There were times where Henry regretted becoming an Animalian, mostly during times like this. He was a veteran of the United States Air Force. He gave up his career to become an Animalian in a rather short-sighted attempt to militarize Animalians. Now he was walking around a strip club barely wearing anything while women (he hoped most of them were women) kept touching his rear. Henry wondered how he let Beatrice talk him into this while she was on stage with Antonia. A tiny part of him wondered if he deserved this treatment for his part in that short-lived attempt to recruit Animalians into the armed forces.
But he spotted someone else working at the Meat Market who was looking as miserable as he was feeling. She was a rather foxy-looking vixen. Of course, every female became model-quality sexy after become an Animalian. She stood out for having fur that was golden-yellow asides from the white on her front, tail tip, paws, and tips of her ears. Her outfit, which was pretty much just a bikini set with leggings and cuffs, were purple in stark contrast. Her black hair, which was in an elaborate oriental bun, confirmed she was originally human.
Eventually, Henry made his way over to her while both their serving trays were empty. "Long day?" he asked sympathetically.
"A pretty long one," said the vixen, turning towards him. Henry jumped a bit when he saw her eyes. The scleras of her eyes were just as black of her pupils, which made her icy blue irises stand out even more. The vixen gave an annoyed sigh at his jump and said, "Before you ask, it's ink. I had my eyes tattooed before I converted."
"You...you can do that?" asked Henry. He was familiar with tattoos, he knew plenty of people in the air force with tattoos. He knew about people who tattooed their eyelids, but he thought the eyes themselves were untouchable.
"Well, it's not easy," said the vixen, "I went practically blind until I converted."
"Why would you do that?" asked Henry.
"Isn't it obvious?" asked the vixen, gesturing to herself. Henry just shrugged his shoulders. "Don't you watch anime?" she asked.
"No," said Henry.
"Oh, that's a first," said the vixen, "By the way, my name's Ruki." She waited, apparently expecting Henry to recognize that name. But that went right over his head.
"Henry," said Henry, "So, you're supposed to be...something from an anime?"
"A very popular character in anime and in the furry community," said Ruki, "How can you not know her?"
"I'm not into anime, I'm more into crime shows," said Henry, "And I was never a furry. I only joined Animalia because I thought they should be part of the military."
Ruki glowered at him and asked, "And how well did that work out?"
"Not well at all," admitted Henry, "Current military hardware would have to be totally revamped to suit Animalians. I can't even fly a plane now because I wouldn't fit in a flight suit."
"Well, at least you can fly on your own," said Ruki, looking at Henry's wings.
"Yes, but much, much slower than a jet and that leaves me an open target," said Henry, "So that forced a career change for me."
"I know what you mean," said Ruki, "I can still model, but now everyone expects to cosplay all the time. At least before I had a choice of what character I can be. But now it's only the one character."
Henry gave a bitter chuckle and said, "I guess wanting is better than having."
"Absolutely," agreed Ruki.
"Well, at least I have Beatrice to keep me grounded, when she's not showing off," said Henry, glancing at the stage.
Ruki looked and asked, "Which one's her?"
"The one who doesn't have human hair or dyed wings," said Henry.
"Oh, she's still beautiful," said Ruki.
"And she's kinder than a guy like me deserves," said Henry, "I hope you'll eventually find a mate who'll make your life feel more complete."
Ruki sighed and said, "I doubt I'll have any trouble finding guys who'll want to date me. Hopefully there will be some who'll like me for myself than who I look like." She won't deny that has some regrets about her new look. And she really had no one to blame but herself.
==========
Ruki knew other people were scornful of her choices. Just going through with her eye tattooing was a big risk. And she had to admit her vision became very blurry afterwards. But she was assured that the conversion process should be able to restore her vision completely. Hopefully without removing the ink she had so painstakingly put into the whites of her eyes.
Of course, in her half-blind state, Ruki couldn't really fill out her forms herself, but at least she was able to verbally confirm what she wanted. She made it clear that she wanted the golden fox and she was in turn informed that the golden fox is a hybrid species of fox and thus she couldn't have a mate with red or silver foxes. But Ruki wasn't looking for a boyfriend right now. She was ready to take her cosplaying to the next level.
The biggest regret about her conversion was that Ruki couldn't fully watch it happen. However, as her body changed, her vision became increasingly clearer. Eventually, she was able to see her new golden fur and enhanced curves. Taking a look in the mirror showed a yellow vixen with startling black and blue eyes. Of course, it wasn't a 1:1 match, but she could make this work. There won't be a cosplay contest in the world she couldn't win now.