Mr. Johnson tapped the screen and made his choices. The form of a wolf seemed like an obvious choice. Howard had a thing for wolves since he was very young. When he once lived up in the mountains, he would leave his window open on cool nights and listen to their howls… best sleep he ever had. When he grew older and started role-playing with friends, he even drew on them for inspiration. Wether it be a Dogboy in Rifts or a Garou from Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Howard had some good experiences pretending to be a wolf.
Clothing or No Clothing also seemed like a no-brainer to him. No matter how much of an animal he was supposed to be, there was no chance he was going to run around in the woods stark naked… fur or no fur. Maybe later, after a few days… if everyone else was doing it, he offered himself a thought. After all, if I look nothing like myself… and act nothing like myself… no one will ever be able to talk about anyone other than that random wolf-morph they met while on vacation. It'll just be part of the character.
That particular thought lead to his next choice… he waved his fingers over the screen before selecting male as his gender. He flinched and thought about how far away from himself he wanted to be right now and instead tapped female. But I really don't want to–what if something goes wrong… what if someone tries to take advantage of me and no one's around to stop him? he thought to himself. I mean… the same thing could happen to me as a male, but at least I wouldn't be pregnant afterwards, he sighed.
The debate went back and forth for a few moments before he gave up with himself and left that setting as 'Random'. Additionally, he thought about how he would be attracted to men by default as a woman and moved that setting to 'random if female'. If it happens, he thought, then I have no idea if I should or shouldn't still be attracted to females as a female… but I certainly don't want to be attracted to men as a guy, he considered, thinking that logic worked for him.
His fingers hovered over the word 'Change' and wavered there. The gender thing was really bothering him… but he knew if he was going to do this, he needed to let go of preconception and try and go with the flow. He would adapted and 'play' as whoever he became for all of his vacation. Howard will go away… go to sleep… not to be called upon again for a month, he thought to himself, building the courage to tap the screen.
Taking a deep breath, Howard put two fingers to 'Change' and let it happen…
The screen went blank for a moment, and then displayed the message in small-caps: "Transformation in Progress; Please Wait…" Howard chuckled to himself. For someone who dealt in webpage design and administration, including something akin to a loading screen as part of a device that would alter a humans physiology and genetic make-up seemed a little silly and cruel. He smirked a bit, glancing to the doors on either side of him… the one that lead back into the Observation Center he had come from, and then to the one that would lead into Visitor Center.
The room itself was of decent size with real stone tiling to the floor, walls, and ceiling. It seemed to be big enough to let an elephant pace in place, though a giraffe would probably bang its head. Heck, even the door on the opposite side of the room from where he entered looked large enough to accommodate one of those larger mammals walking on two legs.
Howard turned to look towards that door, wondering when something would happen when he put his hands onto his hips and realized his ass was numb. Blinking at this realization, he turned his head to look over his shoulder and discover that his tailbone was pushing itself outward from his rear. He watched it with great interest as it widened a bit, turning into a bit of a long and fleshy snake-like organ before slowly growing itself out into fur. The fur coloring seemed to be a dark gray in color, and its thickness grew in to a tail that could have fit any normal wolf if just a little bigger.
Howard was a child at heart again, his horrible turn of life forgotten in this moment of pure fantasy. "That is freaking amazing," the thirty-two year old man laughed to himself, stepping to the side to get a better look at the tail a few times, only to find himself entertained by the idea that he'd just spent a few seconds chasing his own tail. "This is so what I need right now," he said to the tail, finding the muscles to move it back and forth on its own as his changes continued.
Next was his off-hand, his left hand, which began to have that tingling of numbness that had covered his backside just a moment earlier. Holding it up in front of his face, he watched as the hand slowly pushed itself longer, his fingers shortening themselves just a bit. The fingernails on his hand grew in longer and more claw-like as they shifted in color to black. Touching his left hand with his right, he found the new claws to be quite sharp, and marveled in the rough texture of his palms they grew in black paw-pads there and on the undersides of the end of each finger. Slowly gray fur crawled out from under his nails and made its way across his hand, between his paw-pads and across the back of his hand, heading down towards his wrist.
"Wow," he said watching as his right-hand began to slowly follow suit. The muscles in his hands slowly bound themselves stronger, and the feeling pushed its way up his arms and too his shoulders. A moment later he could feel his shoulders become more lean, stronger, and tone down his back as his upper body continued with the gray fur that had traveled up his arms. The fur took its time weaving across his back, tickling him. It wasn't numb like it had been in his hands and tail and decided that perhaps he would ask about this whole thing at a later time in more detail.
Howard's thus far enjoyable experience took a slight turn for the unprepared when he could feel the fur over his back and near his tail slowly wrapping around to his front and between his legs to settle quietly at his crotch. "Uh-oh… moment of truth," he said to himself as got down onto one knee and then sat, making sure to move his tail out of the way. Sure enough, the next four excruciatingly numb and tingly moments were spent with Howard staring down as his penis and balls becoming unnaturally covered un fur. It wasn't a sheath, he could tell, so when his penis began to shrink and shrivel, he wasn't overly surprised. He sighed a bit to himself as he reached down with his new hands to hold it one last time as the entire patch seemed to invert itself, puffing out a bit into new lips hidden a good deal by fur. A moment later, his balls were swallowed up into his body as the numbness vanished and he could feel them, somehow, change shape and turn into their new forms up inside of him.
"Girl it is," he sighed a bit, not knowing if he was ready for this. Still, anything was better now than what he left, and he shook the unpleasant thoughts from his mind. The feeling of being pushed upwards just a bit as his buttocks filled out to become more round and plump was kind of an interesting experience. It too was soon followed by an increase in lean muscle that traveled down his legs to his knees. He, or she, put her legs out forward and watched as the fur chased the muscle down over the reshaping knees and lower legs. They bent backwards into a new position, becoming much more canine in appearance. Howard realized their new shape would likely lead to a more forward-leaning position, and might even allow for good four-legged motion.
Watching her feet begin to take shape, Howard's head went numb as he felt it move of its own will. It seemed to contort, and he felt his eyes slide to the sides just a bit as his nose flattened out into a black mass. The bone and skin behind it slowly pushed his mouth out forward into a muzzle, taking its simple time filling out completely to the end as Howard wiggled his new shorter toes on his feet. He smiled a canine grin for the first time, feminine as it was, and reached up with his paw-like hands to feel his new sharper teeth growing out from his old ones, his canines extending out from his muzzle a bit as they grew into sharp fangs. "Awesome," her newly soothingly gruff female voice came as her ears pushed up onto her head and warped outward into their new triangular shape. "Testing One, Two," she said to herself, trying to figure out how she sounded as her ears too shape. "Sounds like a girl, but with a… bit of a growl," she offered as an observation to no one but herself.
A moment later she felt a weight leave the back of her head and pile up over her shoulders for a moment before resting against the center of her back. Reaching back with a hand, she pulled forward a mane of gray and white colored hair that was wavy in appearance. "Just like Heather's," she sighed, thinking of her wife, "And Tammy's," she added, looking it over, thinking about them for a moment before she felt a weight on her chest.
Smirking to herself, she let go of her hair and laid back on the floor of the room, tail out to the side, staring down at her own chest. Sure enough, the still manly human chest began to fill out into two small mounds, eventually pushing upwards into the reasonably sized breasts of a young woman. Fur began to clump up around her neck and in an unexpected light mane and reach down over the lighter fur that covered her breasts there. She reached up to feel them under her new fur, running her hands down her chest slowly, taking them in. In so doing, she discovered not only their firmness of muscle, but another small set of buds up under her first two that were slowly pushing forward. She blinked and felt as this other pair of breasts slowly pushed up to two thirds the size of the first pair.
A moment later, her hands found a third set just above and to each side of her belly-button (which was smoothing itself down to resemble something more akin to a scar) that were only one third the size of the topmost pair… Finally, the wave of fur finished covering her belly and the remainder of her body as two more nipples without discernible mounds appeared just below and to either side of her former belly-button.
She took a deep breath and proceeded to get up off of the nice cool stone floor and onto her new legs. Unlike what she had expected, the weight was properly distributed even as she felt the last of the extra muscle mass fill in under her skin all over her body. Standing on the balls of her feet was no challenge at all, and her slight lean forward was there just as predicted. Taking a few steps, she found she could walk just as if these had always been her legs.
Moving her hands out to the side, she made a quick jog around the room, laughing and enjoying herself. She grinned and wagged her tail behind her as she made four quick little laps, feeling no real effort to her movements, and becoming impatient to try out her speeds in the forest beyond. At the time, she failed to notice some of her gray fur becoming more pale into white across her belly, neck, underarms, under-legs and the tip of her tail. The color of her eyes also changed into an uncommon wolf blue, deep and inviting.
A soft 'ding' rang in the room just to one side of the door. It sounded much louder, though… almost like a text message on her cell's bluetooth. She tilted her head and watched as a panel opened up in the side wall, revealing clothing of some kind. Remembering that she was naked, for she had somehow forgotten, she hurried over and pulled it out to look at it. It was a black and white design with a few spots here and there, and looked a bit conservative in its straps and thickness. It was even molded to cover over her six breasts, the one piece designed to be slipped into and out of in a single set of motions.
"Huh… I like it," she tiled her head, still thinking that voice sounded strange coming out of her own muzzle. Then again, having a muzzle was rather strange all its own. At least its the same sound internally, she smirked to herself in thought as she looked over the swimsuit before sliding herself into it one leg and one arm at a time. It was mostly open across the back, but that didn't bother her much. As it was, the feeling of clothing against her fur was just a tiny bit uncomfortable.
One thing that Howard didn't take into account, though, was that this process for transformation was not 100% as most people had been lead to believe. In fact, different people's normal genetic coding could create interesting side-effects in their new lives. The same kinds of genes that might make someone prone to a particular kind of disease as a human being might also give them a small mutation when transformed into one of these hybrids. After all, the processes didn't change a human entirely into a new person, and it was those remaining unchanged genes that might be the troublemakers. Yes, unbeknownst to Howard, her transformation wasn't quite finished yet. There was one small change that would remain hidden from her for a time before it would likely come up during an inconvenient moment…