Project White Lily is a more informal group compared to others. Honestly, there wasn't much in the program after conversion, asides from steps for muscle-building that didn't use steroids and the proper diet required to facilitate adding bulk. It was more of a challenge for herbivorous Animlians, but there were blends of protein shakes that were considerable more palatable. But after a period of the new members adjusting, Anton went around to check how they were doing.
==========
First on the list was Arnold. Arnold had gone for the bulkiest Animalian available and had become a bull African elephant. There had been some mild concern with that considering Arnold had a bit of a Type A personality and African elephants, particularly bulls, tended to be aggressive. From what Anton heard, Afia really surprised him when she threw him over her shoulder. He wondered how much of a bruise to his ego that caused him.
Anton found Arnold in the quarry near the Burrows. While most of the Burrows was carved out of living rock, there were some additions that were made of separate pieces of rock. As such, this quarry existed to split up large stones into more usable shapes. Usually, machines did most of the work, but the larger Animalians came here to really test their strength by smashing rocks. Anton had done this before, but he couldn't compare to the Super and Ultra Heavyweights, which Arnold was now a part of.
He found Arnold smashing one stone with a large sledgehammer. His elephantine strength was making short work of it. "Arnold!" called Anton over the banging, "You have time to talk?"
Arnold paused in his pounding and lifted his safety goggles. Animalian or not, getting rock dust in your eye was still irritating, let alone if shards came flying back into your face. "Come here to work out?" asked Arnold, "Grab a hammer."
"Not this time," said Anton, "Just wanted to see how you were holding up."
"Holding up? I'll show you how much," said Arnold before lifting a boulder over his head.
"You know what I mean," said Anton, "No problems with being an elephant?"
"Well, it takes a lot of greens to fill me up," said Arnold as he put down the boulder.
"And what about Afia?" asked Anton.
"Honestly, I never thought a woman could be so strong," said Arnold, "Maybe that's why I liked other guys."
"Well, she won the Ultra Heavyweight Bodybuilding competition," said Anton, "Twice."
"For women," said Arnold, "Didn't think that would make her as strong as me."
"Compared to the weight she lift, you wouldn't be a problem for her," said Anton.
"That's for sure," said Arnold, "I wasn't sure about this whole heterosexual thing before. But with a woman like Afia, I think I can get around to it."
"Good to hear," said Anton.
==========
Next, Anton decided to check on the stallion trio. Personally, Anton preferred classical music over hip-hop. He wasn't against hip-hop but a lot of those lyrics rubbed his scales the wrong way. It was a little harder to get all those three together at once, but Marquise was a better mouthpiece for the group anyways. "Any trouble with the mares?" he asked.
"Well, Coye seems nice enough," said Marquise, "But the other two are having a rougher time."
"The mares or your homies?" asked Anton dryly.
Marquise chuckled and said, "I guess they never really refined their ability to talk to girls."
"Well, I'm hoping you're not going to burn out trying to do too many things at once," said Anton.
"I think we're more concerned with working on our music than bodybuilding. I mean, no offense, but these bodies make it so there's no real effort with bulking up," said Marquise.
"Well, if you really want to qualify, you have to put in the work," said Anton, "And how is your music career going along?"
"Well, Debony showed some of his stuff to the owners of the Kit Kat Club," said Marquise.
"How'd that work out?" asked Anton.
"Simone allegedly threatened to physically throw him out until he can write better lyrics," said Marquise before pausing, "Or was it Ella because she didn't like the music?"
"Well, I suppose the transition from disco to hip-hop wasn't smooth," said Anton.
==========
Zak seemed to adjusting very well, considering he had a more extreme transformation. Becoming a four-armed snake looked cool, but it took some time to learn how to coordinate the new limbs. Zak was quickly getting the hang of it though, thanks to his new girlfriend, Madame Madge. He was also spending quite a bit of time with the GGAC in their LARPing dungeon. There was one thing that concerned Anton.
"Are you sure you can handle all those?" asked Anton.
"I've been working at it," said Zak, who had a scimitar in each hand, "It's not like they're real."
"Well, I've heard you wanted real sword training," said Anton, "I'm just worried you could hurt yourself."
"I'm not going to be juggling swords...yet," said Zak.
"Tell me you're joking," said Anton.
"Well, I'm teaching myself to juggle," said Zak, "It's hard enough with two hands, imagine doing it with four."
"But you're not going to-" started Anton.
"I just got these new arms, I don't want to chop them off," said Zak.
==========
The last member of the new group went with an even more extreme change. Anton hadn't known Alvin personally enough to notice he had a gender identity problem. Anton wondered if Alvin really noticed before he got the chance to convert. There are plenty of men and women who have never gotten the chance to become the gender they felt they should have been born as. Animalia couldn't provide a complete conversion to the opposite sex, but it could do the next best thing. However, when Alvin went to Project Hermaphroditus, he had a more unusual request.
Claw Colosseum has an un-chlorinated pool reserved for the aquatic members and Anton found Alvin there. Shi was moving through the water with great ease, thanks to hir larger tail and flipper-like feet. Shi eventually came up and took a long breath of air, letting the water fall from hir gills. Anton had known a few shark Animalians and Alvin didn't seem much different from the females, asides from hir shorter hair, bulkier body, and the slight bulge in hir bikini.
"Enjoying your new body, Alvin?" asked Anton.
"Please, call me Elana," said the herm shark as shi climbed out of the pool.
"I have to admit, I would have never pegged you for transgender," said Anton.
"Most transgenders wouldn't wear it on their sleeves," said Elana, "You can see why they wouldn't."
"Well, our country is getting more progressive, despite efforts in higher places," said Anton.
"True that," said Elana.
"So, you're ok with being hermaphrodite?" asked Anton.
"It's not a perfect fit, but I think I can learn to like it," said Elana, "I feel more like myself now."
"There is one thing I'm curious about: why a bull shark and not a great white?" asked Anton.
"Well, bull sharks are more versatile," said Elana, "They can live in both freshwater and saltwater. And being a liminal being of male and female, I may as well be a liminal fish of river and sea. Besides, I saw well that worked out for Buford and I wanted some of that."
"So you're saying you're content with your current body," said Anton.
"Well, the only thing I'm missing is a mate," said Elana.
"I'm sure that will come along soon enough," said Anton.