This is a Trust Machines story. If you're not familiar with them, you aren't likely to understand this one. It is a short-short, so there is no development of the background.

There is a discussion of the Trust Machines universe in the parent organizer of this story. (Click [up] at the bottom of this story.)

The Trust Machine universe is discussed here: https://www.deviantart.com/trust-machines

---

Nobody would likely note the three high school boys that were walking down the sidewalk. The boy on the left was rather large, well over six feet and quite stocky. He was walking with a cocky swagger, and had a cruel smile on his face.

The middle weedy and thin -- the stereotypical nerd. He didn't look happy at all.

The one on the right was perhaps five foot two and a little chubby. Be bounced around with the air of one of those little dogs that like to threaten to bite your ankles, but which quickly runs away when threatened.

"Maybe I'll venn you into a tampon and give you to my girlfriend," the big boy said cruelly. "Or a roll of toilet paper that I can stick in the nastiest public restroom that I can find. How would you like to be flushed down the toilet in pieces?"

Marvin, the weedy nerd, cringed. "Please! If I can't finish out this year, I'll lose my scholarship! It would ruin my whole life!"

The bully laughed cruelly. "Why should I give a shit? It's your fault I got expelled! I was going to play for the NFL, but thanks to you, I got kicked off the team!"

Marvin didn't bother remind him that he got expelled for beating him up just as the principal passed by, or that a second string player was unlikely to be drafted by the pros.

The bouncy little sycophant pulled out a penny and set the machine to three years, then watched with a smirk.

Marvin stopped before the door and tried to escape. The bully pushed him in and the door disappeared.

The bully sauntered into the other side and said, "Maybe I'll v-"

A cup appeared on the floor in his place.

When Marvin had mumbled "paper cup of water," the bully had taken it to be whimpering. By the time he saw Marvin stab the interface twice, it was too late.

The sycophant, noticing that it was Marvin and not the bully that emerged, ran off. Marvin picked up the cup and walked off.

As he was walking home, he dribbled the water into the easement between the road and the sidewalk. Long before he was home, it was gone.

"I've dribbled you all over the place," Marvin said. "Enjoy your next three years as part of the water cycle."

Since the paper cup was thin enough to act as a tympanum, the bully could hear every word Marvin said.

Marvin took the cup out to the back porch, burned it, and let the ashes fly away in the wind.

I hadn't intended on making a sequel. But the characters had more to say.

---

"Marvin Vining, please report to the school office."

The sycophant and his friends snickered. A few people, those who have been tutored by Marvin, looked sympathetic. Most didn't seem to care one way or the other.

Marvin stopped by his locker and stashed his backpack. He took his phone out of the locker, sent a text, and slipped it into his pocket.

He was nervous, but determined. He rehearsed in his mind what his dad and their lawyer told him that he should say, and what he shouldn't.

The principal, frowning, led him to a small office in the corner, ushered him inside, and left. The cop inside the office glared at him. "Are you Marvin Vining?"

"Yes sir."

"Sit down."

"I'd rather stand," he said.

The cop raised himself up from his seat and yelled, "SIT DOWN!"

Marvin meekly sat.

"Tell me, kid, why did you force Dirk Stanwick into the Venn Machine and kidnap him?"

"I think I should wait until my father arrives before talking," Marvin replied.

"You're being tried as an adult. Believe me, it'll go better for you if you confess right now. Maybe the judge will reduce your sentence."

Marvin said nothing.

"ANSWER ME!"

Marvin said, "I am only seventeen, so I should not be interviewed without an adult."

"Look, kid. Don't get smart with me or you'll regret it!"

"I stand on my fifth amendment rights."

The cop stood up and towered over Marvin. "Playing jailhouse lawyer? What if I decide that you don't deserve these so-called rights? Kidnappers go to jail."

He pulled his billy club out and smacked it into the palm of his hand. "Now, the question is, why did you kidnap mister Dirk Stanwick? Why did you force him into a Venn machine? Don't you lie to me, boy! We have witnesses and surveillance camera footage."

"The surveillance camera footage shows Dirk pushing me into the Venn Machine," Marvin said nervously. He then took a few breaths, calmed down, and got a look of determination on his face.

"TELL ME!" the cop insisted.

Marvin spoke with some heat, though anyone really paying attention would have noted that he was very controlled in what he said.

"Dirk has made my life hell since junior high! But it was always a case of there being no witnesses. 'It's his word against yours,' they would say. And last month, he venned me into a jock strap for three days. He threatened to beat the hell out of me if I didn't walk into the machine. You could hear it on the surveillance video, but all you could tell me is that I appeared to have walked in voluntarily!"

"Do you know what it's like to soak up the sweat of his balls for three days? He didn't even wash me. He just let the crust dry on and put me on the next day! And, instead of doing your job, you are harassing the victim and acting like a bully!"

"I missed two tests! Luckily, the advanced placement teachers let me make it up."

"But this time, I didn't walk into the machine like a little victim. He had to push me in. When he returns in three years, I expect to see him arrested for assault and attempted kidnapping."

The cop listened, stone faced. He was waiting for Marvin to slip up; to admit guilt.

At that point, the door opened.

"Hey! You can't go in there," the principal said. Marvin's father scowled at him and walked in, closing the door behind himself.

The cop stood up. "Leave or I'll cite you for obstruction of justice!"

Marvin's father didn't back down. "I have the right to be present when my son is being questioned. May I see the arrest warrant?"

The cop's face started turning red. "I don't need a damn warrant!"

The father's reply was mild. "Oh? Did you actually witness a crime?" He turned to his son. "You didn't actually talk to him, did you?"

"I'm sorry, Dad. He threatened me. But I only told the truth, so I obviously didn't admit to anything."

"Is your pen camera working?"

"The footage should be in your dropbox right now."

"HEY!" the cop yelled. "You can't wiretap without a warrant. I have half a mind to arrest you."

"You would have a full mind if you could actually do it," the father replied. "We only need the consent of one party, and my son definitely consents."

The father pulled out his phone and reviewed the video. He looked angry, but then got a satisfied predatory smile on his face. "Are we being detained? Be very careful how you answer that."

When the cop said nothing, they both left and drove to their lawyer's office.

The lawyer picked up the top paper. "Here is the official complaint that one Dirk Stanwick assaulted and kidnapped Marvin Vining, turning him into an item of clothing." He picked up a second paper. "This is the official complaint that Dirk Stanwick forced Marvin Vining into a Venn Machine and attempted to transform him in an unrecoverable fashion." He picked up the next paper. "This is the complaint against Officer Stanwick for gross misconduct, assault, and failure to recuse himself in the investigation of the assault by his nephew."

He put those papers, documentation of evidence, photographs, and a USB drive containing the raw video from the Venn Machine surveillance and from Marvin's pen camera into a large envelope.

"We have one copy going into the vault, one copy going by courier to the courthouse, one copy for you to take home, and an electronic copy being filed to the police station and the court."

VENNgence Is Mine 3 -- NOT CANON
A Trust Machines story

I was going to make this a short-short like the other two, but I kept coming up with fun things to add. So now, along with getting to find out what happened to Dirk after his three year participation in the Earth's water cycle, we see what Marvin has done with his time.

I have redone this way too many times. I hope everyone enjoys it, warts and all.

---

EDIT:
As it turns out, there are a number of issues with this story. Also, I'm not really happy with the way it came together. Look for the revised canon version to be posted soon.

---

Over a century ago, if you could peek back in time, you would have seen students and faculty wandering the campus. But that's where the similarity ends.

The faculty were dressed in well-made three piece suits, demonstrating their positions of respect and authority. The students tended to dress more casually, wearing two piece suits and maybe even being rebellious enough to omit the tie.

What if the people from a century back could look forward in time?

They would have been appalled, or maybe excited, by the modern clothes that cover so little. The fact that girls dared invade this bastion of male learning might draw the eyes of some of the students, while others, especially the faculty, would worry that learning would be difficult with such distractions.

And these girls aren't studying nursing or teaching. They have the audacity to think that they can become scientists, mathematicians, and engineers!

And the colors! People are wearing colors that one would expect to see in a flower garden or a flock of peacocks. Or colors that never appear in nature at all.

And what are those devices that they are all carrying? Little glowing rectangles? Portable typewriters? Radios that fit in the pocket? How do they keep the vacuum tubes from burning holes in their clothes?

But even the early twenty-first century students would be confused by the era of the Trust Machines.

Furries? At school? And those fursuits look so real! And dragons. And elves and dwarves and ogres and aliens.

And it's not just full fursuits. Some sport tails or floppy dog ears or triangular ears that really swivel. Horns, antlers, multiple arms and legs, and even taurform bodies abound.

Those that have done any soldering can definitely appreciate the desire to have an extra set of arms. Or several extra sets. Or even tentacles.

Where are the ugly kids? The fat kids? The average kids, even? And the teachers? Even the faculty that attempt to put on the look of knowledge and respect end up looking younger than they should -- and, admittedly, attractive.

And clothing has become even more outlandish! It's like everyone is trying their best to outdo everyone else. Everyone is trying to show off their perfectly venned bodies by wearing clothes that only need to be imagined to be created.

The university saw a renewed surge of enrollment shortly after Venn Machines started showing up. People who thought themselves to be too old for college started to reconsider.

The school's field house, the gym complex that was built three decades ago, sees less use than it had in the past. Why push weights when you can venn all the muscles you want?

The students still enjoy the pool, handball courts, and the like. But why lift weights or run around a boring track when you can just venn yourself into whatever shape you like?

But some of the students beg to differ. Will a healthier unvenned body make it easier to get the venned body that they like? The only way to find out is to make a formal study. After all, that's what college students do. Or, rather, that's what scientists do.

And venns wear off. It's no fun waking up in the middle of the night in a sallow weak body. If all of your walking and swimming and biking is done in a venned body, then your unvenned body won't get a good workout. Or will it? More studies need to be done.

Marvin Vining came out of the field house, looking tired and sore. He had just finished a strenuous workout. While he spent most of his time venned for safety reasons, he worked out three times a week. Venning immediately afterwards cheated him out of the pleasantly sore feeling that many avid muscle builders crave, but it made it easier for him to be active for the rest of the day.

Since muscles are built when the body heals the damage from working out, the Venn Machines may help accelerate the process.

He attends his weekly martial arts class venned in a variety of forms, and sometimes unvenned. It would do him little good to develop a good set of reflexes in one form, only to need them while in another.

Marvin walked to the Venn Machine, where a young couple sat under an awning. "Hi Jim, Sarah," he said.

He pulled a venn token and two empty grocery bags out of his backpack and set the backpack down by Sarah. He handed the token to Jim and said, "History. I want my baseline body holding a yellow and a red bag."

Jim handed the token back. "Do me with the same bags and we'll call it even."

"Want to upgrade your computer while you're there?" asked Sarah. At Marvin's nod, she pulled it out of his backpack and opened it. She handed it to Marvin so that he could type in the password.

"Only five hundred volts out two thousand in the supercap? Don't you believe in charging the thing? You're down to a sixteenth of a charge."

Marvin shrugged. "It ought to be good for another week or two."

Sarah ran the Update Manager, then shut down the computer. "Update is done. It's compatible with the hardware in the new model."

She flipped it over, pressed a catch, and pulled out the multi petabyte mass storage device. She tossed the old machine into a box and pulled a freshly venned laptop out of another box. She slipped the memory module in and handed the computer to Marvin.

Marvin started it and typed in his password. "The supercap is good for four thousand volts now, eh? It'll be good to have four times the capacity."

"Not that it's likely to run out before you exchange it for a new one," Jim chuckled.

Marvin poked around a bit, then hibernated the Linux system. He handed it back to Sarah.

Sarah slipped the laptop back into Marvin's backpack. Marvin and Jim entered the Venn Machine.

Marvin's history already contained an image of him with the two bags. Jim's history didn't, so Marvin pressed the image of Jim's baseline venned body, then added the two bags. They both pressed the green button.

Marvin and Jim were transformed into their standard shapes. The two grocery bags were transformed into sturdier bags that, more to the point, contained goodies -- goodies that would go away when the venn wore off.

Marvin pulled the cooler out of the yellow bag and extracted two bottles of beer. One had a picture of a hops cone on it, and the other had a stalk of wheat. "I understand you don't care for stout. Here's an IPA and a wheat."

Jim pulled out a bottle with a picture of a darkened barley corn, and another with two. "A stout and a double stout. A pleasure doing business with you, sir!"

Marvin looked into the portable retina and iris scanner, just to make sure that Jim hadn't accidentally changed his venned body. The biometrics of the one currently in history is stored in his student ID card.

To keep students from cheating on their tests by any of a variety of venn tricks, the professors use an iris scanner before each quiz or exam.

Any student that wants to use a venned body needs to go to the security building. After hitting the red button to go back to his unvenned state, he is positively identified. Then, one of the college admin or security personnel will venn the student from history, and record the biometrics.

Marvin put his bags into his backpack and checked his cell phone. With a frown, he put it back into one of the armored compartments that he uses for his delicate electronics.

"Dirk has violated his bail and left the area," Marvin said.

"Idiot," Jim replied. "It's not like he has his uncle to get him out of it again."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "You've gone through the core curriculum and are well on your way to earning your degree. He's just been flowing all about the world. He doesn't seem to realize that things have changed in the past three years."

Marvin shrugged. "Forewarned is forearmed. Call the campus cops if you see him."

"What about you?" Sarah asked with some concern.

"It's not like he can hurt me permanently. And all of the machines on campus are well attended, so he can't force me into one."

"I don't think he could, anyhow," Jim chuckled. "You've managed to put on some bulk."

Marvin's sensitive ears easily picked up the tap, tap, tap of Dirk smacking his palm with a baseball bat. Marvin tapped his smart watch.

"This is going to be fun," snarled Dirk.

"Aren't you in enough trouble already?"

"There's nobody here to see us," he said, still slamming the bat into his palm. "I'm gonna get your pansy ass for what you did to my uncle!"

"Your uncle brought it on himself. He was a blight to the police force. I'm sure that a lot of his fellow inmates are showing their appreciation."

"He never hit you!"

"He didn't do his job," Marvin replied. "The entire police force ignored everything, and just blamed the victim."

"You lied to make him go to jail!"

Marvin laughed. "Nope. They said that threatening me with bodily harm wasn't enough to charge him, so we uploaded all of the footage to the Internet. After that, more than a dozen people came out of the woodwork and told stories about being beaten. The trial was quite the media circus."

Marvin grinned. "I enjoyed every second of it! And I'm gonna enjoy watching you go to jail for violating bail."

They both heard the sound of people running. "Freeze!" yelled one of the police officers.

Dirk raised his bat and ran toward Marvin. Marvin dodged to the side. A shot rang out. Dirk hit the dirt right where Marvin had been standing.

Marvin scooped up Dirk. "I'm venned. He isn't!"

Fortunately for Dirk, the campus police use light loads to reduce the chances of collateral damage. Marvin put his hand over the sucking chest wound to keep Dirk's lung from collapsing. He ran toward the nearest Venn Machine.

"Medical emergency! Three year venn!" he yelled as he tried to skid to a stop inside the machine. At the last moment, he turned slammed his back into the back wall of the machine. The door wouldn't close, even though Penelope had dropped a quarter into the machine and set it.

Marvin slapped Dirk in the face. "Wake up! Wake up or you will die!"

Dirk groaned. The door opening disappeared. Penelope, already in the other side, quickly said "Two Naked collared Pretty Pretty Pulchritudinous Pink and Purple Poofy Poodle Pleasure Puppy Plushies." She tapped the interface twice.

When the doors opened, there were two piles of clothing and a backpack. Buried in the clothing were two plush poodles.

Penny grabbed the plushie from the pile of bloody clothes, shook the blood off of it, and looked it in the face. "Idiot!" she said. Then, she tossed it to one of the officers. "Your prisoner, sir."

The officer looked at the struggling plushie, then at the handcuffs hanging from his belt. Penny reached into her purse and pulled out a large safety pin. A diaper pin, actually.

"Here. Point her legs toward me." She pinned the four legs together, which caused the poodle to struggle even more.

"That doesn't hurt, you sissy!" Penny said. She turned to the officer. "She can see, hear, and speak. She'll be able to walk when you unpin her, so don't leave her unguarded. If she gets dirty, a quick dunking will clean her up, but it's actually pretty hard to get anything to stick to that fur. The materials science people are still trying to figure out how it works."

"I'm not Dirk! I''m Marvin! I'm a guy! Let me go!" she said in a very cute high pitched voice.

Penny went to the machine and picked up Marvin, who had managed to extricate herself from the backpack and pile of clothes.

Mark, the other attendant of the Venn Machine, picked up Marvin's backpack and somewhat bloodied clothes and set them on the table.

The oldest cop said, "Leave the suspect's clothes. They are evidence." He nodded at one of his subordinates, who pulled out an evidence bag and a pair of rubber gloves. Soon, Dirk's clothes and ankle bracelet were bagged and tagged. The senior cop then sent him to collect the baseball bat.

Penny picked up Marvin and cuddled her, squeezing her flat.

"Ow! ow! ow! ow! ow!" Marvin said in a very cute voice.

Penny looked at him. "Faker!"

Marvin grinned. "You can cuddle me any time!"

Dirk said, "I'm Marvin! Let me go!"

Marvin said, "If you get into a Venn Machine, you will likely die."

Mark typed a few things into his laptop. He dropped a small dogtag into the printer, waited for it to print, then pinned the dogtag on Dirk's collar.

The cop read it. "Dirk Stanwick. DO NOT VENN! If found, give to police." The tag also contained the time and date that the venn would wear off.

"I'm Marvin! Let me go!"

Penny laughed. "What's the derivative of X cubed?"

Dirk just sat there. After several seconds, Marvin answered, "Three X squared."

"Second derivative?" asked Penny.

"Six X"

"Third?"

"Six"

"Fourth?"

"Zero"

She looked at the officers and held the pink poodle-ized Marvin up. "This is a third year engineering student. Your prisoner isn't. By the way, you can stick her into an evidence bag, too. She doesn't need to breathe."

The officers got statements from everyone, including Marvin. "After your girl is done with you, go to the campus security office. They'll have your statement all typed up and ready to sign."

Several times during the long process of taking statements, someone would hand Mark, the other Venn Machine attendant, a token. They would then get into the machine. After a minute, the venned customer would walk out, and Mark would return to his seat.

"What's the deal with those strange coins?" one of the young officers asked.

"A few years ago, one of our economics students minted them up as an experiment. One coin for one venn. The people that act as attendants end up collecting a bunch of them, and can sell them for whatever the market will bear."

"Classic commodity currency," another student commented. "One token for one simple venn, usually from history. But some people started charging more for complicated venns, so some argue that it has become a fiat currency."

Penny said, "Out in the real world, people who don't have a trusted friend will pay a service like Venn Partners or Trust Partners or Fantasy Venn to do the job. We like this system because we can trade venns. Those that want to make money can attend the machines more often. Those who want to use the services without contributing can simply buy tokens. Everybody wins."

After the police left, Marvin said, "You know I'm not fond of this form."

Penny giggled. "I'm sure Dirk hates it, and he's stuck with it for three years. I was tempted to make him into a rock, but this way, he can still stand trial. It won't cost much to incarcerate him, either."

Marvin said, "Now that we are done with that bit of unpleasantness, how about..."

Before he could finish, Penny threw him high and into the venn machine. He turned into his naked and sore self as soon as he was far enough into the machine. The door disappeared. He hit the corner at the back wall and ceiling and fell. His judo reflexes kicked in. He slapped the floor just before the rest of his body impacted.

Penny was already inside, so she was treated to the sight of his naked muscular body. "My Little Pleasure Purple Pink and Blue Cushie Soft Poofy silky furry Foxie!" she said gleefully. A long furred plush fox, the size of a large body pillow, appeared. As soon as the door disappeared, the fox hopped up and ran.

Penny playfully chased the fox, following it around all the twists and turns it was making. She scooped up the vixen and hugged her so tightly that her middle was flattened against her chest. "Now you're mine, my little foxie!"

The fox purred.

Eight hours after the venn, Marvin found his nude self wrapped tightly in Penny's arms. More snuggling ensued.

The next morning, they showered off the sweat of their exertions.

Inside the Venn Machine, the bag containing Marvin's somewhat bloodied clothes turned into a bag of freshly clean clothes. The t-shirt, shorts, and slippers he was wearing turned into clothing appropriate for class.

They shared a long hug, donned their backpacks, checked their biometrics, and headed for class.

Marvin and his friends followed Dirk's trial through social media and the news sites. They chuckled when they saw the results.

He was sentenced to ten years of probation, and to be a toy for the kids at a daycare center until the end of his venn.

Epilogue

Dirk's probation officer looked at the little pink plush poodle toy sitting on his desk. The DO NOT VENN tag was gone.

"Well, mister Stanwick, it appears that your venn wears off tomorrow..."

"Please," she interrupted. "I go by Miss Fifi now. Or just Fifi ."

"OK, Miss Fifi. What are your plans for tomorrow?"

"Um... Can you extend my venn for me?"

VENNgence Is Mine 3 revised

A Trust Machines story

This should be the last installment of Marvin's story. Thanks to dkfenger and trismegistusshandy for pointing out the errors and giving me some helpful suggestions.

Any errors left are mine.

---

While college campuses have changed with the times, Venn Machines have sped up those changes.

Like with the rest of the world, most people look exactly the way that they want to look.

The various college campuses are rife with young intelligentsia who have been recently freed from close parental supervision. Those kids feel positively encouraged to be daring and innovative. They feel free to venn each other into some rather daring forms.

The universities saw a renewed surge of enrollment shortly after Venn Machines started showing up. People who thought themselves to be too old for college started to reconsider. Those older students are not easy to distinguish from their younger counterparts. Nor, sometimes, are the professors.

The school's field house, the gym complex that was built over three decades ago, has been seeing less use than it has in the past. Why push weights when you can venn all the muscles you want? The students still enjoyed tennis, handball, racquetball, swimming, and the like, but there has been talk of removing the weight room.

Marvin Vining came limping out of the field house, looking tired and bruised. He made it a habit to practice mixed martial arts in a variety of bodies, including his unvenned form. He practiced martial arts for the same reason he put on his seat belt -- just in case. He figured that he needed to be ready no matter what body he happened to be wearing, so he practiced in all of the forms that he used frequently. Having been bullied in the past, he worked hard to put it firmly behind him.

Marvin walked to the Venn Machine, where a young couple sat under an awning. "Hi Jim, Sarah," he said.

Jim chuckled. "It looks like Gordon Sensei gave you some 'good training.' You look like ten miles of bad road."

"I feel like ten miles of bad road. I swear that man is a sadist. He likes to tell us how wonderful it is that Venn Machines can fix us in an instant."

"So that he can bruise us even more," Jim replied. "Yeah. I know. I get a good set of bruises every time I train. One time, they had to carry me out to the Venn Machine because someone overdid it and broke my leg."

Marvin pulled a venn token and two empty grocery bags out of his backpack and set the backpack down by Sarah. He handed the token to Jim. "Gimme my weekend form. I am sooo ready to relax."

Jim handed the token back. "Do the loaves and fishes thing with this stuff and we'll call it even."

Jim pulled out a mini cooler with a couple beers in it, and a small bag of snacks. Marvin looked at it and shook his head sadly. "Still drinking that swill?"

"Gee, I can't wait until I get as smart and refined like you so that I can drink the good craft brewed stuff," Jim said.

Marvin chuckled, then tossed a quarter in the machine. "How long? It doesn't matter to me, since Penny is likely to turn me into something strange."

"Why bother venning now, then?"

"Dirk jumped bail and is heading this way. I would rather not meet him all bruised and worn out."

"Makes sense," Jim said. "I'll watch out for him. Anyhow, eight hours ought to be good. That way, the beer will go away in the middle of the night."

Marvin set the machine and they both entered. As soon as the door went away, Marvin selected Jim's weekend body. Then, he expanded the cooler so that it held eighteen bottles of beer. Meanwhile, Jim selected the version of Marvin's weekend body that was casually dressed and held a cooler and snack bag.

"Hit me," Marvin said. Immediately, his pain and bruises went away. The two empty bags transformed into a cooler of beer and a bag of snacks.

While the green circle was counting down, Marvin opened a snack bag and took a bite. He immediately spit the so-called snack back into the bag.

Jim grinned and selected Marvin's weekend body without the baggage. "You know that never works." He tapped the vanishing green circle. Then, Marvin tapped the green circle, transforming Jim and adding to his beer and snack stash.

"I'm not going to give up without trying everything I can think of," Marvin replied. "What if Edison had given up before trying those thousands of different light bulb filaments?"

Jim chuckled. "I think the aliens or whoever it is that designed those things don't want us getting too lazy."

Marvin checked his cell phone. With a frown, he put it back into one of the armored compartments designed for delicate electronics. "I just got a message from the cops. According to Dirk's ankle monitor, he is in this area. I wish they would just arrest him and get it over with," Marvin said.

"Idiot," Jim replied. "It's not like he has his uncle to get him out of it again."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "He's been out of circulation for three years."

"Actually, he's been IN circulation for the past three years," Jim snickered.

Sarah giggled. "As I was saying, you aren't the timid geeky high school kid that he remembers. You've built yourself up, gone through the core curriculum, and are well on your way to earning your degree. He's just been flowing all about the world. He doesn't seem to realize that things have changed in the past three years."

Marvin shrugged. "Forewarned is forearmed. Call the campus cops if you see him."

"What about you?" Sarah asked with some concern.

"It's not like he can hurt me permanently. And all of the machines on campus are well attended, so he can't force me into one."

"I don't think he could, anyhow," Jim chuckled. "You've managed to put on some bulk."

Marvin's sensitive ears easily picked up the slap, slap, slap of Dirk smacking his palm with a baseball bat. Marvin tapped his smart watch, which alerted the campus police.

"This is going to be fun," snarled Dirk.

"Aren't you in enough trouble already?"

"There's nobody here to see us," he said, still slamming the bat into his palm. "I'm gonna get your pansy ass for what you did to me and my uncle!"

"Your uncle brought it on himself. He was a blight to the police force. And you're nothing but a bully. I thought that a three year break would give you time to do some thinking."

"I did lots of thinking. I thought about how I'm going to kick your ass as soon as I can!"

"Try it and you'll end up in jail like your uncle. I've never liked how the police look the other way when prisoners beat on each other, but having been the victim of police looking the other way, I find it really hard to feel sorry for you or your uncle."

"He was a good cop! Your lies ruined his career!" Dirk growled

"No lies were necessary," Marvin said. "The truth is that he didn't do his job. He was willfully negligent. He and the rest of the police force ignored all of the bullying and blamed the victims."

"You lied about him hitting you," Dirk said.

Marvin laughed. "Nope. I never claimed that he hit me. He threatened me, which is still considered to be assault, but they said that threatening me with bodily harm wasn't enough to charge him. So we uploaded all of the footage to the Internet. After that, more than a dozen people came out of the woodwork and told stories about being beaten. The trial was quite the media circus."

Marvin shook his head. "Did you even read stories or watch the old news casts, or did you just make your own assumptions?"

They both heard the sound of people running. "Freeze!" yelled one of the police officers.

Dirk raised his bat and ran toward Marvin. Marvin dodged to the side. A shot rang out. Dirk hit the dirt right where Marvin had been standing.

Marvin scooped up Dirk. "I'm venned. He isn't!"

Fortunately for Dirk, the campus police used light load to reduce the chances of collateral damage. There was no exit wound. Marvin put his hand over the sucking chest wound to keep Dirk's lungs from collapsing, and ran toward the nearest Venn Machine.

"Coming through! Medical emergency! Three year venn!" he yelled as he tried to skid to a stop inside the machine. At the last moment, he turned slammed his back into the back wall of the machine. The door wouldn't close, even though Penelope had dropped a quarter into the machine and set it.

Marvin slapped Dirk in the face. "Wake up! Wake up or you will die!"

Dirk groaned and coughed up some blood. The door opening disappeared.

Penny's high school friends had gotten her into Venn Machine dueling, so she was ready and well practiced.

"Two Seeing hearing talking plushies pleasure!" she rattled off quickly. Several choices appeared. She tapped the pair of female pink poodles, then the green circle. Two plushies dropped to the floor.

While the green circle was counting down, she said, "Can you hear me, Marvin?"

Both of the plushies wiggled, but were silent. She tried another selection. "That's got it, Penny. I can see, too."

When the doors opened, she scooped them up.

"OK, which of you is Marvin?"

"I am," they both said.

The one in her left hand said, "I'm Marvin! Let me go!"

Penny laughed. She stuffed the one in her right hand into her cleavage, and looked the other in the eye. "You idiot! If you go inside a Venn Machine, you'll likely die. You just had to be an idiot again and buy yourself another three years. Just think! You'll be twenty-four years old when you finally change back. And we'll have had six years without you making our family get-togethers miserable, cousin."

She shook him a little. "You're lucky that Marvin saved your life. Nobody would have said a thing if he had just acted scared and scrambled away from your bleeding body."

"Stupidity is often fatal," Marvin the poodle said. "But that doesn't mean that I want to make it happen or allow it to happen. Besides, the cop doesn't need to have your death on his conscience."

"You almost messed things up for Marvin and me," Penny said. "After you attacked Marvin and ended up participating in the water cycle, Marvin started avoiding me. When I figured out that he wasn't blaming me, I had to chase him down and explain to him that I didn't blame him. In fact, I thanked him for taking you and Uncle Stupidhead out of our lives."

Penny squeezed Dirk the poodle, which caused him to croon. "By the way, I decided to be nice to you, even though you don't deserve it. Since I said 'pleasure' when I was venning you, it will feel really good if someone pets or hugs you. Good luck finding someone that wants to touch you."

Penny tossed Dirk the poodle to the police officer. "Your prisoner, sir! If he gets dirty, a quick dunking will clean him up, but it's actually pretty hard to get anything to stick to that fur. The materials science people are still trying to figure out how it works. Also, he can see and hear and speak, but is otherwise helpless. He can barely wiggle."

"No! You got the wrong person!" Dirk claimed.

Penny pulled Marvin out of her cleavage and cuddled him, squeezing him flat.

"Ow! ow! ow! ow! ow!" Marvin said in a very cute voice.

Penny looked at him. "Faker!"

Marvin grinned. "You can cuddle me any time!"

Dirk said, "I'm Marvin! Let me go!"

Marvin said, "If you get into a Venn Machine, you will probably die."

Mark, the other Venn Machine attendant, typed a few things into his laptop. He dropped a small dogtag into the printer, waited for it to print, then pinned the dogtag on to Dirk's collar.

The cop read it. "Dirk Stanwick. Prisoner. DO NOT VENN! If found, give to police." The tag also listed the time and date that the venn would wear off.

"I'm Marvin! Let me go!"

Penny laughed. "What's the derivative of X cubed?"

Dirk just sat there. After several seconds, Marvin answered, "Three X squared."

"Second derivative?" asked Penny.

"Six X"

"Third?"

"Six"

"Fourth?"

"Zero"

She looked at the officers and held the pink poodle-ized Marvin up. "This is a third year engineering student. Your prisoner isn't. By the way, you can stick him into an evidence bag. He doesn't need to breathe."

"Let me go!" Dirk insisted.

"Let's just make triply sure that I have the right person."

Penny dropped a quarter into the machine, then took Marvin's collar off and tossed it in. As soon as it got past the door, it transformed back into a backpack and a pile of clothes. She turned to the police. "If you want Dirk's ankle bracelet and bloody clothes for evidence, there's a good chance that tossing his collar into a Venn Machine will get it for you.

The officers got statements from everyone, including Marvin. "After your girl is done with you, go to the campus security office. They'll have your statement all typed up and ready to sign."

Several times during the long process of taking statements, someone would hand Mark, the other Venn Machine attendant, a token. They would then get into the machine. After a minute, the venned customer would walk out, and Mark would return to his seat.

"What's the deal with those strange coins?" one of the young officers asked.

"A few years ago, one of our economics students minted them up as an experiment. One coin for one venn. The people that act as attendants end up collecting a bunch of them, and can sell them for whatever the market will bear."

"Classic commodity currency," another student commented. "One token for one simple venn, usually from history. But some people started charging more for complicated venns, so some argue that it has become a fiat currency."

Penny said, "Out in the real world, people who don't have a trusted friend will pay a service like Venn Partners or Trust Partners or Fantasy Venn to do the job. We like this system because we can trade venns. Those that want to make money can attend the machines more often. Those who want to use the services without contributing can simply buy tokens. Everybody wins."

After the police left, Marvin said to Penny, "You know, you didn't need to venn him into a plushie. You could have just healed him.

"What's the fun in that?" she snickered. "Besides, there is the chance that we would have ended up with the two of you stuffed into one body. Would you want to share a fully animate body with him? For that matter, would you want to look like him, even for a minute?"

"Ewwwwwww!" Marvin shuddered. Then he added, "You know I'm not fond of this form."

Penny giggled, dropped a quarter into the machine, and set it for eight hours. "I'm sure Dirk hates it, and he's stuck with it for three years. I was tempted to make him into a rock, but this way, he can still stand trial. It won't cost much to incarcerate him, either."

Marvin said, "Now that we are done with that bit of unpleasantness, how about..."

Before he could finish, Penny threw him high and into the venn machine. He turned into his naked, bruised, and battered self as soon as he was far enough into the machine. The door disappeared.

As he found himself flying toward the back wall, his judo reflexes kicked in. He spun and slapped, letting the slap soak up the kinetic energy. But he was still nearly eight feet in the air. He spun and slapped again when he hit the floor. He groaned and touched the interface, accepting the change to his base form and the eight hour period.

Penny quickly scrambled inside, so she was treated to the sight of his naked muscular body. "My Little Pleasure Purple Pink and Blue Cushie Soft Poofy Silky Furry Foxie!" she said gleefully. She tapped one of the selections, then the green circle. A long furred plush fox, the size of a large body pillow, appeared. As soon as the door disappeared, the fox hopped up and ran.

Penny playfully chased the fox, following it around all the twists and turns it was making. She dove for it just as it made a sharp turn. But before she could face plant into the dirt, the fox reversed direction. She face planted into the soft fox.

Penny scooped up the vixen and hugged her so tightly that her middle was flattened against her chest. "Now you're mine, my little foxie!"

The fox purred.

Penny and Marvina hung around at the Venn Machine until the next pair of attendants arrived.

Eight hours after the venn, Marvin found his nude self wrapped tightly in Penny's arms. More snuggling ensued.

The next morning, they showered off the sweat of their exertions.

Inside the Venn Machine, the bag containing Marvin's only slightly used clothes turned into a bag of freshly clean clothes. The t-shirt, shorts, and slippers he was wearing turned into something a little better for the weekend.

They shared a long hug, donned their backpacks, and headed to Marvin's room.

Marvin and his friends followed Dirk's trial through social media and the news sites. They chuckled when they saw the results.

He was sentenced to ten years of probation, and to be a toy for the kids at a daycare center until the end of his venn.

Little Ginny dug through the toy box and pulled out the remarkably clean pink poodle plushy. "She is so kyooooooot! I think we should name her Miss Fifi."

Epilogue

Dirk's probation officer looked at the little pink plush poodle toy sitting on his desk. The DO NOT VENN tag was gone.

"Well, mister Stanwick, it appears that your venn wears off tomorrow..."

"Please," she interrupted. "I go by Miss Fifi now. Or just Fifi ."

"OK, Miss Fifi. What are your plans for tomorrow?"

"Um... Can you extend my venn for me?"