As you take one pawstep towards the door flap to head outside, Rose pops through it.
“Oh good, I caught you.” She bounds over to you and snuggles close. “Have you made a decision yet?” She snuffles into your fur and chitterpurs while wrapping her tail around you.
You fight down squirrel instincts as you reply, “Yes, I’m going to be a…” but you don’t have a chance to finish as Rita bounds into the room. She bounds to the other side of you and starts doing the same thing as Rose.
The two then glare at each other, chattering and spitting at each other, each claiming they saw you first outdoors. You untangle yourself from both of them as they continue to argue about you. You look back and forth a moment in disbelief. You never had women fight over you when you were human. At least, not that you were aware of. Finally, you make a high pitched chittering whistle to get their attention.
“Ladies, ladies…” you start. Both look at you with their beady rodent eyes and you find it disconcerting for a moment. “Why are you fighting over me?” Your tail rises in a question mark on it’s own.
“Well, you haven’t chosen your final species yet,” begins Rose.
“And if you haven’t noticed, neither of us has a mate of our species,” continues Rita.
You look at them both a moment. “Uh, huh,” you reply. “Rita, what about what’s-his-face…Jim is it? From what I’ve read, you’re a subspecies of Abert’s.”
“He’s gay!” Rita wails as she begins to tear up. “I’ve tried and tried, but he’s just not interested in me!”
You never could resist crying women. You bound over to her and comfort her. She buries her muzzle into your shoulder and wraps her tail around you. Over her muffled sobs you look at Rose and ask, “And what’s your story?”
“What more is there to tell? I’m lonely.”
You nod as you disentangle yourself from Rita. “Uh, huh. Have either of you done any reading/studying on how it is with squirrels compared to humans?” You point to the PDA with your tail. “I’ll admit, what I found was sketchy. It appears we’re too common for humans to bother studying our habits in detail. One thing that is certain. The male of the species has no part in raising the kids. Got that? Male squirrels are normally dead beat dads.”
They both stare at you, but neither says a word. You sigh/chitter a moment trying to figure out how to better explain this, since it’s obvious neither has studied up on how things are now for them.
“Okay, let’s try a different approach here. Put aside what part of you remains human. Draw up from within what you got as part of this new body. Draw out those squirrel instincts a moment. What do you feel and what do you know will take place afterwards?”
Both close their eyes for a moment wanting to impress you/win you over. Both of them stare at you wide-eyed.
“You’re right,” Rose responds. “Deep down, instincts are saying I should chase you off as it’s not time yet.” Rita nods in agreement.
You also nod. “Now, if you study up, you’ll find that by instinct after you get your way with a male and you become pregnant, you’ll drive away that male.” (shrugflick) “Maybe you can try to fight/ignore those instincts using your human side. Should I become a father and you successfully fight off those instincts, I’ll promise to help as I can. But let’s face it.” (drooptail) “We aren’t human anymore, and it doesn’t look like there’s anyway of going back. The rules are different now.”
They both start to tear up on you.
“Ladies, there’s more here. I’m going to guess that neither of you fully read your contract.”
“Contract?” Rita sniffles as she hugs her own tail. You fight down more instincts that are triggered by looking at her pose with her whitish tail contrasting against her near jet black body. Rose looks at you with a puzzled expression on her muzzle.
You roll your eyes in a very human-like gesture and bound over to the PDA and call up the squirrel transformation contract.
“I’m a rather fast reader. I assume, that upon your change, you were asked to place your paw on a scanner?” They both nod. “That seems to be this place’s equivalent of your signature. By doing so, you’ve indicated that you’ve read through this contract, understand it and will abide by it. In lawyerese it goes on to state that a copy is available at anytime for you to review on any PDA or computer within the zoo. Most of it is to cover their backsides should this project ever be made public. But a portion of it also covers how we are expected to conduct ourselves as zoo specimens.”
You scroll down through to Section 27 on REPRODUCTION. “I suggest you make yourselves familiar with this section as it seems you haven’t. In summary, it doesn’t matter what my outwards appearance looks like. If I have read this correctly, there are still some of those friggin’ nanobot things in both of you. Please pardon my frankness as I translate this near word-for-word. Their job is to ensure that whatever sciuridae-related sperm enters you will be rendered compatible with your species. In simple English…” You pause as you realize that what you’re hearing in your head is English, but you and the others have been chittering back and forth and understand it as clearly as English. “…well, in whatever you want to call this we are using…chitter speak? Anyway, regardless of what species I choose, I’ll be compatible with both of you and every other female squirrel in this prison/zoo. Those nanobot things render us more or less like breeds like among dogs rather than distinct species as far as mating, coupling, sex, or whatever you want to call it when squirrels get it on is concerned. If it’s that time of the year for you, and we couple, then you’re going to have pups, period. That is unless they have some sort of squirrel contraceptive program, but I doubt they do.”
“Furthermore, for males, it states that if a female approaches a male and initiates ‘proper squirrel courting rituals,’ the male can’t refuse. Period. So, if you both want me after my final change,” you shrug and flick your tail at the same time, “then you both can have me. I ask two simple things. Regardless of who gets me first, will the other one of you please give me time to rest up before you request ‘your turn’. Also, please don’t fight over me. It’s painful enough to make myself except that I’m now a sentient tree rat and I can never go back to what I was before. If I don’t try and move on from the past, I might lose what sanity I have left. I really, really don’t need others fighting about/over me.”
You pause a moment. “Has it occurred to either of you that you may not enjoy sex as you would in your old life? These bodies aren’t physically the same as what either of you or I had before. There might not be any pleasure in sex. It could be just strictly for reproduction in squirrels. As I said before, I did a brief search of Internet data. There isn’t a lot out there on squirrel reproduction other than times of year, gestation period and how long before the offspring mature enough to be off on their own.” (ponderflick) “Then again, maybe our captors are not that cruel and left us more or less human in that sense. Time will tell.”
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to be downstairs. I really don’t want to remain a common gray.” You pause a moment at the flap. “Oh, and Rose, for your own well being, you might want to stay away from eastern grays. I read that apparently they’re a carrier of a virus that doesn’t affect them, but kills European Reds. It’s one of the reasons your species isn’t doing well in the UK with the introduced grays. Hopefully, they screen for it here, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious. You asked what I planned to be. I’m not going to answer. I’ll leave it as surprise for both of you. Not like it matters, right?”
They stare at you in disbelief as you bound out the room and down to your final appointment.