Was in a mood for rubber sheep so I decided to transform Raf into one (against his will, of course).

Raf finds himself slowly transforming into a rubber sheep drone when his white noise program turns out to be malicious...

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Counting Sheep
By: IndigoRho

In the darkness of his quarters on the freighter Zephyr, Raf failed to fall asleep. The large hyena lay in bed wide awake, obsessively checking the time to see how little sleep he was guaranteed to get. No matter how many positions he tried he just couldn't will himself to be tired. Desperate and grumpier than usual, Raf brought up a holographic display screen and searched the net for solutions.

Amongst the endless ads for sleep supplements and state of the art mattresses were a few bearable suggestions. A highly-ranked white noise program caught his attention first, and Raf begrudgingly decided to give it a try. He quickly installed the program onto his bodysuit's computer.

Gentle chimes accompanied the menu that popped up when Raf loaded the program, which were met with a grunt of disapproval from the perpetual grump. The list of background noise options was larger than he'd expected, a hassle more than a convenience as far as he was concerned. They proved necessary to handle his picky tastes, though.

“Babbling Brook” reminded the hyena too much of a sizzling pan, and the last thing he needed was to get a craving for a midnight snack. “Rainfall” was more of the same, and “Thunderstorm” just didn't appeal to him. He already knew how useless “Ship's Hum” was for him, too. Eventually he managed to find one of interest: “Country Pasture”.

Pressing play filled the air with the sound of gentle breezes and bleating sheep. The noise was gentler than most of the others had been, and thankfully didn't make him hungry. Raf closed his eyes and settled back into bed, hoping the ambiance of a place he'd never been to would finally ease him to sleep.

Raf slowly started to put together a mental image to match the noise. He'd spent most of his life in space so all he knew of fields were pictures and movies, but he tried his best. A hilly green field with a partly cloudy sky was first. A random tree was added, and then a little herd of sheep. Almost instinctively he began to count the sheep, on old aid for falling asleep he'd heard of long ago.

One...two...three...

A slight tingling sensation spread throughout Raf's body, just faint enough for him to ignore as he distracted himself with sheep. In the dark he couldn't see his tan fur losing its color, gradually fading to solid white.

Four...five...six...

The tingling continued as the fingers and toes of Raf's paws warped and fused, hardening into hooves. He shifted in bed, vaguely aware of the odd feelings but incapable of tearing himself away from the counting of sheep. Raf had to admit sheep looked kind of cute and soft. He bet sheep never had a hard time falling asleep.

Seven...eight...nine...

Raf's face was turning black, his pink mohawk becoming a pink tuft of wool. His entire body gained a sheen, fur matting until it was slick like rubber. Long creaks echoed from Raf as he fidgeted in bed, aimlessly counting sheep. He was a fraction of his normal weight, hollow and filled with air rather than pudge.

Ten...eleven...twelve...

The former hyena had transformed completely into a rubber sheep, though he was still undergoing changes. His belly and parts of his arms and legs started puffing up, giving Raf the imitation of having a thick coat of fluffy wool that only seemed to accentuate his massive girth. His bodysuit stretched with ease to handle the swelling.

Thirteen...fourteen...fifteen...

The transformation should have been impossible to ignore, but Raf was in a total stupor. Sheep were the only thing on his mind. His struggle with sleep was forgotten, along with obligations, worries, and wants. He was well known for scowling almost perpetually, though his frown twisted into something more neutral, nearly a smile if looked at from the right angle.

Baahaha...baahaha...baahaha...

The new rubber sheep drone opened its eyes. Raf's whole sense of self had faded away, and in his place was a mostly mindless drone eagerly awaiting orders, awaiting a purpose. It pushed aside the covers and slid off the bed, heavy creaks echoing from its squeaky body. The “Country Pasture” ambient track was switched from external speakers to internal and all visual signs the track was playing were automatically hidden. The computer in Raf's bodysuit was overwritten as thoroughly as he had been, returning it to mint factory condition with no trace left to connect it to its transformed owner.

If any crew members stumbled upon what had been Raf they'd simply mistake it for a service drone; they'd either let it continue its work or—at worst—deflate and store it. With the ship at dock Raf's disappearance would merely be treated as an odd annoyance instead of an unsettling mystery. The sheep drone dutifully performing the hyena's old jobs with a permanent grin might even be welcomed.

Without direct instruction the rubber drone defaulted to the convenient maintenance list its suit already had access to. The drone quickly put together a schedule for itself and waddled towards the door of the crew quarters it had found itself in, bleating mindlessly every few steps. It managed to get wedged in the exit temporarily, but a bit of effort ended with it bouncing into the quiet corridor beyond unfazed. There was plenty of work to do, but fortunately drones didn't need to worry about something like sleep...