What if they sold in back alleys a techno-elixir that could change your life, temporarily? Give you the opportunity to try out being someone other than who you have been all your life? Who could resist?

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Wednesday, 18 September 2002

Chapter 1

The package arrived that Friday morning in the early post, before he left the house. He spent the entire day thinking about it. It had occupied all his thoughts and he hardly got any work done at all. He hoped that nobody noticed his distraction. He just felt unable to concentrate for thinking about what the box contained.

He had been very fed up with life lately. Making friends and socialising had never been easy. Living in a big city where everyone seemed to know people and have fun all the time hadn't helped him either.

He'd always felt awkward and out of place, and every day he saw the possibilities that somehow remained out of his grasp. His loneliness among so many people had led him to make his plans for the content of the box. This weekend would be better. He promised himself that it would.
When he left work he practically ran to the train, his thoughts in turmoil. He sat impatiently, resenting every single minute of the journey home. Normally he didn't notice it much; he would read the paper or a book. Today it seemed that the train only crawled down the tracks, deliberately keeping him from reaching his home and the waiting box.

He slammed the door shut behind him. The package waited for him on the kitchen table. The fear and anticipation became almost too much to bear. They merged into a feeling he'd never known before. He tried to stop himself from shaking slightly but he couldn't. Off came the brown paper wrapper to reveal a small white box, unlabelled and slightly roughly finished.

He scrabbled at the box, having trouble with the plastic wrapper that covered it. It eventually came open and he pulled out the bottle inside. He almost tore the instructions apart in his haste to read them.
Impulse - User Guide

Use at your own risk. Product contains nano machines and has organic restructuring capabilities. Incorrect usage can cause severe injury or death. This product is not a toy and should be treated with respect. Follow directions exactly. Side effects may occur. See disclaimers.

Method of use

1. Loosen clothing and inject liquid into a convenient vein. Use the syringe supplied and make sure the dose is exactly as marked. The arm is a suitable place for the injection.

2. Important: Wait 5 minutes for the solution to take effect.

3. Make physical contact with subject. Maintain contact for one full minute.

4. Within one hour you will become an exact physical duplicate of the subject. They will suffer no ill effects from this process.

5. The effects last for 18 hours. After this time you will revert to your original form within one hour.

Warning

Do not use more than once in any 24-hour period. Reversion before the time limit expires is not possible under any circumstances.