Martin and Stuart quietly walked along one of Lyre's streets quietly observing things about the town in the northwestern corner of Nevada that had become so famous for the accident that lead to the creation of the Animalians, anthropomorphic Animals that were known for their physically appealing bodies that had actually drawn Martin and Stuart to them. They'd been Sophomores at UNLV the previous fall when a collection of Animalians had enrolled in the college and the attached colleges to the main UNLV campus. They'd seen the news reports and the various Animalia Ambassadoria episodes, which made it clear to them that female Animalians were hot, and thus having a group of female Animalians on campus had been a very promising experience for the two young men...
"This wasn't quite what I expected with the "bare as you dare" preliminaries," Martin commented to Stuart, "that one poodle girl isn't there."
"Yeah," Stuart nodded, "It would have been fun to actually meet her... and/or her sister, too."
The "bare as you dare" was something that reminded them of their fraternity parties and was something that they could have fun with before moving on to more serious things once they graduated college, and because it was in Lyre's Meat Market, they'd expected that many of the competitors would be Animalians. To their disappointment, many of them were actually human that were simply wanting to have fun and be "on the edge" as it were. It reminded them of their fraternity parties, but it wasn't quite what they were hoping for.
They'd actually hoped to meet an Animalian they'd seen on campus at UNLV the previous fall. She was a tall and athletic looking French Poodle Animalian with plenty of curves that served to distract the two young men from the fact that they weren't human. They tried to introduce themselves, but due to a series of unfortunate events, they were never able to actually meet the Animalian in person and had to settle for asking others if they knew. Some did, though the answers they got proved to complicate things. Some answered that the Poodle Animalian's name was Tiffany while others said her name was Princess. It gave the impression that there were two Poodle Animalians at UNLV and because of different class schedules they weren't always together.
As they figured that out, Marvin and Stuart were both stoked at the idea, as it would mean they'd both get the shot at a hot girlfriend and they could show the two how they could be fun and gentlemen. They could play frisbee golf and even regular golf, which they'd found was one of the few sports that hadn't put "official" rules that either forbade Animalians or refined how Animalians could join many of these sports leagues. Though, the rules, from what they'd found was more a measure on preserving a level "equal" competition, in that major sports leagues, be it College at the NCAA to the various professional leagues didn't have outright bans on Animalian participation, but they wanted to make sure that every league would have at least one Animalian, and thus no team could just dominate its competition with Animalians. And so far, with how small the Animalian population was in the US and how they were largely centralized in Lyre/Animalia with only a handful living outside the twin towns, it might take a while before enough would be available for recruitment at other sports.
But they were still unable to get the meeting with Tiffany or Princess, and thus they decided to spend their summer vacation in Animalia and Lyre until they got that chance, which was were they came across the "bare as you dare" contest which reminded them of their fraternity parties.
"Though, I must say... I don't mind the enhanced muscles," Marvin commented as he flexed, and even as a Corgi Animalian, he was nothing to sneeze at.
"Yeah," Stuart smiled at that, "shame those nincompoops in Congress get all uppity over odd stuff. Sometimes I actually wonder what it would be like if everyone was an Animalian. You know, every guy is muscular, athletic, and energized and every girl was hot... There'd probably be a lot less conflict."
Marvin chuckled and nodded to his friend who'd become an all black Great Dane Animalian. Neither of them were necessarily of the sort of type that would be interested in becoming Animalians because of a connection to that animal or because of some "furry fandom," and the basis of their reasoning was probably more due to being interested in a little piece of action than anything else, but the were generally good and kind hearted people who mostly wanted a bit of fun in life. And most of what related to their conversion was actually a bit more interesting...
+++++++++++++++++++
"I think you're drunk," the Horizon staff member commented as she looked to the two young men as they stood before one of the main windows where the Horizon staff would process forms for conversion.
"Not really," Marvin answered, "we might have had a little... but not a lot."
Stuart had nodded as well. They'd just come from the first "bare as you dare" meeting, which was mostly a sign up session and found on there that Animalians were allowed to participate too. They'd also been amazed by how buff the male Animalians looked, even the ones working the bar. It got their wheels turning that if they became Animalians, then maybe the Poodle Animalians they'd seen at UNLV, be it Tiffany or Princess, would talk with them. Of course, they HAD had a few drinks, which had served to obscure the fact that neither Tiffany nor Princess were participating in bare as you dare competition, but that wasn't about to stop them.
"You will be aware that conversion will be permanent," the Horizon staff member asked, "that once you are an Animalian... you CAN'T be human again?"
"If it means we can impress the two we saw at college, that'll be fine," Stuart spoke while putting an arm around Marvin's shoulder. The two of them swayed a little, but not enough to be totally wasted.
The staff member looked over the paperwork and checked a few things with the linked computer sources she had to make sure that neither Stuart nor Marvin had either stolen someone's identity or were committing some other act that could be considered fraudulent. The biggest thing she found, though was that while the two were 21 years old, they were only sophomores in college, which didn't quite sound right. Normally, a high school senior would graduate high school at the age of eighteen, which would mean by their sophomore year in college they'd only be twenty.
"Aren't you both a bit old to be college sophomores?" the staff member asked as she looked over the paperwork.
"Normally," Marvin admitted, "but... we grew up together and had a lot of fun with golf and video games and seeing how much soda we could drink before having to pee."
"And at times it got competitive," Stuart added, "when we were in fifth grade we were at this sort of amusement park type place. They had a mini golf course and we bet on who would win, the loser bought the winner pizza. It started raining while we were playing, but we couldn't just leave the competition and thus kept going."
"And I won!" Marvin pumped his fist.
"But we were soaked to the bone as a result," Stuart admitted, "our dads were both frustrated and got their "I told you sos" in when we both got a bad case of the flu..."
"I thought it was pneumonia," Marvin interrupted.
"It was both," Stuart shrugged, "anyway... it lead us to both miss a LOT of school and we'd gone through the allotted number of sick days we were allowed to have. Our grades weren't that bad, but because we'd missed so much, we had to repeat the year."
"And our dads wouldn't let us golf in the rain again," Marvin finished.
"I see," the staff member said slowly, "well other than that... your paperwork and understanding of canine and even breed specific instincts seem in order. However, we will require you to take a breathalyzer test with our security staff to make sure you're not drunk."
Stuart and Marvin both nodded and went along with it. And they did pass the test, though only just. The staff at Horizon frowned a little, but since neither Stuart nor Marvin were legally drunk, they had to go through with the conversion request since they were both legal adults. Which allowed them to emerge from Horizon a short time later with Stuart a black furred Great Dane Animalian and Marvin a tan and cream furred Welsh Corgi Animalian. Both felt confident in getting the attention of the two poodle Animalians, not knowing that the ones they wanted to meet and attract weren't in the bare as you dare competition and that Tiffany was actually in a committed relationship already.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Still wish we could meet that Poodle... or her sister," Marvin commented as they walked along as they thought over their conversion, though more getting through the paperwork would allow for it.
"Yeah," Stuart nodded, "but then... it is summer vacation and this bare as you dare competition is offering some cash reward if we win and we'll be here for a while. So, surely if she lives in Lyre or Animalia we'll run into her."
With that, the two of them optimistically kept walking along. They might well get a shot at meeting Tiffany or Princess, and a part of them even figured that maybe if that didn't work, one of the others in the bare as you dare competition might want to become Animalians too, to be with them. It'd be win-win.
"What did you think about those other two guys," Marvin then asked.
"What two guys?" Stuart asked back.
"The two guys that had the same first name as us," Marvin answered, "I think one was a zebra and the other was a wolf."
"Nothing wrong with them having the same first name as us," Stuart answered.
Marvin nodded, remembering one of their first visits with the bare as you dare competition and hearing a couple giggle something. They remembered the judges reprimand the gigglers and it had actually surprised him that both of them had the same first names as himself and his friend. He and Stuart had wanted to get a meeting with this other Marvin and Stuart, but just as with their attempts to get a person to person meeting with Tiffany and Princess, they'd had little luck. But then... they had much of the summer for that.
"Some things seemed a bit silly," Stuart commented, "but... I don't think could be that bad... You know... I thought the judge was actually talking to us."
"Yeah," Marvin agreed, "talk about surprises."