The Mixer
This idea came to my brain. Is it dumb and cliche? Yes. But it's also fun and cliche.
Anyway, Webber hype! The boy is having his refresh next month!
Enjoy this thing, or whatever.
"Willow, I have done it again!"
Willow groaned, not bothering to resist as Wilson suddenly appeared behind her, grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt and started dragging her away from her precious fire towards whatever stupid thing he had made or discovered. There was never any stopping the scientist whenever he was excited about something.
"I believe this is the most brilliant thing I've invented since the Gardeneering Hat, my friend! Something that the likes of Newton and Tesla would gawk in awe at witnessing!" He babbled on as he dragged her through the woods. They finally came to a stop in the middle of a clearing, where Wilson let Willow go for her to stand up on her own two feet, and bare witness to his greatest creation yet.
"... You dragged me away from my fire, for a pair of chairs and a lamp?" Her glaring eyes met Wilson's beaming ones.
The description she gave was pretty apt for the apparent "greatest creation" Wilson was going on about, being a literal pair of chairs with what looked like a sciency looking lamp in between the two. It had a center cone, and two of its branching arms were hanging over the chairs, just the right height for someone to put their head underneath.
"Is this a joke? Is Webber gonna burst out of your chest again while you scream in pain, and then you're gonna tell me this was all a setup, right?" She said to his face, using the most annoyed and unimpressed look she could muster to get her point across.
Wilson was completely unperturbed, still with that stupid smile on his face. "Oh, I assure you, Willow, this is no joke. It's the furthest thing from comedy you can get. No, what I've created today, is a marvel of science so advanced, so mind boggling, so- "
"Get on with it already!"
"It's a body swapping machine." He finished, presenting the machine to her with a razzle dazzle of the hands. "I was experimenting with potatoes and lightning, and during that process this happened!"
He guided her around the machine, showing off every nook and cranny of it, and progressively gaining more and more of Willow's interest. "It took me a fair bit of experimenting with animals, as you can see over there." He casually pointed towards a beefalo and frog just hanging around near the machine. The frog was trying to lean over and bite some grass on the ground, while the beefalo randomly hopped around, sticking its tongue out as far as it could. It was quite the sight. "But I have reason to believe it's finally ready for use by humans!"
"And I'm guessing I'm the human guinea pig?"
Wilson chuckled mirthfully at her question. "No, not just you, Willow. We are the test subjects!"
He guided her over to the chair, pushing her to sit on it while cheerfully humming to himself. It made Willow smile, seeing him so excited about something. "Okay, I guess this is cool enough for me to play along with. But how is this gonna work, exactly? Cause I don't wanna be in your old, creaky body all day without a good reason."
"It's quite simple. By switching bodies with you, I'll be able to finally test out your fire immunity powers and be able to research it better. It's easier to understand stuff when stuff is happening through you, you know." He said while sitting down in his own chair and fiddling with some wires on the lamp thing. "That way I can test two things at once. Make the most out of this incredible opportunity, you know?"
"Uhuh, uhuh, cool. Here's the thing, though. What's in it for me?" She leaned forward on her chair, clasping her hands together while looking straight at the scientist. "What am I getting out of switching my awesome, youthful body with your old man one?"
"First of all, my body is in perfect condition, thank you very much." He said matter of factly. "And second of all, parading around in my body could present some very unique opportunities for you. Opportunities you wouldn't be able to take advantage of usually, with your current reputation."
"Go on." Willow had an idea of what he was implying, and she very much liked it.
"Perhaps, you could, I don't know, use my good standing with Wickerbottom to obtain access to a certain chest of items you've been banned from using, hmm?" He had a smug look on his face as he said it, knowing that this would automatically win her over. And he was right on that one.
Ever since the incident with the slurtle slime, where poor Maxwell ended up losing his pants for two days straight and wore a grass skirt until they were repaired (otherwise known as the Hawaiian Maxwell Incident,) Willow had been permanently banned from being anywhere near anything explosive for the rest of time. Obviously her best bud would care enough to know how much she wanted to toy around with the stuff, and also be ruthless enough to use it as a bargaining chip for her.
There was no way she was going to pass this up.
"Wilson, you've got yourself a lab rat. Let's do this." She reached out to shake hands with Wilson, sealing the deal. "Ok, so, do I have to brace myself or- "
She had no time to voice that thought as Wilson pressed a button on the side of the lamp thing. The thing sparked, she felt a little buzz in her brain, and she blacked out.
When she woke up again, she felt like she had slept in the worst way possible. Her neck hurt, her back hurt, her actual bones hurt, and for some reason, her hands felt slightly burnt. Why did they feel like that? She never felt burnt, ever.
She looked down at her hands, and instead of being met with her dainty, if perpetually covered in a slight layer of soot and ash hands, she was met with a pair of completely black, bony hands. She rubbed her fingers together, feeling the slight texture of the gloves Wilson apparently wore (she always wondered what was up with his hands. Guess this was the answer, gloves. She liked her theory of "demon hands due to an experiment gone awry" better.) But why did she have Wilson's hands?
She started noticing other things too, now that she regained focus. She didn't see the hairs of her bangs in her vision, a few strands of them usually hanging over her face, no matter how much she combed her hair (which was very little, admittedly.) She noticed the fact that she was wearing pants rather than her usual skirt. She felt her chin ich, and scratching at it revealed the sensation of stubble on it.
Oh, and most importantly, she saw herself sitting right next to her, looking at her own hands in awe. "It worked." The her said, sounding noticeably nerdier and britishier than what she knew she usually sounded. "We're not dead. The machine worked!"
"The machine?.. Oh, the brain swapping thing! Now I remember. Guess that means I'm in your ratty old body now, huh." Now that she realised it, her voice sounded weird too. Guess she had Wilson's voice now. And his hair as well. Speaking off.
"Don't even think about it." He cut her off, a stern look on his face… her face? This was going to be confusing. And it looked so wrong for her to have that kind of look coming from her face. "You may use my appearance for your mischief, but my hair remains off limits. Understood?"
"Alright, alright, geez. Your stupid hair stays safe and sound, yadda yadda yadda, not a hair out of place, blah blah blaahhh." She said, annoyed. "Honestly you make me sound so whiny and nerdy."
"And you make me sound boorish and immature. So I guess we're even in that regard."
"Touche."
Willow got up, dusting off Wilson's, now technically her's, pants, and stretching. "Kay, so! How are we doing this? We go around, have fun for the rest of the day, then come back and switch back?"
"Agreed." Wilson got up as well, examining the machine for a bit before dusting his hands off. He looked perturbed at how much ash was on them. "I'll have to wash these at some point. Either way, we go about our business, then we return back here around I'm saying sundown. We give each other a rundown on what we did today, for alibi purposes, in case the others question us, and then we switch back. Oh! That reminds me, don't tell anyone. I want this to be a surprise." He giggled to himself at that.
"That's settled, then! Go do your creepy experiments with my body while I frame you for crimes I commit. What a wonderful system we just came up with!"
"Very funny." Wilson rolled his- rolled her- no, those eyes were his for now. That was the logic she was gonna follow. She loaned him her body, and he loaned her his. Yep, that made sense. So, Wilson rolled his eyes at that. "Still, good luck and have fun!"
"I'll make sure of it!"
And the two parted ways, leaving the clearing, and leaving the machine alone. This would most definitely not backfire on them whatsoever, no sirree.