David Nicolaus Scott the Third was caked in blood... as was young Thomas Phillips... each their own, having both been shot by Tommy's father, Trevor, who just so happened to be a cop. There were bullets in the walls, a door off its hinges, and two now shrunken police officers held captive. Honestly? Not the best morning for anyone.
The boy was one of the two children under David's watchful pentachromatic eyes and the only other wolftaur he was aware of besides me, the Author. Hi, everyone. Sorry about the wait. Anyway! The two of them were each a silvered color of fur, whitish gray with black undercoat. They each had bright golden brown eyes though Tommy's were more hazel with specks of green as he was genetically the sire of David and his mother Holly now.
To that effect, it was clear Tommy's muzzle was a bit more narrow than David's, perhaps due to his mother's more vulpine influence... she was a kistune, after all. She wasn't present, but the three, thin, teal-colored stripes across Tommy's flanks and shoulders made it clear their relation was still intact. That and his formerly reddish-brown hair atop his head took the teal of his mother's yokai coloring. It was the same messy head of hair he'd had while human.
Even though the upper bodies of the two with male pronouns were mostly humanoid timberwolves, their lower bodies were that of dire in size and shape. Alice, by comparison, was only a dire wolf in actuality. She had chestnut-colored fur, a mix of reds, browns, tans, and grays. and was male in build and sex, but not in gender. Mentally, she had taken on the role of beta male of this pack instinctually, protecting her once smaller human brother. At least, that was the case until just a moment ago. Now he was bigger... and still had hands.
The 'pack of monsters' surrounded their prey. Tommy had his wolfen lower body lying across the couch to David's left, while Alice lounged upon the right. Between the two, in the corner of their L configuration, was an end table with a small, glass, reptile cage with a black plastic lid. Though the container wasn't too big—about six inches tall—it was far beyond the reach either the little man or his dog could perhaps jump. Above it, a small ornate lamp of grandma Scott's choosing loomed large, bathing the two in light as if they were in an interrogation.
Inside the glass walls of the container were two figures, the tallest of which was the children's father, Trevor at one inch tall. After his dramatic size reduction, he had quickly begun to sober and was yelling in a strangely pitched voice. Along with him in his shrunken state was his K-9 partner, Thor, a purebred german shepherd who was growling as his owner shouted. The dog was the correct size, relative to Trevor.
David's muscular lower body was still covered with the denim carapace he'd created for himself the day before. Leaning his broad-shouldered humanoid half forward over the glass reptile enclosure, paw-hands on the lid, he lifted the lid up and off slowly, watching the contents for any escape attempts. The older wolftaur glanced at us as he considered the children's complete lack of reaction to their father being in the nude before them. He figured this was probably due to their wolf-natures not mentally requiring cloths because even though they were mentally human children, they had wolf inclinations.
In truth, the designation of children was only cognitively accurate—debatably the best kind of correct when it came to questions of consent—as their bodies had the builds and partial instincts of adults of their respective species. Tommy was perhaps a tween derivative of the current Wolftaur-DS Preset, while Alice was middle-aged for her species. Those natural tendencies might also explain why the children had each leaned in towards the exhibit and growl softly towards their dad and family dog.
Still, Mr. Scott was clearly pensive as he dropped Trevor's now shrunken cloths into the container with him for him to get dressed. While wolftaur body language and facial expressions were not human, Trevor still noticed. The man, an officer of the law, had a mind for details and reactions, always looking for an excuse to get someone on a technicality.
"O.K., O.K.," David interjected, trying to get all the growling to stop. Maybe the percentages of instincts I've been using are too much for children? he wondered as his golden eyes glanced from one lupine creature to the next. They kept growling. "Enough!" David barked more than spoke, asserting himself. The two turned their heads to face him and he met their eyes with his own in turn. Alice looked away first, then Tommy.
"Okay, then," he repeated, unsure where to take the moment now that he'd taken charge. Watching the children's tiny father get dressed, David looked to the boy and asked: "Tommy... want me to fix your cloths too?" The boy shook his head and David didn't feel like making a scene out of it. As far as he cared, fur covered all. With a sigh, he looked back to the barking dog and furious drunk in the cage. "Honestly... what do we do with you."
Trevor Phillips shook his fist up at the giant centered wolftaur. "I dunno how yuh ded dis... but yer better off restoring me. We can act like this never happened."
"Yeah... sorry, my question was to them," David clarified, motioning to each other wolf with his muzzle. "Them and their mom. I can't deal with you. You'd just want me to let you go so you can come back with reinforcements." A growl began in his throat but when he saw the kids about to join him, he swallowed it. I can see why this moment took nine months to continue, he considered, then looked at me... his thoughts confirming a bit of awareness he wasn't sure he was supposed to have. "This is quite a pickle."
Tommy chuckled and David looked back from that point in space he'd turned his head to see me a moment ago to look at the boy. He wasn't sure why the boy was laughing until he spoke. "Like from that one show. You could make him a pickle."
The bigger wolftaur was about to ask who let Tommy watch Rick & Morty when Alice chimed in. "You're messed up. That's... ew," she said, crossing her front legs. "Just ew."
"What do you mean?" Tommy asked his sister. "What's nasty about a pickle."
She blinked. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. Glancing to the also confused wolfen adult, she shook her head. "Nevermind. I thought you meant—"
David's eyes went wide as he realized what Alice was thinking about. Clearing his throat, he quickly changed the subject so that he wasn't talking genitals with children. "Pickles are nasty. You ever tried to take them off a hamburger? It can't be done! The taste sticks!" Tommy frowned and mumbled something to the effect of 'who doesn't like pickles', but David had already moved on...
The silver-furred wolf coughed, not certain his redirection worked. "Anyway! While this is my pack's territory and we have an intruder, I think we should wait on the... I was gunna say alpha female, but that's not right." He put a hand to his chin. "Well, I suppose it is... but that makes you guys the pack and I'm a lone wolf—" he waved his hands in front and to the sides of his muzzle. "Nevermind, I've messed up this... not metaphor." David let out a sigh, clearly flustered from the position he was now in, and all the gunfire he'd just experienced. "Analogy? I think I was making an analogy."
Trevor grumbled. "Top notch intelligence there."
David frowned. "Quiet you," he remarked with a sigh. "This is not the best time for snide remarks Mr. Phillips," he said, motioning with one hand to both the children at once using his pinkly and thumb. "No one likes you, Trevor. You're just mak—"
"That's officer Phillips."
The big wolftaur shook his head. "Good luck getting a lawyer to back up that argument considering you showed up here off-duty and fired your registered pistol into the occupants of a house you had no probable cause to break into. Not that that's likely to even be possible once your wife gets here." David kept talking to Trevor while Tommy and Alice's ears turned towards the front of the ranch house. "In fact, let me get on that right now," the oldest man in the room said as he pulled up his phone from a side pocket.
Thomas blinked, looking to his sister's green eyes, then David's. "Do ya'll hear that?"
"Hear what?" the other wolftaur wondered as he absentmindedly raised his bloody hand to his face and started licking it clean while the phone rang. Watching Trevor checking his pockets, David simply frowned. "When Holly gets here, mister, you're in a lot of—" David blinked, trailing off. His eyes turned towards the front of the house as the outside morning light began to bleed into a teal color from its natural color. "—Trouble."
Everyone present could hear the final notes of Holly's ringtone getting louder...
(|[***]|)
Holly Phillips had had a long night. One filled with screams and blood, though not the same way that David and the kids had experienced a few minutes earlier. She'd cured three people of cancer, helped a transgender teen get the help they so deserved, and quietly assisted a number of people with their addictions. All in all, it had been a wondrous night of healing and charity even if it had started on a much lower note: her attempt to escape the clutches of her abusive husband, Trevor Phillips.
In her attempts to escape him, she had taken her children as far out of town as she could while still being in range to get to her next shift at the hospital. As far as she knew, Tommy and Alice had gotten to experience a night of fun and transformations with their father nowhere near them. They were safe, and she'd found calm.
Somewhere early that morning, she was in the middle of speaking with a patient when her phone received a text. She missed it, though, because her phone was inside her work locker, not out on the floor with her. But, soon enough, she retrieved it on break and read the message David had sent eighteen minutes earlier:
"Dunkin told their word."
The kitsune's heart skipped a beat, and she lost momentary control... her ears slipping out into white furred vulpine ones, whiskers popping out from her face, and her eyes shifting to green fox ones behind her glasses before she swallowed hard and took in that betrayal and its implications. The safeword she'd given was to her older brother. "Ash," she sighed, shaking her head. "Ash, you ass."
Standing in the break room, Holly began typing back to ask if everything was okay or not when she suddenly, violently knew, with a certainty, it was not. It was as if some energy rope she hadn't noticed was tied around her heart and been yanked in a direction. She bumped into her locker as a result and was suddenly feeling pain, but it was not hers. It was a supernatural connection... a connection of mother to children. Alice and Tommy were in danger.
"You OK?" someone asked.
"Family emergency!" Holly yelped like a fox, her voice cracking. She only made it out into the hallway before her concern was quickly overpowered by pain and dread. Somewhere, she 'felt' the sound of gunshots, and gasped. In that moment, she knew she had to bolt. Her disguise didn't matter. Nor did the distance she'd have to travel. Nothing but one fact:
Her little boy had been shot.
Those slightly slanted eyes on her human face went wide, breaking out into slitted fox eyes before coating over in teal energy, glowing. In the next moment, no human could see her at the speed she was traveling. Doors slammed open in front of her. Materials surrounding her blew after her in a wind-tunnel, pulling posters off the walls and papers off the nurses station as she was already down the hall and most of the way up the stairs before she had time to think what she was doing.
She had deftly bobbed and weaved around coworkers and patients at high speed while her form couldn't begin to keep itself human. The kitsune's digitigrade paws struck the floor as she ran a few steps before kicking off the floor and hovering just off the tile. All barriers supernaturally knew to get out of the yokai's, throwing themselves open for her.
Her three tails spun clockwise behind her as she dashed. It was the moment after she'd leapt off the roof of the hospital that she briefly realized she hadn't even thought of taking her minivan. She was in the air and flying towards the danger, and whoever was causing that danger was going to suffer!
(|[***]|)
"—Trouble," the largest wolftaur finished his thought. He and the minute german shepherd in the glass case in front of him tilted their heads to the side, in the opposite directions, simultaneously. All the triangular ears of those assembled in the Scott ranch's turned towards the front of the home as the warm morning light outside began to glow an eerie teal. The tiny man inside the glass container turned his head and was about to ask why everyone had gotten silent when he, like them, could hear a melody: the final notes of his wife's ringtone.
Suddenly, Holly Phillips was hovering in front of David Scott. No sound. No fanfare. Just appeared. Tatters of her teal-colored nurse scrubs clung to her legs, arms, and torso, waving in the slight energy aura she exuded. The pressure of that energy bear down on the only standing figure in the room as glowing teal eyes turned to take in the appearance of the two other wolfen creatures. One she assumed was her daughter, but the other she didn't know. Quickly the bipedal fox spun to face David, looming over him as she floated a foot off the ground. As her vulpine muzzle leaned in, inches from his face, she yelled: "Where is he!?"
David had only an instant to wonder which 'he' she was referring to. He swallowed hard, deciding not to make a 'Pronoun Game' joke because he wasn't sure which 'he' that she was looking for. This was his first real experience with super-powered energies of the pissed-off variety. Clearly Holly had come into her own last night and making her a three-tailed kistune may end in a third death for him in relatively quick succession if he chose his words poorly.
The silver-coated wolftaur in the blood-splattered white shirt and denim carapace resisted the urge to step backwards as a funnel of wind blasted into the room. The current of air from Holly's charge seemed to catch up, flinging the broken front door across the foyer and pulling several framed pictures off the walls. Books and movies from various shelves around the living room were yanked to the floor as all manner of mess and debris had seemed to follow Holly a moment after her arrival. All the while, the kitsune leaned in towards the man she'd left her children in the care of, their muzzles almost touching...
The amalgam of man and beast nearly peed himself.
"He-He's be-behind you," David sputtered out, deciding in that moment that this angered yokai must have a need for that fury. Was it the text message? David bit his lip. Is she going to kill him Trevor front of their kids??? I can't stop her like I am!
I need to be stronger, David realized.
Holly whipped around so fast it was almost hard to see, turning her gaze first to Alice, then to the lightly silver-furred wolftaur. "Tommy?" she asked the younger taur. David blinked, confused why that anger was looking for Thomas. Her eyes began to fade away from teal in glow as the equally frightened child began to nod. Everyone but Trevor could smell the urine from the boy's underside as he wasn't the only one thinking she had been angry with him for some reason.
"You were in danger!" she declared, then was upon him, leaning into his athletic form and hugging him tightly. "I was going to hurt whoever caused it but—"
"Dad—" Tommy began. Holly froze. David's eyes went wide and looked towards the boy. The silver wolftaur made a cutting motion at his neck meaning 'don't finish that thought'. Trevor noticed. Tommy stared at him, believing in that moment that David was trying to protect Trevor, and frowned... his muzzle pulling back to show teeth in a silent growl. "—shot me," he finished as his mother pulled back from her embrace and met Tommy's eyes directly.
Holly's hands patted down her son's sides and looked him over, trying to find wounds. His chest fur was matted in blood, she realized, and she placed a hand there. That strong upper heart was beating in his chest, fine. Her vulpine head tilted to the side.
Mr. Scott quickly tried to redirect the thought. "He got bettah," was what he said, in a joking tone. There was a smile on his face as he tried to appear reassuring, but with a slow turn of the kitsune's muzzle, it was clear she was unamused. Those eyes briefly rimmed in teal as a sparkling threat of annoyance. David coughed, feeling her pressure upon his fur. "Tommy... not Trevor," he clarified as passively as he could manage.
"I see that," she said flatly. "Where's—"
"Behind you," came Trevor's small voice. "Like teh slut said." Alice growled, deep and feral. "Looks lik you two arr made fer each other," he offered to her as a thought. "Muthar of two little monsters."
"Bigger than you, dad," the male she-wolf growled.
Holly's ears shifted towards the glass reptile enclosure so that when she slowly turned around, she caught the two figures she'd overlooked before within her sightline. Leaning her humanoid torso forward, the fox's muzzle crept into a grin as she eyed the container. There before her was her husband Trevor and his partner, Thor.
She licked her lips.
"Well, well, well... if it isn't the little man of the house..." she tapped the glass, making Trevor stagger in place. "I wonder... could you be made a pheasant?" David gritted his teeth, not liking where this was going. Not that he was opposed to vore in fiction, but from where he was, this wasn't fiction. But, even as he thought that, he glanced at us, knowing he was just along for the ride. The angry mother continued. "Whatever shall we do with you?"
"That's probably how this passage ends," David mumbled softly, glancing directly at you before quickly returning to the interaction before him. Holly didn't look back from Trevor, but she sensed where David's attention was. She moved slightly as if to give you a better angle, but by then it would have been a clear shot of Holly's vulpine face in the background of the silhouettes of Trevor and Thor from low behind the glass case. A classic kaiju angle with that depth of field from the Ant-Man movies. If we had Cover Images for CYOC segments, this'd be the shot I'd commission.
"You shot our son," Holly began again now that the moment had been slightly delayed. "Called our children monsters," she added as she considered. "Anything else I don't know," Trevor just crossed his arms. David had to admit, the willpower on this guy was through the roof... because he'd be scared out of his mind were the situation switched around. Truthfully, he was pretty scared on Trevor's behalf as it was. The cop, however, just crossed his arms.
A beat. A moment. Holly opened her mouth to continue when Alice's voice quietly escaped the dire wolf: "I know something."
"Oh?" Holly asked. David frowned, What? What could Alice— Oh, no. No, no, no! Eyes going wide, he recalled the conversation they'd had the night before and before he knew it he found himself shaking his head and waving his hands back and forth across his front where Alice could see him. The signal was clear to her that now was not the time. Trevor noticed. The little girl looked to the bigger wolf as he mouthed 'she will kill him', but Alice was eight and couldn't read lips... to say nothing of those lips being the black thin ones of a lupine muzzle.
The silver-furred wolf put a palm to his head, sure Trevor was about to get shot with Chekhov's gun.
Two of Holly's fluffy tails wrapped around David's front right leg and through her touch, he got the empathetic impression that she could sense his concern. But David couldn't tell if that feeling was her saying 'I'm just trying to scare him' or 'don't worry, I've made up my mind' because those thoughts implied two very different final results.
The mother put a hand on her big wolf's shoulder, giving a comforting smile to her daughter. Alice felt the worry drain from her. The little girl felt in that moment it was safe to speak. After all, daddy couldn't hurt her. It was then that she looked away from the only person she'd told and instead to her mother... the woman David had said she should 'absolutely, definitely' tell, and said:
"Daddy... Daddy made 'white stuff' come out his wee wee in front of me."
David dropped his hands, prepared to try and grab a rightfully enraged mother. At the same time, Holly's teal foxfire began to light up her undercoat as her brain worked hard to go back over all the words Alice had used and make sure she had interpreted them correctly. But Tommy was too confused not to ask: "He did what with his wee wee?"
"You're too—" David and Holly were both saying the words. Her head slowly turned around while her body continued to face Alice. Apparently kitsune necks are flexible like an owls. The two met eyes and finished the sentence together at once: "—young."
Some of that fire licked David's front leg from where her tails surrounded him. He knows. She had sensed his hand motions to Tommy and Alice, but the yokai thought it was more fun to let someone responsible squirm... but this? Why has he not told me?
"She's younger than I am," Tommy stated the obvious, interrupting Holly's thoughts. He leaned towards his father. "She wasn't even a boy until last night."
Trevor knew he was in trouble, but he felt like taking a jab at the man he thought was sleeping with his wife. "Yeah, David. How come you and I know but Holly doesn't."
Suddenly David recalled vividly a car wreck he'd been in. Just like then, his mind went cool and calm. He needed to change lanes using his remaining tires and not make things worse. Working the problem he tired to find the right words to speak... or at least as close to those words as he could manage.
"Hey," David began with a bit of a warble to his voice. He cleared his throat, and tried to relax as his leg grew warm of fire. Speaking to Trevor first, his tone was flat yet condescending: "Hey, jackass... It's called de-escalation. Didn't you learn de-escalation at some point? Like, aren't you at all scared for your life that 'monsters' have surrounded you, one of which you've seen with your tiny eyes display supernatural speed and the ability to create fire?"
As Mr. Scott said that last sentence he tried to pull his leg from being bound by two of Mrs. Phillip's tails. She held him tight. He sighed before continuing. "Alice had an adult dream in an adult body last night and thought that she was bad because she'd only seen the 'white stuff' from her father doing an adult thing. I tried not to get involved until she insisted. And then..." he trailed off, glancing to Alice.
The dire wolf with the mind of a little girl caught the hint that time: "He said 'But you should definnly, absotutely tell your mom... and be totally honest with her because it might be importont later," she said, nodding to vulpine mother as she looked to face the child. David nodded. "Please don't be mad at Mr. Scott. He said if people knew, they'd be mad at dad—"
It was clear Alice was going to say 'daddy' but stopped herself.
"Tre-vor. They'd be mad at Trevor," the dire wolf said, raising her shoulders. Trevor took a step towards the glass in Alice's direction. "I'm mad at him. And you're mad at him. Tommy's mad at him." The big wolf's head titled to the side. "Why's Mr. Scott not mad?"
"Oh, I'm mad," David quickly nipped that remark in the bud. He did it so fast even Holly didn't feel it coming. "I'm so mad," he said flatly. "Absolutely livid. We had a great night, I think. I got to share one of my most favorite things in the whole multiverse that I never before could experience any other way beyond fiction... with four of the numerous people I care so much about... and this... this..." He motioned towards the reptile cage, just an instant from calling Trevor a 'thumb'. "Jerk. Your father... ruins it by scaring the literal pants off his family," he adds, motioning to Tommy's shredded cloths by the shattered and shot front door.
"And now, because I made you all different levels of not human, I have to worry if I messed up your minds because it seems like—no offense, Holly, but I'm burning a little—maybe your mother wants to do a murder," he said looking into the kitsune's eyes directly, making it an actual challenge. "Which, to be clear, I totally get... but you can't come back from that, so where do we go from here?"
There was a deathly silence to the room for a minute solid with David's eyes never wavering from Holly's. The wolf and fox stared each other down. This was a test of their friendship if not more. But, eventually, Holly glanced away, then back... and loosened her tails from around David's leg. "I know you're right... we could just..."
David put a finger to his lips. "Don't hypothesize in front of the captive," he advised. She smirked and leaned in towards his muzzle. "I can feel the kiss coming, but—" The fox licked his snout. "You sure?" she nodded. "Then we need to figure out what to do about him," he motioned towards Trevor with his head.
Tommy grinned. "Like a family meeting?"
Trevor clenched his fists and yelled: "Your mother's boyfriend is not family!"
"You're not my dad," the boy said and stuck out his extra long tongue which reached a lot further than he expected, almost to his chest. Holly blinked at the muscle's length after turning to look at her boy. She was about to ask what Tommy meant. He pulled his tongue back into his mouth. "I made myself David's son so I could heal," he explained before she could ask him to clarify. "You know... from the gunshot," he emphasized as a growl towards the cage.
"Quick thinking," Holly blinked. "I felt you dying. Then... I came running—err... flying." As she spoke, it was like she was realizing the truth of the event for the first time, though I think everyone in the room probably gathered that. She took a breath. "But genetics alone don't make someone family."
"She's right," David agreed. Tommy blinked. "Not that I don't want to be your dad instead of that guy," he motioned at Trevor who himself seemed to begin putting the pieces together about what was about to happen. He was idly petting Thor. "But I have to earn that title... and being a better person alone won't make that so."
Trevor shook his fist at David. "Phuk you! Pussy!"
"Not my type," David responded reflexively. Tommy chuckled. Alice didn't get it. He pulled out his phone and looked over the commands. Taking a moment to consider his options, he then clued the others in to his thoughts. "We need him in sight, but... not listening in." The wolftaur rubbed his chin. "We need to get to deciding his fate before the cliffhanger." Everyone was confused by that, even me.
They all glanced at each other before Alice leaned forward to glare at Trevor. "Make him a dog... but can't understand human words anymore," she said. Holly looked to Alice, then David, then back to Alice. The mother's eyes held a mixture of pride and concern. Pride as a trickster for the idea, but concern as a formerly human mother whose child had become so successfully conniving. For his part, David wondered if maybe she had kept the parts of intelligence that were a 'clever girl' from the night before...
Alice went on to explain, not deterred by the concerned looks of the adults she trusted as she detailed her thinking: "Mr. Scott made me a raptor last night and had to make sure I didn't lose the ability to think and speak. Just... do that, but in reverse." The silver-colored wolftaur looked at the while kitsune with the teal markings, a questioning look on his face. Holly's vulpine muzzle teal lips slowly curved into grin, then she simply nodded. The mischievous kitsune gave a wicked smile to her littler girl and rubbed the fur on her head. Alice giggled.
"But first," Alice continued, looking up to her mom as a permission request. "Could I... I mean." The dire wolf took a breath and collected herself, meeting the eyes of who she wished were her parents. "I want David to be my dad like Tommy." Holly put two fingers on her chin at that request. David simply grinned.
"I'm flattered."
"Now juss a minute," Trevor began, hitting the side of the container with his fist. David sighed, looking towards the glass case. Holly who was clearly mulling it over, but doing so in a way that it was clear more mental damage to Trevor would be fun to her. "I said wait minute," the inch high guy insisted. For the first time, it seemed like it was dawning on Trevor how little power he had in this situation. He was, genetically speaking at least, about to lose his last child...
"I mean, we can always change it later if she changes her mind?" Holly asked, double-checking aloud. Everyone not in a glass cage confirmed this through various head motions and affirmative dialog. The more they dwelled on it, the more she liked the idea, adding: "I don't see the harm... and it'll really piss him off."
David Nicolaus Scott the Third was about to have his second child in less than an hour. Sadly, no birthing, he thought, and glanced towards me. But then he looked to Alice who sat upright on the couch, ready for the change. "Alright, kiddo. Any special requests... transform-style, color picks, and so on?" he wondered as he motioned for the dire wolf to move next to him on the floor.
Alice's lupine eyes turned towards Trevor before looking back up at David. "Something... sticky," she said with a grin, glancing briefly at her mom. "Da— Trevor. Trevor hates gross things like... like old, melty garbage," she explained while her mother gave a short nod. "Anything like that?"
Tommy crossed his arms. "Gross," he said, and stuck his tongue out a normal canine amount this time. "But funny. Yucky T.F."
The big little wolf girl titled her head to the side. "Otherwise, I like how I look now? Green eyes. Brownish red fur. But... can you do mom's glyphs like Tommy has?" The big wolftaur—who was, to be clear, still only 5'5" at the top of his head—nodded as she spoke. Alice had gotten pretty good at making her requests clear. "I like my size, if that's okay Mr. Scott? I guess... I mostly miss my red hair. Oh!" she barked the word. "Can I have hair like Captain Marvel's helmet look?"
"A mohawk?" her mother asked.
Alice didn't know what that meant. Holly and David explained it to her pretty quick with pictures from a Google Search, and she nodded. After seeing and hearing Trevor's derisive response, she got her mother's approval. His statement beginning with the words 'no daughter of mine' understandably sealed the deal.
"That's the idea," David offhandedly remarked, his eyes focusing on the Chronivac app on his phone as he checked a few variables. A moment later, he made a realization sound. "Ah! A 'juicy' transformation is probably right," he said while he was rechecking some prior settings. "Err... 'painless juicy'," he blinked, looking to Holly and showing her the screen. "I'm unclear why it needs to be painless, so... parental approval and we're good."
"Really wish this thing had a preview mode," Holly said, then shrugged. David agreed. "But painless, yeah. Make it quick, though, just in case. I'll hold Trevor," she said as she took a step towards the table. Leaning in towards him, she grinned across her vulpine muzzle and licked her lips before lifting the two tiny cops into the air and turned around to face her daughter.
"Need to close your eyes, Tommy?" David asked.
"No, Mr. Scott... it doesn't bother me when it's not me."
"Dually noted. Okay, Alice. Twenty seconds... I've got Revert ready if something's weird." The girl sat back on her hind legs and barked a 'Go!' to him with her paws up as if she was begging...
As Trevor watched, Alice's head began to lift higher, pulling muscle and flesh away from under her skin as her neck split open. Her fur pulled apart at the seam, revealing her insides. The painless part was true, though based on her maniacal laughter, one might assume it tickled. Her neck was elongating like bloody taffy or that stuff McDonalds makes nuggets out of. You could hear cracks of bone as her spine lengthened with additional vertebrae popping into place from beneath the muscle along the distance of her continuing transformation.
Her current father covered his mouth, Tommy himself groaned and looked away anyway, Holly's whiskers twitched at the disturbing imagery... consoled by her daughter's laughter, and David, well... nothing about Alice's form was attractive to him visually because both his human and wolf minds registered the appearance of a juvenile packmate like this to be a grave wound and thus very concerning. But her transformation? Let's just say, it was auspicious that he was the only wolf wearing layers of clothing upon his lower-torso...
Shaking his lupine head, David met Alice's eyes as her neck reached about three foot long of raw, exposed muscle. It expanded outwards with a sickening gurgle as the ribs of her new upper-torso wrapped around to her front from her spine with a new heart forming in behind that new chest protection. David winced, but was happy she hadn't looked down yet. "Maybe close your eyes, Alice. I don't know what I expected, but I don't think you need to see this."
"I feel fingers," she said, closing her eyes. Slurps and squelches bubbled up as hands grew out of the sides of her new upper body. Gooey liquid—maybe mucus or phlegm?—dripped from her muscles along with the blood. Her chest inflated with new quad-layered lungs behind the ribs as her arms pushed outwards from behind the hands she already had.
All-in-all, it was pretty disgusting and Trevor had long since looked away. Taking a deep breath, Alice coughed she was laughing so hard. Muscled breast-flesh grew up over her chest, quickly ending at prepubescent lumps. Her chestnut fur cascaded down from her head and up from her new waist as new black skin wove itself towards the center of her torso just before it.
With fifteen seconds of transformation having passed, the last five seemed dedicated to the finishing touches. Teal Celtic-style glyphs marked almost as two V's with their points touching appeared as perhaps fairy wings to the sides of her rear thighs. All her dire wolf body shifted slightly to support the new front-heavy body and upper-torso with muscle rippling beneath her skin in waves. Up her front, new abs were visible behind her chestnut-colored fur. Across her back, glyphs like butterfly wings went over much of her back and new shoulder muscles.
As the transformation finished, those green wolfen eyes reopened to find deep red hair in front of them. Reaching up with her hand, she brushed the mane of red out of the way before looking down at her new torso. It looked a lot like her human one had been before at first glance. But when she looked to David and Holly, she realized she was taller than she had been. Still an eight-year-old inside, she looked just this side of puberty, maybe ten-ish? Hard to say without more young wolftaurs to reference.
"Wow!" Alice exploded with joy. She flexed her hands and pushed against the paw-pads of one with the fingers of the other. Touching her claws together, she grinned. "This is so cool!" declared the little girl who was much closer to her brother's height as a wolftaur. Repositioning her legs wider to get more comfortable stance, she reached forward to hug her mom who happily embraced her... though Holly quickly discovered her daughter was still a little gooey. That deep red mohawk of hair mostly stayed upright with its end trailing down to her mid-back. "Thank you again, Mr. Scott!"
When offered a hug, David took it, running his hands over her back. He too got sticky, but didn't seem to care. "Anytime, kiddo. You are now as much me as can be to replace him," he motioned with his head towards Trevor who was still held at Holly's side one-handed. "But mostly, you're yourself. I'm glad you like it! You're, uh, transformation..."
"Was it that bad?" Alice giggled.
"Yes!" Holly, Tommy, and Trevor all quickly responded. Thor barked. Alice laughed.
He father grumbled. "You're all insane."
Alice leaned over and looked at her tiny father with her new, high color, high-clarity eyes. She tried to stick her tongue out at him, but it quickly lengthened out of her muzzle and down to the center of her chest. "Wah?" Alice leaned back away from the glass. Tommy just smiled and nodded, just as confused about the tongue-situation as anyone. "Dats a big tongue," she said, pressing the back of it against her teeth from inside her mouth. "Wherezit all hiding?"
David shrugged, his eyes looking over Alice's form still. Her tail had thickened to be like his and he was sure she'd look forward to wrapping it around herself when she slept. Truthfully, she did look more like a wolftaur version of the wolf she'd been than she looked related to him... but that was fine. It was the thought that counted.
Tommy got off the couch and moved to David's other side. "Can I get some edits? Like, she's got cutie marks! That's not fair."
"I can give you cutie marks," David smirked, much to Thomas's chagrin.
Alice shifted her front a few steps to stand in a U-shape to look at her hind quarters for the first time. There she noticed the teal markings but also her giant, fluffy tail for the first time. She squeed and pulled it up to her fur-covered chest, hugging herself.
In truth, the final moments of this scene were the wolftaurs and the kitsune all embracing each other with their captives held by the mother at her side. It would be a few moments, but eventually the group would split apart with the understanding that it might be the last time the children would see Trevor. At David's insistence, Tommy and Alice each said their goodbyes, just in case, and headed outside to prepare to feed the farm animals for today. Depending on your choice, this may be the last time they see either Trevor or Thor.
Meanwhile, the adults needed to talk...
(|[***]|)
David Nicolaus Scott the Third was getting frustrated with Mr. Phillips. He was trying to work out details of the upcoming transformation with his, well... perhaps his mate? Holly. The man's wife was insistent the choice be made and done with, while David was explaining they probably needed a few more minutes of exposition. He, for one, only knew Trevor through his family. He trusted them, sure, but he wanted to know more of the truth...
"And you'll never know the truth, because he lies!" the anthropomorphic white fox with teal markings argued as she pointed a finger claw towards the glass container on the dining room table. They'd moved the conversation out of the living room and were then pacing around the space. The children were outside.
"Like you haven't been lying to me!" Trevor insisted.
Holly groaned. Putting her hands on her hips, the vixen turned to face him. "Mostly who I've lied to is myself over all these years. I don't know why I was trying to convince myself you're a good man inside?! I thought I was the problem in our relationship... but that was because you kept putting those thoughts in my head! I see that now... and yes, David gave me the confidence in myself to try and divorce you!"
"I bet he did."
"Trevor. Trevor," she said a few times, trying to determine how to start her thought. Eventually, she pressed her breasts into the tablecloth as she leaned forward to look at him. "David let me Larp. He introduced me to his friends. We had fun together," she explained to the captive audience. "The only way I know your friends is poker night, bowling, and barbecues and it's not like you invite me along to those first two, and then I'm your beer wench for the third! But, with David, I made real connections!"
Holly leaned back, looking to David who didn't feel like interrupting. "How wasn't I supposed to have a human connection to someone like that when the only time we were together—" she spoke plainly, looking back to her husband, "—was when we were doing things as a family." She grumbled. "Hell, David even offered a few suggestions of how maybe to get you to open up. I did those. You pushed back... and, honestly, I think most of the advice was sound... so I do blame you there as well."
"But why are we even having this conversation?" She took a deep breath. "Maybe it's the clarity of this form's thought-process, but it's blindingly obvious how wrong I've been! You don't love me! I was a checkmark on the list of things you wanted in your life!" She grumbled and the huffed. "You know... I've been more impulsive since last night. I'm different. And it's not just this," she motioned at her athletic, feminine form with both hands. Briefly the cupped her white-furred breasts, then shook her head and dropped them. "It's that... you were going to be back in my life and I realized all at once how bad that would be for my family."
"Our family," Trevor corrected.
David, who had been watching the interaction escalate for several minutes now, was suddenly pulled back into it when Holly put her arm around his back. "Our family," she clarified. She glanced at the Chronivac app on David's phone. He'd been making some settings with Thor and Trevor selected. "Maybe Thor can keep being your family," she grinned, winking at the wolftaur. "What've you got there, D?"
"That's it," he spoke softly, then declared: "I've come up with a new recipah!" Blinking, Holly assumed David was making a reference of some kind which flew over her vulpine head. Leaning closer to the screen, she made teal-rimmed glasses appear on her vulpine face as she read the edits aloud...
"Female german shepherd body to take away basically all but his mind... losing him the ability to understand human speech verbally, but—" She was interrupted by Trevor mumbling somethin about torture. Frowning, she went on. "Dunno if I like the ability for him to talk to us and the kids in our minds. And why make Thor smarter?"
"We can allow or disallow them speech ourselves," David pointed out. "This way, he can still keep his mind and even converse so long as he's being reasonable. And, if not, we can simply put him on the telepathic equivalent of 'deafen'," explained the transformaniac. "So, like you said—" Trevor was yelling again. "Excuse me!" David barked towards the tiny voice coming from the reptile cage. "This is America, not a democracy... the main characters are talking!" He frowned and looked back to Holly, his brief anger gone instantly, continuing his dialog from before the interruption: "Instead of leaving him talking or barking where we have to actively ignore, we just think about him being silent, then he is. And if he gets turned into something inanimate, we can still carry on a conversation with him as his mind supernaturally lingers... the hope being that some day he chills the fuck out and feels remorse for his actions..."
"And why are we trying to keep his mind intact?" she found herself wondering aloud. "I know you're not down with murder, but cummon, making him the other family pet wouldn't be so bad, yeah? Just another animal..."
"Because identity death is death, Holly." David repeated from earlier, squeezing Holly close to him. "Look, you didn't get to the part that's going to help us right now. Check the last statement of the T.F." He shrugged against her as her hand was down near his carapace's pockets. "I'm proposing a brief interrogation scene."
"How brief?"
"I dunno. We can rapid fire the questions."
She sighed, then nodded. But then she pressed the button on the emitter that David hadn't realized she'd picked his pocket of just a moment ago. He looked surprised. "What?" she grinned. "Let's get this over with. The pred in me likes the one solution you're vehemently opposed to."
"I was gunna check my work," David spoke with a slight whine. Looking back towards the glass container, the wolftaur moved towards the now two shepherds who were each about three inches tall. "There... a little easier to see. Skull-face is still Thor, heart-face must be Trevor." He pointed out black mask that made up each of their facial markings. "Both of them have all the changes proposed since they were both last selected."
"Makes sense... at least until Thor starts barking in our heads."
Thor's looked the same as before, but since that's lacked details, here's what I've got: his muzzle's thin black lips are framed by black fur that traveled back under and over the length of the snout. That blackness was surrounded by golden brown just at the edges of where it met his cheeks. However, there was a thickness of black fur around the eyes and pinched down from the top by more brown fur, like a black skull-mask. Those upright pointed ears were likewise black and, starting between them was a black stripe which continued down seemingly to the end of his tail. He had a lithe, strong body of mostly golden brown fur, but across his back and curved under his sides was a saddle of black. This dark color preceded over his backside, across the top of his tail. However, the underside of his tail was a light brown which continued up towards his belly, down each leg, and ending beneath his neck.
For the most part, Trevor looked about the same because he too was now a german shepherd... a bitch who didn't immediately smell like he was in heat. As David had pointed out, the female had a black mask that instead bulged over both eyebrows, and ended in a point just above his nose on his golden muzzle, making roughly the shape of a heart. Below the saddle of back on the sides was brown and black alternating in brief splotches like a flannel pattern with a very light golden belly and front legs like his shirt had been. The back legs were black from the paws upwards to almost the knee and it was clear that Trevor had kept his distinguishing scars: a rough patch of fur from the blast of IED along his belly, the very end of the toe which had been his ring-finger, and a deep grove along his inner left thigh where a perp had tried for the major artery.
The seemingly giant kitsune shrunk into a small three-tailed white fox as she leaned forward onto the table. Those cute little paws walked her over towards the two dogs on all fours. She approached the more their now more cramped space and laid down so that her eyes could look directly into the case. Her glasses faded away as she spoke at normal volume, in English: "Abuser, speak," she commanded.
No response.
David checked the app to make sure the transformation had gone as planned while Thor went about sniffing his master's rear. |Trevor,| he said, trying to think at him. |Were you able to understand Holly?|
|No. I did not understand her,| came Trevor's old voice. It sounded like it was in the room and in their heads at once. |What is that application and how does it do this? I'm telepathic now? This is crazy,| the much more sober Trevor asked them both. The female paced in the cage, shaking his head. |David,| his tone was clearly more measured than it had ever been between the two of them. |You don't really want to do this. Any of this. Stealing my kids is fucked up. You know that. You're against murder... but not kidnapping!?|
David blinked, looking over Holly's head at the tiny telepathic dogs. |Sorry, man. We're past the part where you try and talk your way out of this.| He put one hand where his hip would be if he was still human. |Shooting wildly put bullets in your son and would've killed him were he still human. Me? You shot me on purpose. Spying on Holly, then me... probably never listening to the guy or gal you had doing it when they told you 'it doesn't look like they're fooling around' and just assuming the worst of her... that says a lot about you and how you think.| The shrunken bitch narrowed his eyes as the wolftaur went on.
|Obviously we haven't fucked,| Holly repeated for what seemed the dozenth time.
|That's not obvious. Obvious is that you have real feelings for each other. Obvious is my kids are on a first name, 'wish you were my real dad', basis with him,| Trevor spoke, brutally honest. |It is not obvious you haven't fucked.|
|OK. Fair,| David shrugged with a grin. The vixen circled the glass container at sat behind it, looking at the wolf. |We could still be lying about that. But we're not!| David insisted. |Friendly hugs, recipe swaps, and muzzle-licks only...| he smirked. |That's about it. Otherwise, I've been a mostly responsible adult friend helping out a mother who even her children know you wack around sometimes, Trev.|
"You're supposed to be interrogating him, David. He's just learning more about you and us," the vixen spoke in human so Trevor couldn't understand. "You're monologuing."
David put his hand together and bowed his head towards her. "Sorry. But you should be questioning him too. This is the scene were we try to make the Reader really hate Trevor as much as they should... so that things are easier on my mind when we ultimately transform him against his will."
"You shrunk him, then turned him into a dog that matches Thor as if they were a couple on their honeymoon." The small kitsune leaned back on her haunches, motioning towards the glass enclosure in front of her. "She's even got a heart on her face. His face."
"Believe it or not, the Chronivac—or, maybe the Author, I guess—picked that for him, not me."
Holly Phillips padded her way across the table to the wolftaur. "You've got to reign in all your fourth-wall breaks. Normal people don't talk this way." She glanced over his shoulder in our direction. "Truthfully, if I couldn't sense you sensing them, I'd already be really concerned... but still. I need you... to live here in the real world with us." She sighed, turning away and walking back to the cage. "Just tell me what you want me to ask..."
"Start small," he said, "Things you think he's lied about, and get those on the record... set in stone so only a retcon could fix them."
"David..."
"Sorry. Sorry. I'll try harder," he insisted. "Meanwhile, while you're thinking of a next question, I'll just pepper him with inquiries about himself as a person. Sound good?"
"Sure. Just... wishing I could time-skip like your 'readers'," the little white fox said, doing tiny air-quotes with her paws. "Let's finish this thing."
"OK... but. I think you do have to go first," David admitted. Holly's vulpine head tilted to the side. "I don't know the man. I mean, he's a cop, and cops lie... especially in this town... but I don't know him personally. I don't know a specific thing I think he's lied about like you probably do," he offered as a thought, motioning towards her with an outstretched hand.
"I don't know for certain... but I could try," she said aloud before pushing her thoughts at her husband. |Trevor,| Holly began as the small fox loomed over the tiny dogs. |Have you had sex with Sophia Pedersen?|
|Not since high school, before we were married. Before and after we conceived Tommy—wait, what?| He shook his canine body, looking up at those teal-green eyes. |I only meant to answer that first part.|
|Means the truthiness covers 'lies of omission',| smirked the vixen as her head tilted to one side. |Good. Good.| she rubbed her paws together, thinking of questions. |Why did you masturbate in front of Alice?|
|I didn't know she was there at first. She was off in the corner of the room looking through the pictures of one of my automotive magazines. When I realized she was there and could see me, I just went ahead and finished.| The shepherd growled to himself. |That sounds worse than it was.|
David looked to Holly, then said what they were both thinking: "Pretty sure that sounds as bad as it actually is."
It went on like this for a while. When Holly would run out of personal experience questions, David would ask ones about his perspective. Trevor's misogyny, if he'd ever knowingly shot someone who was unarmed, other cop questions. Turns out, Trevor was good friends with the cops who killed two of David's best friend during the Black Lives Matter protests, so... chew on that.
If we had sound, you'd have heard the record-scratch as Holly realized something she'd touched on way back at the start. David felt the pressure of the moment, as did Trevor and Thor. Something stuck out in her mind which suddenly became pivotal, and she directed a mental question at her abuser: |Did you have sex with anyone else during the same period of time we conceived Tommy? Anyone else besides Sophia?|
|Leticia Landrón, Tonya Raynott, and some girl whose name I never learned,| he answered flatly in their heads. The female shep looked away from the fox. He didn't like this and the fox could see it. Holly put her paws together, thinking on more questions. But Trevor was unable to hide his body language as his tail went between his legs. He was certainly guilty about something close to this question, but what was unclear.
David moved around the table, watching the two dogs reactions as Holly put a paw to her snout. The moment broke when Thor put his nose under the female's tail and Trevor turned to snapped at him. He growled at him, but Thor just looked confused. |Trevor,| the wolftaur said, getting his attention back and breaking the 'silence'. |Do you realize you've been treating Alice worse than Tommy?|
Trevor's truthful state had no hesitation in his words. |Yes,| he said directly, his tail staying between his legs. |I've realized that while they've not been around these past few weeks. She's always feared my outbursts, but I've never hit her!| He was insistent of that, making sure to get those words out while they knew he was being truthful.
|How many times have you hit your wife?| David inquired as he leaned over the table to look at the miniature dogs more closely. Holly found herself distracted by the question and briefly lost her train of thought.
Trevor didn't have an exact answer: |I don't know. More than four. I haven't been keeping track.|
"Six times," Holly said aloud to David. "Always in anger over something inconsequential... just having a bad day at work." She looked up at the overhead lamp to the table. It was off as the sunlight coming through the winds had lit the scene. It was clear a thought was distracting her. David's hand rested on her shoulder after a long moment of thought and the fox jumped.
"You okay?" he wondered.
"There was an old rumor back in high school. Loose lips," Holly determined. She put her fox-paw on his hand. She closed her eyes, brushing the hand away. |Trevor,| she began the end of their interactions. |When did you tell them your condoms were expired? The women you'd had sex with around the same time as me... when we conceived Tommy. When did you tell them?|
Trevor backed up as if to physically distance himself from his own words as he spoke. |I did not tell them that, because my condoms were not expired. That was a story I told you. The reason we had Tommy was because I punctured the condom I'd used when we had sex. Shit!| Trevor yelled out mentally as Holly's fire surrounded him. Thor yelped, jumping out of the way. Trevor backed into a corner of the glass case as the fire licked his paws. He whined in fear for the first time in ages. |You were the only girl I'd been with who my family approved of, so I decided to have a kid with you so your family would help you not turn me down!|
The teal foxfire started to spread in the confined space. Holly's eyes glowed the same color, then so did her glyphs. She barked the word 'rape' then kicked the container toward David who caught it. Trevor and Thor both yelped, tumbling in fire. "Oh, yeah, I am so happy we pushed for this conversation," her tone sardonic and dripping with contempt. Flexing her hands, her semi-retractable claws extended further out while the temperature of the room increased even around David. "And you want that piece of shit to live?"
David reached into the container and pulled out the two little dogs into his hand, the fire burning him as he did so. "I'd rather not kill anyone, Holly. I think everyone can be redeemed."
"You're siding with a rapist."
David bit his lip. "I am not."
"You are!"
"No. I'm not." He took a deep breath as his burned hand held onto the two squirming dogs. "I'm just going through a lot right now. New body, new mind, new perspective on reality," he said, and Holly's glowing eyes looked toward me accusingly. I think she might have realized David thought of me as the one who started this whole thing... which is true. But things are getting a little out of hand, so I'm glad she can't target me. "I just... don't want the death penalty!"
Holly turned off her fire and shut her eyes abruptly. "Fine," her tone cooled back down to a calmer baseline. "I'm just a character on a page and so are they... but for us, we've lived our whole lives, David. And it's not like you don't have decades of experience off the page that isn't real to you... This is messed up!" she declared. "He should die!"
Standing up on two legs to her full height of 5'8" on the dinning room table, the kitsune added: "I need to be able to trust you," The transformation was quick, and she was looming. She sighed, opening her eyes again. "And I do. I do! I do trust you! You made this truth possible, and it makes vengeance a whole lot easier. So... thanks for that." She quickly snapped her fingers and a ball of teal fire burst into existence at the end of her claws.
"You... or you and me... or me and the kids... some combination of people he's tormented needs to be deciding what to do with Trevor. Then, when some real time has passed, maybe I'll consider forgiveness." Her eyes flashed white. "But forgiveness isn't in the cards. Not today. It's in some expansion pack that may never be printed," she added, a mischievous grin across her face as the fireball floated above her finger.
The wolftaur released a heavy breath he didn't remember holding. "Okay," he nodded to her as she stood on the table. The dogs squirmed in his paw still and he dropped them into the glass case again. It was now slightly melted with the top not fitting quite right anymore. "Okay," he repeated, uneasy. "Let's pick a punishment."
This was a big choice, and I've provided a lot of options below, none of which you have to choose, most of which don't fit my mindset, and none of which you should consider your only options. You can, as always, continue the story however you like. Does David decide? Does Holly? Do they leave it to the kids or some combination thereof? Does Trevor turn the tables, or are they interrupted by an outside force? Whatever the case is, I have to ask: