(warning, extreme violence, but a good
deconstruction of what happens if a single element is missing from a race of anthros. )
(Part two, warning again, extreme violence)
(Lost Children Story
arch: warning, extreme violence and nudity! But I feel this fits with some themes here
greatly. )
AN Again, Unknown, I'm loving your parts.
AN2 Can anyone spot the Simpsons reference?
+++++++++
Penny just hoped the mother in her memory had been joking about 'testing out' Kirk. She
remembered Madam Serenity speech about how broad the term 'civilized' could be, and
that made her sick inside fearing her family would lose their endearment to each other. But
the thought of using the game to become Pen again and Kirk Kathy again strangely felt
alien, maybe it was the curse, maybe it was a desire to just move foreword, or maybe
reality itself didn't want to go to the trouble of putting things back the way they had been
after going through all the trouble and over time and hard work to make the current
species and injuries of all those involved by the curse fit... Penny found herself wishing she
knew.
She felt she was on a death clock. Normally from what she remembered from police
training on the nature of the game that people whose reality changed was instantaneous or
was completely oblivious for all parties involved. This was nothing like that. She had
WATCHED in full notice, and she could tell Kirk had too, as her parents had mutated into
giant, muscular naked lions that had gotten thumbs and learned how to walk upright... oh
and had apparently learned not to eat other sapient beings. The mere thought of that made
her sick... 'The thing that makes us human is our empathy! Animals don't care about each
other! It's all about your DNA making it to the next generation with them! They don't love
each other... sex is just reproduction to them... everything alive is either a food source, a
rival for a food source, for something that sees you as a food source... if we stop being
able to empathizes with others then we stop being human!' Penny looked down at her furry
breasts, 'Whatever human means anymore...'
Penny felt humiliated and much like a cub as Mother Glenn did indeed carry her on her
back of her grandmother, or was that ancestral grandmother now? Or was she now
grandmother to several leomens? ' Ugh! These memories feel like even they aren't sure! I
can't remember Mother Glenn ever walking on two legs... but I why do I remember seeing
faded black and white photos of her on two legs looking like a beauty queen?... Why would
the 'true love' part of my transformation make her even older than before and be in better
shape than some other leomens my age?... Ugh!'
A person's lifespan, in fact any living thing's lifespan, was suppose to be determined by the
preset number of times the cells in a person's body could divide, supposedly a safeguard
against cancer and to insure a species kept reproducing and kept shuffling the gene pool
to ensure a race kept adapting to it's environment.
Penny tried to figure out if that could have anything to do in the slightest with why her
granny was now a four legged beast... but it just made her head hurt more. 'Wasn't my life
complicated enough already?'
Mother Glen had said simply, "We're going to Wolf Manor to check up on our injured
packmates."
Jeff, Gloria, Maxell, and Sonia had all but dropped what they were doing, and fallen in
formation behind her without so much as a word. Penny was apparently excused for not
doing so since her legs were useless for the time being but Kirk got several glares from his
parents and future in laws and quickly joined in feeling an underlying compulsion to go
along with Mother Glen's decision.
"Kirk, you hold onto Penny's wheel chair, son, Sonia, help Penny onto me."
"Yes Mother Glenn." They obeyed their Matriarch and lifted Penny out of her Wheel chair
taking care with her legs as they laid her on Mother Glenn's marked back carefully like she
was a lady riding a horse. A very very big horse, with a mind of her own, which
commanded respect and author by her sheer presence from anything with whiskers.
The lions then simply walked out of the house, locking it, and following behind Mother
Glenn like a entourage.
Penny couldn't believe they were simply STROLLING to Wolf, Smith, WHATEVER Manor... the
same place Penny had not three days ago been preparing to storm in a do or die battle to
save the brainwashed slaves of another punk who had gotten hold of the game with
delusions of godhood. And her mother! Her mother walking down the sidewalk naked,
taller than any man Penny saw, and not complaining or thinking about in the least that the
long beautiful hair that been Sonia's biggest vanity was totally and completely gone! Not
to mention how she was holding dad's rear in public...
'Isn't anyone going to even say anything about us being naked-?!' If lions were living in a
human cultures, shouldn't that mean logically they'd be expected to abide by human
culture's expectation and obligations-!?' Penny wondered if it had to do with their fur being
able to hide things... but if fur DID cover parts people normally found improper, that
undermined their biological function didn't it?' The only clothes Penny had found in Kirk's
parents' house was some very formal attire... she had tried some on to find it was very very
itchy... 'You THINK they could come up with clothes that didn't agitate skin with fur!' She
remembered how she had wheeled outside and felt she was going to cook in it before she
put it back, 'Or breathed enough so I didn't end up simmering in my own juices!'
Penny sighed, glade her grandmother and parents could see her face from this position
that looks so much like theirs. Penny looked around, it was still the Glendale she knew as
far she could tell... the same road signs, the same stop lights, the same prices for things,
the same tacky gift shop, the same occasional tourist trap invented by city hall to pull in
revenue. One blogger she remembered had joke Glendale's major export was petrified
teenage girls first and farm produce second... That had always given Penny a sick feeling...
and was one of the reasons a lot of art collectors in Glendale liked to keep their collections
local and not sell off their stuff to people out of county. On the tinny, tiny off chance that
a PERSON could be the true identity of that piece of rock... of course there were plenty of
bastards who saw that as a reason to sweep the existence of the game under the rug...
don't want to scare away buyers after all.... the smarter ones saw it as a golden chance to
sue like crazy anyone who was caught doing such a thing for loss of property... loss of
property... UGH! That sounded so much like slavery it was enough to make Penny almost
vomit.
The one who was drawing the most attention she could see was herself... and that wasn't
from being a humanoid lion, being naked, or riding a giant lioness, it was from being
currently crippled... And still Penny knew that red and white cub was going to be there...
Penny in her gut knew... Not to mention those gargoyles who had also been victims of the
curse... and apparently ...had there been something else? Things had happened so quickly
that things had quickly spun out of control... and then she went to free Kathy.. and she
woke up to find the final battle had apparently happened without her if everything around
her was to be believed. 'Not fair.' She thought, 'I should have been there for them...' Then
she remembered, 'At least I was there for Kirk... even if I failed miserably to protect him...
some lioness I am...' All those statues... they had been people with lives... now
assimilated into the mass of the big bad wolves... and she had failed to protect them... she
was a police office! Protecting others was her job! That was why she never had turned a
blind eye to the curse! Had never pretended it didn't exist! Because she knew that didn't
really help the victims...
The seven lions, no, seven leomans entered the high pay district of town and again Penny
saw it hadn't appeared to really chance, not that she had exactly been in this part of town
every day, she didn't work this part of the streets.
But she saw Wolf Manor only... it was much larger than Penny remembered it being... the
land devoted to it, the sheer size of the mansion itself... it had more than doubled in size!
"And the rich get richer." It came out of Penny's mouth purely reflex.
Penny felt Mother's Glenn's tail swat on her behind. Causing her a yelp.
"Now don't be rude Penny."
Penny looked at the giant beast that was now her grandmother... the woman had acted as
if Penny had just insulted a lifetime friend... She looked at Kirk, who was clearly thinking
the same question, 'What has the curse done? What is the curse doing-?!'
Penny behind a rather impressive looking gate looking made to without an all out assault
from a swat team van.
Jeff without even having to be told came up besides his mother and pressed the button for
the intercom, "Mother Glen is here to see her pack, open for her."
With so many people currently doing medical recovery, no one was watching the gate
security at the moment, (that was normally Jasmine's job), Kira however, did hear the
voice... and feeling out fate felt she meant no real harm and rewrote her statue existence
without greatly changing her outward appearance so wiring from the house ran through
her via some hidden buttons on her person and opened the gate up herself.
Penny being carried in on top of her grandmother, the last thing she expected to see was
Mary and a bunch of brightly colored wolf pups playing ... and a stacked sparkly purple
she-wolf and a silver with red-orange highlights she-wolf with multiple arms, a giant
black and gold wolf bigger than some movie monsters... and... a naked white wolf cub girl
with red markings on her body that looked like brush strokes... 'How.... how did I even
know what she looked like?... We talked OVER THE PHONE! I should have no clue what she
looks like.... nothing makes sense anymore...' Penny though miserably.
+++++
Reality as a rule followed the path of least resistance, making thing stick together in the
least confusing and contrived way possible in theory. For this reason, the twins adopted
by Anne had been in the original timeline when they were single people, human, and in
Toni and Paula's case male, had in fact grown up without their parents for the most part,
one crossing the border criminally, the other legitimately.
How did Martha, Joy, Ingrid, Whitney, Abdul, Maddex, and Ryan's marriage work? That was
a very good and surprising confounding question to answer. If Alpha Jensen removing the
prefixes had been considered racial - some of the pack in fact considered it a stripping of
a piece of their individual identity- ... then Martha's union was considered by many of the
pack to be down right sacrilege!
The fact that the omegas had been allowed to breed wasn't a problem and hadn't been a
problem for a hundred years... what -was- the problem was that Martha's union
completely broke what was considered a normal and healthy dynamic of a sub-pack union
by having multiple male partners! The fact male lupmen were expected to have multiple
female partners but not the other way around at first glance seemed sexist and had been
used a ammunition for sexist individuals in the past. But it did have some basic logic, after
all, once a male impregnated a female his job was done for about ten-eleven months or
so.... But a female could only be impregnated by one male at a time, thus it was like
shooting all your bullets at one balloon at the carnival from the wolf perspective.
While there were technically more females in the 'big bad mess' as some had nicknamed it
behind the omega's backs, and sometimes more honorably to their faces... the fact that all
three males pretty much considered themselves to be Martha's was disorienting. That Ryan
had yet to father any children, and that Joy was also childless many considered the omega's
massive combined union to be proof of an experiment that just didn't work.
Martha, Whitney, and the twins Ingrid and Joy were all supposed to have been wed to Ryan
was was lupman tradition. They were all omegas after all, it was a tradition, while there
was nothing on the books anymore preventing them from breeding with the other wolves
of higher rank under Jensen, the omegas had just felt more comfortable breeding with
wolves of their own status, declared outdated or not. Ryan had been a hard worker, loyal,
attentive, diligent, that was when it was found out that Martha was pregnant with Abdul's
child, as was Ingrid. It had been a formal agreement between the competing males that
whoever had ever successfully blessed Prime Omega Martha with pups first was to be her
male...
And the little fact that divorces were completely unheard of among the pack in the sense
human beings knew them, fights for the right to breed and rank within the pack had been
progressively made less bloody. However, due to these ritualization, it had added a sub-
clause that now came into play hard... Ryan had done nothing technically to WARRANT
being challenged! Before one could declare a challenge just because... now one actually just
cause! Bound by their word, in the most awkward situation imaginable, Abdul was married
to the four females as well... then things got worse.
Whitney was also pregnant... with Maddex's pups... at this point the pack's general opinion
of the Omegas and of Beta-Julie's competence had taken a nose dive. It took years for
Beta-Julie to regain the trust of her pack-mates that she was in fact a good doctor...
While Alpha Jensen had certainly revised the rules and laws of the pack with the pest of
intentions, and in fact the pack had become more community minded than military minded
than since it's founding, the decrees of the Alpha Male had also created several 'run time
errors' within the pack's internal code of law.
And so bound with no other honorable course of action open to him, Maddex too had been
added to the small mess of multi-limbed wolves. Maddex, his brother Ryan, and Abdul all
now formally wed to the same four females. Many single female members of the pack were
outraged at the Omega Females "hogging the goods." "What does Martha think she is a
Queen Bee?" A teenage Chi-Sunny had said. Even Zeta-Alexandra, Jensen's most devoted
and loyal supporter outside of his mates and children had found herself questioning some
of the changes to the pack Creeds the new Alpha Male had made.
But what was done was done, and could not be undone. Giselle and Gretchen, along with
Laura and Zulema ... in spite of being half-sisters had never treated each other as any
more respect and friendship than they would fellow pups their act and pack mates.
Gretchen growing up in this 'mess' often played at the fantasy her real father had been a
fairy prince and had nothing to do with the Lazuli twins. Giselle meanwhile, seeing the
dynamic of the sub-packs around her felt confused and befuddled about how she SHOULD
feel! As for Laura and Zulema... they wondered if there was nothing -wrong- with them not
being like their mother and Giselle and Gretchen's attitude towards them didn't help in this
matter. All in all, Casandra and Lilly proved to be about the best emotionally adjusted to
living in a VERY untypical untraditional family. And Whitney herself, often wondered at how
she felt cheated whenever Maddex was with Martha and not her... he had married into their
sub-pack for her hadn't he? But weather through simple attraction or sheer charismatic
will, the Omega males found themselves drawn like bees to honey to the Hindu Goddess
like Martha.
When Theta-Anne had adopted and brought home two sets of twins that also had gem
stone colored fur into her subpack... Gertchen began to suspect her fantasy might have
been real and had run away from home... Elise and Fox had brought her back to the pack
sobbing two weeks later.
Then Martha found herself an Omega of one, when the rest of her sub-pack had
vanished... and Giselle and Gretchen without a father, and Casandra and Lilly and Laura
Zulema seemingly abandoned. Only to find out they had been turned into empty, puppet
like extensions of the will of Master Jensen's first born. The phrase 'Oops,' had quite cut it
for the eldest twins.
Anne accepted that Martha was currently looking after her adopted children at the moment
as natural, after all, it was the omega's duty to look after the pups when the parents were
preoccupied.... As Anne worked tirelessly to help her packmates and pride allies not having
time for her four adopted children. All things considered, Anne's adoption of the two sets
of twins had been considered just plain weird, then again, Anne was considered weird
among her packmates before... not weird like Martha in her appearance or Amethyst in her
attitude, she just seemed to have little distinction between who was part of the pack and
who wasn't... it was as if everyone was a part of the pack to her and worthy of her time and
effort to help and protect... Jay, Pence, Toni, Paula on the other hand... were just very
happy to have a mother and to be part of a real pack for the first time in their lives.
Of course, now that reality had healed the inconsistency of the parenthood of the gem
twins, this of course had it's own ripple effect that reality did not think about nor could
think about as it mindlessly and non-sapiently balanced itself out. A sapient force may
have been behind reality's birth, but that did not the creation itself sapient.
Jenny and Bart had used the PARENTS of Giselle and Gretchen, Casandra and Lilly, and
Laura and Zulema, minus Martha as their personal shadow puppets so they could put their
collage-level law and business knowledge and talent to practical use.
This was likely the other reason why Martha had kept her children and those of her mates
and pack mates from waking up and playing with Master Jensen's first born.
While the adults were relatively quick to accept that the two eldest pups of the pack had
been under the influence of the game (Martha herself among the forgiving surprising just
about everyone, Bart and Jenny the most stunned) the twins however being children, driven
by emotion, and the prospects of loss and have, were not that quick to let bygones be
bygones. Maybe it was a good thing Jensen's five other children were sleeping it off.
Being outside, none of the twins knew that their parents were no longer will less shadows
until Whitney appeared... And since Casandra and Lilly were listening to glass Marie's tale
of the origin of the curse of Glendale of Transform or Dare it took a bit longer to realize
the omegas were among them again, the pups had been playing their game after all... but
that was when after the dust had settled and everyone finally noticed the wolf with Amy...
"Whitney?" Amethyst whispered.
The four armed silver colored she-wolf smiled and nodded.
"YOU'RE YOU AGAIN!" Psi-Amethyst leapt through the air in a single bound and began
hugging her packmate her maternal material squashing against her. Giselle, Gretchen,
Laura and Zulema then began hugging her legs.
"Yes... yes I am..." Omega-Whitney said hugging Psi-Amethyst with her upper arms while
hugging the pups with her lower arms.
Mary blinked, she knew she had never seen this wolf woman before... but at the same time
she swore that she had... hadn't she?
Mr. P stopped pinning Chester who fled and came up and began licking his packmate.
Toni, Paula, Jay and Pence soon joined in the hug. This left Mary feeling like the odd girl
out at the family reunion. But she KNEW she had seen this she-wolf before... before this
whole mess started? At.... someone's last birthday party?
"How?" Jay asked.
"You can thank Amy and Zelipe." Whitney said, "They restore us all, me, the twins, Abdul,
Ryan, Maddex, all of us..."
"THANK YOU AMY!" Giselle, Gretchen, Laura, and Zulema, all cheered, "THANK YOU ZELIPE!"
The news their father was himself again, (and in Laura and Zulema's case their mother as
well) was overwhelmingly good news.
Amy acted reserved, Zelipe on the other hand wasn't sure how to handle the sudden
praise. But, he was pretty sure he liked it, liked it a whole lot.
"Where are Lilly and Casandra?" Whitney ask concern her daughters.
The gold pup Giselle spoke first, "They're playing in Wonderland with Eta-Lawrence and Xi-
Betty." Of course Whitney instantly knew the gold pup was referring to the mirror universe
Alice and her sisters could enter.
The laws of reality of course meant that since Betty was mated to Robert like Wendy,
Jessica, and Rose were, this meant they had been mated before all being turned into
statues... this of course also meant they had been the ones in the gallery who had been
statues the shortest amount of time... maybe this was why Nelson and the others had
chosen to go back to their inanimate existence, while a sense of duty had inspired Gabriel
and the other statue-lions to stay flesh and blood... the Pride's numbers had always been
smaller than those of the Pack.
Not stopping her hug Whitney asked, "Where are Mistress Alice and Mistress Abbey and
Mistress Samantha?"
Amethyst answered, "Samantha is sleeping, Alice and Abbey are getting the herd does and
fawns back from Big Bad Island along with the pride quadruplets."
Whitney didn't need to ask about that, she remembered everything she had done as Jenny's
shadow and the goings on in the house regarding the game. However that didn't mean she
didn't want to see her own daughters. "When will they be back?"
Amethyst shrugged, "I don't know, but with the pride quadruplets helping it should go
much much faster."
That was when the gates opened. And into the estate came seven leomens. The first to
enter was a giant mundane lioness as white as freshly fallen snow (which had many
children ask her if she was Aslan from 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe') with
several names tattoos on her back in swahili. Riding on her back was a pale beige off
white lioness. Carrying a wheel chair was a male leoman, who walked behind two couples
of a lioness and male leoman.
Amy instantly bowed. Zelipe stared with his mouth open. Amethyst and Whitney stood in
shock. Chester made a mad dash for the room of his masters and never looked back. The
twins bumped into each other and they took steps back. The statues were facing the
gateway as they had always had. Mr. P smirked and took a few step foreword. "Hello
Snowwhite."
"Hello Blackie." The giant lioness replied to the giant wolf.
Mary looked, feeling a headache, her mind was blown into full confusion when the lioness
nearest the giant mundane lioness looked her way and said, "Hello Mary, are your parents
and sisters okay?"
Mary's head swam, she had never seen this lioness before in her life... but there was a look
of recognition in the eyes of the giant lioness, and most of the other lions, there was Penny
she saw, the lioness who had taken off running to the museum and had to be hospitalized
after a battle with the superior numbered pack so Mary knowing her made sense but...
Mary KNEW she had never met these people save Penny before... yet she REMEMBERED
having seen them all several times... they were all part of the same pride after all... And
Mother Glen... That name rang hard in Mary's head... she her own Matriarch when she saw
her...
Mary heard herself say, "T-t-there fine, no, they're really hurt.. the pack is taking care of
them, Moja, Mbili, Tatuli, and Nneli aren't here right now, they're helping Alice and Abbey
bring the Gold Deer herd back... oh, but the bucks are already here already..."
"Is that so." Mother Glenn said simply.
Penny could see in Mary's eyes that she was struggling to remember... remember the life
she had now? Or the life she had a week ago? Penny had a feeling it was the latter. That
was when Penny caught sight of the white and red cub... and she was staring right back at
her! And... was that a wolf with four arms?... And... WHERE THE HECK DID ALL THESE KIDS
COME FROM-?! It was like bring your child to work day at the Island of Dr. Moreau.
"I would care to visit my injured pack mates..." Mother Glenn said.
"Uh... I think Julie doesn't really want-"
"It'll be just a simple visit, nothing more." Mother Glenn said a little more forcefully.
Mary shrank under that gaze. "Y-yes Mother Glenn!"
"Grandma..." Penny said.
"Yes Penny?"
"I'd... like to stay out here with Kirk... there are some things we need to discuss... alone..."
Mother Glenn smirked, "Is that so? Well then, by all means, don't let me get between the
two of you. Kirk. Help your future Prime Mate down."
Kirk only nodded and took hold of Penny and gently placed her in her wheel chair. Of
course the EVER curious twins wanted to know. "Why?"
"Why what?"
Jay asked his question a bit more precise now, "Why are you in the wheelchair?"
Penny looked at the positively absolutely innocent face looking up at her... he just wanted
to know... like any child... "I ran into some art thieves."
Now Pence asked, "Why?"
"Cause I went to the museum to save my pack-mates."
Toni's turn picking it up, "Why?"
"Cause .... " She meant to say just Kirk but instead, "My pack mates are special to me, they
are my friends and my family, and one whose going to be my Prime Mate... "
The girls (and boys) again shuddered at the idea of girls and boys together, at the age
where the lines between boys and girls were drawn deep in the sand.
"Why?" Paula asked.
"Cause I love him."
"Why?"
Penny... honestly wondered how to answer that question... she knew all the things she had
loved about Kathy as Penn... a woman who was good on the eyes, willing to take the risks
he took, didn't use him as a crutch, trusted him to come home when working late hours,
didn't ask him to quite his job, though she had been chicken around her grandma like any
girl Penn had dated... but Penn could understand that. ... But why did she as Penny love
about Kirk-?! How many of those traits of their relationship even still applies with their
switch in gender and change in species?
"... " Penny opened her mouth, nothing came out. Of course Kirk noticed.
"Now now, please don't bother the cute couple." Amethyst said skipping over her bosom
bouncing in the air. "Why don't you target practice on the statues... "
Jay looked around, "Where's Laura, Zulema, Giselle and Gretchen?"
Miss Amethyst said, "I think the ran inside the house ahead of Mary to see their parents ....
I think you should get some practice in..."
Theta-Anne's adopted children looked at each other and nodded. Paula didn't want to play
water-war, but with Saba not present that was not, not an option.
A minute later Whitney and Amethyst began to wonder if the pups were just bad shots as
they seemed barely able to hit the statues.
Jay said, "I swear it's almost like they're ducking and making faces at us."
Paula retorted to her adopted brother, "You're imagining things, that's the faces the
fountain heads have always have."
Jay looked at her, "Isn't that the first thing to come out of someone's mouth if they're under
the effects of a perception warp curse?"
"Isn't that a circular argument?"
"Circular-what-now?"
"Word I learned from Alice."
"She's weird."
"Cause she's made of glass?"
"Cause she talks more adult than some of the adults!"
"Yeah... I guess that is weird..."
Jay said nothing and seemed to be hitting the statues just a bit more often... almost as if
they were letting him hit them with his squirt gun.
Zelipe's shots hit the water basin quite well... Mr. P meanwhile did what he did best, being
he shadowy and ominous dread protector of the next generation.
Whitney and Amethyst played 'catch up' not that there was much to catch up on with
Whitney remembering her time as a shadow, but it felt relaxing for Amethyst to chit-chat
with another member of the pack who carried the burden of looking after the pups when
their parents found themselves unable to.
Amy meanwhile her scroll still with her walked over to Kirk and Penny and bowed,
"Konichiwa Penny-San, Kirk-San."
Kirk asked, "Do you know her?"
Penny asked, "Are you the kid of the wolf who cut me up?"
For some reason, this made Kirk want a full description of this wolf so he could proceed to
break the wolf's legs as payment for services rendered.
"No." Amy said simply, "Yamato-San's heritage may be the same as from that of my
previous self Ami, but we are not, nor have we ever been in any timeline, related."
Genetic testing, (several in fact) had all proven repeatedly and without a doubt that Amy
was indeed Gamma-Zackery and Delta-June's daughter, and that Lambda-Yomato's
similar fur pattern had more to do with an ancestor of Zackery or June than any infidelity
among pack mates (though the idea itself was nearly incomprehensible to the pack as a
whole of such a thing as disloyalty among mates) and was ultimately just random chance.
And while Amy was shinto, she didn't have the fixation on honor or as many other aspects
of Japanese heritage as Lambda-Yomato did. After all, wasn't the point of American culture
to assimilate the best traits of other cultures into a singular whole?
"Penny-San, we have much to discuss." Amy said.