Mike took a deep breath. "I had accounts on art sites, attended conventions, even had my own fursona. After you were born, your mom and I were so caught up raising you, not to mention my work schedule at the time. Combine that with the recession hitting not long after, and I didn't have as much time for the fandom as I did anymore. I became distant and hadn't looked back since." The forty something man explained to his teenage son.
"So you were in the community in the earlier days of the fandom?" Jeff asks.
Mike opened up more about his time I'm the fandom. "It had already been well established when I joined. This is the early to mid 2000s I'm talking about. DeviantArt was around back then, I also did a couple trips down to Philly for Anthrocon, though it had moved to Pittsburgh around the time I left."
"What was your fursona's species?" Jeff eagerly asked his father.
"Good question, I really liked hyenas as a kid. Something about those funny creatures. They ended up becoming my favorite animals afterwards and it would end up being my species."
"Do you still have any pictures of him?" Asks his son.
Mike pulled up DeviantArt on his smartphone, searched the name of his fursona and showed a picture to Jeff. The hyena shown, named “Stryder” (It’s an Afrikaans word for “Warrior”), had brown hair like his father's, running down his back up to his head. His body was covered in a terracotta colored fur with a darker shade of brown for his muzzle, spots, ears, hands, feet, and tail. His height and weight were similar to that of his father, though he had considerably better physique compared to him.
Jeff looked back to his screen to find "Hyenas" listed among the various species of anthro animals one could choose. Jeff clicked and saw several different species. “From what I’m seeing, I’m assuming you want a spotted ‘yeen?”
“That’s what Stryder was.” His dad confirms.
The program prompted the Transformee to scan their fingerprints. It detected that Mike was Jeff's father,as well as his age and vitals.Other information, including hair, eye, and skin color, strength, height, weight, pretty much any trait you could think of was listed further down.
Mike went back to his room to get into some more comfortable clothes to transform in for a quick moment. Jeff looked at the screen which read "Alterations" which listed one at the moment. That being Mike's species, which read "Spotted Hyena (Anthro)". Jeff wanted to edit more aspects of what his dad would become to make the end result closer to what he saw in the photo. He toyed with the fur coloring and made it so that he was more toned to resemble Stryder. He went further to change his name from "Michael" to "Stryder".
Mike walked back into Jeff’s room. Looking at the screen, he admired how extensive the amount of options were and took note of the alterations screen.
“So I can actually become him?” Mike said in awe.
“Yes you can.” His son confirmed.
“Will I be able to change back if I don’t like it? Will people notice that I’ve changed?” Mike asks again.
“There are options to do just that and there are options to make people believe you were always that way.” Jeff answered. “Here, I’ll check them for you.” He clicked through the options he mentioned.
“Gee. All this power and it's in the hands of my teenage son.” Mike remarked. “Anyways, I’m ready when you are.”
Jeff hit “Enter” and Confirm changes appeared on the screen. Mike’s heart raced as the tension built up. Jeff hit “Yes” and the changes commenced soon after. Mike's nails blackened and grew, sharpening into claws. At the same time, the hairs on his hands and feet grew thicker, becoming dark brown fur. The palms of his hands and bottom of his feet blackened and became rougher.
"It's working!" Mike shouts.
His muscles grew in tone, the flab on his body was disappearing. He took off his shirt to better see his results. There he saw more fur, this time in terracotta with dark brown spots growing from his waist. His facial hair grew thicker in consistency,yet still short, while his nose turned wet and black. This was all while fur continued to grow up his arms and onto his back. His muzzle began to push out, his teeth became bone-crushingly sharp, which is signature for a hyena. This was the most painful experience for Mike, though he was unable to scream as his vocal chords were changing to accommodate his new muzzle. The lighter fur continued to grow on his face, with his ears moving up to the top of his head and changing in shape. He felt a headache as he got new memories as if he always was an anthro hyena, though he still knew Jeff as his son and most of his life as it already was, only through a fuzzier lens and a different name to go with it. Lastly the spotted fur grew on his back, with the thicker, darker brown mane continuing from his head down to his developing tail, which had to be about 12-18 inches long around the time the transformation completed.
"All done?" Jeff asked the now-hyena that was his father.
"I-I.. I'm actually him!" Mike, now a real life version of his fursona, Stryder announced. His voice was significantly different from his old one, having a muzzle would change his speech patterns after all.
"Now where did I last leave off?" Stryder pondered.