"Well..." Mike trailed off, feeling a bit awkward looking at his son. "It's just sometimes you might see something on a cartoon or something and then search it out online, only to find out that--" he paused, trying to find some way to let it out a bit more gently but couldn't really think of anything. The silence hung for a few seconds before he finally finished his thought. "You find out that there's a lot more people who were thinking about that character as well..."
A bit of a wicked smile formed at the edges of Jeff's mouth. "Really? And you've been to those sites?"
His dad nodded. Despite being one of the toughest guys Jeff knew, he never saw the man look so vulnerable. It was like every question or comment that Jeff could make was stabbing the older man in the heart. He couldn't help but look away. Yet, he didn't leave. "I mean..." Mike cleared his throat. "Yeah. A few times..."
"How many's a few?"
Mike cleared his throat again. "Let's not get too hung up on the details. Alright?"
Jeff snorted out a laugh. He could see his father's face turning a bit redder than usual. That color was usually only when he got so drunk, Mike couldn't make it to bed and instead slept on the couch with a spilled beer still in hand. "Fine. Favorite animal?"
"Well... Let's see... I like lions. And bears. And horses. And bulls. And Rhinos," Mike was clearly stalling. "But." he cleared his throat again. "But my favorite is tigers. The really muscular ones. Preferably the ones with white and black stripes but it's not like I don't like the orange ones. I just... Uhhh... Like the color scheme more." He paused. His eyes looking anywhere other than Jeff. "Think you can do that with that program of yours?"
"I think so," Jeff answered. "So muscular anthro white tiger?"
Mike nodded. "But--" he cut himself off. "But you'll be able to change me back if I don't like it. Right? And what about other people? Will they notice?"
"I should be able to change you back," Jeff nodded. "No reason to think I can't. But I really don't know about anyone else. Haven't been able to test the program yet... You'll kind of be my first test subject."
"Right," Mike nodded. Suddenly his heart was racing. The feeling between nervousness from admitting all this to his son and giddiness that this actually might work mixed inside him making him wonder what might happen.
Jeff typed something into his computer. "Ready?"
"Ready," Mike confirmed.