Milli Lyreston rolled into the main Horizon Labs with some degree of amazement and relief. The expanding Covid Pandemic was raising a lot of fears, and from the nursing home she'd been living in she'd seen the news reports that even with vaccines starting to come available, it was likely to get worse in many ways before they got better. That had been something that worried her, and she counted herself luck not to have been exposed in her nursing home, but Horizon's Project Phoenix had always been a big thing and with the opportunity Steven had provided by paying for the conversion, she wasn't going to pass on it. She'd wanted to try it sooner, but she didn't have much in the way of money to afford the travel to Lyre/Animalia and her condition made that difficult even if she did have the money.
A lot of that came from the fact that in her youth she'd had to have had a lobotomy for reasons she could no longer remember why. She'd had a past working as a maid and a caretaker, and had done fairly well, but after the lobotomy, that became impossible. It didn't affect her mind all that much, if at all, but it had appeared to have something of a negative consequence on her ability to move. She wasn't completely paralyzed, but moving was difficult and she tired easily. In fact she only filled out Horizon's forms online with the help of the nursing home staff where she'd been living. It was something that was a symbol of what had happened to her after the procedure had been done. When she first found of her issues, she had been moved in with family who looked after her, but after they died of old age or lost the ability to care for her she was moved to the nursing home she presently resided in... before Steven's job offer would give her a shot at getting out of all that. That was a good thing...
The other thing that Milli considered positive was that despite the safety measures being put in place for Covid related protections, such as plastic screens up over the secretary areas in the main waiting room and all the staff wearing face masks, Horizon had tried to put some Christmas cheer in with some tinsel hanging with other decorations up that were in the area. With all the bad things that were going on related to the pandemic, seeing at least some Christmas cheer in early December made Milli feel better. She even commented on that to the secretary she talked with as she received and then signed where she needed to to complete her paperwork. They thanked her for the complement her and directed her to a "conversion room three" where she would meet with a Doctor Stein. The hallways had plenty of signs and Milli did her best to follow them until came up to a door where a lone man stood with a woman standing behind him, holding what looked like clothing.
"Clothing?" Milli asked, "But the Siberian Forest Cat is not a huge animal..."
"Yes, and most Cat Animalians can still fit into a lot of the clothing they wore as Humans, though certain things, like underwear may not fit once you've converted," Doctor Stein gave a small smile, "but many of those that were older also seemed to catch on to some of the newer styles we've gotten some calls from Heiya Island about a new Mouse Animalian there that is breaking a lot of our expectations of what would come from Mice Animalians. So... you may grow bigger than expected."
"Well... that's something to look forward to," Milli commented slowly.
"Horizon's nurses will also help with certain matters that would relate to when we're uplifting a new species... or converting a human to that species of animal, just in case they have any physical difficulty with their new form," the woman added, "and so on..."
"Well, I might need some help getting out of this chair," Milli spoke, "I can move a little bit... but too much is tiring."
"And I would be more than happy to help in any way you need," the nurse answered.
Milli nodded as Doctor Stein opened the door and she rolled herself in. The room wasn't anything fancy, but she didn't expect it to be. While Doctor Stein readied the needles for her conversion, the nurse followed Milli in and then set the spare clothes down on the bed. Once they were down, the nurse turned to help Milli climb out of the wheelchair. The movement was a bit shaky, and Milli could feel her legs wobble, but the nurse maintained a strong grip to help her stagger over to the bed and then sit down.
"I bet you'll be glad to walk again?" the nurse asked as she got down to remove Milli's shoes and socks.
"Yes," Milli managed a smile, "moving has been tough for quite a while, and if I had the money earlier, I would have signed up for Project Phoenix on my own. But I got a good patron for this, and a job lined up for once I have my youth back. So... I'll be glad to walk again. Not sure what I'll do with the wheelchair though... I mean it's pretty pricy and someone may need it..."
The nurse carefully removed Milli's shoes and socks and then placed them in the seat of the wheelchair. From there she moved the joystick that controlled the wheelchair's motor and direction and rolled it away from the bed. As the nurse moved away, Doctor Stein approached with the alcohol swab ready and with the first needle also open and prepared. Milli readied herself for the injection.
"I'm sure," Doctor Stein said slowly, as he rolled up the sleeve on Milli's shirt to wipe a spot on Milli's shoulder with the alcohol swab, "unfortunately we at Horizon can't help you with that. There could be options... but that would be more an issue of working with what we'd know personally."
"It'll be alright doctor," Milli smiled as the first shot was administered, "I've managed to go through quite a lot in my life. I'm sure I can find a way to sell a motorized wheelchair."
Doctor Stein nodded as Milli began to exhibit the first signs of her transformation with her silver gray hear turning blonde and then administered the second dose, "welcome to Animalia."
With that, Doctor Stein and the nurse left, but Milli was already feeling the affects of the transformation. She could feel her body growing warmer, which in most Decembers this would be fairly good, but a lot of the weather had been surprisingly warm for December. This was the result of her fur coming in and coming in thick. It was largely a sort of tabby pattern of stripes and overlapping colors and primarily with a back and gray variation. Some of the shades of gray were rather light and some were darker to where in some places it would be hard to tell the difference between the dark gray fur and the black fur. And it itched a little as it grew longer around her body, though she also knew it wouldn't be as long as a Persian or a Maine Coon's fur length, and to a small degree the length of the fur wasn't an issue. That was something Milli wanted because it would be more to "cuddle" as she'd told Steven in their zoom job interview.
The biggest thing was that she could feel her muscle strength returning. Her skin tightened around her muscles which rapidly regained the muscle tone of her youth. It let her lift up her hands with no difficulty and no pain. It let her see her hands lose all the signs of aging and moving without pain or difficulty. She flexed her fingers and watched as her nails lengthened and flexed into claws. They weren't huge, but Milli didn't smile at claws. She smiled at the movement. For years since her lobotomy, movement was difficult and painful. It took practically everything she had to make the slightest movement, which had put her in a wheelchair and lead to many of her muscles atrophied due to the lack of use. Now that was changing.
Milli could feel muscles twitch with with each flexion of them in her hands, arms, and legs. The nerves fired and her limbs responded, and after a few moments, this also began to be felt at the base of her spine. Her tail was growing in and even at its small size, Milli could feel it move as well. It was the movement that Milli liked as she managed to get to her feet, pulling down on the back of her pants and underwear to giver her tail room to grow out behind her. She found her feet had lengthened while sitting and that she was essentially on tip toe and stood taller on digitigrade feet, but it was a strength she hadn't had in years. It left a lot for her to be pleased about.
"Perfect!" Milli mused to herself as she looked herself over and even balanced on one foot to raise the other and wiggle her toes a little. It was all something that she'd largely lost thanks to the lobotomy. She couldn't explain how or why it had a physical affect on her ability to move and didn't affect her mind in the way some of the others that had converted into Animalians that had had lobotomies, and she couldn't remember what had been wrong with her that had made her doctors think she needed the procedure all those years before, but that was irrelevant now. She could move again and she felt young again and she was more than happy at that. A lot of that she could see has blonde hair fell to frame her face and stood out in contrast to her gray and black fur, but that again didn't alter her joy at being able to move.
The only thing that wasn't perfect at the moment was her tightening bra. Her hips and butt had grown a bit more generous with her transformation, but to a degree, she'd actually worn pants that would allow for that and thus her growing curves there weren't too much of a problem. However, her chest was a different matter. Her main shirt was fine, but her bra rapidly became snug as her breasts began to grow, both in firmness and in size. In this, they rapidly filled the cups of her bra and her lengthening fur "poofing" a bit where the bra met her swelling bosom. She gave something of a pained "mew" as her face pushed forward into a rounded feline muzzle and her pupils pulling upward into a house ca's vertical slits while her irises retained their human eye color, while struggling to un-work the bra that she was wearing.
"Stupid helpers," Milli thought to herself as she managed to get her shirt off and began undoing the clasps on her bra. While she had been able to move a little, the pain and difficulty in moving after her lobotomy had been something that had required help with regard to things like getting dressed, going to the bathroom, or anything that would require a lot of movement. In time it had been why she'd stated a preference for the motorized wheelchair, as that was at least something that would give her some movement. And the nursing home that she'd been in before had sent someone with her to help with things before she regained her youth as an Animalian and regained her ability to move. She'd tried to explain to the nursing home staff member that the bra that had been "big enough" for her as a human was likely going to be several cup sizes to small on her as an Animalian, but that bra was put on anyway.
Now, as Milli's chest reached a solid E cup in the size range, and the bra for her Human self became almost painfully tight, it had to come off and she grumbled at the "help" that the nursing home staff member had provided. A part of her also remembered that a lot of this was related to the exact details of their service that her family had agreed to when she was put into the nursing home in question. And the staff was often busy and before Milli didn't have to deal with anyone who'd wanted to be an Animalian. Milli carefully worked the clasps on the bra and got out of it, letting her breasts bounce free before putting her shirt on minus the bra. That let her smile and return to feeling the confidence and joy at being able to move again.
"And next that trial period working for Steven," Milli said to herself and swished her tail behind her.