Anna put down the phone,and went back to her room, to get her things ready. Even if she had some restrictions put on using the gun, she was still pretty excited to try it out again. Helping her brother get a more comfortable life, and getting to hang out with a bunch of cute animals was a win-win, in her book. She picked up her wallet, then remembered she didn’t have any pockets. She looked over at her dresser with a sigh. She hated the idea of wearing clothes over fur. Not only did it just seem wrong, now, but she had a feeling it would literally rub her fur the wrong way. But she didn’t just want to carry her phone and wallet in her paws all day, while holding the gun at the same time, so she reached for one of the drawers.
As soon as she touched it, in the blink of an eye, it was no longer a dresser, but a set of shelves. Anna gasped, but wasn’t alarmed for too long. She’d seen much weirder things yesterday. The shelves were mostly empty, save for a handful of cat-grooming products, in a slightly larger size than the ones she usually used for Noni, and a little waistband, with a couple pouches like a tool belt. She picked it up, and smiled. She wasn’t sure how that happened, but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She put it around her waist, while mentally noting to make some horse or pony ladies if she got the chance. She loved riding during her summer breaks, when she was a kid, and even if she probably couldn’t ride any horse women made by the gun, it’d be fun to have them around.
She slipped her cell phone and wallet into the pouches, happy to see there was ample room. She was a little disappointed that it didn’t also have a holster to carry the gun, too, but she could probably sew one in later. Or maybe one of the new maids could help. If they got enough of them, one of them, they’d eventually find one that knew how to sew.
She was about to leave, when she heard a meowing behind her. She looked down to see Noni rubbing her head against her leg. “Aw, don’t worry baby, I won’t forget to feed you.” She went over to the non-anthro cat’s food bowl, opening the big bag to pour out. As she opened it, she was surprised at how nice it smelled. She poured it into the bowl, and was about to seal up the bag, when she sniffed it again. She WAS part cat now… Maybe she would like it now?
She knew she should probably know better, but her curiosity was getting to her. Reaching into the food bag, she pulled out one of the pellet, and hesitantly put it in her mouth. Chewing a little, she found it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t the tastiest thing she’d ever had, but she imagined if someone knew how to properly cook the ingredients, it could be truly delicious. She closed the bag, and pet Noni as she chewed on her food.
Anna walked out into the living room, where Cassidy was currently lounging on the couch, the massive tiger taking up the entire length, and then some. “Hi there, Cassidy. Master asked me to do something for him today, so I’m gonna go out for a bit. See you later!”
Cassidy stood up. “Hey, Master told me to keep you company, and help you out. So, you’ll be seeing me right now.” She grinned, and ruffled the fur on Anna’s head. “Wouldn’t want to risk anything bad happening to the sweet little sister, would we?”
Anna smiled back. Even if Curt and Skyla were still worried about trusting Cassidy, Anna had a hard time believing that this woman was anything like the Cassidy that was responsible for yesterday’s chaos. “Nope! And I didn’t really want to go alone, anyway.”
The two felines took the bus to the Azure Springs Retirement Home. Curt had visited this place with Anna about six months prior, when his company was taking part in several community outreach projects, so it had been the first retirement Home Anna had thought of after the idea of changing retired folks had come to her. After seeing that Eva had gotten younger under the gun’s effects, it only made sense to Anna to give some older folks some extra years of life. Curt would surely see that as a fair tradeoff for being a servant, and approve. Though Anna hoped at some point he would realize that for the people he changed, working for him was a BONUS, not a downside. She almost felt sorry for the fathers that would be left out of all the fun, even if she knew it was for the best. She didn’t want their kids disappearing like all those people’s clothes had.
Granted, even she wasn’t quite sure HOW Eva had gotten younger. Anna hadn’t done anything special with the gun that time, and she doubted getting shot had anything to do with it, (and if it did, she didn’t plan on shooting any old folks with normal guns just to get that to happen again,) but hey, you’d never find out anything without trying things out, right? Maybe she’d figure out a way to do it reliably today.
A man at the front desk greeted Anna and Cassidy, letting them through for visitor’s hours. The two headed into the garden in the back. It wasn’t too fancy, being mostly just a large yard, with a couple of trees for shade, some flowerbeds at the edges, and a handful of benches. There were six seniors out in the garden, one man and one woman walking together, being watched by an orderly in case they fell during their exercise. The remaining four, one man and three women, were seated on the benches, one woman reading a book, the next sitting quietly by herself, and the last talking with the man.
“So, what is it Master wanted you to do here?” Cassidy asked.
Anna remembered that Cassidy wouldn’t know about the transformations caused by the gun, so she decided to tell her a half-truth. Specifically, the half of the truth she would actually remember when this was over. “We’re looking for another one of Master’s servants.” She pulled out the gun, scanning over the people. To her disappointment, when it was aimed in the direction of either of the elderly men, it displayed the same error message it had yesterday. Apparently both of the elderly men out here today happened to be fathers. Oh well, the women could still be given a shot at a new life.
While Anna was thinking to herself about which to change, and how to justify it to Curt, another elderly woman showed up. She approached the woman sitting by herself, and Anna noticed that the two looked quite a lot alike. Both were about 5’2”, with brown hair and green eyes. “Hello Kathy! How are you doing today?” The new woman said.
“Who are you?” The seated woman asked. The other woman seemed disappointed, but not surprised, by the question.
“It’s me, your twin sister, Carrie,” The standing woman said. “You remember me, right?”
“Carrie?” Kathy seemed to be recalling something. “You’ve gotten so old…”
Carrie smiled a little. “So have you. So, how are you feeling, today?”
“Oh, it’s pretty lonely out here. Nobody ever comes to talk to me.”
Carrie once again seemed disappointed, but unsurprised. “Well, don’t worry, Kathy, I’m making sure to come visit you every day, rain or shine. What else is a sister for?”
Anna had heard Master talk about a condition that made people forgetful like that before. Alzheimers, was it? She definitely felt sympathy for Kathy, given her own… difficulties... prior to her brother changing her. She pulled her cell phone out of her pouch while Cassidy’s attention was elsewhere, and started dialing Master. She was certain of her first target of the day.
______________________________
Ah, code compiling. That glorious lunchbreak away from lunchbreak. The process practically took care of itself, so he usually used the time afforded by it to get himself a little snack, look up some memes for a quick laugh on his phone, or, when he had a meeting, like today, to prepare some questions about whatever new project was being announced. But with Meredith on hand, snacks had already been taken care of, and she had been all too happy to write any questions about the new project he thought of while working down for him. So today, Curt had been using the time to look into a matter that had been on his mind since yesterday evening: what was the “new Cassidy” really like.
He had been searching various public records relating to her expecting the worst. He had been a bit surprised to see that she, and all the other people he had changed, now had their ethnicity listed as “anthro” in their records. He also learned that she was 31, and was officially registered as living with him since he had moved into his own house. Curt knew in the old reality his parents would never let him hear the end of it if a woman had moved in with him before marriage. Hopefully, the gun’s perception filter meant that his parents would just accept that there wasn’t anything sexual, or even romantic, going on between them. He had enough awkward conversations to deal with already, what with the reality shifts.
Such as how Meredith had apparently known and worked with him for about a year, now, while he knew nothing about her. She seemed to accept his excuse of being “scatterbrained” when he asked her a bunch of questions he should have already known the answers to (such as how to spell her and Cassidy’s last names, which, for him, was simply a far less suspicious method of discovering their last names than just asking, even if the “easy” spelling still made it look odd), but he felt that that would only fly so many times before his “servants” began to worry he was developing Alzheimer's at twenty-five.
Getting his mind back to the task at hand, he went through Cassidy’s criminal records. He found more on there than he hoped, but far less than he’d thought he would. It seemed that she had been involved in some gang activity in her teens, starting off with vandalism, and gradually escalating from there. But shortly after she hit sixteen, her record was suddenly spotless. Maybe something in this timeline had set her back on the straight and narrow, then. Or maybe she just figured out how to not get caught. He considered just asking her, but if she was innocent, he’d be offending a friend he knew for at least two years over nothing. And if she was guilty, it wasn’t out of the question, as far as he knew, that her “love” could motivate her to just say what she’d think he wanted to hear, anyway.
He moved on to check her facebook profile. She had only had an account for the last five years, apparently, but hopefully, that could help fill in some gaps for him. Her profile listed her occupation as “Curt Evenson's Bodygaurd” which got a little chuckle out of him. He wasn’t really sure he needed protecting from anything, but he appreciated the thought. Looking back over her her photos and timeline, he saw a lot of photos of her with him and Anna, and various people Curt knew. No real indication of hanging out with any shady characters since she had moved in with him. Looking back even further, he saw that she had apparently hung out with him at college, even if she didn’t attend herself. He saw plenty of photos of the muscular tiger woman posing with him, Danielle, and a few other friends and acquaintances he had made during college, quite a few of which were in the gym. While it may not guarantee anything, Curt felt relieved that she at least didn’t seem to be associating with any bad apples the past few years.
His research was halted by his phone ringing. Seeing Anna’s name on the caller ID, he quickly answered. “Hello. What’s up, Anna?”
“I was looking for more people to change, like you said, so I came to the old folks home. I thought we might be able to make them younger, like we did for Eva.”
Curt tapped his desk nervously, the questions about Eva’s change from this morning coming back to his mind. He wasn’t ready to worry about resetting more people like that. But his sister was definitely trying to follow his advice and focusing on changing people who would “need” it most. He wondered how to steer her away from this without making her think she had done something wrong by saving Eva’s life.
Then again, maybe there was another way to make this work. It was a little risky, but it it might result in fewer timeline complications than someone being born years later than they were “supposed to.” “I get what you’re going for, Anna, and it’s not a bad idea. But there’s a bit of a problem.”
“What’s that?”
“We still don’t know what caused Eva to get younger, do we?”
“No, I guess not.”
“So there’s a chance we might not be able to make it happen again. And if that happens, then they’re still gonna be old when they start wanting to work for me. And I’m not sure if ‘“people wearing down in their old age” is a condition the gun will cure, which means they might feel compelled to help me, but not be able to. And there’s few things in life more frustrating than not being able to help someone you love.”
“So “no,” then?” Anna sounded pretty disappointed.
“No, not exactly “no,”” Curt said. “I was actually thinking, if you turned them into a creature with a really long lifespan, like say a turtle, or…”
He paused. He would have said “a jellyfish” next, since they could apparently live forever, but he hadn’t actually tried making any sea life with the gun yet. With the safety features in place to prevent him from accidentally poofing someone out of existence, it probably would make people changed into aquatic creatures able to survive on land, but he still would feel a little more comfortable trying that out near a beach, in case something did go wrong. Plus, there was also the matter of HOW you would anthropomorphize a jellyfish. Probably better to stick with some mythical creatures for this experiment.
“Or a dragon or phoenix. Maybe when they’re changed like that, they’ll be a little “young” for their species, even if the gun doesn’t actually make them younger.”
“Okay,” Anna sounded slightly disappointed. “I was gonna change a woman with Alzheimer's first. Is curing that an okay reason?”
“Yep! That seems good to me.”
Anna paused a bit and continued. “By the way, she has a twin sister that I think has been coming to see her. Do you think I could change her too, so they’d still match?”
Curt was about to say that just making them match was a poor reason (even if he admitted, making a pair of, say, phoenixes, would be really cool), but giving it some thought, he instead told her “Actually, yeah, that does sound like a good idea. If this actually works, they won’t have to deal with one of them growing old faster than the other.”
“Great!” Anna said. “I’ll call you back to let you know how it went.” And with that, the call ended.
“Is there anything else you need, Master?” Curt jumped in his seat, having nearly forgotten about the mouse woman.
“Did you hear any of that?”
“I know eavesdropping is unbecoming of me, Master, and I apologize, but I did overhear your conversation. Though… I couldn’t make much sense of it, either.”
“No, no, don’t worry about it.” Curt said, trying to think of some way to make this situation a little less awkward. “Oh, look, my code’s done compiling! Time to get back to work!”
________________
Anna hung up her phone. She was glad she had gotten permission to make two changes at the same time, but not knowing the lore behind kitsune, she was frustrated that there weren’t any fuzzy super-old creatures to turn the old folks into. Still, if the gun could make spiders cute with the “Adorable” toggle, it could probably do the same for just about anything.
She picked her settings, and took aim, letting loose two green bolts of electricity in rapid succession. Dozens upon dozens of little golden growths began to sprout on each of the two sisters’ arms, covering more and more of their skin, a clear pattern of interlocking, shimmering scales becoming evident. The wrinkles and stretched skin became taught, as their fingernails vanished, short claws poking out of their fingertips instead.
The two women’s clothes vanished, save for their purses, though as their bodies had already been covered in scales, there was nothing indecent to display (and, as reptiles, their breasts lacked nipples, anyway). Tiny, golden scales covered each of their backs, while wider, paler scales covered their chests, bellies, and the front of their necks. Anna watched with interest as the two of them rapidly became much thinner, and seemed to become about a foot taller, as well.
Kathy began to shakily rise from her bench, as the two women’s legs were covered in the shimmering scales, becoming thinner, yet stronger than they had been in years. The sisters’ feet changed a bit more significantly than their hands, each of their toes stretching out to three times their original length, while growing claws poked out through the sink on their tips, just as they had on their hands. Each sister’s “little toe” seemed to pull around to the back of their feet, becoming dewclaws.
The women’s necks grew upwards, raising their heads roughly a foot above their shoulders. Their jaws and noses grew right before their eyes, nearly to the same length as the rest of their heads. Their noses merged with their scaled snouts, their nostrils growing slightly wider right above their mouths. Their teeth grew larger, and sharper, (though not enough to make them look intimidating) the frontmost teeth curving back slightly. At the end of their snouts, on either top corner, long, yellow whiskers started to grow, waving slightly in the breeze as they became six inches long, each. Their ears extended slowly, as well, becoming longer and narrower, a hint of yellow fur growing on the outsides. Their eyes became larger, and rounder, the irises turning a soft yellow color. Meanwhile, two brown growths appeared atop each woman’s head. They slowly sprouted up into a set of horns, splitting into smaller “branches” at about six inches, looking almost like antlers.
Next, the two sisters’ grey hair suddenly turned a bright, fiery red hue, becoming longer and thicker, more and more of it cascading behind them as a lustrous mane. More red hair began to grow down their backs, along their spines. Just before the growing manes reached the base of the dragons’ spines, a golden tail sprouted just above each of their rears. The two tails stretched and snaked their way behind the two women, criss-crossing each other a few times, as they grew out further and further. More pale scutes formed on the underside of the tails, while the red manes trailed over the top. Anna almost thought the serpentine appendages would never stop growing, but they eventually did, when their length was equal to the two women’s new heights. As each tail’s growth finally slowed to a stop, their tips exploded into great tufts of red fur. It took every bit of self control Anna had to resist the urge to pounce and cuddle the fluffy masses.
Anna was a little surprised at the result. She hadn’t specifically thought of an eastern style dragon when firing, but she HAD been wishing she could have picked a fluffier creature. Maybe that was the gun’s way of compromising when she went with her brother’s dragon suggestion.
The two eastern dragonesses shifted their attention from each other, to encouraging the exercising couple.
“So Master wanted you to talk to the twins, huh?” Cassidy asked. “Well, I’m glad I came along. They’re always fun to be around.”
“Yeah,” Anna nodded. “But I kinda lost track of which one was Kathy, and which one was Carrie…”
The tiger woman squatted down to whisper in the cat’s ears. “I’m gonna be honest with you; I can never tell either.”
Anna walked up behind the two dragons. “Carrie? Kathy?”
“You hear what I hear, Kathy?” Said one.
“Always do, Carrie!” Said the other.
The two craned their necks around at the same time. “Anna! How nice to see you,” The two spoke in unison, turning around completely to look at the cat girl.
Anna was surprised at how young the pair sounded now. If people were judging by voice alone, they’d sound even younger than her! “Nice to see you too! How are you two doing today?”
“Just super!” Said Kathy.
“Thanks for asking,” said Carrie.
“Does Master need our help?” They spoke together.
“He’s working right now,” Anna said, “But I think he’d like to see you this evening.”
“Wonderful!”
“Fantastic!”
“I always enjoy getting to see Master! He’s such a cutie!”
Oh you know it! Master’s adorable!”
“We’ll be there!” The two cheered at once. Anna couldn’t help but notice the way they said “cutie” and “adorable” sounded less like they were talking about a boyfriend, and more like they were talking about a toddler or a puppy.
“So, what are you two doing out here?” Anna asked.
“Didn’t we mention?”
“I guess you forgot?”
“We come here, whenever we have spare time.”
“To help some of our friends from when we were all kids.”
“Humans go through life a lot faster than we do.”
“They really do grow up so fast.”
“Meanwhile, it feels like we’ve been seventy-three for like, a million years!”
“Yeah, it’s so annoying!”
“But we’re getting sidetracked.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“The point is, we want to help our friends.”
“While they’re still here.”
“Gotta make the most of it, you know?” They said simultaneously.
“That’s really nice of you!” Anna said. “Well, I hope you all have a good time. See you this evening!”
The dragons nodded, as Anna walked back toward Cassidy. Kathy and Carrie looked through their purses.
“Oh no, I forgot!”
“I didn’t bring it either!”
“We must have left Henry’s favorite sandwich,”
“Back in the fridge at home!”
“Don’t worry too much about it.” The old man said, as he walked past them. “I’ll do fine.”
“Oh, don’t worry.”
“We’ll be back in ten minutes!”
Anna turned around, watching as the two dragonesses coiled their serpentine bodies, then unwound like a spring, lifting off, twirling and twisting around each other through the air, as if gravity had no effect on them at all, in spite of their lack of wings.
Anna lept back a good distance in surprise. Cassidy patted her on the shoulder. “Yeah, their sudden take-offs still catch me by surprise sometimes, too.”
Anna nodded, deciding not to tell Cassidy that it was them flying at all that spooked her. She stared at the pair in awe as they sailed off. When they were little more than speck on the skyline, she looked down at the gun, and noticed a new message on the holographic user interface.
“Congratulations on successfully creating ten (10) total anthro maids! Your Transformation Ray Gun has been upgraded to version 1.3. This upgrade adds the “target’s favorite” option to the species selection menu! Want to help someone feel closer to their favorite animal, but don’t want to ask a lot of weird questions? Then choose this handy option! By reading the target’s conscious and unconscious desires, this setting can help make your maids the happiest they can be.”
“An additional toggle, has also been added to let a target’s unconscious desires influence the Busty/Adorable and Nude/Maid toggles. This may be activated or deactivated independently from the “target’s favorite” species selection.”
“The next upgrade will be activate at twenty (20) total anthro maids created. Have a nice day!”
Had she not been in public, she would have cheered! She got Master’s orders fulfilled before lunchtime! She asked Cassidy to give her some space, and called up her brother.
“Hello, again Anna. How’d it go?”
“Your idea worked! We’ve got a pair of 73-year-old “teenage” dragons that are looking forward to seeing their master again this evening!”
“Dragons? Well, I’ll be looking forward to seeing them, too!”
“And that’s not alllll!” Anna smiled.
“What is it? Sounds like good news.”
“I got the gun upgraded already!” She quickly read off the message to him again.
Curt could be heard asking Meredith to go for a glass of water for him, before continuing. “That’s a real useful sounding addition! But, When I made that job for you, I forgot there were only two more to go until the upgrade. Looks like Skyla missed out entirely… Kinda hard to base how I should let her handle the gun with no sample whatsoever. But, I did say I’d base my decision off this, and you did show some thought about who you picked, so, I’ll let you have some freedom with it.”
Anna grinned a catty smile as Curt continued. “You and Skyla don’t need my permission for every zap now. But like I said yesterday, keep in mind, that there’s still some practical concerns when you’ve got that many people working for you, so, again, don’t go too crazy.”
“Me and Skyla going crazy? Don’t know where you get that idea.”
“Also… Giving it some thought, you might not want to change any women in a relationship with a man who’s had kids… At least, not into mythical, long-lived creatures. It helped those twins stay together, but if the love of their life will have a much shorter lifespan than them… Eh, I don’t know what to think…”
“You feeling alright, Master?”
“Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, I gotta get back to work. Stay safe out there, okay Anna?”
“Of course, Master!”
Anna hung up, and checked the time. If they they took the bus soon, she could meet up with Skyla as soon as she got off for her lunch break. On the other hand, she wouldn’t mind changing a few more retirees. Curt had advised her not to change any couples into mythical creatures, but there were probably a few more “old maids” (hah!) here that wouldn’t mind serving Master, and getting a few extra centuries of life as a bonus.