I’m sorry Anthony but we have to discuss things face to face.
Anthony stared at the words on her screen and flicked her tail, with the heart-shaped marking in a more agitated fashion.
The new squirrel-girl had not left her apartment in days and only used the internet to get food, clothes and various other supplies as she felt she needed. Contact even with the delivery person was met with a ‘just leave it outside’ as she picked it up.
Her attempts to run the company remotely was just… going sour. There were demands being made … made of her. She was unused to that. They wanted now face-to-face contact and she was not going to suffer the humiliation letting anyone see… this. “I’m not able to-“
“Then I’m afraid we can’t have a deal.”
Anthony took a deep breath, her fur ruffling across her body in more annoyance. What was the way out of this?
Damn it! She always had a plan for every eventuality. Why couldn’t she find an answer to this one?
We are aware of your condition. It was on television. The text continued.
Anthony fumed, flicking her tongue on her large front teeth. She had managed to at least ‘hide’ her actual transformation citing privacy laws so got a censorship bar placed on the footage … but the fact she ‘was’ exposed to that chemical was in the press and somehow the censorship bar made the video look worse- if that was even possible with the speculation. The memes it generated were horrifying.
Now she had reached an impasse. Why were they being so stubborn! She slumped on the keyboard with her ears drooping slightly. The little squirrel woman wiped the sleep from her red eyes, trying to think of a plan. She continued to type on the live board. “I am just asking for loan agreements why does that require my personal attention?”
*“Please sir, we are a business as much as we are a bank. The arrangements you are asking for require us to see you in the flesh… if nothing else then to sign paperwork.” *
Anthony was not sure what to do. She had tried offering someone in her stead but there wasn’t anything for it. They wanted to see ‘her’ otherwise the deal fails. Then of course they would see Anthony is ‘gone’… and it was just this vague ‘shadow’ of a creature that had Anthony’s mind… and little else.
Yet she had no choice. If she didn’t show, then they would feel manipulated… and her own company would appear weak…
…but once they see her… this body…
…weakness is all they would see. She saw her own reflection in the screen with those wide hazel eyes and soft muzzle of an animal looking at her back. “Damn it Damn it damn it!” She threw her fist onto the desk … which ended sounding like a tiny slap of her paw.
Anthony had always found some way around problems… dealing with a weakness by focusing on a strength… what could she find here? There was nothing… no way she could see, to fix what has gone wrong with her. She was a squirrel that looked akin to a child! The chessboard of her life appeared and she saw just an overwhelming opponent and herself with no pieces left- or at least the ‘wrong’ piece. A mere pawn when there should be a king… which should mean a loss.
Yet the game continued anyway. She couldn’t concede.. she couldn’t leave… this was all that was left. ‘Evade’ She decided. She needed to buy some time. At least agree for now. “Very well. A meeting. Next week?”
“Tomorrow.”
Anthony almost fell from the stack of books under her chair supporting her. However she knew how negotiations worked. “Impossible. Five days?”
“…three days then Anthony. We’ll give you three days.”
“…fine. We’ll meet in three days.” The line closed.
Anthony sighed. So that was it. Three days… she had three days to figure out how to dress for an important business meeting and get the loan then report to the board, come what may. She looked through pages and pages of the internet trying to figure out how to dress her body. On the one hand she was ever thankful that she didn’t need a bra. That …would have probably got the squirrel girl to just ‘die’ on the spot. “… but how do I make do with this…” she wondered running a hand down her fur coat, touching her small chest awkwardly.
Her form didn’t have quite the ‘obvious’ secondary sexual characteristics that most humans would look for... She seemed to have somewhat widened hips of course… and her facial features were distinctly feminine if animal-like. However, the lack of breasts were a.. mixed blessing. It made her look too child-like and she knew that more then anything was going to cause problems. She half imagined ‘stuffing’ something there to make her look at least older, but ‘that’ image appalled her even more. Intentionally looking like a woman… what exactly were people going to say!
… and of course she would be alone… forever. Prospects of love… romance… gone.
Alone…
She was an adult of course, but the fact she had to convince people or carry some identification... how would things work out with... anyone?
Leaving the long-term issue aside she returned to the immediate issue. “Clothes…”
A search on the internet gave mixed results for Anthony. She found blazers but they were almost all made with the intention of being in a classroom rather than for business. Pants and shoes… all causing their own issues. She had no idea having fur underneath would make her so hot! Her paws rebelled at any shoes and she couldn’t fit them at all.
She had some formal trousers that she could do up to her hips but would often find the zipper not quite going up all the way. When she got bigger ones they trailed down her small legs.
Then… there was the tail.
She had not realised quite how ‘big’ it was and so very ‘fluffy’, showing its highlighted ‘heart’ shape at the end of it. The appendage was awkwardly behind her like a constant shadow. She had tried to stuff it inside the back of her shirt but it got ‘very’ uncomfortably hot, more so then normally. It didn’t bend enough to go down her jeans comfortably… so she was stuck with having it out and free. She pulled It between her legs seeing it had some surprising flexibility like that, shuddering at the way it... tickled… down… there… reminding her of… her change-
“…don’t think … about that-“ Anthony had been blocking the whole ‘female’ thing for days. It was ‘almost’ easy to ignore… at first… except when going to the bathroom. She just didn’t want to contemplate it, but that ‘numbing’ feeling had been fading away from her first day changed. Every second she was ‘feeling’ more.. sensing more of the nuances of her new body…
… a female body… with… everything down there that made her a woman. She dared not.. explore. No… she had work to do.
“…I’m going to have to go to freak street.”
Freak Street…
A nickname for a small street that almost every town these days had. It was usually where the clinics for having a transformation existed, though not always. (Yet they usually had their own small supply of the metamorphic water.)
There were people of course… shops, taverns, and it almost seemed like another world right next in a normal human town. There were transformed folk of all ages who lived and worked in the community… crawling, flying, swimming… though the media tended to say it was a place of debauchery and lecherous animal folk. Humans naturally stayed away even though they were not exactly unwelcomed. The area tended to have its own general rules of what ‘worked’ for them.
The fact that metamorphic water fights sometimes happened was also a reason for ‘normies’ to avoid it unless they wanted to stay here forever.
This was Anthony’s first time walking down this street and people glanced towards her, picking up on her scent… her … appearance. No doubt seeing her as ‘fresh meat’. She had worn a long coat that trailed behind her and a hat though her diminutive stature was all the more noticeable.
Walking down she could tell she was now in Freak Street when she saw a wolf-man casually standing on the corner for a bus. The wolf-man glanced and gave a polite nod to Anthony and perhaps even smiled with a slight showing of his teeth- but Anthony quickly moved away. She felt … her heart speed up… she felt afraid. Squirrel instincts? Was she just… prey here? “Damn this place-“ She muttered pulling her coat tighter. She wore no shoes but it didn’t feel difficult to walk on… paws.
She was looking at various shops when she suddenly found…
…John.
The man she had fired all those weeks ago when she became a harpy.
The harpy seemed to be working on a small shop that looked like it was being re-modelled. Anthony wondered up to him in a daze... not quite able to speak looking a lot like the child she was trying hard not to appear. “J-ohn?”
“Oh-“ The harpy-boy looked down at her. “Do I know you?”
Anthony blinked. She was the one that fired him! How could John forget- oh right. She was struck for a moment that she could ‘pretend’ to be someone else but… that felt wrong to do. She wanted o be honest. “It’s… um.. Me. Anthony.”
“Whoa!” The harpy-boy exclaimed. “You decided to try it out! You’re a kid! That’s awesome!” He smiled. “Damn, you’re going to have a lot of trouble. Age regression is so rare!”
“No- I’m not a kid!” Anthony fumed.
“Oh you’re… I see… sorry…” John looked genuinely concerned and apologetic.
Anthony didn’t know what to say back. When a change as hers happened it did cause concerns at times… some have tried pretend they were actual children for instance- though they were quickly caught. Anthony had no intention of acting like that of course. He looked at John. “So- uh- you got a new job?”
“Not really. I’m still a crane.”
Anthony gave a dead-pan stare.
“Hey come on, just a little bird humour, miss squirrel,” John chuckled.
”Oh come on…” Anthony groaned. Did she transform herself to set up a punchline… urgh. “I’m glad you found another job.” She said.
John smiled. “I get by. I bet you and miss starsparkle get on well now.”
“Uh… oh I- yeah..,” she forgot about her. She’d been occupied with her change that she didn’t really look into how the company handled her. “I’m looking for clothes..”
John gestured with a wing “you might find some stuff there. Best of luck!”
“…thanks.”
