During PE, the six girls end up on the same side for volleyball, as none of the other girls in the class want to be on the same side as Mizuru and Kayla. Still, they destroyed the other side thanks to Brooke's assistance, and Kayla proving to be very adept at jumping. (Mizuru's no slouch in the game either) Rika is thrilled that her best friend and roommate is great at volleyball, but the rumors still bother her to no end. What she needs is a story for anthrokind. Hey, more anthros in the world can't hurt, right?
After class, she says to Mizuru and Kayla, "You two need a story for your kind. One that will erase these awful rumors before Vanessa can REALLY go too far with them."
"Can't we just make her into a nice person? It'd be doing the world a favor." Mizuru asks, though kind of liking the idea of knowing more about her kind and herself. It'd technically be manufactured by the Dictaphone, sure, but technically it'd also be real. Reality changing is weird like that.
"But what if that doesn't take care of the rumors, Mizuru? Not to mention you - we would still be wading through an air of distrust and unease because we're so very different." Kayla responds, correcting herself midway. She loves the anthropomorphic shark that she's become, but still wants to feel like she belongs instead of feeling like people expect her to try and eat them or something.
"If push comes to shove, we'll make Vanessa nicer. I want to focus on shutting down the rumors themselves right now. And then later... who knows? Maybe something a bit crazy for awhile." Rika says. "Okay, not right now, I think swimming practice starts shortly and I'd like your input for this... How about in a couple hours?"
"Sounds good." Kayla replies before noticing Mizuru reaching up to cover her ears. She's about to ask why when the bell for the end of the day rings, causing the shark to nearly jump out of her skin in surprise. It seems Mizuru has the bell's timing down to the second so she knows when to cover her bat ears from the loud noise. "O-okay, gotta learn to cover my ears when Mizuru's doing it... Anyway, I'll see you girls later!"
The three part ways, with Rika and Mizuru taking the bus home while Kayla heads for where swimming practice is held. As expected, her teammates are scared of her, but tolerate her because she's one of the best swimmers the school has. While she immensely enjoys her swimming talent for the first time, remembering to not make it appear as such since she would have been doing this many times before, she can't help but wonder how much better it would be if her teammates didn't think of her as a monster waiting to strike.
Rika and Mizuru arrive home to drop off most of their things before heading back out again. Rika's mother, Megumi, has never seen the two in such a rush but is nevertheless happy her daughter is enjoying herself here.
Soon enough they meet back up with Kayla in the park. Rika has materialized a laptop to write out their ideas for the anthro origins so they can get it right when they actually record it into the Dictaphone. She knows from her surfing the internet that most furries don't create a specific story for their anthro characters existing, usually portraying them in a world where they exist instead of humans, and her story hasn't quite gotten around to answering their origins other than being normal animals until one day becoming what they are.
Naturally, she wants a different origin story for them here in the real world. "Hey, Kayla! How did swimming practice go?" Mizuru asks.
"It was fun! But... I still think it'd be better if the other girls didn't think I'm going to eat them. Even normal great whites don't usually hunt for people in the water." Kayla answers. "S-so shall we correct this with an origin story?"
"Yep, we can put our heads together to come up with it. And the passersby are the perfect guinea pigs to test if we got what we wanted out of it... but let's try to get this right the first time." Rika replies, smiling.
For the next hour, the three plugged away at their ideas for an origin story. They thought about anthros having always existed, or just recently, or even being born from humans. The last one particularly gets their interest, since it kind of stems from one of Vanessa's rumors. Next up is the kinds of creatures they can be, eventually settling for virtually any including mythical ones. They waste no time in establishing no prejudice against them, so Vanessa can't spread any future ones they don't account for. Although... it could be fun to watch her dig a hole for herself in trying.
Finally, Rika has the whole thing typed out according to how they want it. "We ready for this? Are we sure this is what we want to record?" she asks. When Mizuru and Kayla nod, she records into the Dictaphone, "Animals and humans have a rare chance to change into hybrids of both, known as anthros. Their senses are always minimum that of their animal or human halves, whichever is better. Humans have an even rarer chance to turn into anthros of otherwise mythical creatures like dragons and griffons. Anthros have proportions that humans consider to be attractive, and while so far seem to be about the same size as humans, taller ones aren't unheard of.
"If an animal becomes an anthro, which for them or humans occurs near adolescence, it will seek out human civilization and spend the rest of its life among humans. They're fast learners, quickly becoming fluent with the local language. There's no prejudice of any kind towards anthros. Mizuru was born as a bat, Kayla a human. They're currently the only anthros in our school. Vanessa Barnes doesn't know this, and can never become an anthro."
The Dictaphone's sparkler-like sound resonates intensely, as though this change is a big one, but nothing seems to change when it dies down. That is, until a bull walks past with no one even blinking. Rika suspects his name is Alex, after a somewhat grouchy character in her story though she can't think of an excuse to stop him and ask his name to confirm. Mizuru on the other hand stands and approaches a young woman, saying, "Hey, nice blouse! Where did you get it?"
"Uh, thanks, I guess. I bought this at H&M awhile ago when they were having their sale. It's kind of amazing how well they can accommodate anthro needs, like your friend's dorsal fin and tail." the young woman replies, slightly disturbed at the way Mizuru approached her but soon eases before she's allowed to go on her way. She has to return a flea collar, as her former pet husky Angel no longer needs it. She is going to need proper clothes and some quick language lessons though.
"Well I'd say that was highly successful! And it makes sense for me to have been born a bat considering I don't know my folks. They're probably dead by now. ...I know I should feel worse about that than I do, but I doubt I'd recognize them or they me so..." Mizuru says afterward.
"I'm just happy my mom and dad are still my biological mom and dad." Kayla remarks.
Sat May 02 00:00:00 2015