Even though he was one of the lucky ones inside the dome, maintaining good health and well-being, as well as having several bots and nanobots doing the work for him, Clayton still hated his job. He was a zookeeper, not a hugely skilled one, but a zookeeper nonetheless. Since he was young when he first arrived, he never got to experience his birthplace, the worn, rotten, devastated planet, Earth. While he was born on one of the still-standing hospitals, the planet was being destroyed by the people who inhabited it. The environment was slowly dying out, the vegetation was wasting away. In a last attempt to save the wildlife of the planet, several shuttles containing the surviving animals were launched, being added into the billions of people inside the dome. At an early age, Nerva had installed their nanobots into Clayton's system. This was to not only prevent any sickness that was carried from Earth to the Mars dome, but also to make Clay buy more Nerva products, sending subliminal messages into his mind. In return, Nerva gave him, as well as everyone else who bought or installed Nerva's products, healthly, fit, and as beautiful as they can be. To Nerva, the people who bought their products were sheep, believing the lies that Nerva marketed, buying the products that people outside the dome were forced to create. They didn't care about their daily lives, all they cared about was profit.
Since he arrived on Mars when he was very young, Clayton didn't know what the importance of the zoo was. It was just a job to him, a job that he did not enjoy at all. He hated cleaning up, dressing up in his beige uniform, making him look like a scout leader, and just working in general. Clay was over-reliant on Nerva's products to do the work for him, a lot of people were, but Clay was the perfect example of how Nerva made some people lazy. He hated most of the animals there. The giraffes, the birds, even the new horse that arrived from...somewhere, he didn't care. Somehow, the animals that he both was intrigued by and hated the most was the primates, or as Clay called it, those "dumb monkeys".
There was something about them that he hated and admired. They seemed to want Clay to do something with them, to the point of hurting him to get him to go in the cage, whenever it was his turn to clean up the cages. He didn't know they wanted to hurt him, tease him or force him into the cage (with them inside). It was even more annoying to Clay since they were the main attraction to the zoo. All the people in the dome, slumming around the monkey cages, watching these under-developed creatures try and leave their current "home". Nearly every visit and clean-up, Clay tries to find a way to kill those monkeys when nobody is watching. The thought keeps building up every visit, gaining more detail. His train of monkey murdering thought was lost as soon as one of his co-workers started talking to him.
"Hi, Clay. Still eyeing those monkeys, eh? Aren't they cute?"
Zoe was his occasional co-worker who Clay had a crush on. Thursday was the only day that Clay got to work with Zoe, all the workers had a set layout to who would work where on what day. Nearly every week since he had met her, Clay would wait impatiently for Thursday to come, considering he never saw Zoe outside of the zoo.
Zoe was sweet, caring and considerate, so already, it was unlikely that Clay had a chance with Zoe. Luckily, Clay was good at hiding his true self from women that he really wanted to date. She had a huge passion for working with animals, especially the aquatic ones. That was something that Clay couldn't hide. He had no passion when it came to animals, and he definitely couldn't fake it, especially with the monkeys. He stopped death glaring at the monkeys and immediately smiled at Zoe, rather awkwardly.
"Oh, h-hi Zoe. How are you? Hey...um, would you-"
"I'm great. Aren't you lucky to working with such cute animals?"
Lucky? Cute? Clay's mind was screaming. His chance of a relationship was ruined by a bunch of monkeys. Clayton tried so hard to keep that smile.
"Yep, they're pretty cool".
Zoe walked towards them, which gave Clay some time to rest his face from the smile, his frown almost dropping to the floor. All he could hear was Zoe, saying hello to the monkeys, the animals that took Zoe's attention away from him.
"Well, I better continue working with these lot, they've got a busy day tomorrow" Clay said, trying his hardest to get some attention.
"You're right, I better check on the aquatic den, see if those otters are okay. You're so good to those monkeys, no wonder they are so calm..."
"Calm. Calm, huh? How many itches, scratches and bites did I have to go through, just to get them into the cage, to make them calm" Clayton thought, keeping that grin so Zoe didn't see the cynical man underneath.
"...you've done a good job with them, and I think that they're grateful for you helping them. Who knows, they might make a crown and make you their new leader" Zoe laughed with Clay, who was desperately trying to laugh like a normal person who was not aggravated by a bunch of primates. Zoe waved goodbye as she walked off chuckling at the idea.
Clay tried to join in. "yeah....like a king..." he shouted out to Zoe, who had already left ear reach.
"...king..." he thought, grumpy "...king of the monkeys..."
Those four words were thought of at the wrong moment. The nanobots inside Clay glitched. Somehow, the last four words repeated on end in Clayton's mind. These four words also had an effect on the nanobots, somehow affecting his mind and body.
Clayton turned to the monkeys, glaring with rage. "Right, I've had enough of dealing with you lot..." Clayton walked away to grab something, something that the monkeys knew about. Clay returned holding a box of fresh fruit, with almost endless piles of bananas.
"...so I've found a way to torture you" Clay held out the banana near the reach of one of the monkeys, and as soon as he went millimetres close to it, Clay pulled back the banana. He did this several times, until he smelled something. Whatever it was, it was fantastic. All these smells were so tantalising, it was making his mouth water. The smells were so good, it felt like it was getting closer towards him, as his nose started to stretch forward, flaring the nostrils. His face moulded forward, extending his jaw to fit with his new nose. His thoughts started to focus less on the monkey torture and more on the fruit. Clay didn't usually like fruit, and by usually, Clay didn't like it at all. But it was something about these fruit that tingled his tastebuds. He had to try one, at least. His hand started to move towards the banana, without noticing the large amount of brown fur that was starting to grow onto the back of his hands. He peeled open the skin of the banana and, without any hesitation, stuffed the banana right down to his stomach.
He had never tasted anything so good. He had to have another, it was just too good. As he peeled another banana and started chewing, his teeth were getting thicker but sharper. He sat down, eating his second, third, fourth banana. Every bite of the banana made him want to have more and more, but the screeching of the monkeys inside the cage stopped him from having another bite. The screeching was loud, almost deafening him, as his ears started to misshapen into a more primal design. He stood up, moving towards the cage with his hands crunched up into a ball, like it was natural for him to do so. His arms extended as he looked towards the other monkeys, begging and pleading for food. The stretching of his muzzle took it's toll on Clay's head, slightly squashing it, dumbing his thoughts.
"Food" Clay grunted "Monkey want?".
The monkeys held out their hand like small, furry Tiny Tim's on Christmas Eve.
For some reason, Clay wanted to give them food. I mean, why wouldn't he? I always wanted to help out the an-ani-a-h-hi-his kind.
Clay's feet slipped out of his shoes, as he grabbed a handful of fruit and threw it in to the cage.
Clay's feet cracked as it forced itself onto the floor, somehow giving the toes more movement, more flexibility. Like they were another pair of hands. He scratched behind his ears with his foot, almost already covered in fur.
He started to hoot with excitement, his new friends were happy that he gave them food, so they started hooting louder. Clay's hoots started as just his regular, but it was becoming more primal in tone. He was ripping his tatted clothes in a state of pure joy.
His spine extended, becoming almost as flexible as his hands, covered in fur. He starte-star-st-h-had-had a tail. His mind was almost completely monkey by this point, as his height shrunk down to "regular" size. The last thing that he did before he was a total monkey was opening the door to the cage, and shutting it behind him.
He was completely unlike what he was before. Instead of being a cynical, lazy human, he was now a happy "stupid" monkey. Maybe Zoe would like him better now, since he is now the "King of the Monkeys".
Two down, several billion to go...