With this many people spending their meager time in the cafeteria, Wendell and Harris had plenty of targets to choose from as they continued their break. The two beast men watched as the list flitted about as more potential targets entered the range and left it.
If anything, the constantly shifting list was causing both of them a headache.
"Clarissa LaRue, Henry Wicktin, Jonatha- damnit, the list keeps updating with new names jumping about," Wendell growled almost inaudibly as he tried to read the real-time updating list. Harris watched the listing and rapidly got disinterested in the 3D model tool, opting to instead chow down on the waffle fries and the chicken. "Come on..."
"I guess the thing can't really handle this many people together, huh?" Harris remarked about the device's capabilities while enjoying the nuggets with a rumbling purr.
"No, it can't be like that. This thing is sophisticated enough that I'm sure there's a way to just... stop the real-time update." Wendell growled out a bit of frustration at the growing headache as he tapped the touchscreen and managed to click on a name.
The profile loaded up as the 3D model rendered in. A rather portly young man wearing a checkered shirt, jeans, and a beanie stared at them from the screen now. The... Wendell checked his major and found that he was another major for CompSci, the Chronivac listing that he was more specifically interested in CySec.
"Huh, Alan Graham? He's the hacker man, right?" Wendell asked as he scoured the new profile for more information.
"Who?" Harris asked with his mouth full of processed chicken meat and fries, leaning over while chewing his food. His feline eyes barely had a spark of recognition for the guy, shrugging his broad shoulders as he swallowed rather audibly. "Eh, I don't remember him."
Wendell had the slightest feeling that Harris should know the cyber security nerd...
He stabbed a nugget with a claw and popped it into his maw to chew.
"Okay... out of the whole cafeteria people, I'm looking at this guy rather than returning to the headache list." The werewolf enjoyed his morsel as he scanned through his traits and such.
Alan was someone who was a social wallflower, barely noticeable when any gatherings were had or talks. He kept to himself, his close friend circles being really tight-knit.
Wendell could count the people he was friends with on a single paw.
As he looked over the profile, however, he found a rather peculiar trait that he knew many people had but hid.
"Closeted Furry...?" As Wendell said it was almost imperceptible to human ears, along with the fact that not many humans wanted to sit together with the school's only two beastmen, one of them being the Lakeside Lion's only lion linebacker.
The aforementioned feline looked over as he heard the term, something he was very familiar with over his lifetime as a beastman. It took him a minute.
"Huh, so there's a chance he wanks off to us?" Harris guffawed lowly as he vocalized the first thought that passed in his head.
Wendell's ears flattened as his brain incriminatingly imagined Alan having pictures of both the Wolf and the Lion somewhere in his room while he jerked off his-
He violently shook his head and growled slightly at Harris. "Really? The first thing that you say when he's a furry is that he masturbates with our pictures?"
Wendell stabbed another nugget and savaged this piece as it was torn to pieces in his maw.
"What? That's factual." Harris smirked as he licked his chops. The class was going to start soon and he hadn't had his quizzes from his favorite dorm mate werewolf. The lion linebacker's yellow eyes shifted towards someone he caught in the edge of his eyes and he quickly threw a powerful flex as his maned head turned to his prey with a cheeky grin. "I know a lot of nerds like you jerk off to these."
"Hey! That's seriously not cool man..." Wendell's eyes followed to where Harris was staring off to and saw the man of their talk staring at them from where he was by the trashcan. Alan Graham was visibly stunned being addressed like that by the biggest beast jock. No doubt the closeted furry thought the actual furry outed him for being a furfag.
That's absolutely what went on in his head as Alan quickly scraped off the trash from his tray and turned to hide the blush, and erection, from the massive lion jock.
"What? I thought he'd appreciate having a free flex show when I saw him staring." Harris' grin slightly fell into a normal smile when he saw Alan sitting at his nearest table with his back turned to them, his head now bowed to his phone as he busied himself.
"He'd appreciate it if he's not closeted! That means it's something he hides, dude." Wendell looked over to the hunched man, instinctively knowing how it felt to have to hide his love for furries despite being one himself.
Being a werewolf at a young age, where your peers would shame you for having such a monstrous form hidden away...?
Wendell tilted his head in slight confusion at the weird thought of the past. With a sigh, he tapped at Alan's profile and looked over it another time.
"Nyao, he seriously needs to man up if he's going to survive. Confidence gets you tail, and also bro-hood." Harris purred as he smiled looking at the back of the human.
Seriously, turning his back against two apex predators like that.
"Sure, I'll add that to him here." Wendell clicked the box where Alan's personality traits were listed, some of them bolded and others much smaller in font. Logically, the bolded and bigger ones were bedrock traits that defined who a person was. "There, confident replaced timid that was one of his bolded traits."
Harris looked over the model. The CySec student's model visibly straightened his posture and had a rather charming nerdy smile on his face now, but his body stayed pretty much the same as freshman fifteen stayed on him.
"... Cocky, make him cocky," Harris suggested as he finished his meal, followed along with Wendell. The broad lion linebacker leaned closer to the screen as he read over the traits that defined Alan. "I wanna see what happens to his model if he's super confident."
Wendell shrugged as he changed confident to cocky, it's not like the app works to change reality anyway. As soon as the trait was changed and became bolded, Wendell saw some of the other lowercase traits shuffle and change.
It happened so fast that he didn't catch much, but he definitely saw the fearful trait being replaced by zealous among others that was attached to the timid trait, or being burned away by the now identity-defining cocky trait.
The model updated again, the freshman fifteen fading away and some definition appearing on his body. Not much, but enough that he could be limber and healthy. His posture fixed itself, puffing out his chest more as he cockily smirked at them from the screen.
Hypothetical-Alan was a far cry from Real-Alan. Wendell had to admit.
"Whoa, just one trait and he's a totally new guy... Look at him all bravado." As he rotated the model, Wendell had to admit the guy was looking far better now.
"Not sure what that means but yeah, he looks like a good fit for track- say, does he do any sports?" Harris' question switched rails as suddenly as if the thought just got rushed down.
"Uh... not really. He's still a CompSci major so his time and focus isn't gonna be all free." Wendell searched for any sign that Alan did any kind of sports. He scoured the listing and saw that the slightly endomorphic nerd only jogged.
"I think track and field would seriously do him good, bro. Get him some meat on those bones and be all lithe." Harris suggested as he chugged his brain to think of a supporting factor. "If the model shows good results, I think we can encourage him to take up the sport."
"I mean, that'd be great and all but are you sure he'd even take us up?" Wendell asked as he navigated to his hobbies and wrote in track and field. Upon writing it in, a slider appeared where there were none, unmissable thanks to its eye-catching blink. "Oh? That's how it works? It looks just like your team spirit slider."
"Interest in track, huh, and it's already halfway." Harris nodded at the finding. At least the hypothetical Alan was devoted to his new hobby.
Wendell increased it up a good three notches above average, and the model bulked up just a little bit more. He now looked the part of a great runner.
"Seriously, adding sports to your life makes you strong." Wendell chuckled alongside Harris as they looked at the screen of a good-looking Alan whose face was now sharper thanks to the reduced fat.
"Can't argue with that, bro." Harris guffawed shortly as he did a double bicep pose. The big dumb cat growled and grunted as his muscles peaked. "Peak male performance, nyao!"
Not many in the cafeteria cared about the dumb jock's vain antics of showing off how big he was as king of the jungle.
"Awesome, hehe." Wendell looked over the stats now, a far cry from Alan busying himself on the table just a few seats over. Great 6'2" in height, a decent mesomorph form and weight. "What'd he look like if he's a beast like us though?"
"I dunno', but you have this Chronivac so go wild." Harris relaxed as he once again leaned close to see what the model would look like once Wendell changed his species.
"I think a cheetah would fit him just right. Another big cat, although as much as I hate cats, it just is fitting." Wendell growled without much dislike as he inputted Feline - Cheetah into the species box.
"Track and Field for a cheetah is like cheating already-..." Harris paused as he caught on to his wordplay. The big lion's face scrunched and stretched into a grin as he gleefully chuckled. "Hey! Cheating cheetah! Hahah!"
"Definitely would fit why he's so cocky huh? No one can beat a cheetah in a sprint, nice." Wendell watched the nerd's model shift as one second he was human, the next he was watching a rather handsome feline on screen. The default relaxed pose shows off the great definition that exists for the speed runner now.
"That's just cool," Harris remarked as he watched another big cat form on screen. The computer didn't chug as much this time to render, the preview taking not much time to finish showing off an improved Alan. "Look at all those rosettes on him."
"For sure, he looks just amazing now," Wendell looked at the time, the break was almost over now and they had finished their meals. Time for the next more important thing before ECON 201. "Though more amazing is if you can answer the question of how fast can a cheetah run?"
Wendell clicked apply changes as he asked Harris that question without missing a beat, flipping the laptop off and sliding it into his backpack before pulling out a textbook for the next class.
Harris was taken aback by the sudden quiz, before his brain clicked that he was supposed to do this after eating. "Uh, about-"
The lion grinned showing off rows of pearly whites. "About 69mph, hahah!"
"69 jokes now? Heh, typical Harris." Wendell looked over the straight-sitting Alan who was still busy with his phone, his rounded ears above his head twitching with focus on the device. The short fuzz on them looked really good, Wendell wondered what shampoo he used.
He refocused on his current task of quizzing the big dumb cat for his next test. No doubt he could ace it with this kind of studying right before the test. Harris was great at memorizing things short-term.
"Alright, going forward." Wendell continued with more related questions for Harris' next test, though while he worked with the lion with Alan in both of their views, he also looked over time to time for some reason.
Wendell blinked and saw rosettes dotting the tawny fuzz of Alan, rather normal for the cheetah after all. The number of them increased with every blink of his sharp wolf eyes.
Harris was focused on answering his questions, nose buried in his textbook as he then closed his eyes, envisioned the answer, and answered Wendell's quiz.
Quizzing continued as and each time the next answer arrived, Alan visibly looked oddly the same yet something niggled that he was changing, like he changed his questions.
The spotted tail that swished lazily behind Alan was quite distracting to watch, the rosettes moving along with the tail. Wendell made sure Harris didn't spend his focus on the other big cat.
His timer rang as he finished the quizzes on time, and Harris' was smiling like the big goofball he was.
"Good luck with the test."
Harris and Wendell both turned to look at Alan, the cheetah giving a cocky grin as his aerodynamic head turned as he walked toward the hallways.
"Oh thanks, Alan." Wendell grinned back as he packed his textbooks. His classes were different than Harris', being on two different majors after all. The cheetah must have overheard the quizzing Wendell was giving Harris, and being a CySec enthusiast must have meant he had access to schedules.
"Alan's a really cool dude y'know." Harris smirked as he packed up himself. The big lion slung the backpack over his thick shoulders carefully, standing up to clear the trays. "No one can beat him in track, but the challenge is what keeps other humans trying."
"He gets his cockiness from that I guess?" Wendell did the same as Harris as he finished and started his stalk to his own classes of his engineering major.
"Yep." Harris and Wendell both laughed as they walked off together.