Jacob readied himself when he felt the snow leopard shift him over to put him on his legs. He felt the changes progress the longer he was in contact with the feline, but by now, he was resigned to whatever he was becoming. Warmth prickled along Jacob’s neck as the fur steadily climbed upward, the sensation both foreign and oddly natural. A deep pressure coiled in his legs before releasing all at once, his bones stretching in a rapid surge that made his head swim. He barely noticed when his shoulders slid past the snow leopard’s, the new height throwing his balance off for a fleeting moment before his body instinctively adjusted.
There was a list of changes he went through just from being carried for a short time. He blinked and found his eyesight perfectly restored after a brief moment of blurriness. The fluffy tail grew out of his tailbone as it involuntarily wagged to show his anxiety. His ears finished their migration, and for a moment, he had to instinctively flatten it over his skull as it also finished shifting with the sounds of bone restructuring popping from within and into his now sensitive ears.
The awareness he had gave him real-time sensations of his form, and as he turned to his reflection, it confirmed what he thought had happened. His focus was pulled when the door to the bathroom opened with the now louder door knob turning. Trevor the Doberman entered the door's frame, his ears barely grazing the top as he crossed his arms.
"I'm going to the club with Finnegan. Usual time?" Trevor growled out, though he quirked an eyebrow when Jacob's stare lasted longer than a few seconds. Truthfully, Jacob had no idea what the hell Trevor was talking about. An unexpected saviour walked in, the fox that he assumed was Finnegan walking from behind and giving Trevor's ass a hard smack.
"We're gonna spitroast this cockhound." Finnegan looked right at Jacob like they knew each other well, continuing. "Like usual times, big guy."
Jacob swore his changes were still progressing because the short interaction did something to him that he could feel. The sudden weight on his ears, an itch over his eyebrow and the bridge of his nose, sensations of heat all over his body as muscles under his skin grew it taut. The bulge in his pants tented with a stiff sensation twice, but each time it settled down, the large tent it left didn't recede.
Not wanting to keep them waiting, Jacob nodded and played along. "Yeah, sure. Usual time."
It seemed to satisfy them as Finnegan strutted away while sending him a wink that pooled heat in his pants, followed by Trevor grumbling as he turned to follow.
"You sure the fall didn't do too much to him, Aiden?" The Doberman asked with a concerned look on his face. Said feline shrugged, which made Trevor scowl before looking to Jacob again. "For once don't walk it off, dumbass."
It was then only Aiden and himself alone in the bathrooms.
"What the fuck..." Jacob cursed, confusion not being the only condition he was experiencing. Both of those males interacted with him, and he could feel the changes on his body happening in real time. He hoped it was over, feeling a headache forming that was starting to irritate him.
Taking a deep breath, Jacob swiveled his head and jumped when he saw his reflection. Who was he looking at?
The first thing he noticed was his reflection—an anthropomorphic wolf staring back at him. One glance of his reflection revealed his form to be covered in thick, deeply storm gray fur, the gradient receding to light gray on the underside of his new scarred muzzle, of his arms, and the front of his body with lighter streaks accentuating the sheer contours of his muscular build.. Random trivia knowledge told him that he was a Mexican gray wolf.
It would have been fine if it was just a wolf version of himself, but it's not even close, not at all. It made sense why Aiden had to set him on his own two feet, or paws? His heart pounded against his ribs as he stared; his body felt different; too strong, too solid. When he moved to face his body towards the mirror, there was a weight that he knew wasn't there before.
The creature in the mirror made his stomach twist; a towering, sculpted beast of a man, its presence overwhelming even as it was just a reflection. Starting from his face, it held the visage of someone with a rough street life. There was a long gash, a scar cutting through his left eyebrow and another jagged one on the right side of his jaw. Two sets of silver rings pierced his ears, three on his right and two on his left. Their size was small enough to be felt but not hindering when his ears flicked when he became aware of them.
His muzzle was broad and firm, every contour exuding a rugged, battle-worn presence. The jagged scar on his jawline pulled slightly as he grimaced, an unfamiliar tightness reminding him that this face had endured violence. When his shock parted his lips, he caught sight of gleaming white canines, the kind that didn’t just bite but tore through flesh.
His shoulders were broad, his arms huge, thick with sculpted mass, veins barely hidden beneath the fur. It did not help that his clothes had completely changed in the transition, now sporting a black tank top that was comfortably tight on his now thick chest and body. It sported the logo of Silvermoon Gym, one that he had never heard of in his time living here. When he looked down, his uniform slacks were now a tracksuit sporting the same logo, showing off the muscular legs that he could feel were built for power. The sheer size forced him to stand wide, the space hogged by his new tent and thighs forcing his two pillars apart.
He had dog tags now. Real or not, he wasn’t sure. Was he supposed to be some kind of veteran now?
As he looked over his reflection, dark spots forming on his arms caught his eyes. On his right bicep, a circular tattoo formed on the skin where his fur was thinnest. He didn't know the design, but it looked like one of those Viking tattoos he faintly saw related to Ragnarok. This development spurred a search as Jacob checked all over himself until he found one of a snake on his abs trailing down under the waistline of his tracksuit.
It was then that he noticed the tattoos ALPHA on his right knuckle and BEAST on his left. Both of his hands and fingers sported claws and were bigger than what he had, thicker and wider with the sensation of roughness in his palms, callouses from what he assumed was heavy lifting. Little black paw pads were under his fingertips, as sensitive as normal humans.
He compared a before and after in his mind, and comparing the change that happened to Aiden, this was odd. Aiden grew muscle, but just enough to make him a hunky slim guy. He didn't gain height, gain scars, or anything else.
"What happened to me?" Jacob lowly growled, leaning closer to the mirror to better assess his reflection.
"You tripped on my bag. You okay, bro?" Aiden replied and asked with concern tinging his question. Jacob saw on the reflection that the snow leopard, Aiden was his name- had his arms crossed as he waited with his back to the wall.
"Yeah... I'm fine." Jacob lied through gritted teeth, but the growl that escaped his throat and the fierce scowl that formed on his face shocked him as well. This was beyond what happened to the others who were unaware, it was too much, overdone! But the interaction didn't spur any new change. Was he done transforming?
"Alright, bro, you know your body more than I do," Aiden replied casually, but Jacob, with years of handling customers and having empathy, could see Aiden withdraw. "I'll be here."
But for some reason, Jacob could see a connection. Trevor looked like a bouncer, Mark became a meathead, Aiden is a gymbro, Finnegan was a dominant gay, and he interacted with all of them while being changed.
It was a compounding cascade, Jacob theorized, because he now looked like someone who was in some way relatable to each of them. His thick muscular body, being a gymbro like Adrien, wouldn't have made a wolf like him overly big, so it must have been Mark's influence. The thuggish bad-guy look must have been whatever Trevor's influence was. Finnegan affected his biological preferences because he got hard at the idea of spitroasting Trevor.
And the apparel change to Silvermoon Gym? Adrien, 100% his influence. There was also the weirdness in his brain, growing the headache the more he thought about his changes. Was this version of him dumber?
" For once don't walk it off, dumbass."
That shouldn't be possible, but the fact that his brain was overheating collating these newfound pieces of knowledge was proof that this version of him was wired differently. He still had his knowledge, memories, and the like, but the hardware storing them was now different.
Predisposed to a certain lifestyle not his own.
Jacob worked at a fast food joint, went home, drew things on his tablet, and sold them for money online. Sometimes, the suspiciously wealthy furries did come by for a piece. Jacob clenched his hands, feeling the rough callouses and thickened tendons beneath his fur. His arms moved with practiced ease—built for power, not precision. But when he flicked his fingers like holding a stylus, the motion was stiff, awkward. A heavy dread settled in his stomach. His body was used to a life that wasn’t his, and what he knew was far away.
Fighting off the headache, Jacob had a couple of theories floating in his head as he took a deep breath, closing his eyes and thinking.
Why did he change so much while the others barely shifted? Maybe because he kept his memories, the effect had to balance out; pushed harder on his body since it couldn’t rewrite his mind.
Placing a hand on his arms, he attempted to measure the difference before and after through feeling the thickness. His hands were wider now, the sensation of his callouses on his thick yet healthy coat of fur like running a brush through a fur carpet. Metaphysically, his body was now beyond what he had before. Nothing was the same, everything was out of scale.
Was there a limited amount of time for the changes to compound? Everyone else seemed to shift after just one or two interactions. Finnegan’s interaction reshaped Trevor and Lisa until their transformations settled, and Trevor even flipped from homophobe to boyfriend. Lisa must have changed as well, but she was too busy working to show it. Aiden’s last interaction didn’t affect Jacob anymore, meaning his transformation had already finished.
He touched the silver rings adorning his ears, embedded well enough that they might have been there for years now. Running a finger over his scars showed that they were deep enough to almost touch bone. These were scars from wounds that were severe enough to never heal right. His face had a powerful masculine look, despite most wolves having kinda the same facial structure. As he ran his hands over his muzzle, felt the sharpness of his teeth, and tested the lupine shape of his skull, it became clearer that this could not be a version of his previous self. Trevor seemed to have been the one to provide this...
Fuck! The headache is too much. Jacob growled low, gripping the sink's cool marble tiles to help him calm down. He needed to stop overthinking for a bit and simply collect information. He didn't know who he was now. What if he lived somewhere else?
What about Heather?
A cold wave flowed over him when he realized, what about his girlfriend? She works at the nearby pharmacy. Had she been changed?
Unbidden, the memory of her human looks and scent being recalled triggered a physical response, feeling his foreskin tent as his cock slipped free and tented his tracks further. It brought both anxiety and relief that his new preference was both, but this was not the time to get hard.
Out of sheer curiosity, he pulled away the hem of his pants and let out a sigh of relief. No weird cock, just a big, meaty human length. The hardness was distracting however.
Jacob pressed the knob on the sink and splashed water to his face, soaking his fur. Its cold shock helped him cool down.
Would messaging her change her? If she is still unchanged... There was also the fact that he was someone to Aiden; he must know much about this version of Jacob.
"Aiden... right?" Jacob asked while leaning over the sink, eyes intensely looking at his own thuggish mug, and he shifted his gaze to the snow leopard's reflection.
"Yeah, bro? Don't tell me you got a concussion if you can't remember me." Aiden replied as he bounced off the wall and walked over, standing next to Jacob and looking upward with a scowl. "Not like you to forget your clients, sir."
The headache pounded his head, and a sudden surge of aggression that was not him caused him to growl. He does not need condescension right now, he needs information.
"Shut up and just answer me." Jacob faced Aiden, his body straightening on its own, making him stand taller and broader. Aiden tensed, his pupils shrinking, and a sick sense of pleasure crept in at the unspoken power shift. But beneath it, nausea churned in Jacob’s stomach. This wasn’t right... "Who am I to you?"
Aiden paused for a moment, thinking his words right. "Yo... You are my private trainer at Silvermoon Gym, and I am your client with the after-session knot package you offer. I've been working out with you for about 3 months, Sir Wolfe."
After-session knot package? Jacob looked down to his tent, and instinctively, he just knew how tight Aiden was... Wait, what did he say?
"Hold on, did you call me Sir Wolfe-"
A message on his phone buzzed, and then another, and then another. No one messages him frantically like this. His focus was immediately on the vibrations of his right pocket, where he usually put his smartphone and nothing else. He pawed and tried to reach in with a single-minded effort, thanks to his large mitts awkwardly getting stuck until he finally figured to let his body do the movement instead of his mind.
Fishing the device felt weird, bulky, and fitted with a case he'd never used, but his body held up with practiced familiarity. One part of him rationalized that such a big and strong body required a fittingly sturdy device. The black case sported the sticker of Silvermoon Gym as well, which he briefly glanced at.
Some part of him was worried it would be someone he knew, but with how the Reality Cascade was building connections with anyone that influenced him, what if he now had other people that knew this version of him? He snapped out of his reverie, having stared at his blank screen for a bit too long, and quickly turned on his phone.