was harder than expected, but his raptor muscles held strong.
He took one last look at the distant mountain, where his machine had crashed. It was far. Too far. But he know he'll get there.
He had to.
Because if he didn't?
He was going to be the first time traveler in history to be permanently stuck as an oversized murder chicken.
And that was not gonna be an option.