THE CON (2001 Redux): by Ricochet


I woke up with the most wonderful fur all over. I raced to the
bathroom to see if it was true. Had I become the anthropomorphic
creature I had dreamed about? What caused it? Power of suggestion?
Power of sheer desire? Power to the furries? Sure enough, upon
flinging open the door of the bathroom and blinking the bright out of
my eyes, I was face to face with the fur I'd so wanted to
become.

I had a standard black nose topping off a long grey muzzle that
gently went into my fur covered face and head. Deep brown canine
eyes stared back. I let my tongue loll from my muzzle and say
it's pink form brushing up against my new fangs. I looked at my
paws, still almost like hands but with some black pads attached and
completely coated in fur. My entire body was slimmer, more
muscular and still very human as well as being quite canine.

I went to the curtains to see the sunrise. I flung it back and stood
agape. The outside was ashen grey. There seemed to be no life, with
a smouldering glow off in the distance. I banged my head
on the glass. "Not the f**king nuclear war survival story again!
Dammit! Where is the dream that isn't a cliche!" 

One more extra hard thump against the glass and I awoke from the
lucid dream. I was locked in the same suburban hell hole I called my
lonely apartment in sin city. I thought to myself that my
life seemed like a bad story that I can't escape from. A mass chunk of
fiction written as a perverse joke with no ending to the plot, until that
untimely disease called death.

Since meeting with others like me on the internet, friends called
"furries", my storybook life had taken an interesting turn. It didn't
seem like I was alone in a quest for something seemingly so
undesirable to humanity. A shapeshift. Another life form. I couldn't
explain what pushed me to want something that "out of the ordinary
so much. Yes I was locked in the very hum-drum world
of my life, and dreaming it seemed was my best escape, until I
started having the same nightmare over and over.

It was the  nuclear war dream. I didn't want to have it anymore, no
matter how "transformed" I felt each time. Always the same, I wake
up transformed, then it's the end of the world as I know
it, and I don't feel so fine. I had tried like hell to dream the other way,
feel the transformation and live out a happy ending, but nothing
worked.  I sighed and went back to sleep.

ONE MONTH FURTHER:

<Shalene> So, just three days to Furballescence 6! We gonna meet at
the dealer room at eight on Friday night?
<Tanner> Yup, just like last year. Plus I have to make it to the pet
auction. It's at ten I believe.
Shalene jumpies up and down in excitement
<Shalene> I'm gonna buy you this year! I hope the price isn't too
high.
<Tanner> Aww, come on, you don't have to pay for this mutt. Hee
hee, I'm free to good friends. I'm like the poster dog for the APL
<Shalene> Well, I'll drive up the bidding as far as I can afford.
<Tanner>That's it. The ultimate in price fixing. Ooops! Did I say
FIX? *nervous chuckle*
Shalene hugs you tightly and skritchies
<Shalene> Hopefully we'll get some time alone in the room ;)
Tanner skritchies you lots, in all those places you really dig it.
<Tanner> *as Eddie Murphy doing James Brown*
"Heeeeeeeyyyyyyy...gotta get in the HOT TUB!"
<Shalene> Hee hee, silly doggie. What about those dreams? They
been getting worse?
<Tanner> Very little variation. Same damn dream. I don't think I'm
scared by it, but it happens in a hotel. Gee, maybe it'll happen for
real at the con.
<Shalene> *shudders* Wake up and the world is toast except for
furs. Sounds awful even as much as I hate humanity.
<Tanner> I hate the dream. I want to be a transformed fur, but not at
the expense of the world around. I can't make them stop.
Shalene snugs you tightly
<Shalene> Maybe us meeting again will give you some new dreams
to dream about. <g>


THREE DAYS UPON THE CON:

FurBallescence 6. The furry mecca of the world. Dancing, dining,
making friends. It started as a small get-together for the fursuit
crowd and became the best con for furries. This was the one to
see and do. The con staff had to get a bigger hotel each year. The
convention had it's pet auction, and costume masquerade, but the
Grande Furball was still the center of attention. Most of the
attendees could dance and have a good time through the night! It was
the largest furry social event of the year. 

 I met my beloved internet mate Shalene, as planned. We must have
hugged for an hour. We were separated in the impossible distance
relationship, but I dealt with it and so did she. Furry
conventions were a great excuse to get together. So many friends we
knew through the net, and a very intense weekend of being together
in our element. 

The yearly highlight for us wasn't usually the dance, but the "pet
auction". This was an event designed to "sell yourself as a pet" to a
willing bidder to benefit various animal charities. Nice
cause and lots of fun. I had dressed in my wolf costume, and the
bidding for me usually did well. I knew Shalene was again going to
win me, but if somefur else did, heck, I was open for a good
time and Shalene knew it.

"Make sure you bid on me early. You know we don't get a whole lot
of time together, and it'd be a shame if somefur else wins me."

"You have no marketable skills Tanner my love!  Hee hee, you're just
keyoote with yer stuffed tail and all." 

She playfully bapped my tail. It was a dangerous weapon, made with
a piece of chain link, to give it a rather lifelike swing.

"Hey, a little keyoote goes a long way vixxy. You better have that
wad of bills at the ready, I'm gonna strut my canine stuff out there."

Finally they called my name. Shalene had survived bidding on a
rather wonderful tiger fursuiter with a working tongue and very
realistic eyes. Wow. I strutted out on the stage and gave my own
basic requirements for bidding. One hour, my discretion. Most
anything that won't get one arrested, and of course, a very special
story containing my owner. Shalene won the bidding war,
and for a grand total of $33.00!  I was hers. She produced the red
lead leash that matched my collar perfectly and clasped it on, paying
her bounty on me and proudly parading off with her wuff. 

We walked around for a while I acted like the canine I was, then it
was off to the room for an evening of uplifting frolic and cavortment. 
I'd like to say I didn't sleep that first night, but unfortunately, I finally
crashed about four in the morning.

There was a breeze coming through the window. Somebody had left
it open.. It was a warm breeze and it smelled of the landscaping 
around the hotel. I stuck my muzzle out and felt the air rush into
my lungs. This time it was natural. I hadn't woke up to find myself
transformed, I was simply a morph. It wasn't a shock. I kinda knew
it was another dream at that point, but the difference was
the very sight of skylines and cars. No tragic event in this dream.
Furry bliss. I licked my arm to try grooming. Why? Because I could. 
Lick. Lick. Lick.

I turned to wake Shalene. She was the vixen vision she had seen in
drawings.. I caught my breath. Gently I placed a paw on her shoulder
and whispered for her to wake up. She kinda sniffled then
batted her eyes as he looked up into my face. URF! She jumped up
and slammed me to the floor licking me madly.

"I can't believe this. It's too good! I was just having a dream that we
had morphed and you woke me just like you did. It's true! Tanner!
We're flesh and blood furs!"

I wasn't so damn sure it was reality. It had all the feeling of reality,
yet I just couldn't help doubting.

"Shalene, look outside, make sure the world is still there!"

She turned and pulled the curtain back, gasping slightly at the sight
of her furry red forearms and paw-like hands. She gazed outside then
pounced me again, this time I managed to stay up.

"There are cars and people down there. They're alive. We're alive!
Let's wake some others!"

That's when my nature messed with my head.  Dammit, there was no
truth to the ability to morph. There was no reality to changing into an
animal. What we were was a joke. Total joke. I just
couldn't let the joke continue. Somehow, and very cruelly, this would
be just another dream with just another nuclear big bang. Call me
stupid. There was my love morphed perfectly as I'd
imagined. I was the perfect likeness of myself too. I couldn't shut of
my cynical disbelief that this wasn't reality. Too many times it hadn't
been, but this was the first time Shalene was in my
dream. I knew it needed a trigger. I had to pull the trigger. 

Joyfully Shalene went down the hall to awake others. We all seemed
to be  having the same dream. Stubbornly, I refused to enjoy it and 
tried to figure out what I'd done in previous dreams
to ruin everything. I remembered always going to the bathroom. I
remembered always turning on the lights. Turning on the lights.
Throwing that simple light switch that temporarily blinded me
like a flash. That flash, like the initial bomb. With that I made my
way to the bathroom. I was being selfish. I could have waited for
somefur else to throw the switch, but I couldn't stand to see
the others happy knowing full well, I was going to re-live the
nightmare. A tear came to my eye when I thought how wonderful the
dream would be if only it didn't end the same way. My paw
flirted around the light switch of the bathroom. I slapped it and fell
to all fours sobbing. I slammed the bathroom door and threw myself
against it head first.

EYES OPEN..KEEP THEM OPEN

My sobbing didn't go un-noticed. Shalene knocked on the door and
asked if I was okay. I wasn't, but I said I was. Natural response.
Draw inside.

"Another dream eh? You need to be alone?"

Furthest thing from my mind. I needed to hang with somebody and
tell them how desperate I was to stop the dreams. You just can't get
that big a dose of joy and sorrow every night. It had worn
me down.

"No Shalene, on the contrary. You wanna get some breakfast with
me? I need to chill for awhile and someone to talk to would be
great."

"Are you kiddin' dog? Like I want to be asleep at a con! Ha! It's
almost a sin to be sleeping here."

We went to the nearest 24 hour choke and puke and I ordered the
usual. Spammneggs and coffee. Shalene ordered a cheeseburger for
breakfast. To each her own.

"This time, you were in the dream. Vivid as any. It was here at the
con. I can't stop them. What if they are premonitions or something?"

"Well, I also had a very real dream, and it suddenly stopped, then I
woke up when I heard noise. You were in it."

I could have choked on my coffee. I did choke on my coffee. She had
the same dream.

"You mean, you and I, in the same place, and you woke up
transformed and then came the flash."

"I remember wondering what the flash was, but actually didn't care
because I was so furry. Then I woke up, as I heard you slamming
into the door."

"I'm afraid I did that to stop the dream. You were having the same
dream I was, at the same time. This is too funky for me."

I was panicking. How the hell could I project my horrid nightmare to
someone else. I wasn't some sort of psychic. I didn't want to know or
talk about it. No way was I going to be able to sleep at
the con. I was finished. I'd drink a ton of caffeine until the con was
over.

"Doesn't look like you'll be doing much sleeping then eh Tanner?"

"Thank goodness the Grand Furball usually keeps me awake. You
and I can dance until the morning."

"Ohh! I heard we're going to have some major competition again, 
Jacelope and KariCat are gonna be in fursuits this year. They might
take it all again like last year."

"True, but half the fun of the dance is just getting out there and being
a furry disco dancer baby. Woof! I'm not four-legged when it comes
to a good boogie!"

We giggled a bit as I mocked the traditional disco "tshick tshick"
high hat. With a little bit in my stomach, my fear of the dream
diminished.

FURS,FURS,FURS

Grand Furball. The event of the con. Every fur making an appearance
in a grand ballroom. Fursuits, ears, collars, pets, artisans, sketches,
photographers. A bar for those who drank, a soft
drink fountain for those who didn't. It was a spectacle. A huge place
to meet, and dance and parade. Part of the evening was a fursuit
pageant, where we could all see the amazing fursuit
creations. Then came the dance contest, and finally the "mating
game". You'd never believe so many alikes could come together for
such a wonderful time. We were in danger of not being asked
back to hotels every year, but I was in for some harmless
exhabitionalism.

Shalene was wearing her foxtail and vixxy ears and I of course had
the doggy tail and ears. We got a picture taken, and even had a
drawing made of us hyper-morphed and in quite suggestive poses.
We always had to get those, and from a different artist each year. We
watched as the fursuit pageant went along nicely, as the kitty morph
strutted her stuff, we both went insane to the
crowd's shouts and wild noise. Oof we loved the fursuits. The dance
followed. The whole time I was careful not to drink too much. I
enjoyed a beer, but I was already rather tired, so I didn't
overdo. I didn't want to pass out. I couldn't.

Our song played. Disco Dancer by Devo. "I'm a Disco Dancer..but I
have no place to go." One of my favorite dance tunes of the late 80's.
Granted Shalene and I weren't the best in rhythm or style,
but we did some cool turns and she flipped twice into my arms
where we preceded to do some nasty motions that drove the other
furs wild. It was a blast, no matter what our chances of winning
were. Heck, it was the prize was free admission to the next year's
convention and video of the dance, so it wasn't a big deal anyway.
Just fun.

We finished, and I huffed over to a chair and laid back across four in
the back. I had danced myself to exhaustion. It just hit me. I had to
lay down. Shalene, still out of breath patted my hand.

"Tanner, are you all right? You look winded!"

"It's lack of sleep, or that beer I had. I'm pooped. Just let me rest here
for a minute."

"You didn't want to sleep? Come on, I'll get you a Mountain Dew!"

I didn't want to admit it. This wasn't me being sleepy. This was me
feeling something I hadn't before. It was such an eerie feeling. Like
there was a weight being placed on top of me, pushing
me into the depths of slumber. Kinda like when you get the sleeping
so they can operate. I almost wanted to count backwards from
100...99...98...97...ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I heard the ball. It was quite loud. The big dance afterwards. I looked
up and blinked my eyes. Shalene was out in the middle enjoying the
dance with the other furs. I could only hold my head as
a large headache had set in. As I touched my forehead, I saw the fur
come shooting out of my forearm. I rolled off the chairs and watched
as the fur slowly creep from my flesh. My hands,
covering and gaining the light black pads of my morphic self.  I
could hear noise on the dance floor, and the sound of the music
thumping mindlessly. There were gasps and shouts from the
crowd. I glanced over and saw that everyone inside the ballroom was
morphing. All the furs, changing into what they envisioned, some
even non morphic. Fur, scales, macros, micros,
creatures of all combinations and genotypes.  I could feel the
wrenching pain in my feet as they changed into less foot like
appendages, and my face seeming to explode in heat and fur as a
muzzle extended from where my nose had been.

I caught my breath and stood up. It was almost surreal. I could see
my love, fully morphed and trotting towards me with arms out for a
furry hug. We crashed into each other midfloor and fell
down hugging. How could I stop this dream. It was too much. I tried
to tell myself not to do anything stupid. If everyone was enjoying the
same dream at the same time it would be selfish for
me to ruin it. Couldn't I give everyfur a few moments of reality like
that? Holographic realism. Hollywood costume perfection. A furry
body. Every trace of human skin had slipped from the
room except in the taurs who preferred half human/half horse
appearance. The extasy that Shalene and I felt. I could hear some
other furs shouting about the hotel employees that had witnessed our
transformation. I heard the doors slam and furs moving chairs to
barricade us in. 1100 morphed furs in a room. We'd surely be
quarantined as plague victims or the like.

"Shalene, you're beautiful. You're so...murrrrrr"

 I let myself go for just a second to the fantasy as she rubbed her
paws up my back with gentle licks to my neckfur. I ran my paws up
her chest in response and skritched right near her pointy
foxen ears. Several others were in the moment and doing just the
same to the chagrin of the furs worried about the hotel staff. If it was
a dream, or if it was reality and we were doomed to be
animals in a zoo or locked up by the government as lepers, I'd be
damned if I wouldn't take that one moment I'd waited for and use it
to it's fullest.

Shalene wasn't gonna let me do something dumb, and was getting
warm with passion as she licked near my ears driving me insane. I
knew what to do and had moved my paws further down
her torso, while licking under her chin as we began to have a rhythm.
It was destined to happen. I couldn't let myself be happy. I saw the
panel at the side of the room. A large light switch panel. I
seemed to freeze up and grow cold. Shalene pushed away from me
gently, and with trembling paws.

"You just went completely cold! I mean COLD! You're freezing! Are
you okay?"

"I have to do this Shalene. I'm sorry. I hate this horror!"

Shalene reached for me and grabbed my leg, trying to keep me from
going towards the light switch. I'd told him of the dream.

"Don't be a selfish bastard. Don't ruin it for everybody! Tanner,
please, can't we just enjoy this a while longer?"

Her appeals seemed to pass through me like bullets. I was compelled
to hit the light switch. Stop the dream. Stop before the holocaust.
Stop the inevitable. I very blindly walked for the light
switch. Shalene pleaded but I had to throw it. I had to know. My
paw swatted at the switch as I ducked my head for the inevitable
flash. Bright light flooded the room. Through it I could see my
handpaws almost de-materializing. Then there was quiet.

I awoke in a large grassy field. I could feel a soothing breeze cooling
me down, blowing gently for my fur. I blinked away the brightness
of the sunshine and gasped. Every fur had been transported
someplace. Large, lush greenish fields with woods nearby. It was
like Nirvana. Many were puzzled and almost in panic, others were
trying to explore their new surroundings. It wasn't but a
few seconds more when I was pounced by a foxmorph and licked
madly.

"What the hell did you do this time Tanner? If this is a dream, it's the
best one yet. This place is beautiful."

I puzzled for a moment, then noted that this world had no visible
signs of humanity. There was a distant sound however, almost a
buzzing, and it was drawing near. Shalene didn't give a damn
and wasn't going to let a second chance go by, as he seductively
began to caress my neck and skritch the forehead around my ears.

"Wait Shalene, I think I know, at least, that sound is familiar..."

Over the hills, a large hovering motorcycle-like device came
speeding and hovered low and in fast to the astonished crowd of
fully morphed furs. Riding the bike was a panther morph dressed in
what appeared to be royal robes. He came straight over to me and set
the bike down on a cushion of air.

"I see his majesty made a very wise choice to help call our people
home."

I blinked in disbelief. "Pardon me?"

"Your premonitions were no accident. You, and all you see now.
Most of you were never meant for those human bodies you inhabited.
Unfortunately, there was no way to call so many of you back at
once."

"I'm sorry, meant to be?" I asked. 

The panthermorph smiled and spoke up. "You are all supposed to be
as you are. Your spirits were separated from our world. You can
return if you'd like, we'll need some of you to gather more like
us. The rest of you, welcome home. The others are waiting for a gala
reception." Several of the crowd gasped and shouted with joy, I
merely looked at the panthermorph and had to ask.

"The holocaust? The dreams? They were...."

"You were the one chosen to bring your group out of submission.
You've all been in a dream. Another world. Kept alive by
transplantation into the bodies most like you. Humanity served it's
purpose.  We have cured what had killed so many of our young. You
will all be welcome to join us or form your own colony on this side
of the hills. Whatever choice you make, you are home."

I looked at Shalene who was playfully pouncing in the long grass
and laughing with three other foxmorphs. Home. 

The panther morph hopped on the cycle.  "Follow along over the
hills,for the gala welcoming for all of you. We will celebrate your
return!"

I was suddenly pounced from behind and nuzzle/licked. I chuckled a
bit.

Shalene looked at some of the other furs not too anxious to party just
yet and joked. 

"We'll be along in a few minutes good panther. We have some
unfinished business to attend to."

I looked around discretely for any light switches, and didn't see any.

The End 04/27/97--- REDUX 2001 Re-edited 02/19/01  By Ricochet
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE