Peter Pigsty 🐷: “I’m not sure if there’s a three day waiting-before-texting rule for hookups at a magical masquerade. You get home alright Tiny?”
Tiny Wolf 🐺: “Aww, you bet Peter! Thanks for checking up on me!”
Peter Pigsty 🐷: “Just wanted to make sure you didn’t wander off to go howl in a forest somewhere.”
Tiny Wolf 🐺: “Awoo! You and the cat make it back to your pigpen alright?”
Peter Pigsty 🐷: “Wallowing in my mud bath all safe and sound!”
Simon let out a snort of amusement as he texted back and forth with Tiny the next morning. He was happy the wolf man returned his texts. Not everyone was eager to reconnect after a one night fling.
They kept the texting up throughout the week. Both of them kept making silly animal jokes, and neither of them seemed eager to launch into the, “So, what’s your real name?” conversation.
Eventually though, there was one conversation topic Simon wanted to pivot to.
Peter Pigsty 🐷: “I’m surprised you can text this much in the evening. Not dealing with the post-dinner rush? ;)?”
Tiny Wolf 🐺: “One of the perks of being the bar’s owner. How goes the restaurant review business? ;)”
Peter Pigsty 🐷: “Good! I’m working on a story right now. Nice long piece about ramen joints.”
Peter Pigsty 🐷: “I actually get most of my writing done in coffee shops… I know a nice one that I gave four stars to last year. I’ll be typing away in Modern Beans for a few hours tomorrow starting at around three. If you want to, feel free to stop by and say hi!”
Tiny Wolf 🐺: “That’s right around the corner from me! It’s a date. < 3”
Simon really did get his best work done in coffee shops. He was a computer programmer though, not a restaurant reviewer. The little act was fun to keep up as they texted though.
He showed up at the coffee shop a half hour early and spread out at one of the tables. High end laptop, tablet with various documentation, and a nice big latte. He wasn’t joking about the four stars at least. This place did make a mean cup of coffee.
Eventually his phone buzzed. Tiny had texted, “On the prowl for pork! Headed over now!”
Simon snorted and texted that he at the booth in the back. He had been having fun texting Tiny this week. It was going to be nice to finally meet the man behind the mask.
He let out another snort at his own joke. Was his nose clogged? Simon grabbed a napkin and tried rubbing his nose. The sensation felt… odd. He lowed the napkin and touched his snout with his fingers. He felt the short flat nostrils of a pig nose.
“Squee…!” He tried to muffle his surprise. Simon ducked down cross-eyed. Wha- what was that doing here…!?
He quickly hid behind his laptop. Simon fired up the webcam app to get a better look at himself.
The reflection in the window was just a chubby-cheeked version of himself. Right, cameras couldn’t record the masquerade’s magic. Simon could feel his ears getting larger and twitching in surprise despite their stubbornly human appearance on the webcam image.
Simon nervously sat up. He needed to get out of here. Or sneak off to the bathroom or something…! He couldn’t just leave his things here though. He-
His new piggy visage was suddenly not Simon’s only concern. He’d been so focused on looking at his reflection that he hadn’t noticed his laptop changing. His top of the line machine now looked to be several generations out of date. The sleek metal lines had all been replaced by cheap plastic bezels. On the laptop’s display, the webcam window was flanked several pictures of noodle soup and a large draft document.
Simon pushed back from his seat. The table was now cluttered with hand-written scribbles and a familiar Chronicle notebook. His tablet was no where to be found.
(Of course not, those things were way too expensive.)
Despite pushing back in his seat, Simon’s gut was still brushing up against the table. He could feel something start to swish anxiously behind him.
He didn’t have a mask on! Why was this happening now!? And… and in public! Okay, forget the laptop! Simon grabbed his phone and was about to make a bee-line straight for the restrooms.
His hooves let out a loud clack as he got to his feet.
The barista smiled and waved at him, “Need another refill Peter?”
Wh-what? Simon clopped over with his empty mug. “Uh… yes please. Just a small one this time.”
“Coming right up,” the barista smiled. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Simon had just turned into a pig-man. “So what are you working on this weekend?”
Simon glanced back at his cluttered table, “Uh… Ramen featurette.”
“Oh nice! I’m looking forward to the return of ramen weather,” they smiled.
“Hey, I’m actually meeting up with a friend soon. Can you send them over my way?” Simon gulped, “Do I look like a pig to you?”
“Sure thing Peter,” the barista slid him his drink. He looked Peter over, then glanced back at his table, “Not particularly? I was wondering why you were all dressed up. Maybe clean up your table a little?”
“Oink! Thanks!” Simon picked up his drink and waddled back to his seat. That… didn’t exactly clear things up. At least his appearance wasn’t causing a panic.
One thing was for sure though: He was Peter Pigsty again.
Peter plopped down at his table just as a loud “Oof!” came from the doorway. He was able to look over in time to see a massive seven foot tall wolf man recover from hitting his head on the door frame.
“Oink! Over here!” Peter waved.
Tiny’s eyes lit up when he saw Peter. His tail began to swish eagerly as he made his way over. Peter practically melted into his chair the way the wolf man looked at him. Then he realized his table really was a mess. He closed his laptop and hastily put all his notes in a pile.
“Arf! Hey!” Tiny grinned, “I was going to say you’d never believe was just happened to me on the bus ride over, but I think you probably just went through something similar.”
Peter got up and gave the wolf a hug. Tiny squeezed back with a surprising amount of force. “Oink! Yeah- I- I have no idea what’s going on. But… people aren’t freaking out about it? Why don’t you go grab yourself a drink. Tell them they can put it on my tab.”
“Such a gentlepig,” Tiny teased. He walked over to the counter and order a latte for himself. It was fun watching him try to discretely explore his newly-furred body. When he finally got his drink, the canine lapped at the top of it and slurped up a large glob of foam.
“Oink! So you’re the masquerade expert,” Peter had finished cleaning up the table by the time Tiny got back, “Any idea what’s going on?”
Tiny shook his head, “You’re the first person I’ve tried to meet up with after the party. This is all new to me.”
“I know everyone at the party’s anonymous, but this is taking things a bit to the extreme,” Peter sipped his coffee, “I was looking forward to meeting you.”
Tiny’s tail started to wag a bit faster at that. “Arf? You didn’t notice how we couldn’t text out of character all week?” he tilted his head in an adorably canine manner.
“Uh, no?” Peter blinked.
Tiny laughed, “I was trying to introduce myself to you all week. The messages just kept coming out as wolf man flirting.”
“Oh!” Peter blushed, “I was having fun playing along. I didn’t notice.” It finally dawned on Peter that he once again couldn’t recall his real name.
“Well hopefully you don’t mind getting coffee as a pig then,” Tiny wagged.
“Not at all,” Peter blushed, “I just umm, if we decide we want more coffee after this, I can’t imagine Mr. Pigsty keeps his apartment clean.”
“You’re rather forward for someone whose face is so red,” Tiny licked his chops. Peter found the gesture exciting some primal urge in the back of his head again. The wolf man dig through his pockets and pulled out a set of keys, “I don’t seem to have my house key anymore. I think I live above my bar?”
“Oink! Oh!” The pig’s ears twitched, “Your bar actually exists?”
“It would appear so,” Tiny sniffed the key chain. He pointed at the notebook, “So does your job at the Chronicle?”
“Apparently,” Peter nodded. He took a sip of his latte, watching the large wolf try to get comfortable in the coffee shop’s comparably small chairs, “So… Can we not actually meet each other?”
“I guess so?” Tiny rubbed his ear, “I mean, we’re meeting now? Grr, this magic masquerade stuff always makes my head spin. Maybe we’re always going to be Peter Pigsty and Tiny Wolf as far as the two of us are concerned.”
“Oink, at least everyone seems to think the two of us look normal? Maybe we should have picked less on the nose surnames though,” Peter laughed.
“Arf? I don’t mind being Wolf.” Tiny started going red behind his fur, “Are you okay being a pig when I’m around?”
“I… think so? As long as I still make a good pig?” Peter put a hoof-hand on his stomach, “I need to tell Mr. Pigsty to lay off the extra foam.”
They both got a good chuckle out of that. Tiny leaned down and gave his latte another big lap. “More for me then,” Tiny said.
Oh jeez, he as doing it at Peter. He knew what else that tongue could do. So Peter wasn’t the only one with more “coffee” on the mind.
“Oink, tail or otherwise, Peter’s a pig. Sorry, let me clean up this mess,” Peter wagged bashfully and shoved his notes back into his bag. When he went to put his laptop away though, Tiny put his paw on the device.
“Arf! Hang on. Speaking of surnames, let’s see if you have any bylines,” he grinned.
“Oh man, do I actually have reviews posted online?” Peter blinked.
The two sat there and scrolled through Peter’s articles on the Chronicle’s website. It was a little spooky. They were all written in Peter’s tone of voice, and the reviews included some of his more controversial opinions on that absurdly overrated pizza place. It thankfully was an opinion that Tiny shared.
The two of them fell into a nice conversational banter after that. Peter got to hear some good bar stories from Tiny, and in the heat of the chatter it really did just feel like they were two people getting to know each other. Only with the added layer of them discovering “themselves” at the same time.
Eventually they did make their way back to Peter’s place. They embarrassingly did have to stop at a convenience store on the way for, ahem, supplies. Peter’s apartment was the absolute mess he had been dreading. He didn’t have like, spoiled food anywhere, but pigs didn’t seem great at remembering to hang up jackets or sorting through piles of mail. On top of that, the apartment was half the size it was supposed to be! Peter’s great downtown view had also been downgraded to a basement unit with a passable skylight. Apparently newspaper columnists made about half of what programmers did.
None of that mattered in the heat of things though. Peter got Tiny to howl again, and they had a really great evening together.
Finally Peter showed Tiny off the next morning. He waved to the wolf, closed the door on his apartment, and suddenly found himself a human standing back in Simon’s apartment.
“Woah…” Simon rubbed his head, “That’s going to take some getting used to.”
He pulled out his phone and started to draft a text. He meant to ask Tiny if the same thing just happened to him, but instead he just typed, “Thanks for such a fun evening!”
Simon went back into his apartment and started getting ready for the day. He wasn’t expecting to become a pig man again so soon. He knew part of him should have been freaking out about the experience, but another part of him was already planning their next date.