Lars Sanford never expected to run into anyone from Animalia in his life. He'd worked for a good sized insurance company and had risen through the company ranks that he'd become an office manager for that company in Salt Lake City, and he'd always taken pride in his work that he'd done over the years. Particularly after coming home to find his wife had been cheating on him, and soon leaving himself divorced and raising his son, Philip, as a single father. And while Philip had never struck Lars as the sort that would go out and be too ambitious, Lars also knew that his son was reasonably smart and thus wouldn't purposely get himself into any trouble. Though the surprise visit he'd gotten from Nicole Mabel raised questions and perked some interests.
Though, Lars figured he'd start with seeing to those questions, and thus he took time off to come to Lyre where he found his son staying in one of the small town's hotels. He wasn't sure if it was one that was built before or after Animalia was created, but that was beside the point for the moment. He knew his son was staying there and had even let him know which room he was staying in, and as such, Lars approached the door and knocked on it. It wasn't long before the door opened to reveal the tall and muscular Fennec Fox Animalian that his son had become, and it was something that left Lars a bit in awe and jealous... though he wasn't going to say that to his son's face.
"Dad..." Philip said in a startled voice, "I hadn't expected to see you here or so soon..."
"Well the past week brought me some surprises... and they do not relate to your conversion," Lars answered in a low voice, "may I come in?"
Philip nodded and stepped back allowing Lars to enter. The room was relatively simple, though it had two beds, which Lars didn't expect. He sincerely hoped that this was something standard to the hotel and that his son wasn't necessarily wasting money on a room he didn't need. Philip had gotten extraordinarily lucky with regard to the stock market, and Lars had no problem with that, but that didn't necessarily mean that he thought his son was the sort that would make a lot of business sense. He moved to sit down on one bed while Philip moved to sit on the other.
"So... what brings you here, dad?" Philip asked as he looked to his father.
"About a week or so ago I got a visit from a Nicole Mabel," Lars answered, "who said something about you being involved with her mother."
Philip blinked in some surprise as Lars then summarized meeting that he'd had with Nicole to his son. For the moment, Lars left out the fact that Nicole had half hit on him in the conversation, and betrayed that there was some other angle that the younger Fennec Fox vixen was playing to, but that wasn't the key thing at the moment.
"So... did you know fully on who she was when you met her?" Lars asked as he finished the summary.
"No," Philip admitted, "I was still going through my acclimation classes and all that... and well, I never expected to get this big when I converted. I was kinda going for cute and playful when I chose the Fennec Fox. Instead I grew larger than I should be as a Fennec Fox. I mean... I'm bigger than some of the Red Fox Animalians here in Lyre/Animalia."
"And you do look good, son," Lars commented, "better than I did in college..."
"Yeah... and I didn't want to lose it while going through my acclimation classes, so I'd gone through their safety precautions and got into their gym in Animalia," Philip answered, "and I just met Joanne there. She was nice and helpful... and given that I hadn't had much in the way of girlfriends in high school or college, I was quite flattered with the attention."
There was a brief silence between them as Philip looked down for a moment. The air hung with a heavy silence with the only sound being his father's slow and steady breaths and the sound of a vacuum being used in another room down the hall. After a few moments he looked up to his father.
"You're not here to criticize me for doing something dumb are you?" Philip asked, "I'll admit that I didn't expect Joanne to be around your age... but the Animalia Virus did bring her back into the prime of her youth and she wasn't exactly going around selling that she was a wealthy designer in the fashion industry. I didn't learn that until after a couple of dates... and I didn't learn that she was Nicole's mother until a little over a week ago."
"Not to criticize you, son," Lars answered, "just to make sure that understand what you'll be getting into."
"I'm pretty sure," Philip answered, "and she has been polite... and if it grows into something serious... I'd be more than happy to learn and help her where I can." He paused to laugh for a moment, "If only to prove I'm more than arm candy."
Lars chuckled at that, "I'm afraid that looking like that... most women are going to want you to be arm candy, and maybe this is playing to my old college days, but I can see the appeal. I mean I wish I looked that good in college..."
"You'd convert?" Philip asked with some surprise.
"If only so we match," Lars answered.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It didn't take Lars too long to go over the paperwork and pay for the conversion and Horizon took little concern on this when Philip and Lars came in. Lars didn't need a sponsor, but Philip was happy to go along with his father. Some of it related to what his father had told him about meeting Nicole, which took Philip by surprise. He'd learned that Joanne and Nicole had had a rough patch that was only healing after both became Animalians, though that was after the dinner date in which he'd met Nicole. Beyond that, Philip had figured that Nicole's questions there about his father was more curiosity than anything else. The fact that Lars had mentioned it created some sense to Philip that Nicole might have had some more romantic plan in the background.
It wasn't something that Philip had too many initial concerns with, as he was dating Nicole's mother, however there were some other concerns that were there. For apparently Nicole did NOT share much Lars about herself or anything that might at least show attraction to who Lars was as a person. There was just the selling point of converting and becoming an Animalian and not much more, and that was something that alerted Philip to the fact that maybe Nicole was jealous about something or had some other game going on. He wasn't necessarily going to oppose his father dating Nicole, but he figured it might make sense to at least share with his father what he was drawing from the report that Lars had given Philip.
"I think she did have some ulterior motive than just protecting her mother," Lars commented as he and Philip followed Judy down one of Horizon's hallways toward one of the conversion rooms. Philip had just finished voicing his concerns to his father. "And I think she would have a bit of a wild and rebellious streak to her... if the number of piercings she has in her ears is any indicator."
Philip only responded with a pained whine and rubbing his own ears as well.
"And I'm not opposed to you dating her if you so choose," Philip spoke, "after all... converting will make you younger again. There's nothing wrong with that. It'd just be something to think over... likely over something that would be going on between Joanne and Nicole."
Lars nodded and then followed Judy into the conversion room. Philip only moved to stand by the door and waited for Judy to come out. She did so a short while later. She stepped between Philip and the door and waited with her back to the wall. Philip noted that she closed the case that held the two syringes she'd used to give Lars his dose and then put that plastic case in one of the pockets on her lab coat. Things were otherwise quiet and a bit uneasy, which Philip guessed meant that Judy had overheard what he and his father had been talking about.
"I'm sorry if we brought in a bit too much that would be uncomfortable for you," Philip said to Judy.
"It's okay," Judy responded politely, "and it would seem to be a big issue and not one to avoid..."
"Would you have any advice?" Philip wondered.
"Nothing that would go beyond what you've already figured out," Judy said slowly, "particularly as it isn't my business to involve yourself in who you take as a bond mate or who your father does. And hopefully... his conversion is a bit more than just about vanity."
Philip nodded and took the advice. In some ways, he wished there could have been more to it, but in a way Judy was correct in that things weren't her business. And so they resumed a semi awkward period of just watching and waiting before there came a knock at the door. They both turned their heads to it.
"Hey... Phil! I'm done and look good!" came Lars's voice from inside the conversion room. That got Philip to blink, as most times when his name was used, it was because he was in trouble and he'd never recalled his father calling him "Phil."
Judy carefully opened the the door to reveal the new Lars Sanford, and Philip was a bit surprised. His father stood as tall as he did and had gained about as much muscle, which was training his shirt and pants to the near bursting point, and a couple of the top buttons had popped revealing the creamy white chest fur Lars now had. His hair was still rusty read but was no longer thinning. It had in fact grown back with a vengeance while surrounding the cream-yellow -tan fur on his dorsal side and the cream-white fur on the lower side. The only article of clothing that Lars had lost was his shoes, but that was a bit to be expected. Most Animalians had long digitigrade feet while most Humans had shorter plantigrade feet.
"You do look good, dad," Philip said slowly, "though we may need to go and get you more appropriate clothing."
"I feel good too," Lars answered, "better than I did in college..." He laughed a bit, "man my old fraternity pals would be jealous..."
Philip didn't know how to respond to that. He knew his father was a member of a fairly big fraternity in Utah and kept a pennant or something that commemorated that membership in his study, but there were times where it seemed like Lars had put a lot of that behind him. Or he at least wasn't playing to it as his job had meant he couldn't play to that. Though, Philip was born AFTER his father had been through college, so Philip figured it'd make sense that getting his youth back might reinvigorate some aspects of Lars' youth.
"We'd still need to get you clothes that will fit you better," Philip spoke, "both for comfort and for work... You know that right?"
"Yeah... and well," Lars answered, "though I have some ideas that might drive Nicole wild... then we'll se what she's up to and up for."
Philip only blinked in surprise...