Milo followed Stripes up the stairs to the third floor. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to dealing with a pissed-off Daryl. Even though he’d known his roommate for less than twenty-four hours, Milo could tell that Daryl wasn’t the kind of person that he’d want to make angry.
When the two of them got to Milo’s room, Milo unlocked the door and peeked his head inside. The lights in the room had been turned on, and Daryl was standing in front of a mirror that had been propped up against the foot of his bed. Thankfully, he had put on a pair of basketball shorts, so he wasn’t naked. “Hey…Daryl?” Milo asked. “You okay?” Daryl turned his head, and almost immediately Milo could see why he screamed.
Daryl’s ears had changed. They had grown much smaller, taken a round shape, and had moved to the top of his head. They were covered in brown fur that reminded Milo of Grayson’s fur.
“Am I okay?” Daryl repeated, staring at Milo. “AM I OKAY?! DO I FUCKING LOOK OKAY?! MY EARS! THEY’VE CHANGED!”
“Wait, already?” Stripes asked. “Shit, I wanna see!”
“Uh, you might want to brace yourself for this,” Milo said sheepishly to Daryl before opening the door and revealing the large zebra standing behind him. Daryl’s eyes were practically bulging out of his head when he saw Stripes.
“What. The Fuck. Is that?” the blond asked, sounding genuinely terrified.
“That’s Stripes, our RA,” Milo explained calmly. “You, uh, kinda slept through some stuff…but don’t worry! Stripes is going to explain it all.” Milo walked into the room with Stripes right behind him. The zebra closed the door to the room before moving to look at Daryl. He looked at the boy’s ears for a few seconds before saying, “Well Daryl, looks like you’re becoming an otter.”
“I’m sorry…WHAT?!”
“Look, I’m gonna keep this short and sweet because I literally just finished delivering this spiel a minute ago,” Stripes said. “Basically, CVU is situated in a place where two worlds overlap. There’s the human world and the furry world. You’re now in the furry world. This world is essentially identical to the one you know, but it’s a lot fuzzier.” Milo let out a slight “heh”. “Because you’re now in this world, things about you are going to start changing. Essentially, the world is turning you into the animal that it thinks best suits you. It might take a week, two weeks, or even a month, but it’s the undeniable truth of this world. Now, I want to stress that this is not at all permanent, but-”
“THEN CHANGE ME BACK!” Daryl shouted, cutting Stripes off.
Stripes sighed. “As I was saying, this is not at all permanent, BUT you can’t return to the other side until the end of the semester.”
“So you’re saying…that I’m going to be stuck as a fucking animal…FOR THREE MONTHS?!” Daryl shouted.
“Well when you put it like that…yeah, pretty much.”
Daryl looked like he was about to start yelling again, but he just sighed and slumped to the floor, sitting with his head in his hands. “My life is over,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to make it three months as an animal.”
Stripes knelt down in front of Daryl and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, come on now. Don’t look at it like that,” the zebra said. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but believe me when I say that the whole thing isn’t as bad as you think it is. I’ve been here for three years now, and I’ve seen people have similar reactions to you. Almost all of them said that they were going to leave as soon as they got the chance at the end of the semester, and you know what they ended up doing?”
“What?” Daryl asked in a depressed tone.
“Every single one of them ended up staying,” Stripes revealed. “Over the course of their semester, they got in touch with a side of themselves that they never knew existed, and they felt happier than they ever did as a human. This whole experience is a chance for you to start fresh. And if you ever need someone to talk to, all of the RAs, including myself, are available. Hell, one of our RAs is an otter, so you two could really get along. And you can’t forget Milo! I’m sure he’s more than willing to listen if you ever need someone to talk to. Isn’t that right Milo?”
“Huh? Oh! Y-Yeah!” Milo said. He was a bit off guard when Stripes had asked him that, but he rather quickly caught on.
“See? I’d say you lucked out getting a nice roommate like Milo,” Stripes said. “Anyway, we were about to go and get some breakfast and meet with my friend Grayson. He’s the otter RA, by the way. If you’d like, you’re more than welcome to come with us.”
Daryl let out a sigh. “I guess I’ll come…” he said, still sounding a little depressed.
“Great!” Stripes said, standing up straight. “Then follow me and I’ll take you two to the dining hall.” Stripes proceeded to lead the two young men out of their dorm room and down the stairs to the first floor. None of them seemed to notice, however, that Milo’s ears were beginning to shift to a more triangular shape, while orange fur began to grow on them.