Marius Meen sat quietly in the waiting room at Horizon. He presently wore a blue stocking cap and a dark green windbreaker jacket. It wasn't because things in Lyre were cold or windy on the day. Things were cooler than they had been over the summer, but they weren't super cold. However, the weather really wasn't the reason for his present attire. That was more due to his overall condition and trying to mask some of its consequences and that namely had to do with him being near death's door. That was a result of a recurring case of cancer, or rather the misdiagnosis of the type of cancer that he'd been suffering from.
It started with pains in a few certain areas. To an extent, Marius suspected cancer from the beginning, as it was something that was in his family history, with it killing his father, though his father had died of it late in his life. Thus, when he was first diagnosed with it, the doctors had felt it to be a relatively minor and localized form of cancer. They were able to remove the mass and with minimal damage, and Marius felt that was the best, particularly when he wasn't quite keen on giving up his Humanity. Which was a major reason why he didn't take Project Phoenix when it was available. However, a year later, those pains returned, and this time showing up in a nearby but different area. It again turned out to be cancer, though again, the doctors felt it to be a localized cancer that was of little immediate threat and again the mass was removed, though, this time also removing the non-vital organ that the doctors felt was diseased and thus bringing on the cancer in that region.
Again, the doctors Marius had seen hoped that that would see to the end of the cancer threat to him. However, it again returned and in some of the later cases, it appeared in more places than just one and near organs that could not be removed and leaving Marius alive. It was at this point where the cancer that Marius had was not something that just randomly formed on these organs but was attached to his own endocrine system and the random locations were only flareups where those cancer cells seemed to settle and grow. It was at this point that an extensive dose of chemotherapy was prescribed, though as Marius lost his hair from this, the doctors were able to run more tests and find out just how off their earlier diagnoses were. Chemotherapy was able to slow and stop the progression of the cancer, but was not reversing it and prolonged use of it could be dangerous to his health as well. It was at this point that Marius finally accepted the idea of entering Project Phoenix.
“Mister Meen,” came a male voice from a side that made Marius turn to his right to note the new arrival.
He looked over to see an Orangutan Animalian there, and he found himself blinking with a bit of surprise.
"I... uh... expected a Lion Animalian to carry out the injection and all that," Marius said weakly.
Banjo gave a bit of a chuckle, "I'm afraid that with those that select the injection as their means of conversion, that is handled by the doctors and scientists here. That assures that everyone is trained and has some knowledge on how to carry it out. No Lion Animalian has had that training. Don't worry, I am vaccinated, so the injection should go perfectly fine."
"Well... that's good," Marius said slowly, "so... how'd you learn all this, if I may ask. I mean, I'd think you were uplifted."
"I was," Banjo nodded as he led Marius toward one of the changing rooms, "and much of how I learned related to veterinary visits and treatment for other things. The Lyre Zoo did its best to keep its animals healthy, but there was always the case where things either got through or other issues developed. In a way... I sort of learned from them and didn't realize it until after I was uplifted."
"Amazing," Marius said slowly, "all of this is amazing... at least so far as the medical side of things is. I'd imagine that most are like me. Not jumping at conversion at the first sign of illness or things like that."
"But most also do want to live," Banjo nodded, "and trust me. You aren't the only one who's run into issues with conditions that would at least make life difficult, if not potentially fatal, and choosing to become an Animalian to live."
Marius nodded and they walked along. Eventually they came to the changing room. Banjo walked over a small cabinet that was set along one of the walls and well away from the bed in the room. Much of this was for handling the syringes and making sure the alcohol swabs were ready, and in other conversions, it would often be where the glasses of milk would be left if the method of conversion was to be through consuming of unpasteurized milk from an unvaccinated Animalian. Marius watched a little as he sat down on the bed, but he was soon removing the stocking cap that he wore along with his windbreaker. It exposed a bald head that had come as a result of the chemotherapy treatments that were intended to fight the latest bout of cancer that he was struggling with. The fact that the treatment hadn't sent the cancer into remission but had merely prevented Marius from taking a near death sentence from the cancer. It bought him time for Project Phoenix to save his life.
As Banjo looked over once he was ready to prepare the injection site for Marius's conversion, he'd noted that Marius had now removed his shirt. It gave the Orangutan Animalian a clear view of some of the surgical scars from when Marius had had tumors removed. Banjo had learned a fair bit about Human maladies in his time at Horizon. It gave him additional lessons on things like cancer and the ways that were employed to try and treat it, surgery being one of them. Though in Marius's case, it appeared that surgery had only prolonged his life, but did not cure him of the cancer that he suffered from and that made Banjo look down with a heavy wince.
"I'm sorry you've suffered so," Banjo found himself saying weakly.
"It's okay," Marius answered, "you're not the one who misdiagnosed the nature of the cancer... or cancers I've had. And the conversion will cure it right?"
"It should," Banjo managed.
"Then let's do it!" Marius managed a thumbs up.
Banjo gave a smile and then went about the work. After wiping a spot on Marius's shoulder with the alcohol swab, he delivered the two shots and gave the customary, "welcome to Animalia."
Marius felt many of the effects immediately. Some were fairly standard with the lengthening of his feet and the development of claws on his fingers and toes. There was the enlarging of his muscles, though Marius also felt like this went beyond what was normal for even Lion Animalians. The strange thing was that this felt good in an odd way, and as the seams on the jeans he wore gave way to the pulsating muscles, he couldn't help but give a growling moan.
"Oh... that feels good," Marius spoke as he got up from the bed and staggered to his feet.
Standing on his toes felt a bit strange, and his balance was initially a bit shaky. But as he took his first few steps, things seemed to instinctively fit well enough. The pads forming under his toes and the part of his foot that touched the ground was also wide enough that his base of support was wide enough to support him. Though, his focus on his balance meant that he wasn't paying super close attention to the tugging sensation on his spine as his new tail grew out behind him. Though as he finally made his way before a mirror that was affixed to the wall, he was able to notice it as he was also starting to sway the new appendage behind him as he subconsciously found new muscle groups in that location that controlled the growing tail. Marius also felt rather warm as he walked.
When he looked into the mirror, Marius could see as to why he was feeling warm. Before his cancers had set in, he'd generally had a decent amount of body hair. The onset of these cancers ended up removing that, as either hair had been shaved in preparation for the surgeries to remove either the tumor or the organ that the tumor was attached to. Once some of the later cancers set in and revealed that the cancer was being attached more to other systems and moving those cells around, and with one of them being on or near his pituitary gland, that had required things like chemotherapy, as the doctors couldn't remove all the organs that the cancers were affecting. The chemotherapy treatments slowed the spread and lessened some of the symptoms, but it then had the natural effect of forcing his hair to fall out. Now the Animalia Virus was essentially curing his cancer through the conversion process, and as it progressed it was bringing many things back, including his red hair.
Much of that red hair was mixing with the relatively short lion fur that was growing in as well. The fur was among the standard shades that were observed in Lions, though for Marius, it was a sort of beige brown. It was something that made the hair that was growing back really stand out. Mostly because red wasn't a color that showed up in mundane Lions. In fact, the manes of male Lions were typically a shade of blonde at the absolute lightest to a more blackish color at the darkest, and that was assuming that the Lion wasn't leucitic and having a white coloration. The reddish color was something that Humans used for animated movies to make the cartoon LOOK more attractive. For Marius, though, his mane was matching the red hair he'd had throughout his life before he began having to deal with cancer. Thus, his becoming a converted Animalian rather than an uplifted Animalian meant that various aspects of his Human past carried over.
"Well... this will be different from the other... ot-tth-urrrrr," Marius began as his face began to feel like jelly as his mouth and jaw began to push forward into a rounded Leonine muzzle. It came with the reshaping of his vocal cords as they grew stronger and altered in a way that would allow him the ability to both roar the way a mundane Lion could and converse the way Humans could. It was another one of those odd things that made Animalians so distinctive, though, since Lions were mammals, Marius also knew that he would have some of the physical limitations in speaking that some Animalians had with regard to the speed at which they spoke. Though as he looked in the mirror, there were a few other things as well, and namely the large piece of equipment presently nestled inside its sheath. A part of him thought that would work out well some other things that floated in the back of his mind and got him thinking on the Meat Market and how women would like to see this. "And with my red hair back... borrowing a name for the stage may boost some other appeal, but I can't go beyond that."